random fanfic/fandom rant

[meganbmoore]

Actually been trying out some fanfic lately instead  of just reading summaries. Nothing really new here, but...

(pretty much all anime/manga because hey, it's my life lately, though a few other things get mentioned)

I like canon.  I'm not quite a canon nazi, but unless canon is flatout BAD(in which case, why bother with the fandom anyway?) I see little point in fanfic that opposes it...seems to me that once you're writing AGAINST the story, you aren't even really writing about the characters or world anyway.  I have no problems with stories that add to the canon, as long as they don't contradict canon. 

That said, most characters tend to be defined by their relationships, romantic or otherwise.  In other words, if you want to pair A with B and neither is paired off in canon or indicated to have preferences elsewhere, fine.  But if A is paired with C, then by pairing A with B you really aren't writing about the same characters anymore because you're contradicting who and what they are. On the flipside, certain ships I get.  I mean, sure Clark/Lex in Smallville are straight, but any time they fight it's like a lover's quarrel...and Lana...if I didn't know Clark would be with Lois in the end, I couldn't bear to watch the thing.  And, while it's not MY ship(insert obligatory Kyo/Yuya squee) I get Yuya/Akira in Samurai Deeper Kyo because it likely WOULD happen if Kyo died(I mean, seriously, can anyone REALLY see Akira ending up with someone not directly associated with Kyo?)

Then there's rewriting the stories...I don't mean AUs, but completely rewriting the stories so that having the characters do and act completely differently from how they do in canon makes sense...again, not even writing about the same characters anymore.

Genderswapping? Scares me.  So do pregnant guys.  I mean, both inspire nothing but a huge "HUH?????" from me.

And child/guardian ships?  *shudder*  I don't mean ALL of them.  Handled right, they can be the best thing ever.  I'm all for Rin/Manji(Blade of the Immortal) Sesshomaru/Rin(Inu Yasha) and Kazuya/Kanami(S-Cry-ed).  If it weren't for Inara, I'd be all for Mal/River(Firefly-but again, hey, I love the canon ship, so...) However, none of those cases are of a paternal/sibling style guardian and a child.  Manji/Rin is actually no greater of an age difference than Kenshin/Kaoru or Kyo/Yuya(older-20s samurai, younger girl seems to be the thing for samurai manga)-in fact, I think it's less.  She's 16 and most of the "too old, guardian instead of lover" is because HE thinks she's too young(though for their time period, she'd actually be doing well to get a guy only 10 or so-if that-years older than her) and it would be a bad thing for her right then...it's very clear he's never going to leave her side or stop protecting her regardless of what happens in their lives as long as he's alive, and every character but Rin(who clearly fell for him pretty quickly) is well aware that if she's not technically "his woman"(as virtually every character-including Manji-refers to her) it's only because he's waiting until their lives aren't nuts.  In the case of Sesshomaru/Rin, she's literally the only thing that keeps him human and the relationship isn't remotely paternal...he takes care of her because she's the only one he cares about, she all but worships him.  The idea that they'd eventually be separated by anything but death is silly.  Kazuya/Kanami isn't even much of an age difference-12/13 and 17 or so-and is much like Rin/Manji in that she's someone he takes care of, only with him completely oblivious to her crush(Manji is WELL aware of Rin's) but their future is obvious once she gets a couple more years under her belt and he realizes she's not the kid he first took in anymore.  In all these cases, though, I'm all for it when she's OLDER and age appropriate, not at the current stages in their lives.

Those are also all not REMOTELY paternal or sibling(though Manji initially compares Rin to his sister, that's more an age/guilt-over-his-sister's-death thing than any real fraternal feelings) and are all simply a case of a guy taking care of a younger female who needs protecting.  Except for Manji/Rin I'd be completely opposed to anything romantic or sexual with  them in the timeframe of the story.  What gets to me is when it's still in the adult/child timeframe and turns anything remotely sexual.  ESPECIALLY when the canon relationship is paternal or fraternal...sets off my squick factor like nothing else.

