Update on Nothing Much

[mark_asphodel]

 Yeah, I've written ONE line of dialogue this week.  Yay.

Work + extra-curricular activities have lead to borderline burnout.  I've become a passive consumer of entertainment-- too tired to write, too tired to play my new copy of HeartGold, reduced to sitting in front of the computer screen watching cartoons and machinima.

Recommendation:

Raishi Tsuwabuki has some pretty spiffy SSBB animated videos up on YouTube.  They range from super-fluffy to super-duper disturbing.  Primary focus is Ness and Lucas from the Mother series, Link, and Red the Pokemon Trainer.  Almost everything has overtones of shonen ai, including allusions to my least favorite pairing in the videogame universe, Marth/Roy.  [Words do not suffice to explain how much I hate that pairing.  Even Ike/Pit, which I also loathe, doesn't come close.]  But the style is very pleasing to the eye... and the idea of li'l Ness as a serial killer with a collection of severed hands in pots is just not something you're likely to come across anywhere else.

Anyway, I have the germ of an SSB: Melee 'fic sprouting in my brain now.  Must... resist... evil.

About the passionate burning hatred for Marth/Roy:

Well, for one, is it EVER canon!Marth in any form paired up with canon!Roy?  Maybe once in one-thousand stories.  Stories that claim to involve the FE reps from SSBM mostly involve generic stock characters tricked out in swords and capes.  Look, people, just because Hikaru Midorikawa is Marth's VA doesn't mean you can repurpose old Heero Yuy/Duo Maxwell stories (that were no good to start with) and call it anything to do with Fire Emblem.  That "icy emotionless bastard meets hyperactive goofball" stuff was old a DECADE ago.  

I admit that part of the blame goes to the makers of SSBM, who very deliberately presented Marth to the world as angsty piece of fangirl bait.  I have to wonder what the Japanese fans thought of Melee!Marth... or maybe NoA just did weird stuff to his character bio.  But NoA didn't design Melee!Marth, or give him those lines for Midorikawa to voice.  No, sir-- that was a packaging job that got a message across very, very effectively... it just so happens that the "message" has precious little to do with FE3 and its hero.

But the shit that gets done to Roy can't be pinned on the SSBM staff.  The presentation of Roy there is very straightforward (even if he makes me want to gouge my eyes out with his too-bright color scheme and gooey blue stare).  Fangirls came up with the standard Roy characterization-- immature, often hot-headed, prone to terrible jokes and pranks and pratfalls.  In other words, nothing whatsoever in a million billion years to do with the hero of FE6.  In fact, many of the fandom cliches about Roy and Marth stem purely from their haircolor-- a barrage of "redhead" stereotypes paired with stereotypes about however the hell people with naturally blue hair "ought" to act. 

[Canon!Marth paired with Canon!Roy would still suck in its own right because it would be BORING.] 

OK.  So you have hundreds, maybe thousands, of stories featuring fake!Marth and fake!Roy, wrapped up in more generic cliches as found in any yaoi fandom, plus a lot of fangirl Japanese, with nothing whatsoever to balance it out except for decent writing once in a blue moon (the works of El Nino1).  I have never seen a pairing that is more purely a construct of the fangirl imagination... and what a limited imagination it is, my friends.  I need not belabor the details-- either you already know, or you don't want to.

[I hate Ike/Pit, too, but for slightly different reasons... though I believe Ike/Pit is very much a "replacement" for Marth/Roy now that SSBB has deprived Roy's fangirls of their beloved.]

OK.  I'm done.  For now.

Comments

[myaru.livejournal.com]

That "icy emotionless bastard meets hyperactive goofball" stuff was old a DECADE ago.

Just to underline your point: when I read this, I stared at the screen and wondered what on earth that had to do with either Roy or Marth, when neither of them show either tendency even in jest.

I'm sure Roy must've made a joke... somewhere. Kind of? His intro to Elphin, maybe. Uh. How about when FE11!Marth backtalks his strategist? Hmm.

This is a lost cause.

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

And the funny thing is, canon!Roy is about the farthest thing from the redhead stereotype ever. He's SHY. And he could probably give FE3!Marth a run for the money in terms of sweetness/naivete and occasional lack of confidence. Hilariously, all the girls are after him because he's sooooo nice.

(He's got a bit more quiet confidence in Hasha no Tsurugi, which upgrades him to the noble kind of shounen hero instead of the kind of bland "what am I doing here" kind of figure he is in game. XD Still noooowhere close to hotheaded/joker.)

