Last weekend I went to Get/Together
Get/Together is a little NZ slash con, and I had a lovely time. Many thanks to the organisers. I told them that I'd do a slide show on the development of the Sentinel and Guide fanon, and I present a rather text heavy version of it here.
I decided that I would only sort of reproduce my presentation for Get Together since it uses fan art and the usual etiquette of these things is no touchie. With a slide show you can break things up, but this is rather long, so apologies for that. Also, as I explained to the audience at Get Together, this is both speculative and biased in places. Any thoughts are welcome. :-)
My first slide was titled and subtitled as follows:
Why are there sentinels and guides in my Teen Wolf feed?
A speedy look at the spread of a multi-fandom fanon
Slide 2 Header - It's About Friendship
With this slide I introduced our boys. I may have made Garett onnabox jokes, which may have continued with the next slide as well....
Slide 3 Header - And cute publicity shots
- But not Sentinel AND Guide
Slide 4 Header - So does the original show mention guides at all?
Yep.
Twice.
Once in an ep called Rogue, and once in an ep called Warriors. On both occasions, it’s pretty much a throwaway reference.
This is basically a case of ‘Oh, fandom...’
With this slide, my commentary was basically direct quotes from the two eps involved.
Slide 5 Header - Sentinel and Guide in TS fandom
Even in canon setting, the following soon came along:
Jim helpless without Blair - fanon
Bonding with psychic/empathic capacity - fanon
‘Guide voice’ - fanon
Shaman!Blair - fanon
Spirit animals - actually this one is canon....
Again, I basically just explained what these terms meant - I'm presuming that if you're in the fandom that you've met these examples, but anyone who hasn't, feel free to comment
Slide 6 Header - But of course we couldn’t leave it there, could we?
Ophite popularly believed to have written the first story set in a society where sentinels and guides are known.
Susan from the UK inspired by this story to write the GDP universe - 1999/early 2000s onward.
Other fans inspired to write in GDP or else to write stories riffing off it.
This slide was pretty self explanatory. Of course, an interested viewer wanted to know what GDP was, which is a case of 'But wait, there's more!'
Slide 7 Header - What’s GDP?
Guide Development Programme (or Program, obviously)
Sentinels need their guides to control their senses, guides are empaths who go into overload without a sentinel
Guides are sentinel property, trained and monitored by the sinister GDP
In fannish terms, an ultimate expression of woobie!Blair
Again, this slide was pretty self-explanatory - I did describe some elements of woobie!Blair - abuse mainly, from recollection. I will admit it's a while since I read GDP.
Slide 8 Header - GDP continued
Originally no-homo
Brought our fandom the term ‘intense bonding’
Went slash pretty quickly
Introduced sentinel clans, Alpha Sentinels and Guides, Dark Sentinel and Guide
With this slide I commented upon the sometimes disputed gen status of the original stories, explained 'intense bonding' (again, if you haven't met that, mention in the comments) and noted that all the things in the last bullet point show up now in stories about sentinels and guides. That's quite some legs the concept has.
Slide 9 Header - And thus a genre was born!
Dolimir’s Moonhunt
Stellabella’s Moonrise
Fluterbev’s Conforming to Requirements
Susan and other GDP writers
Stories written in reaction to/against GDP concepts - LitGal wrote stories where sentinels are the oppressed people
Planet of the Sentinels stories
Again, these stories, concepts and authors are likely familiar to TS fandom participants. I commented that I was kind of entertained that three reasonably well-known 'Planet of the Sentinels' stories, including the original that gave its name to the concept, were written by New Zealanders, namely Saul, Elaine and me. It must be something about being in a little land, surrounded by sea, at the bottom of the Pacific .
Slide 10 Header - Fascinating, but how come it moved out into wider fandom?
This slide was where I gave my audience a breather from wall of text and presented them with some pics instead, namely two pics by Lorraine. One is her Dark Sentinel and Guide art, the other is her art that she did for Fluterbev's Conforming to Requirements. Both express two threads of the sentinel/guide mythos - the powerful Sentinel and Guide working together, and the woobie guide comforted by the big, supportive sentinel. That sounds potentially dismissive of the creators, which is not my intention at all. But the tropes are there, and we play with them, and have fun doing so.
Slide 11 Header - Crossovers everywhere
TS one of the first big internet fandoms, crossed over with Due South, and Stargate SG1 in particular.
Earliest fusion, as opposed to crossover, I can find is dated 2006 at Wraithbait and is McDex
In brief, I think it’s all SGA’s fault.
Slide 12 Header - Especially Keira Marcos’ fault
Plus maybe a few other writers as well, but mainly KM because...
The Sentinels of Atlantis
Introduced S/G ideas to a wide audience in the year before the series (acrimoniously) ended.
