New fanfics up
I wrote a series of short pieces, episode tags, for Eureka. They're up at my AO3 page and at my new, just because of Eureka! ff.net page as well.
I had fun - tried different voices, wrote a little porn. I also used these little bits and bobs to construct head canon to make what happened on screen flow naturally from my own understanding of the characters, and what happened between episodes and off screen. Which was definitely fun to do. I have a few more 'issues' like that to resolve, actually! So - there will probably be a few more of these before I'm ready to let go...!
But - this project of mine in Eureka has made reading all the angst in the OUAT fandom even weirder. Deeply compelling. Like I can't look away from the carnage compelling....
I realize not everyone's project is to make sense of canon - in fact *my* project is not always to 'make sense of canon'! I've got the AU fics to prove it too - but as that is my project *right now* - it's especially disorienting.
It is NOT disorienting that there is a major, major slash fandom for Regina/Emma, because, hey, fandom! And antagonists to lovers is always popular. Not my fave, but super popular. (It's the dominant pairing in Eureka, actually, on AO3 - slashing the primary antagonists. I don't ship them? But LOTS of the remaining active fen do.) I'm still kinda amazed, though, that so many fans of Emma/Regina are so insistent that it is the real 'endgame' of the show, AND that the actors and producers and writers are all queer baiting assholes, AND that the onscreen het pairings are essentially false, without chemistry, rushed, and full of rape culture, AND that the actresses and writers are deliberately crafting a great love story *without even knowing it,* AND that Jennifer Morrison is a horrible person because she doesn't understand her own character, AND anyone who doesn't see the Emma/Regina love is just a big poopyhead.
(That rape culture bit is.. well. Okay. Yeah. We swim in it, of course it's in our mainstream entertainment. But basically the line of thought seems to bottom out somewhere around: dude expressing desire = rape culture. Or even, dude expressing strong opinions = rape culture. Misandry for ten, anyone? - I don't think that's what they intend, btw, in each individual long tumblr post on the subject, but it certainly is the result of reading LOTS of them all at once. Kinda like the cumulative effect of Mad Jim Kirk, or Bimbo Nikita.)
The highlight - or maybe lowlight? - is the charge that OUAT is a very damaging, deeply misogynist show. This is a show that has three female leads, multiple female recurring characters whose stories drive the plot, and some really fantastic female villains. The women are young and old, married and single, mothers and child free, readers and warriors, lovers and loners, look fragile but are unexpectedly tough, or look tough but cover up a tender core.... Because there are so many, NONE of them have to bear the burden of representing all 'women' and instead get to exist in deep variety.
The boys are, with the exception of Rumplestiltskin, almost entirely eye candy/rewards. They've even gleefully fridged several dudes along the way. I haven't kept a tally, but I think they've actually fridged more way dudes than ladies (is Milah the only one?), because it's the ladies' stories that are central.
Could more of the female characters be POC? Of course. Would it be nice to see some non-het, non-cis folk, of any variety? Of course.
Just - still - coming to terms with the intensity. I sort of wish there was still a fandomwank to take the piss out of all of it!
I had fun - tried different voices, wrote a little porn. I also used these little bits and bobs to construct head canon to make what happened on screen flow naturally from my own understanding of the characters, and what happened between episodes and off screen. Which was definitely fun to do. I have a few more 'issues' like that to resolve, actually! So - there will probably be a few more of these before I'm ready to let go...!
But - this project of mine in Eureka has made reading all the angst in the OUAT fandom even weirder. Deeply compelling. Like I can't look away from the carnage compelling....
I realize not everyone's project is to make sense of canon - in fact *my* project is not always to 'make sense of canon'! I've got the AU fics to prove it too - but as that is my project *right now* - it's especially disorienting.
It is NOT disorienting that there is a major, major slash fandom for Regina/Emma, because, hey, fandom! And antagonists to lovers is always popular. Not my fave, but super popular. (It's the dominant pairing in Eureka, actually, on AO3 - slashing the primary antagonists. I don't ship them? But LOTS of the remaining active fen do.) I'm still kinda amazed, though, that so many fans of Emma/Regina are so insistent that it is the real 'endgame' of the show, AND that the actors and producers and writers are all queer baiting assholes, AND that the onscreen het pairings are essentially false, without chemistry, rushed, and full of rape culture, AND that the actresses and writers are deliberately crafting a great love story *without even knowing it,* AND that Jennifer Morrison is a horrible person because she doesn't understand her own character, AND anyone who doesn't see the Emma/Regina love is just a big poopyhead.
(That rape culture bit is.. well. Okay. Yeah. We swim in it, of course it's in our mainstream entertainment. But basically the line of thought seems to bottom out somewhere around: dude expressing desire = rape culture. Or even, dude expressing strong opinions = rape culture. Misandry for ten, anyone? - I don't think that's what they intend, btw, in each individual long tumblr post on the subject, but it certainly is the result of reading LOTS of them all at once. Kinda like the cumulative effect of Mad Jim Kirk, or Bimbo Nikita.)
The highlight - or maybe lowlight? - is the charge that OUAT is a very damaging, deeply misogynist show. This is a show that has three female leads, multiple female recurring characters whose stories drive the plot, and some really fantastic female villains. The women are young and old, married and single, mothers and child free, readers and warriors, lovers and loners, look fragile but are unexpectedly tough, or look tough but cover up a tender core.... Because there are so many, NONE of them have to bear the burden of representing all 'women' and instead get to exist in deep variety.
The boys are, with the exception of Rumplestiltskin, almost entirely eye candy/rewards. They've even gleefully fridged several dudes along the way. I haven't kept a tally, but I think they've actually fridged more way dudes than ladies (is Milah the only one?), because it's the ladies' stories that are central.
Could more of the female characters be POC? Of course. Would it be nice to see some non-het, non-cis folk, of any variety? Of course.
Just - still - coming to terms with the intensity. I sort of wish there was still a fandomwank to take the piss out of all of it!