(Note: Feel free to go find "She Blinded Me With Science" on YuuTube or whatever and listen to it while reading. I don't think it'll add any flavor or anything to it, but you never know.)
Nobody knows for sure what makes any particular fan fall in love with a particular pairing, be it canon or otherwise. Maybe a glance passes between two favorite characters, and a surge of emotion swells in the chest of the fan in question. Maybe one stumbles across a pairing on a fanart hunt, and cannot help but think, "You know, there's something about that which just feels right." Or maybe one comes across a fanfiction or comic that just handles the pairing, and the characters, so well that it fixates in the mind.
I could tell all about how I fell in love with Kaiba/Serenity first because of fanart, then because of watching the characters myself. I could also tell how it happened that I fell in love with any of my Téa pairings, with Joey/Kaiba, with Joey/Mai, with Ishizu and Pegasus. I can tell the exact story of how I arrived at every single conclusive pairing in YnY, too. But each of them would take at least as long as a character study to explain properly.
This essay is about how I think about pairings in general, what I think makes them appealing, and how two characters can bubble together in a way that makes a story worthwhile. Please be aware that much of this is based solely on my own opinions and my own observations of real relationships-- most especially on what I observed of my own parents, my father and his first wife, my aunts and uncles, my siblings and their respective exes and current mates (I don't feel that examining my own romantic relationships would be very helpful, as I can't exactly be less than passionate about them. XD There will be a few observations as handed to me by other people, however.)
Obviously, the differences between two people in a pairing tend to give it a lot of its conflict, and therefore, its fire. But similarities can do the same, and in any event a couple with the wrong mix of similarity and difference, or characters too similar or too different, cannot work if you want the characters involved to feel real or be interesting as a couple. Too, tailor-making a character to fit with another usually backfires without the right kind of interplay. (Making a character, for example, who has an uncanny understanding of Kaiba's tics and issues, is exactly what he wants in a woman (or man!), is infinitely patient with him all the time, is great with Mokuba, etcetera, would probably find that Kaiba was about ready to launch her from a cannon off the roof of KaibaCorp in a fiction that handled him realistically. Kaiba can't stand perfection in other people-- and really, who can?)
I tend to find that the most important differences and similarities lie in temperament-- likes and dislikes, while important, mean nothing with incompatible temperaments. These characters might be friends, but that doesn't mean they could stand each other for more than a few hours. Yet the cocktail will be different between any two people: I like both Seto/Wheeler pairings but for totally different reasons. Serenity is calm and patient yet quietly strong, Seto is abrasively stubborn and dramatic, yet often gives in to patience with time and is terribly vulnerable under a veneer of arrogance. Joey and Kaiba are like two sides of one coin, yet Joey is an extrovert and good with people, while Kaiba is not. These are both mixtures that appeal to me, and it's also the real reason why I think both pairings are so popular, although plenty of fans on both sides don't seem to have any idea what really drew them to the couple interplay.
Some differences or similarities in temperament are more forgivable than others. Two fiery personalities with short tempers are going to have a harder time meshing than two calm ones. (Although as many foe-shippers will tell you, sometimes that's half the fun!) I have a lot of such pairings that I like quite well, but not as long term relationships. Other differences and similarities don't really matter much at all; I see a lot of Kaiba/Rebecca on the basis that they're both "geniuses" and therefore would have an easier time keeping up with one another, but I tend to see being able to understand the other person's work as more of a bonus than as a necessity. (Kaiba and Rebecca are practically a male and female version of each other and are both temperamental, stubborn, and oversensitive. While I understand how this draws other people to the pairing, it reminds me way too much of the relationship I have with my father. No thanks.)
Often, a pairing will work less when you toss the characters together as they are, and more if you let one or both of them grow up a little. With Kaiba and Serenity, for example, both of them need to work on their social skills, while Tristan would be much more successful at any romantic relationship if he could just garner a little more confidence.
