Favourite H/C moments in Fic - no 6
Perhaps this is a good button to be number 6. It is also the one I have been the most hesitant to share, as it is not everyone's cup of tea (and fics warn for it).
I'd like to share as a premable to why I like this button so much, a small insight into 'childhood' me and lead you down the thinky path as to why I think I like this button. I am the eldest of four siblings but for about 8 years it was just us three girls before my brother was born. My two younger sisters are quite fearless and even today have a perchant for horror and violent movies. My brother has followed in their footsteps. Not I.
While not necessarily a gentler or more timid soul, I did not (still do not) enjoy being scared (its a small miracle I managed SPN season 1, let me tell you - all down to the Dean!crush). My family still tease me about how I was too scared to watch an episode of Gummi Bears because there was a creepy gargoyle in it. The list of things I refused to watch as a child is short, but amusing: the episode of MacGyver with the army ants, the entire series of Secret Under the Mountain (or whatever it was called) and some random Buck Rogers episode with a plant/robot in the desert that sucked you down into the sand (a Star Wars rip off no doubt).
My dislike of horror (not that those above really constitute horror) was continued as I grew older and much to my sisters' continuing delight, they mock me about how I couldn't even handle the Scream movies (I saw them all - through my fingers).
What I disliked in tv shows/movies was very clear to me from a young age (see above). Perhaps as a result, I also knew fairly early on what I liked in tv shows/movies. The scenes that I wanted to watch over and over again.
The 'being captured/held captive/tortured scenes'.
Late 80s, early 90s tv wouldn't have had a lot of graphic scenes, so it was fairly mild, more suggested type of scenes than anything from a Sawlike movie (I still have not (will not) seen Saw). Yet, something about those scenes, those ideas, those story lines appealed to pre-adoloscent me, and has remained with me. I dislike gore and excessive violence to the extreme and do not like the route that so many horror movies have gone over the years. But, I do like me a good flogging scene, or someone being captured, or Steve being taken by Wo Fat and tortured, etc.
And this is why... I think. There is nothing amusing, exciting or interesting about torture in real life - nothing whatsoever. The horrors that humanity has perpetuated on itself for centuries is sickening. Whether by a regime, terrorist group or individual - 'real' torture should (and is) villified and abhorred.
Little girl me in the face of scary things ran away. However, sometimes, sometimes, the hero was also faced with scary things... and because they could not runaway, were brave. And courageous. And they endured. Because in tv/movies/books the hero is rescued or escapes but... he/she survives. Overcomes their fears. As a result I also love stories (on and off screen) of people who survive and overcome PTSD in the same vein.
This 'torture' button hits on a lot of my others (and is I think at the root of many of them) and essentially comes down to this: it is the triumph, the escape, the endurance of torture that appeals to me so much. I am honest enough to confirm that I do 'like' the hurt part, but mostly because my hero endures it so well.
I dislike stories where the torture is excessive or unrealistic or humilating. I like stories were the hero can break, but still come out at the end, changed in part, but still 'them' - and stronger.
Is this realistic? No. Real Torture is not nice and packaged in the confines of acceptable onscreen viewing. Some people do not survive torture in reality, whether physically or mentally. So realistically some of the things our fav characters endure in shows/fanfic would be too much and they would not return to their old selves.
but because it employs peril and endurance and stoicism and rescue and comfort and aftermath... I love it.
I know I am not the only one who likes this button, and I know there are plenty of h/c fics out there that deal with this realistically, unrealistically, to extremes and with the broadest of strokes and suggestion. As I said above, it is not everyones cup of tea, but it is mine, and I still wrangle through delicious on the occasion looking for new good torture fic. Below, are a few of my favs (and some of my previous recs fall into this category as well) so I tried to use others (that I could find bookmarks for, there's a lot on my harddrive O.o).
Thirteen by minkmix - SPN (Dean)
Removed by minkmix - SPN (Dean)
Methodology by minkmix - SPN (Dean and Sam)
Home Style Burn by vainglorious - SGA/SGA (John and Daniel)
It Always Autumn in the Old Trees of Despair by kodiak_bear - SGA (John)
Eyes Wide Open by kriadydragon - SGA (John)
Thanks you for reading my ramble (if you made it this far) and yes, I know I waffle.
sholio's posts about Blogging 100 things are intriguing me. I am sorely tempted, I just don't know what I can blog about 100 times.
