Some late night musings
Apr. 17th, 2004 12:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
swatkatI was just thinking about the question by our curious friend on the FFMB, and wondering how I would feel about a Section-skewed story with Michael/Terry instead of Michael/Nikita; or a story (Section-skewed, totally AU, whatever) where they would be brother and sister. The only reaction was "Ewww! No way!" That got me thinking more (er, sometimes I think too much) about the widely different fannish reactions regarding canon deviation in the two fandoms I'm mostly associated with.
HP, with all its characters and very little canon romance (thank you JKR, and please keep it that way) allows all kinds of pairings that actually fit in canon. Simplest example would be all the Hermione pairings – Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione, Draco/Hermione, Snape/Hermione, Remus/Hermione (too little), and Krum/Hermione (the oddest thing is – this is the only pairing confirmed in canon, and I've seen this in what? – two fics). And I haven't even touched upon the rarer pairings or femmeslash (OT – I have never, ever seen Lockhart/Hermione, and that is so canon *eg*). But even when the pairing isn't canon, and can no way ever be canon, there is always *some* interest about it. And talented authors can make the characters act IC even as they deviate from canon. Even some of the popular slash pairings can fall in this category *coughHarryDracocough* (okay, so I can't read Harry/Draco). LFN OTOH has pretty limited scope in this aspect, because canon has very specific pairings and centres around them – you can do pairings, but in most cases it would make the characters act OOC.
However, I'm always surprised at the lack of experimental fics of any form in LFN. We chatted about the lack of sex – but that's not the only thing here. I think I'll have to give an example again – Sirius/Remus is canon (yes, it is). There are many devoted S/R shippers who love the two characters and can't bear the thought of them paired with anyone else. But there are also people who don't particularly care for any one of them, and therefore pair them with other characters, and make it work. They do it by accepting Sirius/Remus in their plots. But it always surprises me that there is no LFN story (Mary Sues don't count) pairing Michael successfully with any other character, male or female. I mean, there are plenty of people who couldn't care less about Nikita and would happily see him paired forever with Elena. And canon does give some opportunities – even if they're small. I won't buy the small fandom argument, because back in the days the fandom may not have been as big as HP, but it wasn't too small either. (IMO, it's still not as small we think it is. It's just that there is a sudden dearth of good writers – almost all the authors I care about are here, in my flist *sigh*)
Again coming back to totally fantastic pairings. HP – and LOTR too – has abundance of pairings that are not canon and will never be canon. Except for those few strangely OOC Michael/Davenport fics, I haven't seen any such pairings in LFN. The general fannish reaction will always be "Ewww!" (except with Mary Sue, perhaps *snerk*)![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
nell65 talked about the incestfic that never happened (not that I'm disappointed really). In HP, it would happen. And it would work.
I'm sure none of the above made any sense, so I'll just sum up echoing Curious: Why aren't there any different pairings in LFN (hang canon)? How come they never became popular? Why is our reaction so different?
And that said, Michael/Nikita is still my OTP. So there. *vbeg*
I did think of posting this on the FFMB for opinions, but there's no point in spamming the board with my vague ramblings. So, you all will have to read this instead.
~
Good thing: I just received news that my dear kitty (she lives at my grandfather's place in the small town where I come from) has given birth to four lovely kittens. They all seem quite healthy so far, and she is currently bringing down the house demanding food. Bad thing: I have no idea when I'll get to meet them, seeing that I can't visit too often. By the time I do, they'll probably be all grown-up and running wild.
HP, with all its characters and very little canon romance (thank you JKR, and please keep it that way) allows all kinds of pairings that actually fit in canon. Simplest example would be all the Hermione pairings – Harry/Hermione, Ron/Hermione, Draco/Hermione, Snape/Hermione, Remus/Hermione (too little), and Krum/Hermione (the oddest thing is – this is the only pairing confirmed in canon, and I've seen this in what? – two fics). And I haven't even touched upon the rarer pairings or femmeslash (OT – I have never, ever seen Lockhart/Hermione, and that is so canon *eg*). But even when the pairing isn't canon, and can no way ever be canon, there is always *some* interest about it. And talented authors can make the characters act IC even as they deviate from canon. Even some of the popular slash pairings can fall in this category *coughHarryDracocough* (okay, so I can't read Harry/Draco). LFN OTOH has pretty limited scope in this aspect, because canon has very specific pairings and centres around them – you can do pairings, but in most cases it would make the characters act OOC.
