The Appropriate Time, by Jennifer Osakana, is slightly slashy. Wes and Conner meet and talk.

Ooo! Thanks, SA.

Welcome. There's not much out there in the way of Wes/Connor, but I know Plei was thinking on one.

It's Shipper War Time Yet Again in BBF-Land.

I, um, wrote a semi-essay. Which I'm cleaning up and reposting. Because I can.

I'm lax with on-list criticism mainly because I normally wait until someone I know has seconded something before I'll read it (my time, she is limited, so I have a mental filtering system set up for this sort of thing). But, that said, I like to see it. I also don't like the idea of using a word with strong negative implications like blackball. I'm all for unrec. No, it's not an extant word insofar as the dictionary is concerned, but making up words is all part of the beautiful evolution of language, and it suits our needs. So there. And don't MAKE me get all descriptivist on you. (Sorry, prescriptivist grammar extremists, but you are wrong wrong wrong, and time will bear me out. Because it always does. Moohahahaha. Sorry. End Descriptivist Rant.)

Discussion is interesting. I'm increasingly off the opinion (and this has nothing to do with the fact that I tend to prefer writing them) that wildly unconventional 'ships, when done well, tend to have better characterization than most canon 'ship ficcage.

I think part of that is that canon 'ships, there's always more "but, Character X would never do that, look at what happened in Episode Y, when Character Z brought the puppy into the house" to consider. There's so much 'what', that the 'if' is less open to interpretation in the wonderful game of 'what-if' that is writing. At least for me. Obviously, YMMV.

But another part, and this does get into the 'shipper wars, at least a little bit (dipping in a tiny toe, not willing to take an actual factual plunge), is that a lot of what's written in canon 'shipville seems to have, for want of a better term, and for want of an invented term that would serve my purposes, an agenda. People are writing it because they're very invested in the pairing, or the story, and if it's something where what happened on-screen failed to match preconceptions or expectations, they may choose to 'correct' what occurred with versions of their own. And it's very, very easy for that sort of thing to lose sight of the characters in the name of moving the plot along so that the end result is what was desired on screen in the first place. If you're on the same page with regards to the end result, you'll enjoy it more as a reader than if you totally disagree with that take.

Or, to make a long story rather short, conventional or canon relationship involves preconceptions on both the part of the reader and the writer which can and do clash. Unconventional relationships have fewer preconceptions, so the writer will often work harder to sell the pairing.

And, just for the hell of it, a must-read: The Brat Queen's Two-Step Rule.

So, Buffistas, what's your take on canon vs. unconventional? Am I totally smoking the badcrack here?

Welcome. There's not much out there in the way of Wes/Connor, but I know Plei was thinking on one.

I was working on one as recently as last night, in fact.

I was working on one as recently as last night, in fact.

Woohoo!

(Loved the Darla/Connor, btw. Nicely done. Why yes, I have been making up for a tiny bit of my lost ficreading time today...)

I think you may have a point wrt the characterisation thing, but there is a lot of crazy-ass badfic out there, and SO many different agendas that it's difficult to make these kind of statements. Well, I find it difficult.

thinks

Sometimes writers put people together because they think "he's cute! and (s)he's cute! Yeah, that'd be hot!" without really giving a damn about good characterisation. Which isn't a particularly good thing, imho. YMMV.

If it's a canonical relationship, the show's writers have already done all the backstory and motivation stuff and the ficwriter can coast along on the back of this. Which isn't to say that they will, because if they're good then they have their own grasp of character and motivation that tallies with canon and develops naturally beyond it. But yes, noncanonical 'ships are a harder sell, so (good) writers don't have the option of coasting along. And I'd agree that it can be a hell of a lot of fun as a writer, getting to play with developing believable dynamics between characters who have little or no onscreen time. It's more of a challenge, but it's still bound by canonical knowledge of each character. Which is cool.

Eh, but I'm biased. I've written almost exclusively nonconventional relationships and/or interactions, some of which were even crossovers. It tickles my fancy.

(Loved the Darla/Connor, btw. Nicely done. Why yes, I have been making up for a tiny bit of my lost ficreading time today...)

Why, thank you kindly! It's just a wee bit of the squicksome, but I'm somewhat fond of it.

It's just a wee bit of the squicksome, but I'm somewhat fond of it.

The only thing I've found squicksome of late was Ms Yarkona's Teletubby story.

shudders.

Although I didn't actually read it, so that may be judgmental of me. But I had a visceral "notevenifit'sthefunnieststoryintheworld" response, and had an attack of temporary blindness.

....so, any liklihood of Angel/Connor? Or Angelus/Connor? Since I am on the Express train to Special Hell...

....so, any liklihood of Angel/Connor? Or Angelus/Connor? Since I am on the Express train to Special Hell...

Funny you should mention that...

Umm. Yes, actually.

YAY!!!!