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Fanfic Thoughts - really ass-long, of course! And personal, sorry if it's awkward XD
Anyone that participates in a fanfiction-y world, please share your thoughts on the subject with me. This is mostly just my own preferences and ideas, but partly it's just very half-formed and uncertain because I'm sure there are other perspectives and thoughts that I haven't realized yet. So I'd love to hear what other people think and like and look for.
Note: I'm aroused by a lot of material that many people find disturbing. This material is primarily not found in fanfic, and is only touched upon here. But it is mentioned and if you will get freaked out by that, please don't read this and maintain your mental image of me as normal and pure. XD Oh, hey, Corey! You said you were going to stop by to read about gynocologists - that's the entry below this one! Keep moving! I know, my normal and pure ship has sailed with you. Still. . .
My position towards fanfic is something that I've been trying to figure out lately, because it's recently become apparent that my approach is somewhat different than that of several people I know. I think I'm quite shallow about it, so i guess I thought I was typical. XD But I may not be. I care about writing ability but I don't get that concerned about plot or characterization - fanfic to me is primarily a sexual thing, I think. Even when it's a PG rated romance story, it's sexual, because for me penetration does not have to occur for something to be sexy, there just has to be a sort of power difference.
And that's because I am what I call a kinky person - but meaning I'm someone who is aroused by power difference in all types of media and to an extreme extent. So you could totally define kinky a different way, it's all very awkward. But just because that's how my sexuality works, shouldn't automatically imply that I would go to fanfiction primarily for sexual gratification. Like, I could be a person that's turned on by kinky sex, but doesn't read about kinky sex in my fanfic. But that's not the case.
I mean, I guess we turn to fanfic to get fulfillment that we can't get from the source material. Hence the emphasis on romantic stories, and especially slash. We don't get to see the characters (I'm going to say characters even though I recently started reading RPS, because that's still how I think of them, I don't know what that says) interacting the way we want them to, or might be interested in seeing. But even if it's just a domestic scene involving characters from an action show. Y'know? You want to see the characters have relationships that go deeper than what you get in the source material, or get to see them in another context. But more often than not, that's a romantic context - even if it's a canon pairing (which I don't think I've ever read extensively), you want to see more of the relationship or explore it beyond that which it gets on the show. I rarely read G-rated material, but I have. And I like it, if it's able to really show a side of the source material that I a) didn't get to see and b) wanted to see. And usually what falls in that material is relationships. Actually, I am someone that watches, say, Stargate SG-1 and wishes we could get an episode about Jack and Sam hanging out at the base and bugging General Hammond, but I think in terms of writing ability of the fanfic authors, I'm more likely to get a satisfying romance (not between Jack and Sam, I don't read het much, but that goes back to the sexual thing - which I do not see how it is linked to this second part of my analysis, I'll get back to it) than a satisfying episode, basically. So that's part of why G-rated stories don't interest me much, I guess.
Hmm. So on the one hand, I want my fanfic to turn me on. And it doesn't need to have actual sex to do that, it just needs to have characterizations in which my favorite character (normally one per fandom) is, in some loose way, in a position of decreased power. (this can be some sort of feminization, however subtle and not intended to imply power loss, also I like when the character is desired but that's sort of a whole different can of worms. also, hurt/comfort is always choice. And male-->female genderbending, for realz. so complicated!) On the other hand, I want my fandom to fulfill a desire to see the characters in a certain way that the source material is lacking.
OK, so I'm looking at my super-secret-but-not-really-so-please-don't-look-for-it journal where I just post all the fanfics I like in various fandoms so I have them wherever I go and I can do a little write up as well. And I'm trying to pull out the ones with ratings of PG-13 or below. Cos those are the ones where I guess it's more obvious what it is that I like, because in the higher rated ones, it's clearly the sex - even though I can pull out power different parts even in vanilla sex for the fics that I mark.
