~~the good, the bad, and the long-lasting
Jun. 9th, 2005 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaSo I'm reading the Howling Curmudgeons comics blog, and this entry about what makes a truly 'good' (comic-book) character got me thinking. Basically, this is his definition of one:
Those may be the only criteria -- if a character contributes a new, worthwhile, and setting-appropriate voice to the universe, then he's a good character; if not, then he's not a good character.
The comments also added that a "good character has interesting relationships with those around him". Hahaha, I wonder if some of you already see where I'm going with this :D
Later on, there was discussion within the comments as to whether there's been a new 'good' character of that sort introduced in comics since the late 70s, and someone brought up Sandman's Dream as an outstanding character, and then the question arose whether that fit the bill because there's doubt he'd translate as well into being written by someone other than Neil Gaiman. So there was another redefinition made:
However, I think when you're talking about "really good characters" as opposed to "really good uses of a character by a writer and artist" or "really good characterizations by a writer" you really are dealing with questions of popularity and longevity. That is, a "really good character" is one that actually works pretty well, and popularity and longevity are the best ways to see if its the character that actually works or if it's "just" the artist and writer.
This... er... has really interesting implications for fanfiction, doesn't it :D Especially for the driving ideas behind 'fanon', and most especially for the much-contested meaning/significance of fanon Draco :D
And of course this made me very happy, thinking that you could pretty much say that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy and Snape have all become 'living' characters outside of JKR's initial story (or 'good' characters) of this sort; they've been made & remade, and the urge to see them interact with their world remains strong within the fandom readers & writers. And this taps into my fascination with & love for shared universe-type writing like comic books & further back, folklore itself; somehow it makes me happy to envision fanfiction in this light, and to favorably compare someone like Draco Malfoy to say, the Green Lantern in a sense (or Spike... mmm, Spike <333), because he too is a figure of the collective imagination now. :D
And yes, in this sense I do love & have always loved fanon Draco; my quibbles are all with writing/characterization quality in (many) specific fics, really. This is probably because in a 'typical' shared-world situation, the writers are designated more carefully, so there's a sense of quality-control, whereas the fanon world is wild & much more dependent on our subconscious desires/drives and weaknesses as writers (and usually readers of fic) than the demands of good writing.
So what I'm saying is, while I'm all for fanon Draco's burgeoning iconic nature, I don't think he's a truly a 'good' character unless I find an incarnation that's done well; if he's not done well, as far as I'm concerned, for all his potential, he ceases to be interesting. This is well-put later on in the entry's comments:
The question of what makes for a "good" character is ultimately a measure of quality, whereas the question of what makes for a long-lasting, iconic character has other considerations, or at the very least measures a different kind of quality: less narrative/artistic, more strictly conceptual.
Those may be the only criteria -- if a character contributes a new, worthwhile, and setting-appropriate voice to the universe, then he's a good character; if not, then he's not a good character.
The comments also added that a "good character has interesting relationships with those around him". Hahaha, I wonder if some of you already see where I'm going with this :D
Later on, there was discussion within the comments as to whether there's been a new 'good' character of that sort introduced in comics since the late 70s, and someone brought up Sandman's Dream as an outstanding character, and then the question arose whether that fit the bill because there's doubt he'd translate as well into being written by someone other than Neil Gaiman. So there was another redefinition made:
However, I think when you're talking about "really good characters" as opposed to "really good uses of a character by a writer and artist" or "really good characterizations by a writer" you really are dealing with questions of popularity and longevity. That is, a "really good character" is one that actually works pretty well, and popularity and longevity are the best ways to see if its the character that actually works or if it's "just" the artist and writer.
This... er... has really interesting implications for fanfiction, doesn't it :D Especially for the driving ideas behind 'fanon', and most especially for the much-contested meaning/significance of fanon Draco :D
And of course this made me very happy, thinking that you could pretty much say that Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy and Snape have all become 'living' characters outside of JKR's initial story (or 'good' characters) of this sort; they've been made & remade, and the urge to see them interact with their world remains strong within the fandom readers & writers. And this taps into my fascination with & love for shared universe-type writing like comic books & further back, folklore itself; somehow it makes me happy to envision fanfiction in this light, and to favorably compare someone like Draco Malfoy to say, the Green Lantern in a sense (or Spike... mmm, Spike <333), because he too is a figure of the collective imagination now. :D
And yes, in this sense I do love & have always loved fanon Draco; my quibbles are all with writing/characterization quality in (many) specific fics, really. This is probably because in a 'typical' shared-world situation, the writers are designated more carefully, so there's a sense of quality-control, whereas the fanon world is wild & much more dependent on our subconscious desires/drives and weaknesses as writers (and usually readers of fic) than the demands of good writing.
So what I'm saying is, while I'm all for fanon Draco's burgeoning iconic nature, I don't think he's a truly a 'good' character unless I find an incarnation that's done well; if he's not done well, as far as I'm concerned, for all his potential, he ceases to be interesting. This is well-put later on in the entry's comments:
The question of what makes for a "good" character is ultimately a measure of quality, whereas the question of what makes for a long-lasting, iconic character has other considerations, or at the very least measures a different kind of quality: less narrative/artistic, more strictly conceptual.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 09:07 am (UTC)I'd go so far as to say he's important in canon too--I mean, there's "important" in different ways. He's not one of the main characters--he's more a supporting character than a minor one, minor being more like Hannah Abbott. He's supporting, I'd say, because he's so tied to different characters and to the plot--his position is important and pivotal. I'm not just mentioning that so he sounds more important--I think it's a big reason fanon!Draco exists. Because there's a need for them. Not a need for a particular characterization (like iceprince!Draco or woobie!Draco), but just that peoples' imagination automatically goes to that position. You can just so easily see why anybody would think that position and that character, plus the few things the author gives him, would be a great place to start.
And I don't think that just goes for Draco. There's just a lot of meat on all the characters' bones, mostly. The least interesting stories are often the ones that don't use the little details we get in canon, you know? Like, a Hermione who's just suddenly cool and dates a lot of boys isn't half as interesting as one that starts off from something of canon, be it her having never forgotten Ron's insult from first year or her feelings on Luna.
no subject
Date: 2005-06-09 09:58 am (UTC)And heheh, I wasn't meaning to say that it doesn't matter if the characterization is OOC (I think that's I meant to say that fanon Draco's not interesting unless it's well-characterized in my view). I mean, if the character stops being recognizable as themselves, the whole point of using them seems moot somehow. Not that this stops people from writing bodyfic or anything, but I suspect that's a different process from shared-universe style writing entirely.