Subject: ... and then I completely forget the main thesis.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-07-25 17:39:00 UTC
That being: Love has nothing to do with SCREWING!
Subject: ... and then I completely forget the main thesis.
Author:
Posted on: 2012-07-25 17:39:00 UTC
That being: Love has nothing to do with SCREWING!
So I was thinking that, on this thread, we could share our opinions on issues we find in our favorite fandoms. You know, things that LARGE SWATHES of the fandom seems to constantly get wrong.
To demonstrate, I'll share one of mine.
~~
Hetalia: I LOATHE AND DESPISE the tortures that get inflicted on England's poor character.
Don't get me wrong: England is my FAVORITE character. In fact, I get a little overprotective of him sometimes, to the detriment of, well, everything.
But let's face it: The fandom tends to turn him into a weak, blushing little textbook tsundere. A princess for America (or France, depending on who's shipped with whom) to rescue. A stereotypical 'uke' who has no real character or force of personality at all.
THIS IS NOT ENGLAND.
Let's review some of the things that England has done, shall we?
1. The Battle of Britain during WWII. Held off Nazi!Germany, ALL BY HIMSELF, for an age.
2. The Napoleonic Wars. Successfully allied with Prussia (who's kind of a loose cannon in Canon) to take down the most powerful military power of the time. Again, pretty much all by himself.
3. The Industrial Revolution started in England; everybody else basically stole his inventions, though he tried to keep them under lock and key. Not only is he kick-ass, England is *smart*.
4. Even- yes. The Revolutionary War. If you think about it... it takes guts to go to a foreign land, for more or less ten years, and fight someone you love* every day, for no better reason than 'I was ordered to, and I'm going to serve my country.'
England is strong. England is tough as nails. England is NOT a weak character, physically or mentally, despite the fact that he's kind of scrawny and mad as a spoon.
Please stop making him a weakling.
/rant
* Whether romantically or platonically, it doesn't matter. I ship USUK, and I realize I'm in a minority of non-weeb USUK shippers, but... it doesn't change the thrust of my argument.
Multi fandom peeve:
-When someone seems to be in love with a character, that character suddenly mirrors their lovey doveyness. It turns many roleplays and fics into one person, parrot-like, making kissy faces in a mirror.
Latest fandom peeve:
When people assign traits of the actor to the character they play, and people assign traits of the character to the actor that plays them.
I am sorry, Loki fangirls. Tom Hiddleston is not Loki. It is also creepy to kidnap him in fanfic and expect him to become Loki so you can make out with him. It is also creepy when Loki suddenly develops a love for 'pudding' and begins acting like Tom Hiddleston.
Fandom
Fandom no
Finding quotations from another fandom in a roleplay or fanfic. OK fans, I know it's hard to write jokes and dialogue, but if you are wholesale copying and pasting something from BBC Sherlock into The Avengers, then maybe you aren't thinking hard enough.
And it IS those two fandoms lately. I've seen it on multiple occasions and it is very infuriating.
Animu actions that are being described in words like sweat drops, nosebleeds, and many more annoying stuff that are not supposed to be seen in a written medium. The intolerable harem routes where the MC is the ultimate ladies man. The insta-WAFF crap that I find in many fanfics where romance is found in ten seconds. Overused cliches and trope using.
Sherlock Holmes: Dr. Watson being treated as a dunce. He may not stand up to Holmes in canon, but no one can, minus Mycroft. It's partly due to frequent movie portrayals of Watson as an idiot, but fanfic sometimes takes this to extremes. It should be remembered that Watson is an experienced surgeon, and he served as such in the army prior to A Study in Scarlet.
Kingdom Hearts: Kairi-bashing. While I'm not a fan of slash, I can't deny that the close friendship between Sora and Riku makes a relationship between them actually not unlikely. But too many Sora/Riku fics have to get Kairi out of the boys' way in the most obnoxious way possible. She'll either be killed off by Heartless, made out as a rare female Designated Misogynistic Bastard, or just turned into a stupid and clueless shell of a character that makes a bit look fleshed out. I haven't seen it as much recently (possibly just because of Kairi's absence from a lot of recent titles), but early on after KH's introduction, a lot of authors seemed to see Kairi as a Purity Sue. But despite being kidnapped throughout most of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, Kairi is far from a dainty perfect princess. Her love of Sora allowed her to retain her memory of him during his forced sleep, when nearly everyone else in the multiverse forgot he existed. In KH2, she risked running away from Axel and a small army of Dusks rather than be taken prisoner; she stood up to Saïx, ready to fight him off despite the impossible odds; finally, she helped Riku fight off a group of Heartless in the Castle That Never Was.