Koyato, G - Shige is afraid of thunger and Koyama comforts him, so it's sort of the hurt/comfort, plus Shige's all vulnerable and the other person (the fact that it's Koyama is, I think, a side thing) is strong and comforting.
Koyato, G - I like the second one, the way Shige allows Koyama to pick him up and carry him to bed.
Koyato, PG - Again, the second one - I love the description of Shige as being so sexy, and I love the way Koyama lusts after him. Good keywords: narrow waist and hips, off-shoulder shirt, choker, thin neck. I think it's suggestions of Shige having a feminine appearance.
Yoko/Ryo, PG - That's right, Ryo is my Kanjani8 uke of choice. XD I'll get into this one-character thing later, I guess. Anyway, Ryo is sweet and, although I hesitate to use this word, childlike. He pouts, and is cute and sweet and sleepy. I'm completely not interested in children or young teens or anything like that, I don't want them in my fanfic or my porn in any way - but I am very interested in adults behaving in a childlike manner. Or a petlike manner. This goes to extremes but more in my visual and non-fandom pornography. XD (On the subject of me NOT being a pedophile, I can't even really read stuff about ABC because even though they're all just about my age, since they haven't debuted and are still "juniors" I think of them as underage. O.o lol. Oops.)
Ohmiya, PG-13 - They all go to a haunted house and Nino gets scared and Ohno protects him. XD I'm seriously that easy. I count this sort of thing as power difference, my definition is very broad. Ohno has not power over Nino, but more power to control the situation than Nino, who is more the victim, the damsel in distress.
Nino/Sho, G - Nino sits in Sho's lap. More of that childlike thing, I guess. I think the relationship between a person who's sitting in someone's lap and the person having their lap sat on is a fairly defined one with particular implications.
Aiba/Nino, PG-13 - I hope this shows how I feel about the other half of the pairings. It's the same with NEWS and Kanjani8 but there were less hot PG-13 and under choices, so you don't see my pairing variety. Anyway, I'm so into this fic. I'm sure this is not what you were going for, Ames, but the sick, vulnerable, cute, childlike Nino being lusted after is basically just. . . I'm so, so there.
Makio/Sakurakouji (MBMH), PG - This pairing, from My Boss My Hero (think tough, violent yakuza Nagase and little chubby soft basically just like he is but less confident Tegoshi), is so prime for me being turned on without them having sex. Which is good cos I've only read maybe one NC-17 fic for them. ): But anyway, first Tegoshi/Sakurakouji is kidnapped and Makio/Nagase has to save him, then Sakurakouji makes Makio jealous and then has to appease him and then Sakurakouji gets compared to a woman, which happens a lot and I love it.
Makio/Sakurakouji, PG-13 - this author has a fic in which Sakurakouji is called Makio's wife, one in which the idea of him crossdressing is mentioned, and one in which he gets a "Property of Sakaki Makio" tattoo, and none of them have any sex so they basically all are examples. So awesome. XD This one is possibly my favorite, in which a bunch of host club employees, I guess, get jealous of Makio's attention to Sakurakouji and then compare themselves with him and realize he's prettier than them and everything.
I'm not even going to get into my position on genderbending here. Basically, I really, really love fiction in which boys are turned into women, and I'm happy when they're sort of characterized in feminine ways (not in camp ways, in that terms are applied to them that are usually applied to women, sort of thing). The latter is something that I struggle with a bit, because my whole theory about gender is basically that in the ways where the mind is in control of the body, women and men are the same. But also, of course, I think they should be equal and there's a clear element of the feminization creating a power-difference, and I wish it wasn't that way but it still turns me on. That's part of why for me, penetrative homosexual sex between men is hotter than other combinations, because there's an implicit feminization, basically. Anyway, nonetheless, this is something that I've long had to accept about myself. In real life, a more masculine woman (but not a biker-can't-tell-the-difference type) is a lot hotter than an effeminate man, but in fiction and porn, I love feminized men. Anyway.
