[ SECRET POST #2640 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2640 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 031 secrets from Secret Submission Post #377.
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/Vo83OTD.png?1

[(Anonymous)]

OOC- Sometimes it's a funny gag.
AU- It's interesting to see how a character would react to a different scenario.

[silverr]

1. Me neither, but then I have always really enjoyed the challenge of trying to see how much I can do with the canon characters and setting: that's a big chunk of where the fun is for me. Other people have different fun.
2. Adorable cat. (And gdu now I want an Aby.)

[(Anonymous)]

My fanfic doesn't replace the canon that I love, it just lets me pretend that the characters aren't turned off by my horrifying fetishes for a while.

[(Anonymous)]

OOC - yeah that's a stretch. Though I'll admit to reading them if the plot is cute or interesting enough.

AU - "nothing to do with canon" is kind of the standard AU, isn't it? Either way, I love AUs. I love when authors can take characters and plop them down in any interesting scenario and still manage to keep them in character. It's just...fun. And interesting. I can see why someone wouldn't dig 'em, but they are one of my favorite types of fic.

[tasogare_n_hime]

I do my best to avoid OOC, but putting characters in completely different situations is interesting and fun.

[kaijinscendre]

For me it is:
OOC - I just want to see a dark or woobie version of a character. Just because they are OOC, doesn't mean they are completely different
AU - I want to see my favorite characters in a different environment. Sometimes I just want to see stripper Loki or actor John. >:|

[queerwolf]

I love AUs. Good authors can keep them in character even in a wildly different setting.

I can also enjoy OOC if the story is good and the characters aren't completely unrecognizable. They can be fun.

[mekkio]

Did I write this secret in my sleep? I don't know. I've had a pretty bad chest cold this past week. Maybe I created it in a cough syrup induced haze.

[asecretchord]

OOC--well, it's a long and sordid tale, but then again, I admit that I tend to soften the blunt edges of canon's anti-hero. I truly believe that loving someone and being loved in return can change a person, so yes, I woobify the Snape and make Harry a little less impetuous. Then again, I know that if people don't like my interpretation of the characters, they'll nope the hell out of there.

AU--I refuse to accept the possibility (yes, I said possibility, dammit) that Snape died in the boathouse/Shrieking Shack. I don't have any problem thinking that Harry's not really qualified to pronounce death and I don't believe a word that comes out of Voldemort's mouth, so I'll write my AU heart out and let Snape live. With Harry.

CAVALCADE OF DUMB AUs

[chardmonster]

[(Anonymous)]

short answer: sexual fulfillment.

[diet_poison]

For the first, I agree.

For the second, though, I feel like you're missing the point, which, ironically, is to take IC characters and see what would happen if you put them in a new setting. Obviously you don't have to like it, but in and of themselves AUs don't change the characters (as long as they're written well). Now, if you're watching/reading/playing a show/book/game just for the setting, then obviously an AU isn't gonna cut it, but if you're doing it mainly for the characters, AUs can be really fun.

[yield]

but...but....AUs!! i love AUs with a burning passion. now, of course, it depends on the fandom how far i like them to go (for example i typically still like LOTR AUs to be in-universe. no like modern day coffee house or whatever. others im not picky.)

i think it's fun to take characters and imagine them in different situations, how they would react or how their life would be. what would change and what would be the same. how certain characteristics of them or their universe transfer over into something different. you basically get a whole new story still filled with characters you love! of course i still want it IC. but give me all the AUs and i will be a happy happy girl.

[gondremark]

I know what you mean. There's a cluster of Hamlet fangirls on tumblr and they're really keen on AUs. Half the time the AUs read like edgy and modern productions of Hamlet (and these can be really fun). Other times I can't tell Ophelia from Claudius, and it's like, WHY!. If you like Hamlet, go ahead and drop him on the moon and see what happens, but don't turn him into someone else, because then you're not dropping Hamlet on the moon, you're just blathering about nothing.

And if I never see another dang blasted coffee shop or highschool AU, I will be a happy happy man.

[(Anonymous)]

One thing I always want to throw out in discussions of OOCs is that there can often be interpretation involved in what is in-character to begin with, especially in things like TV and comics where a character is not consistent over time. A lot of times people say something isn't in-character when really it's what someone else is legitimately seeing in that character. Sometimes they're putting their own wishes into it but sometimes there really is room for argument.

I feel like you can't just make sweeping statements about OOCs in general because sometimes it's inexperienced writers not completely understanding a character, sometimes it's writers wanting a certain outcome and characterization be damned, and sometimes it's intentional because writers want to explore something (maybe how an evil version of a nice character would work or how a character might be different if they were tortured/had a nice life/whatever). Can you honestly say that you don't understand ANY of these at all? Absolutely EVERY kind of OOC baffles you?

With regards to AUs, I think it's important to remember that people are watching the same thing for different reasons -- that what you think is important isn't what everyone thinks is in important. When people are honestly baffled that people make AUs and write OOC, I think they're doing the whole you're-not-liking-this-right kind of thing (though probably not intentionally).

Maybe you love the SPN universe and the boys and everything about the universe as is. That's great. But for the people who watch it because they love the relationship between Dean and Sam, then keeping them in the SPN universe isn't so critical (and can you honestly not see how some people want to give them something happier?). And if they only love Meg, then adhering strictly to the boys' characterization isn't a priority -- especially if you want to give her some love after she's been tortured or whatever. HER characterization might matter but for the sake of the story the author wants to tell, others' might not.

