Peacekeeper/History of Us blather
Jan. 21st, 2019 05:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
general_radixFelt like blathering about this old fic site again. And unlike the last few times I've discussed it, I actually have a link!
In short, it was a Megaman site primarily devoted to slash, and also had a sour reputation amongst part of the MM fanbase for...being primarily devoted to slash. OK, so "The History of Us" (the longest and most developed series) had some dubious handling of heavy subject matter, but let's not pretend that homophobia had nothing to do with it. Though, most of my friends who liked to rail against Peacekeeper would later admit that it wasn't actually a pit in Hell.
So, "History of Us" by Lady Virgo. I have mixed feelings about it.
In short, it focuses on Skull Castle*, its inhabitants, and its internal politics, with lots of mlm romance. It also takes many interesting liberties with Classic MM, owing to canon info being rather sparse and muddled at the time--for example, the doctors have different first names (most of the time), and Shadowman is presented as a copy of Protoman (this was before we knew that Shadowman's actually an alien 'bot that Wily repaired and brought into the ranks).
It's pretty engaging, and the writing quality is fairly strong, so why the mixed feelings? Well, there's a lot of rape in this series, and while it's treated as a serious crime, it's not always handled well. Yannow that uncomfortable feeling you get when it seems an author understands that something is heinous, but doesn't quite grasp its true horror? That's what I got, reading through parts of it in 2012.
See, Wily has this group of moderators, the Enforcers, who are supposed to keep order in Skull Castle. Except they're all power-hungry bastards who assault 'bots at random to instill fear of insubordination, and have no qualms about doing this to 'bots like Iceman and Plantman who, for all intents and purposes, are CHILDREN. All of the Enforcers (except Plantman, who from what I read joined in a deeply misguided effort to retake control of himself) are portrayed as massively fucked up, but also not always as much of a threat as they really are, IIRC...
Wily, who in canon is one step below Dick Dastardly in terms of cartoonish villainy, is totally fine with this. In fact, at points it seems like the Enforcers were taking notes from him. Bleeagh.
The History of Us also has a bad habit of murdering its female characters; from last I left off, every named lady except for Roll and Kalinka either died or could be inferred to have died not long after they were last seen. Annoying? Just a little...
So yeah, a couple things to keep in mind if you want to check it out for yourself; I personally think it's worth a read, but there's no warnings that I recall. Note that later archives of the site made its fics inaccessible to non-members, due to a bunch of twats screaming at the webmasters for not "warning" for M/M. Oh, early-to-mid-00s attitudes towards slash; how I don't miss you.
...and here's the part where I wish that Marathon had its own old slash series with unique takes on canon and reasonable complexity (just with, yannow, less heavy themes handled not-heavily-enough). Maybe in some dark, unexplored region of the web...
* I don't remember if "History of Us" uses this term, which comes from the Ruby Spears cartoon, but I'm using it 'cuz it's useful.
In short, it was a Megaman site primarily devoted to slash, and also had a sour reputation amongst part of the MM fanbase for...being primarily devoted to slash. OK, so "The History of Us" (the longest and most developed series) had some dubious handling of heavy subject matter, but let's not pretend that homophobia had nothing to do with it. Though, most of my friends who liked to rail against Peacekeeper would later admit that it wasn't actually a pit in Hell.
So, "History of Us" by Lady Virgo. I have mixed feelings about it.
In short, it focuses on Skull Castle*, its inhabitants, and its internal politics, with lots of mlm romance. It also takes many interesting liberties with Classic MM, owing to canon info being rather sparse and muddled at the time--for example, the doctors have different first names (most of the time), and Shadowman is presented as a copy of Protoman (this was before we knew that Shadowman's actually an alien 'bot that Wily repaired and brought into the ranks).
It's pretty engaging, and the writing quality is fairly strong, so why the mixed feelings? Well, there's a lot of rape in this series, and while it's treated as a serious crime, it's not always handled well. Yannow that uncomfortable feeling you get when it seems an author understands that something is heinous, but doesn't quite grasp its true horror? That's what I got, reading through parts of it in 2012.
See, Wily has this group of moderators, the Enforcers, who are supposed to keep order in Skull Castle. Except they're all power-hungry bastards who assault 'bots at random to instill fear of insubordination, and have no qualms about doing this to 'bots like Iceman and Plantman who, for all intents and purposes, are CHILDREN. All of the Enforcers (except Plantman, who from what I read joined in a deeply misguided effort to retake control of himself) are portrayed as massively fucked up, but also not always as much of a threat as they really are, IIRC...
Wily, who in canon is one step below Dick Dastardly in terms of cartoonish villainy, is totally fine with this. In fact, at points it seems like the Enforcers were taking notes from him. Bleeagh.
The History of Us also has a bad habit of murdering its female characters; from last I left off, every named lady except for Roll and Kalinka either died or could be inferred to have died not long after they were last seen. Annoying? Just a little...
So yeah, a couple things to keep in mind if you want to check it out for yourself; I personally think it's worth a read, but there's no warnings that I recall. Note that later archives of the site made its fics inaccessible to non-members, due to a bunch of twats screaming at the webmasters for not "warning" for M/M. Oh, early-to-mid-00s attitudes towards slash; how I don't miss you.
...and here's the part where I wish that Marathon had its own old slash series with unique takes on canon and reasonable complexity (just with, yannow, less heavy themes handled not-heavily-enough). Maybe in some dark, unexplored region of the web...
* I don't remember if "History of Us" uses this term, which comes from the Ruby Spears cartoon, but I'm using it 'cuz it's useful.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-22 04:05 am (UTC)I went looking for Marathon fics back then. I honestly couldn't find much of anything slash related. That's why I was so ridiculously happy when I found you guys on AO3!
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Date: 2019-01-22 04:50 am (UTC)Good 'ol AO3, eh? XD
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Date: 2019-03-20 12:47 pm (UTC)Why do people act like every villain is a rapist?
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Date: 2019-03-21 12:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-03-21 12:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-05 12:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-06 12:14 am (UTC)