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I was thinking about pairings today and why we go for some and not others in a fandom. I'm not just talking about romance or slash, but gen as well.
People have millions of reasons for slashing, for instance. I'm not a person who is interested in couples because they're hot, particularly. I might acknowledge that two characters are attractive and even look good together but not be interested in reading anything about them as a pair. Like, I thought the Aragorn/Legolas was great in TTT, but didn't immediately want to read stories about it. Their scenes in the movie were enough for me. I don't much mix and match. The only time I'm interested in reading about a pair, usually, is when I see something that sparks my interest in canon. Again, I'm not talking about romance here, necessarily, but anything. I'm sure there are times when I identify with a certain character and so want to see him/her interact with the character I like, sure. But I don't think that's usually why I ship a particular pairing or am drawn to stories about certain characters, necessarily.
For instance, in LOTR I'm not interested in Sam/Pippin much. Not just in slashy terms where it might interfere with OTPs or (or OT3's *ahem*) but just because...I dunno...the dynamic between Sam and Pippin just doesn't immediately interest me. If somebody a scene between Sam and Merry I'd be more likely to be interested because something about what Merry stands for and what Sam stands for seems interesting when I put them together. The hobbits are all very archetypal, after all. They're almost like four distinct elements that work well together. Earth/Air (which is how I'd see Sam/Pippin) doesn't immediately draw me the way all the other combinations do. I just don't much like what Sam and Pippin bring out in each other--which is not to say authors should ever keep them apart. There's plenty of good fanfic scenes that deal with the two of them. I just can't sink my teeth into them the way I can others. If somebody wrote a long scene where Sam was digging marigolds and ruminating deeply about his feelings for Pippin I think it might strike me as OOC.
OotP suggested a lot of new HP parings, obviously. Many people saw a ton of Snape/Harry in the book, yet I was as anti-Snape/Harry as ever. That is, their scenes in canon were interesting, sure, but I felt like canon covered them pretty well. I didn't feel like I needed to dig deeper in fanfic. (And their scenes made the idea of Snape/Harry slash even more of a turnoff to me than it was before!) Meanwhile I was surprised to find myself, for the first time, thinking about Snape/Draco of all things. It didn't suddenly become something I saw in a slashy way in canon or my OTP or even specifically sexualized. I just suddenly wanted to know more about their relationship, see them in good fics having an intense relationship of whatever kind. It suddenly made me wistful to read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
nocturne_alley and realize that in that universe the two characters (both played so well) are not close. Maybe it was because the new things we learned about Snape suddenly made a friendship with Draco more edgy and complex, with more at stake, especially for Snape. His relationship with Harry was passionate but for clear reasons. I didn't feel it changed much at all in this book--the Pensieve information was stuff I thought had been clearly hinted at before. Even if Harry learns more in future and sees Snape in a different light, I don't see the core of their relationship becoming all that different--it will still, for me at least, probably be adequately covered in canon.
It makes me wonder what it is that draws me to all these pairings and why I dislike others. For instance, in HP I'm totally appalled by, say, H/G. It's not just that I don't want to read a romance between Harry and Ginny because it threatens H/D, it's that I don't like what these characters bring out in each other. It's true I now dislike Ginny the character on her own, but my disinterest in the pairing isn't just about hating her character. I wouldn't be any more interested in reading a fic where Harry yelled at her than one in which he did homework with her or married her. I guess I just don't like the parts of Harry that Ginny speaks to or reflects, just as the Sam/Pippin relationship doesn't bring out the parts of those characters (both of whom I like) that I find interesting.