So that's a sort of brief sampling of what I like. Even though those are my G fics, so it seems like they should be of the "I want fulfillment for unexplored aspects of the characters" school, they are actually of the "I want fulfillment. . . of a sexual nature" school. They all turn me on. But these are the fics that I marked to reread - they aren't all the fics I've read and enjoyed. But they are, one might say, my favorites. I don't know why I just said "one might say," by the way. I am not a person who says that. Anyway, basically my requirements for liking a fic are incredibly dependent on their having the above elements. Ahhh, except for in Harry Potter where i started out wanting all the sex because it's a very, very kinky and porny fandom, but at this point I just want to read long, satisfying Ron/Draco romantic epics in which nothing too horrible happens. So in that fandom, possibly because I really don't like the source material that much, I am just completely option two: satisfaction and fulfillment that can't be found in the original work. But apart from that - my other fanfic reading fandoms being Gundam Wing, Horatio Hornblower, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly (Joss Whedon is a king for providing Laura with fandoms), X-Men, Johnny's Entertainment (a different animal), the DC Universe (also a different animal), and to a lesser extent, Digimon and Stargate (I can't find enough material I like because in Digimon the fans are younger, so there's less good writing, plus I need stuff where the characters have been aged a little past the show, and Stargate because my character of choice is Jonas and very few people write about him). Also, in terms of the later fandoms - GW, Horatio Hornblower, Buffy, and Angel I all got into the fandom before the source material. It's hard for me to go the other way around. I know, it's totally odd.
OK, so with each of those fandoms except for JE, I have one character that I want to see be "uke." That is, if anyone is going to be hurt/vulnerable/desired/fucked/childlike/feminized, it's going to be that character. In GW, it's Duo; HH, Archie; for BtVS it's Xander; Angel it's Wesley; Firefly it's totally Simon; DCU it's Tim Drake; X-Men it's Bobby Drake (that bothers me. Do I just like people named Drake?); and Stargate it's Jonas. Like, totally, clearly, obviously. That person has to be in any pairing, they have to be the bottom, and I don't much care who they're paired with. Except that sometimes a particular pairing will be more or less likely to lend itself to the kind of fics I like to read. I don't know if anyone on my friend's list is even into X-Men fic, but Bobby is only occasionally characterized the way I want him to be, so I don't really get to read any of the Pyro/Iceman fics, and not too many of the comicverse ones. Also, often my Character is one of the most popular ones to write about and Bobby and Tim and Jonas aren't really.
Anyway, JE is all wacky-sauce, partly cos there's so many different groups, so there's different groups of relationships - which actually means some people get to switch. Plus, it's RPS so clearly they're more complicated, even though when it comes to fanfic I'm more interested in a simplified version - in my outside fanfic fan-ing, I like the complicated, of course! But yeah, Ryo - in Kanjani8 he's totally uke, and I find it ridiculously hot, but in NEWS sometimes he tops. Although I still prefer him to uke. But he also gets to top Uchi sometimes, too. And I never, ever, ever had switches before. I guess if I fic was really, really kinky.
Cos I think for me, like. . . it's probably obvious I don't worry too much about realistic characterization. Especially if I'm starting reading the fanfic before I'm familiar with the source material (I allow the fanfic to suck me in - i get curious about events referenced so I look them up and then I get interested in the show or whatever. True story - I now own three seasons of Buffy, started with the fanfic. It was daddy!kink, I didn't care who the characters were!). But I did switch main ukes with Buffy once I discovered what the characters were like. I think for me the original characters are a reference point, but that's about it. I was discussing this with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kegom and she was saying that she thinks Nino is a switch. And I agree, he totally doesn't act like someone who'd actually act like he does in the fics I like. He's a really complicated person who has many facets and different ways of acting. But the fact that he does sometimes act like that - cute and childish and affectionate, that's enough of a reference point for me to have something in mind, so behaviors and appearance, when I read the fic. Cos otherwise I might as well be reading original fiction (which I do, it's totally different. This one site has a lot of institutionalized slavery, I find it a total turn-off, actually.), the fan-ness of fanfic does play a big role.
