This is what gets me with alot of fandom pairings I see. What is their basis? "They look HAWT together!" Sure, well, fine, but that's not enough for me if personalities and developement have to be raped in order for that pairing to be portrayed the way some people want them to be. (Stuff like this for the longest time made me stay away from yaoi because initially all I saw was people throwing guys together at random and going "Cuz they're hot!" and bad jokes of "They're so gay for each other" and very little in the believable portrayals department. But then I was like that most pairings, yaoi just seemed to amplify that problem.)
There's definitely a threshold thing for justification. I don't mind pairing two people together because they are hot, or even because they are there, but I want some arc bringing them together -- some justification. And if they are not going to behave remotely like they do in canon, there needs to be justification for that, too.
Otherwise they become curiously... bland. Generic. Names with no substance to them. Not only aren't they the people they claim to be, they don't seem to be anyone else either. And then you get this flat fic which seems utterly contrived and pointless. I mean, honestly, when you come down to it, there are a 1001 fics with two people getting it on in the back of the car. What makes it interesting is how the author can take that scenario and add something new and unique to it.
Yeah, justification for the change of behavior is what can make a what on the surface looks like a "dude, wtf???" concept for a fic into something that can turn out surprisingly good. I love it when people can take a pairing or concept and get from point A to point B and make it WORK.
Me too! That is my favorite type of fic at all. So it's honestly not that these people are WAFFing psychopaths, so much as they aren't taking up the challenge of making it work. But this is not the point of the fics for others.
I have long given up trying to explain my kinks, let alone those of other people.
Still, seems to me that there is an actual, specific kink for that, that cannot be explained by mere coincidence of characters having the right kind of looks. Because people will do it for all sorts of characters, and one person might do it for any number of different body/facial types.
Honestly, though, is this worse than mpreg? Gratuitous incest? Genderswitch? A lot of people pin their kinks onto characters in ways that if you step back are pretty preposterous, even if there are attempts to keep things IC.
I highly doubt that most of the characters in FMA have even a glancing acquaintance with hardcore BDSM fantasies, but that doesn't keep people from shoehorning them into these roles anyway. :D
Well, thing is I can understand all of those kinks. I can understand what's going on to make a person find it hot. I'm not questioning fluff being a turn on -- I'm simply wondering why they choose that particular character to fluff.
I already know it's not for the challenge, because they don't justify the change in behavior. I also know it's not for anything the character has done in canon, because their canon behavior and backstory is left out.
Does part of the writer want to redeem these unredeemable people? Is that it? Is it that they want to negate the part of the character that makes them uncomfortable, and somehow sanitize them and make them palatable? Does their existance as a psychopath in some deep sense bother them so much that they get relief out of turning them tame and comfortable? Just what exactly is the kink?
If you're looking for an honest to god answer, I can tell you that the way you wrote this post is the wrong way to get one. This reads 100% like a rant in the form of a rhetorical question.
Things like this:
For the Envy lovers, why not pick ... well honestly almost any other male or female cast member?
That's a confrontational way to phrase your question. That kind of phrasing is going to put your target audience on the defensive, and it's not going to get you an answer.
Okay, dude... I'll bite. Is there a problem between us? For the last few months you've been either ignoring me completely, or else being a jerk to me. I've given you your space for the most part. I admit, posting on your journal a couple of weeks ago was a mistake, but hey, I learned and backed off. I know better now. We've had a few weeks now of relative peaceful coexistence, and I thought maybe we were past it.
I'll admit you've got me confused. I haven't been able to figure out what I'm doing to set you off, and I'm a bit tired of walking eggshells around you trying not to randomly piss you off. For the sake of the CoE and all our mutual friends, I'm doing my damnedest to keep things copasetic, but I'm at the end of my rope.
So please tell me what it is I'm doing that is annoying. To the extent that it's a behavior I can actually alter, I will. But I expect you to give it some effort to. You don't have to like me, but we can be civil.
Chicks like to think they can save the bad ones? :/ I've actually felt a little fuzzy when thinking about very mean bad people being nice to me, but...I outgrew it several years ago?
