Life, Books, Cats

I promise, next up will be an Exciting New Dog Post, or at least a College Post,  but I had to get this off of my chest.

.( Cut For OCD Stuff )Also, I never used to hate ships before I got into comics fandom, and I never loathed specific ones (instead of just "I hate all ships that aren't X/Z) until X-Men.  I'm not sure what that means.  Also, I've never hated a canon ship before X-Men that I can think of.  This fascinates and annoys me.

Microfic thing: In ten words or less, write a thing for each genre.  Went with Star Wars, of course.

Angst

He could never see her face- just the flashing blue blades.

AU

"I am your brother," he said, with a dark smile.

Crackfic

"Bring Your Child To Work Day," Vader read, and growled.

Crossover

Well, my ship's still shinier, thought Kirk, who remained annoyed.

Death

The twin suns on her hair- Luke alive- death could come.

Fluff

"Snookums? Babycakes, maybe?" said Anakin, and Padme fell over laughing.

Humor

Obi-Wan suddenly blanched.  They'd left Luke on the Death Star.

Hurt/Comfort

"Ben lied," said Lukeunit, and Artoo gently nudged his knee.

UST

"You... pirate!"  "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Today, we dive into the wonderful world of my Comic Boxes.  Pop, my mom's father, either found them in a house or got them at a flea market or something, I'm unsure.  Interesting things and Pop just seem to have a strange attraction to each other.  They contain a nice range, all the way from cracktacular 60s Superman to excellent Claremont X-Men to several helpful gun catalogues.  They also contain, however, a nice selection of old Star Wars comics, and that is what we shall focus on today.

These range in age- I've actually got the cover of #1, but sadly the content vanished long before I got my hands on the boxes.  The same can be said for another which I'm sure would have been glorious, featuring as it does gorillamask!Chewie and brunet!mullet!Luke.  Also no one can decide on Leia's hair color.

If I ever get my scanner working, I'll share more in depth, but I'll post breif summaries of three that were at the top of the stack.

#99 features on the cover a dramatic Han, screaming at a small attenaed alien that "If Lando dies, I'll destroy your planet!"  Sadly, the rest of the issue is much less interesting.  Han merely threatens to strafe the capital, and Lando is easily cured.  There are also mentions of subplot in which Leia hangs out with a blond dude eerily resembling a taller Luke, which makes Han jealous.  I have never understood any of the three million times the EU has tried to throw in this sort of romantic twist.  He's Han freaking Solo.  Leia's never going to leave him for some pretty boy any more than he's going to mind control her and take her down to a barbaric planet of force witches. 

#88 also follows the tradition comic tactic of Blatant Cover Lies.  This one reads "Darth Vader is Dead.  Long Live the New Dark Lord," and features a caped fembot shooting at Leia.  The interior story is a mildly intersting look at Leia engaging in Social Justice while on a diplomatic trip for the Alliance.  The fembot shoots at some oppressed people and proves decently dangerous, even promising revenge at the end of the issue, but really doesn't strike me as Vader level at all.  (Note: After futher thought, I suppose she could be whatsherface or one of the other EU villains in disguise, but a trademark of EU villains for me has always been how little I could bring myself to care).

#81, On the other hand, is a lovely little Han and Leia vignette.  Story-wise, fine, it's really not anywhere above the others.  I don't care.  I will read utter dreck for my Han/Leia fix, and this one is at least entertaining.  Bored and frustrated by Alliance life on Ender, Han strikes out for a Tatooine visit, and Leia comes along.  They discuss how messed up it is to come out of months in carbonite, Han discovers that he's essentially legally dead, and there is flirting.  Just as they start to get really romantic, however, Leia realizes something- Artoo is missing!  In fact, he, once again, has run afoul of Jawas- as has another character- a de Sarlaaced and unconcious Boba Fett!  This is only  Boba's first Sarlaac escape, however, as opposed to his permanent one later, and he falls back in, refusing Han's helping hand at the last.  This is probably my favorite of the ones I've read.

Scans to come someday!  Probably.  Maybe.

So, in between segments of art homework, I've been rewarding myself with bits and pieces of the old X Men cartoon, in my continued quest to make up for the fact that we did not have cable when I was a child (so far: most of Superman: TAS, some of Batman: TAS, and most of Evolution).

