(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

[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.