Yes, what callmedsandy said! It's like swearing: just because they don't show it on wholesome shows doesn't mean it doesn't happen. That is exactly the analogy I just used with gloriana and elayna88 when your post led me to raise the discussion. (We're having a fannish gathering.)
Okay, I wouldn't believe Xander had been smoking regularly all the way through Buffy, but that he'd pick up the habit after Chosen? Oh, yeah. No further justification needed. I'd even believe he did it for a while within canon time - maybe with his workmates at one of his season 4 jobs, or secretly after Buffy's s5 death and/or resurrection. And I've already written a fic where Giles still had a very occasional habit, which he made sure the scoobies never saw, because I think that totally fits the character onscreen (and why we never saw it onscreen).
But for some characters, I suppose you'd need to convince me. I can't see Buffy smoking, for some reason. I'd be more likely to believe Willow smoking than Buffy. And Matt from Die Hard, never. He wouldn't be a tool of the tobacco-military-industrial complex. :-)
As for me, I've smoked... maybe twenty cigarettes total, ever? Pretty much all in the first year out of high school. And mostly smoked then because if I had one, then other people's second-hand smoke didn't bother me for the rest of the night. And just because it's the age when you try stuff. So like you, I assume most people have at least tried it, at some point. But I hate smoking, find it totally gross and unattractive to see or smell in RL.
However, I *really* like it when it pops up in fiction, as a novelty or just because it is damned sexy. 'Cos yeah, it can be damned sexy in fic or onscreen. It adds a... rawness(?) to the character. But there are tons of kinks I have in fictional life that I don't like in real life. And if people can have unprotected fanfic sex without strange penis diseases, then they can have fanfic cigarettes without tasting like an ashtray.
Damn, now I want to write a sexy Giles/Xander smoking fic.
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winterfish
no subject
Date: 2010-05-07 07:21 am (UTC)Yes, what callmedsandy said! It's like swearing: just because they don't show it on wholesome shows doesn't mean it doesn't happen. That is exactly the analogy I just used with gloriana and elayna88 when your post led me to raise the discussion. (We're having a fannish gathering.)
Okay, I wouldn't believe Xander had been smoking regularly all the way through Buffy, but that he'd pick up the habit after Chosen? Oh, yeah. No further justification needed. I'd even believe he did it for a while within canon time - maybe with his workmates at one of his season 4 jobs, or secretly after Buffy's s5 death and/or resurrection. And I've already written a fic where Giles still had a very occasional habit, which he made sure the scoobies never saw, because I think that totally fits the character onscreen (and why we never saw it onscreen).
But for some characters, I suppose you'd need to convince me. I can't see Buffy smoking, for some reason. I'd be more likely to believe Willow smoking than Buffy. And Matt from Die Hard, never. He wouldn't be a tool of the tobacco-military-industrial complex. :-)
As for me, I've smoked... maybe twenty cigarettes total, ever? Pretty much all in the first year out of high school. And mostly smoked then because if I had one, then other people's second-hand smoke didn't bother me for the rest of the night. And just because it's the age when you try stuff. So like you, I assume most people have at least tried it, at some point. But I hate smoking, find it totally gross and unattractive to see or smell in RL.
However, I *really* like it when it pops up in fiction, as a novelty or just because it is damned sexy. 'Cos yeah, it can be damned sexy in fic or onscreen. It adds a... rawness(?) to the character. But there are tons of kinks I have in fictional life that I don't like in real life. And if people can have unprotected fanfic sex without strange penis diseases, then they can have fanfic cigarettes without tasting like an ashtray.
Damn, now I want to write a sexy Giles/Xander smoking fic.
S.