This last point applies more to fanart than fanfic, but I see it in fics sometimes, too. The Heartless tend to have very simplified, almost cute, designs, usually mimicking people or an object found in their current surroundings. They want to blend in, after all, to make heart theft all the easier. So a Heartless is unlikely to walk around as a huge glowing armored wolf with horns and faerie wings and a dragon tail ending in a giant sword. That wouldn't blend in anywhere. Heartless in human form (as Villain Sues) show up way too often, as well. Only a single character produced a Heartless that retained his human form, and he was (arguably) a combination of two hearts, both steeped in the powers of darkness, one of whom had been manipulating darkness for decades, since young adulthood. Not many should be able to imitate that feat.
Halo: Cortana having sex with the Master Chief. Or anyone.
Cortana is a hologram.
That is all.
Yes. I cannot stand stupid!Watson fics. Misses something that's obvious to Sherlock, yes. But Watson running around, jumping to stupid conclusions, and generally acting like a moron (especially if it's so that Sherlock can save him) is just bad.
There is one person in the Sherlock Holmes universe who is an intellectual equal to Sherlock. It happens to be his brother. (Moriarty was dumb enough to suggest that they settle their differences by wrestling at a waterfall, so original works Moriarty doesn't quite count; he's dangerous because he has resources and Sherlock is outnumbered, not smart enough to take Sherlock on his own. Other portrayals he might match up, but you have to do it well.)
I also hate it when people write Sherlock as having no consideration for Watson at all. Or anything that makes me wonder why the heck the fanficton writer thinks they can share an apartment, if they can't deal with each other.
/mini rant. That felt good.
How many things can I list here hmm... let's just start with the general ones.
1) Misquoting
In this case I mean a comment or dialogue being attributed to the wrong character but really, copying dialogue from canon is just as bad. Actually, make that anything being attributed to the wrong character. An example that I see way too often is Prussia saying anything about "invading vital regions". It was Austria who said that in canon and there is no evidence that Prussia has even heard about it yet.
2) Getting facts from canon incorrect
If the fic is not specified as a full AU, every rule from the canon MUST apply. You cannot just ignore a character or an established event. In Hetalia this becomes bad history. Any facts that are common knowledge or you can check on Wikipedia should not be skewed in the fic.
3) Predictable plot-line.
Character A has a crush on Character B but won't/is too shy to admit it. Character B feels the same and Character C helps get them together. How many fics can you name with this plot? Way too many.
Now on to particular fanon irritations.
Hetalia:
People PLEASE stop rewriting events that were already portrayed in canon with OOC characters. I can't tell you how many fics I've seen with England and chibi!America where England is some sort of pedophile and/or abusive father. America was not in any way oppressed during his childhood AS WAS SHOWN IN THE ANIME/MANGA. He fought for freedom like a teenager who wants to move out and be an independent person not because England was being a horrible father/older brother figure.
Another thing, as was mentioned before, none of the characters are really evil. France is somewhat perverted but he isn't a rapist with no morals. Russia can sometimes be violent but he's not trying to be mean, he just wants to make friends and can't understand why people are so scared of him. Each of these characters has depth to them that explains their actions and none of them would be a jerk without a reason.
Hunger Games
Every single fic out there is of an OC who is chosen as tribute. Every. Single. One. It doesn't matter if it's in the past or an alternate future but they're all the same. Have some originality people.
Harry Potter
Uncanon pairings. Most series I either don't bother shipping people or there are no established pairings but in HP canon is gold. I realizes not everyone feels this way but I really dislike pairings like Harry/Hermione and Draco/Harry. Even the Neville/Luna in the 8th movie irked me because Rowling said herself that Neville married Hannah Abbot. Again, this is just my opinion.
That's it for my overly long rant. The gist of it would probably be that canon and creativity are precious gifts that should never be forsaken. Done ranting now.
This one crops in a lot of my favorite fandoms. Bad Medicine (and not the Bon Jovi kind). NCIS: Ducky is not going to see someone in urgent need of emergency medical care and decide to treat them at Gibbs' house because they, in an lowered state of consciousness, say they don't like hospitals!
Stargate Atlantis: Carson Beckett is not an idiot! He's not going to miss the fact that someone is starving to death in front of him, and Sheppard is NOT anorexic! The guy has a slim build. That doesn't mean he doesn't eat. Him being somewhat of a self-sacrificing idiot when it comes to his own health is a kind of justified by canon, but only in extreme cases of danger to others--not because he just doesn't like doctors.
