#26 — Vanek! with a Jurco

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This is the twenty-sixth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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Comments

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I think some of that perception probably comes from the feeling that someone writing a pairing you aren't interested in could be expending that effort to write a pairing you like instead (see: attitudes towards oflights).


I don't know about this. To use your example, I really think a lot of the entitlement people show about oflights switching ships is that she left a juggernaut, and she switched to something that supposedly breaks the juggernaut up. I've seen people subtweeting to that effect a lot and the comments on here sometimes seem coded that way. It's not just "ew I hate that ship", it's also "poor Geno, she needs to be nicer to him."

I sometimes wonder if Sid/Nate would be bigger if someone with less fandom baggage coming from a lesser known pairing started writing it and promoting it the way she does. So many people hate Sid/Nate because they see it at the expense of Sid/Geno. And that kind of resentment doesn't build across different rare pairs IMO.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

da

I'm pretty sure people who hate the juggernaut being split up will hate the splitting up even if it's coming from a NNF. There might be less sense of betrayal, though.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

da

S/G fans don't virulently hate Sid/Claude, though, except maybe a small amount of Pens fans who don't like it because of the Pens/Flyers rivalry? But you'd think that Giroux being a Flyer/the pairing's most popular fic being written predominantly by Flyers fans would make the pairing less popular than Sid/Nate amongst S/G fans.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Sid/Claude taps into very different relationship dynamics, with the enemies who became lovers thing. Sid/Nate & Sid/Geno tap into somewhat similar dynamics of both Nate and Geno adoring Sid. Really, the thing that distinguishes Nate from Geno is being younger and Canadian, and I can understand what's annoying about that.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Really, the thing that distinguishes Nate from Geno is being younger and Canadian, and I can understand what's annoying about that

I... don't agree with this at all. I don't think this line of thinking is the cause of antipathy towards Sid/Nate, I think it's more likely to be the result of it...

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not understanding you. It sounds like you're saying Nate is younger and Canadian because people hate Sid/Nate.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm saying that "Nate is like Geno except younger and Canadian and that's annoying" sounds like something one would think if they resented Nate and Sid/Nate, more than it sounds like an explanation for why people dislike Sid/Nate. Because I don't at all agree that Nate = Geno except younger and Canadian.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like you missed the essential part where that's in comparison to Claude. What do you think makes Nate different from Claude if it's not the storyline then?

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Sid/Nate is a little too Nick Cannon/Miriah Carey for me.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Dear hockey gods, please make Sidney Crosby start demanding puppies to cuddle while giving interviews, please and thank you.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'd settle for footage of him exercising in high heels.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I don't fully understand this reference and comparison but now I'm really curious...

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

One's more famous than the other maybe?

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Age difference and creepy hero worship?

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Nick Cannon was in love with Miriah Carey when he was a kid (posters on his wall style) and then married her later. Maybe Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes is another similar comparison if you do your best to forget the fact that Katie was prob paid to be married to creepster Tom Cruise.

Hero worship transforming to actual relationship weirds me out personally.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

NAYRT

I have a few theories on this. One is what the other nonny said, which is that Sid/Nate has way more of a basis in reality than Sid/Geno and is therefore more threatening so there's resentment/jealousy. Sid and Nate have a lot of off-ice footage and promo together, more than Sid and Geno have ever had.

The other is that the oflights Sid/Nate content and the way she talks about them seems really Nate focused, and I don't think enough people care about him for that to be the hook. She seemed to shift her focus from Sid to Nate (and other people in his world like Barrie, Drouin and Landeskog) and that's a tough draw for Penguins fans who care about Penguins only, which was a lot of her audience. There aren't enough Avs fans to make up that difference, especially Avs fans who care about Sid.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

NA

I assume you mean basis in reality as the same thing as them having a lot of off-ice footage together, because the idea of either pairing having an actual basis in reality is pretty far out there.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Yeah sorry, that sounded tinhatty. I mean there's more "canon" material due to the fact that they actually hang out together, as opposed to Sid and Geno who seem like work husbands and nothing more. For people who imagine that Sid and Geno are IRL bffs and need that to fuel their ship, the reality of Sid and Nate being bffs is probably jarring and unpleasant.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

But there are some who really hated Sid/Ovi, when people still wrote that. I can't really peek into people's brains and know why they dislike Sid/Nate but are okay with Sid/Giroux, but I don't think it's just because of a BNF promoting the former. It's not like disliking a ship that splits up your ship is not commonly disliked across all of fandom.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Disliking a ship that splits up your ship isn't uncommon, but it's strange to see the brunt of that dislike focused what seems exclusively on one of the rarest pairings that does that. Did people really hate Sid/Ovi in the same out of proportion way they hate Sid/Nate? I never had that impression, but I wasn't around fandom back when it was more popular than it is now.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

sa

But also I agree, I by no means think oflights is the only reason people hate Sid/Nate! Maybe one of many. I just don't think "splitting up the big OTP" explains all the hate either.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

na

Same statement as before because Sid/Nate have at least reality to support them. Which feel threatening to people who hard core ship Sid/Geno.

Some people are going to say this ship is boring. But too much hate for a suppose boring ship seem silly.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Oh, I see what you mean about Sid/Nate and I think you're right. But I also think that the attitude of "Why is she writing Sid/Nate when she could/should be writing S/G instead?" is a big part of it, too, and I feel like I've seen lots of comments to that effect here (idk about twitter). Also, though, my view of oflights' particular situation is probably being colored by her fandom history, because she got accusations that she was killing TSN fandom when she transitioned to hockey and S/G. Idk the way people talk about oflights is just generally crazy. Still, I think it's not just an oflights thing but a more general feeling that fandom sometimes has when a popular author stops writing for a certain pairing/in a certain fandom.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

da

I feel like we have this conversation any time someone brings up Sid/Nate, but I will say it again: I think a lot of people just aren't interested in Nate, specifically. I have a million and one Sid pairings I like. Sid/Nate just isn't one of them. If you want reasons, there's the significant age difference plus the fact that I just don't find Mackinnon attractive plus no relationship dynamics that interest me. And other people speaking up have said the same in the past.

Oflights might be a little different than most just because she was one of the most prolific S/G authors for a long time, but in general when I've seen S/G authors write other pairings involving one or the other character, nobody's given them that much grief. Nobody got pissed (that I know of?) when thehoyden wrote Sid/Jack for an exchange last year, for example.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

That explains why people are indifferent to Sid/Nate, which frankly, doesn't need a lot of explanation, it's not a pairing that I would ever have expected to become popular anyways (whereas other ones, I wonder why they didn't take off). Also, I don't think any other popular S/G authors who've written other pairings have given indications that they won't write S/G anymore (or don't even care about the pairing and/or Geno, fans seem really worked up about not just the fic output but oflights' opinions/investments). It's always been obvious that S/G is still thehoyden's main pairing, and same with others I can think of.