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Okay... I'll post my own later. But, Void came up with a really cool idea in the Guild Recruitment / Intel Convo thread.

What are your pet peeves about characters portrayals in Gundam Wing fanfiction? Does Heero seem too suicidal? Is Trowa too silent? Does Duo act like a complete idiot all the time? Is Relena a whiny stalker?

All the stereotypes that people pick up on and overplay... you pick 'em and list 'em for us all to rant about.

Enjoy!

NOTE: Let's not flame here... we're complaining about bad personality traits, not actual fanfic authors!!!

The stereotypes that bother me...

General:
-Making the boys homosexual for no reason other than "They're soooo kawaii together!" I have an immense amount of respect for people who are gay or bisexual, and seeing them get portrayed like this just offends me. It's the sort of thing that anti-defamation leagues throw fits over. I honestly believe that the entire cast of GW is straight, but if someone can write the characters as gay while remaining respectful and tasteful, then I don't have a problem
-Expressing extreme heterophobia or the belief that homosexuality is somehow purer and/or more "right" than heterosexuality (once saw a fic where Heero had, gasp, a nightmare about having sex with a female Duo, and woke up in bed with male Duo and was greatly relieved. Yick)
-Sticking the characters in alternate worlds that have NOTHING to do with After Colony, especially fantasy settings where Heero is an angel (fallen or not), Duo is a devil, Quatre is a prince, etc etc
-Having the characters randomly break into Japanese. This is more of a general pet peeve than GW-specific, but it's STILL annoying.
-Channelling the author's opinions of other characters, such as Heero blindly hating Relena despite the fact that they're shown to be close in the series
-Revealing that one of the boys is, in fact, a woman, and always has been (a friend told me about one where fem-Heero got raped by Zechs, and decided to keep the baby afterwards. Can't remember if she decided to "stick with him" after that, but either way, barf)
-Crossing over with Harry Potter (no clue why this is so popular)
-Authors who claim to understand the series, then willingly commit any of the things listed here

Heero:
-Emotionless
-Resorting to violence as a first resort (IE getting a kitten out of a tree by shooting the branch it's standing on)
-Excessively violent (to an extreme beyond even the comedy violence that Full Metal Panic's Sosuke does)

Duo:
-Bouncy, flirty, etc.
-Overly feminine (to the point where one would use the term "flaming")
-Fluff-headed, clueless, out-and-out dumb
-Pulls inappropriate or excessive pranks (like painting Shenlong pink)
-Catty, especially in relation to Heero
-Dark, moody, emo

Trowa:
-Silent to the point of having a "words per day" budget which, when used up, leaves him with nothing but sign language (yes, I saw this once)
-Very unsocial (not antisocial)

Quatre:
-Overly sensitive
-Overly feminine
-Too weak to defend himself (needs Trowa as a bodyguard, etc)

Wu Fei:
-Woman-hating, using the word "onna" to refer to anything with two X chromosomes
-Overly violent
-Always angry

Relena:
-Stupid, mentally retarded, airheaded, clueless
-Overly clingy, obsessive, stalker
-Insane
-Evil, hateful, spiteful, malicious, etc (I saw a really poorly written Lord of the Rings wannabe fic where she replaced Sauron stressed )
-Selfish, greedy, bratty (in a bad way, as opposed to her being bratty in a good way early on)

Treize:
-Being in love with Wu Fei, calling him "cute" pet names like "Little Dragon", etc (I know what I said before, but stuff like this almost triggers my gag reflex)
-Living beyond GW

Dorothy:
-Shallow, self-absorbed
-Bitchy, bratty, outright mean
-Dominatrix/BDSM queen/sexually perverse

Original Characters:
-Author avatars - HAET with burning passion
-Duo's long lost sister Duet/Trio/whatever
-The "Sixth Gundam Pilot"

If I think of more, I'll throw them in.

I dunno, I can sort of understand Overprotective Zechs. After all, Relena's his only family, and he doesn't want just anyone going after her. While that doesn't mean he's going to treat Heero like crap, it DOES probably mean he'd be very picky about the men who hung around her.