Stargate SG-1: I know there isn't that much fanfic out there that involves Jonas, but there are some horribly bad, nearly universal trends in what does exist. Firstly, Jack's character gets run through the moral shredder in these fics. Yeah, he didn't really like Jonas, especially at first. He didn't trust him because Jonas had switched sides, and he was pissed that Daniel died because Jonas was too scared to go in the room full of deadly radiation. This does not translate to Jack attempting to murder Jonas, Jack beating Jonas up, Jack knowing about other Random Military Types hazing or otherwise hurting Jonas, and it especially doesn't mean that Jack is going to do something sexual to Jonas. I mean, these authors really don't seem to get it that not only are they destroying all canon characteristics of Jonas, they are also destroying Jack's character.
Then you've got Daniel. He's not an uke. He's not a wimp. He's not girly. He most definitely does not walk around crying every five minutes. If anything the guy should be a ticking time bomb for going postal, because the canon puts him through enough stuff to make ten people go off the deep-end, and he rarely expresses any of it. He does occasionally, but even then it is almost always a direct "Aliens Made Them Do It" case where something was influencing his behavior.
Psych: Canon!Henry is frequently obnoxious, and anyone that raises their kid like that is at least a bit twisted, but he's not a mindless screaming machine. The things he gripes about on the show make sense, at least under Henry Spencer logic, and they should therefore make sense in fanfic. He doesn't just come up with completely random stuff. It has a theme every time (and usually an underlying, "I want to see my kid, but can't just tell him I want to see him, and therefore must make an excuse of wanting the garage cleaned out." or "My kid is terrifying me that he is going to get himself hurt or killed, and I am going to yell at him because of my terror.")
Let's see--
Madoka:
Fanfics that screw up Kyubey. Yes, he is probably the most hated character on the show, and for good reason--he does trick teenage girls into selling their souls and becoming monsters. BUT, the thing that fanfic writers don't seem to get is that in his mind, he is the good guy. He's not doing it for the evulz, but because he thinks it helps the universe. Amoral and manipulative? Yes. Stupid or blatantly sadistic? Well... No, since sadism implies it's for your own pleasure. It's his job, and he doesn't even have the emotions to feel pleasure with. I think the best Kyubey I've read is from the goodfic 'A History of Magic' since it really doesn't make him pure evil, and goes into depth with his character--sorta, unlike other plagiarising authors I could mention... Anyways, moving on.
Avengers:
Loki. He does not mope, he does not whine, he is not a wimp. He, unlike Kyubey,actually takes pleasure from tearing people apart psychologically (related note: it is not freaking fair that he can have a puppy-dog face when doing the psyche-destroying stuff. Curse you, Hiddlestone...) But! He is not boyfriend material. He is a mass-murderer. The twain should not overlap.
Makeover fics: Just... any fandom. Usually the characters are plenty pretty already, and giving them makeup or goth clothing is... unnecessary.
Neville/Luna. I've just never liked this pairing, but before the seventh book came out, I was certain it was inevitable canon. After the seventh book came out, I felt slightly justified. Then the eighth movie came out and promptly went to the very bottom of my list of the books and movies in order of preference.
Neville and Luna are awesome, I just think they can be awesome and not a couple. I always saw Neville as slightly intimidated by Luna, but becoming close friends after Deathly Hallows. However, I'm really not sure why I hate this pairing so much, I'm sure it can be written well, maybe I'm just missing something.
Top of the list are the "Harry/Hermione with Ron-bashing" fics. Yes, Harry cares very much for Hermione, and yes, Ron is sometimes less than pleasant. But you know what? They're all friends who've faced severe danger together, and that has proven to be, in the end, a bond far stronger than teenage romances and fallings-out.
My ultimate peeve with that type of fic, though, is the way Hermione is so often transformed into a weepy, clingy, fragile girl who needs Harry to save her from everything. That's just a "HELL no" from me. She is one of my favourite heroines because she is brilliant, loyal and able to take care of herself and on occasion the people around her. Very often, her smarts are the only way to actually reach and overcome the final challenge each year. She's also an extremely capable fighter; at the age of sixteen she was taking on Death Eaters in the Ministry and by the time she was eighteen she was able, with the help of Ginny and Luna, to take on Bellatrix Lestrange, one of the most terrifyingly able duellists around. In short: she does not need anyone to protect her in case she scratches her finger.
