30 Days of Fandom Meme: Day 9
9 - Pairings - For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?
Oh dear. For most of these fandoms I’ve only written one or two pairings. I guess I’ll just list the favorites that I have for each fandom, and if that ends up being one or three or five, I guess we’ll just go with that.
1. Captain America/Marvel Cinematic Universe. Steve/Bucky. There are a lot of other MCU pairings I’m interested in (and this is leaving aside Agents of SHIELD pairings, too), but that’s the only one I’ve written, unless that weirdly intense is-this-platonic-or-romantic Natasha/Pepper moment in that one fic counts.
I think it counts. It totally sold me on Pepper/Natasha as a concept, anyway. All the fics about Pepper using her superior height to kiss Natasha on the forehead and generally spoiling her and doing fun girly stuff with her and Natasha’s kind of weirded out about this whole going to a spa for fun instead of as part of a disguise to take down a mark. But she’s kind of digging it, too.
2. Eagle of the Ninth. Ha, well this is a gimme. Cottia/Esca, Marcus/Esca, Marcus/Cottia, and oddly I like writing the first one best, maybe because it’s the most work.
3. Torchwood. Owen/Ianto. I also wrote Jack/Owen and Jack/Ianto, which I enjoyed, although the Jack/Ianto had a trainwreck dynamic much at odds with the way the rest of the fandom wrote it.
4. Frontier Wolf. I’ve written a little bit of everything from this fandom. I think my favorite to write was actually Cunorix/Shula (I can’t remember if this is the name canon gives Cunorix’s wife, or if I picked one out), because there was a lovely tension in that story between Cunorix’s chosen bond with his wife and his fated soulbond with Alexios, which Cunorix both welcomes because, well, soulbond, but also chafes at because he didn’t choose it.
5. Downton Abbey. Sybil/Branson. And I have a soft spot for Sybil/Gwen, but I never precisely wrote it, only sort of hinting at it in “Idyll in Bluebells” (which was kind of an OT3 fic anyway).
6. The Obernewtyn Chronicles. I’m not sure I actually ever managed an Obernewtyn fic where any pairing was successfully together. But then, neither has Isobelle Carmody (zing!).
7. Les Miserables: Eponine/Cosette, even though the story never got to the part where they actually got together, alas.
8. American Girl Dolls. Felicity/Ben, Felicity/Elizabeth.
9. Vikings. Athelstan/Ragnar. But only if Athelstan is filled with confusion and self-loathing and poorly understood lust.
10. Pushing Daisies. I was really into Ned/Chuck when I watched the show, but the more time passes, the more uncomfortable I am with it, because I feel like Chuck stays with Ned because the plot demands it more than because that’s a decision she would really make. Her dream has always been to travel the world, and when she finds herself resurrected, she… doesn’t travel at all, but stays in the same place as the guy who could kill her dead by touching her?
Not that Ned would ever do this on purpose, but he could bump into her by accident.
11. Psych. Gus/Shawn, with the caveat that I don’t think they would actually work and actually Shawn is emotionally a ten-year-old boy and as such should not be in a relationship with anyone until he’s more grown up.
12. Protector of the Small. EVERYONE. Kel/Neal, Neal/Yuki, I would probably be into Kel/Yuki except Kel is one of those characters who just seems extremely straight to me.
Actually, most of Pierce’s heroines seem extremely straight to me. I guess maybe I could buy a little Aly/Dove action a few years down the road in the Trickster series. And I will never get over the tragic lack of Aly/Taybur. A better pairing than Aly/Nawat in every conceivable way. But I actually have a lot of non-shipping-related issues with these Trickster books, so I will probably never write any of this.
13. The Silver Branch. Don’t really ship anyone from this, actually.
14. Hetalia. I think the only Hetalia pairing I ever wrote was Russia/America, which was a blast. It’s too bad I didn’t write more for this fandom. But I feel like the golden age of history-based Hetalia fics passed before I started writing in the fandom. It’s ironic, in a way; I procrastinated on writing anything for Hetalia because I found the caliber of the best fics so intimidating, and therefore missed out on befriending a lot of cool people (although I did meet konstantya, who is the bees’ knees).
15. Wonderfalls. Jaye/Eric. I’m weirdly invested in this pairing, in a way I often am not in canon pairings, but they are right on the line between being really great for each other and being a really awful idea and I find it bizarrely fascinating.
16. The Eagle. Esca/Marcus.
17. Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms. I don’t think think I can actually answer this question, as fairytales aren’t a fandom in the sense that the others are.
18. The Lost Prince. I actually kind of prefer Marco & the Rat as heterosexual bosom buddies.
19. Code Name Verity. Maddie/Julie, Maddie/Jamie.
20. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. If Lydia and Mary hadn’t been cousins, I would have been on that like white on rice. I’m actually fine with shipping cousins in contexts where it’s culturally acceptable, but modern America is emphatically not a culture where it’s acceptable, so that kind of put paid to that.
21. Blood Feud. Jestyn/Alexia, Jestyn/Anders.
22. Ella Enchanted. I didn’t write any pairings for this, but I like both Ella/Char and Ella/Areida.
23. The Borgias. I don’t think I wrote any pairings for this one either.
Oh dear. For most of these fandoms I’ve only written one or two pairings. I guess I’ll just list the favorites that I have for each fandom, and if that ends up being one or three or five, I guess we’ll just go with that.
