I kept thinking that it was an unreliable-narrator situation

Well, by the time that thing with Dean of Columbia happened, I decided the author basically thought Darcy could do no wrong, so the notion of an unreliable narrator didn't even occur to me. I thought about ranting about that fic on my LJ but I think some of my friends are friends with the author.

Oh, another unrelated stuff that really shows author's hand: You know how sometimes, you are totally in love with that TV program / that awesome band / that fantastic book you just read, etc.? So much so that you want to have one of your fic characters to be a mouth-piece to proselytize it? Or at least have the character mention a preference for that show/band/book as an indirect shorthand to show how cool that character is? (After all, YOU really love that particular piece of art and you are the arbiter of cool after all.) DON'T. In the majority of the cases, it comes across as a really jarring, obvious and often obnoxious authorial insertion. Now, of course it's appropriate and in character if the character is canonically known to love the said material (Abed and Batman, Hardison and Doctor Who, and I guess I could sort of buy Darcy, being a poli sci major, would love The West Wing). But in most cases, it's really a bad idea.

I've seen profic do this as well. I cannot tell you how much I hated the bit from Time Traveller's Wife where writer basically tells us (instead of showing) how cool the two main characters are by saying they both love punk music. Lazy AND obnoxious!

Well, apparently I am in a ranty mood today.

In the majority of the cases, it comes across as a really jarring, obvious and often obnoxious authorial insertion

Oh, yeah.

I remember reading a Stargate SG-1 story in which the writer really really hated Mitchell. I pointed out to her that maybe she wanted to tone it back. In later years she fell madly in love with the character, which just goes to show you. Don't tip your hand!

too much Darcy/anyone to even deal with

I like Darcy in all of the stories I've stuck around with long enough to finish reading. She's surrounded by demigods and superheros and crazy overly competent spies. And what she wants? Is her iPod back especially because she just bought new music. Plus she'll taz you she's threatened. I dig this girl.

but that's because I adore the Toasterverse series.

Yeah, that happened to me as well. Throw some really fun and well done crack on a story and I will follow it for a while.

Plus, picturing Jeremy Renner hurts no story in my brain. I accept this shallow.

What it all boils down to is personal preference and subjectivity. There's really no way to be objective about art.

Very true.

It's funny how different the opinions are. I will cheerfully read Tony/Bruce and Clint/Coulson and Clint/Natasha and Pepper/Natasha, but oh my god, if I could only filter Loki out of existence.

I'm hit-and-miss with Loki fic. When the author admits that he willingly got a whole lot of innocent people killed and, hey, that's not good, I'll usually keep reading. When they try to sell him as a poor, misunderstood wooshiboo, dead people, what dead people, they're not Hiddles-hot so who cares . . . the writers lose me.

sits on same bench as Dana and Calli

Yeah, Loki as a somewhat sympathetic villain I can take, but poor misunderstood woobie is a dealbreaker. I'm sure Tom Hiddleston has roles as non-mass murderers on his filmography that people could romanticize.

It's just my personal feeling that the ones who write based on the comics tend to write characters more in character, because they've been immersed in the comics for a much longer time.

You're valuing comics canon in a way that I do not. I'm separating them. To me, if you're writing movieverse you're not beholden to anything other than the movie, in the end.

You're valuing comics canon in a way that I do not. I'm separating them.

I am, I am. I think because that many of the comic-based stories I've run across looking for Steve/Tony fics have just been very well-written and compelling, so I want more people to write stories that include the comics.

I think it's fine to separate media. It's like with the Trekverse. You have each different series, you have movies, you have book tie-ins, you have the animated series, you have reboot.

Ditto with Buffy. Movie, tv show, comics, tie-in novels, almost animated show.

Even when the creator claims that only this or only that is considered canon, the viewers/consumers will decide for themselves if that is how they want to divide them all up.

It's like on tumblr, when someone posts about how a character does this, that or the other thing that we never see onscreen, onpage, etc. but everyone instantly proclaims "head canon!"

That's a lot of canon!

TL;DR.

I respect your canon.

I respect your canon.

There needs to be a picture of an antique cannon with this as the caption.