And slash/yaoi...I have no inherent problems with it, I just hate seeing female characters sacrificed to slash their love interest with another guy, and again, back to the relationships defining characters thing.  (Same thing with Mary Sues and the rarer Gary Stus, too.)  If a character isn't indicated to really have one preference over the other in canon, have fun(respectful fun, please, but have fun)  For example, though I don't see it personally, I don't run from the idea of Hakkai/Gojyo in Saiyuki because there's nothing to really oppose it and, frankly, the 2 are good for each other regardless of the context(Sanzo/Goku and Kougaiji/Dokugaku, OTOH...)

One other thing I never get is being into a fandom when you hate the main character...preferring other characters to the main character, yeah, but plot generally centers around the main character, so it just always seems odd to me when someone loves a show, series, book, movie, etc. but hates the main character(I say that despite loving Eragon the book but disliking the character...though that could explain why Eldest has been sitting here unread for a month or so now. *is all about Murtagh*) because it seems that that would naturally lead to hating the story and themes of the series.  Buffy, Angel, Veronica Mars, Bones, etc. come to mind.

And for a few fandoms:

Fushigi Yugi: LEAVE. MIAKA. ALONE.  Seriously.  Yes, she can be annoying, but there's nothing wrong with her that a little prozac and a few loaves of bread and a gallon of water first thing in the morning wouldn't fix.  I'll leave the more vehement Miaka defending to dangermousie, who adores her as opposed to my  just liking, but Miaka is essentially likable, quite amusing, has a strong personality and unlike other heroines in similar storylines, manages to avoid being a Mary Sue(ignores part 2 in that statement) And, frankly, without Miaka, you don't have anything resembling FY left anyway, unless your fic is about a different priestess and thus, and entirely different set of characters and timeframe anyway. And Nakago?  I love the guy but he is NOT misunderstood.  Yui?  Misled and essentially brainwashed.  The twins?  Pretty much the same, and in Amiboshi's case, on the misunderstood side.  Nakago?  Exactly what he seems and totally unrepentant about it.  And really people, Watase tried hard enough to wreak FY with part 2(then the OVAs did far worse) why add to it?

Wolf's Rain:  Enough with the female wolves already.  We already HAVE a female wolf who, frankly, is one of the coolest female anime characters out there.  Your Mary Sues are no match.  And really, no matter how much she might irritate the fans, no wolf is going to do anything but love Cheza, that's just the way it is.  Even Tsume couldn't hold out for long.  And at no point in time did Kiba try to do anything resembling heartlessly destroying the world, thankyouverymuch.  The entire point is that Kiba is supposed to be the wolf to find Paradise and SAVE the world...it's literally what he lives for.  If you got the opposite from it, then you missed the entire point of the character and series and I wonder why you bothered.  Not touching Tsume/Toboe.

W Juliet: Yuto and Ryuya are twins, not lovers, and both have a thing for blondes about a foot shorter than they are(tall family)  Unlike a certain other pair of twins in another gender-bending manga, they aren't remotely narcissistic or into catering to fangirly fantasies...too busy being obsessively overprotective of their sister and OTPs.  And Toki was NEVER into Makoto, even when he thought Mako was a she.  The only thing capable of getting through his Ito-vision is his overprotectiveness of Nobuko(and YES! to my pet-OTP being canon by the end-love the huge, overprotective jock-type being nuts about the teensy girl he always thought he thought of as a sister until he almost loses her)

