Fandom Meme, 21 & 22

[osprey_archer]

21. Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.)

This question is surprisingly hard! It also seems likely to collect contention (“What do you MEAN you don’t like my precious woobie baby who has never done anything wrong in his LIFE?”) so I think I will skip it.


22. Name a character that you’d like to have for a friend.

I’ve always thought that Ivy Carson from Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Changeling would be the most amazing friend, but tbh I’ve found the closest possible thing in asakiyume. It’s too bad you live across the country, but then, Martha and Ivy were often separated too.

Betsy Ray from the Betsy-Tacy books might also be a great friend, although she does tend to like to be the one who makes up the stories, so probably I should plume for Tacy, who is happy to fill the admiring audience role.

Or Cassandra Mortmain from I Capture the Castle. She’s so smart and funny and lively, and she lives in an actual castle (so what if it’s falling down, I could camp in a castle for a week on account of it’s a castle), and also she’s so isolated that she really needs a friend, so I would be useful to her, especially when she needs help forgetting Simon. We could talk about books and ramble through the countryside and write a ludicrously melodramatic novel together.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Awww! The feeling is 100 percent mutual! I like that we both get to be Martha and Ivy <3 <3 <3

What you say about Betsy Rae needing to be the one who tells the stories makes me wonder if you noticed this video on Twitter.

If you and Cassandra Mortmain were to write that melodramatic novel together, I would SO READ IT!

[osprey_archer]

Even Martha gets to be a little bit Ivy, too! As Ivy points out, Martha's probably a changeling herself. (Upon reflection I am not sure this is the best way to put it, as it suggests that Martha is becoming more like Ivy when in fact she's becoming more herself... getting in touch with her Ivy-like courage and ability to express herself, but keeping her own imagination and dramatic flair.)

I hadn't seen that video, but it's hilarious! Clearly a Betsy-Tacy dynamic (although I like to think that if Tacy ever DID decide she wanted to be a mermaid with an orange tail who could talk to every sea creature, Betsy would roll with it).

Cassandra would prob want to name the romantic hero Simon and it would take Great Effort to dissuade her.

[asakiyume]

when in fact she's becoming more herself... getting in touch with her Ivy-like courage and ability to express herself, but keeping her own imagination and dramatic flair ^_^ I love that. She's a great character, and Ivy's a great character--it's such a great story.

[anna_wing]

Finn in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy was a character with great potential that was never realised because the writers had no idea what to do with him. Though really, this could be said of most of the characters.

I'd actually like to be Sherlock Holmes' friend (book Holmes, who was a pretty decent person, though a little eccentric). Not his flat-mate, nor even his next door neighbour. Just meet for tea and chat every so often, invite for dinner party, occasionally exchange interesting snippets of gossip sort of friend.

[osprey_archer]

I've never gotten over learning that the studio had no overarching plan for the Sequel Trilogy when they started it... or when they made the second movie... or indeed when they made the third movie. No WONDER so many of the character arcs don't pan out.

[anna_wing]

Absolutely! That may also be why I've found it such a rich field for fanfiction.

[littlerhymes]

If you were friends with Betsy you could try her dad's sandwiches - SURELY that is appeal enough.

I feel like Cassandra could've done with a good friend to go on walks with and debrief about all her family/love life drama!

[osprey_archer]

That's TRUE! Are those onion sandwiches really as good as she claims?

Actually, I think that Betsy and I would be great friends, as long as I didn't try to play the Tacy part but instead Betsy and I were mutual "let's cheerlead each other's writing" friends. We could meet for a weekly coffee & cake session and help each other brainstorm for our projects and then write together companionably for an hour or two.

...God, now I really want an in-person Betsy friend. I have online Betsy friends but it is tragically difficult to share cake with someone through a computer screen! (Although in-person cake-sharing is difficult now, too, so.)

You're so right about Cassandra! It could have saved her a lot of grief to be able to discuss the drama with someone who is not PART of the drama.

[littlerhymes]

We all deserve an in-person Betsy! But also cake.

Would Cassandra and Betsy get along? You might have to be the bridge between them.

[osprey_archer]

Oh, hmmm! I don't think they would dislike each other, but they might not be bosom buddies? Betsy is very calm and cheerful and stable for a writer, and Cassandra is much more emotional/dramatic (although not nearly as much as her stepmother Topaz! God, just imagine Betsy meeting Topaz. She would be fascinated, I think).

Actually, given the time periods, these characters actually could meet - but Betsy would be about twenty years older, more of a mentor figure? She could advice Cassandra on her writing and the workings of the publishing world and gently yet firmly suggest that there are men in the world other than Simon. "He kissed you while he was engaged to your sister? You can do better."

[littlerhymes]

I don't think they would be instantly best friends forever so I could see you as the intermediary! But I do like Betsy and Cassandra setting up a correspondence. She's right, Cassandra. You can do WAY better.