In some cases, we can see that certain characters clearly have "types," based on the characters they go after within the canon. Rebecca's "type," at least at the moment, is a calm, kind, gentle sort of person (obviously there'd have to be a lot of patience there, too.) Joey seems to go for the tall, well-built and forceful type (although he values their vulnerable sides. XD) Téa likes them stoic and enigmatic. Tristan prefers quiet, shy, "princess" types (and he's easier to pin down, because he's had more girls he's crushed on.) This can certainly tell a writer what kind of characters a character will chase after, but it says nothing about who a character will actually end up with-- sometimes a person picks a "type" that turns out to lead them into destructive relationships no matter how often they try. (Tristan, in my opinion, definitely needs to go against type: he comes on too strong and tends to scare the shy ones off.)
When I consider a pairing, I not only take into account whatever interaction the characters might have had (including any assessments they may have made of each other) nor do I merely consider temperaments (although that's a large part of it), but I also think about the relationships they have outside of the pairing. All Seto Kaiba pairings absolutely MUST consider Mokuba's feelings in the equation: since Mokuba trusts Yugi, the closer someone is to Yugi the more likely Mokuba is to approve. The more stable and level-headed the potential mate is, the more likely Mokuba is to approve. The older the brothers are at the time of story (like, if Mokuba is in his twenties) the less likely Seto is to care about Mokuba's opinion, and he's also less likely to care about Mokuba's opinion pre-Mind Crush. The way she/he treats Mokuba when Seto's not around is a huge factor, and so is the way Mokuba treats him or her when Seto IS around. I can easily see Seto sneaking around with a relationship just because he's strongly suspicious that his little brother wouldn't like it. Similarly, I can see Mokuba trying to set Seto up with people.
No matter who you pair Serenity with, Joey's going to be mad (unless it's Yugi. Or possibly a woman. Who isn't Vivian.) So the real question there is, how are Tristan and Duke going to respond, and does Serenity care about their opinion OR Joey's? Joey doesn't particularly care how his friends respond to his love interests, as long as they're not unkind to said interests, but it should still be taken into account that, for whatever reason, Tristan disapproves of most of them. XD (He probably cares more about what Serenity thinks, but less than Seto cares about Mokuba's thoughts-- partly because she's not dependent on him to support her.) Ishizu's brothers should be considered at the same time one considers any pairing involving her, not because their disapproval would keep her away from anyone but because it adds significantly to the story. Any pairing with Pegasus has to consider (unless it's Cecilia herself) how he might reconcile his widower status with his new relationship, and whether he'd be able (I dislike Mai/Pegasus as a pairing for the sole reason that the person who suggested it to me said "because she looks like his wife" and it really, REALLY put me off.) Mai pairings have to consider the fact that she's a sought-after woman-- who really knows for sure how many other Jean Claude Magnums there are in her past? (Certainly Valon can't be ignored, either, if you're going by anime continuity, and Joey can't ever be ignored here, even if you only consider him her close friend.) Téa is more likely to ask her friends directly what they think of a boyfriend or girlfriend, but not what they think of a crush.
Sometimes, after considering the out-of-pairing interplay, the potential conflict I see causes me to drop a pairing. I don't pair Téa with Joey more because Joey would be determined not to hurt Yugi than because they wouldn't make a good couple (and I don't like that kind of "we can't hurt him! SNOG" story. Personal taste.) Other times, the potential reaction sucks me in, and I just can't keep myself from rubbing my hands together and grinning from thinking about it. I love the idea of Ishizu marching her brothers into a family meeting and declaring, like a general heading into battle, "I am in love with Maximillion Pegasus!" I also love the mental picture of their faces after she's declared. XD (Sigh. Now I have to do a picture.)
Finally, how the two characters actually do treat each other, or how they might treat each other. This is wrapped up heavily in temperament-- Joey's going to be at least a little rough and playful with pretty much anyone. Yugi will be sweet and supportive even if he doesn't want the relationship. Most people who try to have a relationship with Kaiba are going to find themselves taking on a mildly parental role, and because of this, their probable parenting styles should also be considered. (I'm not saying Kaiba's an overgrown child. He just tends to need somebody who can handle his vulnerable side in a way that won't backfire and piss him off.) This is pretty important towards whether a relationship will work, yet at the same time, the way two characters treat one another will and should change within a story, especially one focused on a pairing.