Okay, this slide needs a bit of explanation, because this is where I got rather speculative. (Also, this slide was illustrated by Fanarts' illustration for Keira Marcos's website.) Keira Marcos wrote a well-received Sentinel AU called The Awakening in 2007. In 2008 she began writing an SGA series called The Sentinels of Atlantis. Keira Marcos's stories aren't my personal cup of tea, but her work was immensely popular and may well have contributed to the spread of general sentinel and guide fanon outside of TS. In 2009, SGA was cancelled, in such a way that the producers lost a lot of fannish goodwill. As a result there were a lot of ex-SGA fans wandering around looking for a new fandom, who'd been exposed to S/G fanon ideas. And here endeth the speculation.
Slide 13 Header - S/G fanon spread to the usual suspects
Where I gave the audience another break from wall of text with pics of the casts of Hawaii Five-O and The Avengers
Slide 14 Header - And some less usual suspects
Where I provided pics of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert from the Daily Show, and the Mythbusters crew.
Slide 15 Header - A quick list of other fandoms where I found S/G AUs mentioned
Supernatural
Sherlock
Teen Wolf
James Bond
The Fast and the Furious
Magnificent Seven
Attack on Titan
Torchwood
Yu-Gi-Oh
Criminal Minds
The Losers
Person of Interest
Downton Abbey
Jeeves and Wooster
Big Bang Theory
I found some of these more mind-bending than others. :-)
Slide 16 Header - Appeal of S/G?
Destined soul mates!!!
Biological compulsion!!!
Woobification - guides are property and give up their lives in service of their sentinels!!!
But Sentinels and Guides are also speshul and can break the rules!!!
Pre-built world and concepts!!!
So, again, this speculative on my part as to what exactly appeals to readers and writers, and for each individual it may be different combos and proportions of these items. Any other suggestions welcome.
Slide 17 Header - Some quotes to explain the appeal
“Constant touching. No but seriously, Tony and Loki are always touching here, from the moment that they meet each other. This and fluff (which yeah, I consider it to be fluff :P)”
""Stan is just some guy you married who thinks he'd like to be Gracie's father. Steve is my Sentinel. It's different.""
These quotes are from readers enjoying stories outside of the TS fandom. I guess the touching/need thing comes up a lot, and also the special nature of the S/G bond.
Slide 18 Header - S/G - proto A/B/O?
“What it boils down to is a lot of desperate, dubiously consensual sex, angsting, (and) hurt/comfort elements”
Sentinels need their guides - bonding often includes urgent, desperate sex or other touching, pain at separation, aggression towards anyone perceived as a threat, biologically determined relationships. H/C can go both ways in the S/G relationship.
The quote is from an introductory page about the alpha/beta/omega trope, but I think that most people would agree that it ties into elements of the S/G trope.
For people who don't know what a/b/o is, it's a trope/AU concept that apparently had its birth on the Supernatural kink meme. It's developed to a concept of six sexes: male alphas, betas and omegas, and female alphas, betas and omegas. Betas are basically the ordinary people with 'normal' biology. Alphas and omegas have more 'specialised' arrangements, and kinks like going into heat and knotting (as in dog penis knotting, yes) feature heavily. When you consider also that there is a sub-set of S/G stories that feature hermaphrodite guides, it's clear that the fannish id moves like tides to wash up on some very similar beaches.
Slide 19 Header - Enough to make a TS fan weep
“I didn’t know what exactly Sentinel/Guide bonding was (and this opened up my eyes to the infinite fanfiction tropes that i’m still unaware of) so I had to google it. And oh my god, it’s everything that I love.”
“I don’t know about this verse and most of my knowledge comes from reading the very few Sentinel fics there are out there so have mercy!" Arghh! Presumably they meant in H50. Please tell me that's what they mean
I think this slide is self-explanatory. :-(
Slide 20 Header - Original fic even....
Stellabella the main, but not the only, proponent.
Increasing ‘calcification’ of the concept. People comment about how they’re concerned that they’re not doing the concept right...
But dude. It’s fanon. You can do what the hell you like.
I also mentioned Alex51324's stories where she developed her original characters from her stories focusing on Jim and Blair. In 'researching' for this presentation, I was kind of both entertained and flummoxed to find that people felt that they weren't always doing the concept 'right'. Given that S/G is fanon, I found that really interesting and also somewhat unexplainable. How can there be a right way to do something that fans have made up and developed so very far from the canon source?
And with that, I ended. My presentation was followed by a panel discussing a/b/o concepts (a cunning plan on the part of the organiser) and it was all rather interesting given the parallels with some aspects of the S/G fanon. I might even argue that some aspects of that fanon were influenced by a/b/o, although I know that writers such as Neichan were writing hermaphrodite guide AUs before the development of the a/b/o concept. Basically, this is all madly speculative at this point.