I'd like to share as a premable to why I like this button so much, a small insight into 'childhood' me and lead you down the thinky path as to why I think I like this button. I am the eldest of four siblings but for about 8 years it was just us three girls before my brother was born. My two younger sisters are quite fearless and even today have a perchant for horror and violent movies. My brother has followed in their footsteps. Not I.
While not necessarily a gentler or more timid soul, I did not (still do not) enjoy being scared (its a small miracle I managed SPN season 1, let me tell you - all down to the Dean!crush). My family still tease me about how I was too scared to watch an episode of Gummi Bears because there was a creepy gargoyle in it. The list of things I refused to watch as a child is short, but amusing: the episode of MacGyver with the army ants, the entire series of Secret Under the Mountain (or whatever it was called) and some random Buck Rogers episode with a plant/robot in the desert that sucked you down into the sand (a Star Wars rip off no doubt).
My dislike of horror (not that those above really constitute horror) was continued as I grew older and much to my sisters' continuing delight, they mock me about how I couldn't even handle the Scream movies (I saw them all - through my fingers).
What I disliked in tv shows/movies was very clear to me from a young age (see above). Perhaps as a result, I also knew fairly early on what I liked in tv shows/movies. The scenes that I wanted to watch over and over again.
The 'being captured/held captive/tortured scenes'.
Late 80s, early 90s tv wouldn't have had a lot of graphic scenes, so it was fairly mild, more suggested type of scenes than anything from a Sawlike movie (I still have not (will not) seen Saw). Yet, something about those scenes, those ideas, those story lines appealed to pre-adoloscent me, and has remained with me. I dislike gore and excessive violence to the extreme and do not like the route that so many horror movies have gone over the years. But, I do like me a good flogging scene, or someone being captured, or Steve being taken by Wo Fat and tortured, etc.
And this is why... I think. There is nothing amusing, exciting or interesting about torture in real life - nothing whatsoever. The horrors that humanity has perpetuated on itself for centuries is sickening. Whether by a regime, terrorist group or individual - 'real' torture should (and is) villified and abhorred.
Little girl me in the face of scary things ran away. However, sometimes, sometimes, the hero was also faced with scary things... and because they could not runaway, were brave. And courageous. And they endured. Because in tv/movies/books the hero is rescued or escapes but... he/she survives. Overcomes their fears. As a result I also love stories (on and off screen) of people who survive and overcome PTSD in the same vein.
This 'torture' button hits on a lot of my others (and is I think at the root of many of them) and essentially comes down to this: it is the triumph, the escape, the endurance of torture that appeals to me so much. I am honest enough to confirm that I do 'like' the hurt part, but mostly because my hero endures it so well.
I dislike stories where the torture is excessive or unrealistic or humilating. I like stories were the hero can break, but still come out at the end, changed in part, but still 'them' - and stronger.
Is this realistic? No. Real Torture is not nice and packaged in the confines of acceptable onscreen viewing. Some people do not survive torture in reality, whether physically or mentally. So realistically some of the things our fav characters endure in shows/fanfic would be too much and they would not return to their old selves.
but because it employs peril and endurance and stoicism and rescue and comfort and aftermath... I love it.
I know I am not the only one who likes this button, and I know there are plenty of h/c fics out there that deal with this realistically, unrealistically, to extremes and with the broadest of strokes and suggestion. As I said above, it is not everyones cup of tea, but it is mine, and I still wrangle through delicious on the occasion looking for new good torture fic. Below, are a few of my favs (and some of my previous recs fall into this category as well) so I tried to use others (that I could find bookmarks for, there's a lot on my harddrive O.o).
Thirteen by minkmix - SPN (Dean)
Removed by minkmix - SPN (Dean)
Methodology by minkmix - SPN (Dean and Sam)
Home Style Burn by vainglorious - SGA/SGA (John and Daniel)
It Always Autumn in the Old Trees of Despair by kodiak_bear - SGA (John)
Eyes Wide Open by kriadydragon - SGA (John)
Thanks you for reading my ramble (if you made it this far) and yes, I know I waffle.
sholio's posts about Blogging 100 things are intriguing me. I am sorely tempted, I just don't know what I can blog about 100 times.