Stareyes gives a rant
Jun. 24th, 2003 01:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesWork was boring today. Didn't do much beside just look up a bunch of my old results, and do calculations to see how much the altitude of our targets was affecting our measurements -- turns out there could be as much as a .2 magnitude difference in brightness.
But no one who read this cares (or possibly knows) what I'm taking about.
Been browsing around about Harry Potter. Think all those 13-year-old fangirls need to get a life. Not that I haven't cried over a death in a book. But, they knew there'd be a death, and I suspected it would be a fan favorite. And some of them are in pretty bad denial... take a deep breath and accept that there will be other fictional characters to lust over. Or go off and write stupid AU fics where The Death never happened, showing what a firm grip on reality they have
Stareyes's AU Rant:
It doens't help that I have a low opinions of AU fanfics in general. Or, rather, a certian subgroup of them. See, in my opinion there are three types of AU fanfics:
1. The 'what if?' fanfics. Basically take some event in canon and alter it. See what happens. I like playign with this one, because it's fun to give canon a few jabs and see how it twitches.
2. The parody. Sort of a AU-crossover fanfic where the cast of series A performs Series B. Has all the problems of both AUs and crossovers.
3. The changed setting fanfic. Basically scoop the characters up, and put them somehwere new. The three favored settings (assuming such settings are AU for the canon) seem to be medieval fantasy/fairy-tales, modern high-school (not surprising given the age of the writers), and cheesy space opera.
Done properly, an AU can expose new facets to a group of characters. The problem is, very little of it is done properly. Fangirls will use type 1 to either pretend a death never happened, introduce a Mary Sue as their 'AU', or make it more likely that their chosen pairing (usually alternate, as opposed to traditional) will pair.
Type 2 fics are usually worse... the characters will usually lose all sembalance of who they were and fall into their roles like they were the original *remembers the Fushigi Yugi/Slayers fic where Lina and Naga became essentially Miaka and Yui*... either that or the author uses the parody as a vehicle for character or series bashing, or (once again) a vehicle for their chosen ship.
Type 3 fics are, by far, the worse and most common. While I've found fics of the other two types I've enjoyed, I have yet to find a decent, well-written fic that wasn't Out Of Character, cliched, full of character bashing and/or a vehicle for making a ship suddenly pausible. One author even told me, while she adores a pairing, she won't write it as anything but AU, because the fact the characters are different in ages squick her. And that's a minor case.
Ladies and gents, I accept that a different setting and different events will change a character's personality. Just make the changes make sense! Explanation is your friend! Character bashing is not! And, remember, we fell in love with the original characters. Even the most radical changes will not change some basics of a character -- the core bit. Lina Inverse (or any other strong female (or male) character) will never become a weak-willed little waif that needs to be rescued by her Knight in Shining Armor, Insert-Love-Interest-Name-Here.
Thank you... and any one who can point me to a type 3 AU that is well written and not suffering of the sins that plague the genre will win themselves my undying respect.
I have far too much to do, art-wise. *Sighs*
But no one who read this cares (or possibly knows) what I'm taking about.
Been browsing around about Harry Potter. Think all those 13-year-old fangirls need to get a life. Not that I haven't cried over a death in a book. But, they knew there'd be a death, and I suspected it would be a fan favorite. And some of them are in pretty bad denial... take a deep breath and accept that there will be other fictional characters to lust over. Or go off and write stupid AU fics where The Death never happened, showing what a firm grip on reality they have
Stareyes's AU Rant:
It doens't help that I have a low opinions of AU fanfics in general. Or, rather, a certian subgroup of them. See, in my opinion there are three types of AU fanfics:
1. The 'what if?' fanfics. Basically take some event in canon and alter it. See what happens. I like playign with this one, because it's fun to give canon a few jabs and see how it twitches.
2. The parody. Sort of a AU-crossover fanfic where the cast of series A performs Series B. Has all the problems of both AUs and crossovers.
3. The changed setting fanfic. Basically scoop the characters up, and put them somehwere new. The three favored settings (assuming such settings are AU for the canon) seem to be medieval fantasy/fairy-tales, modern high-school (not surprising given the age of the writers), and cheesy space opera.
Done properly, an AU can expose new facets to a group of characters. The problem is, very little of it is done properly. Fangirls will use type 1 to either pretend a death never happened, introduce a Mary Sue as their 'AU', or make it more likely that their chosen pairing (usually alternate, as opposed to traditional) will pair.
Type 2 fics are usually worse... the characters will usually lose all sembalance of who they were and fall into their roles like they were the original *remembers the Fushigi Yugi/Slayers fic where Lina and Naga became essentially Miaka and Yui*... either that or the author uses the parody as a vehicle for character or series bashing, or (once again) a vehicle for their chosen ship.
Type 3 fics are, by far, the worse and most common. While I've found fics of the other two types I've enjoyed, I have yet to find a decent, well-written fic that wasn't Out Of Character, cliched, full of character bashing and/or a vehicle for making a ship suddenly pausible. One author even told me, while she adores a pairing, she won't write it as anything but AU, because the fact the characters are different in ages squick her. And that's a minor case.
Ladies and gents, I accept that a different setting and different events will change a character's personality. Just make the changes make sense! Explanation is your friend! Character bashing is not! And, remember, we fell in love with the original characters. Even the most radical changes will not change some basics of a character -- the core bit. Lina Inverse (or any other strong female (or male) character) will never become a weak-willed little waif that needs to be rescued by her Knight in Shining Armor, Insert-Love-Interest-Name-Here.
Thank you... and any one who can point me to a type 3 AU that is well written and not suffering of the sins that plague the genre will win themselves my undying respect.
I have far too much to do, art-wise. *Sighs*
