Recently I rewatched some West Wing episodes (from early s3, and the one where the Republicans call a tax for millionaires "the death tax" to lobby against it made me go "zomg, Sorkin and friends really were prescient sometimes!"), and aside from revelling in dialogue, character affection etc., it reminded me of a suspension of disbelief problem of
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I suppose I just roll with it generally in canon when a relationship drops out of focus; being a very solitary person myself it's quite normal for me to fall out of contact with friends for months or years at a time without anything being wrong between us, so I tend to view TV relationships in that light. So yeah, while it does bug me a little when people suddenly try to portray characters as BFFs who do everything together when they haven't been like that in a long time, it actually bugs me a lot more when fic-writers try to 'explain' the split with epic angsty off-screen backstory. I tend to simply assume that the friendship is just as strong but the contact level has dropped off for whatever reason, and there's no big deal unless the characters are the sort who would make a big deal out of feeling neglected.
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Interesting. What about using on screen events to deduce that such and such might have caused character A to keep more of a distance?n
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West Wing season three is a case in point, where I saw many, many Poor Mistreated Woobie Sam fics launched off the fact that he and Josh had slightly fewer scenes focused on their friendship that in earlier years, and also sometimes stood further apart in meetings. (I wish I was kidding about that last part.) And Stargate fandom is even worse for it.
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Your example: zomg, and here I had assumed Sam and Josh were both the Designated Fandom Woobies. (Based on fannish osmosis over the years and the way the crack van recs talk about them.) Though given nobody beats Richard Schiff when it comes to sad eyes, I'd be surprised if Toby wasn't also a Designated Fandom Woobie.
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