timepiececlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timepiececlock) wrote2008-05-26 07:11 pm
timepiececlock) wrote2008-05-26 07:11 pm
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Male leads in romance novels vs. fanfic
I'm almost halfway through the Key of Light in audiobook format by Nora Roberts, and I'm enjoying it. I don't think I've ever read Nora Roberts before, but she's good. I can see why people like her. Her narrative is smooth, and she builds decent characters. Good dialog.
The story is a little cheesy, but that's okay.
One thing that I forgot, not having read a real "romance" genre book for a long time, is how perfect all the characters are. Especially the men. There's like a set of perfect "types" and all male characters must fit one of those types, and in addition they must be independantly successful, handsome, charming, and nice but not too nice.
Sometimes fanfiction makes you forget what certain book tropes are like, because you end up reading romance stories for what in the actual show are minor side characters, and thus sometimes you end up reading about people who aren't so perfect because they're not the main heroes, but in fanfic they can get their epic romances too.
Kinda spoils you, actually. Now I'm reading about this male character Flinn, who runs a newspaper and has a big dog and is a reporter/editor and decent and noble and sexy, and they just introduced his childhood friend who inherited the family company and is wealthy and sexy and handsome and "the family prince", and I have to roll my eyes.
I mean, these days I'm writing/reading romantic fanfic about male characters that are:
1) a socially retarded, introspective, perverted, and probably clinically depressed ninja assassin whose sense of self-worth is defined by his job
2) a selfish teenage exiled royal with serious anger problems whose face was mutilated so badly by fire that his eye and ear on one side are deformed, in a way that no one would ever call pretty or handsome.
3) an alien who can't stand to stay on the same planet for more than a week and jumps through space and time and is afraid to be intimate and probably has a God complex and definitely has a superiority complex (although he also good and true mostly nice and very fun to be around).
In terms of character importance in their respective series, that's one minor character, one regular supporting character, and one lead character. Naruto, Avatar:TLA, and Doctor Who, respectively. None of them are exactly ideal or stellar examples of what lead characters in a romance novel would be. Interesting how fandom has altered and shaped our tastes, isn't it?
The last romance book where I fell in love with a "perfect" male lead was The Time Traveller's wife, and that probably had more to do with the fact that he was a librarian who had time-travelling adventures as much as the fact that he was supposed to be attractive and charming. I do have a weakness for Indiana Jones-style adventure geeks.
The story is a little cheesy, but that's okay.
One thing that I forgot, not having read a real "romance" genre book for a long time, is how perfect all the characters are. Especially the men. There's like a set of perfect "types" and all male characters must fit one of those types, and in addition they must be independantly successful, handsome, charming, and nice but not too nice.
Sometimes fanfiction makes you forget what certain book tropes are like, because you end up reading romance stories for what in the actual show are minor side characters, and thus sometimes you end up reading about people who aren't so perfect because they're not the main heroes, but in fanfic they can get their epic romances too.
Kinda spoils you, actually. Now I'm reading about this male character Flinn, who runs a newspaper and has a big dog and is a reporter/editor and decent and noble and sexy, and they just introduced his childhood friend who inherited the family company and is wealthy and sexy and handsome and "the family prince", and I have to roll my eyes.
I mean, these days I'm writing/reading romantic fanfic about male characters that are:
1) a socially retarded, introspective, perverted, and probably clinically depressed ninja assassin whose sense of self-worth is defined by his job
2) a selfish teenage exiled royal with serious anger problems whose face was mutilated so badly by fire that his eye and ear on one side are deformed, in a way that no one would ever call pretty or handsome.
3) an alien who can't stand to stay on the same planet for more than a week and jumps through space and time and is afraid to be intimate and probably has a God complex and definitely has a superiority complex (although he also good and true mostly nice and very fun to be around).
In terms of character importance in their respective series, that's one minor character, one regular supporting character, and one lead character. Naruto, Avatar:TLA, and Doctor Who, respectively. None of them are exactly ideal or stellar examples of what lead characters in a romance novel would be. Interesting how fandom has altered and shaped our tastes, isn't it?
The last romance book where I fell in love with a "perfect" male lead was The Time Traveller's wife, and that probably had more to do with the fact that he was a librarian who had time-travelling adventures as much as the fact that he was supposed to be attractive and charming. I do have a weakness for Indiana Jones-style adventure geeks.
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I've only seen maybe two or three old episodes of DW, and the tv movie of the 8th Doctor from 1996, which is the last canon show until the new series starts in 2005. You don't *need* to watch any of the old stuff, not at all, but you may find yourself interested after you catch up on recent episodes.
The seasons are only 13 episodes long each, plus an annual Christmas Special that bridges the seasons, so they're relatively quick to go through-- only half the length of a normal U.S. tv season.
If you're curious, I recommend DW with all my heart. All though I make light of the Doctor's angst/weirdness in the post above, most of the show is light, happy, campy fun. It's like tv candy. It's like a caramel apple. It is good, because you can enjoy it as light tv or you can read between the lines and obsess about the darker implications of the characters. It has strong female characters and while it's wild and crazy and not every eccentric storyline works, the whole is always fun.
Doctor Who is just so likable and addictive that it feels like a breath of fresh air in comparison to so many heavier shows. It's cheeky, and cute, and full of angst, and has a phenomenal het romance if you're into that.