So yeah, I got to thinking about the role of actual characters in my fanfic preferences. I'm not at all looking at "geez, this person would never want to bottom all the time" or "hmm, I bet he'd like to pitch and catch." What their characters indicate about their preference has. . . not nothing to do with what I like in fic, but very little. Rather than watching the boys - or even, in a non-RPS fandom, watching the show or reading the comic books - and thinking "Oh, those two seem to like each other quite a lot," I think "Hmm, who would be hot together?" It's totally sexually motivated. Plus, because of my exaggerated power difference thing, there's always going to be out of character behavior, pretty much. Especially in the JE RPS world.
So there's also one character that I latch on to. And I latch on to them. . . I actually already had them all listed because I was trying to figure out common points. I know I've been saying vulnerable a lot, but I think some appearance of vulnerability is as close as I could come. And it can be physical weakness, or insecurity, or both. Duo and Matt I don't think actually fit this - but Duo is often made far more vulnerable in fanfic. Basically I guess the Gundam Wing characters are so loose that fanfic can take them anywhere. Maybe anime in general is more like that. Also, I think physical beauty - prettiness, that is, a feminine appearance, is another factor and Duo and Matt are very pretty. Xander, Wesley and Tim are all people who lack powers in a world where others have them, Nino is small and weak and Shige has the whole insecure thing going on. Archie has bad stuff happen to him all the time. Simon is just gorgeous and I think he and Archie sort of epitomize what I like in these guys that I fix on. But I don't know if I can quite explain why. I do think part of it is the way the actors play them. Also, Archie was basically canon sexually abused, poor lad. But yeah, Jamie Bamber and Sean Maher - I have really, really big crushes on both of them. But I don't read fanfic about them because I actually CANNOT do RPS. JE is just screwing with my head.
Anyway, these uke characters, except for JE's few switches (which do not include Nino and Shige - it's Ryo, and Pi, and Jin, and Hina, and maybe a few others), but let's pretend JE is normal and there's just Nino and Shige. In each fandom, all the fic has to involve that one character as the bottom half of the pairing. And, like I said, I don't much care who the top half is, except to the extent that it affects the dynamic. I'm not sure if this comes because I'm only attracted to the one character, and because of my sexual kinks, I'm only interested in the person bottoming. So I only want to read about the person I'm attracted to doing the thing I find interesting. But I might be attracted to the character because I start reading the fic and I identify with them, and that makes me like them and starts that cycle. Or, I could identify with them and then not want to read about them topping because I don't want to. I don't know. . .
So! Back to my original point. When I read fanfic, I'm not looking for the best writing, really, and definitely not the best characterization, or the most amazing plots. I'm looking for fic that I find hot, that turn me on. There's generally a lot of adult material in my fandoms so I sort of thought that's why everyone else was there, too. XD But now I'm starting to realize maybe not. Hmm. I wish I had a better point to bring this all too. I don't understand myself at all?
This also affects my commenting patterns, because I know I'm looking for such specific things, if I don't like a fic it really doesn't mean anything - and even if I like it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good fic. I mean, I can tell the difference, but the ones I get really jazzed about. . . the better written fics, the more emotional/sexual impact, but in order to affect me, having the above priorities is more important. So yeah, I never really feel I can judge.
Ah, I was going to talk about fanfic gender dynamics more but I think I won't.
But yeah, every time I talk about fanfic with someone I feel like I'm so clearly moving from a completely different place, our starting assumptions are totally, totally different, and it's really hard to explain where I'm coming from. Now I guess I'll just link them here. XD
That was long. Anyway, I went to the Balloon and Music Festival out in Suffolk today. Craziness! Met a couple of Charles's friends, very exciting. Not really much balloons or music but got to hang out with Corey, and got nice new earrings, and 13 comic books!! Woo! A bunch of Impulse and Superboy and also some Guy Gardner: Warrior ones. And I got fried Oreos! Yaaaaaay! So it was fun. Also, whoa. Suffolk is quite different from Nassau.
