Your vanilla friend looks like something I need
Dude. This tune rocks. even if the lyrics are a bit meeepy
So these rather jumbled thoughts were sparked by:
1 cordelianne remarking that I love the couples who argue and have lots of tension and seem to hate each other. And me nodding along and saying “Yes! Me too!”
2 Reading a fic which has created a world where a canon pairing actually begins their relationship long before it happened on the show
As I’m reading this fic I’m thinking ‘Can this really work?’ I mean the reason I am drawn to this pairing in the first place is because of the fact that they don’t work. They’re opposites and for some reason, known only to the gods of fucked up love, they eventually attract. That the fun of the pairing is to look at them and say, “Oh yeah, they want to but they just haven’t got around to it yet” - for whatever reason: time, pride, hatred, convenience etc - and rather than miss out on all the angst and the turbulence and the mockage and the pain, we suffer with them. And then after however many episodes or seasons or fic trials we get to the good stuff.
Which, in a way, is the fate of most non-canon pairings anyway. As my favourite S/X icon says, it’s in the hidden glances. It’s realising in a pairing from implicit moments onscreen that they really belong together.
Or not even that. Shipping characters that haven't even met or hey seem to absolutely revile each other onscreen. But come on, we all know those are the best, right? *g*
It got me to thinking what I look for in a pairing when I read a fic. Am I looking for specific personality traits in each of the characters (can I really believe that Logan is romantic and devoted all of the time? Is Lorne super-cheery come day, night or even non-alcoholic? Can Willow be the follower, not the leader?) or am I able to let the writer take me somewhere I don’t necessarily know that I want to go? It’s something that you can never really tell until you start reading - and it can vary from your absolute most favouritest writer to someone you’ve never heard of. I mean we all have that one fic of our favourite writers that, for some reason, we just can’t read. (Or didn’t enjoy when we did read.)
But then you take a character like Spike who is so variable - you read him in Spike/Angel, he’s one Spike - he tends to be very snarky, violent, humourous, but a little subservient; in Spike/Buffy he’s another - very knowing, observant, flirty, pushing boundaries; in Spike/Drusilla he’s another - extremely romantic, thoughtful, darkly comedic, violent and Spike/Harmony he’s another - disrespectful, a user, spontaneous. And that’s just the canon pairings.
[Ok so maybe that wasn’t the best of examples given that Spike is the one character I have come across - both within Jossverse and outside - that seems to be so many things to many different people. But in some ways it can work - e.g. Wes was incredibly tender and romantic with Fred, and very much not with Lilah and a mixture of the two with Faith.]
But it leads me to wonder that if you read specifically one pairing are you only reading one kind of the character? Like, the Buffy in Buffy/Faith is a lot different from the Buffy of Buffy/Angel.
So yeah, I don’t necessarily read a lot of fluff. But can I read a pairing without angst? Do I have to get through a whole lot of pain and suffering until I reach a happy ending - or just an ending - that I can be satisfied with? I’ve read a few fics lately which have suggested to me that not everything ends happily, even after all the pain and suffering. Is this what I want out of a pairing? Do we really reinforce the way the pairings are set up in the shows, or do we explore more with them?
But for instance I really enjoy Gunn/Fred (for various reasons one of which is that I don’t connect with Wes/Fred). To me they’re an idealised, functioning, romantic couple that exist in the ‘verse almost like a small scale, everyday relationship. But none the less vital for it. That they’re sweet and tender and devoted and loving and funny and screw-up sometimes, and that’s what I get out of them when I read or think about them.
But if I were to put those characteristics onto Spike/Wes or Logan/Veronica they might not necessarily work. It’s as if coming into a pairing I want specific things and do I get less enjoyment out of a fic if I don’t get those things?
I remember when people were commenting on You Made Me Forget Myself (which is Spike/Angel) that the fic was really romantic and that surprised them. And if you think about S/A as a pairing, they don’t necessarily lend themselves to romance. Would it stop someone from reading a Spike/Xander that was violent and brutal, rather than the comedy we’re all so used to from Xander?
To which I say a giant big : HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?
The thing that startles me about this post is that this is me, the person who can read pretty much anything as long as it’s well-written and pulls me in. And I’m putting caveats on fics? Hmmm.
So I want to ask you! Do you go into a fic with preconceived notions about the pairing, what you want from the fic or not? Do you only read one pairing, and if so what do you expect from it? How do you feel when you don’t get what you expect? Does it lessen your impression on a really well written fic?
