10 Unpopular Fandom Opinions
Stolen shamelessly from likeadeuce. I went for a slight twist on this, as I have been navel-gazing more and more recently.
10 Unpopular Fannish Fandom Opinions
1. Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic. There's the issue of - well, it's not physically possible. Why is people wanting something seen ( Read more... )
10 Unpopular Fannish Fandom Opinions
1. Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic. There's the issue of - well, it's not physically possible. Why is people wanting something seen ( Read more... )
Word.
But because I'm weird, I'm going to respond point by point.
1.) Having two male characters decide that they want a baby is enough justification for an MPREG fic
Okay, I'm from the SGA fandom via Harry Potter's rare-pairings slash fandom. Mpreg is just one step away from canon in SGA because the aliens they deal with are cracked. This is also a fandom where penguin transformations are considered old hat or normal. Admittedly if I ever see mpreg in my more sane fandoms like Ouran, I will brain the author with a concrit & run screaming into the night. But in some fandoms where the place you live is pretty much in love with the hero & has god knows what tech waiting to be used, them mpreg because the couple wants it is plausible.
2.) There are ways to retcon rape that still allows our characters to get together.
Wordy McWord. There just isn't an easy way to write rape fics unless it's cracked or long & painful. I guess you could Stockholm it, but for the most part you need the time factor, which is hard for fanfic writers.
3.) Incest between character X and character Y is 'obvious'.
Again word. & it also needs to have an effect on the characters & their world outside of the "aw, it's so nice you have love."
4.) Slash is a 'superior' art-form.
I hate this assumption (this is a slasher talking, er, writing, whatever.) There are crap writers in every section of fandom. The ony reason any one could even think this is b/c (from my experiences only- if you've seen different, talk) slashers tend to be the older members of a fandom, the ones who aren't in high school & who have the more ingrained habits of spell checker & beta before posting. But as far as plot goes I agree that gen writers have to be skilled because unless they know all the right comms, they have to stand out to get folks to talk about their fics. But the same goes for the rare pairs too (het or slash.)
6.) A Season 1 version of Character X is fine for my Season 7 story.
OMG, bad characterization sucks donkey bits. Unless they have amnisia or some other soap opera ailement, this never works. I've been guilty of this & I'm sorry about it (tried to fix it too, but I ended up just hating my fail more.)
7.) My story is AU - it's a 'what if character X never fell in love with character y but character z instead, and then the world ended and character x was turned into a turtle and they all moved to the bottom of the ocean and spoke in tongues'.
Again siteing SGA. We are truly the most cracked fandom in the world. *huggles my v. weird & insane fandom* This is v. close to canon. But really we do AU's all the time where they are perfectly in character but the folks are firemen, lawyers, teachers, an opera troope, advertising execs, or flowers (& that flower one has porn between the sunflower & the tulip which is also mpreg.) But all are v. in-character b/c the canon characters are v. strong & easy to use in new enviroments without damaging too much of their pasts. Besides this is rather canon too- there is a inter-dimensional mirror that lets you trip through various alt. realities. But you know what, in some fandoms it's the experiences that make the character & you can't change them.
8.) Telling writers about our story ideas is really funny and they really appreciate our enthusiasm!
shudders. BNF's.... crazy fans..... That's up there (but below) shoving porny fan art to the actors at cons & shoving fanfic in their direction too.
9.) My OTP is TRUE and DESTINED because -.
Slasher- if the ptb ever used one of my otp's or heaven provide my ot4 I'd die & go to heaven (or a special hell) then so would the show because once the Christain right go through trashing it, the shippers would squabble over the scraps & trash those.
10.) Spoilers are EEEEVIL! And by spoilers I mean even one-word responses to episodes such as 'squee!' or 'bums!'
Thank you for reminding me why I left the HP fandom. Spoilers are good, love spoilers, feed me them, then leave me to squee over them. I do warn for spoilers if I see that trend but mostly I just put in the tags the season or something to that effect. Let them flame me. I live in a cold wintery area now & I need the heat.
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*HOUSE SPOILERS, I guess?*
Unless you're writing about Foreman. *ducks* I was just going "WTF?" at that point.
It's sad that it's become an unpopular opinion to think incest is wrong.
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It's the latter example that I was really talking about. Having MPREG in a fandom like Harry Potter or even Buffy can be explained easily with magic - and indeed can be used to produce some interesting and fabulous fic (I'm thinking of the one fic in particular, where Dumbledore ends up pregnant with a Voldemort shrunk back to zygote size... it's more Rosemary's Baby than anything else and it's fabulous). However, there is no excuse for AMERICAN IDOL RPS MREG. Yes, you read that right. It's RPS. And it's mpreg.
The day that Simon Cowell turns up pregnant is the day that I eat my hat.
Again word. & it also needs to have an effect on the characters & their world outside of the "aw, it's so nice you have love."
*giggle*
OMG, bad characterization sucks donkey bits. Unless they have amnisia or some other soap opera ailement, this never works. I've been guilty of this & I'm sorry about it (tried to fix it too, but I ended up just hating my fail more.)
Ditto. But, hey, at least we're aware of it now and watch out for it when writing - there are writers out there that feel it's a valid aritistic choice. *mind = boggling*
But all are v. in-character b/c the canon characters are v. strong & easy to use in new enviroments without damaging too much of their pasts.
See, I think there's a difference between the AUs where the characters are clearly identifiable and the ones that just use the character names to write original fic. Using the Buffy canon Wishverse, the Xena/Hercules, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Hercules!", the Star Treek Mirrorverse - all of these AUs use characters that we are familiar with and those characters are still regoniseable. However, it's not the same as calling it an AU because you didn't like character X's development and so decided to make them fall in love with an OFC and make them have babies. That's not an AU, that's just canon-rape.
But you know what, in some fandoms it's the experiences that make the character & you can't change them.
WORD. Or, LOST, as my actual example. :)
Thank you for reminding me why I left the HP fandom.
The people complaining about being spoiled for the book cover (!!) were just the best, weren't they? I wonder how they survived in the real world...
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