Shipping Meme Cont'd: Day 9 and 10
Potter fic 99% percent done. Should have it up sometime today. :)
Day 9: Your least favorite couple:
I've already mentioned my least favorite canon couple, Harry/Ginny. But my least favorite ship, period? Obi-Wan Kenobi/Padmé Amidala, Star Wars.
This is one of those dislikes that was just so utterly visceral, it was hard for me to fully articulate it for a long time. Over the years, I've come to see that a significant part of it stemmed from my original exposure to the ship in the days before AOTC/ROTS: Anakin has been my absolute favorite character (in SW or any series) since even before TPM, and here's a ship founded almost exclusively on the assassination of his character. Nearly every single Obidala or "love triangle" fan fiction in that era went out of their way to make him extra villainous - in some cases even raping Padmé to conceive Luke and Leia, if in fact the twins were his at all. (Rape? Adultery? In a PG movie series?) This portrayal went against every fannish fiber of my being; the whole point of having a prequel trilogy, and even the end of ROTJ, was to show that Anakin hadn't always been evil. You can argue on whether he was still a jerk/brat in prequels or not, but evil from the outset? No. If Anakin had raped/beaten Padmé, we'd be cheering Luke on to destroy him in ROTJ, not redeem him. Not to mention - it would have added nothing to the story as we knew it in the OT. Vader evil? Okay, we already knew that. Vader was a good guy who actually loved someone once? Whoa, new information!
Besides, if Obi-Wan was so awesome already, why did someone else need to be villainized for him to be a good partner for Padmé? I even remember one fic where Obi-Wan was so insecure he actually hoped the twins Padmé carried weren't his, but a result of Anakin's earlier rape of her. Ugh. I didn't feel sorry for Obi-Wan, I wanted to smack him for being such a snivelling wuss and wishing something like that on the woman he supposedly loved.
Another problem I had with the pairing was that it just seemed, well, uncreative as an explanation for Anakin's turn to the dark side, not to mention unnecessary. TPM planted plenty of seeds for Anakin's eventual undoing, and not one bit do with anything between Obi-Wan and Padmé. Even the most articulate Obidala shippers never seemed able come up with a reason why Obidala absolutely had to happen, the way Anakin/Padmé had to happen. It felt (to me) like instead of looking at the existing text and forming a theory, the Obidala shippers were working backwards from a hoped-for conclusion and trying to manipulate the existing text to fit it. No matter how one tried to argue that there was next to zero significant interaction, let alone chemistry, between Obi-Wan and Padmé in TPM... no, there had to be something there, and all the Anakin/Padmé foreshadowing didn't mean anything because, "we already know it's going to happen." Erm, okay. It was also telling when they pushed the argument that Lucas had at one point considered having Padmé crush on Obi-Wan in TPM: yes, Lucas did consider the love triangle storyline - and then? Deliberately eliminated it as a possibility early on.
The Obidala debates were pretty much killed by the release of AOTC, but still, my involvement in them was so exhausting that when a similarly bloody ship war - perhaps even more so - erupted in Harry Potter fandom, I by and large steered clear of it. So I suppose that is one semi-blessing from this ship. As frustrating as the love triangle debates could be, I don't recall vitriolic labeling, name-calling, and sheer butthurt happening to the extent that occurred - and in some places still occurs - in HP fandom.
Now, my loathing of this ship isn't quite as fiery. Partly because the final canon vindicated my viewpoint, and partly because there are fic authors out there now who can write an Obidala-ish story but still portray Anakin as sympathetic. Granted, the moment I see a story headed for Obidala territory, Anakin-sympathetic or not, I still immediately head for my back button. My love of Anakin/Padmé as - for want of a better term - soulmates in nearly every mythical or symbolic sense of the word just doesn't really allow any room to ship either of them with anyone else, and even that aside? The greatest thing Obi-Wan and Padmé have in common is the thing that would most come between them: Anakin. Even assuming Padmé survived the PT, their respective love for Anakin and agony over his loss/betrayal is so great that I don't see any romance happening between them for a long, LONG time, if at all. Especially if Padmé knew Vader was Anakin, I don't see her giving up on him. I even wrote an essay on this topic long ago on the SagaJournal website: how the people arguing for an Arthurian style love triangle were looking at things the wrong way, that Padmé wasn't the focal point of the triangle at all: it was Anakin, caught between the two paths Obi-Wan and Padmé represented (duty and love).
Day 10: Ship that became canon even though you didn't expect it to:
Albeit in an unrequited way, Snape/Lily, Harry Potter. The professor who treats Harry like a jerk? Oh, it must all because he secretly loved Harry's mother! Oooh, maybe he's even Harry's real father! (Though thankfully the "Harry looks just like James" repeated bullet-point in the text killed most of that part of the theory.) Whatever, move on. Hardly a creative or interesting speculation. Heck, the semi-official fanon name for the ship - prior to Deathly Hallows - was even the "SS Clichéd."