Etc etc etc :D
So these rather jumbled thoughts were sparked by:
1 cordelianne remarking that I love the couples who argue and have lots of tension and seem to hate each other. And me nodding along and saying “Yes! Me too!”
2 Reading a fic which has created a world where a canon pairing actually begins their relationship long before it happened on the show
As I’m reading this fic I’m thinking ‘Can this really work?’ I mean the reason I am drawn to this pairing in the first place is because of the fact that they don’t work. They’re opposites and for some reason, known only to the gods of fucked up love, they eventually attract. That the fun of the pairing is to look at them and say, “Oh yeah, they want to but they just haven’t got around to it yet” - for whatever reason: time, pride, hatred, convenience etc - and rather than miss out on all the angst and the turbulence and the mockage and the pain, we suffer with them. And then after however many episodes or seasons or fic trials we get to the good stuff.
Which, in a way, is the fate of most non-canon pairings anyway. As my favourite S/X icon says, it’s in the hidden glances. It’s realising in a pairing from implicit moments onscreen that they really belong together.
Or not even that. Shipping characters that haven't even met or hey seem to absolutely revile each other onscreen. But come on, we all know those are the best, right? *g*
It got me to thinking what I look for in a pairing when I read a fic. Am I looking for specific personality traits in each of the characters (can I really believe that Logan is romantic and devoted all of the time? Is Lorne super-cheery come day, night or even non-alcoholic? Can Willow be the follower, not the leader?) or am I able to let the writer take me somewhere I don’t necessarily know that I want to go? It’s something that you can never really tell until you start reading - and it can vary from your absolute most favouritest writer to someone you’ve never heard of. I mean we all have that one fic of our favourite writers that, for some reason, we just can’t read. (Or didn’t enjoy when we did read.)
But then you take a character like Spike who is so variable - you read him in Spike/Angel, he’s one Spike - he tends to be very snarky, violent, humourous, but a little subservient; in Spike/Buffy he’s another - very knowing, observant, flirty, pushing boundaries; in Spike/Drusilla he’s another - extremely romantic, thoughtful, darkly comedic, violent and Spike/Harmony he’s another - disrespectful, a user, spontaneous. And that’s just the canon pairings.
[Ok so maybe that wasn’t the best of examples given that Spike is the one character I have come across - both within Jossverse and outside - that seems to be so many things to many different people. But in some ways it can work - e.g. Wes was incredibly tender and romantic with Fred, and very much not with Lilah and a mixture of the two with Faith.]
But it leads me to wonder that if you read specifically one pairing are you only reading one kind of the character? Like, the Buffy in Buffy/Faith is a lot different from the Buffy of Buffy/Angel.
So yeah, I don’t necessarily read a lot of fluff. But can I read a pairing without angst? Do I have to get through a whole lot of pain and suffering until I reach a happy ending - or just an ending - that I can be satisfied with? I’ve read a few fics lately which have suggested to me that not everything ends happily, even after all the pain and suffering. Is this what I want out of a pairing? Do we really reinforce the way the pairings are set up in the shows, or do we explore more with them?
But for instance I really enjoy Gunn/Fred (for various reasons one of which is that I don’t connect with Wes/Fred). To me they’re an idealised, functioning, romantic couple that exist in the ‘verse almost like a small scale, everyday relationship. But none the less vital for it. That they’re sweet and tender and devoted and loving and funny and screw-up sometimes, and that’s what I get out of them when I read or think about them.
But if I were to put those characteristics onto Spike/Wes or Logan/Veronica they might not necessarily work. It’s as if coming into a pairing I want specific things and do I get less enjoyment out of a fic if I don’t get those things?
I remember when people were commenting on You Made Me Forget Myself (which is Spike/Angel) that the fic was really romantic and that surprised them. And if you think about S/A as a pairing, they don’t necessarily lend themselves to romance. Would it stop someone from reading a Spike/Xander that was violent and brutal, rather than the comedy we’re all so used to from Xander?
To which I say a giant big : HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM?
The thing that startles me about this post is that this is me, the person who can read pretty much anything as long as it’s well-written and pulls me in. And I’m putting caveats on fics? Hmmm.
So I want to ask you! Do you go into a fic with preconceived notions about the pairing, what you want from the fic or not? Do you only read one pairing, and if so what do you expect from it? How do you feel when you don’t get what you expect? Does it lessen your impression on a really well written fic?
Etc etc etc :D