However, I'm always surprised at the lack of experimental fics of any form in LFN. We chatted about the lack of sex – but that's not the only thing here. I think I'll have to give an example again – Sirius/Remus is canon (yes, it is). There are many devoted S/R shippers who love the two characters and can't bear the thought of them paired with anyone else. But there are also people who don't particularly care for any one of them, and therefore pair them with other characters, and make it work. They do it by accepting Sirius/Remus in their plots. But it always surprises me that there is no LFN story (Mary Sues don't count) pairing Michael successfully with any other character, male or female. I mean, there are plenty of people who couldn't care less about Nikita and would happily see him paired forever with Elena. And canon does give some opportunities – even if they're small. I won't buy the small fandom argument, because back in the days the fandom may not have been as big as HP, but it wasn't too small either. (IMO, it's still not as small we think it is. It's just that there is a sudden dearth of good writers – almost all the authors I care about are here, in my flist *sigh*)
Again coming back to totally fantastic pairings. HP – and LOTR too – has abundance of pairings that are not canon and will never be canon. Except for those few strangely OOC Michael/Davenport fics, I haven't seen any such pairings in LFN. The general fannish reaction will always be "Ewww!" (except with Mary Sue, perhaps *snerk*)
nell65 talked about the incestfic that never happened (not that I'm disappointed really). In HP, it would happen. And it would work. I'm sure none of the above made any sense, so I'll just sum up echoing Curious: Why aren't there any different pairings in LFN (hang canon)? How come they never became popular? Why is our reaction so different?
And that said, Michael/Nikita is still my OTP. So there. *vbeg*
I did think of posting this on the FFMB for opinions, but there's no point in spamming the board with my vague ramblings. So, you all will have to read this instead.
~
Good thing: I just received news that my dear kitty (she lives at my grandfather's place in the small town where I come from) has given birth to four lovely kittens. They all seem quite healthy so far, and she is currently bringing down the house demanding food. Bad thing: I have no idea when I'll get to meet them, seeing that I can't visit too often. By the time I do, they'll probably be all grown-up and running wild.
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Part Two. My conclusion - such as it is. LOL!
Date: 2004-04-16 08:52 pm (UTC)I KNOW the major reason I'm drawn to writing as well as reading AU is that the insubstantial nature of Section frustrates the hell out of me, so by choosing my own, more substantial, terrain I can imagine characters with lots of different, contengent story lines in a way that canon Section defeats for me.
As for the OTP pairing thing, I think that is actually a symptom of the larger issue of the smallness of the Section universe, and not the cause.
Nell
no subject
Date: 2004-04-17 03:29 pm (UTC)Now, speaking about the nature of the Wizarding World and Section - actually, I find them very similar in a way, which is the reason why I asked this question. Potterverse is *not* that rich or impeccable. There are very few things that are concretely defined in canon - everything else is for us to imagine. Like Sectionverse, there are quite a number of holes - to JKR's credit though, she tries to be consistent. And her writing is vivid. But then, so is Section, because we got to *see* things. It's very difficult to work out everything - and yet there are numerous fics, from fics that deal with the era of the founding fathers of Hogwarts, to futurefics set after the 'War' (there are different sections in the fandom). And surely out of a fairly large fandom like LFN was back then, a *few* fans would be interesting in working out things from scratch and explain Section to us? Like JayBee did?
Because the outside world wasn't imagined in Section at all, and Section itself was a shadowy uncertain quantity, the stories in canon, and most of the fic, is very inward focused - that is, how will character x respond to situation y. It's all about navigating the internal world of section and its missions, either to survive romantically or professionally.
Yes, but why would character x always be Michael, Nikita, Paul and Madeline? How come there weren't others interested *at all* in the other characters? While I agree with you everyone in Section faces the same pressure, the situation for no two operatives could be the exact same thing, and neither could be their reaction. Nikita and Madeline wouldn't react to the same situation in the same manner. Didn't you mention Leon? We couldn't write a story from canon maybe, but we could make things up. No one knows what Grindelwald is, except that he/it was a Dark Wizard whom Dumbledore defeated once. That doesn't stop authors from writing stories about him.
I KNOW the major reason I'm drawn to writing as well as reading AU is that the insubstantial nature of Section frustrates the hell out of me, so by choosing my own, more substantial, terrain I can imagine characters with lots of different, contengent story lines in a way that canon Section defeats for me.
But that's just you, right? *g*
Swatkat