"no, no, no, never put a dwarf in a suit!"

[schmerica]

One side effect of my general apathy towards Ray/Ray as a pairing is that -- although I actually do quite enjoy some stories with them, if only because you guys write so awesomely and do justice to the characters -- my suspension of disbelief often fails me. I can accept the failure of RayK/Fraser; I can accept all the things you want me to accept for the boys from Call of the Wild, whose chemistry I don't see, getting all the way to this complicated relationship. But when you try to get me to that tiny extra little step, and tell me that Kowalski is more important to Vecchio than Fraser is, that the V/K relationship trumps the F-V friendship in Vecchio's head -- that, in point of fact, Ray is willing to give up Fraser in order to have Kowalski...

Yeah, I totally get lost there. Alas!

Probably the solution here is for me to stop trying to read Ray/Ray stories, since I obviously have mental stumbling blocks that have nothing to do with the quality of the story, but. You guys keep writing fic! And you're good! And it's my fandom! I don't know how to resist all those things!

(Actually, this is sort of similar to a problem I had in Smallville fandom, although in that case it wasy 50 times more extreme -- people wrote Chloe/Lex that not only wasn't really about Clark, but where Lex would choose Chloe over Clark. Giving up friendship when the friend disapproves of the relationship! Which, dude. Writing s1 or s2 Lex choosing anybody over Clark? Is characterization I am not likely to buy, no matter how much work you do.)

The last few days I have been watching lots of Farscape commentaries. Ben Browder + Claudia Black = adorable. Tonight was the two of them and two of the producers doing "Jeremiah Crichton". They subtitled the commentary When Bad Things Happen To Good Shows. Commentaries where they talk about how inexplicably crappy it ended up = for the win.

"It's not right, if you have 88 children, to say one is your most favorite and one is your least favorite--"
"--But this is the son of satan."
"This is the child in military school who has almost no future."
"But we do send a care package occasionally!"

Comments

[grey853.livejournal.com]

I'm so with you on the Ray/Ray. I just don't see it. People write well, and then I'll dabble and try it, but then there's this big ew in my brain. Then I have to either go read some good Fraser/RayK or write something to get rid of this queasy feeling it gives me.

It weird, too, because I don't usually react that strongly to a pairing I don't care for, well, except for M/K in XFiles. I mean, come on. Who sets up housekeeping with the guy who kills your father? Even with a fucked up Mulder, I just don't see it.

Anyway, usually, I just take it or leave it, big shrug, but Ray/Ray, nope, no thank you kindly.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

Not to argue against your stumbling blocks (I pet your stumbling blocks! with love!), but for me, when Vecchio took the huge step away from Fraser that he did in taking the undercover assignment, I never got the sense that he was expecting to be able to come back to that relationship/friendship in the same way. And I mean, right, there were external reasons for the show to depict it like that. But there's no way I can read back-from-Vegas Vecchio as not being a *very* different guy from the one we see walking out of the 27th in BDtH. There's a story I've always wanted to write (though your comments isn't really the place for it *g*) about his motivation for doing the undercover, his need to redefine himself, or find alternate definitions of himself, in a completely and wholly Fraser-free environment -- it's not just post-Vegas Vecchio, but also post-Fraser Vecchio. And in my own head, that guy would fit a lot better with Kowalski than he would back with Fraser again. (But like I say, not arguing with you here, and I'm hoping I'm making some dim sense, because I'm running on massive sleep-dep and OMG I so WISH you could be here at Vividcon and we could talk about all this and many other things....)

[hiddenw.livejournal.com]

Agree with you on not being able to see S1 and S2 Lex picking anyone over Clark. Although, I don't see Chloe/Lex, period.

And Ray/Ray doesn't appeal to me for the very simple fact that they don't have Fraser! Fraser, people! That's where it's at (esp. with Ray K.) ;)

[brooklinegirl.livejournal.com]

Kowalski is more important to Vecchio than Fraser is, that the V/K relationship trumps the F-V friendship in Vecchio's head -- that, in point of fact, Ray is willing to give up Fraser in order to have Kowalski...

I know we will never be on the same page about this, but the thing is, with ANY ray/ray I write, in the back of my head, it's not that Kowalski is MORE importatnt to Vecchio than Fraser, it's that they BOTH have lost Fraser and their relationship starts as a coping mechanism, and continues because it works. Fraser is the KEY to any ray/ray fic. Fraser is the thing that brings them together, however you look at it.