fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3463 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3463 ⌋

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

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02.

[Dororon Enma-kun Meeramera]

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03.

[Megazone23pt2's Bodysuit 23]

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04.

[Steve Shives]

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05.

[Awful Hospital]

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06.

[Rick & Michonne/Richonne | The Walking Dead]

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07.

[The West Wing, The Newsroom]

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08.

[Zootopia]

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09.

[Archie Comics]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #495.
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I was thinking recently about a certain rather frustrating thing that I remember cropping up in Lord of the Rings fanfic, and am pretty sure happens in several other fandoms too:

Back in the post-movie-trilogy boom, there was a LOT of LOTR fanfic based on the Rivendell elves. Oddly, though, a lot of the really good, well-written fanfic, even the stuff set back in the time period near the founding of Rivendell, seemed to gloss over the implications of the situation: that it was not always a well-run peaceful haven, that Elrond first set up Rivendell as an emergency refugee camp populated by starving, homeless, penniless widows, widowers, and orphans fleeing the ruin and massacre of Hollin and the destruction of their centuries-old homes and works. Meaning that a huge number of these elves were probably suffering from extreme PTSD, depression, anxiety, and grief and were probably all pretty damn fucked up to the point where their mental health would interfere severely with their lives.

On the other hand, the terrible crap teenage fanfic just wallowed in glorious loads and loads of this stuff. They didn't write it WELL - it was all just mostly used as cheap fodder for romantic drama and angst for the pairing at hand - but they generally really went to town in portraying the various traumas in detail and showing how deeply the situation affected the characters and messed up their lives and minds. And...I always wished there was more fic that had the best of both worlds - actually well written and not ridiculous and melodramatic, but treating the weight and severity of the elves' struggles with their issues and memories as a central, make-or-break concern, not some minor subplot of some character's inner turmoil.

And I was wondering...do you guys have examples of this sort of thing happening in other fandoms? Where the only time a really cool, interesting, appealing idea or trope or element of the canon comes up is in the shitty fanfic, instead of the good fanfic?

When I was still way into JRPGs and anime I noticed this a lot. The "well-written" fic had great characterization and good SPAG but rarely ever touched on the nuances of backstory and world-building. Meanwhile the fic written by people who couldn't string a full sentence together often had awesome plots that really delved into the intricacies of the worlds.

I think it's because beginner writers have a script in their head of what makes a story good, and that script is often based off of the media THEY like, which generally has a huge ensemble cast and focuses on a lot of different characters and has a rich world. So they try to emulate that as best they can, and they aren't afraid to write about the things about that canon that they find interesting. A more experienced fic writer might edit all that shit out, or just assume no one wants to read it in the first place.

Nowadays I don't read a lot of badfic, but I still wade through them occasionally if the plot sounds fun.

How about being into a rare pairing that for some reason only seemed to attract incompetent writers?

[ SECRET POST #3463 ]

When a topic you like only comes up in BAD fanfic...

Re: When a topic you like only comes up in BAD fanfic...

Re: When a topic you like only comes up in BAD fanfic...