Meme: Make me Choose

[extrapenguin]

I am trying to write a Yulefic. I am procrastinating. Please help me procrastinate more productively:

Make me choose between:

• two ships
• two characters
• two fandoms
• two anything at all

Meme provided by journalmemes.

(Fandoms include: A:tLA, A:LoK, Guardian (镇魂), Honor Harrington, Imperial Radch, Modao Zushi, Nirvana in Fire, Revelation Space, Rivers of London, KOTOR, KOTOR II, Vorkosigan)

Comments

[isis]

This is actually a question for ME, in a way: choose between Guardian (镇魂) and Nirvana in Fire!

(I have seen the first, um, 5 episodes? 6? of NiF, and dropped it because I didn't have to run on the treadmill at the gym anymore but could go outside. But I'm thinking about doing some stationary biking this winter, along with running (outside), and so I should watch one of these shows while I do.)

[extrapenguin]

UM. Erm. Oh dear! My choice is Guardian, because batshit scifi is my home, and Shen Wei is my id made flesh. For your purposes, Nirvana in Fire would perhaps require a bit too much attention – it's prestige drama and very intricately plotted. On the other hand, Guardian's subs' timing sucks hard at some points (eg the actual thing said lasts for 5 seconds, the subtitle for 0.5). So really, it depends on whether you want occasionally lol-worthy scifi or impeccably acted plotty historical drama as your watching. They're really quite different in character.

[trobadora]

Cordelia Vorkosigan or Alys Vorpatril?

Or for Guardian: Professor Shen or Black-Cloaked Envoy? (Yes, I know, this is totally cheating ... *g*)

[extrapenguin]

Alys Vorpatril, since she's more a part of her culture, lives and breathes it, etc, while Cordelia's an outsider and thus ... occasionally it doesn't quite seem like she has a cultural background of her own. I also much prefer Alys' endgame, of an adulthood as a single, respected widow, then retiring into a scandalous relationship with a lower-class man.

I will pick Professor Shen, solely because I like his glasses.

(My icon game needs improvement, though. I have no suitable icon for this situation! I must spend tomorrow screencapping stuff. In the meanwhile, RNG gave an icon with two women, so that shall have to do.)

[trobadora]

♥ ♥ ♥ I adore Alys, honestly. Cordelia is an interesting character, and I love outsider POV stories, and her perspective is a really good intro into Barrayar - but her own cultural background sometimes seems like it consists of a list that's five items long, two of which are "earrings" and "uterine replicators".

I approve of your approval of Shen Wei's glasses! Though I really don't know if I could choose between them and the mask. *g*

(Icons are such fun! I really hope whatever site fandom ends up next, we'll have something similar.)

[extrapenguin]

Cordelia is a very good introduction to Barrayar ... but in the Miles POV stories, and Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, she didn't really have her own cultural hangups, and it was very much as if she was the all-knowing and flawless. Characters are more interesting if they're flawed or have blind spots! They're all products of their upbringing and it's best if they reflect the mud they grew from.

The mask is also nice, but glasses must win. Shen Wei is a very snappy dresser. I'll have to screencap all of him.

(Icons are super fun, and the two things I've seen being planned – one as a spec document for Pinboard Guy, one by a fan for fans – both have icons as a thing.)

[maggie33]

Choose between two Avatars: Korra or Aang?

[extrapenguin]

Korra, definitely. She's a woman with muscles, and since she's older and aimed at older audiences, a lot of her views are a bit more nuanced. She also presses less of my rage buttons than Aang's avoidance of everything.

[maggie33]

Ha, between two shows I prefer ATLA - I watched it at least 4 times, and I watched LOK only once. But between two Avatars I prefer Korra, too. Korra is great, much more interesting than Aang to me.

[extrapenguin]

Yeah, LOK had its own issues – season 2, the way the showrunners really went into the "Korra must suffer to grow" thing more than necessary – but Aang was never the most interesting bit of ATLA, while Korra was the interesting bit of LOK.

