On my way out for a long weekend. You may or may not notice.
~
Today at work, I was knocked for a loop by a fic idea. It's one of those things where I feel intense infatuation -- stomach butterflies and all -- but for an idea instead of a person. Some fic I just fall in love with. It's a wonderful feeling. All of the rush with none of the human complications. *g*
~
Some interesting (but locked, so no link) comments by 
darkkitten1 about fanon reminded me of something I'd meant to post about.
I've long had this idea that in any given fandom there are "default pairings". Both slash and het, but I'll probably mostly use slash examples here. Most characters have a default partner, though it's not always reciprocal. For example:
In Stargate, Jack's default partner is Daniel. And Daniel's is Jack. I'm not sure about Teal'c -- probably Jack. Paul Davis -- Daniel.
The default partner is the one who probably makes the most sense. In the X-Files, I would argue that Mulder has two default slash partners -- Krycek and Skinner. (Others would probably argue that Mulder has only one -- Krycek.) But Krycek only has one default partner -- Mulder. (And here I'll spare you a digression about Skinner and Doggett and Their True Love.)
A default pairing is one that you can usually write about without having to make your case for them every time. Mostly, this is because so many people have written first time stories about this pair that fanon accrues around them. You can write about how Harry and Draco got together if you like. But if you start in media res and deal with something else entirely no one will question it. On the other hand, if you want to write something not so mainstream like, oh, Snape/Percy, you have to back it up every time. (Well, until that pairing becomes mainstream.)
So, when you want to knock off 500 words of smut or a quick drabble or a cheap joke where you don't have time to spend on the actual relationship, you can grab a default pairing and slot them right in there and no one will bat an eye. I do it all the time.
~
Found quote:
When I'm old, here’s how I'm going to describe the early 21st century: We were always having to provide people with content.
Enough content for today.
I would argue that in the course of writing a M/K story you have to make more of a case for their relationship in order to get over their mutual onscreen antipathy (even if one reads that as UST) and the killing of Mulder's father, which might be hard to forgive no matter how horny Mulder is or how hot Krycek is, whereas with M/Sk there is at least a respect there as a basis for the relationship and some obvious affection so you might not have to reach as much. Just my personal thoughts of course! I'm not saying one pairing is more valid than another, just pondering around the concept of "default pairing" as you've defined it!
Seriously, the reason the post was locked was that we're mining this for our paper, one central argument of which is that different communities will have different 'versions' of the canon and different default pairings (in fact, most are constructed via default pairings), though when i asked kitten what our HP community is, all we could come up with is "non-teenies who are not into h/d...mostly" LOL.
As for M/K/Sk...I think there are fandoms (for me), where the default pairing can be any pairing from a given number, for example, my Buffy default was anyone from B/A/S, my XF M/K/Sk, my HP...see icon :-) In other words, they can be together in any given combination, but not really with anyone else.
So, I'm with you, except that I also think Xanthe is correct in saying that one pairing is not more valid...we solved this by looking at specific fandom communities that agree...b/c, see, I think a rabid MSR would have kittens over both *your* and Xanthe's default proclamations. LOL.
Hee! I'm a total M/Sk shipper, so I'm with you. But I'm not talking about personal preferences, but rather fandom-wide expectations.
one central argument of which is that different communities will have different 'versions' of the canon and different default pairings (in fact, most are constructed via default pairings)
Interesting! But I think that for the most part, default pairings are the same across fandoms, whether the individual fans *like* that pairing or not. I was the no-est of the NoRoMos, but I accepted MSR as a default thing -- I just didn't like it.
HP is a difficult fandom for this theory, though, and my argument doesn't work so well given the immensity of the fandom, the huge age range, and the vast scope of available pairings. There's so much more splintering. My thoughts were developed back in the TXF days and held up through my fandoms until now. *g*
I think a rabid MSR would have kittens over both *your* and Xanthe's default proclamations
I probably missed being completely clear about this since I was writing this so late at night, but I just meant that M/K and M/Sk are Mulder's default *slash* pairings. MSR is still the default het option. And if you're not splitting by slash and het (and HP fandom is so much less likely to do that than most fandoms I've been in), then I would definitely say that Scully is Mulder's default partner.
i think our theories do not actually contradict one another...it's just that some fandoms are pretty much one big community (which is when your theory works perfectly), some are two (ds anyone?) and some are many...and yes, i think that's a function of both the number of central characters and simply the hugeness of the fandom...i mean, you may find some jim/rafe fic, but when you get to hp the equivalent (ron/draco maybe?) actually has quite a few people behind it.
thanks for making me think this through more carefully :-)
If that's what you're dealing with in the story, yes. But what I mean is that you could, because of all the M/K fic that already deals with this, just jump in and write a funny piece where they are arguing over who pays for dinner and why Krycek never calls when he's out of town assassinating people and people wouldn't be likely to say, "but what the hell are Mulder and Krycek doing together in the first place?" Whereas if you tried to do that with Bill Scully and Krycek, people would go "buh?"
Anyhow, as I noted in my reply to
When I'm old, here’s how I'm going to describe the early 21st century: We were always having to provide people with content.
Enough content for today.
Sent this to my information architect/design & knowledge management (flee!) coworkers who were quite thoroughly amused. Thanks!
Some of us would argue that slash in XF is like fur on a fish -- totally unnecessary -- since Mulder had Scully. *g* (Yes indeed, I was all about the MSR. I tried hard to ignore slash back then. *g*) But back to the slash: I'm not sure I'd agree that the prevailing preference in the fandom was for Krycek as Mulder's default partner. Definitely, tho, you're right that Krycek's default was Mulder. I can barely remember any stories where he's paired with someone else.
A default pairing is one that you can usually write about without having to make your case for them every time. [snip] But if you start in media res and deal with something else entirely no one will question it.
Yep, true. Which is a great blessing, sometimes. Unfortunately, some writers use this as an excuse to write ATG -- they tack on the character names and they're off and running. Which is probably why so many drabbles don't work for me at all; often there's nothing within the piece to singularly identify the character *as* the character, if you know what I mean. The relationship becomes less important than the character details which help to define that relationship.
It's too early in the morning for this much thinking. *g*
Hee! Some of us would argue that MSR is icky.
Definitely, tho, you're right that Krycek's default was Mulder. I can barely remember any stories where he's paired with someone else.
There were some Krycek/Pendrell stories and some Krycek/Spender, enough that I would argue that Krycek is Spender's default partner. And there's quite a lot of Sk/K.
Which is probably why so many drabbles don't work for me at all; often there's nothing within the piece to singularly identify the character *as* the character, if you know what I mean.
I do. Good drabbles are difficult to write. I find the default pairing most useful with humour ideas, actually. The readers will give you more leeway there.
I would guess that for some writers of odd pairings, esp. those who are OTPish, they have those pairings so ingrained into them that they can pick up an established relationship story with them no problem. E.g.
Still, though, I don't mean so much that you yourself would be accepting of H/D, but rather that if I wrote a funny drabble which featured Harry/Draco and another which featured Filch/Fudge, where neither was *about* the relationship itself, the H/D pairing would sort of be invisible to the reader, whether they "got" H/D or not, whereas the Filch/Fudge would leave people going, what the hell?
It's not so much about personal percepetions or preferences as about familiarity through volume.