Hmm... I don't even think it's that fine a line between "this is badfic" and "this is fic I don't like" - I can point to large numbers of decent-to-well written stories that just don't work for me, or where I can sort of see where the author is coming from characterization-wise, but it's just too far for me to tilt my head, etc. I don't think those are bad, I just don't like 'em, the way I know my sister makes this awesome broccoli dish that everyone loves but I hate broccoli so I don't like it.
The line between, "This makes me uncomfortable" and "I don't like this" is much harder to distinguish - do I not like it because it makes me uncomfortable? Do I not like what it says about characters I love? If it's well done, I can both dislike and be made uncomfortable and still acknowledge the possibility that the characters I love have the potential to do/be whatever it is in the story, right?
I mean, I haven't actually *liked* any stories where Sam and Dean are actually the serial killers the FBI thinks they are (where they've bought into a delusion and none of it is actually real), but I certainly think that's a valid AU choice, and a good writer could totally move me with that premise, and make me buy it for the length of the story, even though it's a premise I dislike because I don't like to think of Sam and Dean as serial killers, I like them saving people and hunting things, you know? But I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad story, just one that I don't ever want to read again.
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The line between, "This makes me uncomfortable" and "I don't like this" is much harder to distinguish - do I not like it because it makes me uncomfortable? Do I not like what it says about characters I love? If it's well done, I can both dislike and be made uncomfortable and still acknowledge the possibility that the characters I love have the potential to do/be whatever it is in the story, right?
I mean, I haven't actually *liked* any stories where Sam and Dean are actually the serial killers the FBI thinks they are (where they've bought into a delusion and none of it is actually real), but I certainly think that's a valid AU choice, and a good writer could totally move me with that premise, and make me buy it for the length of the story, even though it's a premise I dislike because I don't like to think of Sam and Dean as serial killers, I like them saving people and hunting things, you know? But I wouldn't necessarily say it's a bad story, just one that I don't ever want to read again.