pondering on pairings

[xparrot]

How can you like a pairing when you hate one character in the pairing? Do any of you do this? I often have my favorite characters in a pairing (sometimes to the point that I'll stray from my OTP to see my favorite with others - for all I am obsessively McSheppist, I will on occasion indulge in Rodney/various-others, because it's fun to see Rodney getting love.) But even when I have a favorite, I'll still like the other character, else I wouldn't be able to understand what they see in each other. I don't think I've ever had a preferred pairing (not just romantic, friendship, either) that I actively disliked one member. How do you manage it, if you do? How do you explain your favorite char's tastes, if you can't see the appeal yourself? I'm genuinely curious; I can't figure out how it would satisfy me to read or write something like that (break-up fics aside. And I only like writing break-up fics, I don't like reading them...)

(...Brought on by a discussion with another SGA fan who detests Rodney but apparently reads McShep.)

(...while I'm at it, did anyone see The Scene in "Miller's Crossing" as Rodney selfishly and deliberately dumping the problem of feeding Todd onto John? I'd never encountered that interpretation before, and it kind of boggles me. What with Rodney begging John to let him sacrifice himself, and then trying to sneak around John's back later anyway. Yes, Rodney can be an arrogant ass, it's part of his charm. But there's more to him than that. I always saw John as the selfish one in "Miller's Crossing", not allowing his teammate to give up his own life - and I love John for that crazy selfishness, even if it was Rodney's choice; I love that John couldn't. But I didn't suspect that Rodney expected that - I thought he went to John partly to get his affairs in order, but mostly because he needed John's help to do it. Without John's orders, the Marines would've shot Todd the moment he laid a hand on Rodney, and that wouldn't have helped anyone. Rodney went to John prepared for an argument - but not for John's flat refusal. And I think he probably struggled to come to terms with what John did, but in the end forgave John, because John needed his acceptance, and Rodney understood why John did it, even if he couldn't have done the same. It never crossed my mind that he was actually manipulating John to kill for him. I wonder how arrogantly selfish that makes him in "The Shrine," then, taking up John's valuable time demanding comfort and beer, just because he's losing his mind...)

Comments

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I don't *dislike* the Hero cliche; I'm not terribly interested in such a char, but I don't mind them, either. I do tend to have a thing for chars who are larger-than-life, but with flaws to match; the hero-chars attract me when their flaws show.

Though I think when it comes to fanning - at least when it comes to reading/writing fic - it's not the chars but the relationships that draw me in; I might like to watch a favorite character, but what I want to read is almost always a focus on a particular relationship. So the fans who are in it entirely for their favorite character sort of baffle me; I can't quite get where they're coming from.

[sholio]

*jumps up and down, waving hand* Me too, me too! It's so integral to my own fannish enjoyment that it's really somewhat alien to me to think of only watching/reading/fanning on one character, not two or more at once. I seem to recall talking about this with reference to the Dresden Files books -- I really don't enjoy the "lone hero" archetype much at all, and it took several of the books for me to really get into them, as Harry's relationships with the other characters were developed and deepened.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

The weird thing is, for me, that I can have a favorite character to watch - I'll often have a particular favorite that I'll like their relationships with a whole bunch of other characters, and will also want to see building new relationships (the Doctor comes to mind). Often for me that favoritism gets bound up in a crush on the actor, so that I'll want to see them in everything, playing opposite anyone (as with DH now).

But when it comes to reading and writing, it's the relationships that grab me; I rarely want to read the character on their own. And it works in reverse - I'll have a favorite character, but when I start reading fic about them, I'll start to gravitate to particular relationships, until when I watch the show I'll prefer those relationships above any others (such as with SGA; originally I just liked Rodney, period; now I have a definite preference for Rodney-John and Rodney-team, over anything else.)

[sholio]

See, for me, the impermanence of relationships on Doctor Who is preventing me from fanning on it. I have the same problem with Joss Whedon shows, and with Lost -- I just need more stability than that. I can definitely enjoy a show without being fannish about it (and there are lots of examples) but in order to make the jump to fanning, I need those relationships to be at least somewhat stable -- they can change over time, but I just can't invest myself fannishly when they're always coming and going.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

That's pretty much the case for me - I love watching the Doctor, but I don't read or write fic. In the case of Doctor Who I'm in limbo between enjoying and true fanning - Type A adoration, really - but for all I love the char, I don't engage with him and the show the same way I do with SGA.

Though interestingly, most of the fans I know who do fan on Who tend to focus on particular relationships - the Rose/Ten shippers, or Doctor/Jack, or going back to old Who, I know of fans who were Fourth Doctor/Sara Jane Smith fans, pretty much exclusively. The one person hardcore into Who on my flist now writes Doctor/Master, which is one of the few permanent relationships running through the entire show (she does it permanent, too - I think she's written four different incarnations of the Doctor with the associate Masters!)