This entry was originally posted at http://mab-browne.dreamwidth.org/296828.html. Comments are welcome there too. :-)
I decided that I would only sort of reproduce my presentation for Get Together since it uses fan art and the usual etiquette of these things is no touchie. With a slide show you can break things up, but this is rather long, so apologies for that. Also, as I explained to the audience at Get Together, this is both speculative and biased in places. Any thoughts are welcome. :-)
My first slide was titled and subtitled as follows:
Why are there sentinels and guides in my Teen Wolf feed?
A speedy look at the spread of a multi-fandom fanon
Slide 2 Header - It's About Friendship
With this slide I introduced our boys. I may have made Garett onnabox jokes, which may have continued with the next slide as well....
Slide 3 Header - And cute publicity shots
- But not Sentinel AND Guide
Slide 4 Header - So does the original show mention guides at all?
Yep.
Twice.
Once in an ep called Rogue, and once in an ep called Warriors. On both occasions, it’s pretty much a throwaway reference.
This is basically a case of ‘Oh, fandom...’
With this slide, my commentary was basically direct quotes from the two eps involved.
Slide 5 Header - Sentinel and Guide in TS fandom
Even in canon setting, the following soon came along:
Jim helpless without Blair - fanon
Bonding with psychic/empathic capacity - fanon
‘Guide voice’ - fanon
Shaman!Blair - fanon
Spirit animals - actually this one is canon....
Again, I basically just explained what these terms meant - I'm presuming that if you're in the fandom that you've met these examples, but anyone who hasn't, feel free to comment
Slide 6 Header - But of course we couldn’t leave it there, could we?
Ophite popularly believed to have written the first story set in a society where sentinels and guides are known.
Susan from the UK inspired by this story to write the GDP universe - 1999/early 2000s onward.
Other fans inspired to write in GDP or else to write stories riffing off it.
This slide was pretty self explanatory. Of course, an interested viewer wanted to know what GDP was, which is a case of 'But wait, there's more!'
Slide 7 Header - What’s GDP?
Guide Development Programme (or Program, obviously)
Sentinels need their guides to control their senses, guides are empaths who go into overload without a sentinel
Guides are sentinel property, trained and monitored by the sinister GDP
In fannish terms, an ultimate expression of woobie!Blair
Again, this slide was pretty self-explanatory - I did describe some elements of woobie!Blair - abuse mainly, from recollection. I will admit it's a while since I read GDP.
Slide 8 Header - GDP continued
Originally no-homo
Brought our fandom the term ‘intense bonding’
Went slash pretty quickly
Introduced sentinel clans, Alpha Sentinels and Guides, Dark Sentinel and Guide
With this slide I commented upon the sometimes disputed gen status of the original stories, explained 'intense bonding' (again, if you haven't met that, mention in the comments) and noted that all the things in the last bullet point show up now in stories about sentinels and guides. That's quite some legs the concept has.
Slide 9 Header - And thus a genre was born!
Dolimir’s Moonhunt
Stellabella’s Moonrise
Fluterbev’s Conforming to Requirements
Susan and other GDP writers
Stories written in reaction to/against GDP concepts - LitGal wrote stories where sentinels are the oppressed people
Planet of the Sentinels stories
Again, these stories, concepts and authors are likely familiar to TS fandom participants. I commented that I was kind of entertained that three reasonably well-known 'Planet of the Sentinels' stories, including the original that gave its name to the concept, were written by New Zealanders, namely Saul, Elaine and me. It must be something about being in a little land, surrounded by sea, at the bottom of the Pacific .
Slide 10 Header - Fascinating, but how come it moved out into wider fandom?
This slide was where I gave my audience a breather from wall of text and presented them with some pics instead, namely two pics by Lorraine. One is her Dark Sentinel and Guide art, the other is her art that she did for Fluterbev's Conforming to Requirements. Both express two threads of the sentinel/guide mythos - the powerful Sentinel and Guide working together, and the woobie guide comforted by the big, supportive sentinel. That sounds potentially dismissive of the creators, which is not my intention at all. But the tropes are there, and we play with them, and have fun doing so.
Slide 11 Header - Crossovers everywhere
TS one of the first big internet fandoms, crossed over with Due South, and Stargate SG1 in particular.
Earliest fusion, as opposed to crossover, I can find is dated 2006 at Wraithbait and is McDex
In brief, I think it’s all SGA’s fault.
Slide 12 Header - Especially Keira Marcos’ fault
Plus maybe a few other writers as well, but mainly KM because...
The Sentinels of Atlantis
Introduced S/G ideas to a wide audience in the year before the series (acrimoniously) ended.