Note: I'm aroused by a lot of material that many people find disturbing. This material is primarily not found in fanfic, and is only touched upon here. But it is mentioned and if you will get freaked out by that, please don't read this and maintain your mental image of me as normal and pure. XD Oh, hey, Corey! You said you were going to stop by to read about gynocologists - that's the entry below this one! Keep moving! I know, my normal and pure ship has sailed with you. Still. . .
My position towards fanfic is something that I've been trying to figure out lately, because it's recently become apparent that my approach is somewhat different than that of several people I know. I think I'm quite shallow about it, so i guess I thought I was typical. XD But I may not be. I care about writing ability but I don't get that concerned about plot or characterization - fanfic to me is primarily a sexual thing, I think. Even when it's a PG rated romance story, it's sexual, because for me penetration does not have to occur for something to be sexy, there just has to be a sort of power difference.
And that's because I am what I call a kinky person - but meaning I'm someone who is aroused by power difference in all types of media and to an extreme extent. So you could totally define kinky a different way, it's all very awkward. But just because that's how my sexuality works, shouldn't automatically imply that I would go to fanfiction primarily for sexual gratification. Like, I could be a person that's turned on by kinky sex, but doesn't read about kinky sex in my fanfic. But that's not the case.
I mean, I guess we turn to fanfic to get fulfillment that we can't get from the source material. Hence the emphasis on romantic stories, and especially slash. We don't get to see the characters (I'm going to say characters even though I recently started reading RPS, because that's still how I think of them, I don't know what that says) interacting the way we want them to, or might be interested in seeing. But even if it's just a domestic scene involving characters from an action show. Y'know? You want to see the characters have relationships that go deeper than what you get in the source material, or get to see them in another context. But more often than not, that's a romantic context - even if it's a canon pairing (which I don't think I've ever read extensively), you want to see more of the relationship or explore it beyond that which it gets on the show. I rarely read G-rated material, but I have. And I like it, if it's able to really show a side of the source material that I a) didn't get to see and b) wanted to see. And usually what falls in that material is relationships. Actually, I am someone that watches, say, Stargate SG-1 and wishes we could get an episode about Jack and Sam hanging out at the base and bugging General Hammond, but I think in terms of writing ability of the fanfic authors, I'm more likely to get a satisfying romance (not between Jack and Sam, I don't read het much, but that goes back to the sexual thing - which I do not see how it is linked to this second part of my analysis, I'll get back to it) than a satisfying episode, basically. So that's part of why G-rated stories don't interest me much, I guess.
Hmm. So on the one hand, I want my fanfic to turn me on. And it doesn't need to have actual sex to do that, it just needs to have characterizations in which my favorite character (normally one per fandom) is, in some loose way, in a position of decreased power. (this can be some sort of feminization, however subtle and not intended to imply power loss, also I like when the character is desired but that's sort of a whole different can of worms. also, hurt/comfort is always choice. And male-->female genderbending, for realz. so complicated!) On the other hand, I want my fandom to fulfill a desire to see the characters in a certain way that the source material is lacking.
OK, so I'm looking at my super-secret-but-not-really-so-please-don't-look-for-it journal where I just post all the fanfics I like in various fandoms so I have them wherever I go and I can do a little write up as well. And I'm trying to pull out the ones with ratings of PG-13 or below. Cos those are the ones where I guess it's more obvious what it is that I like, because in the higher rated ones, it's clearly the sex - even though I can pull out power different parts even in vanilla sex for the fics that I mark.
Koyato, G - Shige is afraid of thunger and Koyama comforts him, so it's sort of the hurt/comfort, plus Shige's all vulnerable and the other person (the fact that it's Koyama is, I think, a side thing) is strong and comforting.
Koyato, G - I like the second one, the way Shige allows Koyama to pick him up and carry him to bed.
