#26 — Vanek! with a Jurco

[dekedangle_rpf_mod]

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 miss long, quality Sid/Geno fic. I know there's 1403 works in the tag, but *shrugs* I want more. The authors I love best have seemingly moved on and no new, good, prolific authors are moving in to take their places. If I were half good at writing, I would contribute, but I'm not. That would just be painful for everyone. Sid/Geno is my only interest in fandom, so I’m disconsolate and it’s been eating at me. //venting

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I wish there was more long quality fic like the old Sid/Geno authors used to churn out for my OTP. Although to be honest, I would like more variety if there were. I feel like I've experienced Sid & Geno's first few seasons together approximately 1000 times by now.

I know some people like to complain about OOC, cliches, and whatnot in S/G, but fuck it, I'll read all of that for decently written prose that isn't littered with epithets, terrible SPAG, and sentences with random words left out or inserted that make no fucking sense. (I just wish I could read it in pairings that I love not just tolerate. :/)

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Out of curiosity, I went to see what the most recent S/G fic to break 1000 kudos was. Only one has been posted in 2016 and it was Thehoyden's Fixer Upper AU, ~4k words.

I searched for greater than 900 kudos to see what else was close to breaking 1000 and the next one was, ironically enough, oflights's final S/G fic, posted almost a year ago at the end of September 2015. That one was at least longer at 46k words, but damn. Considering how many S/G fics have 1000+ kudos in Hockey RPF, that's a crazy decline in popularity IMO.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Ahaha, this makes me so sad :( Times are changing, I guess.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There's only been two hockey fics total in 2016 to break 1k kudos, though. The other is one of Linsky's K/T fics. So that says as much about hockey in general than S/G specifically, I would think.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There's just more and more rare pairs

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

This is what a lot of people wanted, the fall of the juggernauts. The problem is that with everyone spread out, there's less community and fewer people to cheerlead/support your rare pair efforts because they probably like another rare pair more than your rare pair. People don't want to write 60k+ words knowing 5 people are going to read it.

Big fandoms can sustain juggernauts and rare pairs. Smaller fandoms die when they get spread thin like this.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

1) I think most anti-juggernaut people wanted the fall of the current juggernauts, which is different than saying they don't want any popular pairings to exist whatsoever.

2) If people are really drifting from juggernauts en mass, there's probably a reason. The best writers aren't there anymore, or the fandom's gotten stale and wanky, or one half of the pairing has been accused of a sex crime, or the people being shipped are getting older and settling down, or the fandom is in a transition period between old and new guards. You can't force people to sustain consistent, high-quality output for a particular pairing for some nebulous good of fandom, and you definitely can't make them if that fandom wasn't ever the one they wanted or one they've since outgrown.

3) I think it's generally a positive thing that there are more players and more dynamics being written, and if the fandom's also shrinking, that's likely not the direct result of more people reading and/or writing rarepairs, especially since the most popular teams are still the most popular. I also think the claim that shippers of one rarepair won't cheerlead/support other rarepair shippers is somewhat dubious.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Re your third point, I see a lot more Pens rarepairs fic now, even if there's less Sid/Geno. I tend to think if you're a fan of a team, you'll read a lot of stuff for that team, or cheerlead efforts for fic for that team.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

NA I'm not sure people wanted the fall of the juggernauts, or just more variety.

I'm also not sure that the existence of big pairings necessarily lead to a sense of community across hockey fandom as a whole. The popularity of K/T or S/G is pretty irrelevant to people who wrote for different teams in the first place. And people write for the pairings they love, even though it might be only five other people into the pairing.

Within say the Pens fans it may be harder now to find someone who shares the same pairing, but it really doesn't change anything for people who never wrote Pens anyway.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I feel like despite there being less fic now, there's actually more variety in what fic does get posted, and stuff like hockey robot Sid and Tarzan Geno-speak is way down. And I appreciate that some writers are writing them more recently, because yeah, it's hard to come up with a new twist on Geno's rookie season.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I think there's a shift to smaller amounts of fic per pairing per month, but more pairings. Which is cool, I'll at least try most stuff, especially now that there's a wider variety of teams and characterizations being written.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

This is very true, there is some good stuff that's been written. I just wish it hadn't been (isn't still?) such a drastic, sudden decline. Maybe it's just fandom finding equilibrium and Sid/Geno will pick up again eventually, or maybe people are finding it hard to write a pairing with a guy who's married with a baby :\ But I agree, I appreciate the more recent setting of Sid/Geno fics! The other stuff, while I love it, has been done to death.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

This so much. I don't mind people moving on from Sid/Geno, but I wish they were still in hockey fandom writing those same dynamics, regardless of pairing.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT

Just checking, but you mean that Sid/Geno isn't your OTP here, right? Because yeah, that's fair. I wish everyone could have all the fic for their OTP, containing all their preferred tropes, that their heart desires.

Before I started coming on here, I never really noticed that Sid/Geno fic was particularly OOC or cliche, or any of the myriad other complaints people seem to have. That's not to say none of those complaints are valid, but they never bothered me because I guess I was too thrilled about 40k+ fic devoted to my OTP!

I still really don't understand a lot of OOC arguments actually. As long as the author makes their case for a characterization within the context of the fic, it works for me.

I hope someone writes some really great, epic fic for your OTP, nonnie.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT
Yes, my OTP is not Sid/Geno. I realized that was a awkwardly worded sentence later but decided to just let it be. There actually have been a couple of long fics for my OTP so I know I'm luckier than some rare pair fans, but the writer of them seems to have drifted either away from the pairing or out of the fandom all together. However, other people are stepping in so there's still hope. :D

The main OOC complaint I have with Sid/Geno fic is Sid the hockeybot who doesn't understand humans/emotions/sexuality, but that seems to be less popular these days, thank goodness. It just never made sense to me because he wasn't raised on a frozen pond by wolves, you know? He has been around other human beings his entire life and he's not that awkward.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

da

It just never made sense to me because he wasn't raised on a frozen pond by wolves, you know?

Except you know what? I would read that so hard.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT
I totally would too. Or raised by bears. Moose. Whatever.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Hockeybot trend was in its prime literally years ago

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, this is a blast from like three years ago. Not that it doesn't turn up occasionally, but fic today plays a lot more on his captain status and other things.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

If only that would stop us from squabbling about it for the nine millionth time

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

There is literally nothing to squabble about, so I don't know what you're even trying to start.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT
Yes, I know. Anon I was talking to mentioned not really getting the OOC etc complaints and so I talked about the only one that I had (back when I read the pairing). I meant to use past tense but mistakenly used present tense. I'm not trying to start or rehash any old wank.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I'm with you, nonnie. I wish there were more. I appreciate all this rarepair fic that's cropping up, but I want my favorites, too.

Re: Fandom Venting

[(Anonymous)]

I wish it didn't feel like one was coming at the cost of the other, you know? And I'm not sure if that's just me feeling bummed, or if there's truth to it, but. Yeah. Why can't we have both??