Samurai Deeper Kyo: *brain goes pop* LEAVE. SHINREI. ALONE.  Seriously, I think half the reason I love the guy is because he gets so shafted in fic.  He's not an idiot and he's not gullible or clueless.  Yeah, that stick is so far up his butt he could chew on it if he wanted and he's too "buy the books" for his own good, but he's intelligent, an expert fighter and a good strategist...he just isn't overly imaginative and isn't quite sure what a sense of humor is.  Also, Yuya is NOT a trigger-happy shrewish haranguing harpy-leave her money alone, don't hurt her friends and don't insult Kyo and she's about the nicest, most forgiving girl you could meet.  Heck, girl doesn't even know what a "grudge" is and bandages up her enemies!  And yeah, Kyo isn't a nice guy and is a flatout jerk most of the time, and his hands are far too grabby(though, frankly, once he gets it out of his system, he only does it when one of them is stressed or fretting about something, and eventually forgets unless the poor girl comments on him not doing it) but he'd die before he hurt Yuya(man stabbed himself to KEEP himself from hurting her, how do you top that?) and he'll kill anyone who hurts her, including his friends.  And on the flipside, I'm sorry but the words "I love you" are never coming out of the man's mouth, probably not even for his kids once they come into being.  He also doesn't spend his time fretting and worrying over his feelings for her or hers for him...she's his woman, he'll keep her and take care of her as long as she's with him.  I mean, he spends the bulk of the series convinced she loves Kyoshiro and will leave him for Kyoshiro-who he clearly sees as being a "better man"-once all is over, anyway, which is why he never quite gets that she's as crazy about him until the end anyway.   It doesn't matter if some random person gets it-all that matters is that Yuya-and, to as lesser extent, their friends(read: the other people who will kill you if you hurt Yuya)-gets it.  Everyone else is irrelevant.  Also?  Yeah, Kyo's pretty much a battle crazed nut, but unless it's part of his goals, he doesn't go looking for fights-enough fights come to him.  Don't bother him and don't mess with his friends or hurt Yuya, and he couldn't care less about you.  And he's NOT going to rescue some random person, especially some damsel in distress(except Yuya)...the only way you register on his radar as anything but meat is if you manage to win his respect somehow(even Sasuke and-when they met-Akira only got his attention because they earned his respect one way or the other, even if they were just kids)  Let's face it, if Yuya hadn't headbutted him when they met, she would have died then(especially given his mindset regarding anything connected to Kyoshiro at the time.)  Swords?  Fists? Cowering in fear?  Run of the mill stuff.  Getting headbutted in the chin and then yelled at by the cute girl you're trying to terrify?  An attention grabber.  And I'm not even getting into Sasuke/any cast member, now or in the future.  Just nonononono. And a thousand more times.

I could cover plenty more fandoms, but it's almost 3:30 am...

I KNOW there's good fanfic out there, and that there are good fanfic writers on my flist, and I trust the opinions of the people on my flist who have recced fic to me(though, chomiji, I don't think you'll ever get me to read that one Saiyuki fic...) it's just that actually reading a few fics reminded me of why I haven't touched fic in years.

My sleep deprived mind has decided to blame this post on dangermousieas I hadn't even THOUGHT about fanfic in years until I started reading her fanfic posts.

*heads for bed as she should have an eternal post ago*

Comments

[fivil.livejournal.com]

But if A is paired with C, then by pairing A with B you really aren't writing about the same characters anymore because you're contradicting who and what they are.
I think good fic explains or explores that canon pairing or canon romantic implication in some way even when writing a NON-canon pairing. Like it doesn't just make Harry gay without explaining why stuff doesn't work out with Ginny.

A friend of mine, a fanfiction author and fandom enthusiast like me, once said, "All fic goes out-of-canon at one point." I find this to be very true. It's pretty much the idea that characterization in fanfiction always is one fan's point of view into a character. It can go against canon to begin with - maybe they've misunderstood something major about the character's motivations in canon or maybe they just can't write - or it can be very close to the actual canon characterization, but as the fanfic progresses, at one point it's a big enough deviation from the canon to be considered OOC. However, if the story's good, the writing is good and the writer can make the characterization interesting and consistent, it doesn't matter that this isn't 100% the character we see in canon.

And anyway, fanfiction is about *adding* something. I once read a fic for some movie that added absolutely nothing to the film canon - no interesting perspective, no deeper exploration of characters, relationships, events. That's not how fanfic should be, IMO. Whether it's just getting into the head of a character in one scene, or a vignette portraying a certain situation from some perspective the canon didn't show. Or alternatively, adding a whole new ship to the canon context. Or sex, or more kissing, or more light fluffy moments or more angst. It can also just be continuing canon in a canon-esque manner but even then it's adding something.

