Results from unpopular fandom meme!

[my_daroga]

There's still time to get your question in!

I should have realized that I have no idea what the popular opinions are about these things.

for androidlovesong:
Doctor Who
*I adore Martha but don't hate Rose and don't understand why we all can't just get along.
*I hate Torchwood because I can't stand Barrowman's acting/delivery and because it's "adult" in the most juvenile way possible and also because no one's actions in S1 (which is all I've seen so far) are motivated by anything. This is not the good crack, kids. (Though Sarah Jane Adventures totally is!)
*I really dislike the Eighth Doctor, though I love Paul McGann in other things.
*I don't know if this is unpopular, but Lis Sladen looks better now than she did before.
*I don't watch enough Old Who anymore and am mostly working off vague memories of my childhood watching experiences. This makes me unpopular to me.


for deathmask_revel
Phantom of the Opera
*Julian Sands is hot.
*Erik/Christine should explore the deep problems of the characters and their relationship.
*ALW is a hack.
*There should be more crack!fic.
*Movie!fic is totally okay if the author deals with the characters rationally and not like the movie did (in my opinion).
*Gaston Leroux was not a genius. He wrote a book that tapped into something, which makes it interesting and important. It is not a "work of art." It's pretty awesome, though. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.

for metalmyersjason:
Phantom of the Opera: Erik, Raoul, Daroga, Christine
This is a difficult category because there are so many (at least 2) camps of fandom. Most of my opinons would offend one or the other but not both.

*Erik: Would make a terrible husband and is wrong when he says that "if you loved me, I'd be as gentle as a lamb." It worked to let them go, but in the long run he's still who he is--and Christine would have learned that, had she stayed.
*Raoul: Not a fop, because the Raoul I know is brave, serious, not an inordinately snappy dresser and, most importantly, he is young. I think everything that might make Raoul unpopular could be fixed by a little maturity, which is why I don't understand Raoul bashing. We were all 20/1 once, weren't we? How rational were you?
*The Daroga: Has an uneasy relationship with his foreignness. He has rejected some aspects of his former life, but keeps the peaked cap. My daroga shaves, both as a sign of his uncertainty about his heritage and to differentiate himself from the prevailing styles of the time. His fascination with Erik contains both contempt and an unacknowledged envy that Erik has reached beyond society to do as he pleases.
*Christine: Is blonde unless there's a good reason for her not to be. She was not served well by her upbringing in Daddy Daae's fantasy world, but the story of Phantom is as much a story of her growing up as it is about anything else.


Phantom of the Paradise: Swan, Phoenix, Winslow Leach, The Juicy Fruits, Beef
I'm not sure what the prevailing opinions here are.
*Phoenix is not such an innocent; or at least, her easy defeat by Swan implies weakness of character.
*Winslow's Phantom persona is everything he wished he could be as a gawky, put upon teenager.
*Harold is my favorite Juicy Fruit ("Super Like You").
*Beef was just doing his job.


Hellboy
I have never had any exposure to this, frankly because of the name, which I find very silly.


for stefanie_bean:
Phantom of the Opera: Philippe de Chagny
Leroux goes to great pains to make us feel Philippe is a typical (almost admirable?) man of the world and takes good care of Raoul, but in his actions and expressions he seems a little rough. I'm not sure he understands Raoul at all, or knows how to help him. Philippe is one of the densest (as in, least imaginative and most wrong-headed) characters in the book, and as written (or sketched, really) I care about him very little.

That's not really an unpopular opinion, since no one expresses an opinion about Philippe. You want one?

I like Philippe from the Charles Dance miniseries. I like what they do with him. AND HIS HAIR.


for agentdanak:
X-Files: Scully
Is it "unpopular" that she's my favorite of the two? Or maybe that I don't put "ist" after one of their names? She's the one I relate to, despite the fact that when I started watching I was sort of All About Mulder's pain and hotness. Oh, but I have no interest in her as a mother, or her desire for motherhood, which may be because I have none but I also think was unecessary to the show and what I wanted from Scully's development.

And I don't care whether she dyes her hair or not.

Comments

[my_daroga]

Me bad. Got the numbers flipped.

To be honest, I didn't look it up, I'm going off memory, too. Which might just as well be faulty!

Leroux crafts such depth to each character. I have love exploring their ranges (and testing them) every step of the way.

I would say, rather, that Leroux left a lot of room for us to craft depths to the characters; he left us many clues. For me, part of what makes POTO survive is that it is by no means a perfectly crafted work. There are openings for later works. Some works are so tightly finished that there is no "need" to redress them. But I think you and I fundamentally disagree about the "quality" of Leroux's book, even if we have much the same feelings and reactions to it.