Meta on Kara/Lee/Sam

[lanalucy]

newnumbertwo asked me about Kara/Lee/Sam.

I liked Sam fine as a wartime frak for Kara. He was a charismatic, attractive man, and I can’t blame Kara for wanting to frak him. He was uncomplicated, an unknown quantity, someone she probably felt like she could frak and leave behind without any qualms, a last taste of the comforts of home that was never meant to be anything more than that.

Making him into the “love of her life” never made sense to me. He wasn’t. There was nothing on which to base that chain of events. I could see her angsting over leaving him behind, about keeping her promise to come back. For me, her need to get back to Caprica was about keeping her word and saving Sam, not about having Sam in her life. RDM and the writers never sold me on that one. They could have - I would have been willing to expand my Kara world to include Sam - but they failed on all fronts. As for Sam, I think he had unrealistic expectations of Kara, and of marriage to Kara, that Kara could never live up to.

I read VERY little K/S fic. I just don’t enjoy it because I don’t believe in the ‘ship. That said, I was curious about what would happen if Lee didn’t leave while Kara and Sam were making out in LDYBII, so I started writing it. I’m enjoying exploring the different dynamics of the group, how they each relate to the other two in their tri, both individually and as a pair, and how having Sam as a buffer might change things between Kara and Lee, might allow them to be more honest with each other without losing face.

Other people have written it better, the most memorable of which for me is lizardbeth’s Shuffle and Deal, the beginning (and currently only existing part) of her TRIAD series. She starts at a different point in canon - the morning after on NC - and creates a vividly human story about how they might make a relationship, a marriage, work between the three of them. She makes it believable for me, and if there were more to this story, I would gladly read it.

So Kara/Lee/Sam fic is a small subset of K/L/x fic that I enjoy reading for the way it shifts the dynamic between Kara and Lee and makes them work to add a third party to their frakked up relationship. As for writing it, once I get Running Away finished, I doubt it’ll be something I have the urge to write again, except perhaps as pure smut. I do tend to write ‘ships in kink that I don’t see as workable in a romantic sense.

And none of that it to say that I dislike Sam. I think Sam's a great character, just not a good match for Kara.

Comments

[newnumbertwo.livejournal.com]

This is a very fair assessment of the three of them. I like how you make them work. You get all three of their personalities and quirks. And they just...click. They're fun together.

[lanalucy]

Thank you.

I'm glad somebody's having fun. :D

Gotta admit, Kara is, and really, the world is a better place when Kara's happy. lol