...I cannot shake the feeling that what I am actually watching is not, in fact, a tumultous, tragic battle of conflicting ideologies, but, rather, The Worst Breakup Ever.

...Like, I mean, I seriously CAN'T.

Name your 10 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms:

Okay. 

Han/Leia, Star Wars.  My OTP beyond all other OTPs, and the only thing I will admit to shipping around casual aquaintances.

Toph/Sokka, Avatar.  This starts the chain of Ships I Got Into Because of Other People.  In this case, I never considered the ship until I started lurking around Avatar message boards, and after that it grabbed me.  Toph is tough and cool and Sokka is oblivious, and it is just close enough to canon that I retain my dignity.

Batman/Catwoman, DC Comics.  Because the fanfic for it is beautiful beyond all reason.  Not so much the stuff in the comics, but I can live with that.

Elizabeth I/Robert Dudley, real life.  Looking back, I think this might be the first thing I ever shipped, because I was a seven year old who felt everything needed True Love.  And, now, because it's incredibly layered and interesting and tragic and a great reflection of just what life and love were like in the 1500s (namely, they sort of sucked.).

Booster Gold/(Ted Kord)Blue Beetle, DC Comics.  The only slash pairing on the list.  But, dang it, there's maybe three gen fics about them for every fifty slash, and they're absolutely adorable together in any format.

And now we get to the Pairings I Like But Aren't Binding, because there have to be ten...

Zuko/Mai, Avatar.  Theirloveissoscowly!

Firestar/Sandstorm, Warrior Cats.  I think this relationship singlehandedly kept Firestar's Gary Stu tendencies from swallowing the story whole.

Trixie/Jim, the Trixie Belden books.  Another early ship.  It's like Nancy Drew and Ned Nickerson, but with personality!

Bambi/Feline or however you spell it, Disney.  Because that movie dominated my childhood.

Anakin/Padme, Star Wars.  That or Anakin/Padme/Angst.  I'm flexible.

Anne/Gilbert, Anne of Green Gables.  I can reread the approximately three paragraphs where they don't hate each other over and over again.

A very long time ago, I joined a fandom.  It was called Avatar, and it was good.
I began to wite fanfic.  It contained Mary Sues, and it was not as good.
I did not share it.

Over a year ago now, I joined another fandom.  It was called Star Wars, and it, too, was good.
I began to read fanfiction.  Most of it was good. 

Some of it was great.  Really great.  Some of it was time travel- and lo, did come the plot bunnies.

And I began to write.  And it became a hundred pages long, and it took over my mind and my life, and I wondered whether or not to do it again.

And lo, did the plot bunnies stampede, until the ground was darkened as in Night of the Lepus.

And in both of these fandoms, I had a 'ship, and they were good, though I could not write them. 

And then...

Alright, pretentious prose aside, I've mentioned earlier that I am beginning to be drawn into DC Comics fandom.  Like most of my fandoms, this was not my idea.  It just sort of happened.

And, well...  And lo, did come the plot bunnies.

And the ships.  Good heavens, and lo, did come the ships.  It started with BatCat, which I could deal with only by completely ignoring everything besides fanfictions because you do not get attached to relationships in comics.  This was quite easy, as comics cost quite a bit anyway and the store is located across the Intersection of Doom.

Now, one thing I try to do to preserve my sanity is ship canon.  It started with Han/Leia, a very safe ship in which all the loose ends were cleared up ten years or so before my birth and which has the added benefit of very few people disliking it.  These people are clearly insane and are very easy to ignore.

Then came Tokka.  This is Toph/Sokka, for those not familiar with Avatar (Aunt Mary, stop reading this, or you will get spoilers and you do not want those, do you?) 

Is Aunt Mary gone?

Alright, then, Toph has a fairly blatant crush on Sokka, but Sokka is fairly clearly involved with, well, most other females in the show it seems like.  He finally ends up with one, and it is not Toph.  But I could easily convince myself that I just liked the canon crush, and so spare myself from useless heartache.

BatCat is kept strictly to fanfiction in order to save on money and sanity.

Now, the thing about these ships is they all either are canon, were canon, are partially canon, or are canon about 50% of the time depending on the writer.

But now I have stepped into dangerous waters.

I have become attached to a noncanon pairing.  I have become attached to a noncanon pairing that is slash and will never, ever, happen. 

Why do I keep doing this to myself?