the_ragnarok (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
the_ragnarok) wrote2011-08-01 03:05 pm
the_ragnarok) wrote2011-08-01 03:05 pm
Entry tags:
fandoms as old boyfriends
I think this was a meme, back in the days of yore.
- Pokemon: The fannish equivalent of the boy whom you sent love notes in 3rd grade. Very silly affair, with me acting so shy he never even knew I was there. (I don't know if I even posted any of the fic I wrote online. I tried to hunt it when I was making the Big Transfer to AO3, but couldn't recall what name I used back then.)
- Queer as Folk (US): The one you had an UNIMAGINABLY EPIC CRUSH ON... and then you got to know him and he broke your heart. I loved the first season to bits, but then the next season destroyed all possibility for my OTP (Michael/Brian) and I gave up in disinterest and turned to reading a shitload of Stuart/Vince instead. YEAH UK YOU DID IT RIGHT.
- The Sentinel: The one your friends hooked you up with because you were moping and lonely. And then everything was fantastic for a while - his friends are so clever and he's so loving and gentle and his dark side is so mysteriously appealing! Swoon! You're together for years, and even when the first flush wears off, well, he's still pretty amazing, isn't he? And more to the point, you can't leave him. Would you honestly rather be alone?
In hindsight, you look at your relationship and realize it was full to the brim of fucked-up politics, that even his friends were trying to tell you that and you weren't paying attention.
Still. Good times. You sort of miss him to this day, and you still smile and nod if you meet by chance. You've met a lot of good people through him, and he's really not a bad person. Just. Not really what you thought he was.
- Temeraire: One-night stand. But a pretty fucking awesome one. (never actually wrote anything, but man, I love those books and some of the fic and art they've spawned.)
- The Authority: One-night stand that you wish turned into something more, but it didn't pan out.
- Andromeda: The crush from Crush City. SO HOT. Except, in the end, you didn't really know him at all, and by the time you got close enough to think about something serious he'd turned out all sorts of fucked up. You're just kind of happy you got away in time. (never watched the show. that's kind of a constant with me and media fandoms that aren't like, a movie. wrote one fic, which had more misspellings than plot.)
- SGA: You met him through your friends, and holy fuck, you were kind of perfect for each other. He is seriously everything you've ever wanted, smart and funny and hot and did I mention SMART? Holy math porn, batman. You drool just watching him go.
Sure, around his family he's kind of a dick, but his friends? Okay, first of all he's got a shitload of them, and secondly FUCK THEY'RE AMAZING. you want to be them when you grow up. they end up teaching you so much, by example and by mentioning it in passing, and...
In fact, you're so busy admiring him and his friends that you never say anything. By the time you move on, you have the uncomfortable realization that none of them knew you were even there.
You still have a friends-with-benefits thing with him, and every now and then you look back and wonder why it never became anything more. It was so right. Whatever happened to it and you?
(never watched the show, adored the fic but never wrote any. things I learned about from SGA fandom include social justice basics, the Banach-Tarski paradox, that Mendelssohn wrote the most beautiful violin music ever, and that you can write fanfic that doesn't just transcend the source but takes it in a million directions from horror to comedy to a dark SF dystopia without ever leaving cannon.)
- Inception: It started off as a one-night stand. Really it did. But it was SO FUCKING GOOD that you just knew you'll be coming back for more. And you did, over and over.
He's not really your type, except for how he's exactly your type. He's the muscled bearded dude with the motorcycle, and you never went for those, except it turns out he also reads poetry and laughs at stupid math jokes and treats you like a person and you sort of go weak at the knees every time he's around.
His friends... well, they're my friends now. And they look even more amazing from close up. ♥
The only thing is that - can fandoms be husband material? Does it work like that? Aren't fandoms, by their very nature, transitory things? Can anyone say that they've been in fandom X for twenty years straight? Because I've always been the marrying sort, about pretty much everything. I want to stay forever in places where I'm happy.
- Pokemon: The fannish equivalent of the boy whom you sent love notes in 3rd grade. Very silly affair, with me acting so shy he never even knew I was there. (I don't know if I even posted any of the fic I wrote online. I tried to hunt it when I was making the Big Transfer to AO3, but couldn't recall what name I used back then.)
- Queer as Folk (US): The one you had an UNIMAGINABLY EPIC CRUSH ON... and then you got to know him and he broke your heart. I loved the first season to bits, but then the next season destroyed all possibility for my OTP (Michael/Brian) and I gave up in disinterest and turned to reading a shitload of Stuart/Vince instead. YEAH UK YOU DID IT RIGHT.
- The Sentinel: The one your friends hooked you up with because you were moping and lonely. And then everything was fantastic for a while - his friends are so clever and he's so loving and gentle and his dark side is so mysteriously appealing! Swoon! You're together for years, and even when the first flush wears off, well, he's still pretty amazing, isn't he? And more to the point, you can't leave him. Would you honestly rather be alone?
In hindsight, you look at your relationship and realize it was full to the brim of fucked-up politics, that even his friends were trying to tell you that and you weren't paying attention.
Still. Good times. You sort of miss him to this day, and you still smile and nod if you meet by chance. You've met a lot of good people through him, and he's really not a bad person. Just. Not really what you thought he was.
- Temeraire: One-night stand. But a pretty fucking awesome one. (never actually wrote anything, but man, I love those books and some of the fic and art they've spawned.)
- The Authority: One-night stand that you wish turned into something more, but it didn't pan out.
