once upon a time....

[selenak]

A friend of mine has just finished the first season of The Borgias, started the next, and it evokes much nostalgia in me to watch her do it, so to speak. Not least because lo and behold, she, like yours truly, is mostly drawn to Rodrigo, Giulia Farnese and Vannozza. One reason why I never was in touch with much of Borgias fandom, save for a few lj friends, was that 98% of it seemed only to care about Cesare/Lucrezia, and the rest about Cesare/Michelotto. (Where I like all characters involved! Just not in the "want to read fanfic and meta about that pairing" way.) Mind you, since the show itself seemed as interested in the "older" generation (not technically true for Giulia, but narratively she gets put there) as I was, this was strictly a fandom, not a source material problem for me.

This, in turn, made me reflect on my other experiences of being fannish about a book/movie/show when not being into the juggernaut pairing and/or fandom fave. Torchwood was certainly one (I was for the most part completely indifferent both to Ianto and Jack/Ianto, and I loved Children of Earth), Battlestar Galactica another (Kara/Lee became one of the few NOTPs I ever had, and while early on I was fine with Roslin/Adama, my growing dislike of Adama made me abhor the pairing as well), and I never got shippy about John/Aeryn in Farscape either. (I had nothing against the pairing! With the exception of s4, I disliked the way they were written there, but thankfully, The Peacekeeper Wars fixed this for me. It's just that I felt never compelled to read or write a single John/Aeryn fanfic in my life.) It does limit the chances for fannish conversation, but depending on the size of the fandom, you do find some others with similar interests sooner or later. Oh, and of course, Breaking Bad, where Skyler became my main character of interest, though there I was lucky in as much as I did find Walt and Jesse compelling - since most of the show is build around them, it would have been a long five years otherwise -, but, again, not in a way that would make me see out fanfiction, - the show had that covered - , whereas I wanted more of Skyler. (And Marie.)

(This is what makes Better Call Saul such a contrasting experience for me - the show and the fandom and yours truly all love Kim Wexler.)

Anyway, back to The Borgias - my friend has written missing scenes ficlets for Giulia Farnese already. These are a lovely distraction in an anxious week for me. Now, back to rl (and Yuletide).

Comments

[goodbyebird]

I was very much on the fence about The Borgias until the scene between Giulia and Lucrezia in the garden that made me sit up and go oh hello there. Gave me faith that the show would do right by its female characters, which turned out to be true.

And yes, +1 to liking all the characters. It was such a great ensemble!

I feel that in general, gen/ensemble fans do get fairly sidelined in fandoms, if they're not juggernauts. Nature of the beast.

[selenak]

I adored the Lucrezia and Giulia relationship, which is one of the reasons why my default Borgias icon is from their first meeting. :) And yes, terrific ensemble, which did right by its women!

Nature of the beast: true, and I don't begrudge anyone their shipping. But it does make me treasure those rare moments when fandom produces something outside of the juggernaut ships all the more.