Day 1 of 5: Slash Meme
Dec. 12th, 2011 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormkeeper_lovedorisI don’t know why I like slash. I do know that a lot of other women like it, so at least I know I’m not alone – which is very cool, because growing up I thought this was weird as all hell. Now I even find that there are other lesbians who are into two guys together for whatever reason. (By the way, thank you to the mainstream movie “The Kids Are All Right” for illustrating this!). My weirdness factor goes up even more when I realize that I’ve only slashed guys in one fandom, have really only been into three different fandoms in the past 11 years (!), and two of the male/male couples I love are in literature, not fandom.
So I decided to write a few odes to the male couples I have slashed. Starting today and for the next few days, I am going to post once per day on each pairing I like, along with four Q&As about them and my liking of them. Feel free to meme this and do your own too!
My first three pairings are from X-men. The last two are from novels.
I also need to add an odd note. I know a lot of fans like slash pairings for some of the prominent X-men: Wolverine, Gambit, Cyclops. I love slash and I love X-men, but in my head, these three guys are straight straight straight. I never see the three of them as anything but hetero, paired with a woman or not at all. Just my take on the characters.
DAY ONE: BOBBY/NORTHSTAR (X-MEN)
How did I first get into this pairing?
Saw the X-men movie in 2000 and fell head over heels for the characters and the premise. After watching several episodes of X-men: The Animated Series, felt I had to write an X-men fanfic. Wanted a gay male protagonist, heard that lots of fans thought Iceman was gay, and decided to make him the protagonist. I had also heard that there was a character in the comics who really was openly gay, so as my fanfic saga – which ultimately became a trilogy of over 733,000 words – unfolded, I decided to bring Northstar in and pair him up with Bobby.
Something very cool happened during the 2-3 years it took to write and post this tale. In the comics, Northstar joined the X-men and crushed out on Bobby. Sadly, the subplot ended quickly as the writers decided to keep Bobby straight, but I saw more than one fan comment in various sources with words to the effect of, ‘Northstar and Iceman together?? Just like in Stormkpr’s fic!’
Have I written about them?
I’ve basically paired them up in all my fanfic that is centered around XTAS, with one exception that I couldn’t resist: I did write a fic that paired Bobby/Hank. (I also have had a plot bunny for years of Hank/Northstar but alas have never put pen to paper on that one). Fics of mine with Bobby/Northstar are: the trilogy: X-men: Friends of Humanity, Freedom, and The Heavens Open; plus Parallels (a re-working of the trilogy – I think it’s better!), Captive Hearts (this and “Parallels” are my favorite of my long XTAS fics), Election Day, and a short one called Pride.
What I do like about them?
It’s hard to answer this because my head!cancon for Bobby is admittedly a bit hosed up. I really like movie-Bobby, so a gay version of movie-Bobby has always been my head!canon, which I know doesn’t align always with the snarky comic-Bobby. My Bobby can be snarky too but he’s also a bit gentle (like the guy in the films) and a bit lacking in confidence at times. I’ve done better with Northstar in terms of sticking to canon; I like his arrogant-but-with-a-compassionate-side personality.
So, what I get when I put Bobby and Northstar together is a bit different than what the next fan might get, but I definitely feel certain harmony, a yin/yang thing.
Where’s the fandom at nowadays?
They have an LJ comm,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
speedsicle. It’s not been too busy lately but I love this comm because reading it back in 2008 was what got me back into X-men overall. Over the years I’ve seen a few other websites and places for B/JP fans but I don’t know if any of them are still around. I hear that in at least one line of the comics, Northstar is (or was) paired with Colossus. I wonder if they have a following and, if so, is it bigger or smaller than Bobby and Northstar’s.
So I decided to write a few odes to the male couples I have slashed. Starting today and for the next few days, I am going to post once per day on each pairing I like, along with four Q&As about them and my liking of them. Feel free to meme this and do your own too!
My first three pairings are from X-men. The last two are from novels.
I also need to add an odd note. I know a lot of fans like slash pairings for some of the prominent X-men: Wolverine, Gambit, Cyclops. I love slash and I love X-men, but in my head, these three guys are straight straight straight. I never see the three of them as anything but hetero, paired with a woman or not at all. Just my take on the characters.
DAY ONE: BOBBY/NORTHSTAR (X-MEN)
How did I first get into this pairing?
Saw the X-men movie in 2000 and fell head over heels for the characters and the premise. After watching several episodes of X-men: The Animated Series, felt I had to write an X-men fanfic. Wanted a gay male protagonist, heard that lots of fans thought Iceman was gay, and decided to make him the protagonist. I had also heard that there was a character in the comics who really was openly gay, so as my fanfic saga – which ultimately became a trilogy of over 733,000 words – unfolded, I decided to bring Northstar in and pair him up with Bobby.
Something very cool happened during the 2-3 years it took to write and post this tale. In the comics, Northstar joined the X-men and crushed out on Bobby. Sadly, the subplot ended quickly as the writers decided to keep Bobby straight, but I saw more than one fan comment in various sources with words to the effect of, ‘Northstar and Iceman together?? Just like in Stormkpr’s fic!’
Have I written about them?
I’ve basically paired them up in all my fanfic that is centered around XTAS, with one exception that I couldn’t resist: I did write a fic that paired Bobby/Hank. (I also have had a plot bunny for years of Hank/Northstar but alas have never put pen to paper on that one). Fics of mine with Bobby/Northstar are: the trilogy: X-men: Friends of Humanity, Freedom, and The Heavens Open; plus Parallels (a re-working of the trilogy – I think it’s better!), Captive Hearts (this and “Parallels” are my favorite of my long XTAS fics), Election Day, and a short one called Pride.
What I do like about them?
It’s hard to answer this because my head!cancon for Bobby is admittedly a bit hosed up. I really like movie-Bobby, so a gay version of movie-Bobby has always been my head!canon, which I know doesn’t align always with the snarky comic-Bobby. My Bobby can be snarky too but he’s also a bit gentle (like the guy in the films) and a bit lacking in confidence at times. I’ve done better with Northstar in terms of sticking to canon; I like his arrogant-but-with-a-compassionate-side personality.
So, what I get when I put Bobby and Northstar together is a bit different than what the next fan might get, but I definitely feel certain harmony, a yin/yang thing.
Where’s the fandom at nowadays?
They have an LJ comm,
speedsicle. It’s not been too busy lately but I love this comm because reading it back in 2008 was what got me back into X-men overall. Over the years I’ve seen a few other websites and places for B/JP fans but I don’t know if any of them are still around. I hear that in at least one line of the comics, Northstar is (or was) paired with Colossus. I wonder if they have a following and, if so, is it bigger or smaller than Bobby and Northstar’s. 
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Date: 2011-12-13 06:07 pm (UTC)