sholio | Quick story rec

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Quick story rec

As I've mentioned occasionally, I really love stories about messy, complicated, unhappy relationships -- I don't think I'd want a steady diet of them, but it's rare in fandom to get stories in fandom that treat romance as the kind of messy, easily breakable thing that it is in real life, and I'm always delighted to stumble across them.

So I wanted to rec this story: And So the End by

bluflamingo. It's post-season-five Keller/McKay (with blink-and-you-miss-it background John/Cam), and I went into the story very nervous, because it's rare to find a Keller/McKay breakup fic that I feel is fair to both the characters. But I really loved it -- the emotions ring true, and the sense of an existing world around the protagonists, with other characters' lives woven in and out of Rodney and Jennifer's unraveling relationship, is very well done. I recommend this one particularly to Keller fans; it's an excellent Jennifer POV and really rang true for her. :)

(Side note: I know I have a lot of fellow Rodney fen on my f'list so I feel that I should warn that this story throws a fairly unflattering light on Rodney's dubious relationship skills; personally, I think it's consistent with how he's shown in canon (not bashing, in other words) and I can see him behaving as he does in this story, but you may disagree, so I didn't want to send you in there unwarned! This is not a happy story, and it's not a story that's going to leave you warm and fuzzy about the pairing.)

ETA: Comments to this entry contain story spoilers!

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Hm. I looked at this fic twice and backed away, even though I think it's probably a good story. It's just that this fandom has been relentlessly bombarding me with fic that breaks up this pairing I really like, I've become so suspicious that I skim the comments of any fic that says McKeller before I even venture in. At this point I'm just like, "yeah fandom, you don't like that ship, I get it. *backbuttons*"

OTOH it might be a refreshing change to read one where Jennifer isn't a controlling humorless harpy. And I don't want to miss out on a great Jennifer POV. Ah, I might just read this one when I'm in the right mood.

*nods* Yeah; I can totally understand that. I guess that in my case, I'm not really set on *any* pairing in particular -- I thoroughly hate it when fanwriters break up couples to put them together with other people, but the couple being separated is not a big problem for me all by itself. I thought the story itself was much more fair to the pairing than the commenters, actually! However, it's really not a story with a flattering Rodney characterization, so I can totally see how that by itself might be a reason for some people to prefer not to read it.

I thought that was a very well-done story, looking at a complicated relationship without letting anyone take all the blame or get off the hook entirely, either. And I appreciated that the break-up happened not because one partner wanted to be with someone else more (m or f) but because it just wasn't working.

It was too bad that so many comments declare a dislike of McKay/Keller. I get that it can sound like a compliment - 'hey, I don't usually like them, but I did here! good job!' - but it comes across kind of tasteless when so many in a row point out to the author that they don't like something the author liked enough to write a story about. This was something kink_bingo talked a lot about (http://thingswithwings.dreamwidth.org/74876.html) over the summer, and it's been on my mind since then.

but it comes across kind of tasteless when so many in a row point out to the author that they don't like something the author liked enough to write a story about.
If you don't mind a reaction from someone who did just that ... I'd just like to point out that not everyone who mentioned disliking McKay/Keller did so in a void. Personally, I looked through the existing comments and saw that the author stated, "and yeah, I'm so not a fan of happy cheerful McKeller, I don't get it!" As someone who doesn't get it either (for reasons the fic itself outlined quite well), I thought it worthwhile to mention that in my feedback. (I'm really, truly not trying to argue, by the way, and I hope you don't feel I'm intruding. It's just not always the case that comments are soapboxes that don't consider the author, you know? If I ever mention my take on a pairing on a fic that does seem pairing-positive, I specifically frame the comment to point out that the author has overcome my resistance and made me appreciate it anyway; I mean, there are McKeller fics I've enjoyed ....)

not everyone who mentioned disliking McKay/Keller did so in a void. [...] I'm really, truly not trying to argue, by the way

Sure - point taken. Thanks. I appreciate the perspective - reminds me that I'm generalizing!

I'm glad you don't mind — I was actually just logging on to come back and add an ETA that I mind my butting in. I'm on enough comms that I forget to pay attention to what really isn't my conversation, and I wanted to apologize to you and to

friendshipper for just barging in like that.

