Top Five Meme Answers

[sistermagpie]

Oh my god, this meme ate my entire weekend almost! It's hard! Which I should have known. But I think I finally finished. I'm going to post it before I change my mind on everything.



Top Five Favorite (Not Fanfic) Authors

1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
   The first time I read “A Diamond as Big as the Ritz” I had to put it down mid-paragraph to shiver with delight. His writing was only the partial cause for my 1920s clothing choices since high school.



2. Diana Wynne Jones
   Not only does she have a totally weird imagination that comes up with stuff you’d never think of, but she has the ability to put it into a story so it makes sense and is easy to follow. When I first started reading her I used to say I felt like you could move around in them, because some fantasy readers over-described so much I just felt nailed down they were trying so hard to make sure how I saw things the right way.



3. Patricia Highsmith
   I wasn’t sure if I should include her, but realized that every once in a while I’ll want to read PH and add another book to the collection. She mostly writes about guilt and crime in a way that’s weirdly similar to dreams about the same that I occasionally have.



4. Marcel Proust
   I’ve got include Marcel. I feel like you probably need to love him or hate him, because he’s like no one else. He describes things that you’d never think could be described and that’s a certain kind of genius.



5. Charles Dickens
   My mother used to tell this story about how when I was little and was first into Edgar Allan Poe I said “He’s like Dickens—he uses so many words!” The first of his I read, unsurprisingly, was A Christmas Carol. I had it on a record and memorized it just so I could repeat it. One strange note, though, I could never get through David Copperfield!

Top Five Self-Indulgent-But-Undeniably-Appealing Fanfic Tropes

1. Sex Pollen
   I hear about how rape fantasies are about giving in to desires that you feel that you shouldn’t etc., and since I’ve never been interested in non-con in that way, I always feel like saying: Can I interest you in a nice sex pollen (or anything with the same properties)? It’s the same loss of control, but without power imbalances. It’s not judging you! It’s neutral! It’s nature!



2. Fountain of Youth
   Stories where one or both of the characters de-age and can be kids together. Stories where one character de-ages can set up “now I have to take care of you while you amuse me with how irresistible you are as a child.” When they both de-age they can hilariously re-meet each other as kids, both changing and repeating their canon personalities. This trope seems particularly popular when it comes to Robins—lucky me. Chuck Dixon even randomly did it in canon once just because he could.



3. Sleep Cute
   It’s just amazing how many things can happen when you share a bed with a friend. You’re likely to say something embarrassing, yet true, about your feelings for the other person, or have a nightmare that reveals some past trauma. Maybe you’ll just wake up late in the dark and have a juicy, whispered conversation that’s all vulnerable. Or, you know, there’s always the potential for discovering you both want to have sex with each other. Just throwing that out there.



4. Crying in the Bathroom
   Character A was just coming in to use the loo and accidentally discovers Character B’s SECRET PAIN. Which no one knew about because they have hidden it so well—until now—because they are too proud to accept help. But, you know, since now you know they might as well accept help now from Character A, who is now intrigued…



5. Practicing in the music room
   What’s that lovely sound Character A is following down an empty corridor, probably at night because he can’t sleep? Why, it’s a piano/violin/harp/obscure instrument/lovely voice singing! Character just has to find out! And when he does he’ll be rewarded with—Character B! Revealing a heretofore unknown artistic talent. One he’s done since he was a child so he’s totally unselfconscious about doing it in front of you. Careful, though, Character A. By the time you leave the room it may have left its beautiful imprint on your soul that leaves you wanting more…

Top Five Characters You Ended Up Loving More Than You Thought You Would At First

1. Tara and Lafayette
   Angry young black woman and her very gay cousin? That sounds like stereotyping. I think I’m going to dislike…wait, how did they become my favorite characters on True Blood?



2. Toph
   It’s almost too easy, but she arrived the second season of Avatar, I thought she’d just be a stereotype of the kick ass girl, and then I succumbed to the awesomeness!