And then there's stuff like where a character appears to be one way right away but then slowly evolves into something else. Maybe people really like how Castiel appeared in his very first few episodes when he was just an unfeeling badass and there was a lot of mystery surrounding him. Since the show's evolved him from there, fanfic's the place you'd have to go to explore that character you might have fallen in love with but isn't around anymore. It is in-character for the first few episodes.

And for people who watch Firefly because they love Simon and River's relationship, then it doesn't seem so strange if they make strong sibling bonds among other characters who don't have those bonds. That's what they love about the show after all.

These are just some examples of a ton more. There are all sorts of reasons people are drawn to a particular media and all sorts of things they are taking from it. Obviously there will be exceptions but I feel like most AUs and OOC I see (when not from inexperience) are generally in-character to the things that people love most about the media. It's just not the same as what you love about it.

[nightscale]

I can take OOC to an extent, so long as the characters are still recgonisable it's fine.

I'm not the biggest fan of AU's typically, but it depends on what kind of AU it is really, if it doesn't change the canon too much(an everyone lives AU for example) then I'm good. But if it's thrusting the characters into a different world entirely I don't tend to like it, it's the canon events/situations that interest me after all.

[(Anonymous)]

OOC fanart can be sort of cute, because you don't need to explain it, but I hate OOC fic.

AUs, they're a hit or miss. It can be fun to throw characters into different situations, but the challenge is keeping them in-character, or at least as close to in-character as the situation allows. But I have seen some AUs that just hurt my brain, because the author may as well have been writing about two OCs that share the names with canon characters.

[(Anonymous)]

TL;DR:

You're talking about two different things, here. Do you dislike AUs where the characters are placed in a completely different setting than the canon setting? I think it's loads of fun to place the characters in a completely different setting, while really striving to keep them in-character and recognizable. I love Historical/Medieval or Fantasy/Sci-fi AUs for characters from a contemporary canon.
If you don't like that, that's one hundred percent okay, it's a matter of personal preference. But I think the whole point of a radically-different AU is the fun and the challenge of presenting the characters' familiar quirks, behavior, and attributes, but translated into a different context, and seeing how that plays out. That type of AU can be full of clever inside-jokes and little canon-references that keep things grounded in the familiar, while re-interpreting things at the same time.
As for deliberately writing someone OOC, I get how that might be humorous if you're deliberately having the character "play against type" and do something unexpected, for the shock-value. (Prim and proper character suddenly shouts "Oh, fuck!", or something.) But aside from that, yeah, I'd be disappointed if the writer was just borrowing the character's name and none of their behavior was recongizable.
I actually have little or no interest in fics that closely resemble an actual episode of canon. If I wanted that, I would just watch TV. I don't want "more of the same." To me, the whole point of fanfic is in the "what-if?" factor.
I would guess there are many cases where people love certain characters but dislike the events of canon or the direction the canon has taken. In that case, it makes sense to reject the canon storyline, in part or entirely, and create new experiences and new adventures for your beloved characters.
I have fandoms where I haven't watched the canon in years, but I strive to adhere faithfully to the personalities of the characters in my writing, more or less.

[(Anonymous)]

well... For me there is bad writing where they are relying on a single characteristic (I read SPN and I find Bobby to be poorly written a lot, constantly saying 'idjit' isn't enough to make it *feel* like Bobby).

But OOC? Sometimes I like it. The thing about fic is you get to play with the characteristics you want. I love a Dean who totally misses that Cas/Sam are into him. I love Dean hiding his pain and getting called on it. There are tropes I enjoy, so they get exaggerated. Bottom!Dean is one of my major kinks, so I love D/s verse, dragon verse, angel verse, a/b/o verse etc etc. Some of the stories are delightful, and I read to enjoy it. If I don't like a characterisation, then I stop reading.

(also... gotta say, there is some supercute art on Tumblr, with Dean and Cas as birds. Are they birds? No. Do these pics make my heart melt? yes)

And the thing is, I think of the show/setting as being a spring board for fans to share something they like. In many cases porn. It's a fantasy that everyone gets to engage in and share.

[paperghost]

I like (the idea of) AUs, but I still feel the exact same way.

[(Anonymous)]

The trouble with things like high school AUs or even a canon-divergent AU where the characters are completely different in some way (e.g. Harry Potter never goes to Hogwarts) is that the characters will be OOC in some way. But yeah, on the whole I agree.

[(Anonymous)]

Agreed, honestly. The only kind of AUs I like are canon AUs, so things like "What if X's parents hadn't died?" or "What if Y had been the Chosen One instead?"

Otherwise, when you remove a character from the canon circumstances that shaped them, they're going to be a different person by default. Even if you try to emulate those circumstances in the AU, they aren't going to be exactly the same as canon, so there will be aspects of the character that will be different. At that point you're basically writing an OC with a canon character's face and name that is similar to the canon character, yet also different.

[(Anonymous)]

OOC - I don't really understand the pleasure of writing a character wildly and completely OOC (or drawing for that matter) unless it's to fulfill some sort of kink or something like that. You should appreciate the character, flaws and all, and to change any of that is changing the character from the person you grew to love and adore.

AU - I used to really hate AU's with a passion. I've recently grown to like some really well-written AU's, but the characters have to be completely in-character for me to give it a chance. Like others have said, an AU is basically taking characters and placing them into a different environment to see how those characters react to the environmental change. But a lot of people use an AU as an excuse to write the characters OOC just because they're not in their usual, canonical environment, and that drives me crazy.

[(Anonymous)]

AUs that are so out there and so OOC it may as well be an original story with original characters = whore authors who just want a guaranteed pool of readers because otherwise they wouldn't get any.