DPP: Fading into the Background

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Morning everyone! So a quick update, thanks for signing up for those DPP slots, there is just one left open between now and 2012 if anyone wants to do the honors!

Also, don't miss the four brand new ficlets from yesterday's touch meme!  Tomorrow, we explore....SMOOCHAGE!

But today, a question about a fandom practice that I've noticed... 



It seems to me that when I see big epic fics posted by other shippers, there are often secondary background romances in them...but seldom are they Kara/Lee. Why do you think this is? Are they just too attention-getting? Too complicated? Do they not work in the background? Is it a fandom fatigue thing--where the writer feels like they already have a lot of fic based around them and chooses to focus on other couples (and yes, I've seen that as a reason to not like Kara/Lee)? Are they just the kind of characters/ship that you either love or hate? (There's a lot of hate in the latter seasons once the Quad starts up.) Inquiring minds would like to know!

Prompt: Recommend some fics that feature Kara/Lee as a secondary ship, and if you write, perhaps try your stab at writting a ficlet that features them as background ship to the main action.

Comments

Re: Theories and whatnot.

[sugarhaven.livejournal.com]

'The infidelity sure doesn't make Kara and Lee look like the nicest people, but it shouldn't make Kara and Sam's relationship look more wholesome by comparison because Sam tolerates it."

Excellent comment. BSG is pretty much the only series that shows that screwing your own happiness and making bad romantic decisions actually have consequences for you and people around you. In movies or TV shows if a girl is with a guy but is in love with someone else, her current boyfriend either a) conveniently dies, b) turns up to be a complete jerk/cheater/psychotic killer or c) realizes that his girl is in love with someone else and steps aside and 'becomes the captain of their ship'. All and all, the message is that "true love trumps all" and there are no consequences for any bad life decisions as long as you keep "following your heart". We all know that this is not how it works in real life, and so many people are trapped in 'second-best' relationships either out of fear or because they made some mistakes in the past that they can't repair any more.

Lee and Kara are not acting honorably (they should have come clean to their spouses instead of starting an affair) and their own inability to sort out their relationship is hurting people around them but I cut them some slack because I know that those who suffer the most for all this in the end are Lee and Kara not Sam and Dee.

Back to your comment, same as you, I don't understand why Kara/Lee doing something morally wrong equals Kara/Sam and Lee/Dee being the better/happier couples, when we've been given example after example that L/D and K/S are pretty bad relationships.

Lots of people say that Kara/Lee are good as friends and terrible as lovers, because they tend to bring out the worst out of each other. I think the statement itself contradicts it, if they can bring out the best out of each other as friends, why should they be so horrible as a romantic couple. Anyway, I think people associate any romance between Kara/Lee with infidelity (table frak, EOJ kissing) or pilots being nasty/aggressive/mean towards each other (KLG, UB), while when they see them just as friends they usually treat each other quite nice. I'd say that 99.9% of the anger/fighting between Kara and Lee is due to the frustration of not being able to 'bang' each other. They spend considerable amount of energy fighting their love/attraction, which transforms in the aggression, but whenever they give in, all we see is relieve, happiness and calmness. If they were ever given chance to have a proper relationship (not an affair), they would prove to themselves and the viewers, that they're perfect for each other.

Re: Theories and whatnot.

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

Yes...If the show ever does go for the "True love trumps all" thing it's "True love trumps all, which is a serious pain in the ass because you're not going to get over that one person no matter how hard you try."

You know, I have tended to take for granted that yeah, the show doesn't exactly show Kara and Lee at their best when they're responding to their feelings for each other rather than just being friends, but you make a good point that it isn't really logical to say that two people bring out the worst in each other but only as lovers. Most of their problems came about from their attempts to deny and protect themselves from that attraction, which is definitely a different issue than the potential of them as a couple if they were to have gotten over that fear.

Re: Theories and whatnot.

[callmeonetrack.livejournal.com]

Not to mention their entire relationship arc for the show was that question: "When and how will they get over their fears and get their shit together?"

The fact that the answer was: they never did/could and now it's too late?

Really frakking depressing. And not a resolution.

Re: Theories and whatnot.

[sugarhaven.livejournal.com]

Amen to that.

Re: Theories and whatnot.

[winegums.livejournal.com]

All this plus what Tara says. I always thought the show and narrative made it fairly clear that Kara and Lee were the OTP, but that it refused to treat them like most shows would treat their OTPs.

And any problems that Lee and Kara faced in terms of obstacles to a relationship were usually about bad timing/their individual fears and inability to give themselves completely over to each other.
The closest they ever came to that was UB, and for the short slice of time when they (or at least Lee) had admitted their feelings and planned to do come clean to their partners, they were in fact perfect for each other.