3. Ellis Carver
   I’m making my way through The Wire and halfway through the last season I spontaneously said, “I love Carver!” There’s a lot of characters on the show that I liked from the beginning, and I always did like him, but after the fourth season he just crossed the line into a quiet favorite.



4. Deb Morgan
   I originally thought Dexter’s sister was going to be a silly character, but over the seasons I’ve gotten to really root for her. Part of it is that she’s primarily an eager rookie who’s talented without being a superstar. Her gender is part of the character, but this part in the past would have been male.



5. Andy Bernard
   The only character left from the Stamford Office in season 3 of The Office. As the storylines have gotten more extreme, it’s fallen more and more on Andy to be human. Also I am a sucker for a capella groups. Here comes treble!!!

Top 5 Websites

1. Slacktavist: Left Behind-On Fridays
   Slacktavist slowly works his way through the Left Behind books, pointing out just how scary they are both on a literary and theological level.



2. Ferretbrain
   Check it out! Lots of contributors so there’s not one thing that it’s about, but I keep going back for the great reviews and often great discussion.



3. Contemplator Folk Music
   People say TVTropes is addictive. This is addictive with music! It’s a collection of traditional folksongs from English-speaking countries. Each one you can click on to hear the tune and read the lyrics and you know what that means—it means singing along!



4. The Literary Gothic
   This is a collection of Gothic lit stories and longer works all handily in a single place. I’ve been working my way through alphabetically, sometimes re-reading ones I read as a kid.



5. Hulu
   OMG, so many re-runs that you can just watch on your computer! I’ve been giving myself a treat at lunch each day watching a single ep of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. 50s TV is sometimes awesome in ways we don’t see anymore. Great, smart adaptations of “oh shit!” short stories starring a lot of familiar faces. TV at the time obviously owes more to the theater than the screen.

Top 5 books

1. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith
   There have been 3 books in my life that my mother gave me, telling me they were her favorite. The first 2 I totally hated (bit of a generation gap) but this one, about an eccentric, penniless English family that lives in a crumbling castle that’s unexpectedly inherited by 2 American brothers was a total hit. It’s written by Dodie Smith who wrote 101 Dalmatians, btw. If I had a daughter I’d totally want her to read it. It was tragically out of print for years, which is probably the only reason I wasn’t given it as a teenager.



2. Possession by A.S. Byatt
   I was in school, going to my summer job, and I’d finished the book I was reading. My mom handed me this saying she wanted to read it. It was one of those things where you never expected it to be good, much less a total treasure!



3. Strange Objects by Gary Crewe
   This bizarre little YA book from Australia completely freaked me out. Gary Crewe definitely understands the rule about horror being about what you don’t know almost more than what you do.



4. The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
   The whole series, but probably especially this book. I want to spend Christmas with the Stantons every year.



5. Robinsheugh by Eileen Dunlop
   I wrote a whole post about how I love this book a while ago. It remains awesome!

Top 5 Moments of Glee

1. When Emma and Mr. Knightley finally get together in Emma.
   
   
2. Mai to Azula: “Because I love Zuko more than I fear you.”



3. Realizing who Bran Davies biological father was.



4. Realizing Draco was getting an actual story in HBP!



5. ”That’s the way it is…between fathers and sons.” Sometimes Bruce Wayne says the right thing.

Top 5 Fanfics, The Ones You Read Again And Again

1. The Usual Reasons by wildgoosery
   Sokka and Zuko becoming bffs, talking about gadgetry, practicing with swords and…helping each other out when the need arises.



2. Drop Dead Gorgeous by sarahtales
   I have been really lucky in fandom by having great writers on my f’list who do crackfic and turn it into something more. Harry is part Veela and it’s hilarious, except when it’s being heartbreaking.



3. Rain by mirabellawotr
   Frodo is emo and his friends are concerned. Not your canon!Frodo—but he’s not intended to be. Sometimes I get a hankering for a story about just what this story is about, and Mira writes anything she puts her mind to beautifully.



4. Comfort by billthepony
   One of my first straight-up Frodo/Sam fics, and the one I always recommend to LOTR fans who are just dipping their toe into the pairing.



