Post by shinelikethunder on Jul 25, 2015 3:29:19 GMT
What are some bits of characterization that you think are vital to what makes a character tick, that you think people often miss about a character, or that you wish would be explored more in fic?
Starting with the CA:TWS main crew here:
Steve:
- Steve is incredibly duty- and service-minded, and it drives me up the wall when fic has him stop superhero-ing with no compelling reason or with nothing to replace it. I can buy him ragequitting on being Captain America (Nomad, anyone?), but holing up with Bucky and doing literally nothing non-domestic with his life? He'd go nuts with cabin fever. The man is a border collie, he needs useful tasks to devote himself to--at least have him join the local fire department or something.
- He's not a coddler. He's a nice man, he's fiercely loyal, he cares about people--but I always get thrown out of h/c fic where he frets and hovers, because Steve does his best not to bleed on people and isn't an infinite fount of patience for other people bleeding on him. "You get killed, walk it off."
Natasha:
- I love Natasha's dorky co-worker banter with Steve, but I also think that to some extent it's just another role she's decided to step into, and shouldn't be taken at face value as an expression of her True Personality. One of the things she talks about in TWS is not quite knowing what her True Personality even is under all the masks, and it's in the context of "friend" being one of those masks. OTOH, her arc in TWS is also about discovering she does have loyalties, attachments, and preferences under all the insincerity and double-dealing that comes with her line of work--she's hurt when Fury doesn't trust her, even though they both know it's standard operating procedure--so it's complicated. But I do get the sense that a lot of her interactions with Steve in TWS are trying her idea of Normal People Behavior on for size and seeing how well it fits.
- Man, I want so much more about Natasha's relationship with guilt and morality. Because I think she has to be a pretty strong proponent of "good is something you do, not something you are" if she wants to be able to sleep at night, but her role within SHIELD also appeared to involve being the one comfortable with doing the dirty work so the good guys could keep their hands clean--and the revelation that her chosen "side" weren't really the good guys after all shook her really hard.
- For all AoS is a steaming pile of crap, I would be really interested in fic that bounced Natasha off of Melinda May shortly after Bahrain, especially given the copious hints that the red in Nat's ledger involves a lot of dead children.
Bucky:
- I want more guilt and atonement stories. Just because fandom seems to all be on the same page that he isn't to blame for the Winter Soldier assassinations doesn't mean it shouldn't be something he struggles with.
Sam:
- Have said it on Tumblr before, will say it again: Sam does not speak psycho-babble when he's talking issues with Steve, and he doesn't push people to talk about their feelings. He offers up little slices of his own life experiences and vulnerabilities in the hopes of finding some common ground. (Also, this is headcanon, but I don't actually get the impression that he's a mental health professional--we see him leading a peer support group for veterans trying to readjust to civilian life, which is a pretty specific set of issues that he has personal experience with.)
- He's putting in the work to rebuild a life outside the armed forces, because what the hell else is he going to do once the loss and brutality overwhelm any sense of purpose he went in with--but he clearly misses it. His bed's too soft. And once he finds a worthy cause to fight for and a means of getting his gear back to do what he does best, he dives in headfirst like he was looking for an excuse all along.
Starting with the CA:TWS main crew here:
Steve:
- Steve is incredibly duty- and service-minded, and it drives me up the wall when fic has him stop superhero-ing with no compelling reason or with nothing to replace it. I can buy him ragequitting on being Captain America (Nomad, anyone?), but holing up with Bucky and doing literally nothing non-domestic with his life? He'd go nuts with cabin fever. The man is a border collie, he needs useful tasks to devote himself to--at least have him join the local fire department or something.
- He's not a coddler. He's a nice man, he's fiercely loyal, he cares about people--but I always get thrown out of h/c fic where he frets and hovers, because Steve does his best not to bleed on people and isn't an infinite fount of patience for other people bleeding on him. "You get killed, walk it off."
Natasha:
- I love Natasha's dorky co-worker banter with Steve, but I also think that to some extent it's just another role she's decided to step into, and shouldn't be taken at face value as an expression of her True Personality. One of the things she talks about in TWS is not quite knowing what her True Personality even is under all the masks, and it's in the context of "friend" being one of those masks. OTOH, her arc in TWS is also about discovering she does have loyalties, attachments, and preferences under all the insincerity and double-dealing that comes with her line of work--she's hurt when Fury doesn't trust her, even though they both know it's standard operating procedure--so it's complicated. But I do get the sense that a lot of her interactions with Steve in TWS are trying her idea of Normal People Behavior on for size and seeing how well it fits.
- Man, I want so much more about Natasha's relationship with guilt and morality. Because I think she has to be a pretty strong proponent of "good is something you do, not something you are" if she wants to be able to sleep at night, but her role within SHIELD also appeared to involve being the one comfortable with doing the dirty work so the good guys could keep their hands clean--and the revelation that her chosen "side" weren't really the good guys after all shook her really hard.
- For all AoS is a steaming pile of crap, I would be really interested in fic that bounced Natasha off of Melinda May shortly after Bahrain, especially given the copious hints that the red in Nat's ledger involves a lot of dead children.
Bucky:
- I want more guilt and atonement stories. Just because fandom seems to all be on the same page that he isn't to blame for the Winter Soldier assassinations doesn't mean it shouldn't be something he struggles with.
Sam:
- Have said it on Tumblr before, will say it again: Sam does not speak psycho-babble when he's talking issues with Steve, and he doesn't push people to talk about their feelings. He offers up little slices of his own life experiences and vulnerabilities in the hopes of finding some common ground. (Also, this is headcanon, but I don't actually get the impression that he's a mental health professional--we see him leading a peer support group for veterans trying to readjust to civilian life, which is a pretty specific set of issues that he has personal experience with.)
- He's putting in the work to rebuild a life outside the armed forces, because what the hell else is he going to do once the loss and brutality overwhelm any sense of purpose he went in with--but he clearly misses it. His bed's too soft. And once he finds a worthy cause to fight for and a means of getting his gear back to do what he does best, he dives in headfirst like he was looking for an excuse all along.
)