Anyway, that's the bulk of it. Hope this got the gears working for at least a few of you (and if you can't figure out why someone likes a pairing? Ask me, I can probably come up with at least one reason.)
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Little Voices: Pages 20-27
As I noted in the last commentary, I wanted to talk about pages 20, 21 and 22 as a unit, so that's what I'm doing.
Bakura has always been a fascinating character to me, and I tend to feel that he gets a bit abused in current fandom (mostly, apparently, thanks to the Abridged Series, but the character abuse has always been there.) Throughout the series, the man was living a horror story, but it's kind of a different one from the abuse-slash that ran rampant in the fiction lines for a while there (I'm sure it still does, but I stopped reading it a while ago.) So I try to handle him with a bit more respect than that. What I wanted, with this scene, was to really strike the readers with the pain and horror of his story, and contrast it with the quiet dignity and anger he has while he's telling it.
I also wanted to point out that he's not really the weak sissy-boy that people think of him as being. XD I don't think any of us would have fared much better in his position.
Yes, he did sort of cut off a friendship speech on page 22, although I don't think it was a friendship speech that was going to run on for more than a sentence. One of the other things I happen to like about Bakura is that something about his voice lets me wax more poetic than I usually get to in comics; Joey gets surprisingly poetic sometimes too, but most of the time, for most characters, poetic descriptions and musings sound odd in regular dialogue. Maybe that's also why I enjoy writing Japanese people in general.
Bakura's also quite a bit worried here that there's some specific reason that the Ring kept teleporting back to him, and that it's a reason he doesn't want to know about. I'll sort of spoil it by saying that he discovers most of the truth by the end of Little Voices.
Also, the black bird from page 21 is gone in 22.
Page 23 starts one of my favorite scenes in Little Voices. The girl in the first panel replaced a different character in the precomic: Green, from my original webcomic The Law of Purple. I replaced him because it didn't make any sense for an alien to be dueling Yugi in Game of Dreams, and enough of the people who read YnY also read LOP. XD (Unfortunately, that's also why I couldn't use anyone that got sent in: Green's voice is too uniquely his own, and wouldn't have worked for anyone in the handful of characters I have in the pool.) I kind of wish now that I had drawn Green's Frog Shirt on her, though.
I have a short skit in my head of what happened right before Joey ran up to Yugi, for the interested:
He was tucked beside a vending machine, btw, that somehow never got drawn. I'll probably do gimme art of it later. Also, I love how Serenity gets almost comfortable with teasing him, then switches into Mom Mode on page 24. The Kuriboh Bag was inspired by Aaliyan, who also, by the by, has done some gift art for me featuring Yukai and her character Kipacha. :3
I've had the idea of Kaiba coming down with the flu for years. It was in all the very earliest versions of Game of Dreams, including the version that wasn't actually part of YnY as a story. (In a couple of them, Serenity had to deal with him all by her poor little self. Weep for her.) I like how it brings him down without involving a crapload of drama, which to be frank a lot of fanfiction could do with less of. (I prefer craploads of drama to be used in cautious amounts.)
And since this scene deals with Serenity seeing a little more past the Kaiba Ultimate to the vulnerable Seto, I had to let Seto see a little bit of Tough Girl Serenity on page 25. She's still embarrassed as hell, and not as sure of herself as she was in Magic Light when she was hitting her father upside the head with a turkey, but she absolutely refuses to fail at what she's been charged with doing, and Kaiba can respect that.
Also, page 26 totally proves Serenity right and Kaiba wrong, when he passes out just like she said he would. Take that, boy. XD I think Joey's Duel Disk looks more like a spaceship glued to his arm in the first panel, but somehow that amuses me more than it annoys me.
