Fanfic Question Meme - Question 9

[hells_half_acre]

Okay, I might still do another rewatch tonight - I haven't decided yet. It's already 8pm and besides going to yoga, I've pretty much wasted the day.

Anyway, first I'd thought I'd do another one of these questions things...

9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

Okay, so the problem with this question is that I'm too much of a canon oriented person to write pairings unless they are REALLY heavy-handed in canon, to the point where I actually fully believe that the writers could choose to go there and it'd be completely believable. (And, yes, I realize that a lot of slash writers see their ships as falling into that category when I don't, but that's just the nature of subjective opinion.)

So, let's change the question slightly to:

For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favourite characters or pairings to write?

Supernatural - I like writing from either Sam or Dean's POV. Although I like having Cas in scenes, especially when it's crossovers (because I can do a lot of cool things with Cas in crossovers), the one time I tried to write a fic from Cas' POV, I ended up abandoning it, because in my headcanon, Cas' mind is like the most complicated book on metaphysics and mathematics that exists... and yeah, I just can't capture that to my satisfaction in writing. No pairings in SPN.

Harry Potter - I like writing Harry, Teddy, and Draco. Those would be my top three. Draco is a surprise, because I was not a huge Draco fan when reading the books, but I really like what I've done with him in the demented'verse, and he's become a joy to write. Only canon pairings in Harry Potter, so mostly all het ships... though, I like the really strange relationship that I've written between Nate and Teddy where they're basically platonic life-partners.

Sherlock - Well, again, pretty boring and going with Sherlock and John. I like writing Sherlock the best, just because (and this sounds super arrogant even though I don't mean it that way) I see a lot of myself in Sherlock. I HAVE written pairings in Sherlock, and that's of course the super predictable Sherlock/John, because the LOVE is canon, whether or not the sex is.

Merlin - Pairings I like are Merlin/Arthur, Merlin/Gwaine, and Gwen/Lancelot... I also like Merlin/Arthur/Gwen, where Gwen and Merlin don't actually have sex with each other, but they're both supportive of each other's relationship with Arthur. If you squint at Men of Legend, you can see me hinting at that heavily. Because Merlin is the gayest show to ever not-explicitly-gay, I actually see all my ships as completely supported by canon. As for who I like to write the most, I actually really really enjoyed writing from Arthur's POV in I Imagine The Gods...

Captain America/Marvel Cinematic Universe - Steve/Bucky, Clint/Natasha (ignoring Ultron), and... although I've never written it, I fully support fans of Peggy/Angie. Before Ultron, Clint/Nataha was fairly supported in the MCU, and they ARE canon in the comics (in the past anyway). Steve/Bucky is SO SUPPORTED BY CANON, I don't even care that the MCU will probably shy away from it and make Steve/Sharon canon... it'll piss me off, make no mistake, because right now they've done the classic romance build between Steve and Bucky. Bucky was Steve's damsel in distress/fridged girlfriend in CA:TFA, and Bucky was AGAIN Steve's romance plot in CA:TWS. (As a sidenote, Steve is Peggy's fridged girlfriend in Agent Carter, and I love it.) As for characters, I've only ever written from Bucky's POV, so I don't know, I guess he takes top spot. Oh, wait, that's not true, I also wrote a short fic from Natasha's POV, so I guess my top two are Bucky and Natasha (and as a sidenote, I also kind of like the Bucky/Natasha pairing, but I don't want the cinematic universe to go there.)

Comments

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

I'm going to steal this...tomorrow.

And yes, so much on the canon pairing thing. I can like ships, root for ships, and be happy for people to have their various ships, but I absolutely cannot write ships unless it's explicitly written into the show's DNA. And even then...well, to use the classic x-files example, if I'd been writing fic for the x-files during its heyday, I'd have been shipping the hell out of Scully and Mulder*, but it would have still been pretty gen. There'd have been no declarations of love, no mad passionate sex, it would have pretty much stuck to the lines that the show itself carved out.

* in the old x-filean sense of the word, where the debate mostly seemed to be not over who they were shipped with or if they should be shipped, but whether or not their relationship included (or even just *could* include) romantic feelings.


As to the MCU...man, I do not want to see Steve/Sharon at all, it's too creepy. And...damn, you know, the MCU is ridiculously short of female characters. Ridiculously. Because there aren't a lot of options, M/F (or F/f) wise. I kind of am rooting for some Bucky/Natasha, if only because I want Natasha to be revealed to secretly be 80 years old. Don't ask me why, it's just one of those comics canon things that I just really get a kick out of. And I know Techno-Zola said she was born in 1984, but he's a computer, and in any case, she said she worked for the KGB before she 'went straight' so I can headcanon anything I'd like :P

Actually, the more I think about the pairing thing and being a gen writer, the more I'm thinking about how much it's the...foundation and dynamics of the relationships that interest me more than their particular expressions, and that's probably part of why I tend to be gen by default.

I mean, thinking of the MCU, I love the hell out of Tony/Pepper, but what I love most to explore(/the headcanon I'm most attached to) is the how deeply, and how instinctively Tony relies on and trusts Pepper. I mean, Tony's practically a walking defense mechanism, but she's his lodestone. so the why and how of that relationship (and from Pepper's perspective too) just fascinates me. But that's not going to have a lot to do with romantic gestures or sex.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Agreed agreed 100%

It really is about the foundation and dynamics of the relationships for me, rather than whether or not there is boning involved. Even the ships I talk about above, that I say are supported by canon - what I'm really saying is that the LOVE is there, but whether or not that ever manifests into a sexual relationship is sort of besides the point for me.

I HAVE written fics with sex in them, like my Merlin/Arthur fic, but the sex was almost a tack-on, as the fic was really about coming to terms with the place of their old and current lives and the context of the modern world.

So, all in all, even my shipping is a very gen form of shipping. When I do write fics about sex, they tend to be done as complete AUs on anon kinkmemes, so the characters could actually be anyone, I just borrow whatever name and likeness the prompter wants, because I don't really care and it doesn't really matter.

I could get behind Bucky/Natasha too, if it were done right, I just don't believe that the MCU have it in them to do it right. I've read some fics that have done it, even without making Natasha 80, and they've done it well, but yeah, fic writers are often more talented than screen writers... and after the disaster that was Natasha/Bruce in Ultron, I just want the writers to back away slowly from Natasha.

That being said, I'd love for Natasha to secretly be 80 years old, or 60, or whatever. It'd be really cool if she were a cold-war baby from like, the HEIGHT of it. That's what I'd want. And they COULD do it, because what the heck does Zola know, not everything.

And agreed completely that Steve/Sharon is gross. I'd be fine with them being friends, but I really don't want them to have a romantic relationship - if they're not going to commit to Steve/Bucky, then at least leave Steve a bachelor. But, whatever, I'm pretty pessimistic about the whole thing. I didn't want them to do civil war in the first place.

[nic]

right now they've done the classic romance build between Steve and Bucky. Bucky was Steve's damsel in distress/fridged girlfriend in CA:TFA, and Bucky was AGAIN Steve's romance plot in CA:TWS. (As a sidenote, Steve is Peggy's fridged girlfriend in Agent Carter, and I love it.)

I absolutely love your insights here - I'd never thought of either of these perspectives.

[hells-half-acre.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I can't take credit for the Peggy Carter one - that was totally all Hayley Atwell who pointed that out for me. Wish I had a link for her saying it, but although I remember it was her, I can't remember when/where she said it.