Fic recs: mostly long-form
Jul. 16th, 2012 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
raspberryhunter*SGU: So I recently discovered the whole SGU show/fandom (uh, obviously), and the huge freakily amazing thing going on in that fandom is CleanWhiteRoom's fics, especially Force Over Distance. This is a master of the long-form, here. (395k!) I must append here that I'm a bit of a comma stickler, and I'm of the camp that does not accept that "alright" is a word (though I am informed that The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style says it is fine ;) ), and even though CWR and I have agreed to disagree on "alright" I am still super-recommending this fic (and this gives you an idea of how amazing it must be, because usually that kind of thing makes me stop reading the fic, and what actually happened is that I dropped everything to read 395k). In fact, even if you don't know the SGU show, I'm informed that it's still possible to read this and enjoy it. It's got it all -- a tight plot, humor, worldbuilding, awesome characters. IT EVEN HAS A TIME LOOP CHAPTER. I am also so psyched by CWR's clear love of and knowledge of the hard sciences (D-branes! YANG-MILLS THEORY. "The universe doesn't have an edge that one can travel to. It's spatially infinite." YES). There are also two other AUs in the works (EDIT 7-31-12: THIS MEANS THEY ARE WIPs. Sorry!): Ad Noctum (which I love) and Mathematique (which is a huge crossover with SG-1 and SG-A, and which I like very much but will probably like more once I watch those).
*In Once Upon a Time, there are two major things going on in that fandom on AO3:
-Fyre is writing the heck out of it. My favorite is her Home Before Midnight, which has two sequels. This was the one that started it all, I believe. It focuses on and has a deep compassion for all the characters, like OUAT itself. She's currently writing a season 1 AU WIP that is rather interesting.
-THE Rumpel/Belle-AU fic, and I say this as someone who maxed out on Rumpel/Belle quite a long time ago, is a WIP, A Bed of Thorns. It is quite possibly the only explicit fic I will ever rec, because it is that rare beast: a fic where the sex is actually there as character development. (Okay, honestly, it's a bit more indulgent than that, and I've started skipping some of the sex parts, but it's way better about it than most of the explicit stuff I read.) It is also an extremely rare beast in that it doesn't gloss over Rumpel's evil side. As an AU, this is very possible to read even if you know nothing about canon.
*I recommended this a while back on my media-rant journal before I got this one, but since I'm talking about the long form, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, alas, another WIP, but worth every chapter even if he never does finish it, is flipping fantastic. From my rec there:
*In Once Upon a Time, there are two major things going on in that fandom on AO3:
-Fyre is writing the heck out of it. My favorite is her Home Before Midnight, which has two sequels. This was the one that started it all, I believe. It focuses on and has a deep compassion for all the characters, like OUAT itself. She's currently writing a season 1 AU WIP that is rather interesting.
-THE Rumpel/Belle-AU fic, and I say this as someone who maxed out on Rumpel/Belle quite a long time ago, is a WIP, A Bed of Thorns. It is quite possibly the only explicit fic I will ever rec, because it is that rare beast: a fic where the sex is actually there as character development. (Okay, honestly, it's a bit more indulgent than that, and I've started skipping some of the sex parts, but it's way better about it than most of the explicit stuff I read.) It is also an extremely rare beast in that it doesn't gloss over Rumpel's evil side. As an AU, this is very possible to read even if you know nothing about canon.
*I recommended this a while back on my media-rant journal before I got this one, but since I'm talking about the long form, Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, alas, another WIP, but worth every chapter even if he never does finish it, is flipping fantastic. From my rec there:
What would happen if a) Harry were brought up in a loving super-rational super-academic household, and b) everyone and everything in the HP universe was, well... more-or-less reasonable? (Not necessarily sane, mind you -- just not holding the Idiot Ball.)... Harry starts out by explaining things like observer bias to various people at Hogwart, and decides to run experiments to figure out how magic works! He explains Punnett squares to Draco in the context of blood purity! The first several chapters are a little one-note like that, but I don't care because I love that note! I would have loved it had it all been riffs on that, but as it progresses it also acquires a really interesting plot, layers on layers of hints to be explained, I think maybe every character in the entire fic is now involved in at least one secret plot, and I find the relationship between Harry and Draco extremely moving (and no, not in that way; it's gen/het).
Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-04 04:10 am (UTC)Good stuff: plot. So much stuff going on. The Nekai, the planet trips, the constant power crises, the lovely way the relationship stuff didn't fix anything. Eli. Eli's note-rant - Number of CRITICAL PIECES OF INFORMATION ... Colonel Young: 5 DNR: Unknown, PROBABLY AT LEAST ONE MILLION ITEMS - Chloe getting to shoot stuff, and disarm bombs, and be a hardcore mathematician in a story where math = very high-value talent (RIEMANN HYPOTHESIS, even I have heard about that one!), the sense of ensemble, enhanced by the interlude fics.
The chewy bits: the trust issues. The backstabbing. For a nominally relationshippy action story with a nominally happy ending, there was an awful lot of lying, misdirection, and questionable consent (or outright pressure tactics, starting with "nice of you to wake up, by the way, telepathic link to your least favorite person on the entire ship and you can't keep them out of your head"). The Telford-Rush-Young tug-of-civilian felt a bit underdeveloped. If this had been posted as a complete piece instead of a WiP, maybe that would have gotten a little more organization/attention in the rewrite.
The Young-Telford dynamic may be a bit opaque to me because I skipped into this after half a season of the show two years ago. It was tough for me to get a bead on Young's character in FOD; if I'd watched more of the show (or, you know, been invested in a reading of the character beyond you abandoned one of your people onplanet, what the heck, the SG unofficial motto is "no one left behind", and that's when I broke up with SGU) I might have a better grounding for how Young evolves through the story.
The last two chapters sort of fell apart for me, because 1.) not that invested in how Young's brain is being colonized from the subconscious up, 2.) Arlington? Arlington? Seriously, wrong for Rush's character and doubly wrong considering what a pain in the neck Arlington burials can be for actual military, 3.) the setup evoked one of my favorite SGA fics, with serious cognitive dissonance. And yet, if you're going to try to sell an OTP, writing out the identity theme in the last section of the last chapter in blazing clarity is a great way to sell it to me.
BTW, I read "Mathematique" (what's up so far), and I am thrilled because the made-up genetics have overlap with SGA trash-talking I did in 2006. Apparently I am not the only person to call shenanigans on bad TV biology, yay!
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-04 02:36 pm (UTC)I think the plot management was really good, and I too loved the ensemble moments, especially the science team. And Eli. I LOVE ELI. I love that he graphed the fraction of briefings he'd been doing! Chloe's mathematician arc is show canon, although the part where she gets to shoot things and disarm bombs is a nice riff that she doesn't get to do on the show (which tends to be a little more protective of her than I think is a good thing).
I actually rather liked the trust/backstabbing parts, I suppose because Young/Rush is so not my pairing -- it's rather hard for me to imagine them getting together in any way that doesn't involve a lot of questionable... something. So that didn't bother me, whereas I think it would have bothered me in a pairing that was supposed to be presented as a little more healthy.
Young: so I think Young's character in FoD is quite a bit more tortured, angsty, and obnoxious than canon!Young. Yeah, canon!Young left Rush on the planet -- but in later episodes this was presented as a serious but temporary lapse in judgment, and he sort-of-kind-of atones for it, and his later character arcs present him as a fundamentally decent guy who is usually fairly level-headed, sort of Adama-like. Fod!Young, I feel, is still stuck on the characterization of the guy who left Rush on the planet; I think latercanon!Young would probably have agreed to have TJ pull Rush out instead of him. (Part of this -- I exchanged a couple of PMs with CWR -- had to do with trying to make sense of canon Young/TJ, which really kind of MAKES NO SENSE unless you postulate Young has some odd relationship issues.) I like canon!Young rather better, but (as I said above) I kind of appreciate not whitewashing the relationship between two guys who are both really obnoxious.
