[ SECRET POST #2875 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2875 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 063 secrets from Secret Submission Post #411.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. http://i.imgur.com/BcfIXNf.jpg

[kallanda_lee]

I love my OCs dearly and love to fantasize about them - but, I don't see why having fun with other people's characters would be any less entertaining? You're not obligated to like it, but surely you could see how other people would?

[(Anonymous)]

Your favorite OTP being your own characters doesn't sound narcissistic. It sounds kinda normal. What DOES sound weird and narcissistic though is the second half of your secret.

[(Anonymous)]

Up until that second part I was thinking "That's not weird, that's writing."

So what I'm getting from this is that you think writing makes you a special snowflake, you look down your nose at fanworks, and you apparently have a fixation on Word of God, even if the fandom comes up with more interesting stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

I do both. I don't see why they have to be mutually exclusive, or that one's better than the other.

For me it just depends on what sort of dynamic I'm focusing on at the time, and whether that's an OC pair or a fandom pair (or, occasionally, a mix of both) doesn't really matter much to me.

[silverr]

Whatever floats your boat, OP.

I don't think of myself as "shipping" the characters in my original fiction; if I (or the story) wants them to get together they will. ~ I do like shipping some non-canon / not quite canon fandom characters, if for no other reason than to see if I can plausibly get them together. It's an intellectual and creative exercise that's fun for me.

[(Anonymous)]

I've occasionally made up AUs of my own writing to pair up different characters. I don't devote a lot of time or energy (and it's pretty much just mental, not actually written), but it definitely feels different in my head than the "canon" story.

[iceyred]

It's like being invited to play in someone's sandbox. Who wants to sit on the edges and watch someone else build cool castles? You want to get in their sand and play too.

[(Anonymous)]

I do wonder why you're even in fandom but there's really nothing remarkable about having daydreams.

In (somewhat) defense of the second half of the secret

[feotakahari]

Most of the time, I finish reading or watching something, and I think "Okay, that's it. That's enough of that world." Like Dark Souls, for instance--it's dreary, it's angsty, everything's falling apart, I get that. I don't even care about Dark Souls 2, let alone fic set in that world.

But at the same time, no story has the time and space to cover everything, and some characters will wind up neglected. If, say, you like Fire Emblem from Tiger and Bunny, and you're devouring the drama CDs to see him/her/I-don't-even-know-it's-Japan get more time in the spotlight, is there really a difference between that and reading fanfiction? They're both ancillary materials.

And of course, sometimes the author makes a Big Stinky Oopsie, and it's up to the fans to write fic that fixes that. I saw a great essay once on why the Ender's Shadow series is inferior to fanfiction, the upshot being that the character development that occurs in the series would logically prevent some of the events of the Ender's Game series. In a fanfic, that could happen, but in a canon work, the author has to twist his own characters OOC to keep them from redirecting things.

I guess all I'm saying is that this secret feels a little too dismissive.

[(Anonymous)]

I'll echo the others that say the first part of your secret isn't narcissistic. You love your characters. That's natural and normal, so have at it!

I think part of why you might not understand why people make fanworks is the phrase: "..about characters that are someone else's property." My favorite characters are not slaves. They are not property. Yes, they original came to some writer/screenwriter/artist/creative person first, but that does not necessarily mean they are chained to their original creator. The way I feel, after a particular creator feels they've told a character's entire story, what's to stop the character from hopping into someone else's head and inspiring them to write fix-it fic? Or a continuation?

Heck, my current main fandom, the two leads NEVER kiss in original canon. NEVER! What characters would be happy with that? So, in my hands, they live very happy lives kissing and other things that they never got to do because the original creator is uncomfortable with things like that (said by the creator herself in an interview).

I don't see characters as an extension of the creator. I see "creators" as mere vessels for the creative forces that eventually become a work. Heck, I feel the same way with my own OCs. If they want to go hopping into other peoples' heads, so be it. Hope they have fun!