Koyato, PG - Again, the second one - I love the description of Shige as being so sexy, and I love the way Koyama lusts after him. Good keywords: narrow waist and hips, off-shoulder shirt, choker, thin neck. I think it's suggestions of Shige having a feminine appearance.
Yoko/Ryo, PG - That's right, Ryo is my Kanjani8 uke of choice. XD I'll get into this one-character thing later, I guess. Anyway, Ryo is sweet and, although I hesitate to use this word, childlike. He pouts, and is cute and sweet and sleepy. I'm completely not interested in children or young teens or anything like that, I don't want them in my fanfic or my porn in any way - but I am very interested in adults behaving in a childlike manner. Or a petlike manner. This goes to extremes but more in my visual and non-fandom pornography. XD (On the subject of me NOT being a pedophile, I can't even really read stuff about ABC because even though they're all just about my age, since they haven't debuted and are still "juniors" I think of them as underage. O.o lol. Oops.)
Ohmiya, PG-13 - They all go to a haunted house and Nino gets scared and Ohno protects him. XD I'm seriously that easy. I count this sort of thing as power difference, my definition is very broad. Ohno has not power over Nino, but more power to control the situation than Nino, who is more the victim, the damsel in distress.
Nino/Sho, G - Nino sits in Sho's lap. More of that childlike thing, I guess. I think the relationship between a person who's sitting in someone's lap and the person having their lap sat on is a fairly defined one with particular implications.
Aiba/Nino, PG-13 - I hope this shows how I feel about the other half of the pairings. It's the same with NEWS and Kanjani8 but there were less hot PG-13 and under choices, so you don't see my pairing variety. Anyway, I'm so into this fic. I'm sure this is not what you were going for, Ames, but the sick, vulnerable, cute, childlike Nino being lusted after is basically just. . . I'm so, so there.
Makio/Sakurakouji (MBMH), PG - This pairing, from My Boss My Hero (think tough, violent yakuza Nagase and little chubby soft basically just like he is but less confident Tegoshi), is so prime for me being turned on without them having sex. Which is good cos I've only read maybe one NC-17 fic for them. ): But anyway, first Tegoshi/Sakurakouji is kidnapped and Makio/Nagase has to save him, then Sakurakouji makes Makio jealous and then has to appease him and then Sakurakouji gets compared to a woman, which happens a lot and I love it.
Makio/Sakurakouji, PG-13 - this author has a fic in which Sakurakouji is called Makio's wife, one in which the idea of him crossdressing is mentioned, and one in which he gets a "Property of Sakaki Makio" tattoo, and none of them have any sex so they basically all are examples. So awesome. XD This one is possibly my favorite, in which a bunch of host club employees, I guess, get jealous of Makio's attention to Sakurakouji and then compare themselves with him and realize he's prettier than them and everything.
I'm not even going to get into my position on genderbending here. Basically, I really, really love fiction in which boys are turned into women, and I'm happy when they're sort of characterized in feminine ways (not in camp ways, in that terms are applied to them that are usually applied to women, sort of thing). The latter is something that I struggle with a bit, because my whole theory about gender is basically that in the ways where the mind is in control of the body, women and men are the same. But also, of course, I think they should be equal and there's a clear element of the feminization creating a power-difference, and I wish it wasn't that way but it still turns me on. That's part of why for me, penetrative homosexual sex between men is hotter than other combinations, because there's an implicit feminization, basically. Anyway, nonetheless, this is something that I've long had to accept about myself. In real life, a more masculine woman (but not a biker-can't-tell-the-difference type) is a lot hotter than an effeminate man, but in fiction and porn, I love feminized men. Anyway.
