#both the fanon of those characters AND the canon of those characters from s2 onwards doesn't do it for me 😭

[kenobihater]

i legit don't get the appeal of viewing a character you like as a "100% unproblematic fave". y'all realize that a character can both be staunchly good with many positive traits AND have some flaws as well, right? to me, viewing a moral yet multifaceted character as faultless is like baking a cake with no salt. yeah, it's sweet, but it's too sweet because there's no salt to elevate the flavor! where's the depth in a character that is entirely perfect? where's the compelling motivations and character work? where's the humanity in that?

thankfully, i don't see much of this complete denial of flaws in the popular fanon of characters i enjoy, but what i DO see frequently is a shift in focus from characters' overall negative behaviors - behaviors directed both at themself and towards others - to depicting their self-destructive behaviors as their sole flaws. self-destruction is viewed as an "acceptable" flaw, unlike causing harm to others, and is often exaggerated if not invented out of whole cloth!

for an example of this distortion: there's a heroic yet flawed character i like with a high stress position that he wholly dedicates himself to, who probably loses a bit of sleep and is seen asking for and drinking tea ONCE to buy some time. what's the fanon version of him seen in many fics? well, his missteps and occasional emotional insensitivity have gone entirely out the window, and he's been transformed into a workaholic, sleep-deprived, caffeine addict who is incapable of caring for himself. he WILL collapse at some point in order to justify his love interest swooping in and insisting that this character, a fully grown adult man in charge of 1/10th of the entire army, learns ✨the importance of self care✨

i'm not arguing for every character to be deeply flawed - i love a good hero - but by making a canonically flawed character either 1) entirely beyond reproach or 2) a self-neglectful and/or self-flagellating martyr who has never hurt anyone but themself, you're sucking the life RIGHT out of them, and boring me to tears in the process.

[theghostofashton]

hi! hope you're doing good :) what about quinn and alex karev for the character thingy (idk if you like karev tbh, but I like him so)

hi thank u sm!! i'm sorry this took a minute, last week was...a mess.

quinn:

How I feel about this character

i love her so much. she's beautiful and inspirational and she deserves the entire world.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

...rachel. i'm kinda indifferent on quick. it's fine and if quinn had to end up with a man, i'm glad it was puck, but i much prefer faberry. i know that's kinda a contentious opinion partly bc of how blatantly queerbait it was, but i genuinely feel like it would've done both characters so much good and made so much sense after we lost finn.

i've read so many faberry fics that interpret canon perfectly and make it work, and i love what they do both with rachel and quinn's characters. they make each other better and understand each other in a way i just didn't see with st berry, quick, or finchel.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

mercedes, santana, and blaine but that's fanon

i have nothing new to add about quinncedes. we deserved more of it. it was so pure and perfect and i will die mad that we got absolute dust after like s1.

i talked abt this in my santana post but i really love them as friends because of how honest and authentic their friendship is. they call each other out in ways that i feel like work bc they're things that would make each other better. santana saying quinn keeps defining herself with men in 4x08 was absolutely right and it's something i only feel like santana would've said. i just appreciate the realness of quinntana. everyone needs a no bs call it like it is friend.

My unpopular opinion about this character

she would make way more sense if people stopped writing her off as "crazy quinn" and actually took the time to understand the way her actions are the result of everything she's been through. i've seen no issue w people using headcanons and speculation to understand other characters so don't act like it's hard to do for her lmfao people just choose not to (which is fine if you don't want to but don't act like she makes no sense when she does)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

i wish we'd seen her story after s3. what did she major in at yale? what does she end up doing? i also wish they'd actually called it post partum depression that she was struggling w from s2 onward and made those terms of her story more explicit if only so people could stop calling her a crazy serial cheater lmfao

alex karev:

How I feel about this character

dude omg karev is my favorite grey's character!! he is everything and his development is just...there's this fan vid i watched a while ago that encapsulates all of it and it made me cry because they did this so right. it was gradual and subtle and made things so much more satisfying. i'm still in awe that they managed to make fuckboy alex karev w plastics dreams into the most amazing pediatric surgeon ever and it makes me cry.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

jo. they are so fucking perfect and they fit so well and they made each other better people and i will die mad that the writers fucked them up so badly

My non-romantic OTP for this character

mer, cristina, and arizona. all three of them were so important to alex in such different ways and watching how their relationships developed was beautiful. especially mer, after cristina left, the way she and alex got closer, and the entire thing with arizona. i just love his friendships w everyone but these three felt so instrumental to his development for me.

My unpopular opinion about this character

i hated his relationship with izzie and never believed in it lmfao

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

they'd written him off better. i honestly would rather they have killed him than what we ended up getting which says a lot