It's suddenly reminding me of all the Season 8 wars in X-Files fandom when Doggett was introduced. There were people who insisted they loved Dogget and Scully. Now, many of them were such Mulder and Duchovny haters I couldn't help but wonder if Doggett's main attraction was that he wasn't Mulder. But some, I think, loved Scully and honestly liked seeing her with this guy. I, meanwhile, found the very things they liked about the S/D relationship a problem: Doggett played to all the parts of Scully I didn't like. He was a Daddy figure, he put her on a pedestal, he admired her for suffering so endlessly (*retch*). I think Gillian Anderson said in her oh-so-GA way, he "respected her journey" or some such nonsense. It wasn't that their dynamic didn't work, it was just not interesting. Sort of like that couple Woody Allen runs into on the street in Annie Hall. He says, "You seem really happy. How do you do it?" The guy explains that he's totally shallow and has nothing of interest to say and the woman (Shelly Hack!) says she's exactly the same way. He thanks them and they go on their way.
So I think whatever draws me to a particular pairing is more...what conflict do these two characters work out together? There has to be one, imo. I don't mean there needs to be a love/hate element to the pair, just that there must be something that sizzles between them to make something bigger. In that sense scenes between Sam and Merry crackle more than Merry and Pippin, in fact. I don't see Merry and Sam together in a slashy sense, but they do have a lot of great tension as a non-romantic couple in either gen or slash. There's something immediately intense about their competing relationships with Frodo. It's not straight-out competition, there's a lot of respect there but it can get into dangerous territory very quickly. But in the end I wonder if it also speaks to some conflict in me that I like to see worked out, because obviously other people find pairings interesting that I don't, and I'd be surprised if all of them are simply reading fanfic for different reasons than I am. Unless my reasons for being drawn to a pairing only represent a smaller minority, which is always possible I suppose.
People have millions of reasons for slashing, for instance. I'm not a person who is interested in couples because they're hot, particularly. I might acknowledge that two characters are attractive and even look good together but not be interested in reading anything about them as a pair. Like, I thought the Aragorn/Legolas was great in TTT, but didn't immediately want to read stories about it. Their scenes in the movie were enough for me. I don't much mix and match. The only time I'm interested in reading about a pair, usually, is when I see something that sparks my interest in canon. Again, I'm not talking about romance here, necessarily, but anything. I'm sure there are times when I identify with a certain character and so want to see him/her interact with the character I like, sure. But I don't think that's usually why I ship a particular pairing or am drawn to stories about certain characters, necessarily.
For instance, in LOTR I'm not interested in Sam/Pippin much. Not just in slashy terms where it might interfere with OTPs or (or OT3's *ahem*) but just because...I dunno...the dynamic between Sam and Pippin just doesn't immediately interest me. If somebody a scene between Sam and Merry I'd be more likely to be interested because something about what Merry stands for and what Sam stands for seems interesting when I put them together. The hobbits are all very archetypal, after all. They're almost like four distinct elements that work well together. Earth/Air (which is how I'd see Sam/Pippin) doesn't immediately draw me the way all the other combinations do. I just don't much like what Sam and Pippin bring out in each other--which is not to say authors should ever keep them apart. There's plenty of good fanfic scenes that deal with the two of them. I just can't sink my teeth into them the way I can others. If somebody wrote a long scene where Sam was digging marigolds and ruminating deeply about his feelings for Pippin I think it might strike me as OOC.
OotP suggested a lot of new HP parings, obviously. Many people saw a ton of Snape/Harry in the book, yet I was as anti-Snape/Harry as ever. That is, their scenes in canon were interesting, sure, but I felt like canon covered them pretty well. I didn't feel like I needed to dig deeper in fanfic. (And their scenes made the idea of Snape/Harry slash even more of a turnoff to me than it was before!) Meanwhile I was surprised to find myself, for the first time, thinking about Snape/Draco of all things. It didn't suddenly become something I saw in a slashy way in canon or my OTP or even specifically sexualized. I just suddenly wanted to know more about their relationship, see them in good fics having an intense relationship of whatever kind. It suddenly made me wistful to read
nocturne_alley and realize that in that universe the two characters (both played so well) are not close. Maybe it was because the new things we learned about Snape suddenly made a friendship with Draco more edgy and complex, with more at stake, especially for Snape. His relationship with Harry was passionate but for clear reasons. I didn't feel it changed much at all in this book--the Pensieve information was stuff I thought had been clearly hinted at before. Even if Harry learns more in future and sees Snape in a different light, I don't see the core of their relationship becoming all that different--it will still, for me at least, probably be adequately covered in canon.It makes me wonder what it is that draws me to all these pairings and why I dislike others. For instance, in HP I'm totally appalled by, say, H/G. It's not just that I don't want to read a romance between Harry and Ginny because it threatens H/D, it's that I don't like what these characters bring out in each other. It's true I now dislike Ginny the character on her own, but my disinterest in the pairing isn't just about hating her character. I wouldn't be any more interested in reading a fic where Harry yelled at her than one in which he did homework with her or married her. I guess I just don't like the parts of Harry that Ginny speaks to or reflects, just as the Sam/Pippin relationship doesn't bring out the parts of those characters (both of whom I like) that I find interesting.
