TTD: Rare pairs

[wallwalker]

owlmoose asked me something about rare relationships in fandom and why I seem to gravitate towards them. I hope you don't mind me rambling on for a bit. (Isn't that all I do anyway?)

It would be less weird if they weren't nearly all that I liked. I can count on maybe one hand the number of times I've really liked a relationship that was popular with a lot of other people. I can usually find a few other fans (like I said before, finding a tumblr community was the reason I became more active with at least one of them,) but not many, and sometimes it feels like I'm somehow responsible for most of the content, either because I received it as a gift or created it myself. (Which might actually be part of it, the feeling that I maed dis as the meme goes, but I don't think that's all of it, because damn it, I'd like there to be more to look at.)

Part of the question is, why don't I like the really popular relationships? The reason varies a bit, but it always seems to boil down to there being something about them that doesn't sit well with me, or something that I just plain don't like. Or there's another relationship with another dynamic that I like better.

It's honestly easier to illustrate this with examples, but I'm trying to keep this free of spoilers and ship-bashing - I can honestly see why people like the relationships that they like and I don't, I just don't agree with them. Maybe there's some nuance that one of us is getting and the other isn't. Maybe I see something as one-sided or familial or platonic, that others see is a reciprocated romantic relationship. (There's a lot of value placed on romance above other relationships that I don't always understand, because other relationships are important! But that's another post. Maybe. If I feel up to it.)

Let's see if I can say something more concrete.

Fandom loves antagonistic relationships becoming something else, enemies and bickering teammates becoming lovers. And that's fine sometimes, but when that's all that's out there it gets old. I tend to prefer the best friends, the protective people who love each other very much in some sense or another, in my romantic relationships. I mean, sure, they can argue sometimes, but if that's all they do, where's the love? (And I get why the former is popular, because of the tension involved. Maybe that's my id showing through, because I've had enough tension to last me a lifetime, thank you very much.) That might be why I like some OT3s that I don't necessarily like all of the sub-pairings, because one or two of them might have too much tension between them, too much bad history, and the third person helps smooth things over a bit. I tend to prefer my antagonistic relationships as staying that way, I find.

(It seems like the relationships I love as romantic are the ones that fandom will defend to the death as being platonic, and vice-versa. Maybe that's it.)

Anyway... I just noticed I have to work in thirty minutes, so I should wrap this up. So feel free to ask me about anything else on the topic!)

Comments

[thebaconfat]

Maybe I see something as one-sided or familial or platonic, that others see is a reciprocated romantic relationship.

I see this a lot! And I'm often guilty of it myself, making a romance where there isn't one. I love seeing all the different ways people interpret the same canon, but yeah, sometimes it's really frustrating when it feels like I'm the only one interested in a specific interpretation.

There's a lot of value placed on romance above other relationships that I don't always understand, because other relationships are important!

I'm interested in this post if you feel like writing it!

[wallwalker]

I will at some point. Kind of got my brain eaten by the holidays. XD

[lassarina]

This is interesting, because I am either 100% on The Canon Ship And Sailing Proudly or devoted to tiny niche pairings (one of which we share, if I recall correctly....)

[wallwalker]

Hmm, which one? Kain/Barbariccia, probably?

I don't know what it is with me and canon relationships. It's something about storytelling, half the time - with SO2, for instance, the story rubs the relationship in your face without giving you a basis for it working, and it bugs me. It's easy to tell when a narrative is trying to push a relationship at you instead of trying to sell yon on it, and that only sometimes works for me (Squall/Rinoa, for instance, is one of the ones that did work, and only after replaying it a few times.)

[lassarina]

Yep. :)

...I'll keep that in mind, since SO2 is on my list to play shortly.

Squall/Rinoa does work on replay, I agree. Though at the end of the day, as celeloriel says, I ship Squall/therapy and Rinoa/growing up.