- Andromeda: The crush from Crush City. SO HOT. Except, in the end, you didn't really know him at all, and by the time you got close enough to think about something serious he'd turned out all sorts of fucked up. You're just kind of happy you got away in time. (never watched the show. that's kind of a constant with me and media fandoms that aren't like, a movie. wrote one fic, which had more misspellings than plot.)
- SGA: You met him through your friends, and holy fuck, you were kind of perfect for each other. He is seriously everything you've ever wanted, smart and funny and hot and did I mention SMART? Holy math porn, batman. You drool just watching him go.
Sure, around his family he's kind of a dick, but his friends? Okay, first of all he's got a shitload of them, and secondly FUCK THEY'RE AMAZING. you want to be them when you grow up. they end up teaching you so much, by example and by mentioning it in passing, and...
In fact, you're so busy admiring him and his friends that you never say anything. By the time you move on, you have the uncomfortable realization that none of them knew you were even there.
You still have a friends-with-benefits thing with him, and every now and then you look back and wonder why it never became anything more. It was so right. Whatever happened to it and you?
(never watched the show, adored the fic but never wrote any. things I learned about from SGA fandom include social justice basics, the Banach-Tarski paradox, that Mendelssohn wrote the most beautiful violin music ever, and that you can write fanfic that doesn't just transcend the source but takes it in a million directions from horror to comedy to a dark SF dystopia without ever leaving cannon.)
- Inception: It started off as a one-night stand. Really it did. But it was SO FUCKING GOOD that you just knew you'll be coming back for more. And you did, over and over.
He's not really your type, except for how he's exactly your type. He's the muscled bearded dude with the motorcycle, and you never went for those, except it turns out he also reads poetry and laughs at stupid math jokes and treats you like a person and you sort of go weak at the knees every time he's around.
His friends... well, they're my friends now. And they look even more amazing from close up. ♥
The only thing is that - can fandoms be husband material? Does it work like that? Aren't fandoms, by their very nature, transitory things? Can anyone say that they've been in fandom X for twenty years straight? Because I've always been the marrying sort, about pretty much everything. I want to stay forever in places where I'm happy.
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OTOH I've read a fic (by julad, I think, maybe?) that sort of convinced me that their dynamic in qaf_us was sufficiently unhealthy that. idk. maybe they WERE better off apart. But I'll still never forgive the show for making them like that. :/
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Yeah, I think I might prefer the UK version because it seems more ... nuanced, I suppose. Not sure if that's the right word I'm looking for but ... Brian's father was an alcoholic (a MEAN drunk, to boot) and his mother was neglectful and his sister wasn't any better. So, one can say "Oh, bad family = asshole Brian. OK that makes sense" and go about their day quite easily. Stuart, otoh, had a family that loved him. He hid that he was gay but you can tell that that family is full of love and affection. So, one cannot as easily excuse Stuart's personality -- and actions, yes I'm referring to YOU, Stuart Allan Jones, and your Arson Tendencies! -- and I like that. I also like how RTD treated Nathan's character as opposed to how Justin's characterization is in US. Nathan just feels more real to me -- actually, UK does overall with all the Things Left Unsaid. US always seemed like they put too much into words sometimes (not always, but I didn't really watch past Season 3 or maybe bits of 4).
I think that the dynamic of M/B could definitely be perceived as unhealthy but I think that, what I liked about a LOT of M/B writers, was that they had Brian notice that and try to change his behavior (not drastically, and usually only with respect to Michael, but I STILL BELIEVE -- don't care what you say, TPTB -- that his Mikey is the only one who would be able to make him change his ways) and then they go forth from there. So they still have all the history, even the bits that hurt, but it's a journey of Brian trying to make himself better for Mikey because he realized what Mikey actually meant to him.
Of course, the show decided that Brian could have that with a 17 year old and that's just OH SO MUCH MORE REALISTIC than falling for his best friend but whatever. I'm not bitter or anything *POPS IN UK DVDs* Not at all.
This is the comment where I GROSSLY overuse parentheses and just pretend that I'm not
Sadly, I have uh, not seen/read anything else until Inception /o\ But my friends and I do a Farscape Re-watch (well, WATCH for me :D) on Wednesday nights (via chat as we are all OVER the place, location-wise) and after we finish, we're starting in on Stargate :D I don't know if it's A or 1 (as I know so very little about Stargate even with more than half of my flist shipping Rodney/...McKay?) but we're watching ...something with Daniel and Cam and Vala (Cam and Vala as the actors were Ben and Aeryn on FS :D). That's a whooooole lotta rambling to say -- I fail and am not familiar with your Boyfriend Fandoms! :)
Inceeeeptioooon &hearts. I avoided everything to do with the fandom to avoid spoilers -- and that included the Epic Posts of Doom that everyone posted w/r/t Tom Hardy (who I assumed was some generic pretty boy who was going to be of no interest to me as meh, seen that, moved on. Also doesn't help that I'd rather meet the pretty boys sisters ;D) -- but when I FINALLY saw it? I loved it. I. Loved. It. So much. I loved the dynamic with Mal and was sad how we only saw her through Dom's tortured guilt and, aside from Arthur's succinct "She was lovely", we don't really know much about her. But I'm interested -- if it's a Mal-centric story, I'm there :) Doesn't hurt that Cotillard is gorgeous (have a bit of weakness for sultry, dark & French, ngl) :D
Uhhhh ... I apparently fell asleep typing this up last night. Woke up with my fingers still near the keyboard and everything. I am apparently no longer young enough to stay up past midnight? :(
Anywho -- here is my rambly excitement over QAFUK/US and INCEPTION :D