!!!! AVATAR. WTF. also, writing meta!

[lassarina]

So spreadnparanoia invited me over tonight for food and more of Avatar: the Last Airbender. We are now at the end of Season 2. I AM DEAD. What. what!!!!!! ZUKO. and my ship. and Zuko. and my ship, damn it. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

and Season 3 is not out on DVD. I AM SO FULL OF ANGST.

okay. flailing aside, I was commenting on some stuff to mad_rex tonight and it

Comments

[mithrigil]

Thoroughly agreed. But you cited me, so you knew that. :smiles:

It is intersting that outside fandom stories are often classified in terms of their conflict; man v. man, man v. his environment, man v. self, dog v. vampire, what have you. I'm for this; a narrative is driven by conflict, otherwise it's just description.

[lassarina]

I think that's what really bothers me about a lot of the fluffy pairing fic, is that it lacks that conflict in the narrative. Most of my stuff tends toward man v. man or man v. self (Every Light is both), but there are so many writers who just don't realize that conflict is what makes it interesting and more than mere description.

:)

[venefica_aura]

I like conflict, but it can be balanced out by actual people that really do get along. Like drakonlily and I discuss about Cecil/Rosa, the "boringness" with people isn't that they are inherently boring, it's just their forms of conflict are less obvious. But she writes a fantastic Rosa that is a little out of the norm interpretation

[lassarina]

Mmmmm, Cid/Edea and Tifa/Elena. Now we're talking. :D

I think a lot of my problems with the 'issue' ships I listed is that I also just can't get into the characters' heads. (The exception is Yuna. I like her just fine when Tidus isn't around.) Maybe it's just that I don't like them enough to put those kinds of issues in front of them and see what happens?

[venefica_aura]

Prolly. Doesn't make them less fraught with problems (main reason I don't write Cloud/Tifa unless they're like, in their fifties is there are too many issues, and I like Tifa better than that. XD)

Then again, I've been going through a phase of twisting the obvious just a little. Like in Tidus's defense, his basic purpose in the game was to make sure Yuna could say 'no'. Half the reason I ended up loving FFX so much is you spent most of the game, as the main character, being emotionally manipulated; it was kind of oddly awesome.

I think a lot of the problem is that other people just want to write happy fuzzies, so it scares you off (I mean, how many fuzzy Zack/Aeris fics do you need?). Or they write overblown angst (which is what can scare me off, I mean, Vincent/Lucrecia, Lulu/Chappu in fic, anyone?). Love isn't inherently pain, but if you're writing a story, something has to be difficult. Otherwise, it's not a story

[lassarina]

I mean, yeah, I do like epic levels of angst (my favourite character is Kain, there's just no getting around that one!) but I think it's interesting that you name Lulu/Chappu as overblown angst. One of the pieces I'm halfway through is "Sea Breezes," which is basically them in childhood and the early stages of their relationship, and will probably end the day that she's informed of his death or shortly thereafter. For the purposes of that one story, I'm less interested in her reaction to his death than in her reaction to his life.

also, oh god, Vincent/Yuffie why. What IS the fandom obsession with pedophile!Vincent? I mean, Vincent/Shelke is even WORSE.

[mad_rex]

(I will stop before I get into sixteen pages of meta about Celes and ice and the effects of MagiTek)

Damnit. ...ah, well, I need to sleep soon anyway...

I have found, just recently, that I kind of do prefer happy-ending pairings. Specifically, I want to see the happy endings that games (and, occasionally, other media) won't give me. This hit me again when I went searching for TWEWY fanfic earlier: everyone is writing Neku/Joshua, and no one is writing Neku/Shiki. Without getting into spoilery details, the biggest thing bugging me about this is that Neku/Shiki could very easily have a happy ending, while Neku/Joshua almost certainly will not. (Well, yes, Neku/Joshua being yaoi is also a factor. Because I am weak.)

I think it all comes down to wanting a feeling of closure. When a story of significant length leaves things hanging like that, it irks me. Hell, it probably doesn't even have to give me a happy ending - just an ending. This is probably one thing that's kept me going through certain games, anime, TV shows, comics

[lassarina]

Hee! Everyone is more than welcome to blog in my blog. I like discussion and finding out other people's perspective, so feel free.

The happy endings are what leave me smiling...but the unhappy ones are what leave me grinning. Yes. this. Exactly. Exactly. I'm all for candy in its proper time and place, but mostly I want something solid that my brain can chew on for a while.

The thing I find most interesting about the pairings that I ship most frequently are that they're usually canon or else strongly canon-suggested in some form or fashion; Locke/Celes, Edge/Rydia, Kain -> Rosa, Delita/Ovelia, Balthier/Ashe. Perhaps because I am lazy and have to do less work to justify putting them together?

[mad_rex]

I do the same thing with pairings most of the time. Locke/Celes, Cloud/Aeris, Tidus/Yuna (I only like Tidus when Yuna's around.)...they just have that inherent appeal to them, you know? The only exception I can think of offhand is Squall, at least from Final Fantasy. (The only Squall pairing I like is Leon/Yuffie.)

I'd like to think it's because the writers had those pairings in mind when they were writing those characters, and that it subtly influenced their personalities and made them naturally compatible in some way. This certainly works for Locke/Celes, and it might help explain why I find Squall/Rinoa so godawful (that writing was terrible). I'd like to think that, but...yeah, we're probably both just lazy. :)

(Another side note: See, this is (one of the reasons) why FF12 is so great. I found more for Basch/Ashe than I did for Balthier/Ashe. Now Balthier->Ashe, on the other hand...)

[lassarina]

Heee, you may be correct in your Balthier -> Ashe comment, although I really like the bit at the end when she's turning to him for comfort and and and. Okay. I am going to stop now, seriously.

My FF8 ship is Seifer/Squall or Seifer/Irvine. (The latter because they both remember and how horribly awful is that, and how much worse will it be when Irvine starts to forget?)

[mullenkamp]

You know, even more than relationships where the two characters have conflicts with each other... I think I like writing relationships where at least one character has conflicts with themselves about the relationship, and it's a real struggle to figure out whether or not they can tolerate it. And that comes before any of the issues specific to the other person. (See Sydney/Hardin - on both sides, really, but for entirely different reasons - Hisoka/Tsuzuki, Phoenix/Miles...) I think I'm just sadistic, really. :D

But then as much as I like tormenting my characters, making them do terrible things to themselves and each other and usually breaking them up at least once? I just can't do unhappy endings. I've tried. I can't do it. Even if the fic leaves them worse off than they were at the beginning, they have to at least have learned something and be moving forward again to try to fix things.

[lassarina]

*nods* I have a really unhealthy fascination with Locke/Celes breaking-up fic, and most of the time it does end with them getting back together, but damaged in a different way. I think I just really like poking at them with sharp sticks to see what they'll do.

I really need to get the boy to play Vagrant Story with me so I can read/understand all the shiny that you and Mith write.

[owlmoose]

You so totally did not hear this from me, but go to Yahoo Video and search for Avatar Season 3

[lassarina]

Oh, I know it's online. but most of the fun of it has been watching with spreadnparanoia and co, and getting to squeal. :)

[owlmoose]

I hear you there. I just couldn't wait. Had. to. know! I think the DVDs come out in a couple of weeks.