"::groans::"
05 / 28 / 04
grumpy
Now I'm all for creative freedom, write what you want in fanfiction, yadda yadda yadda. Unless you're setting out to purposely hurt someone else, there's little to no harm with it, (save people complaining about their oh-so-delicate sensibilities, but I won't get into that). I've loudly decried on more than one occasion so called fic review groups/sites who only seem interested in tearing down authors because they didn't meet some unknown, self-perceived, ego feeding standard.
You pretty much know all that.
But I do have one gripe in fanfiction. Just one small one. See, most of my other dislikes are choice, so if I come across a fic that I think is going to fall into one of those slots, I don't read it.
::gasp:: What a concept.
But this gripe, I must get off my chest, because it disguises itself sometimes in the form fics that, were it done by anyone else, I might have read and enjoyed.
My gripe?
FINISH LOOKING AT THE DAMN SERIES FIRST!!!
::breathes:: I'm calm, really.
Okay, I can make exceptions. Yu-Gi-oh, Inuyasha, those things are over 100 eps long, and there's no telling when the ends will ever get over here, (especially with those cheap bastards at Viz only putting three lousy eps on a disc). So I can completely understand wanting to write before you finish a series with that kind of length.
However, something like Cowboy Bebop, Yami no Matsuei, and Gravitation all have a much smaller, finite number of eps. So for the love of hell, why do people look at one or two eps and suddenly want to write some grandiose epic, or just grab the notion of the character/character designs and pluck them wherever?
Don't get me wrong, some outrageous AUs can be well done, especially of the parody persuasion. Though often this only tends to work in a humour aspect.
Plopping the guys from Saiyuki into a Boy Band is not my idea of a good read, especially from someone who only watched 3-5 lousy eps.
(Though in all honesty, even if a person knows Saiyuki frontwards and back, I still doubt that I'd want to read a fic like that.)
However, I do have some problems with manga purists who complain about writers who base their works solely on an anime version of a series. Manga is only now becoming as popular, if not moreso, than actual anime. Before, anime was often the only way people had access to a series. So lighten up on that.
But whether it's a book or a disc, is it too much to ask that people go beyond the initial "ooh pretty" and actually watch the series?
Give me a reason to try and defend the right to create badfics. Let me know you actually put some effort into it, regardless of how painful it is to read, by watching more than a couple of lousy eps/volumes.
(Because we all know even though some people look at the whole thing, they still can produce fics of questionable quality.)
Sorry, spammers forced my hand. Comments reviewed before being published.
Comments: 2 winds
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I couldn't have said it better myself...
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One author I like has a "ten episodes" rule, where no matter how much she wants to fic, she watches at least ten episodes of the series first.
You know what I hate even more? People who write fanfic /without watching the series at all/.
( 12:57 pm )