Fanon to Canon; Oh yes?; Oh noes!?

[krickets]

I was talking to barefoot_chick about shipping and what happens when your favorite fanon pairing suddenly becomes canon. There they are, the special two, just going about their platonic existences, when before you know it, right before your eyes, there's full-on mackage and/or declarations of love, true lustlove!

After all of that writing, reading, discussing, watching, and waiting, having to endure storylines that pull the characters away from each other, or worse, make them completely oblivious to each other, and after all that time spent hoping against all odds, it's finally happened.

You squee, you convulse, you cry, you slap your TV/computer moniter, you jump for joy, you do whatever it is shippers do when your people become... one. (Wow that would be kind of poetic if it weren't so goofy-sounding.)

The question then, becomes: What do you do then? What happens next?

Do you immerse yourself in fandom, write, read, vid, watch, consume, digest anything you can get your hands on? Or do you discover that fun really was all in the chase and lose interest entirely?

If the latter is the case, maybe it's not about losing interest entirely, maybe it's about not wanting fanon or future canon, or anything, to ruin that perfect moment? Or maybe the moment wasn't so perfect after all and you're just darn angry that when it finally happened, it didn't happen right.

Canon? Ewww! I'm not really an OTP-er, although I do have favored pairings in canon. Often, however, that does not cross over into my fandom activities.

In BSG, I like Lee/Kara, but I don't, and can't see myself ever wanting to write them. But then again, I also really like Leoben/Kara, Sam/Kara, Helo/Kara... and well, you get the point. I'm kind of a chronic multi-shipper that way. They are in no way my OTP, just an example of a pairing I ship for which I have no interest in being a fandom participant.

(The same goes for Kate and Jack of LOST, although I don't ship them exclusively with one another, on the show or off - it's that multi-shipper bug I can't get rid of.)

As a matter of fact, looking over my fic, there are very few pairings I have written that are canon at all: Kara/Leoben; Kara/Sam; and you could stretch and say Dean/Jo, though it was canonically unrequited. Of those, only Kara/Leoben is a ship that I adored that only became canon after the fact, albeit in its own twisted sort of way. (I loved them ever since first watching Flesh & Bone.)

I have this running joke that canon squicks me. And though it is true that I stick mainly to non-canon pairings, I don't think it changes my level of involvement when that thin line between what is real, and what I imagine could be real, is erased.

And yet, canon still in some way shapes my fandom habits, seeing as I usually shy away from those pairings. Just not after the fact, apparently.

Does it change?I'm sure it's different for everybody. I know that there are people who only ever write or read canon pairings, so they're kind of the opposite of me in that way. I couldn't see myself writing only, or even mostly, canon pairings. I think it's a combination of feeling bored by those ideas, and being drawn to all these unexplored possibilities that lie beyond what we see on screen.

So could the same kind of idea effect someone who previously loved the idea of a pairing and that pairing suddenly becomes canon? (Or in the case of Adama/Roslin, finally does?)

ETA: I know this is an entirely different game for those who are pretty much exclusively slash shippers. Though, perhaps shipping only slash is partially a means to avoid the possibility that your pairing will ever become canon -- in most instances.

Comments

[gregoria44.livejournal.com]

Brian not working good toady, BUT I will say that, for me, where m/m slash is concerned, I probably wouldn't bother myself writing it if it was THERE ON A PLATE for me to stare happily at on my teevee screen.

Sorry that sentence was so long!

Part of the thrill for me (other than the, 'my, will you look at that pretty') is the forbidden aspect. I'm not even that keen on slash where every other character knows about it and is accepting.

Finer by far for me, is the furtive fumble, the coveted canoodlings, the secret sexings.

*hands over twopenneth*

[crickets.livejournal.com]

Finer by far for me, is the furtive fumble, the coveted canoodlings, the secret sexings.

I love you so much for this! That is so TRUE. (And made me kinda giggle, I won't lie.)

I totally, totally agree. The forbidden aspect is key, and maybe that's why I go for non-canon so readily. (And the very forbidden, Jawyercita and Jack/Claire, type pairings...)

I think you're on to something!

[gregoria44.livejournal.com]

If I am, then let us cling happily to it!

Been reading Nancy Friday's 'Men in Love'. By gum, there's a LOT of lust for the forbidden, one heck of a lot.

*joyfully joins in*