I don't like it when men are written as really soft cuddlebunnies, but that's just because it's not what I'm attracted to.
Yeah, that's sort of what I've been leaning towards. Heron said something similar. The idea of a bad man being fuzzy and sweet is kind of attractive.
Of course it makes no rational sense, but this is emotional logic we are talking.
Makes me wonder if that's what's going on with the women who are pen pals with serial killers -- do they fantasize them as fuzzy and sweet, or do they get off on the thrill of danger... I don't know. It's interesting to speculate about.
Some fans metally edit out all the bits they don't like from their favorite characters. I think we all do this to some extent, but there are those particularly deluded types who have the special ability to completely ignore the fact that they're crushing on a villain and happily warp the character to fit their own view of what s/he is or should be.
This happens a lot in the "Yami no Matsuei" fandom with the series Big Bad, Dr. Muraki. Fans love him because he's handsome, intelligent, charming, and polite. And some of them happily forget he's a rapist/murderer and crazy as a loon.
Rounding the edges on our favorite characters isn't really a problem in my mind, but the wholesale changing the personality to something different -- when that happens I want to know the what-if going on.
LOL about Yami no Matsuei. The complexity of his character is what drives my interest, but to me he loses a lot when you take away his evil side, and just leave him an intelligent, charming, law abiding citizen.
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Otherwise they become curiously... bland. Generic. Names with no substance to them. Not only aren't they the people they claim to be, they don't seem to be anyone else either. And then you get this flat fic which seems utterly contrived and pointless. I mean, honestly, when you come down to it, there are a 1001 fics with two people getting it on in the back of the car. What makes it interesting is how the author can take that scenario and add something new and unique to it.
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Still, seems to me that there is an actual, specific kink for that, that cannot be explained by mere coincidence of characters having the right kind of looks. Because people will do it for all sorts of characters, and one person might do it for any number of different body/facial types.
Honestly, though, is this worse than mpreg? Gratuitous incest? Genderswitch? A lot of people pin their kinks onto characters in ways that if you step back are pretty preposterous, even if there are attempts to keep things IC.
I highly doubt that most of the characters in FMA have even a glancing acquaintance with hardcore BDSM fantasies, but that doesn't keep people from shoehorning them into these roles anyway. :D
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I already know it's not for the challenge, because they don't justify the change in behavior. I also know it's not for anything the character has done in canon, because their canon behavior and backstory is left out.
Does part of the writer want to redeem these unredeemable people? Is that it? Is it that they want to negate the part of the character that makes them uncomfortable, and somehow sanitize them and make them palatable? Does their existance as a psychopath in some deep sense bother them so much that they get relief out of turning them tame and comfortable? Just what exactly is the kink?
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Things like this:
For the Envy lovers, why not pick ... well honestly almost any other male or female cast member?
That's a confrontational way to phrase your question. That kind of phrasing is going to put your target audience on the defensive, and it's not going to get you an answer.
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I'll admit you've got me confused. I haven't been able to figure out what I'm doing to set you off, and I'm a bit tired of walking eggshells around you trying not to randomly piss you off. For the sake of the CoE and all our mutual friends, I'm doing my damnedest to keep things copasetic, but I'm at the end of my rope.
So please tell me what it is I'm doing that is annoying. To the extent that it's a behavior I can actually alter, I will. But I expect you to give it some effort to. You don't have to like me, but we can be civil.
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I don't like it when men are written as really soft cuddlebunnies, but that's just because it's not what I'm attracted to.
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Of course it makes no rational sense, but this is emotional logic we are talking.
Makes me wonder if that's what's going on with the women who are pen pals with serial killers -- do they fantasize them as fuzzy and sweet, or do they get off on the thrill of danger... I don't know. It's interesting to speculate about.
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This happens a lot in the "Yami no Matsuei" fandom with the series Big Bad, Dr. Muraki. Fans love him because he's handsome, intelligent, charming, and polite. And some of them happily forget he's a rapist/murderer and crazy as a loon.
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LOL about Yami no Matsuei. The complexity of his character is what drives my interest, but to me he loses a lot when you take away his evil side, and just leave him an intelligent, charming, law abiding citizen.
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