And now I shall stop here before I detail every single peeve with the Potterverse and this ends up taking three posts. :P
How about alphabetically?
AVENGERS
--Yes, Thor is a little goofy sometimes. He doesn't understand much of our world, and he comes from a realm that's basically Magical Techno-Viking. And he cares about his brother beyond the point of rationality.
However, this does NOT mean that Thor is:
1) Stupid;
2) Very stupid;
3) Naive;
4) Very very mind-meltingly stupid;
or 5) all of the above.
I get that he's almost the God of Golden Retrievers in some ways. When he's mugging for Darcy's camera or telling people how tiny they are, you kind of want to tousle his hair and feed him Pop Tarts. But he's also the God of Thunder, and wields a weapon that nobody else--not even the Hulk--can lift. He walked right up to the king of Jotunheim with only a half-dozen people as backup, because he wanted to pick a fight. He went mano-a-mano with the aforementioned Hulk. Not knowing how Midgard works does not make him stupid. Seriously, guys. Viking god. 'Nuff said.
BATMAN
Fanwriters never seem to know the difference between riddles and jokes. Sure, there's some overlap, but I have seen maybe . . . oh . . . two competently-written Riddlers in my four-plus years in the fandom. The rest of the time, he's a prancing ninny who tells jokes. Fandom, I am disappoint.
GI JOE
--My pet peeves can be summed up with the phrase "elite military unit." Let's break it down.
--"Elite." The original '80s Joes were in their thirties, Vietnam veterans, and handpicked from the very best that the army and associated branches and specialties had to offer. You don't get to be a Joe unless you have high-level specialized training, or have an unusual skillset that makes you invaluable (IE, ninja). They don't just pick anyone who manages to vaguely impress one of their members. Sues, I'm looking at you.
--"Military." Yes, they're a mixed group, but they still live the military life and under military regulations. That means: communal bunkrooms, keeping personal possessions to a minimum, up at the crack of dawn for PT, no talking back to someone of higher rank or else, do as you're told, lots of hard work, and pulling nightshifts on CQ or guard duty. A lot of those things suck, but it's the job. An OC cannot just mouth off to anyone she likes, and she can't decide she doesn't want to do something--especially not when ordered by a superior officer.
--"Unit." They are a team, dang it. They have to work together. There's always going to be interpersonal drama, but not at the high-school level that fics seem to like. They're grownups, guys! War veterans! Give them a teensy bit of credit.
Nobility in a highly advanced magitek society
Always portrayed not being able to figure out a toaster.
Guys, most things designed today have ease of use in mind. I am pretty sure they know what toast or bread is in Asgard, the idea of a device that makes it warm should not be hard for anyone, even a cultural alien, to understand. The method may be strange and foreign, at least at first, but the cause/effect isn't that difficult to grasp.
Kids do it all the time.
When I was a little kid I called the microwave, 'the dingbox' because you put food in, pressed the button, it went ding, and the food was hot.
Come on.
Thor can at least figure out a dingbox.
Hetalia:
Poland:
I've seen a ton of people make Poland into a selfish girl obsessed with what he looks like, ponies, pink, and all that stuff. Yes he does like that, but no, he is not incapable of taking care of himself. Look at history. He's known as the phoenix, and he's earned that nickname. Look at how many times he's been dissolved. Russia, Prussia, and Austria in 1795. By Germany and the USSR in 1939. I think that all of his quirks are just a coping mechanism. He's a strong country on his own.
Canada:
Please note that Canada is my favorite character, so I may be a little biased when it comes to him.
In a lot of stories I've seen, Canada is portrayed as a character who is just there, is meek and afraid to make himself known. Look at Canadian history, particularly during World War Two, where the majority of Hetalia Canon takes place, and it tells a different story. On D-Day, the Canadians had gotten the farthest into France of the three attacking nations. A quote from Winston Churchill states that in the army needed to take over the world, the soldiers would be Canadian. I don't think Canada would let Russia sit on him.
People either forgetting Canada or making him a total pushover is one of my huge pet peeves. Invisibility is not his only characteristic, but it seems to be the only one that sticks in some people's minds. As for being a pushover, remember the strip where he gave America a three hour long lecture about everything that was bad about him? And he only stopped because England told him to.
TL:DR- Canada is in no way a pushover.
I kind of think Canada has a power like the Invisible Boy's, from Mystery Men. As in, he's invisible, but only when someone's watching. He's not the happiest about this, but it lets him get things DONE that America can't do.