So basically, I can live with deviations from canon. Characterizations can vary from fan to fan even if neither of them is writing fanfiction.

I also think I've read so much fic I'm not bothered by badfic or character rape. It just happens. Sometimes I'll run into it and get ranty but other times I shrug and click away, shaking my head.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I know that any fic is going to deviate from canon, I'm referring to the ones that just ignore or deliberately change canon because they don't like something in it, or where it's obviously they're onlky in it for the hot guys and couldn't care about anything else.

I'm all for "adding" but most fanfic I encounter detracts from instead of adds to.

[southerndave.livejournal.com]

Silver recommended to me one a while back that I quite enjoyed... It was sort of a re-telling of the first few episodes of "Rurouni Kenshin" but in a modern-day "World of Darkness" sort of setting. You want me to see if I can find the link?

But personally, as far as spotting possible liaisons between fictional characters goes... I'm wondering if I'm much more perceptive than the normal person or just much more warped than the normal person. (Probably the latter, knowing me). Because, while watching the first couple of seasons of the new "Doctor Who", it is so obvious that the Doctor would like nothing better than to materialise in Jackie Tyler's pants. Sure, they're still at the pulling-her-pigtails-at-lunchtime level of maturity... but the way the Doctor behaves around Rose makes much more sense when put in the context of "I'm showing you the wonders of the Universe because I want to marry your mother"...

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*amused* don't say that second paragraph around a few members of my flist.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

That said, most characters tend to be defined by their relationships, romantic or otherwise. In other words, if you want to pair A with B and neither is paired off in canon or indicated to have preferences elsewhere, fine. But if A is paired with C, then by pairing A with B you really aren't writing about the same characters anymore because you're contradicting who and what they are.

I dunno, quite often apart of the main ship there other sparkles flowing and if the show is not finished there is always a way. For example I totally understand if someone writes Murphy/TVMorgan. Or even Bob/Murphy..

My largest "NOOOOOOO" is the character hate fiction. I find hating someone/something to be such a depressing emotion!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

But see, usually, when someone decides to follow up on a non-canon ship and one part of the ship, it turns into a hate fic.

For example, while Harry is defined in part by his relationship with Murphy and his need to have her in his life, Murphy isn't really defined by her relationship with Harry. Therefore, yeah, it'd be a lot easier for me to buy Murphyxnot-Harry than Harryxnot-Murphy(outside of flings) but as Harry/Murphy is obviously canon, writers have to have a WHY for Murphyxnot-Harry for it to work, and thats when we enter into the possibility of hatefic and character bashing.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about writing more fanfiction myself recently, I’ve had so many bad experiences with horrible, horrible fanfiction about Naruto featuring my OTP. I forced myself to read another bashing fanfic -just- so I could understand where all the hate comes from, and then I read another kind of “regular” one when it stumps out my OTP making another female look better, and blacklisting my otp as “dysfunctional”

*cracks knuckles* Let my typing frenzy begin!!

I see little point in fanfic that opposes [canon pairings]...seems to me that once you're writing AGAINST the story, you aren't even really writing about the characters or world anyway. I have no problems with stories that add to the canon, as long as they don't contradict canon.

Would that go for implied canon pairings too? I see Shikatema as a heavily implied canon pairing, despite fierce opposition from shikaino ships. I mean really, AsuKure was implied, and only recently that have been dubbed canon (the first in Naruto history). It irritates me that Kishimoto does not “go into” canon pairings yet, but at the same time…*sigh* I dunno…

But I agree with you, fanfiction that goes against canon just makes the author look like he/she doesn’t know what kind of characters to write about. I’ve come across character bashing fanfiction, when authors don’t even try to write well, and I just lose my respect for people more—bash-fiction goes beyond regular fanfiction to me, and I start to think about how cruel people really are when it comes to hate for IMAGINARY cartoon characters. I was hateful once too…but I never posted that crap online. And now, I’m just hateful at the fans.

most characters tend to be defined by their relationships, romantic or otherwise. In other words, if you want to pair A with B and neither is paired off in canon or indicated to have preferences elsewhere, fine. But if A is paired with C, then by pairing A with B you really aren't writing about the same characters anymore because you're contradictingwho and what they are.