5. For a Season by significantowl
   This little, quiet story just always gets me. It’s Will/Jane (The Dark is Rising), a pairing I love that doesn’t get as much good fic as I’d like. Not sure how it would read if you don’t actually know the canon.

Top 5 Actors

1. Leonardo DiCaprio
   Yes. Loved him since he was a kid, and back when his career was mostly being great in mediocre movies. When he did Titanic I knew he’d suddenly be recast as a pretty boy, and that’s what happened. But I love now how he really seems to like making movies and want to make good ones. I might not always like his movies, but I can usually see what interested in in them, and his enthusiasm can be infectious. Go Leo!



2. Jimmy Stewart
   Just always find him intriguing, especially post-war Jimmy Stewart, particularly in Hitchcock. He’s the nice guy with the darker edge. When I think of him I always think of him in Rope (I love Rope! even with the obvious backpedalling at the end) where a part guest, upon hearing Jimmy Stewart’s character has been told about her by a friend, asks “Did he do me justice?” He replies, “Do you deserve justice?” with a dark undertone worthy of Gene Wilder’s Willy Wonka.



3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt
   I was really struggling with this question, and finally asked myself who were the actors whose movies I’ve seen just because they were in them. He’s one of them. Another one I’ve loved since he was knee-high. Go JGL!



4. Meryl Streep
   Yeah, that probably sounds cliché but sometimes I think the cliché starts to obscure just how awesome she is. I love that she’s gotten more chance to do comedies because for a while there in the 80s people acted like al she did was look haunted. I saw her in Mother Courage and her Children in the park a few years ago. I was soaking wet and freezing and the play was hours late to start and went 3 hours after that, and it was still worth it to watch her. (And she sings too!) Also, what I know from working at things where she’s been there, in real life she’s adorable.



5. Vivien Leigh
   I went through a huge VL phase when I was a kid and I still think she’s awesome. And I liked her even more after reading biographies about her.

Top Five Songs I Associate With Anything Fannish

It’s hard picking ones that aren’t just from the show/movie.

1. Heaven Coming Down by The Tea Party
   Aja talked about The Tea Party and used their songs to head up chapters in Love Under Will. How could I not associate this song in particular with fandom? Also I listened to it all day recovering from the end of Nocturne_Alley



2. One Girl Revolution (Battle Mix) by Superchick
   The fanvid to this song was great, and ever since I’ve seen it I listen to the song to remind me how many awesome women there are on TV and in the world.



3. The Life of Mary Sue
   Damn, I don’t have the name of the artist. How did I lose it? Anyone know? For obvious reasons, but it’s hilarious!



4. You’ll Be In My Heart by Phil Collins
   This one is bizarre, and I can’t really explain it? But for some reason I heard not long before OotP came out? And so it always reminds me of HP fandom.



5. Everyone’s a Little Bit Racist from Avenue Q.
   Because people quote it all the damned time, usually leaving me wondering just what they mean by it. Never a favorite, it’s become my least favorite song in the show.

Top 5 Cities You’ve Ever Visited

1. London
   It doesn’t matter how many times! If there’s such a thing as a London Geek, I’m sure my endless walking tours about “what wacky thing happened on this spot?” would qualify me. When I imagine the city 100, 500, 1500 years ago, it always seems like it would still be familiar because the people make the city.



2. San Francisco
   I went to the city exactly once, when I was 11, and it was so fun I have loved it ever since. I remember going to Fisherman’s Warf, the redwood forest, playing tag in the outside elevators. Also it was on this trip that I got a book of puzzles based on the works of Edward Gorey. I already knew his work from a production of Dracula but this pointed me to all his books and also started a brief obsession with logic puzzles.



3. Paris
   Nothing really to not like here. Favorite things there? The time I stumbled into a strange wax museum that included this awesome exhibit on “The Wonders of Electricity” from the 1900 World’s Fair. You think special effects from 1900 can’t still be cool? OMG, it was great. And there was a random magician doing tricks to Baby Elephant Walk. Don’t ask me why. Also—catacombs.



