Reflection, sparked by ffrants post
Dec. 24th, 2006 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittchaosOne of my forum names is 'Thread Killer Kitt' because I have this way of somehow killing threads stone-cold dead when I post. Also, my posts seem to be ignored on ffrants, and that bugs me (not quite sure why). Finally, this got quite a bit longer than I anticipated, but, I still wanted to post it, so here it is.
There is a post on ffrants where someone is suggesting that canon doesn't really matter in fanfiction. "Please. Who cares? Really? Isn't the point of fanfiction that it's not canon?"
As usual, when this rant comes up, it's because someone is basing an OTP the original poster favors.
Someone else posted:
1) The purpose of fanfiction is to write things that aren't canon
2) The purpose of fanfiction is to take elements of canon and flesh them out, using them in a way not originally perceived and explored.
I tend toward the second of those two statements in my writing.
For myself, I try to extrapolate something from canon or work with something that is plausible within the framework of canon. I write drabbles, too, where the challenge is to write within a strict guideline, so the idea of staying in a narrow area isn't too strange for me.
This is one of my favorite reviews that pertains to this, left for one of the stories I angsted about posting in the first place because the premise was really out there:
Oh my... now that was a truly scary thing to read.
It is always most amazing a thing when a writer can pull out these extraordinary ideas and keep them in character; it makes them frighteningly real when that happens. Which is all too rare. Who would have ever considered the Left Hand as such deep or even a sexual being under that bantering facade? Very original indeed, even if greatly disconcerting. (but lets face it, just look at D, who Wouldn`t love his beauty... ;))
I also liked the idea that Left Hand used to be something else... And yet the past is left so subtly open.
Though, one thing left me curious here. I was strongly under the impression that the Left Hand can see/hear(you name it) through D, only not control. You obvously think differently, but I´m open to new ideas that the change of perspective didn`t bother me too much. Just wondering.
Either way, you have built the story very well. You paint a very vivid picture of a day of these two beings` disfunctional union. Left Hand does sound so strange a creature in this pov and yet the way he speaks and reflects it makes all too possible. And that is the best that fanfiction can do; finding the gaps and building into them, stretching the lines while still keeping inside the frame of that universe. It`s a hard thing to balance well.
Fabulously dramatic ending, sad and yet... comforting.
Beautifully done. I hope to see more from this fandom from you. I should go look up your other stories. Thank you for writing.
All that being said, I see nothing wrong with fanon. I've seen a few summaries that mention being based on fanon instead of canon. I read the rest of the summary and decide if I want to read the story knowing that going in, instead of the rude awakening I receive in stories that don't warn me first.
What I don't like is when the writer distorts a third character in order to make the favored pairing work -- in Yu-Gi-Oh, Anzu is turned into a raving harpy so that Yami/anybody can work, for example. I don't like it when the character in the ship doesn't really resemble himself either -- going by the height rule, Yami becomes totally submissive and weepy as Seto or Joey's uke (because they are both taller than he is) -- he was the pharaoh of Egypt! He might not remember it, but part of that total control over others and arrogance is part of his core personality. He would submit to no one! If the writer has to distort the canon characters' personalities this much to make the story work, it's really not fanfiction any more. It's original writing with canon names attached. The writer would be better served to create original characters and, if the premise of the story is not based in the canon world (Duel Monster duels for Yu-Gi-Oh for example) to post on fictionpress.com instead of fanfiction.net.
Of course, this is only my humble opinion on the matter.
There is a post on ffrants where someone is suggesting that canon doesn't really matter in fanfiction. "Please. Who cares? Really? Isn't the point of fanfiction that it's not canon?"
As usual, when this rant comes up, it's because someone is basing an OTP the original poster favors.
Someone else posted:
1) The purpose of fanfiction is to write things that aren't canon
2) The purpose of fanfiction is to take elements of canon and flesh them out, using them in a way not originally perceived and explored.
I tend toward the second of those two statements in my writing.
For myself, I try to extrapolate something from canon or work with something that is plausible within the framework of canon. I write drabbles, too, where the challenge is to write within a strict guideline, so the idea of staying in a narrow area isn't too strange for me.
This is one of my favorite reviews that pertains to this, left for one of the stories I angsted about posting in the first place because the premise was really out there:
Oh my... now that was a truly scary thing to read.
It is always most amazing a thing when a writer can pull out these extraordinary ideas and keep them in character; it makes them frighteningly real when that happens. Which is all too rare. Who would have ever considered the Left Hand as such deep or even a sexual being under that bantering facade? Very original indeed, even if greatly disconcerting. (but lets face it, just look at D, who Wouldn`t love his beauty... ;))
I also liked the idea that Left Hand used to be something else... And yet the past is left so subtly open.