Yes! Exactly! You actually say things better than I can. A romantic relationship for a character defines another dimension to that characters personality. Let’s say a male character is attracted to a certain type of girl…well, that would show what the artist/creator is trying to convey about him, and a fan would be able to understand more about that male character. Fans aren’t writing about that character anymore if the relationship is bogus. And I call it the dreaded “OOC” syndrome. Now crack pairings -kind of- change the rules a litte…

Then there's rewriting the stories...I don't mean AUs, but completely rewriting the stories so that having the characters do and act completely differently from how they do in canon makes sense...again, not even writing about the same characters anymore.

You mean like rewriting the plot? I thought that was only AU. Then again, I’m not a seasoned fanfiction writer so I probably might have seen something like that. Many fans just butcher characters to make them what they want, and it just happens. I never really care unless that dips into my romance OTPs, or if it’s just bashing, or both.

And slash/yaoi...I have no inherent problems with it, I just hate seeing female characters sacrificed to slash their love interest with another guy, and again, back to the relationships defining characters thing.

Hey, I came across a yaoi fanfic with ShikaCho…(normally I don’t read yaoi) and actually, Temari was involded in the storyline, but killed by the 2nd chapter. It was written pretty o.k…however, the details are hard to shake off…it was not a happy tale. Usually fanfic writers kill/break up relationships to create new ones, even if there was no opposing relationship from the start
-__-'

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Most of the best OTPs have a fair degree of dysfunctionality to them...it's what keeps them interesting.

Most pairings are implied for a long time instead of outright, and if it comes to an implied pairing vs something never remotely hinted at in canon(and, frankly, on the subject of your thing--WHY??? Ino is little more than a second rate-Sakura who isn't remotely as smart or tough as the original and her sole purpose in canon has been to help kick Sakura and Shika's butts into gear. And, like ShikaTema and unlike ShikaIno, ChoIno was actually somewhat hinted at a few times)

Part of it with Naruto is that irt draws in younger fans, which usually also means a lower maturity level.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

I wasn't clear was I? The fanfic that I read made sure to show that my OTP's relationship was dysfunctional, and therefore, was not worth keeping intact (from the male's POV).

Um... O.o what is the subject of "my thing" [in relation to Ino??] that you're telling me about? *is confused*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Ah. Meant never understood why Ino is so popular, or why people would pair her with Shika, for the above reasons.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

Eh?!? It sounds like you're "promoting Ino-ism" to be popular, compared to Sakura.
Ino is little more than a second rate-Sakura who isn't remotely as smart or tough as the original[,] and her sole purpose in canon has been to help kick Sakura and Shika's butts.

If you're honestly stumped on Ino's popularity...join the club. Alert me if this doesn't make sense:***I've learned that people pair Ino with my innocent Shika baby because her "adoring" fans selfishly desire her to be paired with someone in the series, regaurdless of logic, fans do this to satisfy their sick idea of Ino being "happy". In order to choose a mate, fans go for their idea of the "most likely" bachelor; And any delusional fan can conclude--that the most likely person is her respective teammate Shikamaru. Aren't they cute together?

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

hmm...that line should have been "butts into gear"

but seriously, she's likable enough, i guess, but her usefulness began and ended with telling Sakura to pay attention to Naruto, too, instead of just Sasuke. Beyond that, about all she's done is make Shik fight Temari and visit Cho in the hospital. Ino, to me, is just Sakura without the things that make me like Sakura-her brains and her actively trying to constantly make herself better than she started out as.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

whatevs, whatevs

but hell yeah she is likeable. ino's got spunk. and even when i find her "whiny bitching" -as if girly girls only do that- annoying, she's still just ino.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Oh, I have no problems with Ino(with any Naruto characters, really, though Naruto himself annoys me) I just don't get the Ino fixation at all.

