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mark_asphodel Part Two: When Pairings Eat A Fandom
I missed a key development in the Tellius fandom-- the release of FE10 and the havoc it wrought-- because I was at that time lazing around in the SSB fandom. My main points of contact with actual Fire Emblem fans during that time were the incursions of butthurt Roy fans and batshit insane Lyn fans, none of whom were really good ambassadors for the FE community. (Long story short: if you think Lyn "deserved" to be in SSB:B as something "better than" an assist trophy, OK. You think Marth should've been cut to make room for her, GFY and you need a history lesson.)
Not that the post-FE10 Ike/Soren wank didn't hit SSB:B fandom. There was lots of handwringing and denial and flaming, not least because a lot of players and writers seem to have blissfully assumed that the Nintendo gods had, with Ike's inclusion, finally given them a straight (read: manly) rep from Fire Emblem to play with. So the question of Soren-or-Ranulf went down like shards of broken glass. I was mostly confused; I figured the initial reports of Ike's FE10 ending were lies, simply because I'd seen lies and hoaxes of that nature so many times across various fandoms. Also, my spotty knowledge of FE9 led me to believe that Ike/Elincia was where things were going, because, again-- it's Fire Emblem, and that's how the games always go, right?
[SSB:B fandom also had some vocal Ike/Lethe fans to add to the confusion.]
By the time I meandered back into actual FE fandom toward the beginning of 2009, Ike/Soren was well past the point of controversy (obviously some people are still spazzing out over it in various communities, but COME ON NOW.) And it was everywhere.
And it was mostly terrible. I swear that I've seen Soren written better in a handful of SSB-themed stories wherein he was his actual prickly, snarky, unsociable self. I haven't finished FE9, but any amount of contact with canon!Soren puts the lie to his standard 'fic portrayal. Hell, flipping through the game manual indicates that something is amiss with fanfic!Soren. I read a lot of Ike/Soren for a while because I was interested in what the depiction of a canon-approved m/m pairing would look like via fandom, and to my chagrin it was the same garbage as any other yaoi pairing: manly!seme, weepy!uke. Same worn-out tropes as used by Harry Potter fans, or Gundam Wing fans, or any other fanbase obsessed with pairing pretty boys.
Given I like canon!Soren, this was painful. Still is.
Ike/Soren turned into a hot-button issue for the fandom, as demonstrated by the wank that even mentioning it will net you on![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
emblanon and elsewhere. Some of this may be because it's two dudes together. Some of it may be because it's just so popular. But I don't think the reaction would be quite as extreme if so many of the stories weren't hack jobs composed of anime cliches and terrible characterizations, with or without random fangirl Japanese thrown in. I get the impression that Tellius writers who aren't on the Ike/Soren bandwagon feel overshadowed, or at the very least outnumbered, by I/S and its attendant wank, and I can't blame them. Maybe it'll pass in time, the way the era of bad Kent/Sain stories faded, but here we are in 2011, so who knows?
I guess the real question is, why do people who have presumably played the games write Soren in this way? Did they just see some fanart over at DA and decide to 'fic it? Are they just focusing on a couple of emotional moments in the games (which, as I understand it, are important because they are NOT the norm) and discarding all the rest of it? Or is it another closed circle, a feedback loop wherein writers are basing their entire perception of a character or pairing on the way it's done in other fanfics? I suspect the last comes heavily into play.
The other question is, why does nobody care about poor Ranulf?
Stay tuned if you like for Part III: Canon, What Canon? In the meantime, recs for good Ike/Soren stories are appreciated, and feel free to pimp your own.
I missed a key development in the Tellius fandom-- the release of FE10 and the havoc it wrought-- because I was at that time lazing around in the SSB fandom. My main points of contact with actual Fire Emblem fans during that time were the incursions of butthurt Roy fans and batshit insane Lyn fans, none of whom were really good ambassadors for the FE community. (Long story short: if you think Lyn "deserved" to be in SSB:B as something "better than" an assist trophy, OK. You think Marth should've been cut to make room for her, GFY and you need a history lesson.)
