THE FANDOM FLANDERIZATION MEME

[elfstoned]

We all know how fandom flanderizes characters, but what if Save the Earth were a television show?

How would fandom get it wrong?



HOW IT WORKS:
Post a comment with your character journal explaining generally what the twisted and horrible fanon version of your character is. What less significant personality traits do they fixate on? How do the thirteen-year-olds on fanfiction.net write them? Who are they shipped with ad nauseum? What are they like in Omegaverse?

OPTIONAL: Reply IC to others' comments as your own flanderized fanon character, or feel free to have the real version express horror and disgust (or vicious amusement).

Have fun!!

Comments

AARON STRIDER | ARAGORN

[elfstoned]

After seeing his reactions to memory-Echoes, fandom is convinced that Aragorn and Aaron are like the Hulk and Bruce Banner: Aragorn comes out during times of emotional stress. Previously, they thought he was an axe-crazy killer, but after the mines, it's clear he has a soft spot for Julien friends.

Therefore, what we get is gentle!Aaron and yandere-other-self!Aragorn, who often gets jealously, possessively dominant over Julien, or Emery, or whoever the writer pairs Aaron up with.

That aside, either fandom plays up the sketchiness too much or forgets he's sketchy at all: he's either a selfless, giving angel or high all the time, pushing drugs for a plot device or just for comedy.

God save you all.

CHRISTOBEL STARSKY | STARSCREAM

[reapsthewind]

If Chris were a male character, the problem would be fangirls ignoring her more failtastic and dickish and self-centered traits in place of holding her up as some kind of godly pedestal of perfection, and also shipping her hardcore with Matthew Brillion.

But alas, Chris is female, so instead she's bluh bluh huge bitch who gets in the way of the kawaii yaois gawd also what a mary sue am I right a PHD student with robot arms? ugh and why is she angsting about being part robot? ewwww women

[scramasax]

Commander Shepard would resent that.

MAMORU NAKAMURA | ICHIGO KUROSAKI

[15minuteslate]

At best, Mamoru is a goodhearted but goofy comic relief character, with an emphasis on physical comedy because lol Mamoru is so clumsy amirite??? He's also very excitable, having over the top freakouts over things that aren't normal, but also over-excited by things he thinks are cool. Also, he's written as a huge steampunk fan.

At worst, he's gay for his brother. This happens a lot. He angsts about it and is the one who has to be talked into it by Shiro, who is clearly the libertine of the two. So fanon Mamoru is a little contradictory, depending on whether or not he's being shipped.

Julien Sakazaki

[espigeonage]

Fandom has seen Julien's Echoes and thinks that he is absolutely right: they write his preincarnation as a rather inhuman, somewhat creepily focused/cold angel called the Apostle of the Violet Rose. The Apostle has done something bad in the past - fallen, possibly - and caused many people to die, so he began atoning by trying to save them, particularly humans. Sometimes from soul-absorbing eldrich abomination things. He's kind of James Bond, too, with the... spy thing, but not every writer really uses that.

Julien himself... is very inconsistent, with different authors focusing on different aspects. Sometimes he's the authorial stand-in and sort of wide-eyed and youthful, and generally willing to let other characters get away with whatever they want to do. Sometimes he's a huge flirt and has a lot of pick up lines to unload or gallantry to display. Sometimes, especially in shipping with men, he embodies the trope of the Keet, all energy and fun and chatter. Fandom in that case tends to ignore how he's been building muscle, have him be soft and skinny, and emphasize that he's short. He'll kiss anyone eagerly and then blush and become shy, and he's the uke wherever he goes, whoever he goes with.

No matter the version, when he gives people nicknames they are cutesy and not very imaginative. He may append Japanese honorifics to every name, or use gratuitous French at every chance, or both. Fandom's Julien is kind of helpless especially last version, but since the mines they've picked up on how he cares about Strider friends... so he gets dramatically teary and desperate if something happens. No matter which version.

