fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2425 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2425 ⌋

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

01.

[Kate Mulgrew as Galina 'Red' Reznikov in Orange is the New Black]

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02.

[Teen Wolf]

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03.

[Welcome to Night Vale]

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04.

[Brendan Fraser]

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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]

05. [SPOILERS for Supernatural]

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06. [SPOILERS for Arrested Development]

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07. [SPOILERS for Degrassi]

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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]

08. [WARNING for abuse]

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09. [WARNING for eating disorders]

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10. [WARNING for underage/abuse/etc]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 000 secrets from Secret Submission Post #346.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 (deformed kitten in picture) - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Has anybody ever read a fanfic where an OC/canon character relationship was handled well? I'm working on a potential story in that vein (and trying to avoid falling into Mary-Sue traps), and I'd just like some hope that this sort of thing can be done.

I've seen one, but the pairing itself was used to bring the canon character together with another character. The OC never had a name and was basically meant as an empty vessel. But I seem to remember they had more personality than the canon characters often did in that fandom. I haven't read it in years and have been looking for it, but I can't remember the endstate pairing or the author's name. It was in the House fandom before the show went crazy stupid and it was House/Wilson or House/Cuddy. The OC was a prostitute and I liked her more than most of the characters they brought onto the show in the later seasons.

tl;dr - Yes, it's possible to do it well. It's also possible to do it so well that your work lingers with one or more of your readers for years after they've left the fandom.

is it 1 of these?
http://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&work_search[sort_column]=revised_at&work_search[other_tag_names]=hooker&work_search[query]=&work_search[language_id]=&work_search[complete]=0&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=House+M.D.

Yes thank you! It's the middle one (=

I've seen fanart that makes me think 'oh, they look cute together/that's an interesting OC design', and I've known of canon/oc fics with large followings that, from what bits I read, had well developed characters, etc. etc.

There's certainly an audience.

The only one I can really think of is a Harry Potter alternate universe fanfiction by author whydoyouneedtoknow. It takes a HP specific plot that can turn cliche in the wrong hands (Harry raised by Remus and an escaped Sirius in a family setting) and turns it into an epic series describing the changes in the HP universe had Harry been raised with a loving family. There are three pairings where canon characters are paired with OCs: Sirius/OC, Remus/OC and Neville/OC.

It starts off a little shaky but the series is pretty amazing and it's one of the first super long AU fics I read in the fandom. I've fallen behind because the author is a pretty prolific writer (seriously, she's written a bunch of AU fics of her main AU and basically has an entire alternate universe based solely on her main piece) but also has somewhat unpredictable updates. I highly recommend her work.

...This was unexpectedly long, sorry bout that.

Yes. It was a fic about a canon character getting out of a canonically toxic relationship. So there was kinda a 'rescue' trope going on, but it worked as a fix-it AU, and I found the emotional divergence from canon interesting. The OC was a bit of a Sue but the fandom rolled with that - we have jokes about how all the characters in our fandom are total Sues.

Yes.

Can't think of examples off the top of my head. I'll come back if I find them.

Yes - though the fandom is a bit odd about it, I've seen good Sam/Five [whose pretty close to being an OC outside of the fact they don't talk much, since...well. You don't even know their gender.]

I've seen it a few other times but it's few and far between in most fandoms.

The only one I can remember off the top of my head is Prelude, a Cowboy Bebop fic about Vicious. His first girlfriend is a central character in his story, but unobtrusively so - Vicious doesn't fall in love with her, nor does she take the focus of the story from him, or die tragically, or whatever. They date for a few years, she breaks up with him because he's, well, Vicious, and they remain friends while he eventually moves on to his canon lover. She doesn't become the lynchpin of his existence just by being there, which left me free to like her.

I personally won't read fics that are explicitly about Canon Character/OC as the main draw, but if the relationship happens in the course of a story for the purpose of developing the canon character and the OC doesn't take half the plot for themselves, that's cool with me.

Thanks, everyone! I'm glad there are some success stories out there. That makes me feel a little better about my own story.

Tbh, I've never seen it done well. It's always really jarring for me because there's a huge difference between how much attention is paid to the Canon Character and OC because you already know the CC (so you don't need to get to know them) and the OC (because you DON'T know them and the author has to introduce you to them in the story). Even when it's in the background of a story, it's usually a negative for me.

[ SECRET POST #2425 ]

Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?

OP

Re: Oc/Canon Character pairings...has it been done well?