A Question for Fanfic Readers/Writers

[hermitknut]

Evenin', all.
I would just like to take this opportunity to ask you all a question which has come up in my online life recently:

How does one define character-bashing in a fanfiction?

I would define it as being the portrayal of character x in a strongly negative light without justification or any real depth.
In case you didn't get it from the

Comments

[calistomyth]

Sometimes a bashfic, where it might be described as 'doctor-bashing' or whatever, means that the character gets the raw end of the deal in terms of who gets pummelled in the plot line. The term 'bashfic' in this sense clearly comes from the character being bashed around. Quite Significantly.

Incidentally, these tend to be my favourite kinds of fic.

Anyway, I'm going to reread that fic you linked me to to see if my theory stands in this example...

Hope I've helped :)

PS. Julian Barratt really *does* have tiny eyes...

[calistomyth]

** Sometimes it's not a literal bashing. Perhaps a metaphorical bashing? maybe not.

I can't read the fic properly atm anyway cos my brain isn't functioning today. :)

[hermitknut]

lol, no worries. Thanks, you did help :)
HK

[countwestwest]

[hermitknut]

See, now this is interesting. Because with some characters I find it really easy to see them done as "bad" and with others I find it quite difficult - for example Ron, that you listed there. I love Ron, and I could argue for quite a while about how awesome he is. Likewise Hermione. But even though reading that list of traits made me wince a little (okay, a lot :P), I wouldn't turn around to you and say you're wrong. That's just one way of looking at the character. And if you wrote a fic based on those two characters like that... hm. In all honesty, I probably wouldn't read it. But than I'd consider that to be the same as not reading a fic because it's got something I find squicky in it... it's all opinion