Princesses of Heart/Self- Inserts/Drop In Fics Ranting.
This might take awhile. First set of rants, woot.
Why? From what I remember of KHI, the scene where Sora releases his and Kairi's hearts, he also released the other Princesses of Hearts' hearts. Weren't they taken and made into that Keyblade? And when Sora stabbed himself, weren't their hearts free for a few moments, presumably as long as Kairi's heart was, or longer? Wouldn't that be more than enough time for six Nobodies to be born? Or am I wrong? Either way, someone could take that and maybe make a half decent story out of it. Though, I'm pretty convinced that they would _not_ be members of Organization XIII, and they would be more like Naminé. *Is confused.*
Drop-In Fics
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I am a fan of this genre. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a SINGLE well written, realistic drop-in fic. In fact, any of these in Kingdom Hearts are just painful to look at, much less read.
My introduction to fanfiction was via Sailor Moon original characters, when I was ten years old. Oddly enough, the Sailor Moon fandom actually has quite a few well-written OCs. Who'd have thunk it? From Sailor Moon, I moved to Lord of the Rings, where they are chock full of Mary Sues, Drop-Ins, Disturbing Lemons (I was twelve, and scarred.), Crossovers (another love), and the occasional Modern Reincarnation. I was corrupted at a young age...
Back to the point. Lord of the Rings, because of how it is written (if the writer ever bothered to read the books) and how the movies were filmed, it wasn't exactly challenging to create a semi-realistic story. For example, Girl A and Girl B are both rabid Lord of the Rings fans. On Girl B's twenty first birthday, they go out drinking, and are killed in a carwreck. They wake up in Middle Earth, usually near Rivendell, and are present for the Council Meeting in which the Fellowship is formed. For some bizarre reason, Elrond decides that Girls A and B are needed on the quest (usually via prophetic dream, or strange occurences during the Council Meeting that leaves Elrond with the conclusion that the Girls would be safer (ha!) travelling with the Fellowship.) Thus, the Fellowship is reborn.
The point is, I have no problem with this type of story. I even enjoy them. There are so many ways for the characters to end up where they are, and there are so many ways that the various scenes can be interpretted. Then, this is even more relevant for video games, there are the things that are never quite explained in the story.
The reasons I might not like a story like this are sudden romance, and overused plots/situations/no original plot at all/pathetic storytelling... etc. I'll elaborate, because I want to.
Sudden romance = Chapter 1. "Rikuuuuuuuuu, I wuv UUUUUU!!!!"
"OK, I WUB U TOO!!!"
"LETS MAKE SAP, ANGST, LOVE, HAVE SEX, HAVE BABIES, AND GET MAWWIED!!!"
Awful stuff. Two people who have never met (though, technically, the fangirl already knows a little about him, are making wedding plans in five minutes. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE!!!! The closest situation I know of that actually happened (other than mail order brides) is how my parents got engaged. But they're special, and they have realistic problems too. Like having too many children...
Overused Plot Devices: I've not seen a single fic in KH that does not use a PS2/TV as the 'mysterious portal to KH.' Please, people! Originality! I'll go back to my LotR comparison again. You remember the car wreck reference? There's a good one. Or, perhaps, a door. Like on Destiny Islands. Maybe a mirror, and you accidentally land in Wonderland. Through landing in Wonderland at a convenient time, you A: Run into Sora and Company, or B: Run into Riku when he's kidnapping Alice. Because Riku isn't a complete bastard yet, he's still against murdering witnesses, he takes you along with him. Tada! Originality.
No original plot at all: An _exact_ script of the game, with the occasional insertion of your characters' witty lines. Please, spice it up a little! Who says that those lines were exactly what the characters had said? Why can't there be any more characters than the ones you see IN THE GAME. I would imagine that there would be more people in Traverse Town than just the people you see hanging out in First District. Who runs the Cafe? Is there a bank? Etc.
Pathetic storytelling, imo, is merely the refusal to use a spell checker, a beta, a thesaurus... and so on. Easily fixed, unless you're just a crap writer in general.
