Rayne Lovers and Haters
POSTED BY: crystalkei
UPDATED: Sunday, June 14, 2009 16:41
VIEWED: 28767
PAGE 6 of 10
having read a little of SpaceANJL's fic, I will defend her. A little. Because it has so far not gone into romance and is still at sort of friendship where Mal is still pining over Inara.
I think I read through (and enjoyed) most of the first two tales before It "clicked" where it was heading.
She does have good characterisations, but I am wary where it will go. Especially as it is meant to at some point have Mal and River in a non-platonic relationship. Which could (would?) be all kinds of wrong.
Her original character I do not care too much for, but is better than most I have read, and does not seem to be a Mary Sue. (Like most I prefer mostly canon characters. Others take time to become memorable, and my reading style is to skip the details and get to the substance. "Who got shot?" "Why?" type of stuff mostly.)
So far spaceANJL has tread carefully. It is a shame that it will eventually lead to romance ,as I find their friendship much more intriguing. there is a peaceful acceptance of each other in the few moments you see them together in canon.
(I have not commented directly on the fic because of the dread-factor. I Don't want to be too encouraging even if it is really well written. Yes, I can be an ass.)
It is entirely believable for me to think River will have a crush on Mal, but it is the reciprocation where I fail to "see". For some reason this is less offensive to my tastes than Rayne. I have no idea why.
I am a sucker for good crew interaction. Especially Mal and River. I just don't believe in the reciprocal romance.
(If I was a writer, I would have River rely more and more on Mal and then pull the chain. Get rid of Mal. Why? because I don't think I can kill Simon - even though I generally dislike him in fanfic.)
As a balance, Rayne-wise I read through the stories by Kaynara (on this very site). Like most of her stuff till it went way too dark for me. (and IMO unrealistically too.) Apart from that Kaynara was a god author who took quite a few "brave" directions. (I will be honest that if I knew where it would go, I would have probably avoided it. but Rayne reered its fangs after I was hooked, so I did what I do with most pairing I am uncomfortable with. Assume those sections are not there.) A thing in (IMO) favour of Kaynara is that the romance was mostly a sub-plot. Not the main thing.
PS The romance still was not realistic IMO. and I did not care for the ending. It broke my first rule of fanfic (in spoiler tags to spare those who want to read the stories).
Select to view spoiler:
The first three rules are:
1. RIVER TAM MUST NOT DIE.
2. RIVER TAM MUST NOT DIE.
3. RIVER TAM ....
/See's the irony in a Rayne-hater pushing stories with Rayne.
EDIT - I eddited this post as I think it did not come out right the first time.
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I wouldn't go so far as to express hatred for any pairing, but there are many I strongly dislike. Foremost, River paired with *any* of Serenity's existing crew.
Someone asked me in a chat, if I *had* to pair River romantically with someone on the crew, who would it be? I chose Kaylee/River....but not because I thought they worked together, simply that as outlandishly farfetched as it was, it was a little less so than the others.
Frankly, the age difference squicks me. A lot. The physical and the mental/emotional ages.
"Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down, tells you when she's hurting 'fore she keens. Makes her a home." .......We love you, captain.
"This is the captain. We may experience some slight turbulence and then.....explode"
www.serenityverse.com - Zoe necklace replicas, Serenity dogtags, jewelry, image gallery w/ custom DVD covers, other goodies!
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I read a bit of everything, fic-wise, whether pairings (almost any will do), non-romance adventure or humor. (Love the humor!)
And I've gotta say... I do like Rayne.
I like the contrasts: old/young, big/little, smart/"simple". I like the similarities: both killers, practical, the lovely bickering between them. As we see them in the series, it might not be all that logical, but who's to say they wouldn't have changed in the show's future to the point where a relationship might have worked? Joss's characters, unlike other shows, do have a tendency to grow and change. That's part of the fun.
Then again, I don't usually sweat canon too much in fics. Likely? Unlikely? Whatever. These are all flights of our own imagination anyway, so as long as the story's well-told and not too ridiculous, I'll give it a shot.
I like Rayne, Malnara (yes, I'm a hopeless romantic), Wash resurrection fics (eagerly awaiting the next Connecting Flight!), and humor, though I don't limit myself to those categories. Character death fics won't scare me off, but I do prefer to be warned first. Angst, darkfics, mushy or PWP-- usually depends on my mood at the time.
I'm not all that fond of River/Mal, to be honest; IMHO Mal would feel far too protective of River as both a member of his crew and a formerly defenseless woman (in the first few eps at least, definitely not post-Serenity) to easily start seeing her as a desirable female. But I will read M/R, sometimes. Not much into Tamcest (EWWWWWWWWW!) or femmeslash either. (I'll occasionally read maleslash, but I don't take it too seriously.) I'm not exactly fond of OCs either; unless VERY carefully handled they can so easily wind up Mary Sues. (Don't take it as a criticism of anyone here. It's more of a reflection of my few attempts at OCs in fanfic.) And huge multi-part stories can scare me away, as many never get finished... or I just drift away before they're done. If it's something really good though, I'll keep going. (What was the name of that 26-part Wash-lives fic? Sorry, I'm feeling too tired and sick to double-check now. It was fantastic though.)