Fod!Rush, I think, is also rather more tortured and angsty than canon!Rush (while still not an illegitimate reading of his character). Now, canon!Rush has issues from here to the moon, don't get me wrong, but I didn't get the feeling that he hated himself. That being said, I rather liked the idea of there being some central theme underlying his whole personality, and it dovetailed nicely with the plot in terms of Ascension and the AI and all that.
Oh, Telford. This is why I said you should start with "Subversion" once I knew you were reading FoD, even with the icky torture attitude bits, because those episodes are really Telford's arc, and Telford is the one character that I think is really a bit OOC in FoD. He's not particularly OOC for how he's presented early first season, which is why it didn't register on me while reading, and maybe the fic was plotted out before subsequent character developments, but Telford in second season is not at all the Machiavellian government antagonist he's presented to be in the fic. (I actually quite liked him in second season SGU.) That being said, I enjoyed getting Telford/Rush backstory. Um. I'm kind of a sucker for plot?
Hee, I didn't catch the Arlington thing (not knowing anything about it). I liked the last two chapters because it gave me a chance to catch my breath, by that time I'd watched more of the show and was therefore more invested in what happened to the crew once they got back, and I did actually like how everything pulled together, but -- yes, after the plot-heavy climaxes of the previous chapters, definitely a lot slower. I have to admit to being awfully relieved that Rush went back for Young, because he'd gotten himself so screwed up by that time.
Hm. I'm going to have to watch SGA, I think, and then ask you about your favorite SGA fic. I really like watching McKay, I must admit, at least based on his guest appearance on SGU - so slimy!
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-04 09:59 pm (UTC)heroesprotagonists will Never Trust Each Other Ever... right before acts of mutual trust and nonaggression fix the time loop. Oh, boys.Oh, Telford.
*cackles* "Oh, [name]" is a pretty standard feeling in Stargate fandom. "Subversion" looks like a trainwreck and I will give it a shot once I find a copy. Or break down and join Netflix or something.
Um. I'm kind of a sucker for plot?
Really not surprised here. :-) The Rush/Telford backstory was a nice retcon/spackle job for why Rush is the way he is, although without seeing more of the show I can't vouch for Telford's characterization.
Speaking of not surprising, it almost feels expected that FOD dialed up characterization angst. It's sort of what fanfic likes to do. (I talked one of my fannish buddies into reading FOD; she argued that it's not really slash (!) because there's too much plot relative to sex &/or romantic payoff. There's an argument about genre tropes I want to invoke around here.) Specific character notes: FOD!Young does get over the top, but it sort of makes sense in the (usually escalating) Young-Rush tug-of-autonomy. Canon Young/TJ makes zero sense to me - seriously, TJ can do better, Young can do something less career-damaging - not sure how much of that is because the writers were shoehorning in the actress' real-life pregnancy. FOD!Rush is crazier than a bag of cats, and for some reason this bothers me less. I blame fannish conditioning, as well as approaching this as 50% original characters.
And the AI. How have I not even touched on the AI? Clearly Young's experiences at the SGC have not expanded his definition of "people". Ouch.
The history of Arlington Cemetery is actually somewhat interesting in its own right. Formerly the property of Robert E. Lee, the Union Army started burying its dead on the Confederate general's property in 1864. Now, it's one of the more well-known and well-filled military cemeteries, so there's a few extra hoops to jump for burial there.
I have to admit to being awfully relieved that Rush went back for Young, because he'd gotten himself so screwed up by that time.
Oh yes he did. Oh, Everett, what were you - oh, right, you weren't thinking very clearly, were you. I'd sort of been rooting for Young to pull himself together post-Destiny, but it's not that sort of story.
I really like watching McKay, I must admit, at least based on his guest appearance on SGU - so slimy!
Oh boy. McKay has been an insufferable genius since his first appearance in S6 SG-1, leavened by David Hewlett's comedic timing. I picked up that SGU S2 ep he was in, and I've got to say, when Rodney McKay of all people tells you that your plan isn't working, you dug a hole and jumped in it? Stop digging. Rodney's inability to assess when forward momentum is fixing nothing, but is only raising the catastrophe index, is fairly solid canon.
