Pairing Issues
Jan. 14th, 2010 10:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelIt seems to me that all canon-warping pairings are not created equal. For some bizarro reason, I find that pairing a characters with someone outside of their canonical "destiny" feels more transgressive when the pairing isn't crack. Taking an indisputably "het" character and putting them in a yaoi or yuri pairing, or pairing two characters Because I Feel Like It (see: "By Any Other Name") is something I'm comfortable enough with. Taking a "het" character and having them shack up with a totally plausible het choice with some canonical justification feels... dirty? Feels like I should expect to get mauled for publishing it? It's like it falls down some sort of fan-fictional Uncanny Valley and from there goes right to the Creepy Zone.
And no, I'm not carping about Catria/Marth again, though I have this problem with that particular pairing. There's another FE3 hookup I'm working with that has, IMO, even more justification than C/M, and on some level I feel like fanboys and girls ought to beat me with sticks if I ever publish it. Which is stupid, because every single day fan-writers publish stories featuring pairings that warp, shred, and blast canon. That's part of what fanfiction is about, man. I see the potential for this pairing in the text, I'm exploring it, and I shouldn't have to justify it to anyone.
Anyone else have this problem? Anyone else find they're comfortable with something that is gleefully, unabashedly non-canon/crack, but not comfortable with something plausible enough to be almost-canon?
And no, I'm not carping about Catria/Marth again, though I have this problem with that particular pairing. There's another FE3 hookup I'm working with that has, IMO, even more justification than C/M, and on some level I feel like fanboys and girls ought to beat me with sticks if I ever publish it. Which is stupid, because every single day fan-writers publish stories featuring pairings that warp, shred, and blast canon. That's part of what fanfiction is about, man. I see the potential for this pairing in the text, I'm exploring it, and I shouldn't have to justify it to anyone.
Anyone else have this problem? Anyone else find they're comfortable with something that is gleefully, unabashedly non-canon/crack, but not comfortable with something plausible enough to be almost-canon?
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Date: 2010-01-16 07:46 am (UTC)I think it depends for me. unabashed crack is cool with me... with the caveat that it's in character, and crack is rarely if ever in character sadly enough. I think it's rare that people actually take crack pairings seriously (which is what I like to see). Usually I see crack pairings used as some sort of shock factor or for not-all-that-funny humor. FE3 gives a lot more freedom for this kind of pairing though, what with all the ambiguity.
Theoretically I'd be more comfortable with the plausible pairings, but I think what happens sometimes is that the "almost-but-not-quite" pairings need a lot of subtle fudging to make them work, which ends up making them feel off for no apparent reason. Like certain core aspects of the characters need to be differently interpreted, which skews the internal consistently just the slightest bit. For me there's a difference between "so plausible I have no idea why there's no option for it" (like I guess a L'Arachel/Rennac ending, or Saleh/Marisa supports for FE8), "plausible but I don't know, it feels off" (Guy/Florina as mentioned above -- I don't dislike it, but reading the pairing requires me to turn off something in my head), and "plausible but seriously wrecks my impression of their canonical relationship" (Hector/Serra, Cain/Palla).
I'm not sure what kind of discomfort you're running into though...
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Date: 2010-01-16 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-18 12:25 am (UTC)Malliesia's involved, which should give you an idea. That darned little girl... I just can't get her OR Yumina out of my head, and I'm not entirely sure how to write either one of them. They bug me, so I keep going back to them, and I keep scaring myself off. Yumina I might finally tackle for the next fe_contest entry, though.
FE3 gives a lot more freedom for this kind of pairing though, what with all the ambiguity.
Indeed. Damn it all.
I think what happens sometimes is that the "almost-but-not-quite" pairings need a lot of subtle fudging to make them work, which ends up making them feel off for no apparent reason. Like certain core aspects of the characters need to be differently interpreted...
That's a good point. That may sum up the problem pretty well. And I agree with your gradations of plausibility/comfort. Rennac/L'Arachel is one of those things I gleefully support, but Hector/Serra gets right into that territory of "Yeah, but...."
I'm not sure what kind of discomfort you're running into though...
Hard to explain... that's why I reached for the Uncanny Valley metaphor. "Almost-but-not-quite and the dissonance is creeping me out."