So that's a sort of brief sampling of what I like. Even though those are my G fics, so it seems like they should be of the "I want fulfillment for unexplored aspects of the characters" school, they are actually of the "I want fulfillment. . . of a sexual nature" school. They all turn me on. But these are the fics that I marked to reread - they aren't all the fics I've read and enjoyed. But they are, one might say, my favorites. I don't know why I just said "one might say," by the way. I am not a person who says that. Anyway, basically my requirements for liking a fic are incredibly dependent on their having the above elements. Ahhh, except for in Harry Potter where i started out wanting all the sex because it's a very, very kinky and porny fandom, but at this point I just want to read long, satisfying Ron/Draco romantic epics in which nothing too horrible happens. So in that fandom, possibly because I really don't like the source material that much, I am just completely option two: satisfaction and fulfillment that can't be found in the original work. But apart from that - my other fanfic reading fandoms being Gundam Wing, Horatio Hornblower, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly (Joss Whedon is a king for providing Laura with fandoms), X-Men, Johnny's Entertainment (a different animal), the DC Universe (also a different animal), and to a lesser extent, Digimon and Stargate (I can't find enough material I like because in Digimon the fans are younger, so there's less good writing, plus I need stuff where the characters have been aged a little past the show, and Stargate because my character of choice is Jonas and very few people write about him). Also, in terms of the later fandoms - GW, Horatio Hornblower, Buffy, and Angel I all got into the fandom before the source material. It's hard for me to go the other way around. I know, it's totally odd.
OK, so with each of those fandoms except for JE, I have one character that I want to see be "uke." That is, if anyone is going to be hurt/vulnerable/desired/fucked/childlike/feminized, it's going to be that character. In GW, it's Duo; HH, Archie; for BtVS it's Xander; Angel it's Wesley; Firefly it's totally Simon; DCU it's Tim Drake; X-Men it's Bobby Drake (that bothers me. Do I just like people named Drake?); and Stargate it's Jonas. Like, totally, clearly, obviously. That person has to be in any pairing, they have to be the bottom, and I don't much care who they're paired with. Except that sometimes a particular pairing will be more or less likely to lend itself to the kind of fics I like to read. I don't know if anyone on my friend's list is even into X-Men fic, but Bobby is only occasionally characterized the way I want him to be, so I don't really get to read any of the Pyro/Iceman fics, and not too many of the comicverse ones. Also, often my Character is one of the most popular ones to write about and Bobby and Tim and Jonas aren't really.
Anyway, JE is all wacky-sauce, partly cos there's so many different groups, so there's different groups of relationships - which actually means some people get to switch. Plus, it's RPS so clearly they're more complicated, even though when it comes to fanfic I'm more interested in a simplified version - in my outside fanfic fan-ing, I like the complicated, of course! But yeah, Ryo - in Kanjani8 he's totally uke, and I find it ridiculously hot, but in NEWS sometimes he tops. Although I still prefer him to uke. But he also gets to top Uchi sometimes, too. And I never, ever, ever had switches before. I guess if I fic was really, really kinky.
Cos I think for me, like. . . it's probably obvious I don't worry too much about realistic characterization. Especially if I'm starting reading the fanfic before I'm familiar with the source material (I allow the fanfic to suck me in - i get curious about events referenced so I look them up and then I get interested in the show or whatever. True story - I now own three seasons of Buffy, started with the fanfic. It was daddy!kink, I didn't care who the characters were!). But I did switch main ukes with Buffy once I discovered what the characters were like. I think for me the original characters are a reference point, but that's about it. I was discussing this with
kegom and she was saying that she thinks Nino is a switch. And I agree, he totally doesn't act like someone who'd actually act like he does in the fics I like. He's a really complicated person who has many facets and different ways of acting. But the fact that he does sometimes act like that - cute and childish and affectionate, that's enough of a reference point for me to have something in mind, so behaviors and appearance, when I read the fic. Cos otherwise I might as well be reading original fiction (which I do, it's totally different. This one site has a lot of institutionalized slavery, I find it a total turn-off, actually.), the fan-ness of fanfic does play a big role.So yeah, I got to thinking about the role of actual characters in my fanfic preferences. I'm not at all looking at "geez, this person would never want to bottom all the time" or "hmm, I bet he'd like to pitch and catch." What their characters indicate about their preference has. . . not nothing to do with what I like in fic, but very little. Rather than watching the boys - or even, in a non-RPS fandom, watching the show or reading the comic books - and thinking "Oh, those two seem to like each other quite a lot," I think "Hmm, who would be hot together?" It's totally sexually motivated. Plus, because of my exaggerated power difference thing, there's always going to be out of character behavior, pretty much. Especially in the JE RPS world.
