It can certainly be audience dependent. It would never occur to me that you would bash Xander. You point out his character flaws and occaisional lapses, but are pretty clearly giving him a sympathetic treatment. (Without being overly so.) or someone who associates anything critical with Bashing, then yeah - but that really isn't my definition of a bash.
If it is, then I "bash" the whole of humanity. Because, hello, if humans were perfect we'd be angels. Sin is part of our nature. We get over that and get on telling our stories.
I'm not saying I disagree with you. Far from it. I agree 100%. But there can be a little wiggle room on the issue.
Oh, definitely. I was trying to use qualifiers in there. Me personally - when dealing with fics, I want to be able to see character motivations. And if a character doesn't have a balance of motives, it's going to raise flags.
The particular fic that raised my eyebrows: Collateral Damage (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/959522/1/) was recently posted to a heretofore Bash-Free newsgroup I liked with the author comment that they were "making up their own explanation" for an episode that didn't make sense to them. (i.e. - they couldn't wrap their heads around a reason to find either Riley or Buffy remotely sympathetic.) What they produced was a Riley-POV rewrite of "As You Were" that falls pretty clearly into the Bash-camp.
Then you have the problem where the author doesn't get into Character A's or Character B's mindset.
Right. For me, the question is - did they try. In the fic I cited - the author clearly wasn't remotely interested in Riley's mindset even though it was Riley POV. It's a projection fantasy - the author doesn't want to see him sympathetically so projects all manner of nefarious motives on him (i.e. Riley is coming back for revenge, even though he's never been portrayed as particularly vengeful) without considering what other motives Riley might have had. And there's enough evidence in the series to pick up some positive motives for Riley - namely that he does have an open mind, even if it's slow to open and that he probably does genuinely like and respect Buffy if he's got any emotional distance from her.
It can be tough with newer characters. With Kennedy, I don't particularly care for her, and I mean that exactly as is written. I neither really like nor dislike her. So if I read stories with her in them, I do want to be able to feel like the writer did some work to get her having motives. And with Kennedy, the author does have to do work. Because, to be honest, in S7 she's 80% affectation and only 20% motivation. Wood, like him or not, has ample record and hinted at backstory to have a host of good and bad motivations. Kennedy, not so much.
no subject
If it is, then I "bash" the whole of humanity. Because, hello, if humans were perfect we'd be angels. Sin is part of our nature. We get over that and get on telling our stories.
I'm not saying I disagree with you. Far from it. I agree 100%. But there can be a little wiggle room on the issue.
Oh, definitely. I was trying to use qualifiers in there. Me personally - when dealing with fics, I want to be able to see character motivations. And if a character doesn't have a balance of motives, it's going to raise flags.
The particular fic that raised my eyebrows: Collateral Damage (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/959522/1/) was recently posted to a heretofore Bash-Free newsgroup I liked with the author comment that they were "making up their own explanation" for an episode that didn't make sense to them. (i.e. - they couldn't wrap their heads around a reason to find either Riley or Buffy remotely sympathetic.) What they produced was a Riley-POV rewrite of "As You Were" that falls pretty clearly into the Bash-camp.
Then you have the problem where the author doesn't get into Character A's or Character B's mindset.
Right. For me, the question is - did they try. In the fic I cited - the author clearly wasn't remotely interested in Riley's mindset even though it was Riley POV. It's a projection fantasy - the author doesn't want to see him sympathetically so projects all manner of nefarious motives on him (i.e. Riley is coming back for revenge, even though he's never been portrayed as particularly vengeful) without considering what other motives Riley might have had. And there's enough evidence in the series to pick up some positive motives for Riley - namely that he does have an open mind, even if it's slow to open and that he probably does genuinely like and respect Buffy if he's got any emotional distance from her.
It can be tough with newer characters. With Kennedy, I don't particularly care for her, and I mean that exactly as is written. I neither really like nor dislike her. So if I read stories with her in them, I do want to be able to feel like the writer did some work to get her having motives. And with Kennedy, the author does have to do work. Because, to be honest, in S7 she's 80% affectation and only 20% motivation. Wood, like him or not, has ample record and hinted at backstory to have a host of good and bad motivations. Kennedy, not so much.