(grumpy again)

[reenka]

At first I thought that it's just that I'm closed-minded or something, 'cause even looking at fics with pairings that conflict with an OTP makes me sort of cringe and want to rail against the (stupid) pairing in question... but... it's just that most people, even when they write get-together fics, don't actually bother to try convincing the reader that these people -should- be together. I mean, there's a basic question there, isn't there? -Why-? Why should the reader want these people together? Why do all these (fanfic) writers assume that only shippers will read their fic? Or do they?

It occurs to me that maybe that's true, actually. Maybe most people write for a) an audience of people who just don't care about what pairing they read or b) an audience that is already sold on the pairing in question. Possibly, there's a third common type of fic-- as in, c) an audience of people who're crazed fans of one of the characters and will happily see them with anyone at all, no matter how "out of character" the pairing seems.

I don't know if a pairing -can- be OOC. Can it?

Plenty of people write characters to be OOC to the degree that I can't see these versions of these characters together, even if I normally ship them. In that case, I don't care whether I'm already "sold", the fic in question reverses that. I don't know if that's common, though. Do people often read fics with their OTP that make them stop rooting for it in that case? Happens to me all the time. I mean, I really think that once you give a character enough issues (narcissism, extreme depression, mania, psychosis, extreme immaturity, commitment issues, anxiety issues) it'd make a lot more sense to not write a successful romance there. As in, I doubt these versions would-- or should-- last past a month with anyone.

I don't know if most writers or readers -want- to always start from square one in terms of non-canon pairings, though I don't see how one could honestly get away with anything else in a good story, porn aside. I suppose one can't help but start with some assumptions... but taking huge unsubstantiated things for granted is just sheer laziness, isn't it? As in, well, of -course- Draco has always wanted to fuck Harry. Of course, yes. Naturally. Gah. Bad writer, no biscuit.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's the thing...even on something as obvious as the Pureblood issue we have no idea how the logic of it actually works in the Malfoy's heads so there's a lot of ways you can play it.

It's not so much that it's written in stone as... "no" being the simpler solution. I suppose it's a semi-blind study of likelihoods based on incomplete data, where one looks for the overall most common pattern when specifics are unavailable. Like, the most common overall sexual behavior pattern for young males is heterosexual with homosocial tendencies, for instance. Unless you work to establish that the male deviates from the norm (thus supplementing canon), you can assume that the canon stance is at default. Or something. It's much less linear and more intuition-related than that of course, to me.


Yeah, but then otoh, isn't fanfic all about "What ifs?" Like, would it be possible to do a version of Draco where the Malfoys were brought up with the attitudes of the Weasleys? Strictly speaking, it should be possible, because ones beliefs don't define ones personality completely. Presumably Draco could still be Draco, still maybe be snobbish or elitist, or brattish, only he wouldn't have the particular Mudblood angle. Or what if he were the poor one and Ron was rich? He might still be racist and elitist but scrappier and dressed in old clothes and bitter about that.

It's sort of...artichoke like, I guess. You peel away all these layers to get to the heart and you don't know when you've hit it until you take away something and it's just "not him" anymore. So like, for me, I could read a fic where Draco was poor and still Draco, but I might read another fic where he was rich, racist and snobby but he wouldn't be Draco because he was...I dunno...not a fighter.

[yourpoison.livejournal.com]

Wehehe, well, I uh... don't think I can ever really pretend I know what makes someone "someone", of course. Maybe that's why examples suck? 'Cause unless I point to a specific instance where something happened and it wasn't Draco anymore... and even then, it could just have been a bad story. So I see how that gets difficult. See, in my mind, racism or whatever was never important in my conception of him anyway-- I've never really applied it. On the other hand, I was never in a situation where it was important. And while you can willfully avoid it somehow, see, you're kind of showing its importance by trying to eliminate it from play. Which is all I was saying-- the need for this acknowledgement.

I mean... eh, we agree, I think. It was just hard to rant about what I really wanted to, since it was in Gundam Wing and I don't know the canon enough to rant about that. Though... I still hate it when people are all buddy-buddy for no good reason and like, go up to each other after not being that close and going "hey, I'm bored and lonely, come live with me"(!!!!!1)
Yeah, that got my goat :>