[eglantiere]

jingrui vs mu qing? consort jing vs xia dong?

[extrapenguin]

Mu Qing, because he's hilariously overprotective of his sister, and the top member of the Nihuang Fan Squad. I am also the only person in the fandom who gives no shits about Jingrui, so this is very easy. Supportive little brother over boredom!

Consort Jing vs Xia Dong is actually hard, since I like them both so much! I think I'll have to lean for Consort Jing, though, since her character type is one that's so rarely done well – the soft, feminine power that actually is powerful and uses that power! Very good. Though I think I'd have picked Xia Dong if we got more of her and her relationship with Nihuang.

[eglantiere]

mu qing's unbeatable powers of adorableness and brotherly protectiveness are the best. he's the cat of this narrative! he's so cute any social trespass he makes is immediately forgiven.

[extrapenguin]

He is very adorable! He will destroy all his sister's enemies, even if she could destroy them more easily and elegantly. He's such an adorable fanboy.

[china_shop]

Zuko or Ye Zun?

[extrapenguin]

THIS IS HARD. Uh, let's go with Ye Zun, because he's more fresh in my mind, and his background didn't include an Uncle Iroh figure, so his was more traumatic.

Also, Ye Zun icon upload time! IDK if this'll be my final Ye Zun icon, but I like it so far. Long-haired Ye Zun is best Ye Zun.

[china_shop]

Follow-up question: Ye Zun or Azula?

[extrapenguin]

Again, Ye Zun, since I didn't actually ever get into Azula. She and her "friends" just didn't click with me – none of the tropes I liked plus children's media, so there's less "there" there.

[anehan]

Xiao Jingyan or Mei Changsu?

Breq/Mercy of Kalr/Seivarden or Beverley Brook/Peter Grant/Thomas Nightingale?

(Full disclosure: I had to look up Mercy of Kalr's name.)

[extrapenguin]

I like the stupidly loyal stubborn types, so Xiao Jingyan! Very honorable, very good, cries prettily. Lots to like!

While neither threesome is something I would ship spontaneously, I prefer the idea of Breq/Mercy of Kalr/Seivarden, since that involves two spaceships, and would thus be interesting from the AI participant perspective and the disembodied existence perspective! Beverley/Peter/Nightingale, on the other hand, doesn't have those draws, and the way the fandom writes and speculates about it just doesn't click with me.

[anehan]

Jingyan really is the best. I love him.

Ah, I'm glad to hear someone else say that Beverley/Peter/Nightingale doesn't click with them. It just doesn't do anything for me. I wouldn't ship Beverley/Nightingale spontaneously, either, but I think I could like it in certain situations. I think the main reason that I don't enjoy Beverley/Peter/Nightingale is because I don't really like Peter/Beverley.

[extrapenguin]

I used to ship Peter/Nightingale, but now I'm more of a gen fan, as the canon ... hasn't been providing me with stuff that makes me ship. I don't ship Beverley/Nightingale or Peter/Beverley, either, so of the triangle, I half-ship one side and am bleh to indifferent on the other two sides, and then it just doesn't work. It's also been pushed a lot by people as the "solution" to a nonexistent ship war, which makes me go meh.

[anehan]

Canon has actually surprised me with how few scenes there are of Peter and Nightingale directly interacting, considering that they're supposed to be working together, not to mention the whole apprentice thing. I still ship them, but that lack of canon material does make it a bit challenging.

[extrapenguin]

I think they interacted a lot more in the early books, but now they've been cordoned away from each other, and Aaronovitch is writing about stuff other than magic learning and the apprenticeship. Perhaps there'll be a pivot back to the mutual figuring out of the magical apprenticeship and agreement enforcing, once the Faceless Man plot is done and Lesley's off doing something else?

