Re: What goes in the kinkmeme...
anonymous
February 27 2010, 04:19:54 UTC
The prompt you're referring to was a dark!Dan one a couple of pages back. I did find the debate very interesting for the reasons you described: exactly how far is too far for some people?
One thing I really enjoy about the KM is that anons can take some wild prompts--Watchmen meets Watership Down? Rorschach turns into a bug thing?-- and create something amazing out of it. But the unifying factor between fills like that is that some core feature of the character's canon personality remains. It may be in its infant stages, or it may be muted or suppressed, but it's never too much of a stretch to overlay canon and AU and see how the latter could grow into the former.
The problem for some people may arise when characters do something so blatantly at odds with their canon depiction that the relationship between the two snaps. But if that's true, then villainverse, which bases its entire premise on Bizarro versions of everyone, wouldn't be popular at all.
I think part of the issue is that our perception of what characters are capable of is being warped by fanon. This tends to happen if you spend a length of time in any fandom, but I think the KM is such an insular section of the Watchmen fandom that the effect is magnified. As a whole, over the course of the 4 KMs, it seems we've boiled down the characters to certain roles: Dan's the patient, loving nurturer; Laurie's the tough girl; Adrian's the (dangerously sociopathic but) stoic woobie; Jon is Dr. Deux Ex Machina; the list goes on.
The more fanon begins to mingle with and supplant canon, the more difficult it is to separate who the characters really are from what they are to us. I don't think this is a bad thing, but I do think that a knee jerk reaction of OOC! should be followed by, "But is it really?"
Re: What goes in the kinkmeme...
anonymous
February 27 2010, 11:42:03 UTC
But the unifying factor between fills like that is that some core feature of the character's canon personality remains.
It was really interesting reading people's personal fanon in Watchdom, in this case, and thinking about where I departed and where I matched someone else. Part of the challenge I've been finding is that something written for the kinkmeme can be completely off for elsewhere. On a positive note, I think that what happens on the kinkmeme bleeds into other places, doing strange things on the whole.
But if that's true, then villainverse, which bases its entire premise on Bizarro versions of everyone, wouldn't be popular at all.
Great case! Villain!verse showcases writer's skills at doing that tricky balance, because the characters aren't reversed copies, but are twisted versions of themselves in canon.
What you said about fanon affecting our perception of the characters is so true:
I think part of the issue is that our perception of what characters are capable of is being warped by fanon. This tends to happen if you spend a length of time in any fandom, but I think the KM is such an insular section of the Watchmen fandom that the effect is magnified.
I admit that I tend to gauge fic by how knowing they are of kinkmeme fanon, and this comment has made me more conscious of that, and the mistake of seeing the kinkmeme as representing fanfic. It's the most awesome part of Watchdom fandom for me, though :)
I do think that a knee jerk reaction of OOC! should be followed by, "But is it really?"
YES, TOTALLY AGREE. Too much of that and it becomes a trap.
One thing I really enjoy about the KM is that anons can take some wild prompts--Watchmen meets Watership Down? Rorschach turns into a bug thing?-- and create something amazing out of it. But the unifying factor between fills like that is that some core feature of the character's canon personality remains. It may be in its infant stages, or it may be muted or suppressed, but it's never too much of a stretch to overlay canon and AU and see how the latter could grow into the former.
The problem for some people may arise when characters do something so blatantly at odds with their canon depiction that the relationship between the two snaps. But if that's true, then villainverse, which bases its entire premise on Bizarro versions of everyone, wouldn't be popular at all.
I think part of the issue is that our perception of what characters are capable of is being warped by fanon. This tends to happen if you spend a length of time in any fandom, but I think the KM is such an insular section of the Watchmen fandom that the effect is magnified. As a whole, over the course of the 4 KMs, it seems we've boiled down the characters to certain roles: Dan's the patient, loving nurturer; Laurie's the tough girl; Adrian's the (dangerously sociopathic but) stoic woobie; Jon is Dr. Deux Ex Machina; the list goes on.
The more fanon begins to mingle with and supplant canon, the more difficult it is to separate who the characters really are from what they are to us. I don't think this is a bad thing, but I do think that a knee jerk reaction of OOC! should be followed by, "But is it really?"
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It was really interesting reading people's personal fanon in Watchdom, in this case, and thinking about where I departed and where I matched someone else. Part of the challenge I've been finding is that something written for the kinkmeme can be completely off for elsewhere. On a positive note, I think that what happens on the kinkmeme bleeds into other places, doing strange things on the whole.
But if that's true, then villainverse, which bases its entire premise on Bizarro versions of everyone, wouldn't be popular at all.
Great case! Villain!verse showcases writer's skills at doing that tricky balance, because the characters aren't reversed copies, but are twisted versions of themselves in canon.
What you said about fanon affecting our perception of the characters is so true:
I think part of the issue is that our perception of what characters are capable of is being warped by fanon. This tends to happen if you spend a length of time in any fandom, but I think the KM is such an insular section of the Watchmen fandom that the effect is magnified.
I admit that I tend to gauge fic by how knowing they are of kinkmeme fanon, and this comment has made me more conscious of that, and the mistake of seeing the kinkmeme as representing fanfic. It's the most awesome part of Watchdom fandom for me, though :)
I do think that a knee jerk reaction of OOC! should be followed by, "But is it really?"
YES, TOTALLY AGREE. Too much of that and it becomes a trap.
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