Re-reading old fanfic (sentinel edition)
Apr. 12th, 2017 08:04 pmI got to re-reading some very old Sentinel fanfic - as in back when it was a very active fandom. My history with the fandom was very short, mostly because I came into it via Stargate SG1. SG1 fandom had annoyed me at this point and I thought the Sentinel fandom would bring enough change. Nope, not really - too many of the same faces XD
Well, re-reading a decade and a half to two decades later, there's always a risk. A risk of the story you recall as being quite good turns out to be less so.
It's partly that the stories that I re-read weren't exactly brilliant, but another reason is the fact that Sentinel wrote a huge chapter of the book on cliches and tropes. I think some of the things that hit me were:
I know it was a different era for fanfic, but still - I almost regret re-reading the fics, they were better in the shadows of my memories. It's not a complaint about one specific author, because I realized it was a trend in the type of fic that was written during this time and also probably something that the writers liked exploring.
Well, re-reading a decade and a half to two decades later, there's always a risk. A risk of the story you recall as being quite good turns out to be less so.
It's partly that the stories that I re-read weren't exactly brilliant, but another reason is the fact that Sentinel wrote a huge chapter of the book on cliches and tropes. I think some of the things that hit me were:
- Everyone's straight except for when it comes to THAT one guy (both Jim and Blair are portrayed as 130% straight and struggle to come to terms with being GAY for that one dude - seriously - it's like bisexuality didn't exist in the 90s...)
- The amount of purple prose is downright hilarious! (A ton of it is possibly down to it being from a time when ff.net was used a lot... it's definitely a different way of writing fic XD)
- Non-con/dub-con - seriously - it's not like I haven't read and written my share of biological fuck or die stories (especially in Star Trek with pon-farr or for that matter, SG1 - aliens made them do it/sex pollen etc) but seriously - having Jim go caveman (another sentinel trope) on Blair's ass (literally), screwing him and afterwards lamenting that he has hurt his partner to only have Blair accept it because it's a guide/sentinel thing... I've never been a huge fan om non-con, or for that matter dub-con and reading 5 out of 6 stories where this is actually the outcome... yeah, not my pot of tea
- LUBE, PEOPLE, LUBE. If it's the first time having anal sex, spit isn't going to be enough, and if you choose to go with it anyway, there'll be either tearing or at least VERY much discomfort afterwards.
I know it was a different era for fanfic, but still - I almost regret re-reading the fics, they were better in the shadows of my memories. It's not a complaint about one specific author, because I realized it was a trend in the type of fic that was written during this time and also probably something that the writers liked exploring.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}