Incesty Pairings

[deird_lj]

So, I come bearing pollage.

I've seen a lot of conversations about fanfic recently, in which people have discussed different pairings and said "That pairing squicks me out. It's... almost incestuous."

And I was wondering which pairings are most likely to strike people that way.


So, under the cut is a poll, full of pairings!
Rate each pairing from 1 (not incestuous in the slightest) to 10 (really really incestuous and squicky).




[Poll #1524132]


Questions? Comments?

Comments

[deird1]

I find Buffy/Giles squicky because of the parent-child dynamic. No infantilising, no, but she asked him to walk her down the aisle, and Travers said he "has a father's love" for Buffy, and he slept with her mother, and... *shudders*

[ahigheroctave.livejournal.com]

Fred/Connor is my biggest outlier it really squicks me out.

What I found really odd is you're Standard Deviation is slightly different on your identical Buffy/Wesley polls. *ponders*

[rowanda380.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with the trend that a slayer and a watcher is less inky/incestious than say...siblings...but...I mean...I think it is weird how ok with it some people seem...I mean it is fine but to me...it is kind of taking advantage of someone whom you are a superior too, like a teacher and a student, it just seems wrong to me.

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

It is definitely a little weird, I agree, but no more so than Xander/Dawn, IMO.

[menomegirl.livejournal.com]

It's not a common pairing but they're out there.

Wow, I'm the only one who finds Buffy/Willow squicky? LOL.

[deird1]

Well, I put Buffy/Willow on there because gabrielleabelle mentioned finding it incesty and squicky, so you're not alone...

[lavastar.livejournal.com]

Lol, I love that people answered differently on the two back-to-back Buffy/Wesley questions. If they changed their minds, they could have just gone back and changed the other one, too...

I don't have much else to say except squicks are funny. :D

[lynnenne]

I cannot properly answer this poll, because there are some incestuous pairings which don't squick me at all - in fact, I love them. My OTPs are Spike/Angel and Spike/Connor, both of which I see as "pseudo-incest." I've also written Angel/Connor, which is clearly incest. There's a large sub-section of fandom that enjoys incest fics (SPN, anyone?) even though they would never encourage or condone incest in real life.

[jnb71976.livejournal.com]

This is hard for me, because many pairings are, by their nature, incestuous - but not squicky in my opinion. Like any derivative of the fanged four, for instance. And many are squicky but not necessarily incestuous. Like Connor/Cordy and Spike/Xander for me. I know others adore pairings that make my face scrunch up. I love good incest in fic, but don't ever make me read Giles making out with Dawn. It's icky for so many other reasons. But hey, to each their own boat.

[snickfic]

I think I figured it out. I still think the the generational thing (which is more important in this case than the literal age, for me) bothers me, but the biggie is, as you say, that Cordelia was in love with his dad. That switch from father to son really does not work for me.

[jnb71976.livejournal.com]

And now I REALLY wish I had an icon featuring Mr. Pointy and Mr. Gordo "OTP"

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

Mr Gordo and Mr Pointy needed a "Huh?" response. :)

[me-llamo-nic.livejournal.com]

ICON! Couldn't resist.

[angearia.livejournal.com]

Thing is that something like Angel/Connor is very obviously straight up incest - and yet it's a pairing I have read, despite the obvious squick, because their relationship is messed up enough to go there.

See, I think their relationship is messed up enough that Angel would never let it go there. Connor might get confused in that arena, but I don't think Angel ever would. Which is why I can't get into those scenarios. Because Angel's already beating himself up for things he's done to Connor, the ways he's failed Connor. And he himself was judgmental of Cordy!Jasmine sleeping with Connor when that happened (partially 'cause it was Cordy, but also for the Oedipal nature of it) and she wasn't even his biological mom. I think that's a thing that fanfic has created on its own tangent because Angel had violent sex with Darla once while in despair and was violent as Angelus.

I just feel incestuous relationships are incredibly abusive for the child and that Angel didn't do right by Connor always, but he tried so damn hard. And he sacrificed himself and even his friends to give Connor a chance at a normal life (normal life not being sleeping with Daddy). I just can't see a souled Angel ever doing that unless he had gone insane somehow.

I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone, but that whole father/son pairing very much disturbs me.

I think it's more that Angel and Connor's relationship is messed up enough that fanfic which is all about Teh Sex goes there. For me, it takes Angel's character in particular and disregards huge parts of what defines how he sees his son and what he's willing to do to protect him and kinda warps it.

Again, I don't mean to imply any judgment for anyone who does enjoy the pairing. I just have extreme squick for it.

[elisi]

Oh I understand exactly where you're coming from. And it's not something that could ever happen in canon, I don't think. But in fic the circumstances can be rigged, so you can get to very un-canon-y places... (It's a bit early here, forgive my inability to formulate proper thoughts.)

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Father/adopted daughter or father/stepdaughter isn't between blood relations - but it's incest in the eyes of society, although not in the eyes of the law in some countries.

[pamsblau.livejournal.com]

That poll was kind of hard, cause some ships, imo, were not incestuous, but still squick me. Like Mr. Gordo and Mr. Pointy...EW! I gave them a 10.No pig should share his...thing with that dirsty stake...

Buffy/Joyce / Joyce/Dawn and Buffy/Dawn are seriously wrong.

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

Not incestuous in the least.

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

I believe that if you're not blood related, it's not incest. And I'm a proud Xander/Giles and Xander/Buffy shipper. :)

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

I'm heartily aware of that. Not really sure how this relates to what I said. I'm not for a Giles/Buffy relationship, for my own reasons. I was merely saying that Xander/Dawn is just as weird to me (moreso, because of the weird infantilization of Dawn that every character partakes in during season 5 and 6).

However, I also don't think it's right to "shut down" people's ships by claiming incest. It may be ooogly to us for various reasons, but they are not adopted families, or step families, and most importantly, they are not biological families (unless we are talking Joyce/Buffy here). Moreover, even if somebody did write incest fic, is it really that big of a deal? This isn't real life. There is a whole genre of Wincest fic out there, for example.

[obiwahn.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, though I do not personally share your ships :)

[speakr2customrs.livejournal.com]

I was just pointing out that your statement "incest is something that happens between blood relations" isn't strictly accurate, especially if we're discussing squickiness rather than legality.

I find Xander/Dawn hugely squicky - I think I gave it a 9, and its recent appearance in canon is one of the things that has made me start questioning Joss's sanity - but not quite as squicky as Buffy/Giles, which to me is the squicky-est possible relationship in the 'verse not involving blood relations because Giles is definitely a parental figure and he's even boinked her mother.

[next_to_normal]

I think Robin/Faith (and Robin/Buffy, for that matter) is laden with Oedipal issues, but I wouldn't call it incestual. Being attracted to someone who reminds you of your mom isn't the same as being attracted to some who plays a motherly role to you. (And Faith is about the farthest thing from motherly.)