[ SECRET POST #2238 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2238 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 04 pages, 097 secrets from Secret Submission Post #320.
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]

11. http://oi45.tinypic.com/199ljs.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

Oh no! A type of media that allows people to be partially original in their character creation while still enjoying the community of a fandom! what shall we DO??

get over yourself. Some of those fanfics may suck but so do most of the rest of fanfiction in the internet and beyond. Writing a canon character doesn't automatically equal writing them in-character. The percentage of people who will write a well-balanced original protagonist is the exact same percentage as the one of people who can write in-character fanfiction.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh get over yourself. Yeah, it doesn't work like that IRL. Surprise, these are games designed for giving people a fun and pleasurable escape from the humdrum of everyday life. There's plenty of fanfic in these fandoms centring on the NPCs; all it takes is clicking their names in the search function on ff.net or AO3 or Delicious. I've read and enjoyed heaps of fic that never featured the author's avatar.

At the end of the day, fandom is about fun and escapism. Some people are attached to their main chars and have a blast writing about them. Sometimes I'm in the mood for pure campy fun and wish fulfilment, and reading about people's different takes on their Shepards/Dovahkiins/Wardens can be fascinating. It gives a real insight into the person on the other side of the screen. Stop being such a thin-lipped sour-faced killjoy. God, I bet you wear a hairnet and breed budgerigars.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know about Skyrim, but... Shepard has an an actual personality, though...? Sure it changes to a certain extent based on how you play, but it's not like it's completely open-ended. S/he's a bit of a canon sue, it's true, but "protag is better than everyone" isn't exactly an uncommon video game trope. I can think of several ways to write an OOC Shepard, as opposed to (for example) a Pokemon protagonist who has literally no personality.

[(Anonymous)]

Then stop reading it. No one is holding a gun to your head.

Obviously you're not reading it right, otherwise you'd see that at least some of the fics has the character in only one or two of the guilds in Skyrim. And maybe leader of one.

[forgottenjester]

I honestly don't know what to tell you. One, I think you must have missed a lot of the good fics focusing on these characters. Two, how could you go into the fandom thinking that the main, customizable character wouldn't be the apple of everyone's eye? I mean, how?

Though, if you really hate it so much my best advice is to stop reading it because, really, I don't see trends changing anything soon.

[unicornherds]

Ngl I was pretty disappointed when I poked my head in to check out some gaming fandom fic and it was all OCs and nothing to do with canon characters or the rich history within that universe. I don't begrudge people their fun, but I still wish there was more stories with the canon cast.

[(Anonymous)]

NGL, the net effect of this secret for me? Oooooh, I think I might have to start playing Skyrim....

[ex_mek82]

As someone who used to write that kind of fan fic for various video games, I will freely admit there's a certain level of enjoyment to be had writing stories that take place in a malleable canon, especially with a main character you can "personalize", so to speak.

I guess that level of freedom is appealing to a lot of people. You can't begrudge them from having fun.

And if you really want fics focusing on other characters, have you even asked for fic recs...? Or maybe asked on a kink meme? (I know, kink memes are very much a haven for Sturgeon's Law, but there have been some good ones that have popped up over the years)

[(Anonymous)]

Well they're pretty much self-inserts I thought this was pretty obvious..

[feotakahari]

Sometimes it baffles me what secrets FS commenters do and don't flip their lids about. How is this any different from, say, complaining that most folks who write romance fic for a certain fandom write one pairing you don't like (a complaint I've seen posted here a few times without any vitriol in the responses)?

[(Anonymous)]

While I usually don't read player character fic (especially if it's a female Skyrim player character who hooks up with Farkas, because yes, my Dovahkiin/Farkas is totally OTP and I'm only somewhat embarrassed to admit it), sometimes I come across a player character like Dyce the Incredibly Easy Breton, so I can't say I think it's all bad. I love Dyce.

I remember reading some good Dragon Age: Origins fic that didn't focus on the Warden, so I'm sure there must be some fic like that in other fandoms as well.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly, I don't get all the people saying they only see OC fiction in these fandoms. The first Elder Scrolls fic I can name off the top of my head is a novel length one that almost entirely focused on canon chars in Morrowind. What the OP complained othe fandoms lack is out there in droves, they clearly just haven't bothered to look that far.

Hark, OP

[(Anonymous)]

Serious offer. What NPCs in these fandoms are you so lacking fic of? Tell me, and if I can't find an existing fic for you (which I would be surprised about), I'll write you the damn thing myself. Honest to god.

[(Anonymous)]

If it's a game scenario that they become the most special snowflake, I don't know why it'd be less believable if you read it in written form. Let people have their fantasies.

[(Anonymous)]

Nope, we don't care. If you want stories like that so bad, write them yourself.

