{ a problem called Liz Warner. }

[delga]

So, back on the subject of Liz Warner (yes, yes, I know; this was like, what, a month a go?), I'm thinking that the whole point of fandom is to fill in the holes, right? I mean, the people I talk to want to like Liz Warner but can't really get behind her. The general consensus seems to be that this is because she is a Don!prop which, frankly, sucks if you're tired of her having no substance because Don!props are fucktoys, I think we've established.

That poll I put up in tja_rama? (Please don't go and add your replies now; y'all missed the boat if you didn't already.) 32 people answered the first question, do you like Liz Warner. Some interesting results, a little surprising to my mind. Five people voted 'yes' outright which is disappointing if you're Liz Warner; pair that up with fourteen who said 'no' outright, and that's down right distressing. But - and this is the part that interested me - thirteen people said they didn't care about her one way or another. That's nearly the same number of people who didn't like her at all. Now, you can be negative and skew that data so that it says you've got 5:27 who like her, or you can choose to be positive (hi!) and suggest, actually, there's a possibility it's 18:14 that like her. What I'm saying is, c.41% of the people who took the poll who can still be swayed in favour of Liz Warner (if you take the other c.44% as being people whose minds cannot be changed). GUYS. I feel like we owe it to her to sway some opinions.

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OKAY. That was melodramatic. But I do feel like, if TPTB can't write women, there's no reason why we can't shape up on their behalf. Lead by example? Maybe not. But we want to like Liz. I don't know, I'm in the kind of mood to issue a challenge and then call people on it for not rising to it. (Um. I'm not actually going to do that. I'm being a bitch.) I guess what I'm saying is, should I ever get the yen to write Numb3rs fic soon, I'm really considering writing Liz fic. The problem, as ever, is that I have no real canon to work on, and I hate that. I mean, I've written fic like that before but the inch of canon I had was explosive enough to do so. I'm not certain there's enough for Liz.

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Here's my disclaimer: I'm average at math, I flunked stats in a big way and I'm no analyst. This posits two things. One, I'll always be a Don girl; two, I'll have missed a lot when it comes to this data. I read surface facts from the quantitative data, and I didn't quantify the qualitative stuff. I'm not a mathematician. This sample is incomplete and biased in many, many ways. But the surface data is interesting, no?

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The other results: 31 people answered the second question, Be honest: when you read 'Liz Warner' did it take you time to figure out who that was? Amusingly, whilst 19 people (61%) answered 'no', 12 (that's 39%) answered 'yes'. I don't know if some of these people haven't seen the third season, or what is going on with those numbers. Although, if 12 people haven't seen the Liz episodes, should they really be voting for whether or not they like her? Like I said, I don't know what was influencing those numbers but from a superficial point of view, they made me laugh.

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And the final question, a free-for-all, answer as you will: Why do you like/dislike Liz Warner? Twenty-four people answered the question, and five of those twenty-four went on to explain/expand their answers in the comments. On the shallow scale, a lot of people (not just people who answered 'yes' to question 1) liked Liz initially because she made Don smile. No comment. A couple of people liked that Don is now in a relationship; a couple of people felt she had chemistry with Don. The overwhelming majority concurred with comments I got from flisters when I first brought this up: we know nothing about her. "Devoid of personality", "bland", "one-dimensional", "shoe-horned into the show" - these are comments people left. So, people want to like her, but there's nothing there to like. The final few people were at the tail ends of the bell curve. There were some opinions completely opposite to the majority; there were some people who felt they could define what Don Eppes needed which I find slightly redundant because then I feel you're looking at Liz Warner purely as a facet to his character, and not as a character in her own right. But, again: I don't really want to talk about it because I don't want to judge responses. At least, not more than I already have, and not in a public post, heh.

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I want to do something beyond sitting here and bitching about it. So eventually I'll end up writing something. The aim, I suppose, is to flesh her out beyond Don, give her something to do. It doesn't help that personally, I don't like her behaviour whilst she's working, but I have various other, snobbish deficiences of my own that shouldn't come into account. I don't know! Comment fic? (HA. Actually, if you have comment fic to offer, I'd be up for that, lol.) Mini-ficathon? HAIKU-FIC? A list of things you'd want from her in the next season? I don't know. It's all circles and no knots.

Comments

[abitofglitter.livejournal.com]

I missed that poll.

I guess I like her kind of okay. They just haven't really done much with her yet. I'm hoping they'll add more to her personality this next season.

[used_songs]

I would love for her to be a more complete (and interesting) character. The more strong female characters there are in any given show, the happier I am. In this show, I would love for there to be two strong female FBI agents.

I don't know that I've ever seen any Liz fic ... but I haven't exactly looked for it.

[hellphyre.livejournal.com]

Well, I somehow passes HS stats... you'd probably have to stratify the 41% who don't care between those who didn't know who she is and those that just don't care. Considering that more didn't recognize the name than not have opinion, assume that the 13 chose the option with the most ahem wiggle-room. Yes, i pulled that out of my ass.

Things I want from Liz? catfight with Megan over Larry. yeah, I'm going on er 13.