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

What is Ino supposed to be..."Hip & Cool" ? Because it looks like she has "style" ? -___-

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

given what she's wearing after the 2 year jump, I don't think that's it...waaaaaayyyy too much netting.

In the manga, the only purpose Ino has ever served is as a foil to Sakura and another female. Which is cool and fine...I mean, Tenten has pretty much only served to showcase Temari and admire Neji and again, be a female ninja. And actually, Tenten strikes me as being MORE interesting than Ino...maybe it's because she's connected to Shikamaru-who's popular-and Sakura-a central character, that makes people focus on her?

[chaos00tryza.livejournal.com]

lol, i have no comment for tenten's usefulness. i hear time and time again about ino's "goddess like beauty"...apparently she "outshines" the other girls, and what boy could resist that? Shikamaru...that's who.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything (btw, want me to link you to an awesome Kougaiji fic?)

'Misunderstood' fics drive me up the bend. So do parental figure-child figure ones (which is why Sanzo/Guku makes me ill. I don't mind slash but Sanzo is like Goku's father!)

I have actually enjoyed utterly AU fics now and then (Kenshin is a former mob assassin! one was quite fun and had all the canonical ships :D) but then I just don't view them as canon at all but some random fun story that is well written.

As to Hakkai/Gojyo? Not my thing but whatever (though I think Hakkai is too messed up to be in any kind of relationship with anything but a slice of toast) but then there is one fic when his gf comes back, not dead after all, and is pregnant and he choses Gojyo over her and I went WTFWTFWTF.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Does said fic involve Yaone?

I hate misunderstood fics. I mean, I LIKE Nakago-he's cool, ruthless, hot, charismatics and not remotely apologetic about himself and doesn't waste a lot of time whining about his lot-but I don't see him as being remotely misunderstood or redeemable. Watase made it pretty clear that Yui was essentially good, but weaker than Miaka and Nakago basically used her(understandably) thinking she'd been raped to brainwash her. The twins...well, Amiboshi wasn't "bad"(and wasn't portrayed as such) but just on the other side, and Suboshi was the same until his brother was killed. But Nakago? Nakago was never portrayed as someone who was anything but evil and ruthless, and his past wasn't "look, he's not so bad" but "this is why is is what he is." Fangirls want to look at his past and scream "misunderstood woobie!"? Whatever. Go read Basara, where Ageha basically has the exact same story and he turned out a good(if beyond messed up) guy, or just read Genbu Kaiden, Limdo's story is close enough. Just don't try to justify Nakago.

I have no problems with the IDEA of AUs, it's just that so many seem to be an excuse to justify their pairings with the excuse "A/B just won't work here" for it. One thing that stands out is moving historical characters to the present and not changing the ages, like with RK and SDK...as the age difference is unacceptable today, Kenshin/Kaoru and Kyo/Yuya can't happen if they're the same ages, and they can be paired off with whoever(as an aside, Kamijyo actually has some short SDK backups with the characters in HS, but they're all condensed to the same age group)

What you said is pretty much my stance on Hakkai/Gojyo...I'm not closed to the idea because, hey, Gojyo is the most important living person to Hakkai and there's never really been clear indication that Gojyo only likes girls(actually, in one of the mangas, Kazuya Minekura basically said that Gojyo might like the guys as much as the girls and we just don't see it) Like Ageha(sorry to keep bringing him up, but you know me when I get fixated on a character) I don't think Hakkai is really capable of romantic love anymore, but he IS capable of choosing and sticking with one character permanently in another context, and I could see him going along with it if Gojyo wanted to, but I don't see Gojyo ever wanting to. His behavior with Yaone is likely the closest we'll ever see to him "getting better." And please, Kanon came back, Hakkai'd be back with her in a heartbeat and Gojyo would be all for it. And Sanzo/Goku...*shudder* *points to original post*

What set me off were some SDK with Kyo fretting and worrying about Yuya's feelings(isn't it sad when fic in favor of your OTP sets you off?) and W Juliet twincest fics. The secondary OTPs there are tall/short/overprotective guy heaven...LEAVE THEM ALONE!!! And learning about such fic would kill both guys dead right there.