But... to each their own. That's the fun of huge fanfic archives-- there's something for everyone. And once in a while, I find an idea I love that I never would have thought of myself... 
(For the moment, it's off for some ice cream for my feverish head and my raw and aching throat, and then to bed for an early doctor's trip tomorrow. Summer colds suck. Hope this made sense, sorry if it didn't.)
one of the FORSAKEN: We aim to burn!
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I can take it or leave it. A really well written Rayne is okay by me. It doesn't squick me, but a lot of the time I just can't get into it. Don't know what it is. As in all pairing debates, I refer to my signature.
I do like Mal/River (depending on how it is written) but right this second I'm going to have to go with NBZ that it would be more interesting to see a platonic situation or a one-sided thing. More realistic ya know? And lately I've been very addicted to realism and only susceptable to bouts of fluff. (But fluff can happen in real life.)
_____
"You know that's gonna fall off."
-----Nathan Fillion (to me while drunk)
How are ships unlike food?
1. If you try it and don't like it, you don't have to do it again.
2. You can have as much as you want, when you want.
3. Cravings can be very specific.
I mean, hello it's not as if there's 'ship police?
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Quote:
Originally posted by TheHeroOfWilliamtown:
I don't see it that hard to imagine. I mean if you had to listen to the various thoughts of the crew all day hanging around with Jayne would be relaxing. He would probably like her because she can actually beat him up and that sets her apart from most girls i'd conjure.
Uh, why would that be relaxing? He's a crude man-ape-gone-wrong-thing. And Jayne doesn't like what he doesn't understand. I don't think he'd like hanging around with someone who could beat him up, either. Jayne likes his whores; he wouldn't want to be around someone who could whip his ass.
That's my view on that. I just can't abide Rayne. Or River/anybody. Or Jayne/anybody. That just doesn't make sense. And I don't think Joss ment for his wonderful creation to end up as a love-boat with a slightly different setting that other love-boats. Joss didn't do that in the show, or the movie, so why do you people assume that it would have happened?
Okay, rant is over.
"The human body can be drained of blood in 8.6 seconds, given adequate vaccuuming systems." -River
"It's just an object. It doesn't mean what you think -River
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You are better at dying
Quote:
And I don't think Joss ment for his wonderful creation to end up as a love-boat with a slightly different setting that other love-boats. Joss didn't do that in the show, or the movie, so why do you people assume that it would have happened?
Thank god
! Do you mind if I use this quote in my sig?
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Quote:
Originally posted by RiverFlan:
That's my view on that. I just can't abide Rayne. Or River/anybody. Or Jayne/anybody. That just doesn't make sense. And I don't think Joss ment for his wonderful creation to end up as a love-boat with a slightly different setting that other love-boats. Joss didn't do that in the show, or the movie, so why do you people assume that it would have happened?
Okay, rant is over.
Bump!
Finally, someone says what we've all been thinking... kind of like Jayne
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Well. A girl can dream.
Besides- who's to say what direction Joss was to head the stories in. He might have killed off Jayne in the second season- who knows (Perish the thought) but we didn't expect Wash dying did we? So lets not speculate that.
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I have to say that as much as I don't like Rayne and really don't like the Firefly love-boat scenario, I do appreciate that the point of fanfic is for people to make what they want of this lovely verse. The argument that Joss didn't intend for something to happen can actually be taken as the best reason to write it - ie, perhaps the only way fans can ever experience Rayne is through fanfic.
It seems like there should be a fantasy fic classification or something. I mean, like PWP has a clear purpose which has nothing to do with character arcs or themes or canon realism. In a way, romance/ship fics are similar - they (generally speaking) aren't out to explore the complex issues that Joss wove into the show. Romance fics are for purely fun escapism, and if they're not perfectly in character, so what? Really. Maybe some fan is having a bad week and wants a few minutes of imagining Jayne as a big cuddly teddy bear - what's *so* wrong with that?
I guess the only thing wrong, for me, is when the writer gets all righteous and demands that more people read and more people comment and no one ever critically question what they're doing...
OK, I've lost my point. Stopping now.
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hmm-burble-blah, blah-blah-blah, take a left
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Quote:
Originally posted by mal4prez:
I have to say that as much as I don't like Rayne and really don't like the Firefly love-boat scenario, I do appreciate that the point of fanfic is for people to make what they want of this lovely verse. The argument that Joss didn't intend for something to happen can actually be taken as the best reason to write it - ie, perhaps the only way fans can ever experience Rayne is through fanfic.
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And, of course, I completely agree.
But, by the same argument, I had to defend his' or her's right to say otherwise.NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME