 Here, have another
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Mar. 21st, 2011 @ 01:32 pm 
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I'm in a bad mood today. Thus, more fanfic ranting.
This rant is about another really annoying fanfic trope, one found again in shippy fics: the "Inner Voice". Y'all know what I mean.
Here's an example I found in a Kataang fic:
Aang walked over and opened up the drawers. "Too big. Too big. Too big. WAY too big….There's nothing my size here…"
Katara said, "Well, I guess you're going to have to be shirtless."
But you have no problem with that, Katara, you don't want him to have a shirt.
Gah! What am I thinking! I don't like Aang like that.
Yes, you do.
No, I don't!
Yes, you do.
No, I don't!
Stop lying
I'm not lying!
Then why are you blushing?
Well…
Haha! Caught in the act!
The stuff in italics is Katara's "inner voice". This Voice is, essentially, a really lazy plot device for generating forced romantic tension. If you read shippy fics, then I know you've probably seen it before. I've seen it for a wide variety of ships: Zutara, Zuko/OC, Kataang, Tokka, and Taang in particular. It always involves one half of the ship insisting that they don't like the other half "like that", while the Voice insists that they do. The character then argues with him/herself. It may or may not involve the character thinking, "I'm not in love with X, you're crazy!" followed by the Voice saying, "LOL but you're the one talking to her/himself!" The Inner Voice is often described by the character as "insidious" or "traitorous" for daring to suggest that the character harbors such feelings.
The Voice is meant to be the character's subconscious, I think. Yet this Voice is almost always out of character for the person whose head it has invaded. It often sounds drastically different from the character's normal voice. To me, instead of feeling like an argument between the character and their subconscious, these scenes read like an argument between that character and another person. And that's because it is. The Inner Voice is really the author's voice, telling the character everything that s/he is supposed to be feeling about the other half of the ship. Instead of having the character's romantic feelings develop normally, the Inner Voice tries to push them along.
The whole idea behind it, I think, is that it's supposed to force a character in denial to confront their feelings for the other half of the ship, but it just feels so unnatural. It feels tacky. IDK about anyone else, but I've never had an argument with an autonomous voice inside my head that is supposedly representing my subconscious.
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Ooooh yeah. This one.
I've seen it before and I never really noticed why it bugged me 'till this rant. It's the tell-not-show aspect of it where instead of playing out the character's inner conflict through their actions or perhaps through their words, it's reduced to a little 'inner dialog' that usually doesn't work.
I think I've employed the concept but very sparingly - such as "so why did I blush when I saw person X?" and there's a good reason to use it sparingly, heh.
Ah, yes, well said. It's telling rather than showing.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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| Date: |
March 25th, 2011 12:18 am (UTC) |
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I'm under the impression that this "Inner Voice" is actually an evil spirit who forces the characters to go OOC in not-so-subtle ways.
Ooh, heh, I like that one! XD That would make a pretty good crackfic, actually. There's some spirit that has been angered, and is taking out its supernatural fury by taking over members of Team Avatar and screwing with their lives by putting thoughts like those in their heads.
| From: | (Anonymous) |
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March 26th, 2011 07:40 am (UTC) |
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Melonlord, anyone?
On a serious note, said evil spirit could be some sort of Manipulative Bastard whose unknown plan involves putting the Avatar or someone close under the delusion that he/she is suicidally in love, even if they're not. It is rather easy to cause some trouble when someone is brainwashed.
Aha! A ploy to plunge the world back into chaos, perhaps?
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