Okay, I think I'm missing things, but this comment has gone on long enough.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-06 03:29 am (UTC)I don't think, as I said before, that Telford's characterization was really off for the backstory -- in fact it was probably pretty much on for early first season (with angst dialed up a notch, as always).
Speaking of angst, yes, I agree -- what fanfic likes to do, so I didn't really give it much of a thought until you asked about the characterization :)
she argued that it's not really slash (!) because there's too much plot relative to sex &/or romantic payoff.
While this made me laugh, I kind of see where she's coming from. I feel like when a fic is marked slash (or het, for that matter), the expectation is that it will be ALL romance/sex, ALL the time, and that the characters will have no interests other than the romance bit. It sort of irks me, especially on the AO3 -- I never know what to tag things. I'd probably categorize this one both M/M and gen if it were on AO3, because just M/M, I think, gives rise to a trope expectation that doesn't give sufficient weight to the amount of plot.
Agree (as does CWR) that Young/TJ makes no sense. I can sort of understand it in my head on TJ's side -- guy chasing her, insistently, won't take no for an answer, in a moment of weakness TJ gives in, comes to her senses a while later and gets the heck out -- anyone can make a mistake once, right? (I also sort of imagine TJ as a little too oversocialized, though maybe I'm projecting Ekaterin onto her -- I sort of picture Ekaterin as a lot like TJ only with darker hair.) Young, no idea. CWR thinks it might be that he wants the unattainable (he seems to be uninterested in TJ on the Destiny until another guy gets interested in her) which also would explain why he keeps being interested in Rush.
FOD!Young does get over the top, but it sort of makes sense in the (usually escalating) Young-Rush tug-of-autonomy... FOD!Rush is crazier than a bag of cats, and for some reason this bothers me less.
Yeah, I agree. The other thing, I think, is that even if FoD!Rush's craziness is dialed up, it's sort of amping up character traits that exist in the original (because even if canon!Rush isn't quite that crazy, he's... crazy enough), and that doesn't bother me -- like you say, fannish conditioning.
I kind of adore the AI. What can I say, I am a sucker for the romance of technology, or something? But yes, Young's attitude towards it was rather, um, speciesist? organicist?
I'd sort of been rooting for Young to pull himself together post-Destiny, but it's not that sort of story.
Well -- I see what you're saying -- but it is indeed so not that sort of story.
leavened by David Hewlett's comedic timing. I picked up that SGU S2 ep he was in, and I've got to say, when Rodney McKay of all people tells you that your plan isn't working, you dug a hole and jumped in it? Stop digging.
He indeed has great comedic timing -- I really enjoyed watching him. I certainly did get the impression he was... optimistic... from that episode.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-07 03:02 am (UTC)Which gets back to my fundamental SGU stumbling-block, it's coming with lots of SG-verse baggage. If one filed off the serial numbers, I might enjoy it rather more.
...so Amazon's streaming service has the entire series for $8 ($4/season). Talk about temptation!
I feel like when a fic is marked slash (or het, for that matter), the expectation is that it will be ALL romance/sex, ALL the time, and that the characters will have no interests other than the romance bit.
Yes, there's genre expectations when there's a slash label on the box. FOD fit some but not all of those expectations: m/m relationship, check; significant to story, check; deep emotional bond, hi mental link; erotica no check. I want to say the relationship dynamics are almost old-school zine slash? Filtered through second-hand accounts and in FOD's case wedged into a heck of a lot more plot.
Tangentially, at one point people were suggesting "bob" as a tag for "(slash or het or other) relationship present but not the focus of this story". I don't know if it caught on outside cofax et al's circle, but I think it fills a niche.
I kind of adore the AI. What can I say, I am a sucker for the romance of technology, or something? But yes, Young's attitude towards it was rather, um, speciesist? organicist?