So there's also one character that I latch on to. And I latch on to them. . . I actually already had them all listed because I was trying to figure out common points. I know I've been saying vulnerable a lot, but I think some appearance of vulnerability is as close as I could come. And it can be physical weakness, or insecurity, or both. Duo and Matt I don't think actually fit this - but Duo is often made far more vulnerable in fanfic. Basically I guess the Gundam Wing characters are so loose that fanfic can take them anywhere. Maybe anime in general is more like that. Also, I think physical beauty - prettiness, that is, a feminine appearance, is another factor and Duo and Matt are very pretty. Xander, Wesley and Tim are all people who lack powers in a world where others have them, Nino is small and weak and Shige has the whole insecure thing going on. Archie has bad stuff happen to him all the time. Simon is just gorgeous and I think he and Archie sort of epitomize what I like in these guys that I fix on. But I don't know if I can quite explain why. I do think part of it is the way the actors play them. Also, Archie was basically canon sexually abused, poor lad. But yeah, Jamie Bamber and Sean Maher - I have really, really big crushes on both of them. But I don't read fanfic about them because I actually CANNOT do RPS. JE is just screwing with my head.
Anyway, these uke characters, except for JE's few switches (which do not include Nino and Shige - it's Ryo, and Pi, and Jin, and Hina, and maybe a few others), but let's pretend JE is normal and there's just Nino and Shige. In each fandom, all the fic has to involve that one character as the bottom half of the pairing. And, like I said, I don't much care who the top half is, except to the extent that it affects the dynamic. I'm not sure if this comes because I'm only attracted to the one character, and because of my sexual kinks, I'm only interested in the person bottoming. So I only want to read about the person I'm attracted to doing the thing I find interesting. But I might be attracted to the character because I start reading the fic and I identify with them, and that makes me like them and starts that cycle. Or, I could identify with them and then not want to read about them topping because I don't want to. I don't know. . .
So! Back to my original point. When I read fanfic, I'm not looking for the best writing, really, and definitely not the best characterization, or the most amazing plots. I'm looking for fic that I find hot, that turn me on. There's generally a lot of adult material in my fandoms so I sort of thought that's why everyone else was there, too. XD But now I'm starting to realize maybe not. Hmm. I wish I had a better point to bring this all too. I don't understand myself at all?
This also affects my commenting patterns, because I know I'm looking for such specific things, if I don't like a fic it really doesn't mean anything - and even if I like it, it doesn't necessarily mean it's a good fic. I mean, I can tell the difference, but the ones I get really jazzed about. . . the better written fics, the more emotional/sexual impact, but in order to affect me, having the above priorities is more important. So yeah, I never really feel I can judge.
Ah, I was going to talk about fanfic gender dynamics more but I think I won't.
But yeah, every time I talk about fanfic with someone I feel like I'm so clearly moving from a completely different place, our starting assumptions are totally, totally different, and it's really hard to explain where I'm coming from. Now I guess I'll just link them here. XD
That was long. Anyway, I went to the Balloon and Music Festival out in Suffolk today. Craziness! Met a couple of Charles's friends, very exciting. Not really much balloons or music but got to hang out with Corey, and got nice new earrings, and 13 comic books!! Woo! A bunch of Impulse and Superboy and also some Guy Gardner: Warrior ones. And I got fried Oreos! Yaaaaaay! So it was fun. Also, whoa. Suffolk is quite different from Nassau.