[anehan]

Also, hmm, I don't really see how a threesome could be a real solution to any ship war, if there had actually been one, because a threesome is inherently a very different dynamic from a twosome.

[extrapenguin]

Indeed, it's not an actual solution, but some people like threesomes and think it's a solution, or have been brainwashed into believing it's a solution. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[batman]

Nightwish versus Epica.

(Your choice on which singer is fronting Nightwish.)

[extrapenguin]

Musically, I like current Epica better, though part of that is that I've managed to overexpose myself to Nightwish, I think. Their singer changes haven't been that good for them, either – I mostly like Nightwish's Tarja-era stuff musically, though of course that era lasted a lot longer than Anette's, and Floor's only getting started. (The next album will be the one to watch out for.) Whereas with Epica, their early stuff is a bit meh, but I like their current stuff quite nicely.

(Note that I'm more of a song fan than an artist fan. Even albums aren't generally consistent for my tastes!)

[batman]

I feel that Nightwish really lost something when Tarja left; there are songs that I quite like in their later catalogue, but there's also a lot more stuff that clearly made the writer happy but left me feeling that it was overwrought. (The Poet and the Pendulum immediately comes to mind.) Epica is getting more consistently good, but there are still songs that I skip on their albums.

[extrapenguin]

Indeed – the Anette era (and perhaps also Once, Tarja's last album) was quite overwrought, but Endless Forms Most Beautiful is perhaps a return towards less-overwrought stuff. IA about there still being songs to skip for both, though.

(Actually, The Poet and the Pendulum could've been a decent song trilogy, if chopped up and edited a bit. I just don't like extended songs that last 10 minutes or more.)

[ehyde]

Villains edition, Anaander Mianaii or Jin Guangyao?

[extrapenguin]

Anaander Mianaai, since she's a clone army unto herself, and Jin Guangyao never was that flavor of pompous, powerful villainy. There's also the division within the self manifesting as a civil war of Mianaais, which is super intriguing.

[hamsterwoman]

How about: Zuko vs Gregor Vorbarra

and/or

Lieutenant Tisarwat vs Mark Vorkosigan

[extrapenguin]

This is ... interesting! I think I'll go with Zuko, because Gregor in later books transformed into a bit of a deus ex machina, while Zuko didn't turn into one for the later seasons of the show. :P I do like both of them a lot, and another day, my answer might be different, but today, Zuko.

I will pick Lieutenant Tisarwat, because Mark Vorkosigan holds no interest to me. He's got a traumatic backstory, then he gets more trauma heaped on him, and he goes into finance. None of which I find interesting. There have also been better takes on the "who am I, if I cannot be the one I was raised to be"/clones-or-twins figuring out identity.

[hamsterwoman]

I know what you mean about Gregor in the later books (I mean, I still adore him, but he does get deus ex machina-y after Memory), and Zuko for sure retains all his flaws.

(I love Mark, despite being not particularly interested in either trauma or finance. Brilliant characters diverging in interesting way is the part that appeals to me about both Mark and Tisarwat -- kind of like an experiment with a control group.)

[extrapenguin]

I think if it were early Gregor vs Zuko, I might've chosen otherwise, but including not-actually-a-character Gregor in there makes him lose.

See, Mark was just Meh piled atop Shrug, while Tisarwat had some actual Huh and Hmm to her! The "experiment with a control group" thing is interesting, but idk if I'd call Miles Mark's control group. They never were the same person, after all.

[karanguni]

Space AU where there is FTL travel versus no FTL travel, GO

[extrapenguin]

OH NO how can I choose???

...okay, for fandom, a space AU where there is FTL travel will likely be more to my tastes, unless the author is secretly Alastair Reynolds. I like interplanetary stuff and fandom is much more likely to give me what I want – interplanetary hijinks, exploration, etc – with FTL travel. Without FTL travel, it's possible, but I'd want more of that hard science infodump, which fandom seems to disagree with.