UNPOPULAR OPINION!

[rhivolution]

Something discomfits me about Pairing: Pendragon/Merlin, but I can't put my finger on it, I really can't. It's cute and all, but...I thought it'd be more cutting and it's not.

(Maybe that all the female characters in it are sorta insipid? I do know it's not that I can't stand what I see in the mirror, okay, so don't say it's that.)

Am I completely alone in this?

Comments

[facetofcathy]

Ha! No, you're not.

I found a lot of it funny and it does depict an aspect of fandom, but I really didn't buy into it as the experience of gay men in fandom, so it read like women's experience written without any women in main roles. Which could be a kind of meta commentary on fandom, but I didn't feel like it had anything to say about that. Not that I think it would have to be negative on that issue, but it didn't take any position on anything beyond life is hard when you're a BNF and all the actors know about fic.

[ineptshieldmaid]

I had problems with the characterisation, actually - given canon characterisation and fandom dynamics, I was expecting to find Arthur as a somewhat douchey BNF to begin with, and Merlin as someone who hated BNFs on principle (while reading all their fic) and then OVERCOMING DIFFERENCES etc.

Every time I try to get to thinking critically about it though, the thoughts get caught in the fic's web of different response styles and I end up back at SQUEEE OMG.

[futuransky]

I enjoyed it, but it all seemed to come a bit too easily... Not much sense of social differences between Merlin and Arthur (fannishly and otherwise!) or of fannish arguments or enmities actually being taken very seriously? I mentally characterised it as fluff (rather than fic that tries to say something deeper about fandom, etc) for that reason.

[mercredigirl]

Yes, this.

[alchemy]

When I read it, I felt condescended to and generally discomfited, to the point that I didn't find it worth my time to finish. So no, you're definitely not alone.

[noracharles]

The joke about Morgana randomly popping up in fic as an obstacle to the hero with no motivation or resolution was funny, and the first part was entertaining enough to keep me reading the last two parts even though nothing happened.

So overall the fic was a win for me.

But the perving on gay men sparkly unicorns was gross and tiresome and everyone was extremely out of character. I don't know why this was written as a modern AU rather than as RPF.

[sqbr]

*comes late to the party*

I had so many problems with this fic I started writing a post and ran out of spoons before I could finish it. Admittedly, if I hadn't have liked a lot of it and had very mixed feelings it probably would have been easier to articulate the things I don't like.

But yeah. Male fans are sparkly and special, female fans either worship/support them or are jealous harpies. BNFs are like royalty and everyone else either worships/support them or is a jealous harpy. Social Justice imbroglios are an irritating inconvenience. Blah.

[rhivolution]

Male fans are sparkly and special, female fans either worship/support them or are jealous harpies.

I'm so glad I wasn't the only person who read it that way.

[sqbr]

And the thing is, with an "Arthur is a movie star" AU or whatever it doesn't feel so weird, but given that this is about fanfic writers aimed at and written by fanfic writers it felt a bit creepy. I mean, there are some male fanfic writers I really admire, but they're not ~special~.