Yugi's laughing mainly because, when I was first writing all this, I had to express how hard I was laughing somehow. There aren't words for how pleased I am with that expression. Serenity's little girl act gets me going pretty badly too. X3
Poor Joey. His legs are still hurting him, and now he has to carry Kaiba around. (You must really care, Joey, if you're still willing to put up with this.)
I did several inked versions of panel three as practice, because I was worried Kaiba passing out wouldn't look quite right. I think it paid off. Second panel's "What's going on with you" feels kind of clunky, but it's for a good reason: Joey knows Kaiba well enough to know "What's going on" and "What's wrong with you" would both be taken in completely the wrong way, so he phrases it in a very deliberate way, so that Kaiba understands him.
There were two extra pages that would have gone next, but they were, despite amusing, slightly tedious and messy with the flow. (I might post sketchy versions of them later.) The first one mainly featured things like Mokuba declaring that he was going to do a paparazzi check, Yugi taking both Joey and Kaiba's Duel Disks (because Kaiba by himself is heavy enough) while Joey shifted him into a better position, Serenity arranging some benches for them to lay Kaiba down on (so he wouldn't be on the floor, you know), and Kaiba muttering utter nonsense through his fever. (At one point snuggling into Joey and smiling in his sleep, which weirded Joey out more than just a bit. XD) The second page mostly covered them putting Kaiba on the bench (Yugi is helping Joey with all the more awkward parts of moving Kaiba around, btw, like making sure his head doesn't flop back violently).
And of course he wakes up on page 27, because Serenity got something cold for his head. This scene is, as a matter of fact, the exact and only reason I designed that bulky, poofy leather jacket for Yugi to wear in this storyline: It was designed to look good, yes, but it was designed first and foremost to double as a decent pillow for this scene. Their Duel Disks are all underneath the bench, and Yugi, Serenity and Joey are all sitting on the floor because they're hoping to shield him from view a little more. (I doubt it's really working.)
I like the one-liner scolding from Mokuba while Serenity's making a relieved face in the background. I also like that, while Joey's scolding Kaiba and Kaiba's snarking back at him, Kaiba is also noticing where Joey's coat is and is practically hugging the thing when he tells Joey not to touch him. (I'm not entirely sure he's aware that he's doing it.) It's another one of those nice things about comics; doing one thing with the dialogue and another with the imagery, and also just doing two things at once. (Kaiba started shivering violently when Joey put him down; that's why Joey gave him the jacket.)
I'm also very amused at Joey calling Kaiba an idiot. When Kaiba does things like running off without seeking help or refusing to accept help, Joey's reaction to me always says "Kaiba, you are an idiot!" And while Joey has plenty of his own idiotic moments, it's pretty well a fact that Kaiba can be a real idiot himself. I just sort of like watching them call each other idiots. I had a lot of male friends in high school who interacted exactly like this.
Kaiba's facial expressions turned out a lot more little-kid vulnerable than I had originally planned here, but it's something that I'm happy with. Joey's all "Don't you DARE get up" and he looks totally docile in response, whereas in the sketch he looked more like a wet cat. I basically decided, factoring the exhaustion and the sickness with the fact that he totally had no idea where he was for a moment there, that he probably doesn't have enough energy to look like a wet cat quite yet. XD
Kaiba just has one of those character designs that looks quite childlike and youthful as soon as he stops yelling and looking fierce. So drawing that vulnerability out of him is really pretty easy, even to do by accident. :P
There's a little hint of the direction I'm going with Mokuba in this page, too, which is basically that he's going to be as awesome as an adult as he is as a little kid. 83 I've always felt there's a strong undercurrent in Mokuba and Seto's relationship in which Mokuba is taking care of Seto as much as Seto is taking care of Mokuba, and I certainly know I'm not alone in that opinion. And since this (Mokuba as caretaker) began sometime in the series and got stronger as time went by, I like to take the opportunity to play with it here. (Of course, Seto doesn't always realize he's being taken care of, but that's his problem.)
