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My legs can't carry the rest of me that far
So, posting my lastest fic roundup, I realised I'd written in most of those fandoms before - except Doom. That one came as a surprise to me, honestly. Fandom has been undergoing a Karl Urban resurgence lately, which means I've been watching (or rewatching) a lot of things I wouldn't otherwise have got the chance to. A few episodes of Xena came first, which convinced me I really needed to get the series on DVD, and Doom ...
I'd like to say I had heard a lot of good things about Doom, but that's not true. Not undeserved, either; I love the movie, but it isn't necessarily good. I had, however, been hearing incesty things about it, which, if you know me at all, you probably know was enough to finally push me to check it out.
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talumin called the entire movie window dressing for ... actually, he didn't know what. I suggested that it actually had a complete plot and emotional arc if you accepted it as being all about the epic love story of John and Samantha. (Essentially, it's the story of How John And Sam Reconciled, possibly in an incestuous way. With hell zombies.) I'm not entirely sure what everybody else sees in it.
After watching the movie, I knew I wanted to write fic. Homecoming was not originally the fic I set out to write - that one was a lot fluffier and a little pornier - but somewhere along the way, I realised it was the fic I was writing. The one about how John, after the movie, needs Sam, and how she needs to give him that. It's about other things, too - about John's fears that injecting the C-24 may have changed him for the worse, about him and Sam going about their daily lives after they get back from Olduvai; about how he fears being separated from her, and the way they craft their relationship in the weeks after their return, and what happens to that relationship, and to John, when they're threatened with separation again. Those things all inform one another - John's fear of becoming a monster makes him depend on Sam more, and feel their separation more keenly. His anxiety, coupled with their separation at the start of the fic, shapes their relationship into something more twisted and codependent than it otherwise might have been. At the end, the threat of being separated from Sam again makes that anxiety resurface, and the codependency of their relationship compounds that.
In the![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
ship_manifesto post on Simon/River, ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gardendoor categorises the pairing as "a relationship both necessary and destructive to the characters." Reading that, I realised it described perfectly the way I saw the relationship between John and Sam, at least in this fic. Their relationship is clearly unhealthy, being both incestuous and codependent, but at the same time, I wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't the healthiest possible thing for both of them. Not healthy, perhaps, for them to need each other the way they do, and yet ... at least they managed to rebuild their relationship, in some form or another? Even now, I'm not sure whether the fic is celebrating or damning their relationship. But then, I think that's how I like my incest narratives the best.
Somewhat tangentially to the current warnings debate going on in fandom, it occurred to me that Homecoming is definitely a fic with consent issues, even if I didn't label it as dub-con. Sam's motivation for entering into the sexual relationship is unclear, since we never get her POV; John hopes she isn't doing so only because he clearly needs it, but I think that's exactly what happened. In essence, I think it's ... dub-dub-con? That's totally not a thing. In the end, I chose not to label it because a) Sam is a competent, sober adult, and b) I viewed the dubiousness of the situation as issues with her motivation for consenting, rather than with the clarity of her consent. That said, if someone were to come along and disagree with me, I wouldn't hesitate to put up a warning; I've never been asked for one before, but I'd like to think I'd slap one on any of my fics if asked.
And now, I'm off to write happier, fluffier Doom fic, which is actually a lot more difficult. Writing damaging, codependent, pathological incest narratives is easy, at least when it comes to reconciling the pairing. Writing a fic where both parties are ostensibly psychologically healthy, and/or one that claims that an incestuous relationship would not be totally damaging, is way harder. And yet I am, at heart, a lover of happy fun times featuring wacky, mostly angst-free, hijinks, so I persevere.
(It also occurs to me that my mood theme is way too appropriate for this discussion. Awesome.)
I'd like to say I had heard a lot of good things about Doom, but that's not true. Not undeserved, either; I love the movie, but it isn't necessarily good. I had, however, been hearing incesty things about it, which, if you know me at all, you probably know was enough to finally push me to check it out.
talumin called the entire movie window dressing for ... actually, he didn't know what. I suggested that it actually had a complete plot and emotional arc if you accepted it as being all about the epic love story of John and Samantha. (Essentially, it's the story of How John And Sam ReconciledAfter watching the movie, I knew I wanted to write fic. Homecoming was not originally the fic I set out to write - that one was a lot fluffier and a little pornier - but somewhere along the way, I realised it was the fic I was writing. The one about how John, after the movie, needs Sam, and how she needs to give him that. It's about other things, too - about John's fears that injecting the C-24 may have changed him for the worse, about him and Sam going about their daily lives after they get back from Olduvai; about how he fears being separated from her, and the way they craft their relationship in the weeks after their return, and what happens to that relationship, and to John, when they're threatened with separation again. Those things all inform one another - John's fear of becoming a monster makes him depend on Sam more, and feel their separation more keenly. His anxiety, coupled with their separation at the start of the fic, shapes their relationship into something more twisted and codependent than it otherwise might have been. At the end, the threat of being separated from Sam again makes that anxiety resurface, and the codependency of their relationship compounds that.
In the
ship_manifesto post on Simon/River, gardendoor categorises the pairing as "a relationship both necessary and destructive to the characters." Reading that, I realised it described perfectly the way I saw the relationship between John and Sam, at least in this fic. Their relationship is clearly unhealthy, being both incestuous and codependent, but at the same time, I wasn't entirely convinced that it wasn't the healthiest possible thing for both of them. Not healthy, perhaps, for them to need each other the way they do, and yet ... at least they managed to rebuild their relationship, in some form or another? Even now, I'm not sure whether the fic is celebrating or damning their relationship. But then, I think that's how I like my incest narratives the best.Somewhat tangentially to the current warnings debate going on in fandom, it occurred to me that Homecoming is definitely a fic with consent issues, even if I didn't label it as dub-con. Sam's motivation for entering into the sexual relationship is unclear, since we never get her POV; John hopes she isn't doing so only because he clearly needs it, but I think that's exactly what happened. In essence, I think it's ... dub-dub-con? That's totally not a thing. In the end, I chose not to label it because a) Sam is a competent, sober adult, and b) I viewed the dubiousness of the situation as issues with her motivation for consenting, rather than with the clarity of her consent. That said, if someone were to come along and disagree with me, I wouldn't hesitate to put up a warning; I've never been asked for one before, but I'd like to think I'd slap one on any of my fics if asked.
And now, I'm off to write happier, fluffier Doom fic, which is actually a lot more difficult. Writing damaging, codependent, pathological incest narratives is easy, at least when it comes to reconciling the pairing. Writing a fic where both parties are ostensibly psychologically healthy, and/or one that claims that an incestuous relationship would not be totally damaging, is way harder. And yet I am, at heart, a lover of happy fun times featuring wacky, mostly angst-free, hijinks, so I persevere.
(It also occurs to me that my mood theme is way too appropriate for this discussion. Awesome.)