A bit of fic theory

[pauraque_bk]

I was thinking earlier about how in both of my primary fandoms, the most popular slash pairings are antagonistic, whereas the most popular het pairings are -- what do you call that? -- extended friendships. "Buddy" pairings. You've got Mulder/Scully and Harry/Hermione-Ron/Hermione for het, and Mulder/Krycek and Harry/Draco for slash.

In HP, the most obvious "buddy" slash pairing (Harry/Ron) is relatively neglected[1], and the biggest antagonistic het pairing (Snape/Hermione) is nowhere near as popular as its "buddy" counterparts. The primary antagonistic het pairing in XF is Krycek/Scully, something of a niche interest. It's hard to make a judgment about buddy slash pairings in XF, because there aren't any really obvious ones (unless you count Mulder/Skinner, which doesn't approach the popularity of Mulder/Krycek).

I can think of many examples and counter-examples from other fandoms, so I wouldn't say this is a meta-fandom trend, but might it say something about the tone of a specific fandom? Or its relative attitudes toward slash and het?


[1] Though, of course, the second most obvious buddy slash pairing (Sirius/Remus) is much more popular. There may be other issues in S/R that remove it a few steps from other HP slash pairings -- its association with H/G and R/Hr, and the tendency to feminize Remus.

Comments

[faelori.livejournal.com]

There is a very popular antagonistic het ship in HP fandom: Draco/Ginny.

Just thought I'd point that out. :D

Re:

[pauraque]

That's true (and I did forget it -- shows what I know about that side of fandom!), but as is pointed out somewhere below, don't the het Draco pairings (Draco/Ginny and Draco/Hermione) tend to bleach out a lot of the canon antagonism?

Re:

[kutsuwamushi.livejournal.com]

I think that most 'antagonistic' pairings tend to bleach out a lot of the canon antagonism, whether slash or het. It's necessary in order to get the characters together!

(Of course, maybe Draco/Ginny does it to a greater extent. I wouldn't know, since I don't read much HP fic, and that pairing just ... mweh.)

Re:

[pauraque]

I think that most 'antagonistic' pairings tend to bleach out a lot of the canon antagonism, whether slash or het. It's necessary in order to get the characters together!

Sometimes, but not necessarily. I see a lot of "angry sex" in Mulder/Krycek, Scully/Krycek, Snape/Sirius, and so on. It depends entirely on who's writing it.