1. Captain America/Marvel Cinematic Universe. Steve/Bucky. There are a lot of other MCU pairings I’m interested in (and this is leaving aside Agents of SHIELD pairings, too), but that’s the only one I’ve written, unless that weirdly intense is-this-platonic-or-romantic Natasha/Pepper moment in that one fic counts.
I think it counts. It totally sold me on Pepper/Natasha as a concept, anyway. All the fics about Pepper using her superior height to kiss Natasha on the forehead and generally spoiling her and doing fun girly stuff with her and Natasha’s kind of weirded out about this whole going to a spa for fun instead of as part of a disguise to take down a mark. But she’s kind of digging it, too.
2. Eagle of the Ninth. Ha, well this is a gimme. Cottia/Esca, Marcus/Esca, Marcus/Cottia, and oddly I like writing the first one best, maybe because it’s the most work.
3. Torchwood. Owen/Ianto. I also wrote Jack/Owen and Jack/Ianto, which I enjoyed, although the Jack/Ianto had a trainwreck dynamic much at odds with the way the rest of the fandom wrote it.
4. Frontier Wolf. I’ve written a little bit of everything from this fandom. I think my favorite to write was actually Cunorix/Shula (I can’t remember if this is the name canon gives Cunorix’s wife, or if I picked one out), because there was a lovely tension in that story between Cunorix’s chosen bond with his wife and his fated soulbond with Alexios, which Cunorix both welcomes because, well, soulbond, but also chafes at because he didn’t choose it.
5. Downton Abbey. Sybil/Branson. And I have a soft spot for Sybil/Gwen, but I never precisely wrote it, only sort of hinting at it in “Idyll in Bluebells” (which was kind of an OT3 fic anyway).
6. The Obernewtyn Chronicles. I’m not sure I actually ever managed an Obernewtyn fic where any pairing was successfully together. But then, neither has Isobelle Carmody (zing!).
7. Les Miserables: Eponine/Cosette, even though the story never got to the part where they actually got together, alas.
8. American Girl Dolls. Felicity/Ben, Felicity/Elizabeth.
9. Vikings. Athelstan/Ragnar. But only if Athelstan is filled with confusion and self-loathing and poorly understood lust.
10. Pushing Daisies. I was really into Ned/Chuck when I watched the show, but the more time passes, the more uncomfortable I am with it, because I feel like Chuck stays with Ned because the plot demands it more than because that’s a decision she would really make. Her dream has always been to travel the world, and when she finds herself resurrected, she… doesn’t travel at all, but stays in the same place as the guy who could kill her dead by touching her?
Not that Ned would ever do this on purpose, but he could bump into her by accident.
11. Psych. Gus/Shawn, with the caveat that I don’t think they would actually work and actually Shawn is emotionally a ten-year-old boy and as such should not be in a relationship with anyone until he’s more grown up.
12. Protector of the Small. EVERYONE. Kel/Neal, Neal/Yuki, I would probably be into Kel/Yuki except Kel is one of those characters who just seems extremely straight to me.
Actually, most of Pierce’s heroines seem extremely straight to me. I guess maybe I could buy a little Aly/Dove action a few years down the road in the Trickster series. And I will never get over the tragic lack of Aly/Taybur. A better pairing than Aly/Nawat in every conceivable way. But I actually have a lot of non-shipping-related issues with these Trickster books, so I will probably never write any of this.
13. The Silver Branch. Don’t really ship anyone from this, actually.
14. Hetalia. I think the only Hetalia pairing I ever wrote was Russia/America, which was a blast. It’s too bad I didn’t write more for this fandom. But I feel like the golden age of history-based Hetalia fics passed before I started writing in the fandom. It’s ironic, in a way; I procrastinated on writing anything for Hetalia because I found the caliber of the best fics so intimidating, and therefore missed out on befriending a lot of cool people (although I did meet konstantya, who is the bees’ knees).
15. Wonderfalls. Jaye/Eric. I’m weirdly invested in this pairing, in a way I often am not in canon pairings, but they are right on the line between being really great for each other and being a really awful idea and I find it bizarrely fascinating.
16. The Eagle. Esca/Marcus.
17. Fairy Tales and Related Fandoms. I don’t think think I can actually answer this question, as fairytales aren’t a fandom in the sense that the others are.
18. The Lost Prince. I actually kind of prefer Marco & the Rat as heterosexual bosom buddies.
19. Code Name Verity. Maddie/Julie, Maddie/Jamie.
20. The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. If Lydia and Mary hadn’t been cousins, I would have been on that like white on rice. I’m actually fine with shipping cousins in contexts where it’s culturally acceptable, but modern America is emphatically not a culture where it’s acceptable, so that kind of put paid to that.
21. Blood Feud. Jestyn/Alexia, Jestyn/Anders.
22. Ella Enchanted. I didn’t write any pairings for this, but I like both Ella/Char and Ella/Areida.
23. The Borgias. I don’t think I wrote any pairings for this one either.