Accentuated the negative?

[scarfman]

When the only invented 'ships in my first ten years' online fanfiction were happy, successful threesomes (Riker/Troi/Worf, Archer/T'Pol/Tucker), why do I feel so adamantly Buffy belongs with Angel and not Spike that the idea of a threesome there hasn't even occurred to me till three years later? The oversaturation of B/S on alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer.creative, which drove me away from the newsgroup for a year around season five, surely isn't as powerful an influence as having imprinted on The Once and Future King when I was sixteen, is it?

Comments

[alienfish.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Let me give it a try! (where angels fear to tread)

Perhaps it's not because of your annoyance with the Spuffy-obsessed. Granted, you're talking to a person who avoids reading anything written by Regertz these days....

So I'll tell you one thing. Although I've always enjoyed a well-written Spuffy story, myself I never could imagine Buffy with Spike. Not until he went and got his soul. The reason is that I went through my stupid period years ago, and I know a no-good boyfriend when I see one. I know a stalker who imagines you have feelings for him with zero evidence is not attractive. Nothing that happened on Spike's side really surprised me except, perhaps, how long it took them to get around to showing what happens the woman refuses the man who is obsessed with her.

[fisher-queen.livejournal.com]

Back in the day I was so incredibly tired of the Buffy/Spike shippers even though I wasn't really involved in any newsgroups. I DID however play in a couple RPGS and some of my fellow players, usually the Buffys(Buffies?) and Spikes were kinda on the obsessive side of that. Irritated the hell out of me even though I cannot stand Angel.

Come to think of it, there IS a sort of Cult of Spike isn't there? While I LIKE the character and wouldn't mind hanging out with him for like an hour or two, I really don't get the rest of that scenario. But then my favorite has always been Wes so maybe I'm just a unique and special snowflake or something. :p

[billfl.livejournal.com]

There's also room for a B/A/X or a B/X/W trio. The Mind boggles.

BTW, I *snarf*ed at your new icon.

[(Anonymous)]

Because the two of them would as soon tear each other apart as look at each other?

I mean, the other two you mention are triads of people who work together, rely on and respect (and we may say like) each other, in the screen continuity. In a menage a trois (or a Troy!), after all, the two same-sex partners are in bed with each other too, in a stronger or weaker sense depending on the relationship. "Angel and Spike shacking up" is not really an intelligible concept outside of parody. Archer and Trip? Absolutely.

--publius--

[scarfman]

You have a point I've been mulling inarticulately all day, which I think is genuinely the answer to the question in my entry. Nevertheless I'm compelled to note that, as a Usenet fanfiction reader while both franchises were active, I saw less Archer/Tucker slash (i.e., none) than Angel/Spike slash.

[(Anonymous)]

Right, but vampires and queer romance go together. As an anime fan, I am well aware of the overlap in squealy fangirl terms — I think "vampire yaoi" is its own sub-genre by now. I don't recall ever having encountered slash featuring an engineer. At all.

If I may attempt to lend you a little more articulation, a triangle has three sides. Angel-Buffy-Spike would be more of a V.

Arthur-Guinevere-Launcelot works because (homophobia or no) Launcelot loves, cares deeply for, trusts whole-heartedly, Arthur, and vice versa. Angel and Spike simply don't have a common point of contact other than Buffy.

--publius--


(There's an argument to be made here that a love triangle is a threesome without enough imagination. I'm not going to make it, and I don't know that I would even if I were convinced of it. To pull an anime example, Kimagure Orange Road works because Hikaru is Madoka's best friend — otherwise it would hardly take Kyosuke 48 TV episodes, 8 video episodes, and a movie to dump the little twirp.

You may, however, be able to get in on the ground floor with "engineer slash". Kirk/Scott, maybe?)

[daibhid-c.livejournal.com]

I don't know much about the slash scene, but I'd guess such a pairing works by saying "No they don't *really* hate each other; it's just because they're in denial about the attraction". For some reason it's too late for me to analyse, I suspect adding Buffy to this either throws it completely off kilter, or at least complicates it to the extent it seems forced.