more of the meme
Sep. 7th, 2013 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kindkitA couple of late answers for the "name a character and I'll tell you one of their hangups" meme.
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lilliburlero asked about Havlock Vetinari from Discworld.
When writing Midwinter I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what makes Vetinari tick, so I have substantial headcanon about him and his hangups. I'll name two. First, and this is pretty well supported by canon, he is thoroughly disgusted by body fluids and particularly saliva. He can't bear to watch musicians, or at least not musicians who play wind instruments, because seeing the spit ruins the music for him. Messy eating, to him, is nearly an offense against morality, not just manners. Second, also mouth-related, and more extrapolative: he is a supertaster, so flavors that many people enjoy are overwhelmingly strong for him. There's a scene in Making Money where he separates the whites and yolks of boiled eggs and eats the whites only. I think it's emblematic of Vetinari in a number of ways. He's picky about food even beyond what one might expect from a supertaster, but I think that's part of it and in a way key to his whole personality--he's keenly aware of small, subtle things, and that makes it hard for him to experience a lot of the pleasures that other people feel. So he shields himself in his office behind his stacks of paperwork.
halotolerant asked about Captain Owen Triggers from Wings.
Triggers is basically composed of neuroses, like granite is composed of mineral crystals. It's hard to think of one that isn't onscreen and canonical, but here's an extrapolation: in a way he's grateful for the limp that results from the wound he got in 1915, because it means that in later years, no one ever asks him what he did in the war. He can talk about the RFC with other men who were in it, but the curiosity of strangers makes him want to hit them, or laugh himself sick, or cry, or go and sit in a dark room for a very long time--none of which is practicable when you're supposed to be making small talk at a party.
lilliburlero asked about Havlock Vetinari from Discworld.When writing Midwinter I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what makes Vetinari tick, so I have substantial headcanon about him and his hangups. I'll name two. First, and this is pretty well supported by canon, he is thoroughly disgusted by body fluids and particularly saliva. He can't bear to watch musicians, or at least not musicians who play wind instruments, because seeing the spit ruins the music for him. Messy eating, to him, is nearly an offense against morality, not just manners. Second, also mouth-related, and more extrapolative: he is a supertaster, so flavors that many people enjoy are overwhelmingly strong for him. There's a scene in Making Money where he separates the whites and yolks of boiled eggs and eats the whites only. I think it's emblematic of Vetinari in a number of ways. He's picky about food even beyond what one might expect from a supertaster, but I think that's part of it and in a way key to his whole personality--he's keenly aware of small, subtle things, and that makes it hard for him to experience a lot of the pleasures that other people feel. So he shields himself in his office behind his stacks of paperwork.
halotolerant asked about Captain Owen Triggers from Wings.Triggers is basically composed of neuroses, like granite is composed of mineral crystals. It's hard to think of one that isn't onscreen and canonical, but here's an extrapolation: in a way he's grateful for the limp that results from the wound he got in 1915, because it means that in later years, no one ever asks him what he did in the war. He can talk about the RFC with other men who were in it, but the curiosity of strangers makes him want to hit them, or laugh himself sick, or cry, or go and sit in a dark room for a very long time--none of which is practicable when you're supposed to be making small talk at a party.
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Date: 2013-09-08 02:11 am (UTC)