And I think it's rather-- I wouldn't have said obvious, but I would have said has fairly fertile ground from canon (which is nearly what you mean, I think), which is what makes it exciting for me.

What I'm struggling with is that some pairings which have fertile canon ground-- say, Spike/Angel(us), or Willow/Fred-- are exciting to me, where Buffy/Willow isn't. It's... odd, and I'm trying to articulate why.

One, Angel/Lindsey is not obvious

"It's not me you want to screw."

"It's not me you really want to screw."

But I guess I'll accept the 'eye of the beholder' clause.

I think Angel/Lindsey is just as obvious as Buffy/Faith -- but that doesn't mean I find both of them inevitable (I see what points to B/F, I just don't feel it).

Any pairing in a good writer's hands can be magic. And I'm trying to only read good writers. There isn't a scenario (see Herself's and PMM's "badfic") that's broken, in my books. It's just the instantiations that may tend to be.

Heh. X-post.

But I do agree that the idea of Buffy/Willow leaves me totally flat. I haven't thought about why, though, as you obviously have.

One, Angel/Lindsey is not obvious

Am-Chau, I think YMdefinitelyV on this, because a whole hell of a LOT of people think it is.

"It's not me you want to screw."

So says Darla. Who is crazy, and untrustworthy, and generally... Darla. I don't see it, except in rare fic; I don't believe her, generally speaking.

Edit: Yes, Steph. I did conceed that at the end of my post. YMV. Enough.

Any pairing in a good writer's hands can be magic. And I'm trying to only read good writers.

You sane, sane person. I still occasionally get grabbed by a pairing and Google for it.

I don't find obvious boring in the slightest.

Buffy/Faith, while generally poorly written, has a ton of potential. Clark/Lex? Hell yeah.

Blair/Jim (cue theme music in the other room)? Give momma some sugar.

It all depends on the writing. I have to be able to believe it, and in that sense, wildly UC pairings have more to prove to me, the reader, than less wildly UC pairings do.

A writer would have to work *harder* to convince me of Buffy/Willow than of Buffy/Faith, because except for Faith, Buffy has never seemed attracted to another woman, and Buffy/Willow would seem creepy and incesty. (I'm going to ignore that I've written Buffy/Willow, because that was a remix, and it made sense at the time.)

So says Darla. Who is crazy

She wasn't at the time, though, was she?

The more canon/conventional the ship the more likely I am to want to read about it, usually, but Buffy/Willow is one of those pairings that makes me go "Buh?" Kind of like Spike/Xander, except with that one I have actual logical arguments and B/W I just feel very very confused.

Buffy/Faith I like. Angel/Lindsey I ought to like, but it doesn't do it for me, probably because I'm not big on enemy slash. (Mulder/Krycek doesn't work for me either, outside of the porny aspects.)