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I've been thinking a lot lately about the phenomena of character whumpage, as you can probably tell from the frequent posts re: the Magnificent Seven. Yesterday I read a comment that suddenly made a lot of things clear for me.

First, I want to clarify the definition of 'whump' for this particularly post: 'whump' is when a character (though no fault of his own, for he is a veritable saint) is treated in a shabby manner by his mistrustful peers until he goes through a grueling, near-fatal ordeal (during which he knows his faithless friends will never go to any effort to safe him, because they just don't care enough) and thus gains the esteem and trust of his so-called friends who are horrified and contrite at their previous behavior. This is very popular in a lot of fandoms, but especially in the Magnificent Seven fandom (poor, put-upon Ezra).

I want to add that not all hurt/comfort fic qualifies as whump by the above definition: Queens of the Wild Frontier is not whump, though there is definitely a focus on hurt (Ezra is still the punching bag), because the story is about Ezra and Buck being in a bad situation and having to get out of it. Neither one is an outcast among his peers and both are capable, fully-developed characters. The Amazon Series, on the other hand, is totally whumpage -- over the course of the first three stories, Ezra is repeatedly beaten, shot multiple times, starved, concussed, abandoned, thrown off a cliff, and set on fire. During this time, most of the remaining six (but especially Nathan) spend lots of time thinking about how unreliable Ezra is because he keeps not showing up for his patrols.

Needless to say, The Amazon Series is vastly more popular in the fandom than Queens of the Wild Frontier.

So, what is the appeal of whump? Yesterday I read something on fandomwank that sounds pretty spot-on. The post was about an author who chose to leave fandom and most of the discussion in the comments were about the nature of her work, much of which involved whumpage. One commentor said (paraphrased, since I just spent the last 45 minutes going through several hundred comments and can't find the darn thing again):

She, like a lot of fanfic authors, is playing out her teenage suicide fantasy in her fanfic: i.e., My parents/friends/boyfriend is being mean, but I'll be hurt/maimed/killed and then they'll be SOOOO sorry! That'll show them!

After thinking about that comment for a while, I realised that it is right on the mark. Most whump fic is just like most teenage suicide/revenge fantasies: emotionally overwrought, featuring a main character who is totally right but terribly misunderstood, and who gains his validation through horrible trauma that makes everyone realize what a wonderful person he is. Thus a happy ending all around! Until next time, because these fics are apparently addictive (once you've started showing all of those evil non-Ezra seven how mean they are, it's impossible to stop).

At this point, I'd planned to explain exactly why I don't like this particular form of whumpage, but I figured no one here is interested in reading about my own teenage angst years. Suffice to say that I personally don't find characters who have no internalized sense of self-worth to be particularly satisfying, and I especially don't like seeing such a person (basically the fanfic version of a puppy) get kicked over and over and over and over again until he's nothing more than a fur sack filled with puppy mush (though, of course he'll survive, because otherwise the characters can't tell him how sorry they are). Frankly, I don't consider these types of stories to be happy ones -- the only true happy ending when a character is being treated this badly by his 'friends' is for him to leave town and go find some new friends, ones who aren't emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive.

Of course, I seem to be in the minority on this particular topic. At least I've learned one thing -- I will be approaching Magnificent Seven fics with *extreme* caution in the future.

Tags: fandom: magnificent seven, general topics, rants by jane

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109 comments

gwendolynflight

September 24 2009, 20:06:37 UTC 2 years ago

Hm, I do have a bit of a kink for characters with low self-esteem, but it has to be a very specific sort. I go for the martyr-hero type, really. Benton Fraser, Harry Potter, John Sheppard, even Chris O'Donnell's character on the new NCIS: LA is modelled on this character type. And in fandom, these characters tend to be seething masses of issues continually deferred in favor of the crisis/apocalypse of the week. I love it! Not sure why. .... Possibly misguided mothering instincts. Hm. But these are characters who have good friends, who know their friends love them, but still feel themselves obligated to go blow themselves up for the greater good. I think most of our society is a little in love with martyrs, though. Look at Jesus! And stuff ... [/blasphemy]

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