I need my LJ comment functionality during work hours to have that "drunk emailing" delay that GMail has. The things I dive into when I'm avoiding work .... :>

Fair enough. I don't know much about the author's leanings in that direction myself; I skimmed the first few comments, found them very offputting (in a way that the fic itself wasn't) and moved on. Anyway, if the author's okay with it, I'm not one to butt in. *shrugs*

I think the fic also made a pretty compelling argument against McKay/Sheppard, or, really, McKay/anybody -- pointing out as it does that Rodney's lack of emotional sensitivity extends to his friends as well as lovers. Which was something I liked about it, really; that it wasn't just that he's emotionally obtuse with Jennifer because they're "not made for each other", but that he doesn't do people in general. His lack of ability to supply emotional support is acceptable on the more casual level of a friendship, as least with people who are willing to put up with his self-absorption, but falls flat in a relationship, where a certain amount of selflessness is necessary. I think that my own love for Rodney makes it occasionally hard for me to write him in a way that's consistent with some of his behavior in canon, as this fic did.

Ah, hello — we crossed timing in comments, I think. I do apologize for stirring up someone else's comment thread.

And I do get you that some of the comments, there or on any high-drama 'ship, can be profoundly offputting. (Hell, I've gotten comments trashing characters I positioned as antagonists but not evil, characters I actively like, and that's definitely awkward.) Some people absolutely do seize the chance to expound, in consideration of the author's viewpoint or not, and I need to remember that I run the risk of appearing the same if I pattern my comments similarly.

Yeah, I was actually one of the folk agreeing that Rodney would be difficult to fit into a working relationship. (I'm certain you know I don't like the pairing, but I don't place the "blame" for that squarely on Jennifer.) I do think there are rare odd ducks who wouldn't mind his canonical thoughtlessness even in a relationship; I might even be one of them (but then again, I'm not actually in a relationship myself and don't plan to be, which is probably strongly correlated). One reason I liked the story you rec here is that it's perfectly reasonable for Jennifer not to be one of those people, and that doesn't at all make her evil or wrong; it simply makes them incompatible, and that's okay. Of course, in that interpretation, I think I'm taking a rosier perspective on Rodney than the writer necessarily meant to convey, so I'm probably falling into the same "expounding" quicksand I was just decrying .... :>

I don't think you were out of line at all. And I really didn't feel that the story was trying to make Rodney out to be a bad guy; just, as you say, incompatible with Jennifer. Sometimes people are! (Though granted, it's a less flattering view of him than one typically gets in SGA fic, at least in the areas where I run.)

Something I was talking about awhile back, referring in that case to the so-called post-Trinity phenomenon, was fandom's tendency to go to extremes ... characters are best-friends-for-life or can't stand each other; Character B is Character A's soulmate or else he's a total bastard who needs to be pushed down a mineshaft; a couple is MFEO or else they need to be broken up by chapter 2 in order to make room for their real soulmates. Fanfic doesn't seem to deal in ambiguity very often. Considering how prickly, flawed and in some cases traumatized the SGA characters are, I can't really see ANY of them ending up in totally happy, unproblematic relationships. Which are less interesting to write about anyway ...

I still hate it when authors break up couples with extreme prejudice in order to further a shipping agenda, though. Drives me nuts in every fandom in which it appears. Amicably writing a couple out doesn't bother me nearly so much -- perhaps it would be most accurate to say that I don't mind it on principle (because I recognize that if you, say, ship Spock/Kirk then the only way to write AOS fic is to do something with Uhura) but tend not to like to read it (much).

I get that it can sound like a compliment - 'hey, I don't usually like them, but I did here! good job!' - but it comes across kind of tasteless when so many in a row point out to the author that they don't like something the author liked enough to write a story about. This was something kink_bingo talked a lot about over the summer, and it's been on my mind since then.

*nods vigorously*

I stayed out of the discussion at kink_bingo because I really do think what they were talking about was a degree of magnitude worse, where it impacts someone's sexuality, their identity -- a lot more akin to "I can't stand actual gay people, but I loved this slash fic you wrote!" than "I hate this character, but I liked them in this story." But, yeah -- it's very unpleasant to get a big block of comments like that, even though I know people are well-intentioned when they write them. The kink_bingo discussion, combined with my own unhappiness at finding a comment like that in my inbox has made me much more careful not to write comments like that on other people's fic. I know I've done it in the past -- it's kind of the natural thing to do when you're spilling out your thoughts into the comment box. And part of it does have to do with how it's phrased -- "Normally I loathe that whiny bitch but you made her bearable; good job!" has a rather different tone from "Wow, I never really thought about this pairing before, but you really sold me on it!" *g*

In this particular case, I did feel that some of the commenters were using the comments to air their grievances on the pairing and on Rodney, and I really didn't want to read that.

*nods back* Well put. And I don't want to sound preachy or anything, because I'm still learning to be aware of things like this myself.

