Lost Girl

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Fandom
Name: Lost Girl
Abbreviation(s): LG
Creator: Michelle Lovretta
Date(s): September 12, 2010 - present
Medium: Live-Action Television show
Country of Origin: Canada
External Links: Lost Girl official website
Lost Girl Showcase Blog
Lost Girl official Twitter
Lost Girl official facebook
The cast of "Lost Girl"
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Lost Girl is a Canadian supernatural drama series airing on Showcase in Canada. The series airs on Syfy in the United States, on Syfy UK in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in Australia until Season 4. In other international locations it is distributed by Sony Pictures Television. The fifth and final season consisting of 16 episodes began on December 7, 2014; with the season split into two parts of eight episodes each, and the second part scheduled for Fall 2015.[1]

Michelle Lovretta, the creator, co-show runner (Season 1), and a writer for the series describes Lost Girl as follows:

"Lost Girl is the story of Bo, a young woman who realizes she’s a succubus (a woman who uses sex to feed, heal… and kill) when she hits maturity and drains her high school boyfriend to death during her first sexual encounter. Oops. She tries to run from her past and her nature, until encountering others like her and learning she’s part of the Fae, an ancient race living amongst humans and feeding off of them in different ways. They pressure her to join their ranks, but she distrusts their motives and chooses to go it alone, navigating the terrain between the humans and the Fae while trying to figure out her origins and gain control of her predatory sexual hungers." [2]

The show also uses the case of the week formula by having Bo and Kenzi solve Fae-related cases as private investigators.

Canon

The relationship between Bo and Kenzi, whom Bo rescues in the first episode, is the central relationship in canon. Michelle Lovretta discussed the importance of female friendship in a 2010 interview with RGB Filter:

"The difference here, if there is any, is what stories I might be more drawn towards telling. One of the dynamics I enjoy exploring most in Lost Girl is just that of female friendship. I get a little tired of the portrayals of shallow, catty, competitive girlfriends, the type who ditch one another when anything with a functioning penis walks in the room. That just hasn’t been my experience. I’m not those girls, I don’t like those girls, and I’d sooner not spend an entire season writing them....I have no doubt that Kenzi and Bo would kill or die for one another, although there’s nothing sexual between them to be gained. I love that about them, and that platonic loyalty was very important for me to protect throughout the development process: that Bo and Kenzi are sisters, not love interests. I didn’t want to feed into the stereotype that because someone is bisexual (as Bo is) that they’re sexually available to, or interested in, everyone. I love me my Bo — so, I don’t want to paint her as a Walking Hungry Crotch, or someone’s fantasy fulfillment." [2]

In a 2012 interview with the Watercooler Journal, Lovretta further explained why it was important that the relationship between Bo and Kenzi be strictly platonic:

"I’d like to clarify that this show isn’t about sex for me: it’s about relationships, and one of the core relationships on Lost Girl is NOT sexual, by design. On a show that deals with female sexuality, I felt it was crucial to also demonstrate that sex and romance aren’t the only ways that Bo measures a relationship’s worth, to give the show balance. Fans may have noticed that Kenzi clarified her hetero orientation at the end of ep 101 — pretty much the only time someone has addressed their orientation directly on our show. That line was necessary because in production I kept running into directors who wanted to sexualize the dynamic between Bo and Kenzi, to make the show “hotter”. I was determined to protect their platonic-yet-epic BFF-ness, so I made sure it was written in as canon. Partly, this was to debunk the gay-panic cliche that bisexual people sexualize everyone, and are incapable of platonic friendship. But there was another, simpler and more personal reason: I think friendship is the fifth element. Truly. I think it’s that substantial and nourishing a thing, so friendship and loyalty are part of the bone structure of Lost Girl, always just under the skin. So, hidden in amongst all the romance and cleavage and threesomes, the Lost Girl Bo and Kenzi relationship is my own little love poem to all the BFFs out there who do it right. I salute you."[3]

The competing canon ships of Bo/Dyson and Bo/Lauren are explored in the first and second seasons, with the romances woven into the plot arc around Bo's origins and importance to the competing Light and Dark Fae. Bo/Lauren entered into a committed relationship in the third season, separated by the finale episode, then reunited towards the end of the fourth season. In the fifth season, Bo told Lauren that she wanted them to be together again and Lauren accepted.

Fandom

The fandom has grown since the first season after Lost Girl quickly gathered a lot of buzz among Livejournal and Dreamwidth users, and size enough to be a Yuletide fandom in 2010. The show is popular for its female lead, and the strong focus on female relationships. There are Gen, Het and femslash works, although m/m slash is very rare. There are a lot of fans focused on discussion or meta and squee about watching and may not be focused on writing or reading fanfic.

Shipping

The canon romantic relationship between Bo and Lauren helped to ensure an active femslash presence in the fandom. While Michelle Lovretta's intent was for Bo and Kenzi to be friends, not lovers, not all of the fandom agreed with her, and Bo/Kenzi is one of the common pairings. The pairing of Bo+Doctor Lauren Lewis as "Doccubus" (doctor + succubus) was coined by a fan in 2010. It caught on with fans of the couple and became the term used by fandom.[4] In the third season, Tamsin joined the cast of characters and fans of a pairing between Bo/Tamsin named it "Valkubus" (valkyrie + succubus), in the same vein as "doccubus".

While Bo/Dyson and Bo/Lauren are both canon ships, many Lauren fans feel that her character is being neglected in favour of the Bo/Dyson relationship (less screen time, less development, suspicion that Bo/Dyson is the endgame, etc.).[5] Fans who support one pairing over the other belong to "teams": Team Dyson and Team Lauren. The "team" idea comes from episode 105, "Dead Lucky", where in the early part of the episode Kenzi declares herself off Team Dyson, and then later reconsiders it which is a canon shout-out to Twilight fandom practice with Team Edward and Team Jacob.

"Dude, I can't believe I backed you with Bo. You made me look like a total tool. The worst part is you treated her like shit but somehow you're forgiven. That is why I'm no longer on team Dyson."[6]

There are a few fans of the Dyson/Kenzi and Kenzi/Hale pairings.

Fanworks

Arts

Vids

Character Focused:

Pairing Focused:
See vids at pairing pages:

Communities and Archives

Dreamwidth

Livejournal

See Lost Girl pairing pages for more links.

External Links

Deviantart

See Lost Girl pairing pages for more links.

Tumblr

Resources

References

  1. ^ SHOWCASE ANNOUNCES THE EPIC FINAL SEASON OF LOST GIRL
  2. ^ a b Nine Questions with Lost Girl Creator and Writer Michelle Lovretta (Accessed December 21, 2010)
  3. ^ An Interview with Michelle Lovretta (Accessed August 13, 2014)
  4. ^ What is Doccubus? (Accessed August 14, 2014)
  5. ^ The Doctor Is In! (Accessed December 21, 2010)
  6. ^ Lost Girl Season 1 Episode 5 "Dead Lucky"
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