seperis | it's nothing like a question that can be answered in one word

Environments are in read-only for mass updates. I wish I could explain what that actually is, because it's deceivingly nothing like what those words mean according to the dictionary, but I really can't. I know it's a mass, and it's an update, and while yes, it is, no, it's really not. And it sucks.

However, this rare morning, it gives me a short, brilliant moment to surf friendsfriends.

Sarah T on the lower numbers of John/Ronon in SGA.

Actually, I've kind of vaguely wondered about that, but--the thing is, my first fandom was Star Trek and I came out of that physically incapable of not having a header (though sometimes I break conditioning and remove it) and a taste for random internet drama. I also came out of it unable to believe Kirk was heterosexual and it would still be a year before I stared blankly at my first slash OTP (Pyro/Iceman, in case you were curious).

(Sidenote: I was on there watching or posting actively 1999 -2001--wow. Just. Yeah. This is why flamewars rarely scare me and why I don't often participate; I know some fandoms have been far wankier for far longer and with greater populations and drama, but I'm not sure any fandom post-usenet can hit that same deeply terrifying intensity where there were no prisoners taken and occasionally you realized the ground was being sown with salt. Deeply awesome. Even when you had no idea what Treksmut university was and kept freaking out every time your inbox pinged.)

Right. Moving on. The OTP even in Voyager was Kirk/Spock. I mean, that's an exaggeration, but not much of one. ASCEM(L) was like, KS Central. And I know this because I didnt' read slash and contextually knew at the time the plotlines to three of the winning GO stories.

Now, my question--are there any fandoms who have had more than one major pairing of the same type at the same time? As in, more than one major slash and more than one major het?

Since Trek, I've never been involved in a fandom that did, so I'm curious. And I'm not sure my memories of Trek are accurate, as this was 1999/2000 and I spent about half that time going, oh my God this is the best thing in the world! And um, writing Paris/Seven post-Paris/Torres breakup porn. Because I didn't like Seven and that's how I deal with dislike. It felt like Janeway/Chakotay and Paris/Torres had similiarly strong followings, though J/C was a bit older and larger, and Chakotay/Paris and Paris/Kim seemed relatively even (in retrospect, the locked archives actually skew it even more; I never even *knew* about some of them before Smallville).

I'd ask what everyone thinks influences a pairing to be written, but the answers will be, invariably:
a.) Lots of feedback! OR Feedback doesn't matter! Etc. Etc. Etc.
b.) BNFs! OR BNFs turn me off pairings! Etc. Etc. Etc.
c.) Big Pairings are sheep! OR Rare pairing are boring! Etc. Etc. Wait, didn't we do this recently?
d.) Blah. Blah. Blah. Blah. (insert here)

I always wondered if it was just a moment of fannish--unity, if you will, like when a mob forms. Like, remember when you went to cheer at a football game and suddenly in the third quarter and while you've never been the perkiest cheerleader and kinda quiet, you're suddenly filled with bloodlust and helping to lead the crowd in screaming BEAT THE WATERPIGS and lost your voice for a day? (They were hippos. Yes, we got in some much trouble for that one. So very much worth it.) (My algebra teacher was louder than all of us together, though.)(I don't miss being a cheerleader. I do, however, miss controlling crowds with five inches of thigh and some belled shoes. Seriously. I still marvel at that.)

Yes, I'm going to be this incoherent all day; I had no sleep. Also trying to get my John/Ronon recs together, since I kind of think I should feedback the authors and then give the fic their own page.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

1.) Only a few thousand times. And the scandal of Ray/Ray. *g* But I always like to hear it again.

2.) I'm still here. *shrugs* Though Rodney bothers me a lot less in canon than the fandom of Rodney.

3.) True. I'm trying to think of any other fandom that had that kind fo dynamic. I'm almost sure there is one, but I'll need to think more.

The other thing that I'm tweaking on is the need for a story that 'breaks open' the fandom. Harry/Snape was a small fandom that could not compete with Harry/Draco until a) the movie came out with Allen Rickman and b) the tea series started being published. Immeadiately, huge numbers of people just fell into the fandom. I reember the weekend the Harry/Snape list formed, and how we went from 30 members to hundreds nearly overnight (okay, it was 3 days). Same sort of thing happened with Neville/Draco breaking open once "Lust over Pendle" was published.

John/Ronon hasn't had that big story that sets up the fandom yet. And now I am wondering why.

Maybe lack of number of people to do it? HP has a massive enough fanbase that sheer numbers could pull it off, but in a smaller fandom--hmm.

Actually, I wonder if canon is pretty much giving us everything we want in the John/Ronon releationship, except for the sex. We have fond smiles, hugging (Ronon hauls John around in a way no one else is allowed to touch him), orders, and blowing shit up. And Ronon was the guy who just...stood up and went to earth with John because he knew John needed him. What more do we want to see in their relationship that we aren't being given right now?

I'm thinking about how a lot of existing fans talked about how they didn't need to write fan fic in buffy because the show was already giving them what they wanted. Then around season 4, we suddenly have Buffy slash fandom take off, centered on the Spike/Angel pairing. That's the season that canon suddenly stopped providing everything for those slash fans, so they had to write it themselves.

So Hmm. What else of a PG-13 rating would you like to see between them?

IAWC. I like John/Ronon, but I hardly ever read fic for the pairing because I have yet to read a fic that makes me as happy as canon does.

For me, if Ronon picks John up and hauls him around, that's pretty much the money shot of the episode. I love it, and I have not yet found the fan fic equivelent of how I feel seeing that. I'm also a little perplexed at what could happen in canon that would make me feel compelled to write John/Ronon, but I think it might be something major like a type of betrayal that wasn't resolved in the ep or something big like that. If I'm going to write a 'John needs a hug' scene, I'm more likely to do that with Rodney, even though it is canon that Ronon would give him that hug, even if John didn't consent.

Exactly! And it would make me sad if John and Ronon fought, whereas when John and Rodney fight it's exciting.

Now I have to go watch the end of Midway again. Mmmmm.

b) the tea series started being published

That's certainly what did it for me - I followed the writer from another fandom, and had never read or seen anything HP prior to those stories. I'm not sure I'd ever even heard of Harry Potter before. So I came into HP fandom in a bit of a weird way, and although I love Alan Rickman, he actually has very little to do with why I like Snape.

I do like your idea below about the episodes giving us a lot of what people want from John/Ronon. Kind of like people not writing as much fanfic for plot-heavy shows like BSG; it's harder to write for stuff that's mostly already there.

It's hard to say as the tea series and the first movie are so intertwined, but I do think that the story had serious impact in creating erstwhile welcome mat for the pairing. I think that the first bigger stories about a relationship shape the tone of the fandom, and bring in other, similar stories. So if the first ones are all about the banter, then banter fans join, etc.

Hmmm.

it's nothing like a question that can be answered in one word

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