Things I'd Like to Learn

[scribblemyname]

Those of you who like to read my stuff know I like Gambit. A lot. However, as the lovely mwffj pointed out, there's a side of him that doesn't get half enough attention.

Let's start with

banter. He's exceptional at it. It's also rarely sexual in nautre.

REMY: Wanna go find a bar and start a fight?
LOGAN: I don't think you could fight a kitten right now.
REMY: 'Course not. Kittens fight dirty. I'll just sit int the corner and kick people in your direction.
~ X-23, Issue 12

Also see any of the quotes I use to open chapters of Without a Trace.

Which brings me to

humor. Not my forte,b ut I love it when it's done right. Almost all my favorite quotes of his are funny.

PHOENIX: I think the more nervous you get, the more jokes you crack.
GAMBIT: Shh . Ancient family secret.
~ Uncanny X-Men, #333

I don't know if this is just an acquired skill (that I don't seem to be successfully acquiring), but most of my humor is purely situational. :sighs:

Or maybe I'm reading the wrong fics. :sets chin on hands and thinks:

Comments

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

Humor is as humor does?

I am told that I love banter a bit too much, that I tend to focus on it to the exclusion of important things like description. My favorite part is how characters interact with each other.

Maybe what you need to do is play with some dialogue only stuff? I can't stand straight dialogue myself, always have to add stuff to it, but it might be such a thing where it could help? The comics do have the advantage that the pictures tell the rest of the story and the dialogue can be almost... isolated, so that might strengthen the banter a bit?

[scribblemyname]

I do play with dialogue a lot. I tend to write the dialogue first, then flesh out the scene, but I haven't tried it as a practice with humorfic. I think I'll give it a go. And read lots and lots of Gambit quotes. I want to capture that voice!

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I do that sometimes, too.

I also thought of suggesting taking some pictures from the comics/movies and recaptioning them? That could help, too, maybe?

I know I read a lot of comics before I started in on fic, as much Gambit as I could find, and while the voice acting doesn't always accurately represent him, even the X-Men legends and Ultimate Alliance helped a bit with the voice, at least the one I hear in my head (though it's mostly original animated series Remy, minus the third person talk).

And I tend to find I have a good handle on people's voices by reading other fics because I can pinpoint when the characters are not in character better in other people's stuff than I can in mine.

[scribblemyname]

:blink, blink: Recaptioning...sounds...hard. Whoa. I might even try it.

I do read like crazy, but MOST people don't really capture that part of his voice. Different parts, but not that one. A few do. I think you're one of my top ten for that. Chellerbelle does really well, but more sexually-oriented. Lots of people keep his banter sexual, which isn't really what I'm looking for.

[pygmymuse.livejournal.com]

It sounds kind of like... fun, to me.

Yeah, it's hard to get every part. Some are able to focus on just a single part of it. It's easier for me to play Remy off of Rogue or Logan, I think. There's just something there that seems easy. I actually avoid too much of the sexual banter (because it's not all sexual, and my version of Remy has issues there), though I'd agree that Chellerbelle has some very good banter.

I'm trying to think of any fics I read where there was banter and it wasn't a lot of sexual banter, but I am not coming up with anything. I can only remember the other kind, but I think that's because I read mostly Rogue/Remy fics.

[thefireisblack.livejournal.com]

Oh truth! Over the years there are times I'm wondering why a number of writers like making Gambit a sex-depraved pervert with his banter. I mean sheesh, he does have other things in his repertoire like wit and snark (especially the rare snark) or the humour because come on, can anyone not imagine Gambit as a little mischievous kid once upon a time and now just because he can get away with it and he enjoys it?

Thanks by the way for reminding me about X-23. I was wondering what I was forgetting this week.

[scribblemyname]

If I had money to buy comics, I'd buy this line. Something tells me to stay away from Legacy for a bit. (Magneto/Rogue :shudder: )

It bugs me too: sex, sex, sex. The guy is funny beyond sex.