And Poland has got to be one of my FAVORITE characters in Hetalia. He always keeps his chin up, no matter what's going on. England envies him his stiff upper lip, a little.
Kingdom Hearts. What is it about "Nobodies not having hearts and therefore have no real feelings" does most of the fandom not understand? They cannot feel love. They cannot feel angst. So stop shipping them! Please! I know they're pretty, but seriously!
'Scuse me, let me finish packing this crate with these individually wrapped bars of something about right to hold in the palm of your hand...
... Okay, done. -stands on it-
I am so utterly sick of stories where Matoran Universe inhabitants date and marry and have babies like humans do without even a cursory note that the author is disregarding that particular piece of canon. I am so utterly sick of this assumption that of course they need to kiss and date and marry and have sex and court like humans do when that disregards a fundamental difference which is that they don't.
They're asexual -- not agender, much as I am liable to grumble about how that doesn't make sense except as something the Great Beings couldn't imagine their creations not having -- and don't even have the bits for sex, just the mental construct of female/male and slightly different bodies with their different elements (hello Ga-Matoran, how ya doing with those useless lumps on your chests?). They're still entirely capable of forging deep and abiding friendships, especially without the whole issue wherein a hetero- or bisexual male and a hetero- or bisexual female form a deep and abiding friendship and the world and his wife expects them to hop into bed together.
Co-opting the words "brother" and "sister" for what Toa call their teammates, I feel, sums this sort of relationship up neatly. It's entirely platonic, it's entirely non-erotic, and the participants will go through hell and high water for each other and rib their siblings about it the whole way, and they chose their family on top. They love each other, and I really wish English didn't have sex all tangled up in that word because in canon Bionicle they don't and it's kind of beautiful. They make sure those they love are safe and happy and healthy and will lay down their lives to do it (See: Jaller that one time to save Takua, Matoro for freaking EVERYBODY) and they don't need the whole sex thing tangled up in their love. Physical closeness? Hell yeah, hugging is all up in this joint, cuddling for comfort after or before a big battle eff yes, just don't get your sexual-being baggage into their asexual-being love.
... Okay, and Greg Farshtey didn't want to answer questions about the sex lives of plastic toys. That too. I just took the whole thing and ran with it, though I'm poking at the idea of romantic as opposed to erotic love and seeing if it's disentanglable from the whole 'kissing' thing because I think it's applicable to my questionably-canon-compliant headcanon AKA that meandering rant. And I really, really find this sort of thing, this difference in mentality, interesting, and I want to see what I think makes sense...
Still got one more, related to the above: Oi! Enough with the unmarked giving of human forms for the sole reason of teh sexhay. I'm annoyed about the proliferation of these period because there's often no real reason beyond the author seemingly unable to properly imagine not being human, but if they're marked I can avoid them or in the case of Metru Uni love them, though that one's A, marked, and B, not for teh sexhay anyway and it's actually more like humans getting these weird powers and masks and stuff, it's awesome. And also horrendously AU even beyond that but the timeline changes are the funnest.
A-hm, where was I? Oh yes. It's not that hard to write these guys as the bodies they are in canon, really! Really! Just get your minds out of the gutter for two darn sexonds* and you'll see they don't even need to be human because canon did just fine, and anyway you can always turn to the natives of Spherus Magna if you really wanna, they've got the equipment... or mark your dang AUs at least so I can avoid them just off the summary, ff.net's summary limit is 384 character now instead of 255, you have space! At the very least put it in an initial author's note.
*Typo. But I'm keeping it, because, despite what that rant extolling asexuality might lead people to believe, I'm as horny a teenager as the majority of sixteen-year-olds. I just... don't think giving that particular trait to these characters adds anything, and that they have so many more ways to show love that won't even need to go over G unless you're the kind of person who thinks guys cuddling needs an R rating and then screw you Takua/Jaller cuddlebuddies for life! No, no, Nixie/Takua/Jaller/Hahli OT4 cuddlepairing! And add Macku and Hewkii to Hahli's end of the couch in that order, and get Hafu in there! Maybe get Pohatu to give Kopaka and Tahu a hug wherein they're stuck next to each other, see how much the pair grumbles! CUDDLES FOR EVERYONE
HUGS FOR THE HUG THRONE CUDDLES FOR THE CUDDLE GOD ahem I'll be going now -steps down off soapbox-
Did you know that there wasn't a theatrical BIONICLE (Proper captilization, minor pet peeve) movie because Lego would have put in humans? Greg... well, he was pissed, to say the least.