4. Leningrad
   It was Leningrad when I went on a school trip and it was pretty much my first time out of my home country. The whole trip was crazy and different. Probably my strongest memory was following a Russian boy home with a bunch of people and playing kopeks (quarters) in his living room. Then he showed up for our train ride to Moscow and stayed in our sleeping car. Shared a bed with a girl in my class by cleverly not being able to speak English when it came to suggestions that he not sleep with her.



5. Budapest
   I was only there for, like, 24 hours and that’s probably why it still has this dreamlike quality in my head. The exchange rate was ridiculously good during those 24 hours so I went from having no money at all to being able to have steak at a good restaurant! Got a bit lost on the way back to the place where I was staying and wound up inside some sort of stone structure with an endless spiral staircase by the river. Also, my friend and I first went to the wrong address when we were looking for the place we were to stay. I remember us marching into an apartment with big back packs and finding a tiny woman cooking stew. Poor thing must have thought she was being invaded by American giants. Sorry, lady! You have a beautiful city! Which actually looks a lot like New York in places, so it was strange and familiar at the same time.

Top Five missing Moments/Scenes/Episodes

1. Dick/Jason bonding before Jason’s death. It’s referenced!



2. Draco/Snape after the events of the Tower.Consider it part of HBP, when they still meant something to each other.



3. Frodo/Faramir meeting again in LOTR!



4. Ron/Hermione fight sometime in the future when Hermione says she finally knew she could date him when he changed his mind on House Elves to agree with her, and he points out that it was she who changed her mind to agree with him.



5. Dick helps or talks to Roy about his addiction when he was getting clean. I think canonically he wasn’t allowed anywhere near him by editorial.

Top Five Horror Stories, Can Be Movies, Books, Etc.

Because of the wording, I feel like I should concentrate on the word “story.” So, like, it’s not that it’s necessarily the top 5 movie or horror book (though it might be) but that I think the bare bones of the story is awesome.

1. The Wicker Man
   A lot of great movies are really short stories, and this is a great example. It’s really a simple story, but the simplicity lets the themes come out really naturally, so along the way there’s a lot of musical numbers. It’s a story about faith, pitting a man of one faith against a village of another, so they’re both exactly the same and exactly the opposite. Its ending is inevitable and final without ever giving a definite answer on the things for which there is no definite answer.



2. Carrie
   With the death of John Hughes people were talking about teen movies, and I realized that in the 70s most teen movies were in the horror genre. Carrie stands above them all, totally walking the edge between the silliness and cruelty of high school. Like the The Wicker Man the beginning sets in motion events that lead inevitably to the end. What really makes it work is that Carrie gets her totally happy ending first before everything goes to hell. Tommy Ross could give Jake Ryan a run for his money



3. The Blair Witch Curse
   You might be thinking: Isn’t that the Blair Witch Project? And yeah, that too. But the BWC was an extra thing the directors did for the Sci-Fi channel. The show was close to their original idea, which was basically a fake documentary on a paranormal subject like they used to do in the 70s. The events of the BWP were originally for one chapter of this.
   
   They’ve come up with a fake folk legend that kids would scare each other with in the dark. It spans the years from 1785 to 1997, through scattered incidents about 60 years apart. Each incident has just enough tiny details in common to point to the Blair Witch, but not enough in common to make a coherent story. William Friedkin once talked about how horror is often as much about what you don’t understand as what you do, and I just feel like this myth hits the perfect balance. They managed to create the kind of weird story that grows organically. Oh, and also there’s a classic recreation of a fake 70s paranormal documentary starring a Wiccan named Lucan Johnston.



4. The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
   Poe has a ton of great horror stories, obviously, but this one’s always been a favorite. Though when I first read it as a kid I didn’t really get that it was about alcoholism.



5. Caterpillars by E.F.Benson
   I have no idea why I love this story so much, but I heard it read in fifth grade and it always stayed with me. Maybe caterpillars just freak me out.

Top Five Favorite Endings To Books

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
   I remember feeling like this book became a different book in the last 100 pages—and it was a great new book! Which I would consider it a weakness except that I enjoyed the pages before as well.