...And after typing a long, convoluted paragraph going into details that circle back to the huge meta-argument going on right now about het and women in fic, I'm just going to stop there. :)

It's interesting that you characterize this story as Rodney not being good at relationships, when it seems to me that he's pretty good at keeping the relationship that's most important to him. The thrust of the story (or at least the last scene) seems to be not that Rodney's relationship with Jennifer didn't work at all, but that his relationship with his best friend was just more important. /imho.

In fact, I'm not entirely sure this story shouldn't be characterized as John&Rodney rather than "Keller/McKay", when lines like "They're not sleeping together. He just… cares about him more than me." make an apprearance :)

Well, yes, but the story also points out that Rodney is equally bad at relationships when it comes to John -- even Keller, who barely knows John, notices that he's suffering and picks up on the reason why, whereas Rodney, supposedly his best friend, doesn't even have a clue! It just doesn't matter as much with John because John isn't looking for deep emotional closeness with Rodney; he just needs someone to race toy cars with, and generally blow off steam after a hard day at the office (so to speak). Whereas Jennifer wants an emotional commitment.

Having said that, though, one of the things I really loved is that this story shows the almost claustrophobic tightness of Sheppard & McKay's friendship, as it's generally written in fandom, but from the outside -- and really gives you a lot of sympathy for what it would be like to try to deal with that as a third party. I mean, I'm obviously quite a huge fan of the Sheppard and McKay friendship. But I loved that this story basically deconstructed both the limits of their bond (Rodney's completely obliviousness to Sheppard's emotional state, for example), and the fanonical fixation on the two of them spending all their time together (and note that I am entirely guilty as charged in that area *g*).

Having said that, though, one of the things I really loved is that this story shows the almost claustrophobic tightness of Sheppard & McKay's friendship, as it's generally written in fandom, but from the outside

I didn't notice this as I read

bluflamingo's story, but you're absolutely right! And it's what I found so interesting, having the story told from Keller's POV when so much of the McKay/Keller and McKay/Keller/Ronon triangle was told from McKay's POV. (I think Ronon got less POV time than even Keller.) It's fun and (b)romantic when you're firmly in Sheppard and McKay's POV, and fandom can provide you with hundreds and hundreds of stories to support your perspective, but from the outside/minority opinion it's not quite so pretty. Especially if you're the supposed fiancee.

Btw, I apologise if my comment about McKay/Keller was offputting! I actually don't mind McKay/Keller as a background pairing, but I don't 'ship them and I knew

bluflamingo didn't 'ship them either.

I don't think it was any one specific comment, just the gestalt of them. Though I really do appreciate the apology, I don't think you've done anything that needs to be apologized for! Everyone is entitled to their opinions. :)

And I hadn't realized until you pointed it out that the whole triangle was basically presented from McKay's POV -- but yeah, that's an excellent point which I had not noticed before, and obviously it has quite an effect on the overall handling/bias of the plot arc.

It does get a bit awkward for me in these discussions because, well, it's kind of like asking a Jack and Daniel shipper, "Hey, don't you think there was way too much Jack and Daniel in the show?" Because on the one hand ... yeah, probably. On the other hand, it *was* the reason why they watched the show in the first place... and that's pretty much where I am with Sheppard and McKay. Both show and fic supplied a ton of the specific thing I wanted; it's the first time in ages I've been in a fandom that did that, since I have a tendency to go for sidekicks and second bananas, the quirky oddball characters who either fare badly in the show or in fic or both. On the other hand, I'm acutely aware that me getting what *I* wanted out of it means that a lot of other fans didn't get what *they* wanted. And since I pretty much liked everyone on the show and did really hate how some of them were ill-served on the show (Teyla and Ronon) or in the fic (Keller); I really like seeing fic writers break that mold and give the other characters their due for a change.

(Edited for typos.)

Edited 2010-02-07 10:07 (UTC)

I'm glad to see this recced! :) I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. But Jennifer was so strong in this that I couldn't not like it. (Plus, it was well-written.)

I do think it takes a darker view of Rodney, but not one that's out of character. As I read the character it's darker than I think he is, but it's a valid take. I can enjoy seeing that done with characters I like if it's honestly done.

Though, to muddy things... I'm really not sure how I'd define "honest" here. I suppose I mean "not bashing" but I don't think I can pinpoint the line... *ponders* Certainly it's true to traits the character has struggled with and have been canonically illustrated. Rather than traits fandom has put onto the character that, at times, directly contradicts canon.

Of course another difference is Rodney isn't constantly hit over the head with a "bad with others" bat. There's so much fic that give him points for trying that I'm okay with fic that point out ways he either tries and fails or forgets to try in the first place. Which makes this take refreshing for me rather than a 'oh, not again' moment. [/internal ramblings made public]

Anyway! I did enjoy the fic even as a McKeller fan and a Rodney fan. :) Though... I suppose I'd agree with your "enter with caution as a Rodney fan", because if you're feeling especially protective of the guy, this will probably sit wrong.