Though, one thing left me curious here. I was strongly under the impression that the Left Hand can see/hear(you name it) through D, only not control. You obvously think differently, but I´m open to new ideas that the change of perspective didn`t bother me too much. Just wondering.
Either way, you have built the story very well. You paint a very vivid picture of a day of these two beings` disfunctional union. Left Hand does sound so strange a creature in this pov and yet the way he speaks and reflects it makes all too possible. And that is the best that fanfiction can do; finding the gaps and building into them, stretching the lines while still keeping inside the frame of that universe. It`s a hard thing to balance well.
Fabulously dramatic ending, sad and yet... comforting.
Beautifully done. I hope to see more from this fandom from you. I should go look up your other stories. Thank you for writing.
All that being said, I see nothing wrong with fanon. I've seen a few summaries that mention being based on fanon instead of canon. I read the rest of the summary and decide if I want to read the story knowing that going in, instead of the rude awakening I receive in stories that don't warn me first.
What I don't like is when the writer distorts a third character in order to make the favored pairing work -- in Yu-Gi-Oh, Anzu is turned into a raving harpy so that Yami/anybody can work, for example. I don't like it when the character in the ship doesn't really resemble himself either -- going by the height rule, Yami becomes totally submissive and weepy as Seto or Joey's uke (because they are both taller than he is) -- he was the pharaoh of Egypt! He might not remember it, but part of that total control over others and arrogance is part of his core personality. He would submit to no one! If the writer has to distort the canon characters' personalities this much to make the story work, it's really not fanfiction any more. It's original writing with canon names attached. The writer would be better served to create original characters and, if the premise of the story is not based in the canon world (Duel Monster duels for Yu-Gi-Oh for example) to post on fictionpress.com instead of fanfiction.net.
Of course, this is only my humble opinion on the matter.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-27 03:56 am (UTC)Ah, my bad. Actually, 4Kids work is pretty good. I think they do have the best voice actors and aside from the restrictions placed on them by the censors, they at least try to keep the spirit of the show and characters and not completely rewrite it and distort them.
CCS is one of my absolute favorite anime titles. (The other one is Vampire Hunter D -- I think I'd worry about what that meant, except that Madhouse was the studio for both of them, so I can claim it's just the art. ^_~)
I could see Mokuba hitting a bratty phase (heck, all of us do) and Seto being completely nonplussed by it, but Mokuba is too certain of himself as a person, I think, to turn to drugs or cutting. I think it might be part of being a teenager to entertain thoughts of suicide (I did, though I don't suffer from depression) though most are not acted upon. I could see a writer playing with that in a Mokuba-centric fic, but they'd have to be careful with his characterization -- and Seto's.
I think some of the people writing Mokuba as a depressed emo don't understand depression at all. Also, some people suffering with depression and are highly functioning individuals with virtually no 'classic' symptoms. I'd imagine that both Seto and Mokuba would be more this way than emo.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-27 08:31 am (UTC)True enough. To be fair about CCS, much of the things in that anime is stuff that parents would probably frown upon--such as Li's crush on Yukito (The cause of which was not due to sexuality), the fact that Sakura's father was her mother's teacher and the pseudo-incest yuri (However one-sided) from Tomoyo. Still, it could have been done a lot better. 0_o
I could see Mokuba hitting a bratty phase (heck, all of us do) and Seto being completely nonplussed by it...
Me, too *Points shamelessly towards own LJ entries ^_^ * I got tired of reading the same old brotherly fluff fics and decided to write something that deviates from that, which shows the poor kid wanting to be seen for himself but at the same time loving and still caring for Seto. (The newest chapter got eated by a computer virus, though. Hopefully, I'll be able to retrieve it when I take the computer in tomorrow and complete it sometime before
Valentine's DaySt. Patrick's DayThe Fouth of July. :)I think it might be part of being a teenager to entertain thoughts of suicide
Really? O_O The only time I gave serious thought to killing myself, I was really, really depressed. I didn't think about it before-hand, and the only other friends of mine who thought about it had serious bad shit in their lives (Such as one friend who lost both parents within two years).
I think some of the people writing Mokuba as a depressed emo don't understand depression at all.
There was one fic where the author herself claimed to be into cutting and taking drugs, and that story was way out of character. There's no other explaination behind the change besides "Most teens get depressed because of hormones." (Hormones, I guess, explains why Seto apparently didn't try too hard to take Mokuba to a doctor for treatment, or how he didn't seem to notice any change in the kid well before. *facepalm*) I have it excerted at WTF_Fanfiction, if you want to see it. It's horrid.
And to be truthful, most depression fics in every fandom just make no sense.