Enemies to Lovers

[ermingarden]

Enemies to Lovers by Aster Glenn Gray
My Rating: ★★★★☆

Note: I received an advance copy of this book to give an honest review.

Why do we write what we write, and love the stories we do? What does it mean for a story to be "good"? Enemies to Lovers explores these questions at the same time as it plays with some of fandom's most enduring and beloved tropes.

Enemies to Lovers pairs steamy sexual tension with an insightful exploration of internet fan culture. Megan and Sarah are both passionate members of the same fandom, and they're about the same age, but their different backgrounds in fandom – Megan started out on LiveJournal, Sarah is a Tumblr native – lead to what might be thought of as a culture clash around community norms. For a short romance work, Enemies to Lovers is impressively nuanced on an emotional level. Megan's feelings about Sarah are complicated, and that doesn't get completely glossed over as soon as they make it into bed together.

I enjoyed every minute of this book, and I'll likely read it again before too long.


Some additional thoughts that didn't make it into the Amazon review:
I am about 96% sure that the fandom Megan and Sarah are involved in, for the fictitious TV show "Paranoid", is a thinly veiled reflection of a particular corner of real-life Marvel fandom: Steve/Bucky shippers. And that means the "woobie Mishka wars," as Megan describes the discourse, probably echoes debates among Stucky shippers about woobifying Bucky. (Personally, I think people should woobify characters as much as they want. Write the stories you enjoy!) I was intrigued by that glimpse into the particular issues and dramas of a fandom in which I'm not involved, and which is very different from the corners of Tolkien and Star Wars fandoms I frequent.

And finally, since debate on the topic is so central to the book, I'm curious: what are folks' thoughts on woobification in your own fandoms?

Comments

[atamascolily]

Looking over the TVTropes page to refresh myself on the definition of "woobie," I'm struck by the fact that the woobie is defined by being a victim of circumstances - that is, the source of their suffering is always external to them, and never the result of their own actions, which allows them to be a compelling object of sympathy. The woobie is also defined by their own powerlessness/helplessness in the face of all the bad things that happen to them; they are not permitted by the narrative to escape, so they can only endure.

Most fandom tropes have projection at their core to some extent--not that that's inherently a bad thing, mind you--so I would guess woobifying characters allows the creator/audience some vicarious relief from their own pain, either via inflicting it on the character in question or by relieving said character's pain (aka, the entire hurt/comfort dynamic). Woobification of characters who have committed morally dubious actions also allows the audience to sidestep the issue entirely, by presenting those actions as something outside of that character's control.

This is a particularly pronounced trope in some sections of the Star Wars Sequel trilogy fandom, where many Kylo Ren fans will go to great lengths to insist he is a victim of circumstances and not responsible for anything actually bad, including on-screen canon actions. (I.e., Kylo didn't kill his father because Kylo was evil/flawed/chose to, he was misled by Snoke! OR Kylo's father abused him and he was getting back at his abuser, and it's actually Han's fault, etc, etc.) I find this absolutely fascinating, because these fans are taking a character who is presented in a decidedly unsympathetic light and converting all of these flaws into more palatable and sympathetic ones--thereby making him acceptable in their eyes.

It's especially interesting in comparison to the other approach to the character: unapologetic fans who declare outright, "He's trash/a terrible person, and I love him for it". These fans don't need to woobify Kylo, because they don't require him to be an object of sympathy in order to enjoy his character.

[ermingarden]

I really like that about the powerlessness of the character and the external source of the suffering as being crucial elements of the woobie.
It's funny, because my first thought was also Star Wars, but not Kylo; Obi-Wan gets woobified very frequently. Personally I have approximately zero emotional investment in Kylo Ren, but that sort of dichotomy in how fans of the character think of him reminds me a lot of attitudes toward the Fëanorians generally (and Maedhros particularly) in Silm fandom; you see at times the same sort of effort to read against the text in order to morally justify the character's actions.

[atamascolily]

My off-the-cuff reading is that there are actually two types of characters that tend to be woobified: problematic types such as Kylo and Bucky, who commit in-universe atrocities and must be woobified in order to be sympathetic, and "cinnamon rolls", who are tortured by the narrative, circumstances, and/or fandom as a way to emphasize their sympathetic qualities. The latter is particularly common in moe anime, which is an entire genre devoted almost entirely to canon wobbie characters, or the "uke" (bottom) character in Boy's Love manga.

[ermingarden]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of making that distinction, but now that you mention the categories I totally see it! Thanks!!