Also he's a huge target for bondage-themed art and fics. Subs to everyone. There's some conflict between what his preincarnation must have been like and how his last version's written, and this shows up as everything from becoming more dominant after a lot of sex in certain situations to split personality shenanigans.

He doesn't have much of a job and his family is usually absent (though there are angsty fics where his rich dad abuses him and he needs rescue), so he spends most of his time being klutzy in places like the Clinic. The person he and the Apostle are shipped with most is Strider, but fics can be found with just about anyone.

[abidan]

Aaron/Emery/Julien threesome, obviously.

[espigeonage]

Ara-sama is so cool! Mon nounours is scary, sometimes, but I know he only hurts me if he has to! And I like Aaron-kun just as much. If only I wasn't so clumsy, I could help him a lot!

[I have drawn fanart of what they are expected to be like later on.]

[espigeonage]

yes. This only satisfies some of the shippers, of course, since there are plenty of diehards defending their OTP.

[amberhearted]

spittake

ANTHONY JANVIER | ANTHONY

[scramasax]

Anthony would be a bit to the StE fandom what 5 was to the 9 fandom and what James is to the Silent Hill fandom simultaneously.

In more words than that he would essentially be a dog, and subject in many loose super-deformed doodles (in most of which his expression is some variant of "o _ o") either cringing and possibly trembling, sadly line-facing, and fawning over if not physically clinging to other characters, also liable to be depicted overeagerly rushing into things possibly while gleefully shouting "I'LL PROTECT YOU" and running directly into hazards with or without flailing his sword about at random, having "oh-what-does-this-button-do" moments, "heh heh... heh ;_;"-ing in slightly awkward or gone-afoul situations, etc. With a bit of fluff of him being patted on the head, etc. He is often drawn even taller than he is to emphasize how gangly he is or far shorter - normally determined by who else he's drawn with.

On the whole he is either exaggerated into a bit of a comedically-beleaguered and panicky "spaz" or painfully reserved and brooding with a stutter whenever he does speak. Serious inclinations manifest with respectively either "I-I DON'T FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH THIS" or quiet, disapproving, tragic sta-a-a-ares. Subject of a bit of hurt-comfort fic. His French heritage is occasionally played up, and he understands utterly no pop culture references but is quite the fanboy over medieval history. Obligatorily subject to numerous zombie jokes and employment in pieces of black humor and occasionally employed as a Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant.

There exists at least one piece of fanart out there of him much shorter and in semi-chibi trailing after a wolf-eared and -tailed Mr. Lyall with a wagging canine tail of his own and another of him peering wide-eyed through the door of the LSR Clinic, as well as one of him uncertainly "8D"-ing captioned "DID I DO GOOD?"

His name would be listed second in every ship in which he is included, most of them with male characters.

Fandom is still not explicitly convinced that he wasn't some sort of apprentice wizard in his past life. He may have interpreted his visions himself as depicting him as a messenger to Charlemagne, but hey - perhaps Charlemagne was a wizard, too. Specifically a necromancer. Or opposed to necromancers and ran afoul of that.

CINDERELLA | RARITY

[destinedforrock]

Fandom may be entering the impression that Cinderella was a human damsel of some walk of life - either a tailor to explain her receiving a song about tailoring in an Echo, some sort of ambiguously Victorian aristocrat, or a princess, which would explain her name - if not why on earth she'd have been reincarnated as a horse! Perhaps a few later Echoes will explain that.

As such, she is often portrayed either anthropomorphized, as a human, or simply comically performing humanlike behaviors; for example, attempting to hold a fork to eat a piece of cake (as of recently at least a couple fanart pieces of her have been captioned "Let them eat cake") or pouring a tea kettle with her teeth and/or sitting at a table and wearing a fancy dress with or without a tiara.

She's normally regarded as either a pompous comic relief, a sarcastic if not condescending bystander (often as a counterpart to Arthur in a comic duo), or an ingénue with a sparkling-eyed interest in learning about human-ness ("I wanna know about these strangers like me~e!") in fan fiction.