I'll go with speciesist. (I sort of want to see what happens if Young ever meets the Tok'ra, other than reflexive angry o_O face.) But the AI! It's trying so hard, and it is so very screwed from the minute Young decided it was a threat. So between Young treating it like the red-haired stepchild, and Rush's probably erratic guidance, it's a miracle it's not even more messed up. You probably have more background to assess the comp sci behind the scenes, but what I saw was plausible enough to suspend my disbelief. And make me want to give the AI hugs and chocolate. (Or whatever AIs get. Awesome math proofs?)
Young's attitude is actually in keeping with the SG-verse relationship with non-organic intelligence - wait, CWR managed to write 350k+ with an intelligent spaceship without invoking the replicator arc(s)? Okay, short version, spider-shaped Lego nanotech with a grudge from that time SG-1 lied and locked it/them in a time-dilation bubble - as well as his own tendency to let his emotions do the first evaluation. One of the good things about the fic is how organi- uh, intrinsic the Young-AI conflict feels, even when I want Young to ask more questions instead of flouncing out of the room/interface/interaction.
. I certainly did get the impression he was... optimistic... from that episode.
If you want SG1/SGA spoilers, I can cite multiple episodes where McKay failed to demonstrate the level of disaster sensitivity he has in "Sabotage". Seriously.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-08 01:53 pm (UTC)Heh. I didn't realize this was an SG thing, although I suppose the way that Telford and Young are all "okay, here we go again" should have clued me in to that; I figured that one of the things that was going on was that they, unfortunately, figured out that Carlyle looks all woobly when he's tortured (poor Rush really can't get a break in this show). Which is true, but... he also does all kinds of other sorts of acting well, darn it!
Which gets back to my fundamental SGU stumbling-block, it's coming with lots of SG-verse baggage. If one filed off the serial numbers, I might enjoy it rather more.
I really think my SGU-love benefited from watching it first, without knowing anything about SG-verse at all (I literally didn't know anything about it besides that MacGyver was somehow involved -- hard to know how that's even possible, with the huge fandom, but there it is). I think my SG-1 watching, at first, suffered from the reverse effect, but -- I finally got to the end of Children of the Gods Part II -- I think I shall be able to decouple it.
But the AI! It's trying so hard, and it is so very screwed from the minute Young decided it was a threat. So between Young treating it like the red-haired stepchild, and Rush's probably erratic guidance, it's a miracle it's not even more messed up. You probably have more background to assess the comp sci behind the scenes, but what I saw was plausible enough to suspend my disbelief.
Awwwww the AI. One of my favorite characters! I don't think anyone has enough CS to assess what a self-aware AI would be like :) But I loved how it was both vaguely romantic and vaguely parental and -- and kind of hits all those buttons for me the way Mike did in Moon is a Harsh Mistress -- and yes, if the AI had been a human, it would have been slightly skeevy, but it's not a human.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-09 04:52 am (UTC)There was a really unfortunate SGA episode. Characters in a bind thought torture might force a mole out of hiding, and, um, it didn't work very well. The most charitable reading is a post-Guantanamo Very Special Episode, which backfired.
I think my SG-1 watching, at first, suffered from the reverse effect, but -- I finally got to the end of Children of the Gods Part II -- I think I shall be able to decouple it.
SGU does gritty; SG-1 SG-is a little more... bubbly. Classic Trek-influenced sci-fi drama. If you can calibrate for that, you should be able to adjust.
Depending on how you feel about the rest of S1, there's an old Stargate Primer for the Farscape Fan written when Ben Browder was cast on SG-1. It's very funny, but most importantly it ends with episode recommendations by season. My top three by season aren't her top three, but they're solid eps.
The AI isn't human, and that's actually pretty cool. It wants to understand humans - or it's programmed to try to comprehend the people running around the ship, or something - so I parse it as somewhat kid-like. In addition to romantic and sometimes parental. It wants to fix things, but it doesn't know how, or even that some problems aren't fixable within its capabilities, and it's really bad at coping with that. (One of my favorite parts is when Young and the AI have to cope with Rush off the ship.) I've got my buttons installed in slightly different places, but it's hitting some of those.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-10 01:41 pm (UTC)Classic Trek-influenced sci-fi drama. If you can calibrate for that, you should be able to adjust.
