InsaneJournal

I saw a post on LJ advertising a community called "spence_angels. You can put a picture up of yourself and people can decide which characters you look like from AGTB."

Oh, that sounds like loads of fun.

This is the only fandom I’ve ever run across that does this, too. Why? Many fandoms just don’t care what you look like, and most people in those fandoms know better than to give anyone ammunition by trying something like that. This will all end in tears.

I’m also amused by how attempts to formally name the series “The Gemma Doyle Trilogy” are totally failing and everyone just keeps calling it “A Great and Terrible Beauty”.



Narnia Fanfic Pet Peeves

If you insist a fic is not slash, then why does it read like really terrible slash? I've only seen this in "Narnia" fic (although I'm sure it shows up other places). But if the brothers are kissing each other on the forehead or cheek constantly, cuddling, or referring to each other as smelling "like powder and sunshine" and obsessively attached to each other 24/7, it's a freaking slash fic.

No more fics titled “The Call” or with any references to lyrics from “The Call”: I like the song too, but it’s overdone. Seriously, there are like twenty fics like that, it needs to STOP.

Turkish Delight references: It’s a lust metaphor, we get that already. I’d also like to point out that he was so obsessed with the candy because it was drugged to make him obsessed with it. I’m sure it is his favorite candy, and I’m sure he really likes candy in general but other kinds exist and I think he’s aware of that.

Ridiculously Overprotective!Peter: I see where they’re getting it from, but I think we can tone it down a bit.

Ridiculously Possessive!Peter: I do not see where this is coming from at all.

Descriptions of a certain character as looking “fragile” or “frail” or anything similar. Because he’s really not-I mean, he’s no Mr. Universe and the other male characters are all bigger than him but really- he’s eight times tougher than you are and could probably kill you. He’s gangly because he’s still growing. I know this is a common rant in many fandoms, and it’s almost always true.

Aslan telling a couple that it’s perfectly okay that they’re in an incestuous relationship: Aslan being fine with homosexuality, sure, but there are limits. I read the ‘cest fics, I just don’t think Aslan would be a fan. Sad, disappointed acceptance, in the best case scenario, but not wholehearted endorsement.

Peter or Caspian raping anyone: While a good writer should be able to make anything work, I just can’t see it. Maybe iffy consent issues, because they’re human beings, but nothing else. Not without dealing with the realistic consequences of such an event and oh…I don’t think it would happen. Peter definitely wouldn’t do that to one of his siblings, it goes against his Peterness. FYI, rape is when anyone decides at any point during sex that they'd like to stop, makes that known, and the other person does not stop.

Any of the Pevensies being “grounded” by their parents: Grounded? Hahahaaha. It could happen, of course-depends on what they did to get in trouble and how much time the resident adult has to deal with it. But try to remember that attitudes toward discipline were different then, and grownups routinely and casually did things to kids that Doctor Spock would not approve of (I don't just mean hitting, though, of course).

Perfect Pevensie syndrome: Where the Pevensies can do no wrong. They’re good at everything they try, everything bad that happens is someone else’s fault, they always know more than everyone else and everyone else is stupider or less experienced and they can fix any problem that arises in the series just by being their awesome selves. If they’d been there for the last two books, everything would’ve worked out fine.

You know what they call a bunch of kids like that in the real world? Smug, annoying know it alls who should be put in a special school for their own protection.

Technology that does not belong: I know, I know, it’s an issue in every fandom. But there’s less of an excuse when its an era so close to our own in that…there are people still alive who were adults at the time. How can you not understand that the Pevensies would not have a television?

Yes, I know the tv was invented in the twenties but most people, especially the non rich, did not have one. Um, the thirties were the Great Depression era, (not just in North America), and during WW2, the metal, wires and tubing were needed for the war. Even if they did have a tv, there would only be one per household, none of this “tv in your dorm room” stuff, and it had no VCR, and no remote control, and one to three channels which did not even broadcast twenty four hours of programming.

The brothers being embarrassed to be naked in front of each other: Normally, I dislike those “guys don’t do that” generalities because inevitably, somewhere, there’s a guy who would or would not do something. And many beliefs people have about guys (including guys themselves) are based on what tv told them guys think/do/don’t do and are often unique to Western culture in the twentieth/twenty first century and usually not even completely true there. That being said, Peter and Edmund probably won’t experience the slightest amount of discomfort at being naked in front of each other. They’re brothers who share a bedroom, and depending on when your story takes place they’ve also been to war together multiple times. They have done everything in front of each other (or at least in the same room or within earshot) except have sex. And even that depends on exactly what kind of view you might have of whatever they got up to as adults. They also attended all boys boarding schools, where they were probably undressed in front of several guys at once at various points.

I don't think the brothers would share a room at school. It could happen, but you need to explain why. I especially don't think the school would let them move a third guy in who isn't even a student there who appears to be from a foreign country.

You can't really have successful full on sex in a hammock and there are almost no real beds on board the "Dawn Treader".