When somebody destroys me, I want to feel it

[sovay]

I was browsing in Rodney's yesterday when I ran across the novelization of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003). I was morbidly curious, so I took ten minutes and read it. Like most novelizations, I think it was done from the shooting script, so it's an improvement on the finished film in that it includes some evidently deleted scenes in which character development occurs rather than clichés and explosions, but that didn't make it good. Mostly it reminded me that the movie annoyed me so much that I wrote 4300 words about it in 2006. I still like Jason Flemyng's Jekyll. He could have done with a better film around him.

And he's not the only one. Among characters I like, there is a small subset I have mentally classed as "better than the stories they came from." Sometimes it's an actor salvaging their screentime—I'm thinking of the time I kept watching The High Bright Sun (1964) just for Denholm Elliott's cynical British agent, or Mercedes McCambridge's torch-singing survivor standing head and shoulders above the psychobabble of The Scarf (1951), or the compulsive professionalism Peter Cushing brought to otherwise deadly roles like Henry Miles in The End of the Affair (1955). Sometimes it's the sense that a character got away from their author, like Waldo Butters in Jim Butcher's Dresden Files; he is so instantly and eccentrically himself that I was not surprised to find out he was intended as a one-off who just refused to stay offstage. Sometimes it feels like structural failure elsewhere in the narrative: Nicholas Flokos' Nike (1998) disappointed me by slamming a sudden hard right into tragedy for no good reason I could discern then or now, but its protagonist Photi Anthropotis is a lovely sad clown of a modern Greek luftmensch and I still feel very tender toward him more than fifteen years later. And every now and then I have absolutely no idea what happened, but it's a fact that I actively like Licinus Honorius of Mary Gentle's Ilario: The Lion's Eye (2006) even when I want to clobber much of the novel around him.

I could go on, but I'd rather ask you. Who are your favorite characters who deserved better stories? What narratives do you revisit just for the supporting cast or a choice subplot? (What narratives would you never revisit, but you remember that one bit really fondly?) Recommendations? Warnings? Can you fix it with fic? I'm going to see if it's too late in the day to buy donuts.

Comments

[sovay]

I did not know that about Peter Wingfield. Good for him!

It's about the only thing I know about Peter Wingfield! It means I feel very positively toward him, at least.

Given that Duncan MacLeod is prone to taking everything very seriously, Methos provides some much-needed leavening.

He sounds like the character I'd like. Television is just a much bigger commitment than movies or books for me.

but he very much feels to me like one of those characters who had way more life than his author expected him to.

I wonder who originated the part. I wonder if we know. I should ask nineweaving.

[justice_turtle]

For what it's worth, it's entirely reasonable to watch just the Methos episodes of Highlander; that's what I did, on several friends' recommendations, and found it worthwhile. Peter Wingfield is amazingly good. He ties together what could have been a rather scattershot collection of mini-arcs and reveals as real character development. In some ways, with his sort of... of slantwise morality and fondness for his own skin, Methos reminds me of what Ethan Rayne could have been with more screentime and perhaps a slightly different writing direction -- they share a tricksterish refusal to take too much too seriously, as well as *fumbles for words* a particular sort of '90s-TV-queer sexual energy that also reads as tricksterish to me, though that might just be Ethan filtering the way I see things. :-) But Methos has a lot more different facets and depth to him than Ethan ever got to have onscreen.

[sovay]

In some ways, with his sort of... of slantwise morality and fondness for his own skin, Methos reminds me of what Ethan Rayne could have been with more screentime and perhaps a slightly different writing direction

You certainly make an appealing case for him.

Does Ethan have more depth in the comics? I know he had some afterlife, but not the details.

[justice_turtle]

Does Ethan have more depth in the comics? I know he had some afterlife, but not the details.

I don't know; I've never hunted down the Buffy comics. I believe he only has a couple of appearances there, and I know he dies in one of them. After I finished his TV appearances a few years back, I wound up reading a lot of fanfic, none of which was exactly what I wanted, and writing up a string of Tumblr posts codifying my own headcanons... and somewhere in there I established him as my definitive trickster. :-)

(Also as one of my primary imaginary friends, or whatever one would properly call them -- I have, as I think I mentioned, survived some shit, not least by talking to imaginary people in my head. I mention this because it comes up fairly regularly in my posts, and because it's why Ethan might be filtering my memories of Methos to some degree. Peter Wingfield really can have sexual chemistry with a blank wall, though.)

[sovay]

I believe he only has a couple of appearances there, and I know he dies in one of them.

Well, phooey. He'd better get over it.

I wound up reading a lot of fanfic, none of which was exactly what I wanted, and writing up a string of Tumblr posts codifying my own headcanons... and somewhere in there I established him as my definitive trickster.

Would you mind if I asked for the links?

I mention this because it comes up fairly regularly in my posts, and because it's why Ethan might be filtering my memories of Methos to some degree.

Thanks for the clarification. I can see characters through other characters, so just figured that was what you meant.

Peter Wingfield really can have sexual chemistry with a blank wall, though.

I believe it.

[justice_turtle]

Would you mind if I asked for the links?

Not at all! :-) My Tumblr posting does often lack capital letters, just as a heads-up...

Thoughts on a fyarl demon, part 1

Thoughts on a fyarl demon, part 2

Inconclusive thoughts on what the Initiative did with Ethan

Notes on Ethan and money

On the way Ethan treats magic as a sort of experimental science

I never did, apparently, do a proper write-up of my thoughts on the chaos/duality Janus thing -- all my knowledge of either classics or physics, and much of my knowledge of modern philosophy, is pretty much self-taught and fairly low-level, so this is about the closest I ever got: Thoughts on Chaos; mostly thoughts on libraries. I need to take another stab at that sometime.

Enjoy? :-)

[sovay]

On the way Ethan treats magic as a sort of experimental science

I feel you might appreciate chaos theorist Loki. Illustration by asakiyume in comments.

I'm sorry that I cannot write you fic; I only ever saw about eight episodes of Buffy, eight or more years ago (although all the ones with Ethan), and would therefore be making everything up. It scratches at me slightly. [edit] Also I just wrote an opening sentence, so I'll get back to you. It might flame out. It might also not be what you asked for.