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So I’ve been reading as much Cara/Kahlan fic as I can recently and only have the big AU ones left where Cara wasn’t a Mord’Sith. I kind of…don’t want to read them.

I’ve already neatly fitted the pairing into the Badasses & the Women Who Teach Them Humanity (and Leash Them So They Don’t Wreak Havoc) category of ships that I seem to gravitate to (J/7, TSCC, and Barbara/Helena). While I love AUs and am a huge fan of Campus and No Rest for the Wicked, I actually like the parts of the Badasses that most people in the fic universe, including the characters themselves sometimes, seem to hate.

I like Seven’s Borgness and Cameron’s cybernetic organismness and Helena being a maladjusted metahuman. It’s a part of who they eventually become. While I obviously don’t wish any of their suffering on them, it’s such a core part of the character. I want the snarky, emotionally stunted Mord’Sith Cara because that version is considered worse in her world. It seems almost disloyal to want a different untainted one.

Campus was different by being in a completely different world (and barely even an uber at that) and inspectorboxer chose her AU perfectly by River being just as awkward and odd as Cameron. I’ve read some of the contemporary Cara/Kahlan fics (why are the high school ones so popular?) and I liked them so I think it really is just the vague implication that the characters we know are somehow lesser because of what they’ve gone through.

Though, I suppose the point is that they’re all beyond what they are and their experiences, so there should still be an interesting, funny badass lurking somewhere in a “normal” Cara. Perhaps she won’t be so different after all. And a well-written reinterpration of a character is always welcome. We’ll see.

Posted on

So I’ve been reading as much Cara/Kahlan fic as I can recently and only have the big AU ones left where Cara wasn’t a Mord’Sith. I kind of…don’t want to read them.

I’ve already neatly fitted the pairing into the Badasses & the Women Who Teach Them Humanity (and Leash Them So They Don’t Wreak Havoc) category of ships that I seem to gravitate to (J/7, TSCC, and Barbara/Helena). While I love AUs and am a huge fan of Campus and No Rest for the Wicked, I actually like the parts of the Badasses that most people in the fic universe, including the characters themselves sometimes, seem to hate.

I like Seven’s Borgness and Cameron’s cybernetic organismness and Helena being a maladjusted metahuman. It’s a part of who they eventually become. While I obviously don’t wish any of their suffering on them, it’s such a core part of the character. I want the snarky, emotionally stunted Mord’Sith Cara because that version is considered worse in her world. It seems almost disloyal to want a different untainted one.

Campus was different by being in a completely different world (and barely even an uber at that) and inspectorboxer chose her AU perfectly by River being just as awkward and odd as Cameron. I’ve read some of the contemporary Cara/Kahlan fics (why are the high school ones so popular?) and I liked them so I think it really is just the vague implication that the characters we know are somehow lesser because of what they’ve gone through.

Though, I suppose the point is that they’re all beyond what they are and their experiences, so there should still be an interesting, funny badass lurking somewhere in a “normal” Cara. Perhaps she won’t be so different after all. And a well-written reinterpration of a character is always welcome. We’ll see.