It’s that time again – where I’m reading a plethora of fanfiction and noticing a trend in the genre that drives me up the wall. And so without further ado: here we go!
Pre-Established Relationships
Have you ever been browsing a section and noticed for the pairing it states “Pre-established relationship, So-in-so x So-in-so”? You know the ones – where you start reading and it’s ‘understood’ that the main pairing is already an item and has been for some time despite no hints at such relationship in the canon of the tv series or movie the characters come from. Some don’t even give you a warning; they just list the pairing and they’re already together and making out. It’s a very rare occassion where I find a fic of this nature and make it past the first page of reading.
But before I get too into this, let me address that this applies mostly to fics that feature non-canon pairings and I do make exceptions for fanfics that are sequels (As in the relationship was established in another fiction by the same author). And it is possible for such a thing to be pulled off seamlessly; its just difficult and requires a very high level of writing talent.
Overall, however, ‘Pre-established relationship’ fics bother me. I realize that the main fun of fanfiction is to be able to put characters in situations that wouldn’t normally occur in the canon – the joy of pairing fics in the first place – but there’s a level of continuity that needs to be there as well. Part of whole keeping the cast in character thing that many fics seem to drop – It’s like drawing a picture of Sailor Moon and calling it Dragon Ball Z fanart.
Personally, I like fiction that explains how two characters get together. The creativty of writing situations that would take two friends and make them a couple that actually seems like it could happen in the official storylines are really what move me.
When you start reading a ‘pre-established relationship’ fic, there’s a sort of jolt. That lingering “wait, they’re not an item in the show…” thought still lingers on the edge of your brain and puts disbelief in your system. It’s hard to take the relationship seriously and the reader is left wondering how the characters got from point A to point B. That gap in storyline is usually what causes me to quit reading.
A Case Study: House, M.D.
House x Wilson is one of those pairings that gets abused by the “Pre-Established Relationship” condition. And it’s not hard to see why – you’ve got a set of characters who are best friends and have known each other for a number of off-screen years. It’s easy to go “oh, they got together when they were younger or first met!”
Sometimes, this works really well. For example, a fanfiction where they meet and have a relationship while they’re young and then break it off sometime before the series begins which leaves them at the ‘best friend’s stage can work very well. Things get a little iffy when they remain a couple through the series time-line, but for the most part it works.
However, fics that just start assuming they are an item is a no go. No matter what season 5 has shown us about House’s obsession with Wilson – it’s still canon that they are 1) Friends and that 2) Wilson is a slut. has been married three times (and a close 4th with Amber). They have one messed-up-yet-beautiful relationship between the two of them, but it’s still a stretch to call it romantic.
I think this one bugs me the most because the gap between friends and lovers for House and Wilson is like a stone’s throw away. It’s not that hard to write a scenario that would shove them together; the show gives more than enough material to do it. So when I see a “pre-established relationship’ fic, all I can think of is “where they too lazy to write a background?” It might be pretentious, but put some effort into it.
At the very least, write in a two-line “hard to believe that fateful summer so long ago that I fell for him” (or something, anything) explanation. That’s all I ask, really.
Conclusion
If you must start a fic with two non-romantically involved characters in a pre-fic established romantic relationship, at least put the effort to explain how they got there. Thank-you.