Also, it did inspire me to think more about why I like McKeller. Which may lead to a post...at some point. (But not in an angry reactive way. More in a "Yes, this is totally one way their relationship could have gone. Huh. Why do I think it won't?" way) (jeeze. i'm in a babbling mode today. i'll stop.)

Though, to muddy things... I'm really not sure how I'd define "honest" here. I suppose I mean "not bashing" but I don't think I can pinpoint the line... *ponders* Certainly it's true to traits the character has struggled with and have been canonically illustrated. Rather than traits fandom has put onto the character that, at times, directly contradicts canon.

Yeah, it's really interesting to me where that line actually *is*, because you're right, it's quite muddy. I agree with you that there's a big difference between picking out negative canonical traits to highlight, versus writing the character as a one-dimensional baddie in ways that they weren't shown in canon. (Rodney being arrogant and thoughtless is canon; Rodney turning out to be a sleeper agent for the Trust who's plotting the others' deaths isn't.) I think sometimes it matters to me whether the character is always written in that negative way or only sometimes -- with Keller, say, I think I tend to be more likely to react badly to a negative portrayal in fic because she's frequently written that way, whereas Rodney is frequently written in a positive way so a more negative portrayal of his canonical flaws just seems to supply balance. (And now, rereading your comment, I see that you already pointed this out. Heh.)

And I think sometimes knowing the writer's biases can influence how I read a fic, as well -- still using Rodney as an example, I've sometimes run into negative takes on Rodney by authors that I known don't like him, and having that meta-knowledge makes me more likely to nitpick their portrayal of him, and contemplate back-buttoning out if it looks like the story is going to a place I don't want to go. I expect that one person's accurate portrayal of the character is another person's char-bashing -- but it would be very dull if we all wrote the characters in the exact same way!

Though... I suppose I'd agree with your "enter with caution as a Rodney fan", because if you're feeling especially protective of the guy, this will probably sit wrong.

*nods* I can think of people on my flist that probably would have trouble with this fic ... hence the warning. Actually, I was thinking about doing another poll (once I get through the comments on the other, heh) asking if people tend to have a set characterization for a character that they always want to write and read, versus being willing to accept different versions. Because mine tend to be pretty broad -- I can write characters in different ways in different fics, and I'm not terribly averse to reading a story that takes the characters in a different direction than usual. (There are some characterizations that I just can't accept enough to read them -- John the sociopath, Keller the controlling shrew ... but generally I can tolerate a fairly broad range of different takes on the characters.)

Also, it did inspire me to think more about why I like McKeller. Which may lead to a post...at some point. (But not in an angry reactive way. More in a "Yes, this is totally one way their relationship could have gone. Huh. Why do I think it won't?" way)

This is the sort of canon-analyzing that I really love! :D I think it's unfortunate that so much about SGA, not just McKeller, has become so polarized that it's difficult to have these kinds of conversations right now. Everyone seems to have ironclad opinions on McKay/Keller, or on Teyla/Kanaan, or on John's role in season five, or the ending of Vegas, or whatever -- and trying to talk about them just seems to lead into rehashing those arguments.

Actually, I was thinking about doing another poll (once I get through the comments on the other, heh) asking if people tend to have a set characterization for a character that they always want to write and read, versus being willing to accept different versions.

That sounds like an interesting poll! (And you reminded me of the current one, which I meant to reply to and now have. *g*) I'll have to think about where I hit on that particular scale. I can have leeway, but is it large? *ponders*

And I think sometimes knowing the writer's biases can influence how I read a fic, as well...

Ooh, interesting one! I'm so bad with names (and some lj names are very similar) that it's not often I'm able to pickup on such things. But when I do... yeah, I think I do go in with a bit more... I suppose you could call it "bad faith". I'm prepped to argue rather than follow the author's lead and see where it goes.

I think it's unfortunate that so much about SGA, not just McKeller, has become so polarized that it's difficult to have these kinds of conversations right now.

*nods* Because sometimes it can be fun to look at the dark-'verse side of characters (that 'verse where Atlantis was a high-level prison for the criminally insane and all our characters where baddest of the bad, for example)), but not so much when it's an emotionally charged argument. (Huh. That's probably a major factor in determining the extent of my characterization scale, come to think of it.)

And it's definitely harder to look realistically at the characters and explore the not-so-nice sides of them. (Going completely over the top (ie criminally insane) is a lot easier in that everyone knows this isn't an actual side to them.)

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