I hate shipping unpopular pairings

[linndechir]

Mhm. I want to sign up for asoiaf_exchange (because there can never be too many exchanges, right?), but I have such trouble coming up with prompts that are not about Stannis. Or rather, I can think of prompts that may be interesting, but I know that I'm going to be so very disappointed if someone writes one of those prompts for me and not one of my Stannis prompts. I mean, I'd love to see stuff like that Jon/Aegon AU that keeps going around in my head, or a proper Rhaegar/Lyanna non-con fic (what's up with people romanticising this pairing?), or a sympathetic take on Randyll Tarly, or a fic about the Blackfish's past or his future plans, or about Victarion getting his ass kicked during the Greyjoy rebellion, or about Roose wiggling his way out of the current situation at Winterfell ... Or I want stuff that I know nobody is going to write, like Victarion making Daenerys' dragons turn on her. I don't want to write a prompt that just sound like, "I hate this character, please kill them in an awful way." Even though it would make for an interesting story, in my opinion, it's just kind of a dickish prompt to write. And it's bad enough that all my Stannis prompts include, "please kill Melisandre?"
We're supposed to include at least one popular pairing or character, but the popular pairings or characters either don't interested me at all (Jaime/Brienne, Robb/Jon, Ned/Catelyn, that kind of thing) or there's already so much fic for them that I really don't see why I should waste a fic written just for me on this (I really like SanSan, but I know there will be enough SanSan even without me requesting it). I still have a bit of time to think about this, but in the end it just comes down to me not liking the popular pairings (or at least not being interested enough in them to request fic), to me wanting weird shit that nobody wants to write, and mainly to me wanting to read Stannis fics more than anything else.

And I just saw that one Castle episode in which one guy quotes ASOIAF. "You do not understand, detective. You woke the dragon." He sounded all serious, and there was ominous music in the background. Haha, what a crossover. I love Beckett so much. ^^

Oh, and can anyone explain to me why Chopin only wrote a single piano trio? I love that piano trio so much more than any of his other work. I'm usually not a big fan of Chopin, much of his work is too dreamy for my taste. (Yes, gasp, someone who plays the piano and does not adore Chopin, I know, what a crime.) But that piano trio  ...

Comments

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

You don't have to apologise for not liking fanfiction, to each their own. I agree that much of it is horribly written, and there will always be strange things that I just don't get (crossovers, Mary Sues, self-inserts, AUs that have nothing to do with the original material anymore). But some fanfic is on par or even better than the original. Some fanfic adds a whole new dimension to a character, explores them, develops them further. And in a fandom like ASOIAF, I also really like fanfic about "what if" scenarios.

Most canon pairings bore me, because most canon pairings are ... well, boring. Let's face it, most shows and books and movies ship the obvious stuff. Most of the time it's het (which is not my cup of tea in 95% of all cases), often these relationships are obvious, one-dimensional, and seem to be there so there can be a bit of angsting and emotions and in the end they kiss and all is well. That's not what I like in my pairings. I like my pairings to be complex, and complicated, and unconventional, and often tragic, and most canon pairings don't give me that. Of course, that's not true for all canon pairings, some of them are absolutely amazing. But most canon pairings, as well as most popular fanon pairings, are just not what I like.

Haha, thank you. :) You know, I consider Stannis/Davos a canon pairing. Not as a sexual relationship, obviously, because I have trouble getting them to have sex even in fanfic. But I think it's canon that their relationship goes far beyond mere friendship, and that they have such strong feelings for each other that it definitely borders on the romantic. And there is enough material in canon to support the theory that Stannis COULD be bisexual or gay, so I don't even see him being attracted to Davos as non-canon.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I have read few examples (and quite few!) of fanfiction that is EXCELLENT. But I am too lazy to look for it in an avalanche of less- interesting stuff. I just tend to stick to people whose writing I like .

I think ASOIAF is so well-suited to fanfiction. So many strands of the story are not finished yet. So many possibilities. It will take ages for Martin to finish the books, so we can have years of fun!

Oh, Davos/Stannis is totally canon in my eyes. I mean pairings like Jaime/Sansa - you have to change Jaime considerably (in my opinion) to get him into a place where he is head-over-heels with Sansa (per chance a Sansa/jaime shipper comes along - I am not bashing, I am just using it as example of non-canon pairing. I support "free shipping" and accept that some people like non-canon!)

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

True, good fanfic is hard to find. It's easy when you just want some mindless porn or fluff, but if you're looking for really good character pieces ... you need to look for a while.

Yes, and there are so many little side characters whose story never gets told, so many things we don't know even about the past of the main characters. So many possibilities of what could have happened, what might happen, what would change if one event had been different. <3

There are pairings like that, and I think Jaime/Sansa is a good example, that make absolutely no sense to me either. But then again, I do understand shipping certain pairings when you think that they would be great together if they ever met (it's why I ship Stannis/Sansa, or why I once madly shipped a pairing in a different fandom of two men who had never met, because their personalities were just so well suited to each other, it was like soulmates just waiting to meet). I just don't get the pairings that look a bit like, "I like character A and character B, so I'm gonna ship them" (Jon/Daenerys -.-) or, as you said, pairings that would require one character to change completely to make it work.

[alcanis-ivennil.livejournal.com]

I second. Stannis always longed for love and respect and Davos is the only one who gives it to him. It's all platonic but it's a deep and mutual bromance.