[ SECRET POST #2371 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2371 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 087 secrets from Secret Submission Post #339.
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

[diet_poison]

Having literally just finished this trilogy yesterday, I haven't really gotten that far into fandom yet.

I really like Garrus, but I wouldn't say he's one of my absolute favorite characters. He was one of my favorite characters to take on missions, just because I felt the trust he and Shepard had was deep and traced back to the very first game, and I liked that continuity a lot. I romanced him, but love Shepard's relationship with him either as a lover or a friend. And while I thought it was cute, I do think it felt forced, but that might just be because of how it's set up - it's hard to make any romance feel natural with virtually no buildup or backstory, imo.

Anyway, I can see how constant ~fan worship~ would get annoying. I hope I find parts of the fandom that are more balanced and don't focus in on one character at the expense of all the others.

ETA: I found the wording of your secret a little hard to understand at first, OP. Is it that you have a pairing that is Shepard x someone-who-isn't-Garrus, and people who say they are writing that pairing still try to make it Shakarian at first, then shoehorn in your preferred pairing later? Because yeah, that's REALLY stupid. As my friend who read the secret said - why would you even try to write a pairing if you can't stand not putting in an opposing pairing?

[(Anonymous)]

I took it more as pairing bait-and-switch, like OP is looking for FemShep/someone-not-Garrus, but then the fic suddenly nose-dived into Shakarian, which is ungodly rampant.

And woe betide anyone who dares write Garrus as just a bro. I used to write fic with a lot of Shep&Garrus as friends (usually with Shepard/Kaidan as the main romantic pairing) and I'd get review after review of "this story would be so much better if Shepard and Garrus were together" or "I really thought this story would end up with Shakarian and I'm kind of disappointed" and even the occasional follow-up PM with helpful tips on re-writing my fic to make it Shakarian. This, despite numerous, bolded mentions of the fic's actual pairing and an utter lack of romantic interaction between Garrus and Shepard.

Shakarian's probably the biggest FemShep pairing in fandom, and there are a lot of really nice shippers, but holy shit the entitlement and obsession of some. I don't write Mass Effect stuff anymore and I don't plan to return to the fandom, which sucks because it was one I really used to enjoy.

[elaminator]

Your fic sounds right up my alley. :( I'm sorry people were so rude and pushy about their pairing preferences. Once you made clear the fic was Shep/Kaidan they should've noticed and not read it at all if they weren't interested. There's more than enough Shep/Garrus fic out there, so it's not exactly like fans of the pairing should easily run out of things to read.

[diet_poison]

If you like Shenko, have you read Sinvraal's Shenko series? Shenko is not my pairing of choice (I didn't even really like Kaidan much in the games) but I really like her fic. I'm not done with it, but I've read most of it.

[elaminator]

No actually, most the ME fic I've read has been at the kink meme or AO3. Thank you for the rec! Will def check this out.

[diet_poison]

No problem! (I guess that doesn't surprise me. FFN has gone way down in popularity. I got this fic from a friend who loooooves Shakarian and prefers it over Shenko; she and I both love this author's writing and dialogue. A couple fics in the story focus on other characters - Joker for one and Wrex for another; the longest fics, which are the main storyline fics, focus on almost all of the crew members equally, but Shenko is definitely the central pairing and obvious endgame.)

[elaminator]

FFN has gone way down in popularity.

Yea, that seems to be the case. I do still go there on occasion if the fandom is new or small, but mostly I don't think to check there anymore.

Hmm, I've rarely read ME fic that focuses on crew members outside the pairing. Which is a shame tbh, because I love basically everyone. This sounds promising!

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I'll link you if you're interested (I'm only anon because too lazy to make an account). I've slowly sort of been easing back into writing ME fic. There's one series I'd really like to finish but after that I'm just not sure.

http://archiveofourown.org/series/26090 <<-- This is the Extraction series, which grew out of a kinkmeme fill and has like four or five more stories I'd like to add. It's all Shenko with a side of Talibrations and Garrus as space bros with Kaidan & Shep.

[elaminator]

I'm definitely interested! Didn't want to outright ask because I thought you might feel uncomfortable linking to your account, but thank you! I'll bookmark these for later. ♥

I hope you write more! Shenko could always use more fic, and again, Garrus is a wonderful space bro and that dynamic should be explored more often.

[diet_poison]

...Talibrations.

I hadn't heard that ship name before. That is PERFECT. XD

[elaminator]

I think you mistakenly replied to my comment, but I agree; it's damn funny. (And cute!)

[diet_poison]

Wow, that sounds really annoying. "I don't like the pairing you are writing; change it to suit me!"

[ex_mek82]

and even the occasional follow-up PM with helpful tips on re-writing my fic to make it Shakarian. This, despite numerous, bolded mentions of the fic's actual pairing and an utter lack of romantic interaction between Garrus and Shepard.

Oh man, this actually happened to a friend of mine a while ago. The person in question had basically rewritten a platonic, friendship scene between the two and turned it into Shakarian. I thought my friend handled it rather gracefully, but needless to say it created a very awkward and uncomfortable situation otherwise.

[(Anonymous)]

yeah the content is wording bc it's kind of a weird problem? i'm sorry about that.

like, there's a lot of really good fic for my pairing, which is shep x not garrus yeah, but like...

i've noticed that a lot of the fic in that pairing (almost all of the good fic, following a trend set by the biggest writer for them i think) makes like concessions to garrus/shep. it's like the fic has to acknowledge that this person isn't shepard's first choice, it's just that garrus doesn't like him like that. this person will never understand shepard like garrus does. garrus is the only one who ~gets shepard. there's a huge undertone of "shepard is settling" throughout most of the fics and it just really really irks me bc 1) that's not how the romance plays out in game at all and 2) just write garrus/shepard then if you think that. don't write a shepard/non garrus fic that just ends up emphasizing garrus/shep over the pairing you're saying the story is about !

[diet_poison]

Yeah, that really does sound stupid.

Shame too because Garrus is a good character imo, and Shakarian is a good pairing. But there's nothing wrong with variety, and eery single fic doesn't have to have undertones of this pairing just because it's popular. Also nobody is required to like that character/pairing to enjoy the fandom.

Yikes, I hope fandom as a whole isn't as much like this as people here seem to be saying it is :|