(not Luna??!)
Jun. 23rd, 2004 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reenkaYou know what's really kind of silly? (I make this mistake a lot, btw.) Over-identifying with people I like (or, characters, but I won't even get into that). I mean, at heart, it's just a faulty assumption-type thing. Over-generalizing is often at the root of most evil along with the usual drive for power and fear of death (but I won't get into that, heh).
I mean, I'm not Luna. Rinse & repeat three times, as necessary: I'm not Luna. I'm not Luna. I'm not Luna. Woo, what a relief. (Btw, if anyone wants a Luna-centric fic, I just found `Butterbeer Caps', which seems good.)
I keep trying to root it out of me (well, half-heartedly), but it won't go.
So if I see someone who seems to "get" the beauty of Buffy/Spike -aaaand- the beauty of Kyou/Tohru, all of a sudden I'm like, OMG WE R SOULM8ES!!1 (well... sort of), and then I'm crashing down to earth 'cause they also like Heero/Relena (OMG TEH EVAL, OMG) and Harry/Luna (which... isn't -bad-, precisely, just really not... romantic at all). But that's because I a) shouldn't extrapolate someone's view on romance just from a couple of things they believe (and I don't even know if they believe the same things I do about said relationships); b) shouldn't project myself so blatantly onto Luna (or whatever character) that I feel a bit silly shipping her with -anyone-. (I mean, I should know-- Luna "just isn't ready"). On the other hand, if you made Luna darker-- or better yet, mad (OMG PLOT BUNNY)-- you could do a Hamlet/Ophelia thing. Woo, I can see Ophelia!Luna. But then she'd have to die :D
It seems either people heavily identify with each other, thus kind of stealing another person's individual identity in a way, or they project their vision of the Other (that is to say, their ideals of what's perfectly Attractive-- or horrid-- in someone else), thus idealizing them past the point of possessing any real humanity. Bleh.
I don't even know if many people define themselves or rather, see a trend of similar rationales for the "way they ship" like I do. That is to say, every ship I believe in fits into a trend in my mind, of the way I generally perceive "romance" in the first place. Because, as should be obvious, pretty much -everything- is premade 'meta' a.k.a. 'on Plato's crack' in my head. :>
Basically, all the couples I like have something about their "spirit" in common, so I assume if someone likes more than one example of romance as I do, we must both be seeing this "spirit" (which makes me think we're ourselves compatible for friendship).
So that's why it boggles my mind that people can possibly like Buffy/Spike (a passionate, fighting-opposites-attract tragicomic sort of insane romance) and Heero/Relena (a lukewarm, idealize-your-anima/animus, the-hero-gets-the-girl cliche). It's like, duuude, Heero/Duo is much more like B/S (in my head)-- 'cause like, they're opposites-yet-equals in the whole complementary cliche sort of way.
Then it occurs to me to rethink Heero/Relena, and possibly you can see how Buffy/Spike can also be about the idealizing-the-anima cliche from Spike's pov (though that's not what I like about the pairing at all), and suddenly it all makes sense. You can definitely see how Heero/Relena is like Kyou/Tohru, which I adore (ACK ACK ACK STOP ABORT PANIC). In fact, I tend to blatantly ignore the unhealthyness of a boy idealizing his female love interest and focus on their disagreements and the romantic friction-- bleh, thus leading myself into a quagmire (I used a big word!) of sloppy thinking & projection-onto-perfectly-innocent-characters.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
But it all makes sense in my head, I SWEAR!!1
I mean, I'm not Luna. Rinse & repeat three times, as necessary: I'm not Luna. I'm not Luna. I'm not Luna. Woo, what a relief. (Btw, if anyone wants a Luna-centric fic, I just found `Butterbeer Caps', which seems good.)
I keep trying to root it out of me (well, half-heartedly), but it won't go.
So if I see someone who seems to "get" the beauty of Buffy/Spike -aaaand- the beauty of Kyou/Tohru, all of a sudden I'm like, OMG WE R SOULM8ES!!1 (well... sort of), and then I'm crashing down to earth 'cause they also like Heero/Relena (OMG TEH EVAL, OMG) and Harry/Luna (which... isn't -bad-, precisely, just really not... romantic at all). But that's because I a) shouldn't extrapolate someone's view on romance just from a couple of things they believe (and I don't even know if they believe the same things I do about said relationships); b) shouldn't project myself so blatantly onto Luna (or whatever character) that I feel a bit silly shipping her with -anyone-. (I mean, I should know-- Luna "just isn't ready"). On the other hand, if you made Luna darker-- or better yet, mad (OMG PLOT BUNNY)-- you could do a Hamlet/Ophelia thing. Woo, I can see Ophelia!Luna. But then she'd have to die :D
It seems either people heavily identify with each other, thus kind of stealing another person's individual identity in a way, or they project their vision of the Other (that is to say, their ideals of what's perfectly Attractive-- or horrid-- in someone else), thus idealizing them past the point of possessing any real humanity. Bleh.
I don't even know if many people define themselves or rather, see a trend of similar rationales for the "way they ship" like I do. That is to say, every ship I believe in fits into a trend in my mind, of the way I generally perceive "romance" in the first place. Because, as should be obvious, pretty much -everything- is premade 'meta' a.k.a. 'on Plato's crack' in my head. :>
Basically, all the couples I like have something about their "spirit" in common, so I assume if someone likes more than one example of romance as I do, we must both be seeing this "spirit" (which makes me think we're ourselves compatible for friendship).
So that's why it boggles my mind that people can possibly like Buffy/Spike (a passionate, fighting-opposites-attract tragicomic sort of insane romance) and Heero/Relena (a lukewarm, idealize-your-anima/animus, the-hero-gets-the-girl cliche). It's like, duuude, Heero/Duo is much more like B/S (in my head)-- 'cause like, they're opposites-yet-equals in the whole complementary cliche sort of way.
Then it occurs to me to rethink Heero/Relena, and possibly you can see how Buffy/Spike can also be about the idealizing-the-anima cliche from Spike's pov (though that's not what I like about the pairing at all), and suddenly it all makes sense. You can definitely see how Heero/Relena is like Kyou/Tohru, which I adore (ACK ACK ACK STOP ABORT PANIC). In fact, I tend to blatantly ignore the unhealthyness of a boy idealizing his female love interest and focus on their disagreements and the romantic friction-- bleh, thus leading myself into a quagmire (I used a big word!) of sloppy thinking & projection-onto-perfectly-innocent-characters.
Mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
But it all makes sense in my head, I SWEAR!!1
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no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 03:37 pm (UTC)Yes, that's one of the things which make me dislike it so much. ;)
I remember, a long time ago, you posting about being baffled by people like me who hate the Spuffy and love the H/D, or vice versa. I think you've touched on it there - certain aspects of pairings stand out more strongly to different people, and so some people will see Pairing A and Pairing B as having very similar dynamics, and others won't.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-23 03:59 pm (UTC)fuckingpassion and stuff :>It's funny because in the end, I'm often most comfortable with the people I disagree with in terms of little philosophical kinks, 'cause we tend to hash out our respective pov's more thoroughly so we understand each other better, instead of assuming we do 'cause we supposedly like the same exact things~:))
Hehehe and yeah I mean you :D