In a message dated 2/15/01 3:33:51 PM Eastern Standard Time, N.Faulkner@tesco.net writes:
<< We might be talking at cross-purposes here. The forces of attraction and repulsion that I was blithering on are not those between characters in the show, but between the viewer and the show itself. For instance, I am attracted to B7 by the setting and general ethos and (yes) the characters, but repelled by the cheap sets and costumes and special effects. Pulled one way, pushed the other, I find myself caught in the middle and thus have to resolve the tension by seizing control of B7 and turning it into the series I think it should have been.<<
Nah. I just think viewers who come to love a show choose to ignore the stuff they don't like about it. You can tell; when you're first trying to introduce someone to this show you've been raving about, you squirm uncomfortably at the bad special effects and other things that you don't want them to notice.
Of course, a viewer might be attracted by some on-screen relationships that
work in the way s/he appreciates, but repelled by others that are considered mishandled, and this too would generate the tension that generates fannishness.<<
Fans don't write fanfic about characters and plot elements they feel were 'mishandled'. You seldom see much of that. Again, I feel it's simply ignored.
Leah