Besides, Overprotective Zechs makes for amusing comedy in 1xR fics without destroying his character the way a lot of those other stereotypes do.

Vampire and Pirate AUs. They are so horribly wrong. I've seen enough to make me want to scream. It gets really annoying when you're looking for a nicely written decent plotted story, and you find a lot of "Duo's the king of vampires" or "Heero's the captain of a pirate ship." I wish they would just leave vampires in animes like Hellsing and Trinity Blood, and pirates in animes like One Piece.

Along with Duo's long lost sister. Especially when she's basically a female Duo made only to be with Heero.

Characters getting a sex change to get around yaoi/shonen-ai, and Male Pregnancy.
Otherwise, I think you've nailed most of mine.

I think a Vampire one can be done well. I've actually read a few that where highly well written. AU to a point but well... this time their vampires of course it's AU XD

I've been partial to the Gundam Boy/Girl sex change. Depending on how it's handled it isn't bad at all....

Mpreg in itself is just ew........ though oddly delightful for people who wish such things against men. XD but we all know men can't give birth so why do that in the first place.

the OC brother/sister/cousin/neice/daughter relation........... yeah no never would happen in my fanfiction......

Other wise yeah... I think Void hit them all.

I dislike the fanfics that throw characters into relationships just for the sake of having them in that pairing.

Now... for characters in particular...

Duo's one my favs, so he's the one I nitpick in fanfics the most. I'm tired of seeing him as the uke. I did finally find one where they were equal time, but a lot of fanfic authors seem to make him the 'girl' just because he happens to have long hair. Guys can have long hair. I've known plenty. I grew up in the 80's, the decade of big hair and rock bands. Bon Jovi had some of the biggest, fluffiest hair going... and he's been married for quite a long time now to his high school girlfriend. Long hair has nothing to do with sexuality and whether their top or bottom.

Duo being pregnant also annoys me. This isn't that bad Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where the guy gets pregnant. I don't like it.

Duo is not a complete idiot with a massive case of untreated ADHD. Yes, he's outgoing. Yes, he can be obnoxious. However, he can also be serious. He's street smart, a fast learner, and world-wise. He may not have Quatre's education, but that doesn't make him stupid.

I can see Duo having moments of being suicidal... especially if there's that one thing that finally sends him over the edge. He's not fragile, but he's been through a lot already. If he gets extremely attached to someone and loses them again like with Solo and Father Maxwell, that might push him too far if he hasn't already dealth with those demons. However, he can't live in the past forever. The fact that he changes his outfit in Endless Waltz shows to me that he can grow up and move on from his past. I think he'll be okay in the long run.

One major faux pas that bugs me in general with the five pilots... writing that they were raised (and tortured) by the Gundam engineers. First off, anyone who's read Episode Zero knows this isn't true. Trained, yes... raised and tortured? Nope. While there may be some basis for this in the fact that Master O kicks the daylights out of Duo on Lunar Base to keep their cover, that doesn't mean they beat them and did horrible experiments on them to turn them into weird mutants while the Gundams were being developed.

I agree with the whole randomly using Japanese thing. I really think that those authors use it just to show off -- like they're saying "Hey, I know some Japanese, and here it is!" I don't have a problem with "kaasan" or "tousan" or words like that, but when they use "baka" a lot it irritates me.

I also (like many, MANY others) despise Mary Sues. I once read a story where Heero forced this girl (the author) to kiss him while Relena watched just to hurt her. Relena then proceeded to whine out a "Heero, how could you?!" and ran crying in the opposite direction. First of all, Heero would never do something that cruel, especially to someone he respects as much as Relena. Secondly, Relena isn't a pansy crybaby like many Relena-haters portray her. I can't stand it when people write stories like this; I actually feel embarrassed for them. stare

I detest the whole overplaying each characters personality bit. Drives me nuts. Besides that, I do have to protest the yaoi thing (except where Quatre and Trowa are concerned...i really do think they've got something going). The random Japenese is unnerving and the whole pirates, vampires, witches, ghosts, etc bit.

okay, I'm done now! mrgreen