Fandom Cliches Meme

[luxken27]

Ganked from doggieearlover: Name 5 cliches - from canon or fandom - that you'd like to see disappear.

In no particular order:

*The villainization of Kikyo (from the anime, carried into far too many fanfics). She's not the ultimate bitch from hell whose sole purpose in life (death?) is to screw with the Inu/Kag pairing. She's probably one of the most interesting characters in the whole series because she's so complex and layered.

*The age-old "Kagome sees Inuyasha with Kikyo and runs to Sesshoumaru" scenario. YES, IT IS STILL BEING WRITTEN, IN NEW STORIES. It was stupid the first go-around, but now it's just lazy and ridiculous. We know the end of the canon manga, and that presents far more interesting challenges to getting this couple together than this tired old bag.

*Fanon!Sesshoumaru. There's nothing more telling about the level of an author's knowledge of canon, especially if you are of the Sess/Kag persuasion. If you've read more than one of the preceding stories, you know what I'm talking about. Nothing gets under my skin faster than making Sesshoumaru OOC unless there is extensive, believable, realistic explanation for it (within the fic, not the author's notes).

*Mating marks (biting). OMG I do not understand this *at all* - never have, never will. I actively seek out stories that don't use this fanon trope, coming up with a more clever - or logical - way to show a couple is officially together. I used scent-marking in Every Heart, which I thought I made clear was my "mate marking of choice", but I still got people reviewing or asking me when Inuyasha was going to bite Kagome and make her his "real" mate. *sigh* Didn't happen in that piece, and won't happen in the sequel - and guess what? I still consider them mated.

*Perverted-hentai-Miroku. Yes, he's a flirt, but he is much more than that. In a lot of ways, he keeps the Inutachi grounded and serves as their voice of reason and strategic planning. He is sold far too short in the vast majority of fics which even bother to mention him.

Comments

[knittingknots.livejournal.com]

Oh yes...

I agree with all of these!

I can understand using a blood exchange thingie for magical reasons on the joining of a human youkai couple. That makes good magical sense, counting on how you set up the parameters of your story universe...but the mating mark thingie supposedly is a migration from the Buffy the Vampire fandom that caught on like wildfire. It's not the blood exchange I bitch about...It's the biting. Many youkai in the Japanese mythic world aren't even animal types. Why would biting be the definitive sign of joining?

I won't even use the term mating. In all the Japanese folklore I have read, supernatural beings in their relationships with each other or with humans tend to seem to use the same terminology for pairing off that the human Japanese do. Calling Youkai pairs mates instead of husbands and wives is really itself a fanon convention, an early one, but still.

Lots of really bad Kikyou bashing out there. She's not much of an issue in any of my stories, since they all take place after her death, but I really dislike character abuse.

And you know I'm part of the Miroku Anti-Defamation League. He's never seen as a stupid comic relief device in my stories. A tease and a joker, yes, but wise and clever and loyal to his friends and who will put himself on the line for those who he cares for, and he loves Sango with a deep love.

Ah well.

[guelphite1.livejournal.com]

Oh Kikyou...

I'm not going to lie. When she died in the manga for the final time (how many times can a person DIE anyway?!) I literally did a happy dance. I felt a little bit bad when Inuyasha was crying over her and their last moments together were all nice and sentimental, but I will never deny that I'm a Kikyou hater.

I found her character SO IRRITATING in the anime to the point where I FWD parts where she's in it. Most of her time was spend wandering around to the same music asking quasi-philosophical questions about her own existence. Ugh - please. I'd rather fork out my eyeballs that watch another minute of that poorly scripted garbage.

Once I started reading the manga my opinion of her got marginally (I emphasize the marginally) better. I think it came down to RT needed a plot device and Kikyou was it. Whenever she needed the story to go somewhere and didn't have any original ideas she just threw Kikyou back into the mix to stir up emotional angst between her and Inuyasha (and Kagome).

I have so many issues with Kikyou's character I really could go on forever but I'll stop now. Bottom line - she is the character I despise most out of any anime/manga I've ever watched/read. Ever. :)

Interesting post. Thanks for sharing!

[psyco_chick32]

The villainization of Kikyo

You know, especially after all RT did to torment InuYasha and Kagome with her... I felt her death was SO INCREDIBLY ANTI-CLIMATIC. It *killed* me. There was so much that could have happened... I mean, yeah, I was glad InuYasha and her had a happy moment and all but... gaaaahhhh...


(within the fic, not the author's notes).

*snickers* Oh but it's soooo much easier to just tell the whole story in the author notes rather than... like... actually writing a story, right?


Mating marks (biting)

Like KK, I can understand the exchange of blood and stuff... but I don't understand the biting, either. I was unaware that the InuYasha fandom is actually a vampire story -_-;;


Perverted-hentai-Miroku

This is such a sad use for Miroku. He can be soooo much more - Yeah, he's hilarious, but he's also wise and helpful and well-educated (he *has* to be to be able to scam people!)