Oh, let's see, what's coming next... Next few pages, this problem gets resolved, and then we discover where Duke and Tristan have been this entire time. Then I believe it's back to Bakura, which is as it should be. XD
Bakura has always been a fascinating character to me, and I tend to feel that he gets a bit abused in current fandom (mostly, apparently, thanks to the Abridged Series, but the character abuse has always been there.) Throughout the series, the man was living a horror story, but it's kind of a different one from the abuse-slash that ran rampant in the fiction lines for a while there (I'm sure it still does, but I stopped reading it a while ago.) So I try to handle him with a bit more respect than that. What I wanted, with this scene, was to really strike the readers with the pain and horror of his story, and contrast it with the quiet dignity and anger he has while he's telling it.
I also wanted to point out that he's not really the weak sissy-boy that people think of him as being. XD I don't think any of us would have fared much better in his position.
Yes, he did sort of cut off a friendship speech on page 22, although I don't think it was a friendship speech that was going to run on for more than a sentence. One of the other things I happen to like about Bakura is that something about his voice lets me wax more poetic than I usually get to in comics; Joey gets surprisingly poetic sometimes too, but most of the time, for most characters, poetic descriptions and musings sound odd in regular dialogue. Maybe that's also why I enjoy writing Japanese people in general.
Bakura's also quite a bit worried here that there's some specific reason that the Ring kept teleporting back to him, and that it's a reason he doesn't want to know about. I'll sort of spoil it by saying that he discovers most of the truth by the end of Little Voices.
Also, the black bird from page 21 is gone in 22.
Page 23 starts one of my favorite scenes in Little Voices. The girl in the first panel replaced a different character in the precomic: Green, from my original webcomic The Law of Purple. I replaced him because it didn't make any sense for an alien to be dueling Yugi in Game of Dreams, and enough of the people who read YnY also read LOP. XD (Unfortunately, that's also why I couldn't use anyone that got sent in: Green's voice is too uniquely his own, and wouldn't have worked for anyone in the handful of characters I have in the pool.) I kind of wish now that I had drawn Green's Frog Shirt on her, though.
I have a short skit in my head of what happened right before Joey ran up to Yugi, for the interested:
Joey and Serenity see Kaiba sleeping on a bench in an out of the way corner.
Joey: What the hell?
They lean over him.
Serenity: (slightly pink, because Kaiba is a cute sleeper) Maybe we should wake him up.
Joey: Nah, let him sleep. We need to find Mokuba.
Serenity: We can't leave him here by himself!
Joey: So, you stay with him and watch him!
Serenity: (blushing madly) JO-EEY!
But Joey is already gone.
He was tucked beside a vending machine, btw, that somehow never got drawn. I'll probably do gimme art of it later. Also, I love how Serenity gets almost comfortable with teasing him, then switches into Mom Mode on page 24. The Kuriboh Bag was inspired by Aaliyan, who also, by the by, has done some gift art for me featuring Yukai and her character Kipacha. :3
I've had the idea of Kaiba coming down with the flu for years. It was in all the very earliest versions of Game of Dreams, including the version that wasn't actually part of YnY as a story. (In a couple of them, Serenity had to deal with him all by her poor little self. Weep for her.) I like how it brings him down without involving a crapload of drama, which to be frank a lot of fanfiction could do with less of. (I prefer craploads of drama to be used in cautious amounts.)
And since this scene deals with Serenity seeing a little more past the Kaiba Ultimate to the vulnerable Seto, I had to let Seto see a little bit of Tough Girl Serenity on page 25. She's still embarrassed as hell, and not as sure of herself as she was in Magic Light when she was hitting her father upside the head with a turkey, but she absolutely refuses to fail at what she's been charged with doing, and Kaiba can respect that.
Also, page 26 totally proves Serenity right and Kaiba wrong, when he passes out just like she said he would. Take that, boy. XD I think Joey's Duel Disk looks more like a spaceship glued to his arm in the first panel, but somehow that amuses me more than it annoys me.