It's suddenly reminding me of all the Season 8 wars in X-Files fandom when Doggett was introduced. There were people who insisted they loved Dogget and Scully. Now, many of them were such Mulder and Duchovny haters I couldn't help but wonder if Doggett's main attraction was that he wasn't Mulder. But some, I think, loved Scully and honestly liked seeing her with this guy. I, meanwhile, found the very things they liked about the S/D relationship a problem: Doggett played to all the parts of Scully I didn't like. He was a Daddy figure, he put her on a pedestal, he admired her for suffering so endlessly (*retch*). I think Gillian Anderson said in her oh-so-GA way, he "respected her journey" or some such nonsense. It wasn't that their dynamic didn't work, it was just not interesting. Sort of like that couple Woody Allen runs into on the street in Annie Hall. He says, "You seem really happy. How do you do it?" The guy explains that he's totally shallow and has nothing of interest to say and the woman (Shelly Hack!) says she's exactly the same way. He thanks them and they go on their way.
So I think whatever draws me to a particular pairing is more...what conflict do these two characters work out together? There has to be one, imo. I don't mean there needs to be a love/hate element to the pair, just that there must be something that sizzles between them to make something bigger. In that sense scenes between Sam and Merry crackle more than Merry and Pippin, in fact. I don't see Merry and Sam together in a slashy sense, but they do have a lot of great tension as a non-romantic couple in either gen or slash. There's something immediately intense about their competing relationships with Frodo. It's not straight-out competition, there's a lot of respect there but it can get into dangerous territory very quickly. But in the end I wonder if it also speaks to some conflict in me that I like to see worked out, because obviously other people find pairings interesting that I don't, and I'd be surprised if all of them are simply reading fanfic for different reasons than I am. Unless my reasons for being drawn to a pairing only represent a smaller minority, which is always possible I suppose.
Tags:
- characterization,
- hp,
- lotr,
- reading,
- xf
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From:
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Just wondering, do you plan to post an entry about what is it about H/D that appeals to you?
From:
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From:
Oh, this is an interesting one to think about!
in "Meditations on Middle-Earth" there's one author (don't remember who) who said his fascination with LOTR was based on the landscape. for him the characters were just black holes in the landscape out of which came speech. i thought that unbelievably funny, but now i find it's the same for me with HP. i love the world JKR created: the shifting stairs, the talking portraits, the pumpkin juice etc. but the characters just don't work with me. i'm not really interested in them.
scully/dogget? GAH!!! the classical mama/papa show. i mean, great for them if it works but totally uninteresting to watch.
sam/merry now.... oh, that's a universe of its own. the relations they both have with frodo as the centerpiece are part competing/part matching and have a personal dynamic that just fascinates me.
From:
Re: Oh, this is an interesting one to think about!
Totally agree on Scully/Doggett. Yawn yawn yawn. Dollars to donuts. Personally, I thought Doggett became much more alive when Mulder showed up again. Or even just as a ghost. They had some interesting chemistry. Scully was too busy staring in mirrors rubbing her miracle tummy by that point. Feh.
Yes, Sam and Merry are definitely just...yeah. Mira's done some great Sam and Merry tension too. There's a real understanding there between them, I think.