#is there anything worse than widespread/popular fanon. i don't think so

[humanveil]

you guys ever dip your toes back into old fandoms out of curiosity and immediately want to die

[baronfulmen]

Conefession: Discworld is one of the fandoms that I stumbled across fic for without ever having read the source material. And I still haven’t gotten around to doing so. Although I’ve read a ton of fics. As such, my perception of Discworld is entirely shaped by fanfic fanon. And, believe it or not, Vimes/Vetinari is the most popular ship in fanfic. It’s number 1 on AO3, Vimes/Sybil is number 2, and the OT3 Vimes/Sybil/Vetinari is number 3. All of which I enjoy.

After your post, I can’t help but be reminded that I just LOVE fandom and all of its randomness. I love that people will take a single piece of art and using that as a base they can make a billion different random artistic things with it like they’re just throwing paint at a wall and seeing what kind of Rorschach Test-esque work of beauty they can make of it. Like “does it make sense in canon, I got no clue, but I know it makes for some beautiful art and some fun fics that can make me smile, so Why not?. Y’know? Why not?” 😄😄😄😄

It's beautiful, isn't it? Yeah, for sure I love that people will just latch onto whatever and run with it and make more art whether or not they know what's going on or if it makes sense or anything.

I'm a little surprised that Vimes/Vetinari is so popular because as I said I just... I can't wrap my head around it. On paper you could have some fun friction there because one is the self-proclaimed tyrant and the other has an anti-authoritarian streak a mile wide. Sure, that dynamic could be fun. It's fun in the books, to the extent it's explored.

But in the actual books they don't spend a lot of time together - Vimes gets called into Vetinari's office at the start and end of most of the books with him in them but it's basically this:

Vetinari: "Vimes, I need you to do this thing that sounds simple when I say it but which we both know is actually very complicated. Don't get into trouble, don't anger anyone important." Vimes: "Sir yes sir, I would certainly never want to upset (insert super thinly veiled insult towards the aforementioned important people)" Vetinari: "See that you don't." ... Vetinari: "Well, you seem to have caused widespread panic and destruction of physical property and everyone is demanding I have you executed." Vimes: "Yessir. But I did that simple thing you asked me to do." Vetinari: "I suppose I'll have to take your word for it since everyone involved has fled the city." (quietly checks everything Vimes did off his 'to-do' list since he's a chessmaster that always planned for all this to happen)

It's fun! But as a relationship of some kind? Vimes isn't smart enough. Don't get me wrong, he's very intelligent and even devious when he wants to be - but Vetinari can't be in a relationship with anyone that's not also a mastermind. It would instantly be a super unhealthy relationship, because how do you have a healthy relationship with someone you can manipulate so easily? Vimes less easily than most, sure, but he still knows exactly where to apply pressure. Worse, Vimes is smart enough that he'd be watching for it! Every time something went Vetinari's way would he be thinking "wait, did I agree to go out to dinner because I want to, or because he made me THINK that I want to?"

Honestly, that would maybe be an interesting fic. Write it from Vetinari's point of view, and have the whole thing be him realizing that even when he decides NOT to manipulate Vimes he's already planning sneaky ways to let Vimes know that he's not being manipulated which is, itself, manipulative.

Anyway.

So as I said, no judgement to anyone even if it's something I have trouble picturing. Just threw me for a loop.

And if you DO start reading Discworld, good luck dealing with the many many conflicting guides to where to start.