10 Unpopular Fandom Opinions

[kangeiko]

Stolen shamelessly from likeadeuce. I went for a slight twist on this, as I have been navel-gazing more and more recently.

10 Unpopular Fannish Fandom Opinions

1. Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic. There's the issue of - well, it's not physically possible. Why is people wanting something seen

Comments

[yahtzee63]

Slash is a 'superior' art-form.

Sometimes, I think that if I see this argument being made one more time, even in jest, I am going to have to CHOKE A BITCH. Or force them to read every story in the slash subgenre of soulbonded wereleopards until their eyes bleed, which I think would take about four paragraphs.

[kangeiko]

soulbonded wereleopards

Mwahahahaha! WORD.

[ari_]

slash subgenre of soulbonded wereleopards

OH I HATE YOU WITH A LOT OF HATE THAT IS VERY HATE-Y!!!!11!

I had totally forgotten about that Sentinel story where Jim is a wereleopard and Blair is *8*, and they fall in love and have sex.

Excuse me, I now have to go and sit whimpering in a corner.

[yahtzee63]

*joins you in the corner* 8? *weeps*

[winterknight]

A bad example of an AU is an AU where Harry killed Voldemort as a baby and was raised by unicorns and fell in love with a unicorn princess and they had babies and this story is about what happens when the babies grow up and go to Hogwarts.

or it's a crossover with The Last Unicorn, which is worse. either way, have one internets to go with this shiny WORD that i am awarding you.

and #8... dear baby Harry Potter, YES. trust me, little Monalisa wasn't running in to the Councils of Florence in 1441 going, "ooh, it would be awesome if Onan was really, sekritly, in love with his manservant!" while they were deciding on what the Canon of the Bible was. even if that would have made it ten times more interesting. the same courtesy should be given all canon authors. honestly.

[kangeiko]

Mwahaha! Yes, indeed.

[10littlebullets]

This is a really unpopular opinion, at least if the majority of the slash in my fandom is anything to judge by... but I think that in many cases, #4 applies to slash as well. Like it or not, if the characters are in a society where homosexuality is taboo (or even in a mostly heteronormative society), and they haven't previously come to grips with their own sexual orientation, it's ridiculous to have them just jump into bed with someone of the same sex without even a "whoa, what am I doing?" moment. I mean, there are exceptions--someone either incredibly innocent or incredibly secure in their own sexuality might not have that reaction, and pure smut is under less obligation to be realistic--but on the whole, I don't think this is dealt with nearly as often as it ought to be

[anna_wing]

Here from metafandom.

I would highly recommend galadhir's fic, which is Pirates of the Caribbean and deals principally with Norrington/Gillette. She is very realistic about the serious legal, social and psychological difficulties that such a relationship would entail at that period (up to and including execution).

And as a writer of Silmarillion gen, I thank kangeiko for opinion 5.

[bimo]

(Stumbled across this discussion via metafandom as well ;-))

Word on the general quality and enjoyableness of galadhir's stories.

I'm mostly a reader of mature, well-written gen, for the very reasons already mentioned under point 5; and quite often I feel that I need to take a look at a writer's gen fiction first, before deciding whether or not to follow them into slash country.

Clearly an act of general skepticism on my behalf, an "are you good enough to make me buy and enjoy the fictional world evolving around your pairing?"

The first piece I ever read from galadhir, Mutiny on the Dauntless was a very well-written gen novella with a breathtaking plot and very endearing, psychologically believable and multi-faceted characterisations. So I also tried a few galadhir's slashier stories. It's a decision I have not regretted, because the stuff is just as good and convincing as her gen ;-)

[cressida0201]

(Also here from metafandom.)

*perks up* Silmarillion gen? Where where where? I'd love to read some good Sil-fic, but I'm not a slasher and the ubiquity of the slash has mostly scared me away from wading into it.

[plsteward]

Here via metafandom

Word.
But because I'm weird, I'm going to respond point by point.

1.) Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic

Okay, I'm from the SGA fandom via Harry Potter's rare-pairings slash fandom. Mpreg is just one step away from canon in SGA because the aliens they deal with are cracked. This is also a fandom where penguin transformations are considered old hat or normal. Admittedly if I ever see mpreg in my more sane fandoms like Ouran, I will brain the author with a concrit & run screaming into the night. But in some fandoms where the place you live is pretty much in love with the hero & has god knows what tech waiting to be used, them mpreg because the couple wants it is plausible.

2.) There are ways to retcon rape that still allows our characters to get together.Wordy McWord. There just isn't an easy way to write rape fics unless it's cracked or long & painful. I guess you could Stockholm it, but for the most part you need the time factor, which is hard for fanfic

[plsteward]

"& it also needs to have an effect on the characters and their world outside of the 'aw, it's so nice you have love'"

*HOUSE SPOILERS, I guess?*

Unless you're writing about Foreman. *ducks* I was just going "WTF?" at that point.

It's sad that it's become an unpopular opinion to think incest is wrong.

[kangeiko]

I've heard of people leaving the Supernatural fandom because they feel that their gen fic is being victimised - just because they don't see the Twue Luv of Win!cest. I mean, all power to you if you want to write a certain relationship, but I don't force my view of the world down their tthroats and I'd expect reciprocal courtesy.

[kangeiko]

Mpreg is just one step away from canon in SGA because the aliens they deal with are cracked. This is also a fandom where penguin transformations are considered old hat or normal. Admittedly if I ever see mpreg in my more sane fandoms like Ouran, I will brain the author with a concrit & run screaming into the night.

It's the latter example that I was really talking about. Having MPREG in a fandom like Harry Potter or even Buffy can be explained easily with magic - and indeed can be used to produce some interesting and fabulous fic (I'm thinking of the one fic in particular, where Dumbledore ends up pregnant with a Voldemort shrunk back to zygote size... it's more Rosemary's Baby than anything else and it's fabulous). However, there is no excuse for AMERICAN IDOL RPS MREG. Yes, you read that right. It's RPS. And it's mpreg.

The day that Simon Cowell turns up pregnant is the day that I eat my hat.

Again word. & it also needs to have an effect on the characters & their world outside of the "aw, it's so nice you have love." *giggle

via metafandom

[brown_betty]

Clearly a very shallow reader because I read this and thought, "Lois and Clark fic? Where!?" So um. Do you have a link?

Re: via metafandom

[kangeiko]

*giggle* Indeed I do:

Anne's Place - fanfic, fan vids etc etc. The adult fic requires registration to get the password.

Lois & Clark Fanfic Archive - the largest archive for the fic. Only goes up to PG-rated fic, but has links to the Kerth awards and the nKerth awards (PG- and adult-rated fic awards) and to many other archives.

Enjoy!