She is occasionally vaguely shipped with Julien, as he is such a very princely man; or Arthur, this most normally in "humanized" form - there's a cute picture of him carrying her gijinka form bridal-style out of a bus.

[espigeonage]

He's possessive, see, and Luin - Elvish for "blue" - could and in the past has hurt himself walking.

Re: CINDERELLA | RARITY

[amberhearted]

that last bit is actually kinda cute

Emery Ayliff ★ MERLIN

[abidan]

★ Black haired intelligent introvert VS blond haired ham-fisted extrovert = OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE IN DEEP SLASHY TSUNDERE LOVE. It's a fact of all fic, okay. Just ask Loki and Thor, Sasuke and Naruto, Kyoya and Tamaki, and of course, Merlin and Arthur.
★ Skinny magical men who go out of their way to be kind are pretty much always gagging for it / pregnant in Omegaverse, so. Yeah.
★ The emphasis also seems to fall around how pristine they are: shy and clever, flawless pale skin, pink lips etc etc. Basically he's a Snow White for cock, it's no big deal.
★ He's keeping his magic a secret so he must be a deeply tormented soul who has ~constant rushes of magic beneath his fingertips~ just by ~having a strong emotion~ and it's ~so hard for him to push it back down~ etc.
★ He looks fairly young so he's mentally twelve. Will be shipped with older characters for this reason.
★ Laid-back hippies attract cut-and-dry business types. He'll be shipped with characters that fit the bill - extra points if blond. More Facts.
★ Vegetarian hippy artist = he probably owns a billion cats. Seriously.
★ Artist = fandom will dig him painting everyone like one of his French girls. Sign up below.
★ CLUMSY. Trips over dust. Trips over his own shadow. Constantly making a tit of himself and it's desperately endearing. Because everyone loves a walking disaster, apparently.

[testsonseashells]

SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE SONG SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE SCIENCE.

Mordin Solus has no other interests. In addition, he's an omnidisciplinary scientist. What do you mean computer programming isn't related to biology?

Re: Emery Ayliff ★ MERLIN

[espigeonage]

When Julien is shipped with him then generally someone has to be the more aggressive/macho one whose initial is the first letter. J/E or E/J? Ship wars are made out of these, flames to those who disagree. Julien's probably more worldly in canon and is a bit older, but is also definitely shorter and has the silly colors, so it's a toss up.



What often is agreed on is that Emery's ~magic hands~ can bring out the Apostle, who's definitely the first letter but also needs to be taught intimacy.

[espigeonage]

Aww. XD

[abidan]

It'd be constant ship wars and it'd be excellent. Em and Julien would have an adorkable romance with lots of ice cream and finger painting and cuddles on the couch! Everyone would be pleased for them and nothing would hurt. Ever.

And naturally Em and the Apostle would have some kind of forbidden love! Lots of moonlit trysts and angst and desperate embraces. I'll get the popcorn ready.

[espigeonage]

And poetry. It would be very sweet. XD Someone would protest and be super bigoted just to make them look better.

Oh, yes! The Apostle's angel wings are erogenous zones, you know.

[abidan]

/slowly and subtly makes note of this

[espigeonage]

It means the Knight and Angel pic is... not entirely innocent on Julien's part. ^_^

...I kinda want to do a whole series.

[elfstoned]

>lol implying the majority of fandom isn't too die-for-our-ship to accept an OT3

IT EXISTS

BUT THE SHIP WARS GO ON

[elfstoned]

julien no

[elfstoned]

he shouldn't hurt you at all. you deserve better than that abusive bastard!!

KARI ACOSTA | CAREN

[lackinginfaith]

Kari is already having vitriolic debates over whether she's evil, just selfish, or secretly nice. And she's been in one-and-a-quarter episodes. The time between the revelation of what she looked like and the first porn of her showing up on some fanart blog was about an hour and thirty-five minutes, which isn't even close to the fandom record.