Alas, though it may seem from my last post on Sherlock Series 4 that I'm always obsessively going 'with the grain' of the text, I'm actually not a total purist.... Though I admit it sounds false when I just say so. So, all right, I'm probably a textual purist and/or a canon-whore (as I've often lamented), but I've been around. I mean, I've been a lurker in so many fandoms (usually at the far edges, where the truly wild things are), of course I've worn the 'transformative reading' shoe on my own foot before, so to speak. Usually I make up all sorts of *reasons* for why my relationship with Draco Malfoy or Loki is 'not the same' (and I did just recently), but my point is that I know what frustration with the canon feels like. I think that's a pretty universal experience, surely. It's probably impossible to always take everything in stride; if nothing else, sometimes the writing is just... bad. Right?
Sometimes that's not the problem, of course. I was never in fandom for Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, but I remember my outrage quite clearly. I felt let down on a very fundamental level, even though now, I would probably try to rationalize it. I would probably say, 'well of course Will and Lyra are apart, that's the kind of story it always was'. That's the sort of thing I'm used to saying about The Raven Cycle and Sherlock, right? Except even then, young and relatively innocent as I was, I was certainly aware that it was an inevitable, built-in issue of narrative type. It's just... I didn't want to accept it. It went against every natural feeling in me, 'cause I was so certain the protagonist shouldn't *have to* go back home after their adventure in the fantasy world. Like, yeah, I know that's a founding trope of the entire genre, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.
Well, everyone has their limits, and things they are and aren't interested in seeing, particularly in genre fiction (where the whole idea is to have a special slant to reality). I don't begrudge people who need to nope out of any story, and of course I also understand the urge to fix what seems 'wrong' even if technically it's intrinsic to the story. I rebelled against Spike having to die as the ending of his relationship with Buffy, for sure. I read tons of fix-it fics. For an even better example than Buffy, or even Draco's arc in the Harry Potter books, you have Loki in the Thor movies. I was talking about it recently, and my friend told me that Loki and Thor's relationship is tragically doomed. Like, well, I get that it's basically what the story is saying, but... well, I don't think Loki and Thor *have* to be doomed. I think they're stuck in an endless cycle, stuck in this story *together* without beginning or end, and it ultimately seems satisfying and natural to imagine an actual resolution and growth for Loki. Same for Draco or Spike: where there's growth, there's a way.
Honestly, I'm not really sure how one can be a fan of a character and yet refuse to integrate a development that's truly logical for them, *regardless* of whether one accepts what happens in canon plot-wise. For example, to me, rejecting Spike's choice to go find his soul because of Buffy is *fundamentally* different than choosing to rewrite his death and/or have him get back together with Buffy afterwards anyway. Like... a *lot* of people in Buffy fandom did reject this choice for Spike, and I remember feeling really confused and frustrated by that, 'cause like... whether or not you ever *wanted* this for his character, it was so obviously necessary, so clearly in-character and a sign of progress. It's essentially equivalent to rejecting Spike if you reject it, rather than being about rejecting the *narrative*. There's no way around that, 'cause characters have their own logic. It's only when the narrative demonstrably *ignores* the characters' logic (as BBC Sherlock probably did by never allowing explicitly canon Johnlock) that you have real wiggle room. Even then, there's ways such a relationship does and does not make sense, depending how you write it.
Essentially, it seems that my frustration with the resolution of Will and Lyra or Buffy and Spike's relationships seems fundamentally different, even if it's still rejecting the canon on some level. I just feel like the *plot* development is a different animal altogether; it's not nearly so important as it is to maintain character continuity. That's why I said in my most recent S4 John post that the real problem with denying the plot in TST and TLD is the ramifications for the *characters*. Rejecting a character arc is absolutely not equivalent to saying you wish TFP didn't happen the way it did. TFP may or may not happen, as the plot of any episode is essentially fungible (as AU fics demonstrate), but the characters develop a logic that cannot be denied. Even in AUs... or perhaps especially in AUs, in my opinion.
I suppose I fundamentally don't think 'anything goes' even in reading transformatively; I've certainly felt that way when I shipped transformative pairings like Harry/Draco or Thor/Loki. It was always about rearranging canon trajectories while leaving the heart of the canon characters intact, 'cause otherwise, y'know, it's no longer recognizable as the canon character, and then what's the point? And that applies both to fic and to meta. Like, that happy ending I've often wanted to see 'my way' only seems valuable if it's fully believable and congruent with the text as far as possible... 'cause otherwise it's pure wish-fulfillment, and isn't that people's main critique of TFP to start with? Wish-fulfillment driven plotting makes for questionable storytelling choices, and I feel like if you're not actually going to genuinely improve on canon, why bother?
In the end, maybe you can convince me that Will and Lyra being apart is 'for the best' in terms of storytelling, of course. Maybe I could see it that way... but wish-fulfillment is a powerful thing, so I'd want to make it happen my way anyway. That's certainly natural. That's how one relates to fiction. I just... I want to believe in it. And for that, the characters have to remain who they are, every step of the way. That's something like my One True Character theory, and in the end it's a matter of faith, I suppose.
You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So I make a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of: you. Hey, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say, "I love you," it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy.
Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7, Episode 20 "Touched")
#When she dies #and Xander thinks he only cares so he can get into Buffy's pants #and Anya points out the flowers had no name on them #and I'm all emotional
You just had to point that out didn't you?
I liked the lady! Understand, monkey boy? She was decent. She didn't put on airs. She always had a nice cuppa for me. And she never treated me like a freak!
