Round Table - To Marry, or not to marry... that is the question...

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

Good Sunday to you all.  We had a really fun week with First Meetings, and I believe we may still have one or two stories that will be posted today or tomorrow on that theme.  I enjoyed all of it and hope you did as well.
Today I was thinking about, well you can see it at the top.  Marriage.  Concerning the guys, that is.  Should they marry?  Do they marry in your world?  I have always tended to keep them single and available, a selfish move on my part but it works.  Others have created scenarios, entire worlds, where the men marry and have a family, sometimes leading to danger and intrigue of an entirely different nature from what we read and see in non-marital stories.
The two series devoted to that life with which I am familiar are that of rosywonder and mrua7.  Both of them have written novella length accounts of these affairs of the heart, and in fact mrua7 is posting hers now in mfu_map_room.  
So, the question remains, do you like the married with children scenario?  Are you, like me, still primarily happy with single vision? I'd like to know where you stand, how you view this and why, if you can nail that down.

Comments

[orockthro.livejournal.com]

I think my problem with them partnering off with partners other than themselves, is that I hate stories where SOs are kept in the dark. I think partnerships, of the domestic as well as spy kind haha, ought to be actual partnerships. That means knowing about UNCLE beyond the glossed-over headlines. Otherwise, to me, it's just a device. Add one spy, one baby-maker, two point five children, and stir. Characterizations may vary. Adjust for altitude.
Unless, of course, the unequal division of intelligence (and I'm speaking here of spy stuff, although unfortunately sometimes both occur in writing of wives) is intentional and thought provoking... and now I sort of want to write a fic from the POV of a wife kept in the dark... Oops plot bunny!

Narratively, especially for fic where the rules are so different from traditional fiction, this is sometimes problematic, as it requires the audience to spend a lot of time with characters they are not predisposed to love. It can, and has, been done to great effect, but it takes a lot of work, and a lot of trust in the reader, too.

[glennagirl.livejournal.com]

I've never particularly liked the idea of a wife and kids, partly because (big confession here), it left me out. My daydreams and fantasies get short circuited when there's a love interest, something that is a holdover from my youthful crush I suppose. It is a pre-disposition of sorts. I will say, however, that there are some well written, compelling stories out there. Two of them do come from our friends here on Section VII. The Coalminer's Wife, by rosywonder, is a deep and well written story that takes us on a journey that is undeniably one you want to travel. It took me a couple of years to read it, my resistance was firmly in tact. Once there, however, I was won over for what lies within her universe. I don't want them there all of the time, but I'm glad to have read that story.
Another fine married life series belongs to mrua7 who, as I stated above, is running hers from the beginning in the Map Room.
The Coalminer's Wife is here:https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4844186/1/The-Coalminer-s-wife

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

Thank you Glenna.

[orockthro.livejournal.com]

He! I can see that, and for better or for worse, self-insert fic is fairly looked-down-upon. :( The Mary Sue is a real victim. As a queer person I missed out on the majority of that daydream, and mine get mostly fulfilled from h/c ;)
Secret identity revealed! is also a great trope, and I could see that coming into this sort of fic too. :)

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

The problem of OCs being characters the readers don't know or love is another of my reasons for not being fond of marriage-type stories. I don't know this character or that character; why would I want to read about them interacting extensively with someone I like, when I could instead read about two characters I like interacting? ;) I can come to like some people's OCs, granted, but usually I honestly couldn't care less and don't want to put in the effort to get to know them better. I prefer for OCs to stay in the background and only have supporting roles in stories.

[vmccooley.livejournal.com]

I'm not a fan of original characters (as lead characters) either. We are familiar with Napoleon, Illya and Mr. Waverly because we've seen them through 105 episodes. Like the Innocents of the Week, original characters are one-dimensional to me.

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

I must admit, I do enjoy oneshot episodic characters and love to flesh them out. But they're still canon characters, no matter how small their parts are, and that makes them different from OCs in my mind. That said, the oneshot episodic characters I love to write about are usually not the Innocents of the Week. ;)

[vmccooley.livejournal.com]

I agree about the difference between canon and original characters. I find the Innocents specifically (most of them, anyway) to be very blah. The villains always seem to be more fleshed out and therefore more interesting (which I'm sure I don't have to tell you)! :D

[insaneladybug.livejournal.com]

Yes, they have such a wide collection of fun and fascinating villains! :)

I do like some of the good guy guest-stars, and my view can definitely be colored if they're played by actors I like. ;)

[vmccooley.livejournal.com]

The right actor or actress can definitely make a difference.