fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3046 ]

[ SECRET POST #3046 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3046 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Beyonce Knowles]

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[Blake's 7]

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[Spec Ops: The Line]

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[Cell Block Tango]

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[Mortal Kombat]

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[Captain America/Kingsman: The Secret Service]

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[Blake's 7/"Orbit"]

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[Henry V]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 014 secrets from Secret Submission Post #435.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Why is there never any unrequited love in fanfiction?

It just seems like it doesn't exist.

I mean, at the very least, you would think incompatible orientations might occasionally be a problem

I guess I just want more unrequited love fics.

Because for the most part fanfic are fantasies people have and enjoy. And most people don't enjoy loving someone and not being loved back.

I'm curious, do you mean fics where the love stays unrequited? Or just unrequited love in general? Because in my experience there's a lot of the latter.

Fics where the love stays unrequited.

I don't know...the other anon above mentioned that fic is about fantasy and so people obviously want the couple to get together. But I just wish there was at least a little actual unrequited love fic...

AYRT: The only times I've ever seen that happen is in angsty oneshots. Sorry anon. :( The former is definitely uncommon in my experience. People like angsty unrequited love so long as there's a happy ending from what I've seen.

I think the above anon might be onto something in that often people go to fanfic for enjoyment and reading unrequited love might be a bit of a downer. Of course there's angst ahoy in fanfic, and all kinds of fucked up torture and abuse that people enjoy too, but maybe the unrequited stuff feels more personal because I think to some extent, most people can relate to it. So it might hit close to home?

And so often when people do write about their favorite characters getting hurt, there's still a happy ending, so... Maybe it's too depressing.

There are a few pairings I'm REALLY into this with, but it doesn't seem to be written.

What are the pairings?

The two that come to mind first are Kahlan/Cara from Legend of the Seeker (I love the canon pairing Kahlan/Richard too, but I can easily see Cara having romantic feelings for Kahlan and never speaking up about it), and Ragnar/Athelstan from Vikings. Ragnar IS basically in love (And lust) with Athelstan and while Athelstan definitely loves him back, I've never been entirely convinced that love could be sexual. Maybe romantic, but again, I can easily see that one as altogether unrequited.

There are others (off the top of head I'm partial to The Warden/Sten from Dragon Age: Origins... I always thought Sten was sweet on the Warden then Inquisition and “kadan" happened. I also wish there was more Kise/Kuroko with lovesick Kise ~~it's so realistic~~), but those are the main two.

I think it would be really interesting to have a slash fic in which one of the character just really, honestly, inescapably was not romantically in love with the other guy at all. No convenient coming around later on, no realization that he was just repressed or in denial.

I think it would just be really interesting to see that old slash trope (which I really love btw) -- one guy being so sure that his friend is straight and would never want to have sex with him, and then his feelings are revealed and he prepares to get his heart crushed...and actually his friend returns his feelings! -- subverted so that his fears were actually correct. It seems like such fascinating angst, I wish it was more common. The only ones I've seen are ones where the straight guy doesn't really like the non-straight one though, rather than the straight guy really really loving the non-straight guy, but just not romantically.

AYRT

"I think it would be really interesting to have a slash fic in which one of the character just really, honestly, inescapably was not romantically in love with the other guy at all."

Agreed so much!

I LOVE slash fic, don't get me wrong, but it seems like fandom has a tendency to make everyone bisexual. And there's nothing wrong with that but I do wish there were a few more fics addressing the fact that sometimes people just aren't compatible.

But the scenario you wrote out sounds FANTASTIC.

Thanks! I had been thinking of possibly writing it, if I ever find the motivation to do so.

If you do end up writing it, could you post a link here?

Sure! You could also PM me so I could give you a heads up if I write it, though I don't know if I'd write it in a very popular fandom...

Im at at work and on my phone, cant look it up right now, but there's an SG-1 fic a lot like thi on AO3.

Cool!

On re-read, it's not exactly what you described, but still kind of close.

Speechless by cyren2132: http://archiveofourown.org/works/970359

I've read a few unrequited love fics, actually. I'm only into it with certain ships, though.

Having written a 20k word (RPS) fic in which the love stayed unrequited, I'm inclined to say it's trickier to write and keep the audience engaged. I put a lot of effort into my story and received very little response even though it was written for a big bang. (I will admit the pairing I wrote about is so rare that there are only two people I know of who have even attempted fic, and that figure includes me.) While the idea of characters missing an opportunity to change is a legitimate way to approach the creation of a story arc, most readers aren't down with that. In writing, it can go horribly wrong if the author hasn't gained enough experience to know how to do things like balance the amount of details in descriptions. It's a tough situation.

It doesn't have to be characters "missing an opportunity to change" though. It can be them dealing with this issue and changing as a result of it to it in a realistic, honest, compelling, adult way -- just not in the expected way.

AYRT

It could be a resolution that the characters actively achieve, yes, but I admit I actually don't like that. I prefer to write unrequited love stories in which they don't communicate on the subject even at the prodding of friends. I see this situation happen far more often, so I prefer reading/writing it.

As others have suggested, it's probably because the audience for that particular scenario is pretty limited. If you clearly label a fic as unrequited without the happy ending, your readership won't be especially high (if that matters to you), and if you decide not to make it clear that the ship will not be together at the end of the fic, then that's asking for trouble. For better or worse, the majority expectation in shippy fic is that the ship winds up together. That's the fantasy, that's the thing a lot of shippers expect fandom to fix from the original canon.

Another aspect of the trope, at least in my experience with admittedly crappy fandoms, is that it tends to get trotted out as a form of character bashing. The hated character will spend a fic pining over their love interest only to watch them stroll into to sunset with the character the author actually likes. Another spin on that is that if you do write an unrequited fic with the best intentions, haters of that character will take it as some kind of manifesto to "prove" that the ship isn't meant to be together.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ SECRET POST #3046 ]

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