(no subject)

seekergeek wrote a post about why she doesn't like Sheppard/Mitchell stories. Which I should have known better than to go read, because they're my pairing and I knew it would bother me, but sadly, I'm too curious for my own good so I went and read it, and some of the comments.

Good news? She's not bashing the pairing.

Bad news: She just thinks all of us who write it do a shit job of writing John.

"The thing that all the stories (at least the ones I've tried, at any rate) have had in common is that John always seems to be utterly helpless and without any agency to act on his own behalf. Is it some weird perception on my part, or do any of you see Cam sucking all the life out of John in stories with this pairing too?"

And, I mean, I disagree wildly, obviously. But I'm kind of hurt as well. Because if she's read Cam/John fic, she's probably read some of mine, and she's probably read some of the stuff I love, by people I like and whose fic I like, and it's not really presented as her opinion, it's really more presented as fact (yes, ok, "is is some weird perception on my part" but the implied answer is "no")

Well, except for fic by busaikko, who, don't get me wrong, is an awesome author who does a great job of writing this pairing and many others, but she's also fairly new to it, so again implication that all of the older John/Cam writers suck at it.

It remind me of the first round of the flyboys ficathon, when all the established Mcshep writers came and played in the John/Cam pool and were raved about. Would have thought the established John/Cam people didn't exist though.

Maybe it's just that I'm bitter because I feel like I'm being implicitly criticised and I don't like it (she doesn't have to like the pairing, but that doesn't mean none of the people writing it can write. I don't like Ronon/Rodney, but I'm sure some of the people writing it do a great job). Maybe I'm just annoyed because there's the usual "what about Rodney?" - um, he's not necessarily John's most important relationship, actually. The people John talks to are Teyla and Ronon, he plays with Rodney, and I'm not saying Rodney's not important to him, but no-one's arguing that you can't write about John without including Ronon and Teyla.

And yes, my own stupid fault for reading something I probably could have told you would bother me, so in a way I've no right to complain, but I wasn't actually expecting to be told we all suck as writers in a post about why she doesn't like the pairing.

ETA: Wow, okay, her comment while closing comments is, "Listen up, stans: my criticizing fic that you love does not constitute a personal attack on you" - um, no, but actually saying that we all write John badly in fic that you don't like does constitute a personal attack, and since she doesn't name names, it's implicitly on everyone who writes the pairing. Which I would guess is what people are bothered by.