Characters that you cannot conceive of anyone ever disliking

[lesbiassparrow]

I've got them, I am sure pretty much everyone else does: the character you fall so madly in love with that you are always completely startled when everyone else cracks out the hate. And then when you see that loathing posted far and wide you twitch a bit and feel compelled to defend them to the death, with pistols at dawn. Maybe you'd even risk ending up on fandom wank.

Okay, I am really hoping that's not just me.

One of my eternal fannish loves is Jeremy Brett as Sherlock Holmes. Holmes was my first fandom and I was on a list filled with madly conservative people who constantly annoyed me and yet I hung in there for the Holmes and the Brett love. The closest I've ever gotten with being involved in a flame war was over the position of Victorian women and Brett's portrayal of Holmes. Honestly, I genuinely don't get it when people hate him and call him an overacting hack.* This is probably because I lack imagination and other essential things which would make me a better and more intellectual person, but in this case I don't care because I am quite clearly right about the wonderfulness of Jeremy Brett I have many scientific reasons that would convince you if only you'd listen.

I was wondering who is that character for people on my flist. Who do you honestly think is such an excellent character that you really boggle when people crack out the hate? Or if there's no one, why is that?


*And I strongly suspect that when people say this the baby Jesus cries.



Carolina won! Not by much but I do not care one little bit! Please let us not fold in the next game!

Sorry about the random hockey squee but these are exciting times.

Comments

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I expect people to dislike characters too, but then there are some where I am still reel from the shock that not everyone likes them. Most of the time I expect that my tastes won't align with everyone else's (I like the Sixth Doctor and Peri, for heaven's sake. And Tegan! That's just asking for the hate), but then with some characters my wee brain can't take the concept and I have to run fast away and nurse the pyschic wounds. (As with Jeremy Brett.)

I have never been in Highlander fandom or really watched the show, but who was the main character everyone was supposed to hate? And why? Did he tap dance on beds of puppies or something of that ilk?

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

The hero was Duncan, who at some point got a lot of hate for being a meanie to the very popular sidekick character/main slash partner. But walking in there as a newbie with a lot of love for Duncan, you could really get the impression there was a secret test you had to pass to prove you weren't one of those hating people. The number of conversations that turned into bashing of the Duncan bashers for no reason obvious to me was boggling. (If you know more of the history, it becomes less strange, but a traumatised fandom does not really make for newbie friendliness.)

Loving a character, I tend to assume other people love them too, except those weird people far away.