But even back then, I remember one pro-Snape/Lily argument that stuck with me: despite the countless times you see Snape rail against James Potter to Harry, you never once see him mention, let alone say a word against, Lily Potter. If Snape hates Harry so much, wouldn't he rail against both parents as the reason Harry is such a despicable twat? Indeed. Random oversight on JKR's part - or something more?
Then came "The Prince's Tale" chapter in DH. Wow. A popular fannish theory that actually turned out to be correct.
I still didn't think of it as particularly original, but looking back at the earlier books, there are a few tiny hints aside from Snape not insulting Lily to Harry. Take the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory" in OotP: most people assumed at the time that it was his "worst" memory because James humiliated him in front of everyone. The film version of OotP also seemed to take this tack, leaving out what turned out to be perhaps the most important part of that chapter: the humiliated Snape calling Lily a Mudblood and rebuffing her attempt to defend him, resulting in her abandoning him to James' torments. I also remember in one of the books - also OotP? - Petunia at one point mentions "that awful boy" Lily hung around with. At the time we all assumed it was James, but now we realize it was likely Snape.
Looking at "The Prince's Tale" chapter in the DH book, it's still hard for me to feel too sorry for Snape. Yes, the woman he loved from childhood married his worst enemy and even had his child. But Snape still committed a number of assholish deeds that would have probably doomed a relationship with Lily regardless: he called her a Mudblood, he joined the Death Eaters (a cause Lily made clear she could never support), and was even willing to sacrifice Lily's husband and infant child so she would live - something Lily would never have forgiven him for. Lily also wouldn't stand for Snape treating her son as horribly as he did, either; no matter his motives, there's no excuse for Snape treating Harry (and other students) like he did throughout most of the books.
This is one case where the movie actually made me feel more sympathetic. First, Snape's death scene, with Lily's theme being softly being played over his final words, "You have your mother's eyes." Ouch. The Pensieve flashback portrays Snape's love for Lily as far more selfless than in the book, leaving out the horrible stuff like him calling her a Mudblood and their falling-out over him joining the Death Eaters. And Alan Rickman has perhaps no finer moment as Snape than these flashback scenes; his pleading with Dumbledore for her life, and especially the scene where he finds Lily's body in Godric's Hollow and then cradles her, sobbing, in front of Harry's crib, is like a knife in my chest.
Day 9: Your least favorite couple:
I've already mentioned my least favorite canon couple, Harry/Ginny. But my least favorite ship, period? Obi-Wan Kenobi/Padmé Amidala, Star Wars.
This is one of those dislikes that was just so utterly visceral, it was hard for me to fully articulate it for a long time. Over the years, I've come to see that a significant part of it stemmed from my original exposure to the ship in the days before AOTC/ROTS: Anakin has been my absolute favorite character (in SW or any series) since even before TPM, and here's a ship founded almost exclusively on the assassination of his character. Nearly every single Obidala or "love triangle" fan fiction in that era went out of their way to make him extra villainous - in some cases even raping Padmé to conceive Luke and Leia, if in fact the twins were his at all. (Rape? Adultery? In a PG movie series?) This portrayal went against every fannish fiber of my being; the whole point of having a prequel trilogy, and even the end of ROTJ, was to show that Anakin hadn't always been evil. You can argue on whether he was still a jerk/brat in prequels or not, but evil from the outset? No. If Anakin had raped/beaten Padmé, we'd be cheering Luke on to destroy him in ROTJ, not redeem him. Not to mention - it would have added nothing to the story as we knew it in the OT. Vader evil? Okay, we already knew that. Vader was a good guy who actually loved someone once? Whoa, new information!
Besides, if Obi-Wan was so awesome already, why did someone else need to be villainized for him to be a good partner for Padmé? I even remember one fic where Obi-Wan was so insecure he actually hoped the twins Padmé carried weren't his, but a result of Anakin's earlier rape of her. Ugh. I didn't feel sorry for Obi-Wan, I wanted to smack him for being such a snivelling wuss and wishing something like that on the woman he supposedly loved.
Another problem I had with the pairing was that it just seemed, well, uncreative as an explanation for Anakin's turn to the dark side, not to mention unnecessary. TPM planted plenty of seeds for Anakin's eventual undoing, and not one bit do with anything between Obi-Wan and Padmé. Even the most articulate Obidala shippers never seemed able come up with a reason why Obidala absolutely had to happen, the way Anakin/Padmé had to happen. It felt (to me) like instead of looking at the existing text and forming a theory, the Obidala shippers were working backwards from a hoped-for conclusion and trying to manipulate the existing text to fit it. No matter how one tried to argue that there was next to zero significant interaction, let alone chemistry, between Obi-Wan and Padmé in TPM... no, there had to be something there, and all the Anakin/Padmé foreshadowing didn't mean anything because, "we already know it's going to happen." Erm, okay. It was also telling when they pushed the argument that Lucas had at one point considered having Padmé crush on Obi-Wan in TPM: yes, Lucas did consider the love triangle storyline - and then? Deliberately eliminated it as a possibility early on.