[penandpaper71.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you've had a rough week. I'm sorry to hear that. I hope things calm down for you soon, so that you can relax a bit.

I generally avoid the SSB fandom all together honestly. I've just never had much interest in the game, although I do get annoyed when SSBfandom!Marth and SSBfandom!Roy cross into the Fire Emblem section. If the characterization is coming from that fandom, then I'm firmly of the opinion that it should stay there. -_-

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

This is a lost cause.

Yeah. There was a great set of essays in the GW fandom that described how original fandom conceptions, based on fragmentary canon (partial fansubs) led to 'fic "classics" that in turn influenced a second generation of stories, that influenced a third, and that by the time the entire series reached worldwide distribution, the fandom stereotypes were so entrenched that it was an uphill battle for the canon characterizations and anyone who wrote them. That's exactly what happened with Marth and Roy-- I have seen all of ONE 'fic in the SSB section featuring a recognizable FE11!Marth, because canon arrived so late to the party that nobody cares. The lone standout was written by a male writer, too, which doesn't surprise me.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Hilariously, all the girls are after him because he's sooooo nice.

Heh. And does he ignore them all?

He's got a bit more quiet confidence in Hasha no Tsurugi, which upgrades him to the
noble kind of shounen hero instead of the kind of bland "what am I doing here" kind of figure he is in game

Interesting!

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

If the characterization is coming from that fandom, then I'm firmly of the opinion that it should stay there.

Indeed.

This is neither the time or place to go into my current opinion of a certain "Legend of Zelda/Fire Emblem crossover" that is merely an SSB story in denial and contains 1% FE canon to 99% fangirl invention, but there is no good time to go into that story.

[shimizu-hitomi.livejournal.com]

It depends on how persistent they are. XD (Mostly he's just oblivious except with Lalam -- who scares him -- and Lilina.)

[sailorvfan10.livejournal.com]

*shifty glance because she ships Marth/Roy hardcore*

That said, I totally agree with everything you said. Especially this: Look, people, just because Hikaru Midorikawa is Marth's VA doesn't mean you can repurpose old Heero Yuy/Duo Maxwell stories (that were no good to start with) and call it anything to do with Fire Emblem. That "icy emotionless bastard meets hyperactive goofball" stuff was old a DECADE ago.
I've often wondered where the whole "Marth is a cold hearted bastard, Roy is a hot-tempered prankster" thing came from because they're both...totally not that. At all. I once referred to Marth/Roy as the Heero/Duo of Smash Brothers fandom--jokingly, might I add--and either someone heard me and decided it was true fact or they came up with it themselves. Except it'd be more of a...Heero/Lelouch thing because of the seiyuu, but that's beside the point.

In short: WORD.

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

*shifty glance because she ships Marth/Roy hardcore*

I have to ask-- what's the appeal? Because most M/R 'fics are based around a (fan-created) "opposites attract" dynamic-- either Marth is a cold jerk and free spirit Roy melts his heart, or Roy is a hothead and a more moderate and sophisticated Marth civilizes him. So, if you're going off canon, wherein they have fairly similar personalities and neither one is exactly an aggressive romantic, where's the spark? Who makes the first move?

It's not that I don't believe two similar characters can't get together-- I do believe it, and frankly I find "opposites attract" to be overdone. But Roy and Marth both appear to be avoidant personalities, which is one hell of a barrier.

I find Marth an extremely difficult character to write in terms of romance, because his defense mechanisms are so apparent and so formidable. A comparatively up-front character like Caeda couldn't even break through his defenses without a big shove from Nyna, so how does somebody like Roy get anywhere with him?

[The above applies mostly to FE11!Marth, but the defense mechanisms are still in play in FE3, and FE3!Marth is so... childlike... that he presents a different problem in a romance.]

I dunno. I'm just not seeing it.

[sailorvfan10.livejournal.com]

Well, the whole challenge of the 'similar personalities' thing is what makes it so interesting and fun to me. I don't like that whole MARTH IS COLD HEARTED AND ROY IS YOUR STEREOTYPICAL RED HEAD WHO MUST BE TAMED schtick, mostly because it's old, and because of the fact that it just doesn't exist in canon. I like challenging ships. They make it fun and have you actually think. For me, no one makes the first move--someone makes it for them. And then they can deny it all they want, but someone has to come out and admit it. Marth would, but he'd be so tongue-tied and embarrassed that it would come out a complete mess (after all, we all saw where Marth was confessing to Sheeda at the end of FE11) and Roy would just be confused.

I dunno, that's just how it is for me.