Musings on sedoretu fic in due South

[luzula]

I've been thinking about how due South might work in a world with sedoretu marriages. If you've never heard of a sedoretu, go here to read about them first (and here are the sedoretu works on the AO3). I have no idea if anyone else thinks this is interesting, but whatever, I like thinking about it, so here goes:

Right, so let's try having Fraser/Kowalski as the night marriage of a sedoretu. Who could we have as the two women in the marriage? Stella/Ray K seems like a natural choice, and Fraser/Thatcher is another natural choice, which means Stella/Meg as the day marriage. Which could work, I guess, but I don't feel enthusiastic about this as a whole...and I think it might be because the non-sexual relationships (Fraser & Stella, Ray & Meg) don't feel like strong links to me.

I like the idea of having Ray K/Maggie as one couple, because then Fraser & Maggie would form a natural non-sexual relationship. And because I ship Maggie/Frannie, then I'm actually tempted to have Fraser/Frannie be the second heterosexual couple. Which, I don't usually like this pairing, but it might work in this context, when we don't have the romantic couple ideal messing up Frannie's idea of Fraser? I do like Ray K & Frannie as a non-sexual sibling-like relationship, too. And Frannie could have kids, and the four of them would be great parents together.

And my third idea is to have Fraser, Ray K, Meg, and Frannie, with Fraser/Thatcher and Ray K/Frannie as the heterosexual relationships. This would probably work well for people who ship Meg/Frannie, which I don't really (not that I dislike the pairing; it just doesn't ping me like Maggie/Frannie does). I like Fraser & Frannie as a non-sexual relationship, though, and I can see Ray K/Frannie, once they get over pretending to be siblings.

Heh, I can see why matchmaking was popular on the world where sedoretus come from. *g* There's really no sedoretu combination that strikes me as obvious for F/K, although there are a number that you could make work. Anyone have other ideas? Did I miss any obvious ones?

Oh, and also: this obviously means that Bob and Buck and Caroline were in a sedoretu together with Buck's wife (do we know her name?). We'd have to give up the Buck/Caroline pairing, alas, but in return we'd get to pair Caroline with Buck's wife and they'd be awesome together while Bob and Buck were out on the trail. Oh, oh, and I like the implications of this for Ma Vecchio as well: the Vecchio household would be one big sedoretu with lots of kids, and there would be two other parents to balance out Pa Vecchio being a terrible father and probably not a much better husband.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

wow; i have no idea how i missed this Le Guin story, but thank you.

now i'm thinking about it it terms of my favorite SG-1 people too.

[luzula]

I am glad to spread this idea! There should be sedoretu fic in more fandoms. : )

[aria]

I am so in love with the Fraser Kowalski Maggie Frannie sedoretu! Seriously, it just pings me so perfectly, and I think you're right that a lot of Frannie and Fraser's interactions would be vastly improved by having a different paradigm for how relationships work. :D

[luzula]

I'm so glad you like that one! It grabbed me, too, and now I am happily thinking about it and spinning out the ideas. I think I'm going to write it some day. It wouldn't really have a plot, just six different slice-of-life scenes (one for each sub-relationship) and an ending one with all four of them.

[butterflyghost]

I love this one too. Every now and then I like fics where Frannie gets her man, if in strange and unusual ways. And I love Maggie RayK, and as you say, they'd get to have children. Woohoo!

[spuffyduds]

Whoo I kinda want that in my LIFE now.

[luzula]

I know, right? It's a cool idea. Of course, you'd need to have the deeply ingrained taboo against moiety-cest, which, not so much in our society. But I do like the idea that there's one person in your marriage who you aren't sexual with, and two that you are.

[alltoseek]

All fandoms should have sedoretu fics.

It just occurred to me that Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Diana Villers, and Sophie Williams should all have been in a sedoretu marriage together. Would have totes solved all their problems! :D

[luzula]

It just occurred to me that Jack Aubrey, Stephen Maturin, Diana Villers, and Sophie Williams should all have been in a sedoretu marriage together.

Yes! That has occurred to me, too. They'd make a great sedoretu. Someone should write it. : )

[hazelwho]

Oooh, I love the idea of Fraser, RayK, Maggie and Frannie! It seems like it would be complicated, but incredibly fascinating, to write a dynamic like that.

[luzula]

Yeah, I like that one, too! I think I'm going to write it some day. It wouldn't really have a plot, just six different slice-of-life scenes (one for each sub-relationship) and an ending one with all four of them.

[butterflyghost]

It would be great as an epistolary, or sequence of journals, or some such. And you could structure the fic into the names of the pairings. Night marriage, etc.

[glitteryv]

Interesting concept (if only super complicated! O_o). Based on what I understood of the rules, the best dS one would be Fraser/Frannie, RayK/Thatcher. That way Fraser and Thatcher could be together, Frannie and RayK could be together, the F/F and M/M aspects would be covered as well.

I would try to apply it to Bandom, but I'm afraid my head would explode. At the very least, it would take me some time to come up with a good enough configuration that would make sense forwards and backwards*. :P

*In a way that makes sense to me. I can come up with a few mixes, but none of them have that ping of rightness that would make me believe such a marriage would be possible.

[luzula]

Yeah, super complicated. : ) I mean, you'd have to write an AU society where the moiety thing is so ingrained that you'd never even think of having sex with someone of the same moiety. I think le Guin's point with this is that in a predominantly heterosexual society, that's how people are assumed to work with respect to having sex with someone of the same gender. So let's have people be bisexual, but replace the gender division with something that would seem arbitrary to us, but is super important to this society...

[riverlight]

Oh, what fun! This is a fascinating idea.

[luzula]

I know, right? It's a lot of fun to play with.

[ride_4ever]

Ye gods, doesn't LeGuin just win at EVERYTHING! I would so read the hell out of fic like this, but I'm afraid my head would 'splode if I tried to write it myself.

[luzula]

I know, she really does! And I've put it on my to-write list, but it might be a while--I need to concentrate on dSSS and Yuletide now.

[ride_4ever]

I figured it would be awhile...and myself I've got a to-write list that stretches to infinity and a to-read list as long. And I'm writing for the dSSS and I'm beta-reading for Yuletide. Oh fandom at holiday time!