When Bad Fanfic Happens to Good Characters, Part IIB

[mark_asphodel]

I changed my mind.  This is another installment of Part Two, When Pairings Eat a Fandom.  It does not focus on Fire Emblem.

Comments

[sarajayechan]

But the issue didn’t go away. Most of the “serious” writers, like the above-mentioned Messrs. Nowak and Wikstrom (and Matt Plotecher, and Michael Demcio) skewed towards Chip/Gadget. On the opposite side was this female writer who hated Chip and constructed this whole ‘fic universe where Gadget was into theatre and everyone was vaguely Wiccan and eventually Gadget hooked up with this female OC and they were arty lesbians together.

Double you. Tee. Eff.

(Yay for a rant about Rescue Rangers! Childhood fandoms represent. ♥)

The thing about shipping is...in the right hands it's just another aspect of fandom, but in the wrong hands it's a bomb waiting to go off and make a mess of things. And unfortunately, fandoms tend to have more wrong hands than right hands. I firmly believe that Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom would be at least 50% less explosive if there was no shipping involved at all, in fanon OR canon.

[hooves]

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYES regarding Avatar. I refuse to set foot in that fandom. Like, ever. I only had one short drabbly idea anyway even after seeing the entire thing.

But the way the fans tear each other's heads off about who-gets-with-who is just stupid. It's always stupid. Maybe I OTP A/B, but I don't give a shit if someone else OTPs A/C, A/D, or whatever strikes their fancy. You know, the ol' leave me to my devices, I'll leave you to yours? Live and let live? Et cetera?

I never understood why there were those big ship wars, even in FE fandom. Like, why would anyone stand up and say [pairing here] is stupid, or less canon than another pairing, or better than another pairing? What does that get anybody? :/

[sarajayechan]

I got into the Avatar fandom because I'm a dweeb. And I felt the immense need to write. And because there were some nice people in it.

But the way the fans tear each other's heads off about who-gets-with-who is just stupid. It's always stupid. Maybe I OTP A/B, but I don't give a shit if someone else OTPs A/C, A/D, or whatever strikes their fancy. You know, the ol' leave me to my devices, I'll leave you to yours? Live and let live? Et cetera?

That just seems to be too hard a concept for most of fandom to grasp. :( I wish it wasn't so.

[mark_asphodel]

Double you. Tee. Eff.

The "Mooncrystal" series by Meghan Brunner. Good writer, good artist, but MAN did she ever have an axe to grind.

Yay for a rant about Rescue Rangers

Yeah, I bet nobody saw that one coming. :)

[sarajayechan]

... *looks up the site out of morbid curiousity*

I admit to having a soft spot for femslash about some childhood cartoons, but not if it involves character bashing.

[mark_asphodel]

It's still up.

To her credit, she mostly kept the Chip hate out of the actual stories up until...uh, "Rainbow's Gold," I think it was. But she was very frank about it on the message boards and I found her extremely weird. I mean, wanting to write stories where Gadget gets physically disfigured to "prove" Chip's interest in her is entirely shallow? Uh...

She also used the term "seawater" when describing tears, which annoyed the piss out of me.

[sarajayechan]

...wtf. Jesus, what did Chip ever do to warrant that much hate?

I don't see "seawater", but "saltwater" which is just as facepalmy. Reminds me of how GoldAngel 2 continually describes tears as "rivulets" being squeezed through "inky lashes".

And I just read her thoughts on her fic series. Boy, she certainly sounds bitter. :/

[mark_asphodel]

what did Chip ever do to warrant that much hate?

Existed, was male, wore a leather jacket that exposed the manly tuft of fluff on his chest, hit Dale... of COURSE he's a shallow, sociopathic batterer.

Psycho!Chip was a very popular fanon thing toward the end of my sojourn in that fandom. Jeff Wikstrom did it well-- I LOVED his take on Chip even though it was so very not canon (kinda like Samu and his Psycho!Marth). Other did it a lot less well.

Boy, she certainly sounds bitter. :/

Well, I'm bitter, too, but she was part of the problem. Though the Acorn Cafe was the very place where I did not feel free to call people out on their Foxglove worship. It wouldn't be nice.

[sarajayechan]

*facepalm* Why am I not surprised. And why am I not surprised Chip is demonized, either? Of course he's an asshole, he's the former half of a straight man and wise guy duo!

[mark_asphodel]

I mean, wanting to write stories where Gadget gets physically disfigured to "prove" Chip's interest in her is entirely shallow? Uh...

I take that back. Meghan Brunner wasn't exceptionally nice to Chip, but Julie Bihn was the anti-Chip ringleader. I was looking through the Mooncrystal site trying to reconcile Happy Pagan Faerie Lady with Nasty Messageboard Lady, and then it hit me that I'd conflated Meghan and Julie.

Mea culpa, Meghan Brunner.

[sarajayechan]

Aah. Yeah, I looked through Meghan's stories and her potrayal of Chip wasn't too horrible, just a lot of Gadget going "noooes I don't love him like I should!!!".

Julie, huh. You know, there was someone named Julie Fallner in the Pokemon fandom who hated on Misty's sisters and cried SEXISM!!! over anything bad that ever happened to Misty. Only two so far, but I wonder if Julie is a common name for batshit fans.

Too bad if it is. It's such a pretty name.