I think the amnesia trope as you describe it (with one person convincing the other that they belong together) isn't too awesome (except, I vaguely recall liking one where Drusilla used some kind of demon worm to eat a lot of Spike's memories? So, he went back to being sort of evil? I can understand not leaving someone well enough alone if the memory loss makes them *evil*). But I think there is potential for interesting storytelling there.
Like, I think amnesia stories can go back to nature vs. nurture, how are we who we are, fate vs. identity, etc. Like, "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" deals with selective memory loss. Or in this season's Fringe, notaserialkiller!dude loses the memory that kept him from becoming a serial killer, but he didn't lose what the memory did to him. I think that stuff's really cool.
And I can see places where you could do cool things with amnesia in fic. For example, as a character regains or acquires new memories, you could explore how that shapes him or her. If characters with amnesia immediately make a connection, it can say a lot about that connection (in Tabula Rasa, some couples connect [Dawn and Buffy, Spike and Buffy, Tara and Willow] and Anya and Xander super don't; in It's a Terrible Life, Sam immediately gloms onto Dean). I think you could also do something interesting with one character mourning the person they used to know, and new!person trying to grasp what they used to have.
And I have an original!fic on the back burner that deals with nullifying memories in a certain way that I won't detail here, but I think it brings up interesting questions (though, duh, if I'm planning on writing it, I probably don't think it's dumb and boring).
So. Anyway. I think the idea of playing with memory loss (though, I have to say, I usually need it to be magic or "science"-y, not from a large whump to the head) opens up interesting avenues. But ffic's primary concern is often "how can I make these people have sex?" which tends to leave the fun, compelling stuff ignored. For me, it's like genderbending (though not quite as disappointing quite as often); I'll keep reading cuz I'm convinced that there's *got* to be some good ones that delve into the things I'd like to see explored. /long ramble is long
You're absolutely right - amnesia in itself can lead to a lot of interesting questions about the nature of identity. That's what I love about Dollhouse, Eternal Sunshine, and a bunch of other stories that feature memory loss. (And now I'm curious about your original fic, NO PRESSURE.)
It's the "how can we make these characters have sex" aspect where I get confused. There are far FAR more convincing and less problematic ways to get characters in each others' underpants. So why use amnesia?
My original fic is a long way off! I just have it jotted down in the Big Book of Plot Bunnies In My Brain. It's a little bit science-y.
I think the "how can we make these characters have sex" aspect is often baffling, but something we just have to deal with in ffic. I mean, I came across a request looking for "one character is mentally disabled" fic the other day. Which, yeah, I read all the recs cuz what the hell, and that was hella dub-con. Which, out of all the ways to get two people together, "one has the mental capacity of a toddler" is not the way I would go about it, but "convincing" and "problematic" kinda mean nothing in fandom?
Oh, I should say that the "mentally disabled" fics took great strides to make it okay (and I kinda read to see how they were gonna try and accomplish that). I would say that they mostly failed. And the others had it so, "But he gets better!" I might have actually been less disturbed if they weren't so darn fluffy.
Anyway! Back to amnesia! I think another way I've seen it that isn't *so* bad is where the characters didn't know each other before one got amnesia. And another would be in which the amnesiac character is in danger for some reason, so the other character has to step back into their life and be all, "BTW. Demons." *g*
Those amnesia variants sound interesting. If the characters didn't know each other pre-amnesia, that becomes an entirely different setup. I enjoyed the show John Doe because it was about the protagonist building a surrogate family while trying to reconstruct his past, and he had a LOT of agency in the process.
Like, I think amnesia stories can go back to nature vs. nurture, how are we who we are, fate vs. identity, etc. Like, "Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind" deals with selective memory loss. Or in this season's Fringe, notaserialkiller!dude loses the memory that kept him from becoming a serial killer, but he didn't lose what the memory did to him. I think that stuff's really cool.
And I can see places where you could do cool things with amnesia in fic. For example, as a character regains or acquires new memories, you could explore how that shapes him or her. If characters with amnesia immediately make a connection, it can say a lot about that connection (in Tabula Rasa, some couples connect [Dawn and Buffy, Spike and Buffy, Tara and Willow] and Anya and Xander super don't; in It's a Terrible Life, Sam immediately gloms onto Dean). I think you could also do something interesting with one character mourning the person they used to know, and new!person trying to grasp what they used to have.
And I have an original!fic on the back burner that deals with nullifying memories in a certain way that I won't detail here, but I think it brings up interesting questions (though, duh, if I'm planning on writing it, I probably don't think it's dumb and boring).
So. Anyway. I think the idea of playing with memory loss (though, I have to say, I usually need it to be magic or "science"-y, not from a large whump to the head) opens up interesting avenues. But ffic's primary concern is often "how can I make these people have sex?" which tends to leave the fun, compelling stuff ignored. For me, it's like genderbending (though not quite as disappointing quite as often); I'll keep reading cuz I'm convinced that there's *got* to be some good ones that delve into the things I'd like to see explored. /long ramble is long
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It's the "how can we make these characters have sex" aspect where I get confused. There are far FAR more convincing and less problematic ways to get characters in each others' underpants. So why use amnesia?
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I think the "how can we make these characters have sex" aspect is often baffling, but something we just have to deal with in ffic. I mean, I came across a request looking for "one character is mentally disabled" fic the other day. Which, yeah, I read all the recs cuz what the hell, and that was hella dub-con. Which, out of all the ways to get two people together, "one has the mental capacity of a toddler" is not the way I would go about it, but "convincing" and "problematic" kinda mean nothing in fandom?
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That certainly seems to be the case. *sigh*
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There are the fics that are good.
There are the fics that have nuggets of awesome things, but fail to explore them cuz all the want is romancing.
And then there's the crazy.
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Anyway! Back to amnesia! I think another way I've seen it that isn't *so* bad is where the characters didn't know each other before one got amnesia. And another would be in which the amnesiac character is in danger for some reason, so the other character has to step back into their life and be all, "BTW. Demons." *g*
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