Meme answers...
sallymn requested: 'what do you think attracts you to the fandoms you pick?'
Gosh, that's a good question! I wish I knew. I've often wondered about this, from different angles - what about a particular character attracts me? what about a particular ship attracts me? why do some shows or characters or ships that seem to hit all my buttons just leave me cold? why do I sometimes ship slash and sometimes het?
I think a lot of it does boil down to the characters. There are shows that I enjoy, ships I ship in a sort of half-hearted way, but to get me really fannish about something I usually have to be especially emotionally invested in a certain character or a certain pairing. And there I think I can be a bit more certain about what appeals.
With het ships it's often very much a May/December thing for me, like Gibbs/Abby or Buffy/Giles or even Jareth/Sarah. I definitely have a thing about strong, stoic older men utterly undone by younger women. And sometimes that fits with slash too - like Harvey/Mike or Jack/Ianto.
With slash, it's generally more of a partnership of equals thing - I love the enforced closeness of partnerships, which may be I'm drawn to crime procedurals a lot. I'm thinking of Steve/Danny or Holmes/Watson or Sam/Gene or even Chris/Vin. I love that 'us against the world', 'got your back' kind of pairing. And I love the trope of the strong silent type with the inner manpain. It's an utter cliché but that tends to be what draws me in, and I think most of my ships include at least one character who fits that description.
So basically, if you've got a show with a strong silent male character, preferably late-30s or early 40s with a hidden past, serious kickass competence, and major manpain, teamed up with a more outgoing, lively personable character (whether male or female) who draws them out, often against their will, and whom they secretly or not-so-secretly adore...chances are I'm probably gonna love it.
Gosh, that's a good question! I wish I knew. I've often wondered about this, from different angles - what about a particular character attracts me? what about a particular ship attracts me? why do some shows or characters or ships that seem to hit all my buttons just leave me cold? why do I sometimes ship slash and sometimes het?
I think a lot of it does boil down to the characters. There are shows that I enjoy, ships I ship in a sort of half-hearted way, but to get me really fannish about something I usually have to be especially emotionally invested in a certain character or a certain pairing. And there I think I can be a bit more certain about what appeals.
With het ships it's often very much a May/December thing for me, like Gibbs/Abby or Buffy/Giles or even Jareth/Sarah. I definitely have a thing about strong, stoic older men utterly undone by younger women. And sometimes that fits with slash too - like Harvey/Mike or Jack/Ianto.
With slash, it's generally more of a partnership of equals thing - I love the enforced closeness of partnerships, which may be I'm drawn to crime procedurals a lot. I'm thinking of Steve/Danny or Holmes/Watson or Sam/Gene or even Chris/Vin. I love that 'us against the world', 'got your back' kind of pairing. And I love the trope of the strong silent type with the inner manpain. It's an utter cliché but that tends to be what draws me in, and I think most of my ships include at least one character who fits that description.
So basically, if you've got a show with a strong silent male character, preferably late-30s or early 40s with a hidden past, serious kickass competence, and major manpain, teamed up with a more outgoing, lively personable character (whether male or female) who draws them out, often against their will, and whom they secretly or not-so-secretly adore...chances are I'm probably gonna love it.