Not that the post-FE10 Ike/Soren wank didn't hit SSB:B fandom. There was lots of handwringing and denial and flaming, not least because a lot of players and writers seem to have blissfully assumed that the Nintendo gods had, with Ike's inclusion, finally given them a straight (read: manly) rep from Fire Emblem to play with. So the question of Soren-or-Ranulf went down like shards of broken glass. I was mostly confused; I figured the initial reports of Ike's FE10 ending were lies, simply because I'd seen lies and hoaxes of that nature so many times across various fandoms. Also, my spotty knowledge of FE9 led me to believe that Ike/Elincia was where things were going, because, again-- it's Fire Emblem, and that's how the games always go, right?
[SSB:B fandom also had some vocal Ike/Lethe fans to add to the confusion.]
By the time I meandered back into actual FE fandom toward the beginning of 2009, Ike/Soren was well past the point of controversy (obviously some people are still spazzing out over it in various communities, but COME ON NOW.) And it was everywhere.
And it was mostly terrible. I swear that I've seen Soren written better in a handful of SSB-themed stories wherein he was his actual prickly, snarky, unsociable self. I haven't finished FE9, but any amount of contact with canon!Soren puts the lie to his standard 'fic portrayal. Hell, flipping through the game manual indicates that something is amiss with fanfic!Soren. I read a lot of Ike/Soren for a while because I was interested in what the depiction of a canon-approved m/m pairing would look like via fandom, and to my chagrin it was the same garbage as any other yaoi pairing: manly!seme, weepy!uke. Same worn-out tropes as used by Harry Potter fans, or Gundam Wing fans, or any other fanbase obsessed with pairing pretty boys.
Given I like canon!Soren, this was painful. Still is.
Ike/Soren turned into a hot-button issue for the fandom, as demonstrated by the wank that even mentioning it will net you on
emblanon and elsewhere. Some of this may be because it's two dudes together. Some of it may be because it's just so popular. But I don't think the reaction would be quite as extreme if so many of the stories weren't hack jobs composed of anime cliches and terrible characterizations, with or without random fangirl Japanese thrown in. I get the impression that Tellius writers who aren't on the Ike/Soren bandwagon feel overshadowed, or at the very least outnumbered, by I/S and its attendant wank, and I can't blame them. Maybe it'll pass in time, the way the era of bad Kent/Sain stories faded, but here we are in 2011, so who knows?I guess the real question is, why do people who have presumably played the games write Soren in this way? Did they just see some fanart over at DA and decide to 'fic it? Are they just focusing on a couple of emotional moments in the games (which, as I understand it, are important because they are NOT the norm) and discarding all the rest of it? Or is it another closed circle, a feedback loop wherein writers are basing their entire perception of a character or pairing on the way it's done in other fanfics? I suspect the last comes heavily into play.
The other question is, why does nobody care about poor Ranulf?
Stay tuned if you like for Part III: Canon, What Canon? In the meantime, recs for good Ike/Soren stories are appreciated, and feel free to pimp your own.
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no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 04:15 pm (UTC)I was bitter towards Ike because Roy got cut, but I was pissed off because Roy was my main in Melee, so I'd have to use a new character in Brawl. Yes, Marth and Roy are clones, but there are a lot of differences between the two. Roy's aerials are fail, for example, and he feels heavier than Marth does. And I thought it'd be cool to have Lyn there as more than an assist because hey, there needs to be more female characters in Smash Brothers. But I absolutely loved Marth
and that has nothing to do with loving his seiyuu I swear, was excited and happy beyond belief when I found out he was in Brawl via leaked Brawl openings when it came out in Japan and we had to wait a month or whatever.Also, you know, Marth was the first Fire Emblem lord ever. If it weren't for Marth, there would've been no Fire Emblem, full stop. And he's fucking badass.