2. The Haunting of Hill House
   Same words as the beginning, only much creepier when read at the end. In the movie, with the use of voice over, they even are able to make a slight change that makes it arguable better.



3. Return of the King
   Whatever you think about the traveling and detail leading up to the end, “Well, I’m back” is the best ending.



4. Pinocchio’s Sister
   This book is currently out of print, but it was published by Putnam while I was there. The first thing I heard about it was the ending, and I remember the editor saying that her goal was to make the book live up to that ending. I think she succeeded. I should mention that when I say “ending” I mean before the epilogue, which seriously seems like it was stuck on to make it a little intense.



5. Strange Objects--Since I mentioned this before, it reminded me that I loved the ending. In a nutshell: WTF?

Top 5 Villain Archetypes

1. The Misunderstood Monster
   The villain who really thinks he’s a good guy, just trying to get along or even be friends and finally just says you know what? Fuck all y’all! Example: Frankenstein’s Monster.



2. The Professional
   I generally like a hero/villain relationship where they respect each other professionally. (I remember once on The Wire they said it always reminded them of those WB cartoons with the sheepdog and the wolf who clocked out at the end of the day and were friends. But on TW the criminals often aren’t villains, so it’s a different thing.) But for instance, in the movie Village of the Damned where David and his father respect each other and almost with they would come over to the other side.



3. The Big Baby
   Villains are often pathetic underneath, so I love stories where they eventually crumble and reveal themselves to be losers. Best example, imo, was The Cigarette Smoking Man on The X-Files.



4. The People’s Defender
   The villains who starts out with a righteous pov but crosses over into bullying the very people he claims he’s protecting. Sometimes he also starts to believe his own press, and puts himself over others in the clinch.



5. The A-Moral Survivor
   Nothing I love more than being on the side of a person who really should be in jail because I empathize with his fear of getting caught. Best example: Tom Ripley. Both movies of The Talented Mr. Ripley felt the need to tack on a little “crime doesn’t pay” ending, but the book thankfully feels no need.






Top Five Ideas or Themes You Find Yourself Concerned With When Interacting With Fannish Works




1. Race
   How can you not after all the discussions? Now I always notice where non-white people are included and when and how and possibly why.



2. Shipping
   It’s obvious, but it’s hard to avoid. I’m not all that into shipping myself—not that I don’t read fic or ship characters, but I don’t usually look for ships to prove in canon. But now I tend to look for things people will use to prove their ship or look for signs that that’s where it’s going.



3. Body Image
   TV always seems to come up with a standard way of handling things. Like in the 80s they started the pattern of dealing with drugs by starting with pot, then having the character doing hard drugs and getting into car accidents by sweeps, until Mackenzie Phillips has to lead an intervention. With body image there’s a lot of standard stories about “real women” feeling good about themselves, often in a way that seems kind of pointless or counterproductive.



4. Female characters
   How is fandom going to distort her character to explain how she’s inferior to the male characters? Guess I’ll see soon enough!



5. Woobifying
   No matter how vicious a character, any hint of humanity and it will probably get run with. Sometimes in good, interesting ways. Other times just by glossing over behavior until it’s everyone else’s fault. I tend to think of that as the Fandom Defense Attorney approach.








Top 5 favorite fictional characters, answer in picture form (either pictures of them, or pictures of something that represents what you like about them; whatever. Pictures!)




1. 
   
   I feel badly leaving Jason out, but he probably expects it, as you can see by his face. He doesn’t even want to be my favorite character, dammit!



2. 
   He’s mumbling in response, completely unable to imagine being a favorite character, and probably thinking I meant Sokka.



3. 
   Damn straight. These are his sneakers that he wears to his job in animation that he gets after leaving Hogwarts.



4. 
   People don’t draw Will enough, so I only had this one picture of him with Bran. But I don’t think he’d mind sharing. Especially in this picture.








