Fanfic I avoid

[sistermagpie]

I said something today about how the current Bat-titles are for me like having to read fanfic by the kind of authors I usually try to avoid. So even if there's good things in it it still upsets me. lucky_sometimes asked, understandably, what kind of fanfic authors I avoided. It's hard to be clear in 140 characters!

It's not a certain type of author really, except that it's "the type of author who doesn't agree with me"

People often ask "what makes you hit the back button in a story?" and get responses about "character bashing" or things like "Ginny-bashing in an H/someone else" story, or sometimes other more generic requests like not ignoring the canon love interest or vilifying her. Then there are common tropes that people avoid--mpreg, evil!Ron (or whatever character), girlie!Shep (or whatever character). Takes that are common enough that they have names and people know they can't stand them.

What I was thinking about it writing about the Batverse was something both more subtle and more pervasive? It's that experience where you're reading a fic and it might not be the worst-written fic you've ever read, but you start to be aware that the author has a very strong take on canon that's a bit like...well, it's a bit like moving canon a few feet to the left before starting your story. And you can’t even disagree with it because it's not being argued so much as stated in a challenging or querulous tone of voice. They're starting with the premise that certain things are good or make sense and you just don't agree. In fact you might think it's terrible.

This probably comes up a lot in shipping. If you ship something you really don't need much to get you into the story. But to someone who doesn't ship it, who just can't even see it, it just reads as jarring. In a well-written story you might wind up buying the ship in spite of yourself, or at least buying the world around it and able to suspend your disbelief. In less well-written cases it's funny and unbelievable. In bad cases it feels vaguely insulting or like the characters are being abused or something. It's the fics where I want to jump in and argue with the author's meta that annoy me.

Basically, it's the same as somebody giving you a meta reading that you don't like, only putting it in fanfic form, even if it's badly written, is just far more disturbing and visceral because it's like it's "true" now even if you tell yourself it's not canon. So there tends to be fanfic writers you know to avoid. I wouldn't read a writer if I knew their view of the Batverse was that Damian was uber-special and complex and Dick was his dumb sidekick. Just as I'd avoid a story if the author had a history of, say, writing Tim Drake as the under-appreciated genius who was secretly better than everyone around him and they were going to continue that here. Or sometimes it's two characters—for instance, every relationship the main character has is unhealthy for him except for his relationship with X, who is the only person who really cares about him. You read it and know the person could easily tell you the ways every single character really is an unworthy friend compared to character X, who is also the only person who can understand the Special Problem the main character has in this story. Or at least tell you that they really do feel like the character gets let down by everyone.

To be clear, I'm not making this about me having great taste. I actually totally understand the satisfaction of seeing certain characters as the tragic victim who suffers because nobody appreciates them. It just needs to be one of the characters I can relate to that way. That's why I would never want even those stories I like to be canon, because I know what a horror it would be for the people who were more likely to identify with the characters getting trashed for it.

Tl;dr, the simple way to say it is it's like those fanfics where you start to read and you quickly realize something like: Oh god, Harry's a little angel who's too good for this world and the only person he can really feel safe with is...Snape. Or: Oh, Scully's responsible for all Mulder's successes and now she's betraying him with Krycek and he deserves it. Iow, fics where you have to share the same itch, grudge or disinterest for something the author has or else.

Comments

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yes, very much. It's the difference b/w fanfic that scratches an itch, which has its uses, and one that's a real story. I remember one HP story where I thought this one character was really sympathetic and compelling, and it turned out the author hated the character so they'd really struggle to write her fairly. You could still clearly see how the author felt and it was a meta comment (just as every fanfic characterization tends to be)--the situation was obviously saying "this is what would happen in the real world if you acted like this." But it was done realistically and sympathetically so it didn't sound like a criticism but a well-done characterization.

[oselle.livejournal.com]

I know that I'd have a really hard time writing Sam Winchester into a story now, based on what they've done with his character...I'd probably avoid it altogether. As it is I don't write about him very much. "Lazarus Came Forth" was the last story I wrote where he really played a role, and even though that was before Season Four, I still had to reach back to a much older (and more fanon-influenced) version of that character in order to write him in a positive light. If I wanted to write him now, I'd kind of have to ignore everything that's happened for the past season-and-a-half.