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plus, I like my men extremely old, inconceivably powerful, ethically obscure, and also eccentric.
No, srsly, Doctor/Master curtainfic.
It was very, very evil of Sci-Fi to start showing the Martha episodes on the *very week* the internets begin to explode with fanfic of my Very Own DW OPT. I thought I was *free* of that after they killed off Nine. I thought I could go back to the occasional dip of fic, tendered by a Tom Baker story on VHS or a black&white snippet caught on PBS.
APPARENTLY NOT.
David Tennant, you are still not funny-looking enough to be the Doctor. ...but. You sure do act him well.
And if I try to get![[journalfen.net profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
stellar_dust into this, she's so going to say something about how she still doesn't understand why people always ship deadly enemies. Which, by all empirical evidence I *am* into enemyslash. Take as Exhibit One the fact that Doctor/Master has always been my DW OTP even though I have yet to actually see a single episode with the Master in. Or even read any of the novelizations with him sitting on my shelf.
But. I have been *thinking* about this. And it's not actually the 'enemies' that I kink for. It's *equality*. I have to really and truly believe, within the context of this story, that the two principals truly believe that they are each other's equal. That means not a story where there's no obvious subordinate relationship, that means lots and lots of careful negotiation in which they convince both themselves and each other that they've finally met their match.
It doesn't have to be enemies. There's lots of other ways to do it, and I go just as heavy for them. There are whole *fandoms* where I have no enemy 'ships I care about, because it's all there without it. It's just that the archenemy/rival relationships - particularly the ones where they've been facing off against each other since they were schoolboys, the same two people circling and snapping and never coming out on top for long, for years or lifetimes or centuries - that's all about coming to terms with being counterparts. It's the easy shorthand. You *can't* write a reasonable enemyslash story without negotiating equality on some level, and *all* properly made archenemy storylines have that subtext built in. You can write nearly any 'ship with the carefully outlined perfectly balanced counterparts, mind you, it's just with bringing enemies together you almost *have* to do it that way if you want it to work, so I know I'll get my fix.
It (and by 'it' I mean this whole Doctor/Master fic binge I've been on the last two days) is reminding a lot of The Tale of the Five by Diane Duane, the way love is negotiated there - when Sunspark stands on the balcony with Freelorn, and says "Fight with all your power, to the death, and lose the battles first. Learn defeat. Then you get everything. Win, and lose it all."
Yeah. Just like that.
Not that I *actually* believe the Master went insane after taking a bad trip on Soulflight where he heard the deep bass drumming that is the single note of Death, strung throughout all the heartstrings of the universe, the one wrong rhythm that sings of everything ending, ending, ending, and now that he's heard it he can't unhear it again.
Although that's more or less what I've decided to believe after reading a bunch of the post-finale fanfic. :P And then he and the Doctor and Jack and Martha and the Tardis and Rose and Mickey can get married in one big ceremony and live happily ever after, the end.
Though I'd feel *so much better* about diving into this fandom in the hope that the new stuff wouldn't totally suck if Diane Duane actually *was* currently involved in writing it. *sigh*. At least I've lived through all the wank already.
It was very, very evil of Sci-Fi to start showing the Martha episodes on the *very week* the internets begin to explode with fanfic of my Very Own DW OPT. I thought I was *free* of that after they killed off Nine. I thought I could go back to the occasional dip of fic, tendered by a Tom Baker story on VHS or a black&white snippet caught on PBS.
APPARENTLY NOT.
David Tennant, you are still not funny-looking enough to be the Doctor. ...but. You sure do act him well.
And if I try to get
stellar_dust into this, she's so going to say something about how she still doesn't understand why people always ship deadly enemies. Which, by all empirical evidence I *am* into enemyslash. Take as Exhibit One the fact that Doctor/Master has always been my DW OTP even though I have yet to actually see a single episode with the Master in. Or even read any of the novelizations with him sitting on my shelf.But. I have been *thinking* about this. And it's not actually the 'enemies' that I kink for. It's *equality*. I have to really and truly believe, within the context of this story, that the two principals truly believe that they are each other's equal. That means not a story where there's no obvious subordinate relationship, that means lots and lots of careful negotiation in which they convince both themselves and each other that they've finally met their match.
It doesn't have to be enemies. There's lots of other ways to do it, and I go just as heavy for them. There are whole *fandoms* where I have no enemy 'ships I care about, because it's all there without it. It's just that the archenemy/rival relationships - particularly the ones where they've been facing off against each other since they were schoolboys, the same two people circling and snapping and never coming out on top for long, for years or lifetimes or centuries - that's all about coming to terms with being counterparts. It's the easy shorthand. You *can't* write a reasonable enemyslash story without negotiating equality on some level, and *all* properly made archenemy storylines have that subtext built in. You can write nearly any 'ship with the carefully outlined perfectly balanced counterparts, mind you, it's just with bringing enemies together you almost *have* to do it that way if you want it to work, so I know I'll get my fix.
It (and by 'it' I mean this whole Doctor/Master fic binge I've been on the last two days) is reminding a lot of The Tale of the Five by Diane Duane, the way love is negotiated there - when Sunspark stands on the balcony with Freelorn, and says "Fight with all your power, to the death, and lose the battles first. Learn defeat. Then you get everything. Win, and lose it all."
Yeah. Just like that.
Not that I *actually* believe the Master went insane after taking a bad trip on Soulflight where he heard the deep bass drumming that is the single note of Death, strung throughout all the heartstrings of the universe, the one wrong rhythm that sings of everything ending, ending, ending, and now that he's heard it he can't unhear it again.
Although that's more or less what I've decided to believe after reading a bunch of the post-finale fanfic. :P And then he and the Doctor and Jack and Martha and the Tardis and Rose and Mickey can get married in one big ceremony and live happily ever after, the end.
Though I'd feel *so much better* about diving into this fandom in the hope that the new stuff wouldn't totally suck if Diane Duane actually *was* currently involved in writing it. *sigh*. At least I've lived through all the wank already.