Welp, I thought I’d bring this topic up again, because I just find it delightful to ramble about fan fic/art annoyances! xD
Say, you may all know I’ve been busy fangirling over Donkey Kong Country, especially the TV show…
I found a fan fiction about that a while ago, so I went to read it… but lost interest half way through. Something irked me. So. Many. Fancharacters! I don’t mind fan characters, but when they take over the story… you see, I read fan fiction to read about characters I know and love! If I wanted to read about characters I don’t know, I’d take a look in a library! No offense meant to the author, it was a decent fic that kept nearly everyone in character, but really.
Out of character-ness and not knowing what one writes about irks me. Say, one thing I like about writing fan fiction - I study characters. Everything that makes a dude THAT dude, from his way of speech to mannerisms, I try to translate in my stories. I want you to be able to hear that character’s voice in your head when you read my stories!
And yeah… I still dislike that inflation art/fic fad, and there’s simply too much of it… Me on DeviantART: “Tra-la-la, I am minding my own business at this site searching for fan art of Donkey Kong Country! Hey, what’s this!.. OH MY LOG WHAT HAVE THEY DONE DO NOT WANT”
Interesting you might say that, because I’m actually planning a couple of fanfics that are ‘set within the universe’ of recent movies I like.
What if one likes the world or its rules more than the characters? I personally like to read OCs and how they operate and live within the framework of the world created by the movie. So reading Cars fanfics with totally original OCs is something which I find interesting. Of course, it helps if canon characters made a cameo appearance or even a mention every now and then, but it’s not the ‘be all-end all’ factor for me liking a fanfiction.
What is most important for me is that the OCs are believable, interesting, and have weaknesses. I absolutely despise Mary Sues, simply because they are a way of the author projecting him/herself into the arms of their favourite canon character, or running down the canon character’s love interest in favour of their fan-creation.
If the canon character has no love interest, then I won’t mind. It actually is quite interesting to see how some OCs try to woo the canon character.
There is even a charming Wall-E fan comic called 'Wall-G’ where the OC constantly tries to win Wall-E’s affections, but is either thwarted by Eve or Wall-E himself. But occasionally, Wall-G ‘wins’, but they never actually become a pairing, so it works out for me.
I do the same thing, too! Sometimes I get so connected with my OC or canon characters that I start imagining scenarios I would throw them into and think of how they would react! It’s like they ‘live in your brain’ or something!
…
One fanart trend that disturbs me is anthropomoprhic art. Bear in mind this is distinct from humanisations.
Now, I know there are varying degrees of anthro. A character can simply be an animal (Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron). A character can be an animal yet act intelligent (Rio, Finding Nemo). A character can be an animal yet walk on its hind legs and act intelligent (Over the Hedge, Madagascar). And a character can be an animal yet wear clothes, walk on their hind legs, and act intelligent (Rango, Kung Fu Panda).
But there’s the kind of anthro where it’s sort of a mash between the animal and human form… and that kinda creeps me.
I guess this is supposed to be some sort of anime trend for fanart, but people on DeviantART seem to really like drawing human/animal hybrids of themselves or some anime character they come up with (like anime girls with cat ears and tails). I just see a lot of those type of drawings there. Don’t know if it means I’m tired of it or if I just find it kinda strange.
But the thread is fanfiction and art we are tired of, right? Well, the one thing that sets me off worse than anything else out there is out of context pairings.
The nekomimi or catgirl archetype is an old and classical Japanese trope. It even has Western counterparts (Wiki), so it is not a new or contemporary trend on dA by any means.
Personally, this trope doesn’t bother me so much, again as long as they’re not naked humanoid characters with fur or feathers on them. If done well, nekomimi’s look like humans with an amusing abnormality.
Another fandom trend that gets on my nerves is script-fanfics. These are the kind where the author, usually too young to use descriptive language or having a poor command of English, will write like so:
…
Woody and Buzz are hanging out on the windowsill over a campfire, roasting hot s’mores.
Buzz: These schmoes are delicious!
Woody looks annoyed. He corrects Buzz.
Woody: They’re called “s’mores”, Buzz. As in, “Some-mores?”
Buzz ignores Woody.
Woody: And besides how would you know how they taste? You don’t have a tongue.
Buzz: Yes I do!
Buzz sticks out his tongue.
JSWeC: Eyup. In this case, they’re wearing clothes and it’s done tastefully and artistically.
There are some strange folks who draw terrible-looking anthro-art simply because they get some kind of sexual kick out of it. Not saying that they don’t have a right to, and of course, quality is subjective, but I don’t really dig poorly done anthro-art if it’s simply to make a character look sexy or closer to a human being for naughty purposes.
Oh, AMEN TO THAT! Honestly, script fics bother me to no end… Sure, I RP in this form with some friends sometimes, but I never release such things to the internet. Like, it’s much more fun to type “Dude was walking down the street minding his business” than “Dude: walks down the street”. Spamming of names annoy me too, like you can’t call a character something else than his name! Well… I write mostly about non-human characters, so I can get away with using “The pirate” “The skunk” etc., when describing Cap’n Fluffclaw.
Sorry for the bumping again but I like this topic hehehehe
As for humanizations… I can really enjoy them, you know! As long as they resemble the original character in some way. Humanizations that are highly reminiscent of the original character often get my approval. If I can actually see them doing the stuff they do usually. Most of it, however… I’ve seen people depicting Klump as a skinny dude with long hair. No offense, and it was really well-drawn, but Klump just doesn’t work as a skinny prettyboy. I mean, just look at that fatso!
It’s like they ‘live in your brain’ or something!