[chomiji]

Well, you know that I like Shinrei ... .

(BTW, is there something in the air re fanfic rants? xskadi had a somewhat similar rant on her LJ just a ocuple of days ago.)

meganb, I hope you know I was busting your chops with that particular Saiyuki fic ... I actually thought it was kind of sweet, but I didn't seriously expect you to go for it!

I figure one or maybe two major McGuffins (introduced story elements) per fanfic is about as much as I can take - and each change to a character's personality is its own McGuffin. I will have to say that my tolerance for things that take advantage of lack of information is pretty high: we never see Kougaiji paired with anyone in the story (no, really, we don't), so that's a blank page for me, waiting to be filled - giving the idea of Kou/Doku a 1-McGuffin rating for me. (By counterexample, a story that's completely in canon doesn't need to be spotted any McGuffins.) So if the only "out there" premise is yes, Gojyo and Hakkai are having a physical relationship, I can deal with it pretty easily, especially as their (canon) friendship is so close.

Personally, I can't deal with most instances of huge social imbalances between partners, whether you're talking guardian/ward, mentor/pupil, commander/subordinate, or what. (And Yukimura/Sasuke would hit every single one of those, wouldn't it?) Yes, it did happen historically. But fanfic is meant to be entertainment. Exploiting someone who may bury his or her reluctance because he or she depends on the person who's being sexually aggressive? That ain't my idea of entertainment. Stories with partners who are close to equal are much hotter anyway, IMO ... Gojyo/Hakkai, again!

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*makes note to go check out that rant after she eats*

Oh, I know you never actually expected me to read that particular fanfic, but since I did bring up that one kind of fanfic...

Kou/Yaone isn't flatout canon, but it's pretty heavily implied(see his jealousy anytime she talks to Hakkai, for example)

I'm neutral on Gojyo/Hakkai having a physical relationship because, while it's not my thing, there's nothing to go against it in canon(though, as I said in another comment here, I don't really think Hakkai is capable of having a romantic relationship with someone)

The thing about the social imbalances thing is that I LOVE guardian/ward etc relationships...but I love them as what they ARE, not as fodder for slash. I'm actually scared to bring up some of the relationships because people tend to immediately go off on "guardian/ward forever!!!!"

[chomiji]

(And apropos of all that, did you ever read this on mine?)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

Actually yes, I did(and thought I'd commented but apparently not) I love Kousuke(poor, underused girl)

One actually wonders why she doesn't just chain Yukimura to the house and make him responsible at times(though A) he'd likely enjoy it and B) He'd just use his wiles to get out of it anyway, but you know the idea has to have occurred to her at least once)

[forgottenpolish.livejournal.com]

*whistles* Thats a long post...

When I was just looking at my eye caught this one word "Kazuya" and I went KAME!!!!!!!!!!! *yeah I'm sad buts ok you still love me right?*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

lol...it would be interesting if you watched S-Cry-ed then.

And hey, I make long posts...it's one of my things...

[prozacpark.livejournal.com]

I can understanding liking a show/book despite hating the main character. I tend to not be fond of protagonists in a lot of TV shows, sometimes to the point of hating them. But it doesn't start out that way...usually, the concept is what grabs me and I don't mind the main characters, but as time goes by, they start to grate on my nerves. But usually, by that time, I've gotten attached to other non-main characters and so I keep watching. Or I still like the concept or the plot.

And I'm with you on just not getting the male pregnancy fic. The whole point seems to be to take a slash ship and put them into traditional gender roles...in that case, why not just write/read het? So, yeah. Although, I have to say that I don't like pregnancy plots, period. Unless it's really well done, which is rare. But I would never read a fanfic dealing with that topic.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I get eventually being irritated with the main characters and being hooked on the thing as a whole bythen, its just that it seems that, to get into something, you usually need to at least somewhat like the person it all centers around.

Male pregnancy/genderswapping fic seems to be fic writers just trying to say "Look, I'm not just another slasher, I do different things in my fic"