[queerwolf]

Canons are so rarely 100% inclusive of anything about a character and people like to play with that. What-ifs, fix-its, background stories, etc. can all be fair game in fic. Even
if you (general) like everything canon gives you, there's usually room to explore the characters further.

Am I the only one....

[(Anonymous)]

who doesn't see the second half as being intentionally "snotty" or intentionally snobbish about it? I see the unsaid "for me". All of their language seems to pointing to "this is how I see it, not necessarily the way everyone should be"

Even the "only the original author's interpretation is worth caring about" is prefaced by 'in my mind'.

They're just explaining how they see it, they're not telling people that fanfiction and shipping other canons is wrong.

Honestly I don't see why everyone's getting all "wow rude" about how someone's saying they think. I mean I definitely think differently, but OP is entitled to do their shipping and stuff their way , as long as they're not forcing it on other people. and it doesn't sound like they do that.

[(Anonymous)]

I... think you're kind of missing the entire point of fandom.

It's fine if you find playing with other people's "property" pointless, but I feel you're severely limiting your creativity and imagination if you never once think beyond the "vision" the creator lays down. Don't you even wonder what a character does after a story ends? Or what they do while they're off-screen for a while?

I'm guessing that if your OCs ever became the source of other people's fanworks, OP, that you'd have one of those public and embarrassing author meltdowns.

[(Anonymous)]

Me too, OP!!!! This is nothing to be ashamed of!

[(Anonymous)]

I love my OCs. And I love enjoying them with canon characters. So don't feel alone. (With certain canon characters though, I simply can't pair anyone but canon characters together).

[(Anonymous)]

OP, it is neither narcissist or stuck up. At all.

I've always felt the same way. My hottest OTPs were my own characters in my own original fic.

Not only am I wondering why people are seeing offense in OP's second part when it's just a statement for what works for OP and no one else, I'm looking at fandom as a whole because OP is even feeling that this secret is narcissist.

[(Anonymous)]

Good for you, and I feel properly abashed for writing fanworks.

...Oh wait, I totally don't.

[(Anonymous)]

It must be hard to participate in fandom when you feel this way about some of the most popular fannish pursuits. I sort of wonder how you feel about people who participate in the activities that you find so pointless and irrelevant.

[(Anonymous)]

I wish I could feel this way. Every time I've tried to make OCs I never care about them at all.

[(Anonymous)]

OP, what's your background image? Is it Julia Morgan's Wyntoon?

[(Anonymous)]

So much--SO MUCH--of "shipping" means suppressing basic character traits of that character in order to prop a relationship that could never exist in canon. Dramione, for instance. Draco DESPISES Muggleborns. Even if he could hatefuck Hermione, SHE would never, ever, ever go for Draco. She is perhaps the most highly principled character in the books. She could never have a relationship with a racist. Why do people see a connection there? It would never happen.

And Drarry? BOTH CHARACTERS ARE CANONICALLY STRAIGHT. I hate shipping that twists everything completely out of character. Like, write your own stories, don't take other characters and change EVERYTHING about them. It's just annoying and cringe-inducing.

I just don't believe you

[(Anonymous)]

So the original author's vision is the only one worth caring about?

You've never watched a movie based on a book or play, or seen an adaptation of anything, or enjoyed a reworking of an old classic like Sherlock or Shakespeare or Jane Austen into a modern TV series?

Sorry, I just don't believe you.

:D

[(Anonymous)]

Yes! Come to the original work snob side! Well, maybe snob is the wrong word.

OK, I pretend to feel this way. I used to have really elaborate fantasies about someone else's characters; then I realised that whatever I was doing, canon was going elsewhere, and my characterisatioons were pretty loose to begin with. So I gave up and made my own characters and settings.

It's hard in a different way.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Eh, good for you, just don't expect the same from me.

I get attached to canon characters and want to see how other people write them. Hence why I find fanworks interesting.

I like my own OCs, but I often need to see what other people do. For me fanfic is as much a spectator thing as watching TV or reading a book - it just doesn't come from the license holder.

Simply put, I do see a point in fanworks. I'll take all the fanworks and leave you to your OCs.