Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Trends in L&C fanfic

I wrote a huge post on this in poor Lynn's Sister Poll to A-Plot thread. I apologize profusely to Lynn for hijacking her thread In case anyone wants to continue the discussion, I'd suggest we do it here instead of taking that thread further off topic.

Anyway, I'm not going to repeat my whole argument here, but I did want to respond to the comments that were made and maybe take things another step further. If you missed the first argument and replies, you can read it here .

Wendy said: I don't mean to imply that the UK-English folcs aren't doing their best or that I'm upset with the way they write! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it to come off that way I just meant that I've noticed more commotion over American English words than UK ones. But maybe it's just my selective memory, who knows?

Sara said: That's something else that's interesting to me. There's an expectation that Lois and Clark will always end up together. No mistake is so great that they can't overcome it. In that sense there are no permanent consequences (in the relationship arena). I don't see that so much in other fandoms. Again, your mileage may vary, but around here we like to have our angst and resolve it too!

And once more with my bizarre examples! This one's not mine, I'm quoting from Gheorge2's Stuff , a Star Wars fic. It's cited on that site as "More or less [the] Official Luke-Mara fanfic of Club Jade" (Club Jade being the biggest fanclub for the character Mara Jade). But it doesn't end happily. To the contrary, the author notes that the two are too damaged for love and s/he doesn't foresee them ever marrying.

Earlier in the story, Luke confesses to being lonely, and Mara offers to help him find a girlfriend for a commission (22% of the woman's net worth <g>). Through the story, they get closer, but never quite seem to get over that last hurdle. From the epilogue:
Would a fic like that fly in FoLCdom? I have a hard time seeing it. That's not a criticism of FoLCdom, it's just an observation. And I don't mean necessarily to hold up Stuff as an example to be followed; I disagree with quite a bit of it. But apparently enough of the Club Jaders like it to make it their official fic.

It's hard to imagine FoLCdom agreeing on one fic to represent us. Can you imagine that process? But if we did try at least to narrow it down, which I suppose is basically what we do every year for the Best Overall Kerth, I'd imagine we'd go with something a little more romantic, a little more angsty, and with a definite happy ending. Winners and nominees of the past few years have all fit that mold pretty well. They also usually have both a-plots and b-plots.

I've forgotten what I was trying to prove, so I'm just going to stop now and see if anyone else has anything to say <g>.

Oh, and I did want to clarify one other thing. The second excerpt in the poll thread, the Calum and Carlotta story, is from an original work of mine. I don't anticipate posting it in the OF folder. I've been writing and rewriting it for almost half my life, and when I finally get it finished I don't want any potential roadblocks to attempting to get it published. Having it posted in its entirety on a website seems problematic and risky. If someone is especially interested, I could probably do with another beta. Other than that, I'm afraid it will have to stay in the dark on my hard drive for a while longer <g>.

Anyway, any thoughts, anyone?
Kaylle

[And I found this today, so in honor of the SW excerpt I'm posting it, despite it being completely off topic.
]

This is a fascinating discussion, Kaylle, and I'm glad you brought it over to this folder. I might be too late to the party, since it seems to have been discussed a bit on the poll thread, but I think you make some really interesting points.

From the other thread:
I can think of some, though I can't list them in this thread because we're in the gfic side of things. <g>

But trying to be vague, I know there are certain words that I would not use in an L&C love scene (read: sex scene), that I might use when writing nfic for another couple/fandom. There are simply phrases that would not be in character for L&C, and would definitely raise eyebrows were they to be used in an nfic in our fandom. Yet those same phrases/descriptions might fit perfectly while writing a love/sex scene for another couple.

As for how well-regarded fics end in L&C, I think you are right that we expect there to be a resolution -- that the characters will fall in love and overcome whatever obstacle is in their path, and they will be together forever after. To a certain extent, I think that's how the show set them up -- there are probably many romantic couples out there whose fans *consider* soulmates, but how many of those can actually say they have in-canon proof that they are? So I would say that super-dark stories, or those that pair the characters happily with someone else, are not in keeping with the tone of the show -- the undying love/romance is the whole point, which is why it keeps coming up in fic.

I know for myself, the thing that made L&C so different for me is the "us against the world" feeling of their relationship. It's the reason I coined the term "together angst" vs "apart angst" way back when. What makes L&C special is that they *can't* stay away from each other ... that they are drawn to each other, even when they try to stay away. So while there have been stories where L&C do not end up together, those stories would not be to my tastes, no matter how well done they are. For me, I watch/read to see L&C get together.

Now that said, do I think that every story has to end with them declaring their "I love yous" and riding off into the sunset? No, I don't. I think you can absolutely end a story with the "promise of more". The difference, I think, would be how strong that promise was.

In your SW excerpt, for example, I love that the couple always manages to sabotage their chances for a relationship with someone else because they are secretly pining for each other. But if the story ends by telling us that they never get together, that they spend their entire lives apart and never really figuring out why no one else measures up, that's kind of sad. OTOH, if the story ends on an upbeat note, with the reader knowing that they have feelings for each other and leaving thing hanging to the point where you can just see where the sequel would go (them getting together, once and for all), then that could well be considered a happy ending.

All right, I'm sure there were other points I was going to make, but I think I'm staring to ramble so I'm going to end it here and see if anyone else picks up the ball. <g>

Oh, except to add that I thought your OF excerpt was fabulous, Kaylle. I can definitely see what you mean by there being a different style, a bit more minimalist, but I was drawn in from the beginning. I am, however, a dialogue-heavy writer myself (or at least I like to consider myself one), so that is something that hooks me. I prefer to have well-done, realistic dilaogue tell me what's going on, as long as it's moving things forward and there are enough description tags to help me visualize and feel the scene, and I definitely found that in the exerpt your posted.

Kathy

I agree, Kathy. The show itself was a romance between two characters who met, fell in love, and married. That was the core of the series, so any stories based on L&C would naturally deal with the central point of the series. As you pointed out, the established canon of the series plainly sets up L&C as soulmates, loving each other in any lifetime. Not only that, but the A-plot part of the series only existed to give a reason for L&C's relationship to develop, so the A-plots were never the central point of the show.

In other shows, such as Star Wars or Star Trek, there is no happy romance at the center of the action. A romance may have been on the periphery, not at the center, which was occupied by other things--exploration of the galaxy, the fight against the Empire, etc. So, many other stories with other focuses are possible in those fandoms that can still deal with the core of the show.

Anyway, that's why I think stories in FoLCdom are expected to be romances that end happily. That was, after all, the point of the series.