Five Best Episode Endings




1. Newhart
   It’s obvious, but it’s obvious for a reason. When Dick Louden woke up in bed as Bob Petry next to Suzanne Pleschette and we learned all of Newart was a dream taking place on the Bob Newhart Show, that was the ultimate in surreal 80s TV. Just seeing Bob and Suzanne’s bed again was great.



2. Six Feet Under
   Alan Ball tends towards melodrama, which means that when he hits it right he really hits it. It was exactly how that show had to end, and I swear I spent the next week feeling almost like people I actually knew died.



3. Blackadder
   After four seasons taking the piss out of the silliness of history, the last ep manages to continue to do that and be funny while also turning it into a tragedy. In many ways due to the way the episode ended, which was with the inevitable.



4. Quantum Leap
   I didn’t watch this show regularly, but I still remember the season-ender that had Sam make a leap right into the pose of that famous photo of Lee Harvey Oswald. I don’t even remember if I saw the Lee Harvey Oswald ep, but that ending was great.



5. Mad Men
   The pilot for this show is pretty great, and it’s the gentle twist at the end that really sets up what the show’s going to be like.








Top 5 Bat Stories, Top 5 Robin Stories

Batman:




1. That story where he runs into the old lady on the roof who sees right through him.



2. The black-and-white story where what seems like young!Dick is training with Bruce, but it’s really Bruce training with…the Batman.



3. Someone just posted this on D_S but I have to include it—the series of vignettes showing Bruce and Gordon’s relationship.



4. Batman invites Aquaman over because he really needs help getting that big penny out of the crevice in the bat cave, but Aquaman knows that he was just lonely and has pissed everyone off so they won’t hang out with him.



5. After a final summer mostly solving crimes among the elite, Dick leaves for college (because he’s a man now—at least that’s what it says on his dance card). As soon as he leaves the house he, Alfred and Bruce all burst into tears.
Okay, that’s kind of a Robin story, but I’m all about Batman as dad and not Batman pretending to be a loner outcast.




Robin:




1. That black and white story where Wayne Manor is haunted by the ghost of Jason Todd.



2. The Resurrection of Ra’s Al Ghul, pretty much completely because of the scene by the Lazarus Pit with Dick and Tim.



3. Dick teaches us the dangers of hitch-hiking via getting strung up by a strange cult. Hey, at least he wasn’t turned into a vampire this time.



4. Dick and Tim go train surfing—of course!



5. Alfred’s niece the actress visits and tries to steal an original Romeo & Juliet (iirc) from Wayne Manor. Dick randomly has a cold when she shows up, so is wearing an ascot with his snazzy dressing gown. God, do I miss the fancy sleepwear they used to model at Wayne Manor.








Top Five Successful Adaptations of Books to Films




1. Lord of the Rings
   I read these books in college but never had much desire to talk about them. Until the first movie came out and I rushed off to the ‘net to discuss the adaptations compared to the books. As with every fandom, the rewards went far beyond enjoying the movies and I still have them today! *waves to Tolkien portion of f’list*



2. LA Confidential
   This is one of my favorite movies, so it might not come as a surprise that I even like it better than the book! It cut out stories that I found a little too OTT so I couldn’t really relate to the characters. It also took the dialogue that James Ellroy is known for, and pared it down so that it sounded completely natural and poetic coming out of the actor’s mouths.



3. Sophie’s Choice
   This isn’t exactly the kind of movie one would consider a comfort film, but I just love watching it, particularly for the Meryl Streep/Kevin Kline performances.



4. The Innocents
   Another one of my favorites. It’s an adaptation of The Turn of the Screw. I think the screenplay is mostly the work of Truman Capote. It’s very faithful to the original, especially getting the most difficult part, which is leaving it ambiguous as to whether it’s a story about an overactive imagination or ghostly possession. Either way, weird pedophile overtones—yipes!



5. Stand By Me
   This is a great comfort movie. I was totally not expecting to like it as much as I did. And I like it better than the novelette.








Top 5 Fictional Worlds




1. Cicely, Alaska
   Northern Exposure completely broke my heart in the end, but for the first few seasons there was no place else I wanted to be than Cicely. I consider it a fictional world since it existed on the edge of strict reality. (Remember the end of one ep where they looked through a telescope and seemed to see Twin Peaks?



