O is for opportunity

[amathela]

Welcome, new friends! My flist has been super lively lately and I'm still adjusting, so there were a lot of posts in the past few days I didn't get around to commenting on. But I'm super glad to have met so many new people, so, in that spirit:

Fandom Tennis Match Meme!

Okay, here's how this is going to work. You comment with a fandom question. I answer it and then ask you a question that has some thematic relevance to the question you asked me.

Comments

[metaphasia]

Which character do you identify most with from any fandom and why?

[amathela]

Ooh, that's a difficult question! I would probably have to say Buffy Summers; I fell in love with BtVS at a fairly impressionable age, and grew up wanting nothing more than to be Buffy when I grew up. She was definitely super influential in my development!

In terms of characters I'm actually most like, probably Jessica Day. Yay for teachers who love glitter and rock a lot of polka dots <3

What fictional character would you love to swap lives with?

[metaphasia]

Oooh, that is a tough one you came up with. I mean, a lot of my favorite characters have miserable lives with all the drama going on; as much as I love her, I would not want Veronica Mars' life under like any circumstances.

I think I would definitely not want someone who lived in a fantasy world either; I like the wonders of the modern world (indoor plumbing, civil rights, germ theory of disease, you know).

Maybe Hermione Granger or Justin Russo or Dairine Callahan? Someone from the modern day but who still can do magic and isn't limited to just the mundane world.

If you want to keep going, what superpower would you want most?

[amathela]

Ooh, good question! For fun, I would say flying (I LOVE flying), but teleportation would come in so handy ... but I'd also really, really love to be a shapeshifter and be able to change my appearance at will, NO MORE WRESTLING WITH BAD HAIR DAYS, IT WOULD BE SO EPIC. Haha, yeah. Shallow? But awesome.

Who is your favourite superhero?

[metaphasia]

Haha, if you're shallow then I guess I am too, because shapeshifting is totally my favorite power too.

That's a tricky one because who my favorite hero is depends a lot on who's writing them. On her good days, Supergirl is my favorite because she's got the same story as Superman, except she's female (and not in the Wonder Woman way, where her being female defines her powers/being a hero in a very real sense), and EVEN MORE TRAGIC (because Superman doesn't remember Krypton or all the family he lost, but she does). But on her bad days, she's Linda Danvers (and on her really bad days, she just doesn't exist [Actually, I think the real reason she keeps getting retconned out of existence is not because "there are too many Kryptonians running around, it makes Superman less special", but because when we see Krypton through Superman's eyes, we're seeing it with rose colored glasses because he's never been there, but when we see it through Kara's eyes, Krypton has to be an actual planet with actual flaws, which is why Power Girl never seems to get retconned, but I could be way off base here]).

I think I would say Rachel Summers or Rogue are more consistently characters I like (you may have noticed that I pick the damaged characters. This is absolutely a pattern.).

Who is your favorite comic book artist?

[amathela]

There are a lot I really love; Francis Manapul is really great at the moment, I think his New 52 Flash was amazing and deserved every bit of praise it got. I also really love Nicola Scott (and it doesn't hurt that she works on a lot of my favourite titles), who I got to meet recently, and was lovely. And Dustin Nguyen, Marcus To ... But, honestly, my very very favourite is probably Art Baltazar, because Tiny Titans >>>>>>> everything ever, basically.

Who's your favourite comic book writer (or storyline, if you don't have one)?

[metaphasia]

I really like Judd Winick (Barry Ween is one of my favorite books). I also like Tom Veitch and the old Dark Horse Tales of the Jedi series, and Matt Fraction is really good.
If I'm picking one though, my favorite though is Sean McKeever; the (Spider-Man Loves) Mary Jane books are probably my favorite series/storyline.

I don't know if you would consider this a fair question from favorite storyline (or if you have a good answer), but is there an original plot idea you would want to make?

If not, what is your favorite trope that you think should be used more often?

[amathela]

Good choices! I'm loving Fraction's Hawkeye right now, it's one of my favourite ongoing titles.

Original-but-not-original plot idea/trope I wish was used more often: Women in armour! Full-on armoured up warrior women - Flashpoint-era Wonder Woman, Sif, the many gifs of Kristen Stewart in Snow White and the Huntsman ;) Also gender-flipped male-to-female characters, especially in retellings and adaptations; I have a whole gender-flipped high school AU Jason and the Argonauts I'd really, really love to write some day.

What's your favourite example of your favourite trope?

[metaphasia]

That was really a tricky one. I had to think about it for a while, but I think because of issues I have with authority figures/destiny my favorite trope is when characters rebel against what they are told to do or is "for their own good". I think my favorite example is from Young Wizards (which is pretty obvious, considering their battlecry is "greetings and defiance"); when Dairine visits Roshaun's planet, and they go to meet his father the king, she tells him that "If we've got any guts at all, a real annoyed expression" is the appropriate attire for meeting leaders on Earth. That sort of casual challenge to authority really gets me every time I read it.

Which trope is your least favorite/most disliked trope?