I'm getting that...
Depending on how you feel about the rest of S1, there's an old Stargate Primer for the Farscape Fan written when Ben Browder was cast on SG-1.
This is awesome. Also it helps a lot with orienting myself tone-wise ("oh, okay, RDA is trying to be funny!")
Yeah, sorry, my comment was quite incoherent -- I meant that Rush's relationship with it was parent-like, not the AI's. (Although I guess the AI also has to be parental, with all the trouble its humans are getting themselves into...) Anyway! Awwwww AI! :)
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-13 12:50 am (UTC)The really weird thing about the torture in SGU is that it works, at least with Telford, and Young's all blase about it. I think maybe the point was to set up a correspondence between it working with Telford and not working with Rush, but it didn't come together at all.
Well, SG-1 canon is you can break the brainwashing, but you basically have to flatline the victim to do so. Thus, Telford. It's a strategy. (Except in Rush's body, so it doesn't make much sense to me.) I think Young's choice to cut Wray and Scott out of the loop was spectacularly stupid, but it's part of Young's pattern of poor decision-making. Rush? I got nothing. The writers want to show Kiva and the Lucian Alliance are bad guys? It's the SGU take on Everyone Breaks Eventually? IDK, it's a theme the SGU writers don't handle with tact or sensitivity, but like to pull out of the plot-box anyway.
On a marginally related note, GO PARK for telling Young "no shouting" when Team Science was working on the FTL and pulsar problems. When is Young going to realize you attract more flies with honey than vinegar.
Anyway! Awwwww AI! :)
Aww AI indeed! I'm failing to resist rereading Heinlein after your earlier comment. The change in gears, tones, etc is causing some serious genre-clash for me. (Manny on Destiny, oh my stars and garters.)
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-13 08:03 pm (UTC)That's... actually... way better than what I was fearing, which was something along the lines of "This is terrible and you are a bad person for enabling me to watch it!" ;) I feel kind of the same way about it, myself, except maybe slightly more on the "enjoy" side?
I can comment on "Sabotage", "Pain", "Subversion", and "Incursion" 1 & 2.
Huh. I thought "Pain" was... not really worth watching (there's a reason I thought you should begin with Subversion). I liked "Sabotage," although partially for an Eli/Rush moment (I kind of heart Eli-Rush as a mentor/rivalry thing, even though I think part of what I like is the FoD version rather than the actual show version) and partially because I am drawn to Perry EVEN THOUGH SHE CLEARLY NEEDS TO GET OVER HER SCHOOLGIRL CRUSH. (I like that they don't shy away from the fact that this is what it is, but STILL. Am waiting for you to watch "The Greater Good" so I can really complain about her.)
The only other Season 1 I think is worth watching is "Human," but you have to also remember that a) I am a sucker for Carlyle, and b) SHOR'S ALGORITHM. So YMMV. But, hey, Daniel Jackson!
Season 2: "Intervention" is needed to tie up the arc. "Aftermath"... hmmmm... not my favorite, but I do like Riley quite a lot. "Awakening" I actually don't remember if I liked or not -- I think it was OK, and features Telford being decent. "Pathogen" wasn't one of my favorites, but it's Chloe-centric (sort of) and I do very much like the Eli-Wray subplot. "Cloverdale" is really not worth watching unless you want to see the actors do small-town America dreamscape (I thought it was a hoot, myself, and the *acting* is really good, but the whole concept is... eh. I'd advise against it unless you're feeling pretty punchy). "Trial and Error"... is Young acting stupid again. I know how much you love that! Wheeee! From "The Greater Good," as I've said, I think they're pretty much worth watching ("Visitation" has some pretty awful science, but in retrospect is one of my favorites in an incredibly creepy way) -- oh, except for "The Hunt," which was this totally random one-off in a half-season of arc. (I still liked it, because TJ is awesome, but it would be fine if you skipped it.)