Me? I'm going to read and write about my skyrim characters/my shepard and there's nothing you can do about it except hit the back button

[aenrhien]

You make it sound like any other fandom is any different. There's bad OC fic in any fandom you could possibly name, even the fandoms you think are so small they couldn't possibly have them.

Learn to use the back arrow or just stop reading fanfic, bitching about it won't accomplish anything but making yourself look childish.

[(Anonymous)]

Uh last I checked, fanfiction isn't real life either.

Also: If the PC is however powerful in a game, why the hell not in a fic based on that game? If the character is somehow made MORE ridiculously powerful in the fic, then yes I can see a problem. But in the case of Shepard I don't much see that.

[orangesands]

I gave up on finding any decent Skyrim and Oblivion fic for characters I care about long ago, OP. ff.net and Ao3 are like 99% shitty fics about lore-breaking sparkly Mary Sue/Gary Stu OCs. Like, you couldn't even do a find and replace to change your generic sue-name to something that fits in the world of the games? WHY is your green-eyed pale-skinned Dunmer named "Sakura?"

However, about ME, I was under the impression that it was more like DA2 where the character had one of three set personalities. Most M!Hawke fic I've read is pretty excellent (I haven't ventured into F!Hawke territory much), and I don't see why Shepard fic would be any different.

[maverickz3r0]

This sorta applies to Fire Emblem too in a really weird way. It applies very much to FE7/Blazing Sword with the Tactician (canon name: Mark), who literally does not have a personality or speaking lines at all during the game, and gets a ton of self-insert stuff written that is just about all horrible. I've seen a few decent things, but not much.

My Unit/Chris from Shadow Dragon seems likewise, and like Mark does not seem to have a whole load of involvement in the actual story. I haven't actually played Shadow Dragon though, so I'm sketchy on this.

On the other hand, Awakening's Avatar/Robin has a set canon personality and is crucial to the plot of the game, so it's very possible to write Robin in or out of character. So it's already making me wince a little, because Robin very much has a canon personality. Both sides of this make me wince--the ones who are using the Avatar as a self-insert, and the ones who say or assume Robin doesn't have a character or an in-game personality. In both cases, I have to wonder what the hell game they were playing because it sure wasn't the one I did.

So I guess I don't really like them either. For the most part I've learned to block out the Mark and Chris entries entirely, but the Robin ones will probably grind at me for a while because of the character having lines, a role, and a relevant presence in the game and those being OOC.

Basically I guess I don't mind the self-inserts *as much*, but I do mind when it overrides canon personality.

[(Anonymous)]

I completely agree, which is why when I wrote one for me I focused on the existing characters. There are way too many existing ones to play with and explore and so many more I want to see that I'll probably never see.

I'm sick of the godawful mary sue/gary stu bullshit flying around and it's just lol, some seriously bad shit. But sifting through it all for good stuff is about the same as sifting through the usually heaps of manure.

[(Anonymous)]

I disagree, primarily because reading bad Ulfric/Dragonborn fanfics is a massive guilty pleasure of mine and I wouldn't want to lose that awesomely bad source of free entertainment.

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Well I have a [stalled] fic for an old game of that type - PC is a custom character and fics always end up being the writer's personal version.

The way I see it, the fun of that sort of set up is how your PC interacts with the canon characters, and how the CCs reacte to your PC.

For instance, my aforementioned fic? It stars the character in my icon (yes, I know, that's a sim, but the game allows for custom character icons to be used and I used Sims screencaps one time... so Oraania ended up in Faerûn). The point of the fic is how her [canon character] team mates view her, especially since she's insane.

But you have a point in that PC-centric fics shouldn't have the PC of the piece being a excessively perfect Sue/Stu. They should get injured. They should make mistakes. They should piss people off.

And stories where interesting canon characters are the centre of the plot and the author's pet PC is only a side character are also good, and more fandoms could do with more well-written fics like that.

[ariakas]

Now, I haven't played much Skyrim, but what I've seen of my roommate playing it tells me that you pretty much can in fact be the best at everything and the leader of all the guilds and the king of everything as the dovakin if you just sink enough time into it.

...So isn't that just portraying the main character realistically?

(Hell if I were to write a realistic portrayal of my ME experience it would go something like "And then Infiltrator!Shepard turned invisible and ran ahead of the battle to the next checkpoint. When the checkpoint loaded, all of the enemies in the previous room were automatically killed and her teammates appeared from thin air in the next room. 'Geez what is up with that?' said Zaaed. 'You're not a very good commander.' 'I don't really care what you think, Zaeed' said Renegade Shepard. 'This is the easiest way to beat the game on the hardest difficulty setting.')

[(Anonymous)]

That's exactly why I love fanfic for Mass Effect. I love seeing where other people took Shepard. It is absolutely fascinating. I get where you're coming from though.