(no subject)

[doyle]

There's been discussion on bookworm_jen's journal about canon and unconventional relationships. She proposed 4 rankings of relationships:

1) Canon: We saw an actual relationship on screen or there was a clear reference to a past relationship.

2) Near-Canon: We saw flirting or a one time fling on screen, or there was the implication of a past relationship. I would put relationships that are only refered to in commentary or interviews into this category.

3) Non-Canon: There was no relationship on screen, but there was a significant amount of sub-text or build-up and the writers could easily have worked it into the series without distorting the characters too badly.

4) Unconventional: There was no relationship, and it's highly unlikely that the writers could or would have worked it into the series without drastically changing who the characters are.

I'm interested in how subjective these are, or how much we agree on what counts as canon or almost-canon, so I present a poll. I randomly picked 15 m/f, m/m and f/f pairings, some of which happened on the show, some of which didn't. To play, pick which of the categories above you think each one falls into.


[Poll #480215]


[Poll #480216]


[Poll #480217]

Comments

[fannishnej.livejournal.com]

I made some phrasing changes to the definitions, which I hope make them clearer. I invite everyone to come read them in my original post. (http://www.livejournal.com/users/bookworm_jen/39608.html)

[nicole-anell.livejournal.com]

An explanation for my strangest vote - I'm the person who gave Buffy/Xander a full-on canon 1, even when Cordy/Doyle and Cordy/Wesley each got a 2 from me and they had kissies. *shrug* I don't know. I think I give B/X more weight because I see them as the 'first' romantic coupling of the series. Also, I never thought a relationship being one-sided made it less canon, although that's an interesting way of looking at it.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Interesting poll--thanks for doing it. And it's making me think I was watching an entirely different show from some other folks. Or at least that we have very different definitions of "canon."

I was a bit at a loss sometimes because of terminology. For instance, what exactly is a "relationship"? Angel and Cordelia, for instance, never got the chance to have a relationship, exactly, but their attraction to one another is clearly canon, so I marked it as canon. Other people's mileage seems to have varied.

Similarly, what to do about 'ships where there's an unrequited element? Fred is canonically attracted to Willow, but Willow turns her down. Xander has subtextual attraction to just about every male character, but in some cases (e.g. Giles) I couldn't see much reciprocation being likely. So is that a three or a four?

Still, the results are really fascinating. As some other folks have already said, though, I don't think that a 'ship being canon or strongly implied means that a fic writer needs to work any less hard to make it convincing on the page, nor that a 'ship with no canon or subtextual support can't be written extremely convincingly. In fanfic, it's all down to the writer.

[kindkit.livejournal.com]

Also, I'm not sure why a "fling" should be downgraded to a 2. Xander and Faith had sex onscreen. (Well, not exactly onscreen, but you know what I mean). So did Angel and Eve. The fact that these weren't "relationships" in the sense of loving and long-term doesn't mean they aren't canon.

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

Interesting Poll. This sort of brings back fond memories of reading Buffy and Angel reviews wherein the reveiwer says something like X/Y should get together dammit! But alas no. I think all the relationship arcs were planned in advance rather than on the fly, though I think the writers enjoyed throwing in a lot of subtext just for fun. Based on the results, I think I tend to me a little more rigid than most people. A lot of the more popular fanfic near canon/non-canon pairings/unconventional pairings listed seem awfully one sided to me. Like Buffy/Xander (that's a big one that gets overblown, I think); Xander certainly liked Buffy, but I never saw a single instance of Buffy being attracted to Xander. Willow was flirting with Fred in Orpheus, but I don't think Fred was flirting back. Andrew had a crush on Warren, but Warren was oblivious. Faith flirted with Buffy but Buffy didn't really flirt back in season 3. It seems like people like to read into the other character's actions because they want X to get the girl/guy. IMHO.

[spectralbovine.livejournal.com]

D'oh! I think I did it backwards. Sorry. Interesting results, though.