about Supernatural fanfic...

[ratcreature]

I'm not feeling particularly fannish about Supernatural, but I have watched most episodes, thus while I was bored I looked around for Supernatural fanfic to read. I was mostly interested in gen, and while of course I knew that there's Sam/Dean slash I was actually surprised how common it is, from my first impressions even more widespread than gen (though I could be wrong about that). And I just don't get it. Personally I just have a hard time seeing Sam/Dean slash.

It's not that I'm particularly squicked by sibling incest, but the story has to somehow work harder to make that kind of thing work than other pairings. Not only because it has to make me buy that they would act on a sexual attraction despite incest taboos, that is similar in a way to other "relationship obstacles" in romance stories, but because it has to make me buy that there would be attraction in the first place. With most pairings I can buy that the author simply has a character feel attraction, inappropriate or not, and then the story goes from there, but for me (and I suspect most people) thinking about close family members with whom you grew up with, like your own siblings or parents and sex together is, well, sort of icky. Not just incestuous sex, but even the fact that your sibling or parent has sex with anyone, that's the kind of thing you don't want to contemplate in much detail. At least I don't, and I suspect I'm not alone in that.

I tried reading a couple of Sam/Dean stories, but they seemed to be much like regular slash in the way that it assumes that the reader buys the possibility for attraction between the guys in the first place. I don't quite get what makes this plausible for Sam/Dean shippers just from watching the series, and yet it seems very common. Which leaves me puzzled. I looked whether there was an essay on this pairing at ship_manifesto to provide me with some insight, but there doesn't seem to be one yet. So does anyone know of any Supernatural meta that would explain to me where the Sam/Dean shippers are coming from?

Comments

[thelana.livejournal.com]

The idea of "already outsiders, already weird, why not?"

I think it plays into it. At least for me. My current brothercest pairing is on Prison Break and there a big part of the appeal and of the justification comes from the fact that one brother is already insane and the other is a former drug addict and general fuck up. Which I'm guessing is the reason that you, with such type of characters, can picture the threshold not to do something that is considered wrong being lower.

But it might just be my kind that I just happen to prefer fucked up relationships (Mulder/Krycek OTP!). Which is why something like Prison Break or Supernatural comes more easily to me than something like Num3rs where it takes a really good writer to make it work for me.

Of course the biggest problem of brothercest if always statistic improbability. Two brothers, both have to be gay/bi-ish, both have to happen to be attracted to each other, both have to be willing to cross the boundaries. Again, statistically improbable.

[thelana.livejournal.com]

I wanna add that the "Why not?" part comes from me, as a potential fan, not the characters by themselves. With character constellations like that it makes me go "Why not?" regarding the pairing, whether I would like it or whether I think it could be written realistically.

The motivations of the characters themselves are often a completely different cup of tea.

[thete1.livejournal.com]

I wanna add that the "Why not?" part comes from me, as a potential fan, not the characters by themselves. With character constellations like that it makes me go "Why not?" regarding the pairing, whether I would like it or whether I think it could be written realistically.


*nod nod* I hear you, I think. It *is*, in part, less because who they are says "INCEST HERE," than because who they are says "well, it's not like they're models of mental health, thus it's more possible than with 'normal' types?"

[thelana.livejournal.com]

Another element is that they have nothing to lose.

Which is why I see Num3rs as being in a completely different category than Supernatural or Prison Break.

The characters in Num3rs have lives, jobs, a father they love and look up to. For them the treshold is higher, because they have a lot of lose. So for them there would have to be a really, really good reason for it.

The Supernatural brothers are already isolated from the normal world and they have a distant father. On Prison Break they are in jail, either gave up their life or had it snatched away from them and there are no potentially disapproving parents in the picture. Basically if they hook up they have less to lose. Which in turn makes it more likely/realistic that they would do it.