2. The Shire
   This is a fictional place seemingly created just for me. When I first saw it in the movie I burst into tears.



3. The Four Nations in Avatar: The Last Airbender
   The bending, the people, the animals—I love ‘em all. And hopefully I’d live through the end of the series so the Fire Nation would no longer be trying to take over everything. Oh, btw, did you know that the world is heavily based on ASIA? So if I lived there I ought to be played by an ASIAN actor? The more you know!



4. The Redwall Books
   Another universe where people mostly hang out with their friends and like to sit around the fire and eat. Am sensing a pattern here.



5. Edward Gorey’s universe
   It doesn’t really have a name, and we only ever see little bits and pieces, but I think it’s clear enough that one would consider it a shared universe. When I imagine “fictional world” in my head, it always owes more to Edward Gorey than, say, Tolkien.








Top 5 Fictional Friendships




1. Bran Davies and Will Stanton
   He’s the long-lost son of King Arthur; He’s the last of the Old Ones, immortal wizards starting with Merlin. I could go on and on about the great way these two fit, the way they’re opposites when they need to be, and alike when they need to be. Their friendship is SO SPECIAL for each other. And why Susan Cooper felt the need to tragify it with a memory loss I will never understand.



2. Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee
   Another pair where they’re everything each other needs—sometimes by *not* being what each other wants at that moment. It’s what keeps the friendship incredibly tight without ever being cloying (as I admit it sometimes gets in fanfic—it’s harder to write than some people think!)



3. Sokka and Zuko
   There’s lots of friendships to pick from in A:TLA and I might have gone for Zuko/Aang. But when I think of “guy friends” these two just do it for me. The awkward for its seriousness “deep talk” about girls, the way they surprise each other by working together so well, the way Sokka completely sees what a doofus Zuko is and can appreciate it? Giving these guys their own 2-parter episode was a stroke of genius.



4. Babs and Dinah
   Really all the Birds of Prey. When I think of the female equivalent of the bromance, these guys are it.



5. potterstinks/la_pensee/petitemillicent
   They’re weird, they’re codependent, they’re Slytherin. And the loss of one of them completely killed me.









Top Five Fannish Meta Pet Peeves




1. Conspiracy theories
   The kind the just works backwards so that whatever you think the producers or creators are up to is proved by the fact that you said it was true, especially if their motivation is based on fannish obsessions that they probably don’t know about.



2. Theories that work backwards
   These are the kinds of theories that can be fun, but drive me crazy when people say they are proven with “evidence” when what they really mean is that the person told their made-up story well and then showed where it could fit into canon if the author had wanted it to, but didn’t.



3. Meta about the thought process that goes into people who like different characters or ships or shows or anything than you do where they somehow wind up being immature, shallow fangirls compared to your mature, deep intelligent reader.



4. The idea that not liking anything in canon, or critiquing it, means you’re entitled and just wanted the author to write what you wanted to read.



5. The idea that as long as you can come up with a reason for a trend in writing or casting that isn’t “I hate women and/or people of color!” sexism or racism can’t be there. Likewise, the idea that anyone noting a trend that seems unfair is the same as putting a big “racist” or “misogynist” label on your soul forever.







Top five things about Dick Grayson/Robin
Finally cross-posted the whole thing JUST as another one came in. Arrrrgh!




1. He's the best big brother ever. Okay, not so much with Jason because there were issues getting in the way. But even with those he tried!



2. Where Bruce Wayne saw himself left alone after his parents died and vowed to make sure that never happened to anyone else, Dick saw Bruce there for him after his parents died and wanted to be like one of those people.



3. That he doesn't haunt his parents grave because he doesn't think they're in there.



4. That he loves playing with Bruce's (his) money when he's feeling loved and wanted, but when he feels rejected it's Bruce's money and he won't touch it.



5. That he works really hard to keep up all his relationships, from the guys at Haley's Circus to the Titans to the Waynes, to Zitka the Elephant.