[ SECRET POST #6596 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6596 ⌋

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


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #943.
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.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I'm an inveterate first person POV hater in fic, but I'm fine with it in original works. It's Robin Hobb's "no homo" flailings that mean I won't read any more of her stuff.

[ariakas]

Hobb has "no homo" flailings? Pray tell me more. I thought for sure she would have been a dyed-in-the-wool yaoi fan given her two dudes are endgame and basically have a baby together (plus a bit of weirdness re: female characters that has always been a bit head-scratching to me, but less so from the yaoi fan angle).

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt but same.

[(Anonymous)]

Wasn't it basically sidestepped though? Like "I love the guy but not in the icky improper gay way" (pretty sure the word improper was used)? Sounds kinda lowkey homophobic to me.

[ariakas]

Eh, kind of? Fitz himself was pretty obviously always straight and written to be that way, and the Fool was also very clearly in love with him (and he clearly reciprocated albeit platonically). Their relationship has been like that since the start of the series and it ended with them literally soul-bonded in the afterlife forever with a daughter by magic. It was always the other characters around them who assumed they must be banging and Fitz got affronted by that at times in the story. But Fitz is a character, not the author, and Hobb has (actually) gay characters in other books with seemingly no problem with it whatsoever.

I could imagine people back when the first trilogy came out when gay rep was rare in fantasy getting very excited by Fitz/the Fool only to be utterly let down when it turned out to be platonic, though, for sure.

[(Anonymous)]

I remember hearing that she got real upset about Fitz/Fool fanfics and thought... you didn't intend that? Because I thought she intended that ship and just wanted to be discreet about it or something.

[(Anonymous)]

Is it "no homo" failings, or is it "she said that your ship isn't canon and you're interpreting that as homophobia to give your personal disappointment an air of moral superiority" flailings?

[(Anonymous)]

Probably the latter.

[(Anonymous)]

Ehhh, it's probably more complicated than that. This wank is pretty old, which is not to say that the whole "if you don't like m/n you're a homophobe!" didn't exist back then, but it certainly wasn't as common as it is now, when people tend to conflate shipping and activism more. Hobb (while less known for it than say, Diana Gabaldon) was staunchly anti-fanfiction and wrote some pretty scathing words about fanfic and fanfic writers. I think she may have since deleted it from her personal website, but:

https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Fan_Fiction_Rant

And rumor had it at the time was that she was VERY upset by the shippy fics and sexual fantasy angle of fanfic, and guess who the most popular pairing of that fandom was?

[ariakas]

Ooof. I hadn't read that before and (assuming her views on the subject haven't matured in the interim) I've lost a great deal of respect for Hobb.

[(Anonymous)]

AYRT No, it was the old school "smarm" stylings followed by her public distaste at people shipping Fitz/the Fool and an ending to keep them deliberately apart. I'm old enough that I didn't expect it to be canon (or even care about whether it is or not), but I can still be disappointed by the author going "ew" in public.