My evil plans, frustrated...

[graculus]

Bah. I had planned to heckle przed's Man from UNCLE panel at MediaWest this year, but I found out today that one of my panels has been moved to clash with it so my evil plans will come to naught! :(

Yep, I'm running two panels - one on Wild Wild West (Would the 1960s show work on TV today? Too sexist, too macho, or too gay?) and one on writing the less popular pairings in your slash fandom. I'm co-modding the latter, having run something similar to that a few years back and I find the whole subject interesting.

After all, what is it about some of us that we seek out (or have thrust upon us) the pairings that other people ignore or just plain don't appreciate? I'm hoping my espousal of Daniel/Teal'c and Ezra/Nathan can't just be put down to a simply-described kink which any viewer of the show might point out, but is about the characters and not just their physical characteristics.

I'm going from the OTC standpoint here as well - the One True Character who I find the most appealing and can happily slash with more than one other. Some might even say that any Ez-slash comes under the 'less popular pairing' label, considering the strength of the Chris/Vin side of the fandom.

Any thoughts, as always, appreciated as I try to formulate my thoughts for the end of the month... ;)

Comments

[ngaio]

Dinozzo/McGee (no-one writes this! Why not?! And incidentally, what's with the abundance of BDSM fic in the NCIS fandom?!)
Gibbs/Fournell
Xander/Giles
Jonas/Daniel (I know you're going to disagree with me on that one!)
Jack/Teal'c (occasionally Hammond/Jack!)
McKay/Zelenka
Vecchio/Fraser
Lupin/Harry
Harry/Ron (or in fact, any of the male Weasleys!)
Jack/Will
Dan/Jeremy

I think a lot of it for me is to do with how I perceive the characters and how I think they'd work together. Don't get me wrong, I used to love reading Xander/Spike but really, taking a step back, I think you've got to do a heck of a lot to get them there rationally. Also Jack/Norrington.

Also I'm not keen on power imbalances. Gibbs/Dinozzo doesn't work for me on *many* levels but my initial reaction is that boss/subordinate is not a healthy relationship.

I like friendship as a foundation to any relationship. Angry sex may be *sexy* but I doubt it's healthy. (Xander/Spike again, also Angel/Spike, or indeed Angel/Xander which takes even more work than Xander/Spike! Plus Jack/Norrington) Which is also why I don't take too well to Snape/Harry unless it's got good establishing plot, although it's not too bad because there's an element of having fought side by side forming a bond.

--

Which turned into more about why the usual pairings don't work for me rather than why the less usual pairings do. Sorry!

[graculus.livejournal.com]

I think it's much easier to talk about why things don't work than why they do - clearly it's something less than tangible about those pairings which works better than other pairings involving those characters.

Let's take Jack/Teal'c as a relatively uncontroversial example. ;) For me, I've not read much in that pairing which isn't just fuckbuddy fic, or which doesn't go down the 'two warriors bonding' route, and I like a little more substance to my pairing than that. Also the fact that it excludes my favourite character doesn't help either.