Thread: Fanfiction Controversy

I've never been too active in fandoms despite my dedication to various games, shows, and books, so it was a surprise to me when I started hearing about people who support unusual pairings getting grief for their choices. Now, I don't even like pairings, but the idea of there being teens and even adults who are angry enough about fan depictions of cartoon romance to heckle someone about content and not quality is mind-boggling to me.

This is the draft of a message I'll be adding to my fanfiction.net profile, which I'll hopefully receive offers for as I start to become active. What do you think both of the idea of honest-to-goodness fictional romance controversy and of my offer?

To those of you who enjoy unusual and controversial pairings

I don't personally enjoy writing pairings, but I will write for you a serious clean or suggestive short story or potentially novella-length work on yours if it meets the following criteria:

1) It's rare. You can't find much content for it.

2) It's controversial in your fandom and people argue about it.

Included at the bottom of this is a list of fandoms I feel I can convincingly write for, as well as a list of fandoms that I don't know very well but would be willing to research for a particularly juicy pairing.

I think fanfiction writers often allow themselves to be too easily influenced by the opinions of their fandom at large and don't try things that are bold, new, and risky despite the fact that they may spend days or mere hours on an upload and have no money invested in this to lose. At the heart of good writing is fantasy, at the heart of talked-about writing is controversy, and at the heart of fan communities should be fans filling in the blanks and expanding upon what they love.

It was also mind-boggling to me, as someone who's often enjoyed my games, shows, and books solo, to learn that there are teens and even adults who are angry enough about things like fan depictions of cartoon romance to give people grief over content. I'd like to rustle their jimmies for a good laugh.

You're a very kind person to do this. Really. I don't meet very many people that are willing to do things they don't like for a bunch of others.

But yeah, I've been given crap for some of the pairings I like too, and they aren't even actually unusual or controversial. For example, IkexElincia in Fire Emblem. Ike is the main character of both the games he appeared in and Elincia is the female lead in Path of Radiance, the first of the two. They both got to be DLC characters in Awakening as well. They develop a close relationship in the games. It wouldn't be strange for them to be paired up. Yet I'm still told it doesn't make sense or it's one-sided on Elincia's part or other dumb shit. I don't agree with any of that and I never will, so people just need to leave my opinion on the matter alone.

Originally Posted by Kelleo

You're a very kind person to do this. Really. I don't meet very many people that are willing to do things they don't like for a bunch of others.

But yeah, I've been given crap for some of the pairings I like too, and they aren't even actually unusual or controversial. For example, IkexElincia in Fire Emblem. Ike is the main character of both the games he appeared in and Elincia is the female lead in Path of Radiance, the first of the two. They both got to be DLC characters in Awakening as well. They develop a close relationship in the games. It wouldn't be strange for them to be paired up. Yet I'm still told it doesn't make sense or it's one-sided on Elincia's part or other dumb shit. I don't agree with any of that and I never will, so people just need to leave my opinion on the matter alone.

Experience is always good, as are new things. Once I finish my current story and start releasing chapters after editing I won't have anything important to do, and I'm sure I'll get some laughs out of it if nothing else. :P

I'm not really referring to criticisms on how pairings work, merely people who apparently feel the need to seek out pairings they don't like to criticize the choice or exclude it from the fandom.

I have a suggestion - write something (mostly clean) on Cynthia x Garchomp (her Garchomp, not just a random one). I'm one of the few authors who's written stuff on this myself (a TF story, to be exact), and I think just the idea of a human x Pokémon shipping is itself rather controversial (because lol bestiality). The other two I've seen it for have been pairings played most for comedic or ironic effect, and I think the idea could be explored more seriously (like I did).

Actually, rare pairings are more interesting than common ones. For example, I ship Morty with Jasmine. Morty is usually shipped with other male characters - pretty much always Eusine, but sometimes Falkner. It's due to his appearance being very bishonen (I find the idea of treating all bishonen characters as gay - even ones who have canon female love interests - to be very ridiculous. I'm not trying to be homophobic.) I don't care if Morty/Eusine shippers go nuts. People are free to ship whoever they want. And seriously, just because two attractive young men are friends doesn't mean they have to have romantic feelings for each other.

I also kinda get annoyed when fans accentuate canonical flaws that characters have. By that, I mean when they do it to the point where characters are practically villainous. For example, Byron is frequently portrayed as an asshole or a deadbeat dad because he's apparently divorced from Roark's mom and doesn't have custody of his son. I've read many fics where Grimsley is portrayed as a sadist or an immoral person because of his gambling (or his sinister appearance). I admit, I do play up Whitney being an airhead in my fanfics, but I give her redeeming qualities. I actually wrote a fanfic that had Byron pondering his failed marriage, and he is fully aware that even though he didn't want his marriage to turn out like it did, things don't always have to go his way.

I'm usually hesitant to create female OCs for universes with few female characters, because they're likely to be branded as Mary Sues - even if they're not love interests to canon characters. Luckily, Pokémon has dozens of female characters (most of whom are strong characters), so that worry is not as big.

I shipped Professor Oak with Daisy. Dare ye?

(Daisy as in Blue's sister rather than Misty's.)

Originally Posted by Gama

I shipped Professor Oak with Daisy. Dare ye?

(Daisy as in Blue's sister rather than Misty's.)

Wait... Professor Oak is Gary Oak/Blue's grandfather, so that means... Oh dear. I can definitely see the controversy there.

Originally Posted by Caitlin

Originally Posted by Gama

I shipped Professor Oak with Daisy. Dare ye?

(Daisy as in Blue's sister rather than Misty's.)

Wait... Professor Oak is Gary Oak/Blue's grandfather, so that means... Oh dear. I can definitely see the controversy there.

To be fair, she isn't really his granddaughter in this fic so it's not incest. It is a 40-50 year old man getting together with a girl of about 14, so there are other... issues.