Part of the reason these stories are such crap in Kingdom Hearts is because it's a video game. Writing (or rewriting, as it were) this partially depends on the writer's ability to be creative. For example, in the games, it never quite explains how munny is used beyond, "It's the common currency." How would your SI (Self-Insert from now on) justify the munny system? Two munny to a dollar? Eight munny to a pound? Or Save Points. What are they really? Teleportation devices that transport you to your Gummi Ship? To a Gummi garage? They have sensors on them so that they shut down whenever a Heartless is too close?
Next Topic: The Sues themselves, also known as your SI. Who says it has to be you having the adventure? In my experience, the more you put 'yourself' into the story, the more likely it is that there will be pointless, OOC romance. Why do they have to look good? Why can't they have horrible acne? Why can't they have a large frame? Why can't they be slightly-very overweight? Why can't they have super-frizzy hair that refuses to be tamed? Heck, why can't they be black? I have yet to find a single Sue who is African-American, as opposed to Latino, Asian, or Caucasian.
I also have yet to find an SI who was not obsessed with Kingdom Hearts to begin with. Again with the LotR comparison: There were at least a dozen decent fics where the SI knew _nothing_ or near _nothing_ about the story in the first place. So why is it that there're all these Sues that are beyond obsessed with Kingdom Hearts? Why can't they have had just a passing interest in the game, played it awhile, and got bored with it? That way they know a little about the story, but not everything. Why can't the Sue be a skeptical, intelligent girl who thinks too much about the meaning of life? Someone who does not believe that this is really happening, yet is too cautious to risk alienating the 'characters' because she's not sure that it's NOT happening either?
Is there even a reason that you have your Sue in Kingdom Hearts at all???
Another thing: the Keyblades. I would honestly like to have a decent OC with a Keyblade. Some (okay, most) fans that I know of would scream about this because it's NOT CANON! But, then what's the point of writing fanfiction? I digress. This is just another thing I would like to see, a little off topic, but...
'Kay I'm done. If you actually read this whole thing, congrats! You either hate me, dislike me, or are weeeeeeeeird. Because I'm a fanbrat that likes OCs. Oh well. At the end of this rant, I decided that I WILL write an OC that could possibly be an example of what I'm looking for. Because, now I'm plunnied beyond all plunnies. *now feeling cynical. Shoot her.*
Any points I missed while typing this?
Why? From what I remember of KHI, the scene where Sora releases his and Kairi's hearts, he also released the other Princesses of Hearts' hearts. Weren't they taken and made into that Keyblade? And when Sora stabbed himself, weren't their hearts free for a few moments, presumably as long as Kairi's heart was, or longer? Wouldn't that be more than enough time for six Nobodies to be born? Or am I wrong? Either way, someone could take that and maybe make a half decent story out of it. Though, I'm pretty convinced that they would _not_ be members of Organization XIII, and they would be more like Naminé. *Is confused.*
Drop-In Fics
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I am a fan of this genre. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a SINGLE well written, realistic drop-in fic. In fact, any of these in Kingdom Hearts are just painful to look at, much less read.
My introduction to fanfiction was via Sailor Moon original characters, when I was ten years old. Oddly enough, the Sailor Moon fandom actually has quite a few well-written OCs. Who'd have thunk it? From Sailor Moon, I moved to Lord of the Rings, where they are chock full of Mary Sues, Drop-Ins, Disturbing Lemons (I was twelve, and scarred.), Crossovers (another love), and the occasional Modern Reincarnation. I was corrupted at a young age...
Back to the point. Lord of the Rings, because of how it is written (if the writer ever bothered to read the books) and how the movies were filmed, it wasn't exactly challenging to create a semi-realistic story. For example, Girl A and Girl B are both rabid Lord of the Rings fans. On Girl B's twenty first birthday, they go out drinking, and are killed in a carwreck. They wake up in Middle Earth, usually near Rivendell, and are present for the Council Meeting in which the Fellowship is formed. For some bizarre reason, Elrond decides that Girls A and B are needed on the quest (usually via prophetic dream, or strange occurences during the Council Meeting that leaves Elrond with the conclusion that the Girls would be safer (ha!) travelling with the Fellowship.) Thus, the Fellowship is reborn.
The point is, I have no problem with this type of story. I even enjoy them. There are so many ways for the characters to end up where they are, and there are so many ways that the various scenes can be interpretted. Then, this is even more relevant for video games, there are the things that are never quite explained in the story.
