New rant, same as the old rant
Nothing that hasn't be said before repeatedly, but every now and then one feels like venting, which is what an lj is for. There are few more guaranteed turn-offs for me in the midst of enjoying a slash story than a variation of the following: "X realised he had never loved/desired *name of female canon love interest* anyway/ X realised that his feelings for *name of woman* could never compare with the true love/ overwhelming desire he felt for *other name of slash pairing*".
At which point I go "sorry, author, that's you speaking, not X" and remove myself from the story.
Now, in all fairness, there are het variations of this as well, i.e. stories where character X, male or female, realises he/she never loved canon love interest Y of the opposite gender, but really only ever *insert name of other half of pairing*, and that's just as annoying. But if we're talking m/m combinations, there's that whiff of "ewwww, women near my boys" feeling from the authors which is an additional turn-off. In either case, though, it seems to spring from the conviction that you can't write a pairing without declaring any or all other romantic connections any half of said pairing has or had as inferior and not as worthy, and I just don't understand why. I mean, I get prefering Adam and Bob to Carol and Bob, finding Adam and Bob more interesting to write about etc. But if canon has shown Bob in a relationship with Carol for quite some time, even happy in a relationship with Carol, then "Carol Who? Pfff, never cared for her anyway and sex with her was so INFERIOR" is just not going to cut it. Even not mentioning Carol altogether is better than this.
I'm tempted to add "what's wrong with Adam/Bob/Carol anyway?" but I realize this is not always an option. For example, it wouldn't work for me with Spock/Uhura/Kirk because Uhura not being sexually interested in Kirk at all was a pretty important part of her ST XI characterisation. IMO, interpretation may differ, etc. And Carol being the saintly sort, recognizing the superiority of Adam and Bob's love and withdrawing isn't that good a solution for me, either. Canon girlfriend as saintly yenta is better than canon girlfriend as evil bashed obstacle to slash pairing, but only by a degree. I think the only time where "Carol, realising that Adam and Bob have the hots for each other but are for various reasons unable to face this, sets them up" worked for me as a scenario was in Highlander, because Duncan and Amanda have a non-monogamous relationship where they constantly move in and out of each other's lives anyway, and Amanda is absolutely capable of setting him up with Methos. (Except, being Amanda, you can't tell me she wouldn't want a threesome out of this at some point.) My current favourite solution is "Adam loves Carol, and he loves Bob. Maybe he has sex with both, and maybe with neither, but both relationships are important to him, and he wouldn't devalue one in favour of the other. Neither person, however, is his sole point of existence. Carol actually has a life beyond worrying about Adam and Bob, though both are important to her, and if someone told her she's supposed to acknowledge the superiority of Adam/Bob, she'd laugh. Bob is not about to do himself in, cut himself or bursting into tears at regular intervals because Carol exists and is important to Adam. Maybe he's into Carol himself and thinks she's magnificent, and maybe he finds her irritating and trieds to avoid her, but he's accepted that she's part of what makes Adam Adam. Also? Bob has a life beyond Adam (and Carol) as well."
I'm trying to think whether this would also work for me with f/m/f instead of m/f/m, but the only f/m/f threesome which immediately comes to mind that I'd love to read being written in a convincing manner - where canon already has the f/f as the firm established relationship so that there wouldn't be an implication of the two women just being together for the guy's sake - is Xena/Ares/Gabrielle. Ah, ye olde days of New Zealand filmed fantasy shows. (Maybe I should give the recently cancelled Legend of a Seeker a go, but I really don't have the time for a new show.) But then, I don't think f/f slash has the same tendency to include "Loving Barbara, Anna realised how inferior her feelings for Charlie had been" type of statements. Or stories where Charlie is either revealed as an evil scumbag undeserving of Anna or turned into a saint acknowledging the superiority of Anna's and Barbara's love. Correct me if I'm wrong; admittedly I do read more m/m than f/f.
In conclusion: off I go to look for my equally valued alphabet again. This is why sooner or later, I end up with gen once more...
At which point I go "sorry, author, that's you speaking, not X" and remove myself from the story.
Now, in all fairness, there are het variations of this as well, i.e. stories where character X, male or female, realises he/she never loved canon love interest Y of the opposite gender, but really only ever *insert name of other half of pairing*, and that's just as annoying. But if we're talking m/m combinations, there's that whiff of "ewwww, women near my boys" feeling from the authors which is an additional turn-off. In either case, though, it seems to spring from the conviction that you can't write a pairing without declaring any or all other romantic connections any half of said pairing has or had as inferior and not as worthy, and I just don't understand why. I mean, I get prefering Adam and Bob to Carol and Bob, finding Adam and Bob more interesting to write about etc. But if canon has shown Bob in a relationship with Carol for quite some time, even happy in a relationship with Carol, then "Carol Who? Pfff, never cared for her anyway and sex with her was so INFERIOR" is just not going to cut it. Even not mentioning Carol altogether is better than this.
I'm tempted to add "what's wrong with Adam/Bob/Carol anyway?" but I realize this is not always an option. For example, it wouldn't work for me with Spock/Uhura/Kirk because Uhura not being sexually interested in Kirk at all was a pretty important part of her ST XI characterisation. IMO, interpretation may differ, etc. And Carol being the saintly sort, recognizing the superiority of Adam and Bob's love and withdrawing isn't that good a solution for me, either. Canon girlfriend as saintly yenta is better than canon girlfriend as evil bashed obstacle to slash pairing, but only by a degree. I think the only time where "Carol, realising that Adam and Bob have the hots for each other but are for various reasons unable to face this, sets them up" worked for me as a scenario was in Highlander, because Duncan and Amanda have a non-monogamous relationship where they constantly move in and out of each other's lives anyway, and Amanda is absolutely capable of setting him up with Methos. (Except, being Amanda, you can't tell me she wouldn't want a threesome out of this at some point.) My current favourite solution is "Adam loves Carol, and he loves Bob. Maybe he has sex with both, and maybe with neither, but both relationships are important to him, and he wouldn't devalue one in favour of the other. Neither person, however, is his sole point of existence. Carol actually has a life beyond worrying about Adam and Bob, though both are important to her, and if someone told her she's supposed to acknowledge the superiority of Adam/Bob, she'd laugh. Bob is not about to do himself in, cut himself or bursting into tears at regular intervals because Carol exists and is important to Adam. Maybe he's into Carol himself and thinks she's magnificent, and maybe he finds her irritating and trieds to avoid her, but he's accepted that she's part of what makes Adam Adam. Also? Bob has a life beyond Adam (and Carol) as well."
I'm trying to think whether this would also work for me with f/m/f instead of m/f/m, but the only f/m/f threesome which immediately comes to mind that I'd love to read being written in a convincing manner - where canon already has the f/f as the firm established relationship so that there wouldn't be an implication of the two women just being together for the guy's sake - is Xena/Ares/Gabrielle. Ah, ye olde days of New Zealand filmed fantasy shows. (Maybe I should give the recently cancelled Legend of a Seeker a go, but I really don't have the time for a new show.) But then, I don't think f/f slash has the same tendency to include "Loving Barbara, Anna realised how inferior her feelings for Charlie had been" type of statements. Or stories where Charlie is either revealed as an evil scumbag undeserving of Anna or turned into a saint acknowledging the superiority of Anna's and Barbara's love. Correct me if I'm wrong; admittedly I do read more m/m than f/f.
In conclusion: off I go to look for my equally valued alphabet again. This is why sooner or later, I end up with gen once more...