Promised Fic Rant

[catch22girl]

(Sidenote: My body is angry at me. I don't know why. So I'm kind of in a bad mood right now).
As everyone knows I love 24 fic. I even adore it. However, I've noticed yet another disturbing trend in 24 fic that

Comments

[xandra73]

[catch22girl]

You really scare me away from trying out reading stories randomly. Really. :(

Eek. I don't mean to. Sometimes you can find quite good stories randomly. But often - not so much. Yeah, ff.net had some of them (like the first time) and really the FOX official site fic boards have a few too. I've seen it in other stories but I can't remember.

We get glimpses of younger Jack in Season 1 when he meets Jessica at the breakfast.

Yes! Which is what I was thinking of -- although admittedly driving motorbikes does not mean you weren't abused as a child, it still seems to go towards that more "normal" category.

[xandra73]

[catch22girl]

Oh they exist and they're *huge*. A few people are having a 1000+ post on "why did jack cry" in the finale, but it's really branched out from there. It's under "community" on the main page and then you have to register (or be a guest) and you can see them. It's quite large.

I see what you mean. I think (and this is going back to my s1 as back story theory), that if you didn't see s1 you might assume there's some great trauma in his past beyond s1 to explain why he's so messed up. However, if you see s1 you can see exactly what happened. Pretty much.

[tinted_glass]

Hm. I don't know. I've been so busy with screencaps and icons that I haven't been reading 24 fic recently. Come to think of it, I've probably read a total of 5 24 fics. Ever. So I could be wrong about this, but I'm guessing the reason people feel the need to write painful childhood backstories is because they're trying too hard to provide insight a deeper meaning to Jack's general fuckeduped-ness. So because they are not GOOD enough to come up with original ideas, they resort to typical melodrama soap opera-ish crap. :D

[catch22girl]

Oh, you really should read more, some of them are quite fantastic. I think you're right - a painful childhood back story is a convienent (and easy!) way to explain why a character is fucked up. It's kind of lazy writing and also a strange trend in a lot of fandoms. I think in Jack's case, mostly, we've pretty much been given a roadmap to EXACTLY why he is so fucked up (or at least can infer most of it) without any additional information.

[tinted_glass]

If you have recs I'll check them out. :)

[catch22girl]

Almost every story on 24_fanfic. No, really. Umm...my mind's blanking on others right now. I've rec'd a few in the past.

Re: Yay! Fic Rant

[catch22girl]

(Whoops, messed up posting this before...)

This is fascinating to me because in my perspective piece I've given two of the 12 characters I'm dealing with abusive childhoods. Neither of them are Jack, you'll be happy to hear.

I actually am *quite* happy to hear that Jack's not one of them. Now, I'm very curious about who the two characters are with the abusive childhoods. I kind of wonder what the stats are in general -- % of people who did have abusive parent(s).

I debated it for a long time because absolutely nothing has been mentioned of either characters' childhood but when it came down to it - that's the childhood I saw for them

I think you have to write what you feel is right. I believe in going with your instincts.

I could buy Jack having maybe a worse-than-garden variety dysfunctional family. One that was loving and wanted the best for him but maybe had some temper/emotional problems. We've seen that Jack has problems controlling his temper and usually often resorts to yelling or violence.That sounds vaguely like my

Re: Yay! Fic Rant

[catch22girl]

Well, the twelve characters are Jack, Kim, Palmer, Sherry, Tony, Michelle, Mason, Nina, Chappelle, Chase, Chloe, and Adam.

Nina probably did not have the world's greatest childhood. For some odd reason, and this is probably based on Chase's reaction to the way Jack treated him almost the whole season, I could see him as having an abusive past. Yeah. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, in my mind he's a very likely candidate. Palmer had a rough childhood? *thinking*. Refresh my memory?

I know and you're right but sometimes it's hard not to second-guess yourself. I think my problem is that my life (which I don't think has been bad at all) is kinda nutty and my friends have REALLY nutty lives so to an extent drama-n-angst seems natural to me. It's hard writing about the characters I think had really good childhoods/pasts because I always wonder if it's realistic.A few of my friends have had bad childhoods too...but even in fiction I've always gravitated towards angst and drama. It just doesn't always feel right. In my

Re: Yay! Fic Rant

[catch22girl]

Yeah, she's the obvious one. It's weird because I hesitated giving her a bad past because it seems like it could be taken as an excuse rather than an explanation. However, because of the way I see Nina (I think she was a sociopath) it makes sense. I kind of figured she'd be the obvious one. I don't think it's an excuse or an explanation it's just the way it is. I mean it didn't create her. Sociopath? hmmm. I think that she's very emotionally cold and puts herself above other people all the time. I mean, if it's a choice between the world and herself she's choosing herself basically. An abusive childhood might explain that lack of caring for the human race though. I'm very interested in reading your take on her

Re: Yay! Fic Rant

[catch22girl]

Going to try and meld these into one comment:

I think it could and the angle I was looking at is her ease with lying. Something I read about certain abusive family types said that lying/leading a double life (of sorts) can become natural for those in the family.

Oooh. That's very interesting. I heard that's partly true because the abused person has to pretend so much that it's not happening to others. Don't be nervous! I've seen Nina in fic as everything from evil personified to misunderstood love struck girl. I didn't start watching til early s2 so I saw s1 knowing what she became and somehow that made me love her even more (I don't know why). I could also see sociopath, lack of deep feelings, desire to hurt, killing without regret.(although that's debatable).

I'm fascinated - tell me more.re: The way Chase interacts with Jack. Well, Jack knocked him out, tied him up, put him in a cell and Chase STILL felt the need to go rescue him. He doesn't really fight him on issues, pretty much does what he says and still seeks his