The Obidala debates were pretty much killed by the release of AOTC, but still, my involvement in them was so exhausting that when a similarly bloody ship war - perhaps even more so - erupted in Harry Potter fandom, I by and large steered clear of it. So I suppose that is one semi-blessing from this ship. As frustrating as the love triangle debates could be, I don't recall vitriolic labeling, name-calling, and sheer butthurt happening to the extent that occurred - and in some places still occurs - in HP fandom.
Now, my loathing of this ship isn't quite as fiery. Partly because the final canon vindicated my viewpoint, and partly because there are fic authors out there now who can write an Obidala-ish story but still portray Anakin as sympathetic. Granted, the moment I see a story headed for Obidala territory, Anakin-sympathetic or not, I still immediately head for my back button. My love of Anakin/Padmé as - for want of a better term - soulmates in nearly every mythical or symbolic sense of the word just doesn't really allow any room to ship either of them with anyone else, and even that aside? The greatest thing Obi-Wan and Padmé have in common is the thing that would most come between them: Anakin. Even assuming Padmé survived the PT, their respective love for Anakin and agony over his loss/betrayal is so great that I don't see any romance happening between them for a long, LONG time, if at all. Especially if Padmé knew Vader was Anakin, I don't see her giving up on him. I even wrote an essay on this topic long ago on the SagaJournal website: how the people arguing for an Arthurian style love triangle were looking at things the wrong way, that Padmé wasn't the focal point of the triangle at all: it was Anakin, caught between the two paths Obi-Wan and Padmé represented (duty and love).
Day 10: Ship that became canon even though you didn't expect it to:
Albeit in an unrequited way, Snape/Lily, Harry Potter. The professor who treats Harry like a jerk? Oh, it must all because he secretly loved Harry's mother! Oooh, maybe he's even Harry's real father! (Though thankfully the "Harry looks just like James" repeated bullet-point in the text killed most of that part of the theory.) Whatever, move on. Hardly a creative or interesting speculation. Heck, the semi-official fanon name for the ship - prior to Deathly Hallows - was even the "SS Clichéd."
But even back then, I remember one pro-Snape/Lily argument that stuck with me: despite the countless times you see Snape rail against James Potter to Harry, you never once see him mention, let alone say a word against, Lily Potter. If Snape hates Harry so much, wouldn't he rail against both parents as the reason Harry is such a despicable twat? Indeed. Random oversight on JKR's part - or something more?
Then came "The Prince's Tale" chapter in DH. Wow. A popular fannish theory that actually turned out to be correct.
I still didn't think of it as particularly original, but looking back at the earlier books, there are a few tiny hints aside from Snape not insulting Lily to Harry. Take the chapter "Snape's Worst Memory" in OotP: most people assumed at the time that it was his "worst" memory because James humiliated him in front of everyone. The film version of OotP also seemed to take this tack, leaving out what turned out to be perhaps the most important part of that chapter: the humiliated Snape calling Lily a Mudblood and rebuffing her attempt to defend him, resulting in her abandoning him to James' torments. I also remember in one of the books - also OotP? - Petunia at one point mentions "that awful boy" Lily hung around with. At the time we all assumed it was James, but now we realize it was likely Snape.
Looking at "The Prince's Tale" chapter in the DH book, it's still hard for me to feel too sorry for Snape. Yes, the woman he loved from childhood married his worst enemy and even had his child. But Snape still committed a number of assholish deeds that would have probably doomed a relationship with Lily regardless: he called her a Mudblood, he joined the Death Eaters (a cause Lily made clear she could never support), and was even willing to sacrifice Lily's husband and infant child so she would live - something Lily would never have forgiven him for. Lily also wouldn't stand for Snape treating her son as horribly as he did, either; no matter his motives, there's no excuse for Snape treating Harry (and other students) like he did throughout most of the books.
This is one case where the movie actually made me feel more sympathetic. First, Snape's death scene, with Lily's theme being softly being played over his final words, "You have your mother's eyes." Ouch. The Pensieve flashback portrays Snape's love for Lily as far more selfless than in the book, leaving out the horrible stuff like him calling her a Mudblood and their falling-out over him joining the Death Eaters. And Alan Rickman has perhaps no finer moment as Snape than these flashback scenes; his pleading with Dumbledore for her life, and especially the scene where he finds Lily's body in Godric's Hollow and then cradles her, sobbing, in front of Harry's crib, is like a knife in my chest.