snick_backup | Fanfic rants day in the Land of Snick.

First: I think you think that Spike waggling his eyebrows is sexy. However, when I think of the words "waggle" and "eyebrows" together, I think of Groucho Marx. So unless you'd like to tell us something about your kinky love for the Marx Brothers...

Second: Suppose, driving away from Angel and Buffy battling it out in "Becoming," fic!Spike feels a warm wash of goodwill for the Slayer and hopes she wins. And he thinks to himself, Who'd have thought William the Bloody would come to this?

Or, suppose fic!Spike finds Dawn a girly birthday present during the long, sad summer and reflects how Angel would be laughing himself silly to see him now.

Or again, suppose fic!Spike stumbles through a book titled Raising Your Teen, cringing every few pages with fresh embarrassment that he's reading the thing at all.

Few Buffyverse characters are actually that strong on self-reflection; I have trouble believing the rest of them regularly look at themselves with this much perspective. So when I'm reading along and Spike or Buffy (or other characters, but mostly I see it with these two) basically think to themselves, "Gee, this is out of character for me," it both feels awkward and makes me suspicious of the characterization, even when I was okay with it otherwise. It comes across to me as the author feeling like they have to lampshade their own insecurities about their characterization - whether they're afraid it's too schmoopy, too "nice," whatever. Which, as I said: awkward and glaring.

This is clearly a YMMV sort of thing, and it absolutely depends on how it's done. More often than not, though, I end up wishing the author had left these sentiments out.