Netflix has told me I can't watch SG-1 OR SG-A anymore. What the crap! I may have to go back and resurrect the DVD membership again. Or get amazon prime, which works out to about the same amount and would give me two-day shipping. Hmmmph.
(Manny on Destiny, oh my stars and garters.)
*head explodes*
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-07 12:50 am (UTC)I talked one of my fannish buddies into reading FOD; she argued that it's not really slash (!) because there's too much plot relative to sex &/or romantic payoff.
I'm kinda boggled to read that :D Okay, fandom does loff its porn - I mean, most of fandom exists for its porn! But if you pick up a 300,000 word story, you BETTER understand that this story is going to be largely about plot and relationship dynamics....cause how much frakkin' porn can there really BE in there? (don't answer that....)
I see FoD as an example of slash at its most skillful - it's not only a same sex pairing, it's a pairing that is brought together despite a fairly unrelenting reading of the canon dynamic of intense conflict. Slash is at its best when it keeps characters in-character (everything from "they hate each other" to "straight" is maintained), and makes us believe they fall in love any way. And there's no WAY you can read Rush/Young in FoD as anything other than love, even though the extremity of their situation keeps them from having the time or energy to do much romance :)
Okay, I think I'm missing things, but this comment has gone on long enough.
....have ya LOOKED at the comments in this thread so far? No such thang! :D
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-07 04:19 am (UTC)It's a great story, which trumps pairing for me. Or limited interest in the canon, in this case!
And there's no WAY you can read Rush/Young in FoD as anything other than love, even though the extremity of their situation keeps them from having the time or energy to do much romance :)
Eh, I think I have a different reading, at least at the beginning and partway through. There's love and then there's romantic love. And then there's lust. And need. By the end of FOD, I'd parse their relationship as probably in love, but I'm hedging my bets with integrated personality that doesn't hate itself (For FOD!Rush, forgiveness is a big step up!). I'm out of date on SGU canon, so I'm not sure where Young's head is starts on the romance/lust/need sliders, and that's messing with my reading of what CWR's doing with the romance.
A big piece of FOD seems to be how Rush and Young change: Rush because of the AI and the Ancient genetic overwrite; Young because of the link and Rush's neurological scaffolding. They're highly, I don't know, congruent by the end of the story? But they sure don't start there. The unstable dynamic - trust, need, affection, competing goals - is bulletproof awesome emotional storytelling. It can beromantic, but if at the end of this Young had walked away kind of shattered and pulled himself together (after two to five years) I would've understood that reading too. I didn't get the OTP vibe, but there was something very interesting going on with an identity theme flirting through the entire story, and it felt like chapters 48 - 50 really laid those cards on the table, especially the very end of 50.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-08 01:54 pm (UTC)Yeah -- this is kind of my reading of it. I mean, in some ways becoming an integrated personality is sort of the goal of a lot of in-love sorts of situations -- but in some ways I felt a bit like FoD!Young/Rush kind of skipped the "in love" phase and went straight to integrated-personality.
I see FoD as an example of slash at its most skillful - it's not only a same sex pairing, it's a pairing that is brought together despite a fairly unrelenting reading of the canon dynamic of intense conflict.
But yes to this! Like I said earlier in this thread, I think it's amazing that I started buying into the relationship even though they're both kind of... obnoxious.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-13 01:15 am (UTC)Yes, this. There's not much mutual trust or liking, and then they're stuck together, and make it work. (Mostly. For values of "work" that include ascension.)
Like I said earlier in this thread, I think it's amazing that I started buying into the relationship even though they're both kind of... obnoxious.
*Cackles* SGA fandom does this trick too, with more comedy and lower levels of canon mutual dislike. It's pretty awesome.
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-07 12:57 am (UTC)I had always closed the browser if I started a story and the conceit was, "Magic telepathic link!!" ....but this is the SGverse, and by golly that's canon! So I bought it completely, didn't even give it a second thought :D
The SGverse has that in common with HPverse I suppose - the canon universes are so delightfully crack-y that fanfic has wonderful latitude to play around in :)
Re: Force Over Distance
Date: 2012-08-07 03:09 am (UTC)