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Grrrrr...
Having a lot of cognitive dissonance with this discussion, but don't have energy to be coherent in an actual reply, so I'll get it out of my system here instead. :)
On one hand, I can't disagree with the general point of the thread. The "terribly misjudged" trope in hurt/comfort fic does have its fair share of stories that are painful to read. Stories that twist the characters six ways from Sunday to fit them into some evil-mean-jerk vs. poor-widdle-woobie plotline are no fun at all. I've read plenty of Mag7 fic that had me frustrated at Chris being written as a violent SOB, or Nathan as a judgemental prick, or Ezra as a "woe-is-me" whiner. And while I'm certainly fond of the "hurt" side of the hurt/comfort equation, I do have a fairly low threshold for how much whumpage can be piled onto a character in a given fic before it starts to lose my interest. So yeah, the basic premise of the conversation is one I agree with.
That being said, when it's done *in character* with believable motivations and reasonable reactions, this sort of "terribly misjudged" story is my favorite thing in the world, so it's hard not to take some of the comments about the genre and people who enjoy it rather personally.
One of the reasons that I adore Mag7 is that it's one of the only fandoms I've come across where that "terribly misjudged" trope can be done *without* twisting the characters. The Seven aren't one big happy family. There's space between them for conflict and mistrust to arise without having it be because one or both characters has been turned into a complete asshole. Ezra *does* seem to have been something of a loner prior to the series, and there *are* reasons why he might, say, hide an injury besides being an emo wanker who's sure nobody would care anyway.
It's driving me a little crazy to see the whole trope being painted as inherently immature and some sign of a reader/writer who needs to "grow up".
Having a lot of cognitive dissonance with this discussion, but don't have energy to be coherent in an actual reply, so I'll get it out of my system here instead. :)
On one hand, I can't disagree with the general point of the thread. The "terribly misjudged" trope in hurt/comfort fic does have its fair share of stories that are painful to read. Stories that twist the characters six ways from Sunday to fit them into some evil-mean-jerk vs. poor-widdle-woobie plotline are no fun at all. I've read plenty of Mag7 fic that had me frustrated at Chris being written as a violent SOB, or Nathan as a judgemental prick, or Ezra as a "woe-is-me" whiner. And while I'm certainly fond of the "hurt" side of the hurt/comfort equation, I do have a fairly low threshold for how much whumpage can be piled onto a character in a given fic before it starts to lose my interest. So yeah, the basic premise of the conversation is one I agree with.
That being said, when it's done *in character* with believable motivations and reasonable reactions, this sort of "terribly misjudged" story is my favorite thing in the world, so it's hard not to take some of the comments about the genre and people who enjoy it rather personally.
One of the reasons that I adore Mag7 is that it's one of the only fandoms I've come across where that "terribly misjudged" trope can be done *without* twisting the characters. The Seven aren't one big happy family. There's space between them for conflict and mistrust to arise without having it be because one or both characters has been turned into a complete asshole. Ezra *does* seem to have been something of a loner prior to the series, and there *are* reasons why he might, say, hide an injury besides being an emo wanker who's sure nobody would care anyway.
It's driving me a little crazy to see the whole trope being painted as inherently immature and some sign of a reader/writer who needs to "grow up".
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As I looked through her posts about Mag7, I can't help but wonder why she keeps reading in this fandom.
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And I'm with you there. I'm really very curious to see what stories she *does* end up reccing. There were a lot of good authors suggested in a rec thread a while back... I'd love to know if *any* of them passed muster. :)