YOI Multishipper Problems

[prillalar]

[ Before the ramble (or vent) begins, some signal boosting:
+ rareshipsonice - Yuri!!! on ICE Rare Pair fanwork exchange! Basically anything other than Yuuri/Victor and Otabek/Yuri. Currently in nominations.
+ yurionicefans - YOI DW comm! ]

While working on some fic that doesn't involve any of these characters, I was listening to Steve Winwood (I'm an old) and Back In the High Life Again came on and I had a mini-breakdown over Chris/Victor, mainly from frustration that it's next to impossible to write them post-canon.

I love Yuuri/Victor but I'm a multishipper and Chris/Victor is my favourite Victor ship. (Nishigori/Yuuri is my other main ship, just to get even more impossible.) And I've never been in a fandom before where the juggernaut was so juggernaut-y and soulmate-y and canon-y that to write any other end-game pairing with either of them is nearly unthinkable.

I don't want to go canon-divergent; it's not my thing. Am I doomed to never being able to write what I want? Or is there perhaps some way to break Yuuri and Victor up post-canon that I wouldn't have to spend more than about 25% of the Chris/Victor fic dealing with? (Victor dealing with it, I mean, not showing the break-up.)

I realise I will have to sign a waiver indicating I understand no one will read this fic. And that I may also be consigned to perdition. It might be worth it.

Okay, whining over, thinking begun.

Comments

[ineptshieldmaid]

(here via a tumblr reblog chain)

I don't have an answer to this question but I would READ THAT FIC.

And your description of the juggernaut is... yup. I got a ton of weird pushback on a Chris/Viktor/Yuuri fic because it had strong Chris/Viktor and Chris/Yuuri sidelines - at one point in the fic the possibility of Chris/Yuuri being a thing in its own right was raised, and wow, did that ever go down badly with some people.

[prillalar]

I love Chris/Yuuri almost as much as Chris/Victor, seriously, and could see that as endgame quite easily. (As easily as anything else that's not Yuuri/Victor.) Chris is such an grea character, too. I'm more about love triangles than poly or causal three-ways, but either way Chris makes everything more interesting.

People are weird about fic, seriously! But I guess I am too. :)

[ineptshieldmaid]

I love Chris/Yuuri almost as much as Chris/Victor, seriously, and could see that as endgame quite easily.

I think my problem is I don't really... do endgame shipping. 'Could this be a stable long-term option' is just not a question I ask myself. Occasionally I go 'noooo the fuck that is not a good idea', but, well, that was my response to Viktor/Youri and I seem to have coped.

I'm more about love triangles than poly or causal three-ways, but either way Chris makes everything more interesting.

Even the poly shipping in this fandom is really... heavily reliant on the juggernaut and its extremely one-true-love troping, I think? Like. You get casual three-ways that are No Threat To The Ship, or you get poly ship arcs that still focus on Viktor/Yuri or the triad, but not so much on the other spokes. It's very, very strange.

People are weird about fic, seriously! But I guess I am too. :)

I am very weird about fic, and a chronic rarepair-er, but this fandom is Really Quite Odd, I swear.

[prillalar]

I'm not always about end-game, actually pretty rarely, but I've been thinking about it a lot more lately. Mostly because while I was finishing up the Chris/Georgi arc, I was thinking about them both being at the point they might retire and how that transition to the next stage of life might look.

No Threat to the Ship sounds like the attitude of the majority of fandom. It's great to find other fans who don't feel the same way. :)

[ineptshieldmaid]

Mostly because while I was finishing up the Chris/Georgi arc, I was thinking about them both being at the point they might retire and how that transition to the next stage of life might look.

Oooh I should catch up on that, shouldn't I? I read the first instalment or two and then got distracted.

No Threat to the Ship sounds like the attitude of the majority of fandom.

Part of my problem seems to be that I have a much higher expectation of what a relationship can endure. Including like, *checking out other people*. And so on.

It's great to find other fans who don't feel the same way. :)

I suspect you might enjoy this fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10193864
The comments are 80% people going 'AAARGH YES YOU'RE RIGHT THIS SHIP IS A DISASTER' and 20% people being very upset at Yuuri being portrayed as less than a total cinnamon roll.

[prillalar]

The Chris/Georgi got kind of ... long. Long for me, anyhow, and in deeper emotionally than I'd originally intended. Just like them, I guess. :)

Part of my problem seems to be that I have a much higher expectation of what a relationship can endure. Including like, *checking out other people*. And so on.

Seriously!

It's interesting -- I was talking to a friend who writes original m/m romances as a side job and we were talking through the books she's writing and how we both wanted one of the main characters to have had a sexual past with the antagonist but that the romance buying audience really doesn't like that -- they don't want any suggestion that the main characters have had other relationships, even though they are adults. I feel like fandom is often the same. Everyone should fan the way they like, of course, but it seems so dull to me.

Thanks for the fic rec! I'll note it for later. I'm working through something that is likely similar and it works better for me if I don't read other takes until I'm done.