Meta: Why I don't like the Peter/Susan pairing

[caramelsilver]

Some of you (and when I say some of you I guess I only mean be_themoon) might remember a while back when I said I'd written down why I didn't like the Peter/Susan ship, but was unsure of posting it cause I didn't want to offend anybody. Well, it's a few months later and I've continued to think about it and I now completely know the reason why I don't like that ship (AKA: I can explain it in a way that makes sense!)

Surprisingly it has nothing to do with the incest (which should worry me a bit more). It has to do with group dynamic. The Pevensies are four siblings. Two boys and two girls. And in every fic I read and write this is never forgotten,- even though I might focus a bit more on the boys,- the relationship between the four of them is never forgotten or overlooked. What I feel happens in Peter/Susan fics is that the two others are forgotten and that makes me very uncomfortable.

But of course, I'm a hypocrite because I don't mind this as much when it's Susan and Lucy who's forgotten when I read Peter and Edmund brotherfic. And maybe this is because I'm truly cemented in this part of fandom and maybe my dislike of the P/S ship is simply that there's so many of my favorite people on LJ who likes this ship and I kind of feel left out?

I was really happy when I found out that it wasn't the incest that squicked me, but the fact that pairing off two characters in a set of four is just all wrong to me. Because to me, the Pevensies is a unit that works together and when you disrupt that it becomes all wrong to me. (Which is also why fics post-Narnia and the Problem of Susan is so interesting because without Susan they are wrong.)

In fandoms like Supernatural I don't mind the incest at all, because Sam and Dean have always been just the two of them. (If that makes sense?)

On a side note, it might also be that I just don't see them as characters hooking up either. Like, had they not been siblings I don't think I would ship it, because I see no spark and there needs to be sparks.

God, I hope this was clear and not offensive.

Please discuss in the comments. Tell me why you like it, or why you don't. I'm really interested, since I'll freely admit that I know next to nothing about the ship, except a few fics and people talking about it on my flist. Educate me! But don't be rude.

Comments

[notoriousreign.livejournal.com]

I don't like it either. I don't like to ship any of the Pevensies together and usually it's because of the incest. But from what I've learned from my Wincest friends, I can accept the pairing. It's like you said though, with Peter and Susan, it just doesn't seem right to break up a four-person group dynamic. =P

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

*nods* With Wincest you can kinda buy it because of their seriously fucked up childhood and only having each other and stuff, but in Narnia... well they aren't alone, there's four of them and that's why it seems wrong. (to me)

[notoriousreign.livejournal.com]

Yeah, exactly. While I don't ship it, I can get why people do with Wincest. It's always just been the two of them. When it's a duo it's more understandable than when it's three or more.

Also, I really just don't care for incest. >_O

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

Agreed, I don't ship it either but it doesn't stop me from seeing why some people do.

And yeah, don't fancy the incest much, at least not in Narnia.

(For some reason I really like girl!Sam/Dean to my great shame. But we don't talk about that)

[lizzie-marie-23.livejournal.com]

I love the four of them as a group because they're all just so human if that makes any sense. And while I would never write Susan/Peter fic myself, I don't mind reading it.

But I can totally see where you're coming from with them not clicking with each other. I mostly like the stories where they all go off on a grand adventure together, or the ones where Susan grows apart from the rest of them. I guess I'm an angster at heart. ;)

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

Maybe it is that I simply do not like romance mixed with my Narnia. It's not that kind of love that interests me. It's all about the family love.

My favorite kind of stories is when they are all being awesome together.

The only story I read where there's Peter/Susan is bedlamsbard's Dust in the Air, because that story is epic in its own right that I can ignore the pretty heavy subtext.

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

I like Peter/Susan to a degree, like, I'm not a huge, huge, huge fan of it but I like it well enough. I get what you're saying about the pairing sort of leaving out Edmund and Lucy, but I feel like I can explain why I still like it and how I feel it doesn't exclude the younger two.

I like Peter/Susan by themselves as a stand alone pairing, but I also like it (squick warning: discussion of polyamorous relationships ahead) sort of layered wih Pevencest in general. Obviously not explicit orgies because I just can't do that, but in the subtextual kind of way, brushing hands and such. To me, Peter/Susan is a part of the more all-encompassing Pevencest relationship, but they also have a bit of a special connection because of them being forbidden from Narnia earlier than their youger siblings.

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

I actually, to my shame, do not have a problem with Pevensie OT4, because that does not disrupt the dynamic. (And I'm all about the dynamic!)

[katakokk.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh there are so many things that I do not squick over that I probably should. The dynamic is very, very important! But have you seen bedlamsbard's Junior Pevensie verse at houseofpevensie? Loads and loads of squick worthy stuff, but the dynamic of the entire Pevensie clan is great, so I have no problem with the incest and stuff.

[caramelsilver.livejournal.com]

Hello!

Thank you for coming and commenting. I was serious when I said I wondered why you ship it. (It's always interesting to find out why people ship what they ship.)

I can understand the shallow, but maybe I was watching the movies wrong, for I can't say I saw the spark.

And I''m really glad that no one got offended. That really was a concern of mine before posting.

Yes, friend away! New Narnia friends are always fun! Especially since I really do talk a lot of Narnia =)