Another country

[selenak]

And in today's variation of lamenting the blueness of the sky:  I don't get the current passion for pairing up characters from different fandoms simply because their actors played a popular slash pairing elsewhere. This post is brought to you by the coincidence of yours truly recently stumbling across the following:

1) Prince Hal, aka Henry V./ Huntsman from Snowhite and....  Here I was, hoping the success of The Hollow Crown would result in more Shakespeare fanfic, which it did, but so far the dominating genre seems to be pairing Hal with a fairy tale character which confused me for the second it took me to remember who plays the Huntsman in the recent film. Okay then.  Personally, I'd have thought Hal was more the type to go for Rumpelstilzchen (until he dumps the guy when getting respectable), but have it your way. And where, I ask you, is my Henry IV./ Marquise de Merteuil fic, based on the fact Jeremy Irons and Glenn Close played husband and wife elsewhere?

2) Charles Xavier/David 8. Not exactly what I was looking for when checking out the Prometheus section  at the AO3. Look, if you want an X-Man famous for falling for doppelgangers of his beloved, Scott Summers is your man. Also, fond as I am of the McAvoy and Fassbender incarnations, nothing will ever surpass Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen, and I now post facto am most aggrieved the true passion of Picard and Gandalf was denied. Clearly.

3) Bane/John Blake. Given Selina Kyle was the best thing about the new Batman by almost universal agreement, I checked out the Batman section to see whether there was more Selina, and there was (thanks, fandom!), but there was also the pairing of two characters who never meet on screen in the fine tradition of Hawkeye/Coulson, I'd say, except it was obviously based on That Guy/The Other Guy from Inception, played by the same actors.  What the Trekker in me wants to know: if you can get over Bane's mask and utter lack of interest in cops as anything but canon fodder as an impediment, when is it time for Tom Hardy's Picard clone from Nemesis getting it on with Loki? They sound like soulmates, what with being into mindwiping and non-con, and I think Hiddleston and Hardy were in some BBC costume drama together.

All this being said, I must admit I await the Bilbo/Smaug slash as soon as The Hobbit hits the screen (or rather, earlier, since fandom today doesn't even need interaction as inspiration) based on the actors with some glee. Let's hear it for the true love of a Hobbit and his dragon!

Comments

[lonelywalker]

I think the Prometheus problem is there's no decent slash pairing for David. Even in a film that features the highly awesome Idris Elba.

when is it time for Tom Hardy's Picard clone from Nemesis getting it on with Loki?
This is one excellent idea.

I think Smaug is clearly going to be magicked into Benedict Cumberbatch form in most fics. But now I'm caught up on the idea of Smaug & Bilbo - Middle Earth's only consulting detectives. And flatmates from hell.

[selenak]

I think the Prometheus problem is there's no decent slash pairing for David. Even in a film that features the highly awesome Idris Elba

I would agree with you on account of shared sceen time and characterisation (unless someone goes for David/Holloway hate sex, which AO3 tells me actually several people did), but given Hawkeye/Coulson came into existence with no shared screen at all, I don't see why fandom should pair Janek with David with the same kind of canon as backup Clint/Coulson have.

This being said, I'm thrilled that crossovers aside, the dominant pairing so far is Shaw/David, because they clearly have the most interesting dynamic, and it's very satisfying Shaw is a woman.

I'm trying to think whether there was a consulting detective dragon before, and the closest thing I can think of Barbara Hambly's Morkeleb who is compelled to help the main characters of the novel out in their investigation by means of magic and alliance of necessity. And if Bilbo thought thirteen dwarves were hard to clean up after...

[lonelywalker]

True that. I now feel a need to write some David/Janek (I thought his name was Yannick for the entire movie) just so Idris Elba gets some lovin'.

[littlerhymes]

This is the first Bilbo and Smaug/Sherlock fic, as far as I know - already over 12 months old! It's... quite cute, actually.

http://story-monger.livejournal.com/1115.html

[selenak]

By now, I've discovered there even various Bilbo/Smaug tumblrs in existence!

[katta]

I've heard that the Devil Wears Prada fandom were pretty keen on throwing Donna from Mamma Mia into the mix, but I've never actually read a fic like that. (Hey! We could have Donna with Selina! Except that's no fun at all... Miranda with Selina would be more fun, but that's cheating. Who else has Meryl Streep played who could be fun in a pairing?)

It makes more sense to me when characters played by the same actor get slashed, because then it's some kind of kinky twin thing but without the incest factor. (Heck, Audrey Niffenegger momentarily slashed her main male character with himself.)

[selenak]

Who else has Meryl Streep played who could be fun in a pairing?)

Bob Dylan? No, that was Cate Blanchett. Meryl Streep played Thatcher, and I doubt anyone uses her for a crossover. More seriously but still with the RPF, how about Karen Blixen?

[katta]

IDK, Margaret Thatcher/Catwoman has a certain trainwreck quality to it that could be great.

[gehayi]

I predict that the Bilbo/Smaug pairing won't REALLY hit its stride until the third Hobbit movie.

[selenak]

Sounds plausible.:)

[legionseagle]

There's a genuinely heart-breaking Cabin Pressure/Sherlock one The End of the Road which is based on the premise that after the Fall John gets involved with Martin Crieff specifically because he's trying to replace Sherlock.

[selenak]

watervole once wrote a fantastic and immensely moving novella which was a Morgan/Blake's 7 crossover, in which post Gauda Prime Avon ends up on earth just when Morgan, the titular character of a BBC miniseries played by Gareth Thomas, is about to commit suicide. What sold it to me was that Avon despite being startled (obviously) by the physical resemblance becomes more and more aware how different to Blake Morgan is, and the story itself never gets the two confused, either. It's believably about two very broken people who end up helping each other. So yes, I agree it's possible to pull off an actor based crossover and create something great out of it.

...but somehow the various summaries I've seen don't inspire much confidence that's what most of the writers are going for. And hey, different strokes, etc. It's just, as a subgenre, a somewhat amusing/bewildering phenomenon to me.

[lilacsigil]

Even though you'd think (being from comics fandom) that I'd be able to deal with all kinds of crossovers and timeline shifting and alternate universes, my brain completely rejects fic where fandoms collide by way of actors. I think maybe it breaks my suspension of belief in a way that I can't recover from. I mean, I have no problem with the shifting and incomprehensible X-Men movieverse timeline and three different Kittys, but Charles Xavier/David 8 does my head in!

[selenak]

Same here. :)

[andraste]

I would so read Picard/Gandalf. And it is far more plausible than Charles Xavier/David 8. (Admittedly I have not seen Prometheus yet, but I have seen the viral video and I just can't see Charles going for an android. Surely for a telepath that would be really creepy?)

[selenak]

My first thought was "can Charles even read robots?" as well, which I apparantly I see as a condition for Charles (or any other telepath) to have sex with someone. Not necessarily read their thoughts but be aware of their mind as existing.

Actually since comicverse Charles can communicate with Danger telepathically, I suppose he can read sentient robots, but I still don't think he'd go for David, who is fascinating (also creepy, which is part of it) but would remind Charles more of his students than of Erik.

[petra]

Given the existence of Luther, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and Suburban Shootout, I find it tragic that there is not a hidden lode of Loki/Alice Morgan in the universe. She's entirely his kind of woman.