Interesting question. I definitely don't think fic has to sell anybody on a particular ship. I tend to like first time fics a lot, but I couldn't even say that those are about selling the ship to me. It's usually, now I think about it, often more about the extra "wrongness" that sometimes comes into it in some of my pairings for their first time? I mean, that it adds this level of "Omg, what are we doing, we shouldn't but I want to!" I do like the moment where the canon relationship changes, but it's not all about OMG, FIRST TIME!!
But when it comes to established relationships I know I've heard people argue for H/D especially that you can't just have a fic where they're together and that's never made sense to me. Why can't you? I'm fine with fics that just plop me down for the first time with H/D in a specific relationship. I probably need the author to have some idea how they got together just because if they don't it might show in the writing, but there's a whole different treasure of stuff to be gotten in a fic about a relationship that doesn't necessarily depend on how they got together.
Thinking of Maya's DDG, for instance, that fic really does start out with Harry and Draco in an established relationship that's different from canon, and while it does go back and show the beats in that relationship the subject of the story is more about the relationship that's already established. It's...well, I guess I lump it in with "relationship" stories rather than first time because even thought it is a fic about how Harry and Draco get together it's far more about how they make their non-sexual relationship work than the two of them falling in love in a heated moment and having sex.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-03-04 06:04 pm (UTC)But when it comes to established relationships I know I've heard people argue for H/D especially that you can't just have a fic where they're together and that's never made sense to me. Why can't you? I'm fine with fics that just plop me down for the first time with H/D in a specific relationship. I probably need the author to have some idea how they got together just because if they don't it might show in the writing, but there's a whole different treasure of stuff to be gotten in a fic about a relationship that doesn't necessarily depend on how they got together.
Thinking of Maya's DDG, for instance, that fic really does start out with Harry and Draco in an established relationship that's different from canon, and while it does go back and show the beats in that relationship the subject of the story is more about the relationship that's already established. It's...well, I guess I lump it in with "relationship" stories rather than first time because even thought it is a fic about how Harry and Draco get together it's far more about how they make their non-sexual relationship work than the two of them falling in love in a heated moment and having sex.