Yugi's laughing mainly because, when I was first writing all this, I had to express how hard I was laughing somehow. There aren't words for how pleased I am with that expression. Serenity's little girl act gets me going pretty badly too. X3
Poor Joey. His legs are still hurting him, and now he has to carry Kaiba around. (You must really care, Joey, if you're still willing to put up with this.)
I did several inked versions of panel three as practice, because I was worried Kaiba passing out wouldn't look quite right. I think it paid off. Second panel's "What's going on with you" feels kind of clunky, but it's for a good reason: Joey knows Kaiba well enough to know "What's going on" and "What's wrong with you" would both be taken in completely the wrong way, so he phrases it in a very deliberate way, so that Kaiba understands him.
There were two extra pages that would have gone next, but they were, despite amusing, slightly tedious and messy with the flow. (I might post sketchy versions of them later.) The first one mainly featured things like Mokuba declaring that he was going to do a paparazzi check, Yugi taking both Joey and Kaiba's Duel Disks (because Kaiba by himself is heavy enough) while Joey shifted him into a better position, Serenity arranging some benches for them to lay Kaiba down on (so he wouldn't be on the floor, you know), and Kaiba muttering utter nonsense through his fever. (At one point snuggling into Joey and smiling in his sleep, which weirded Joey out more than just a bit. XD) The second page mostly covered them putting Kaiba on the bench (Yugi is helping Joey with all the more awkward parts of moving Kaiba around, btw, like making sure his head doesn't flop back violently).
And of course he wakes up on page 27, because Serenity got something cold for his head. This scene is, as a matter of fact, the exact and only reason I designed that bulky, poofy leather jacket for Yugi to wear in this storyline: It was designed to look good, yes, but it was designed first and foremost to double as a decent pillow for this scene. Their Duel Disks are all underneath the bench, and Yugi, Serenity and Joey are all sitting on the floor because they're hoping to shield him from view a little more. (I doubt it's really working.)
I like the one-liner scolding from Mokuba while Serenity's making a relieved face in the background. I also like that, while Joey's scolding Kaiba and Kaiba's snarking back at him, Kaiba is also noticing where Joey's coat is and is practically hugging the thing when he tells Joey not to touch him. (I'm not entirely sure he's aware that he's doing it.) It's another one of those nice things about comics; doing one thing with the dialogue and another with the imagery, and also just doing two things at once. (Kaiba started shivering violently when Joey put him down; that's why Joey gave him the jacket.)
I'm also very amused at Joey calling Kaiba an idiot. When Kaiba does things like running off without seeking help or refusing to accept help, Joey's reaction to me always says "Kaiba, you are an idiot!" And while Joey has plenty of his own idiotic moments, it's pretty well a fact that Kaiba can be a real idiot himself. I just sort of like watching them call each other idiots. I had a lot of male friends in high school who interacted exactly like this.
Kaiba's facial expressions turned out a lot more little-kid vulnerable than I had originally planned here, but it's something that I'm happy with. Joey's all "Don't you DARE get up" and he looks totally docile in response, whereas in the sketch he looked more like a wet cat. I basically decided, factoring the exhaustion and the sickness with the fact that he totally had no idea where he was for a moment there, that he probably doesn't have enough energy to look like a wet cat quite yet. XD
Kaiba just has one of those character designs that looks quite childlike and youthful as soon as he stops yelling and looking fierce. So drawing that vulnerability out of him is really pretty easy, even to do by accident. :P
There's a little hint of the direction I'm going with Mokuba in this page, too, which is basically that he's going to be as awesome as an adult as he is as a little kid. 83 I've always felt there's a strong undercurrent in Mokuba and Seto's relationship in which Mokuba is taking care of Seto as much as Seto is taking care of Mokuba, and I certainly know I'm not alone in that opinion. And since this (Mokuba as caretaker) began sometime in the series and got stronger as time went by, I like to take the opportunity to play with it here. (Of course, Seto doesn't always realize he's being taken care of, but that's his problem.)
Oh, let's see, what's coming next... Next few pages, this problem gets resolved, and then we discover where Duke and Tristan have been this entire time. Then I believe it's back to Bakura, which is as it should be. XD
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