Fanfic peeve #1293283

[merkuria_lyn]

Just popping in with a quick and rather random rant, which continues the series of fanfic peeves that started with my rant about the use of irrelevant 'filler words' in fanfic.

Cross-fandom character voice mix-ups.

I am not talking about cross-fandom fics - I don't care if you bring Star Wars, Buffy, and Harry Potter characters into the same

Comments

[flyingcarpet]

A lot of people mix up Lupin and Giles too. Giles is a Cambridge (Oxford? Anyway, fancy-university)-educated man, worked at the British museum, loves old books, wears tweed, has casual love affairs. Lupin? Lupin is none of those things. He taught by activity and example, his classroom was filled with grindylow tanks and boggarts and THINGS. He couldn't find steady work for years, wears patched robes, and has been dwelling on the loss of his best friends for years. Not. The. Same.

Ahem. I would say that your rant was effective, since it inspired something similar in me. :P

[merkuria_lyn]

So true, Lupin and Giles so often seem to share the same voice, which I agree with you is ridiculous, as they don't share anything apart from the fact that they are both British.

Sometimes it seems to me that what happens is that with 'minor' characters some authors just think "Oh, he/she is British, just like *insert other random British character* so they will obviously have the same mannerisms and talk in the same way."

Drives me to distraction.

[ljs]

[pets you]

However, 'voice' can be so tricky *anyway*. As a previous comment said, Giles "wears tweed" -- well, he only did in the first three seasons. The change of costumes also marked a change in voice, so that Season Six Giles spoke far more casually and tersely (and swore more often) than did Season One Giles. Because voice shifts so, it gets even more complicated... Is Harry's voice different in Order of the Phoenix than in Philosopher's Stone?

In other words, rant away. Sorry. :-)

[merkuria_lyn]

Sorry for the very delayed answer to your comment - things are mad round here at the moment... :-)

First of all, yes, I agree. 'Voice' is a tricky business and I appreciate that it's hard getting it completely right. I think what gets me is not so much that a character voice might not be completely spot-on but recognising the voice of a different character, from a different show / film / novel, speaking through characters in a fic (as in Spike's voice in Draco for example). I can see why it's probably easy to slip into that but once I recognise it it disperses the illusion of the fictional universe and I can't enjoy the fic anymore.

*shrugs*

Just my personal little issue, I suppose. ;-)