And more memes, because I have work to avoid

[eye_of_a_cat]

So you're cleaning all the pollen off your TV screen and a genie pops out. In return for freeing her, she offers to grant you 5 changes to any TV show(s) you wish. With only 5 wishes, what do you wish for?

I've got pretty good at rationalising away pretty much anything, but if there's a genie right there...

1) Make Chris Carter go back in time and actually have a plan for The X-Files. I don't even care what the plan involves, I'd just like there to be one.

2) Take Lennier's diary out of Objects at Rest. Actually, if this genie has really powerful associates: I'm okay with Lennier's betrayal being left as it is, since Something Big was clearly going to happen and I'm just glad it didn't involve his death, but change the eventual consequences to something involving reconciliation and forgiveness and happy endings for everyone involved as far as is possible.

3) A more believable take on Delenn's role in the war in In the Beginning, or at least some more of an indication that she was not the lone powerless voice speaking against the war that she so badly wants to remember herself as. Also, it would have been nice if we'd got to see Branmer a couple of times.

4) Uncancel Space: Above and Beyond.

5) Make whatever they did with Cordelia in Angel be some kind of bizarre hallucination everyone had for a very long time.

Share the Female Character love. Ten female characters that have your undying affection, and why.

1) Delenn, although I don't often like her in fanfic; I blame this on canon Delenn and fanon Delenn being two different characters who don't have a lot in common. Canon Delenn is powerful and manipulative and fascinating.

2) Boomer, from the new BSG. Galactica!Boomer especially, although Caprica!Boomer is interesting too. I don't usually like characters whose main role is to angst, but badly-programmed-Cylon angst is a different matter. (Does anyone know if there's any decent Boomer fic out there, btw?)

3) Shane Vansen, from Space: Above and Beyond. Partly because she got to be Captain and was really good at it without it being a Great Big Deal that she was in charge and female, and partly because she got to be human and sulky and once grumbled that "we never get a planet with a friendly name, like the Planet Chuckles or something."

4) Dana Scully in the first few seasons of The X-Files, before they went down the road of mysterious alien pregnancies and throwing continuity out of the window. Back when she was smart and funny and practical and rolled her eyes at Mulder's theories.

5) Nerdanel, who deserved more than a mostly-blank space in canon as Mrs Feanor.

6) Terry Pratchett's Susan Sto Helit, the best governess you could ever hope for ("Real children don't go hoppity-skip unless they are on drugs") and Death's best apprentice.

7) Wednesday Addams, who was once my role model

8) Mina Harker (from Dracula), who was so much more interesting than any of the men. (Maybe Lucy too, although she's doomed from the first time she wonders why girls can't be allowed to marry three men if they want to.)

9) (The first) Catherine in Wuthering Heights, who was just as cruel and wild as Heathcliff, even if she didn't get as much of an opportunity to develop it

10) and, er, would River from Firefly count? I only ever saw one and a half episodes, but she was my favourite character in both of them.

Comments

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about Lennier's diary. I'd like to believe he didn't write in it except when he was feeling completely bereft and bitter and unloved, and spent the rest of the time pretending that it didn't exist. And I get why someone had to read it, after he almost left John to die, and I get why the someone had to be Delenn. But...she knew what was in it. She didn't have to read it.

Fanon Delenn drives me nuts. I really only got into the show last summer, and when I went online, I was like 'who is this woman, and why is she calling herself Delenn?' I see how it's pretty easy to write her badly in John/Delenn fic, which is why there needs to be more Delenn/Lennier fic in the world. Or something. Maybe I should go back and study. Either way, I think she's one of the most underappreciated and underused characters in fandom (and on the show occasionally *cough*season five*cough*)

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Another Delenn/Lennier shipper! *hugs* Have you written D/L fic yet? There's little fannish that makes me happier than D/L fic.

As far as the diary, I have no particular reason to believe Delenn's telling the truth, as she's not in the habit of doing so. But I can live with Lennier having written something like that, as long as it was more along the lines of "If Valen is really Sinclair, and he wrote the prophecies, I'm not sure how seriously I need to take this business about Delenn being prophecied to marry Sheridan. Especially since, um, I don't quite recall learning that particular text in temple."

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

Oh thank god, someone else who doesn't think Delenn is Perfect And Always Right And Never Lies Even Though She Blatantly Does. I love her, I think she's a great character, but she's as flawed as any of the others. And she uses Lennier's love for her to get what she wants, while ignoring it the rest of the time. I've started a couple of pieces, and hopefully I'll finish them after my Finals. I love your stuff, so it would be great to see what you think! One Delenn/Lennier piece that I like but no-one else does is (because he's so fun to write) from Londo's P.O.V, and was pretty honest about what he thought about Delenn's motives, and included a line about how horribly convenient it is that prophecy demands she end up in Sheridan's bed.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

One Delenn/Lennier piece that I like but no-one else does is (because he's so fun to write) from Londo's P.O.V

There is no way that story won't be excellent (she says, stamping down fangirlish squees). The world does indeed need more Delenn/Lennier fic...

(Good luck with the Finals, btw!)

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

Delenn/Lennier from Londo's POV sounds good to me. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

'who is this woman, and why is she calling herself Delenn?'

Yes, exactly! A lot of the J/D fic I read (which was not an awful lot, so probably I missed out on some good stuff too) just kind of shunted most of her personality into the background. I think characters who are technically the Good Guys run the risk of having anything bad they do excused away, and once you take every part of Delenn that can do bad things, she doesn't end up very recognisable.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

She started the Earth-Minbari war. Zen hippy or not, this woman is not all sweetness and light, no matter how much John may want to believe it. Lennier is prepared to take the dark with the light, moreoever Delenn can trust him in a way she can't trust her husband. I liked the J/D relationship, but I think Delenn/Lennier would have been yummy and angsty and oooh.

[kangeiko]

8) Mina Harker (from Dracula), who was so much more interesting than any of the men. (Maybe Lucy too, although she's doomed from the first time she wonders why girls can't be allowed to marry three men if they want to.)

Have you read League of Extraordinary Gentlemen? Ignore the travesty that was the film, have a look at the graphic novels, they will blow you away. Strong, scary Mina - we like.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

No, although one of my students recommended it (my classes are more on-topic than that makes it sound, I swear). I'll give it a look.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

I'll second wish #2, although I'd really push the genie for a happy ending and lots of babies.

Wish #3 is sooo right.

Yes, Nerdanel deserved to be more. The problem is she deserved to be more like Feanor, and Tolkien has a hard time writing ambiguous female characters. They have to be puure good or spiders. Galadriel is the closest to a truly ambiguous female character, and he so riuned the character by revising it.

[eye-of-a-cat.livejournal.com]

Tolkien has a hard time writing ambiguous female characters. They have to be puure good or spiders.

*dies*

What's the story with Galadriel-revisionism, by the way? My HoME knowledge is, um, pretty patchy.

[deborah-judge.livejournal.com]

It's in Unfinished Tales, if you want to see if you can stomach it. (I personally can't.) Instead of joining the Feanorian rebellion, Galadriel came to Middle Earth on her own and never did anything wrong. Which makes hash out of her song in Lord of the Rings, among other things.