I. I don't know what to say. Something along the lines of "-incoherent squawk-". BIONICLE (D'you use CAPSlock or shift to properly capitalize it? I'd imagine CAPS would be easier on the fingers...) does just gorram fine on its own with its wonderful biomechanical beings, it doesn't need any gorram humans! Hooray for Greg being pissed!
... never mind Glatorian and Agori. I still don't know how close to humans they are. I'm leery of trying to headcanon it because I'd like to avoid stepping on arguable opinion toes, do you know any information on them beyond "Glatorian about Toa height, Agori about Matoran height, they're mostly squishy like humanflesh but with mechanical implants (and possibly metal bones I read that once but it might have been in a dream)"? Like. Uh. Hair. Do they have hair. Noses, ears, I know they reproduce sexually so I'll just assume human there... I really do not trust TLR as far as I can throw the MU bot when it comes to basing written depictions, take a guess why oh right it's the fact that it's set accurate.
That being: Love has nothing to do with SCREWING!
On the point of England, there's also his punk and pirate years. People also seem to handwave those in the favour of "teh sexeh yaoi ukez".
My pet peeves are also Hetalia.
My first is the already mentioned England, but my other two are about France and Russia.
France
Lot's of fans don't like France, because they see him as nothing more than a pervert. Some people even think he's as bad as being a paedophile and a rapist, although I can't think of anything in canon that would support this.
There are a lot of parts in Hetalia that show how he's more than a pervert, such as the Jeanne D'Arc strips, but lots of fans ignore this all in favour of having him sexual harrass their characters.
Russia
Russia is another character who has most of his traits ignored. Lots of fans see him as a violent psychopath, when in actuality, he's not really. He doesn't do nothing but try to torture and kill people. He is yandere, but people seem to forget the 'dere' part of that.
The main problem with things like this is that many fans will write the characters as how they're shown in fanon, instead of how they actually act. Sometimes fanon is needed if there is no canon, like with the 2P!characters, but ignoring actual characterisation in favour of fanon just... agh!
...
TL;DR: France doesn't do nothing but molest people. Russia has a childlike innocence as well as being kind of sadistic.
I mean, This Is Hetalia Everything Is Made of Pink Sugar. But with that in mind...
Russia doesn't really know how to love. He's never had a proper family... Well, as in a mother or a father. He's always had to take care of his sisters, who are completely insane and both chasing him (Ukraine more subtly than Belarus). He's in a constant war with General Winter, and he's... just kind of alone.
Then he meets the rest of the world and has no idea of how to react. His first impulse is to make sure he doesn't get hurt. Meaning he, yes, hurts other people, especially if it looks like he or his sisters will get hurt if he doesn't. His second impulse is to try to make friends. Unfortunately... for Russia, friendship is kind of... elusive, because he tends to hurt people if he thinks they'll hurt him. And love hurts sometimes.
tl;dr: Russia is the product of his environment. It's not his fault, and if he spends more time with normal people, he might get a little better.
Meanwhile, France loves, and loves all too well. *His* problem is that, well... Everyone he loves tends to leave. Jeanne died, as did Madame de Pompadour. (After seeing that episode with the Doctor, I can't help but see France in love with her, in the same kind of way.) England left, and never came back. Because of this... he kind of tries to pretend that it really isn't a big deal. He acts like romance is a game. "Let me love none, no, but the sport." ...Really, it's the same sort of reaction England has to the same problem, except that England just tries to escape into fantasy worlds and avoid the L word altogether, while France tries to romance the whole world, so as to forget the dull little ache that's settled inside him.
tl:dr; France is an incurable romantic, stuck in a world that hasn't been kind to him.
Both kind of tragic characters, really. All they want is love. *sniffles*
This more or less summarises why they're two of my favourite characters, and why it annoys me so much when people ignore all of this. There's so much potential for great stories that explore their characters, but people will ignore this in favour of using them as evil rapist types for hurt/comfort fics.
(The hurt/comfort could also be done well, if they weren't just written as "France/Russia rapes X Nation because they are a rapist")
Yeah. I love 'em to pieces, too. Russia is just... so freakin' cute. And France scares me, but it's more 'I'd rather not mess with you' than OHMYGODHE'SGONNAGROPEME.
I'd like to write some stuff with them. But I'm so... England... I could hardly treat France fairly.
My England's backstory is actually sorta hurt-comfort involving France. Suffice it to say that France used to have a rather lightsome attitude regarding love, and it was England's first love and so he took it seriously. ... France hurt, America comforted.