Swanpride wrote:

It's a general problem...there are just too many writers which misuse the tagging system. They use "canon pairing" and then write a story which doesn't have a canon pairing, they use "harry/Ginny" (which actually is a pairing with a strong following), but every second fanfic which uses the tag has actually a different final paring. It's not even deliberate in some cases.
It wasn't my intention to openly criticise, which is why I didn't mention the name of the writer initially, and only did so because it caused confusion. It was supposed to be an observation how obsessive some fans are about hating Mary to a degree, which goes way past the usual bashing fics you'll find in any fandom.

I see. But I think, if people want to obsessively hate on a character because it makes them feel better, why not? Mary is a controversial character and it's understandable that she would elicit such a strong reaction. I don’t understand being disturbed by the hate – just like I don’t understand people getting upset that Sally Donovan gets hate and feel the need to defend her at all costs. Both are grey characters, both can be read in different ways, and my idea is that why be surprised at people manifesting their opposition and even hate for them? They’re fictional characters. They’re not going to be offended. And people hating on them will not stop you liking them if you do like them. My view is that, yes discussion is certainly good, but ultimately we should all understand people will see characters in a different way and hate is a part of this. And if hating obsessively helps the person feel better about what happened in the story (because it was certainly confusing, messed up, and understandably people were not going to like a person who shot their beloved main character, no matter who that was) then why be surprised? Let them, and scroll past.

 

yes, I guess I interpreted it as 'really, REALLY hate a character' and not meaning that somebody doesn't sleep at night because of that character/show In that case I totally agree with you!

tonnaree wrote:

Agreed.  And these, I do believe, are the exception rather than the rule, and they have problems that go far beyond any work of fiction.
 

Oh, absolutely, they are in the minority. Most fans manage to keep on the healthy side of obsessed. 

I honestly don't think Swanpride meant anything by using "his."  It surprised me a little because fic is mostly a female thing, but it being a tick of the language is a simple explination.

While you make a good point about gender fairness, I do not think that this is what was intended. On the other hand, even writing he/she, his/her would also not include all genders (as it implies gender binary) and thus would still not bring us much further gender-fairness-wise. But this is getting us quite far away from the original topic, so maybe this discussion deserves a place of its own.

Swanpride wrote:

Wait, there is a whole tumble with the title "marybegone"? That is nearly as disturbing as this fanfiction writer who does nothing but torture her in all his stories....

I know Marybegone, she's a friend of mine. And, actually-- though she can be critical of the series, and expecially of John's actions in s3-- she doesn't hate John, and is a hopeful Johnlocker. She's not a writer, either. And also German. 

Why is it that 90% of my online friends are all German?   It must be that they can psychically tell I'm already pre-wired to go there-- it's all those wonderful music festivals!!!! And art. And even more music!!!  And castles. And FOOD!!!...etc, etc, ... Wunderbar!

Anyway, I see what you're saying , Swanpride-- but, Marybegone is actually a good egg, though sometimes a bit prickly...

Last edited by RavenMorganLeigh (September 14, 2015 4:39 pm)

SusiGo wrote:

Swanpride: I have no idea what fanfic author you mean. My first though was Silentauror but if there is something you might blame her for it is that her Mary tortures others. 

Silent's another pal of mine, and I think she'd tell you (as she's said in the comments section of her fic, often and vociferoously) that's she's only writing Mary as she's presented in canon: taking what Mofftiss left us with, and extrapolating from that-- building on it. And, she's been know to get a LOT of hate and even death threats from Mary fans who were unhappy with the way she portrays Mary in her fics. She was also once even told that she should just leave the fandom, because one of her story arcs had John being kind of a putz! 

Mod:  Still way off topic here folks.  The subject of discusion is Mary not fan fic authors.

nakahara wrote:

Wow, I´m surprised how this topic derailed. 

Still, whether the blogger is called "marybegone" or "happy-snowman", she only reblogged someone else´s meta. So she´s innocent in this. 

And now back to the topic - I agree with the meta that Sherlock and John do not appear to have some plan to deal with Mary or CAM in HLV. John asks Sherlock if he doesn´t have a plan when they are alone, so it would be beside the point if they already agreed on some "battle-strategy" befohand. Also, some things John says on the tarmac, like "The game is over" etc. point to the conclusion that John feels everything was screwed badly and it´s all over now. 

And, to me-- that's proof. 

Agreed, no plan in place. 

nakahara wrote:

Still, I was speculating - could it be that John has no plan together with Sherlock... but he has a plan concerning Mary together with Mycroft? Is it possible that while Sherlock was in hospital, Mycroft forced John to spill the beans and prepared some "battle-strategy" against Mary with him?

Mycroft and John often dealt together behind Sherlock´s back before and John, albeit reluctantly, fullfilled many Mycroft´s requests. TRF was actually a first occassion when John was not participating on Mycroft´s plans. So are they together in this also in HLV?

I would LOVE that. It would actually be better-- a plan to get rid of Mary, where (1) Sherlock couldn't be blamed,  (2) something John could live with, (3) Sherlock's been through enough, and doesn't need to be in the line of fire anymore-- at least for now. It could also explain Mycroft's conspicuous absence throughout HLV, particularly since it's told from Sherlock's POV.