It'd be kinda like saying, oh, I want a playable redead, let's cut Link! In the grand scheme of things, Lyn's not really all that important compared to Marth or Ike. Yeah, she was (one of the) lords in the first American FE, but then Eliwood and Hector should be in Brawl too using that logic. Marth started Fire Emblem and Ike was in the first 3D one. (And they didn't have to hunt for voices for them either--Marth had an anime and Ike's had voice acting to begin with.)
I have to admit that the whole Ike/Soren thing has turned me off of FE9/10, mostly because it's like, THE pairing of the fandom. I ship Ike/Janaff. Where the hell do I go? It's like shipping het in Weiss Kreuz fandom, or not liking 1x2. At least the last one was Jossed. Ike/Soren is pretty much canon and it's everywhere.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 04:19 pm (UTC)y-you and me both.
Why do I not have a Mikage icon? Pffft have Judas instead.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 05:19 am (UTC)Midorikawa approves of your icon choice. *nods*
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 04:48 pm (UTC)Some dude on GameFaqs wrote a six-part manifesto for why Roy "deserved" to be in Brawl, all based off FE6 canon, and I wish that I'd saved it. But the issue with Roy is, it doesn't matter if he led the Lycian Alliance Army at age fifteen or whatever. Every Lord in Fire Emblem has that kind of Specialness on his/her resume. It matters that the sweet spot of his sword was too far down the blade and his aerials were fail. Adios, Roy. Time to pimp the newcomer's games.
Lyn's not really all that important compared to Marth or Ike.
Shh. Her crazy fans might hear you.
Really, in between the Roy's Mom Wank and the Assist Trophy Wank... Lyn's fans caused more headaches than anyone else's, at least from what I saw.
[Present company on the f-list excepted. If y'all were the batshit people who were trolling SSB communities, you've hidden it well.]
And they didn't have to hunt for voices for them either
Oh, god, Lyn's VA was awful. AWFUL.
I ship Ike/Janaff. Where the hell do I go?
Uh... that's really uncommon, yeah.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 08:42 pm (UTC)...So true.
But now that you have said this. Having a fighting game with most/all the FE characters would be the coolest thing ever. That will never happen. But I would buy it so fast.
Edit because I hit submit too fast! Lyn's VA was horrible, I agree. I was so disappointed with that. She sounded ...just all wrong. But I guess I was pleased she didn't sound like a squeaky anime girl. So I can't complain.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-30 10:05 pm (UTC)do you realize how many fangirls will squeal in delightthat would hands down be the best thing ever.Agreed on Lyn's VA, though. D:
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 12:39 am (UTC)Hahah. How on earth would you differentiate between all the Rapier Lord types, though? Poor Melee!Roy already showed what happens when you try to clone. And it would be terrible to omit, say, Eirika, just because her "type" has already been done six times over.
no subject
Date: 2011-01-31 05:25 am (UTC)Yeah, that's not really a great reason to say someone deserves to be in a game, because then all the FE lords should be there, 'cause they're all special! Roy's not the only one.
It matters that the sweet spot of his sword was too far down the blade and his aerials were fail.
And he was too 'heavy'. He fell like bricks. The only good thing about him is the one hit KO potential of his fully charged Flare Blade, but other than that, Marth is better. I like a whole 'at arms length' play style and Roy is just not good for that at all, because you don't do much damage. Marth hits someone with the tip of his blade and, if they're already at high percentage damage? Muwahahaha, bye-bye! Especially if it's a Meteor Smash. Mmm. And then you can taunt them afterwards. Marth's taunt > Roy's. Marth talks. A+ in my book. Sorry, Roy, but if I want to hear you scream, I can just watch Code Geass.
Then again if I want to hear Marth talk I can just either watch the anime or watch a laundry list of other titles, but shush.Uh... that's really uncommon, yeah.
It's like shipping 1x6 I think. I've found more 13x6 and 1x6 (the only slash pairings I avidly support, with 1x3 being a 'depends on the fic' thing) on AFF than I have on FFN. And it was epic stuff too. I'm sure it's there somewhere though, under all the 1x2 'Duo is pregnant' crap.