The reasons I might not like a story like this are sudden romance, and overused plots/situations/no original plot at all/pathetic storytelling... etc. I'll elaborate, because I want to.
Sudden romance = Chapter 1. "Rikuuuuuuuuu, I wuv UUUUUU!!!!"
"OK, I WUB U TOO!!!"
"LETS MAKE SAP, ANGST, LOVE, HAVE SEX, HAVE BABIES, AND GET MAWWIED!!!"
Awful stuff. Two people who have never met (though, technically, the fangirl already knows a little about him, are making wedding plans in five minutes. THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN REAL LIFE!!!! The closest situation I know of that actually happened (other than mail order brides) is how my parents got engaged. But they're special, and they have realistic problems too. Like having too many children...
Overused Plot Devices: I've not seen a single fic in KH that does not use a PS2/TV as the 'mysterious portal to KH.' Please, people! Originality! I'll go back to my LotR comparison again. You remember the car wreck reference? There's a good one. Or, perhaps, a door. Like on Destiny Islands. Maybe a mirror, and you accidentally land in Wonderland. Through landing in Wonderland at a convenient time, you A: Run into Sora and Company, or B: Run into Riku when he's kidnapping Alice. Because Riku isn't a complete bastard yet, he's still against murdering witnesses, he takes you along with him. Tada! Originality.
No original plot at all: An _exact_ script of the game, with the occasional insertion of your characters' witty lines. Please, spice it up a little! Who says that those lines were exactly what the characters had said? Why can't there be any more characters than the ones you see IN THE GAME. I would imagine that there would be more people in Traverse Town than just the people you see hanging out in First District. Who runs the Cafe? Is there a bank? Etc.
Pathetic storytelling, imo, is merely the refusal to use a spell checker, a beta, a thesaurus... and so on. Easily fixed, unless you're just a crap writer in general.
Part of the reason these stories are such crap in Kingdom Hearts is because it's a video game. Writing (or rewriting, as it were) this partially depends on the writer's ability to be creative. For example, in the games, it never quite explains how munny is used beyond, "It's the common currency." How would your SI (Self-Insert from now on) justify the munny system? Two munny to a dollar? Eight munny to a pound? Or Save Points. What are they really? Teleportation devices that transport you to your Gummi Ship? To a Gummi garage? They have sensors on them so that they shut down whenever a Heartless is too close?
Next Topic: The Sues themselves, also known as your SI. Who says it has to be you having the adventure? In my experience, the more you put 'yourself' into the story, the more likely it is that there will be pointless, OOC romance. Why do they have to look good? Why can't they have horrible acne? Why can't they have a large frame? Why can't they be slightly-very overweight? Why can't they have super-frizzy hair that refuses to be tamed? Heck, why can't they be black? I have yet to find a single Sue who is African-American, as opposed to Latino, Asian, or Caucasian.
I also have yet to find an SI who was not obsessed with Kingdom Hearts to begin with. Again with the LotR comparison: There were at least a dozen decent fics where the SI knew _nothing_ or near _nothing_ about the story in the first place. So why is it that there're all these Sues that are beyond obsessed with Kingdom Hearts? Why can't they have had just a passing interest in the game, played it awhile, and got bored with it? That way they know a little about the story, but not everything. Why can't the Sue be a skeptical, intelligent girl who thinks too much about the meaning of life? Someone who does not believe that this is really happening, yet is too cautious to risk alienating the 'characters' because she's not sure that it's NOT happening either?
Is there even a reason that you have your Sue in Kingdom Hearts at all???
Another thing: the Keyblades. I would honestly like to have a decent OC with a Keyblade. Some (okay, most) fans that I know of would scream about this because it's NOT CANON! But, then what's the point of writing fanfiction? I digress. This is just another thing I would like to see, a little off topic, but...
'Kay I'm done. If you actually read this whole thing, congrats! You either hate me, dislike me, or are weeeeeeeeird. Because I'm a fanbrat that likes OCs. Oh well. At the end of this rant, I decided that I WILL write an OC that could possibly be an example of what I'm looking for. Because, now I'm plunnied beyond all plunnies. *now feeling cynical. Shoot her.*
Any points I missed while typing this?