Okay, this slide needs a bit of explanation, because this is where I got rather speculative. (Also, this slide was illustrated by Fanarts' illustration for Keira Marcos's website.) Keira Marcos wrote a well-received Sentinel AU called The Awakening in 2007. In 2008 she began writing an SGA series called The Sentinels of Atlantis. Keira Marcos's stories aren't my personal cup of tea, but her work was immensely popular and may well have contributed to the spread of general sentinel and guide fanon outside of TS. In 2009, SGA was cancelled, in such a way that the producers lost a lot of fannish goodwill. As a result there were a lot of ex-SGA fans wandering around looking for a new fandom, who'd been exposed to S/G fanon ideas. And here endeth the speculation.
Slide 13 Header - S/G fanon spread to the usual suspects
Where I gave the audience another break from wall of text with pics of the casts of Hawaii Five-O and The Avengers
Slide 14 Header - And some less usual suspects
Where I provided pics of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert from the Daily Show, and the Mythbusters crew.
Slide 15 Header - A quick list of other fandoms where I found S/G AUs mentioned
Supernatural
Sherlock
Teen Wolf
James Bond
The Fast and the Furious
Magnificent Seven
Attack on Titan
Torchwood
Yu-Gi-Oh
Criminal Minds
The Losers
Person of Interest
Downton Abbey
Jeeves and Wooster
Big Bang Theory
I found some of these more mind-bending than others. :-)
Slide 16 Header - Appeal of S/G?
Destined soul mates!!!
Biological compulsion!!!
Woobification - guides are property and give up their lives in service of their sentinels!!!
But Sentinels and Guides are also speshul and can break the rules!!!
Pre-built world and concepts!!!
So, again, this speculative on my part as to what exactly appeals to readers and writers, and for each individual it may be different combos and proportions of these items. Any other suggestions welcome.
Slide 17 Header - Some quotes to explain the appeal
“Constant touching. No but seriously, Tony and Loki are always touching here, from the moment that they meet each other. This and fluff (which yeah, I consider it to be fluff :P)”
""Stan is just some guy you married who thinks he'd like to be Gracie's father. Steve is my Sentinel. It's different.""
These quotes are from readers enjoying stories outside of the TS fandom. I guess the touching/need thing comes up a lot, and also the special nature of the S/G bond.
Slide 18 Header - S/G - proto A/B/O?
“What it boils down to is a lot of desperate, dubiously consensual sex, angsting, (and) hurt/comfort elements”
Sentinels need their guides - bonding often includes urgent, desperate sex or other touching, pain at separation, aggression towards anyone perceived as a threat, biologically determined relationships. H/C can go both ways in the S/G relationship.
The quote is from an introductory page about the alpha/beta/omega trope, but I think that most people would agree that it ties into elements of the S/G trope.
For people who don't know what a/b/o is, it's a trope/AU concept that apparently had its birth on the Supernatural kink meme. It's developed to a concept of six sexes: male alphas, betas and omegas, and female alphas, betas and omegas. Betas are basically the ordinary people with 'normal' biology. Alphas and omegas have more 'specialised' arrangements, and kinks like going into heat and knotting (as in dog penis knotting, yes) feature heavily. When you consider also that there is a sub-set of S/G stories that feature hermaphrodite guides, it's clear that the fannish id moves like tides to wash up on some very similar beaches.
Slide 19 Header - Enough to make a TS fan weep
“I didn’t know what exactly Sentinel/Guide bonding was (and this opened up my eyes to the infinite fanfiction tropes that i’m still unaware of) so I had to google it. And oh my god, it’s everything that I love.”
“I don’t know about this verse and most of my knowledge comes from reading the very few Sentinel fics there are out there so have mercy!" Arghh! Presumably they meant in H50. Please tell me that's what they mean
I think this slide is self-explanatory. :-(
Slide 20 Header - Original fic even....
Stellabella the main, but not the only, proponent.
Increasing ‘calcification’ of the concept. People comment about how they’re concerned that they’re not doing the concept right...
But dude. It’s fanon. You can do what the hell you like.
I also mentioned Alex51324's stories where she developed her original characters from her stories focusing on Jim and Blair. In 'researching' for this presentation, I was kind of both entertained and flummoxed to find that people felt that they weren't always doing the concept 'right'. Given that S/G is fanon, I found that really interesting and also somewhat unexplainable. How can there be a right way to do something that fans have made up and developed so very far from the canon source?
And with that, I ended. My presentation was followed by a panel discussing a/b/o concepts (a cunning plan on the part of the organiser) and it was all rather interesting given the parallels with some aspects of the S/G fanon. I might even argue that some aspects of that fanon were influenced by a/b/o, although I know that writers such as Neichan were writing hermaphrodite guide AUs before the development of the a/b/o concept. Basically, this is all madly speculative at this point.
This entry was originally posted at http://mab-browne.dreamwidth.org/296828.html. Comments are welcome there too. :-)