Divorce Fic
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | divorce!fic |
| Related tropes/genres | Panic! at the Disco |
| See also | break-up, angst, fix-it |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Divorce fic is a Panic! at the Disco fanfic trope that appeared in response to the band's split in July 2009. Ryan Ross and Jon Walker left the band to form The Young Veins while Brendon Urie and Spencer Smith remained as Panic.[1] Fans started posting fic about it within a day of the announcement.[2]
The Divorce
Rather than a traditional band break-up, where the band ceases to exist and members go their separate ways, the split was characterized by fans as a divorce for a number of reasons:
- The original band still existed,
- The fandom's most popular ship, Brendon/Ryan, got split up, with the perception that Brendon was 'getting' Spencer in the process, as:
- The fandom's founding friendship was separated (Ryan & Spencer being friends since childhood and creating the band together, while both Brendon and Jon had joined the band at various later dates).
See also "The Divorce" section of merelyn's primer: WHY THE FUCK DID I MAKE A PANIC! AT THE DISCO PRIMER IN 2010 I HATE EVERYTHING.
Post-Divorce
"Post-Divorce" became a common way to indicate the era a fanwork is set in. See the Panic works of AO3's "post-divorce" tag.
Tagging a work "Post-divorce" might indicate that it is indeed divorce!fic, dealing with the aftermath either as a fix-it or comfort; it might also simply be a timeline indication to explain why some of the Panic 2.0 characters aren't featured.
Example Fanworks
Divorce!fic
- Things Have Changed For Me (And That's Okay) by orphan_account, Spencer & Ryan gen, posted to AO3 July 9, 2009 (just a few days after the split announcement):
Notes: Divorce fic. Coping strategies come in all kinds of shapes and sizes. Apparently this is mine. Very possibly the cheesiest thing ever written. Also unbeta'd, because I broke both of mine. (They weren't ready yet. I'm sorry, you guys!)
[...]
It's all going down like the world's most amicable divorce—the quiet serious talks, the teary eyes nobody admits to or acknowledges, the painful honesty. The decision that their friendship is more important than the band, and the tragic truth is that if they stay together as a band, there is going to come a day when Ryan and Brendon in particular won't be able to be friends anymore. The fights, the constant head-butting, the strained distance between them that's been growing a little at a time, inexorably, since probably forever—it's going to break, someday, maybe irreparably, and it hurts, but it's better to do this now, when they can part as friends and maintain it, maybe even recover some of their former closeness. It's better to do this now than later, when it's angry and bitter and there's nothing left to save.
- Falling into place by AirgiodSLV, Brendon/Spencer gen, posted August 20, 2009:
He finds Brendon inside on one of the couches, and sits down next to him, close but not too close. He’s been trying to think of a good opening line, but when Brendon looks up at him, what he ends up saying is, “You know I’m not going anywhere, right?”Brendon fiddles with one of Bronx’s toys, reassembling a rainbow-colored plastic cube currently in pieces. “You’re his best friend.”
Spencer bumps his shoulder. Brendon tenses, but he relaxes almost as fast, leaning in towards physical contact like a plant reaching for sunlight. “You’re my lead singer,” Spencer says.
Brendon looks up, quick and wary. Whatever he sees in Spencer’s neutral expression makes him smile a little, tentative. “He’s already pissed at me,” he says. “And now I’m stealing you.”
“He’ll get over it,” Spencer says. “He knew I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life playing a fucking egg shaker.”
- Spencer Smith and the Perils of the Junk Drawer by manipulant, Brendon/Spencer gen, posted to AO3 on March 29, 2010. Spencer finds a list that shows Brendon believes the awkwardness between the members is due to them planning to kick him out of the band:
Brendon sucks in a breath, but lets go after a second or two, and Spencer scoots his chair closer to Brendon's, so that their knees are touching, as he sort of ostentatiously smooths the crumpled paper out onto the tabletop. He uncaps the Sharpie with his teeth (his other hand is still rubbing Brendon's shoulder a little), and painstakingly marks outbuy a drum kit, the point of the Sharpie squeaking on the paper a little as it goes. "There," he says, pushing it closer to the edge of the table, where Brendon will be able to see it, "I fixed it." He can feel Brendon lift his head a little, enough to look at the changes Spencer's made to his list. "I guess you could still buy one if you really wanted to," Spencer concedes after a minute of awkward silence, "but. I mean, we could just use mine."
Post-Divorce
Some examples of post-divorce divorce!fics:
- (Podfic) You make me feel so-- by miss_marina95 (fic by lalejandra), posted to AO3 June 11, 2013.
Author Summary: The post-divorce Spencer/Ryan fic of my heart, full of some of my favorite fanon.
SUMMARY: Uh. Idk, the original title of this doc was "The Accidental Un-Divorce Fic." :D?
- Amnesiac!Ryan series by mokuyoubi, posted to AO3 March 9–10, 2013.
Summary: For the prompt Ryan loses all memory of the last five years - and suddenly wakes up in a world where his Dad's dead, he's surrounded by unfamiliar people, and Spencer's not speed dial #1. Pretty much that, and not a lot of resolution.
- Everything's Another Excuse (To Keep From Doing From What We Want To) by sunsetmog, Brendon/Jon, Ryan/Spencer, posted to AO3 July 7, 2011.
Summary:Post-divorce fic. Brendon and Jon try to work things out.
"They never lied, they never said they were friends when they weren't, but it's not like they call each other up and hang out together any more."
References
- ^ Rolling Stone, Panic At the Disco Lose Members Ryan Ross and Jon Walker, published July 6, 2009 (retrieved Sept 23, 2014).
- ^ For example: Panic ficlet: Neutral Zone, Spencer & Ryan gen, post-breakup, Archived version, livejournal post by marksykins in bandslashmania, 2009-07-07.