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- Finland
How/Why?
Pet Peeves in Fanfiction
- Thread starter LostHourglass
- Start date
- Location
- Ontario
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yes, you've certainly claimed those things, but what evidence or arguments do you have for that actually being the case?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Lots of fanfic is just kind of boring. The more infamous kinds of fanfics are actually much less of a problem, because things like 'absolutely terrible premise' or 'can not into writing' will often be sussed out immediately. However others seem promising, maybe a rare crossover or somesuch, and then its just words words words. Its like they're getting paid by the word or something. But there is no magic there. Most of the time it'll stick to the stations of canon no matter how nonsensical, or just repeat catch-phrases and other character tropey lines like some sort of nascent ChatGPT bot.
Stories are more than just a series of events in which things happen, or cool moments and feats, or a parade of blorbo. There is structure, narrative, developments, takeaways. But a lot of fanfic feels like, I dunno, like if someone just overkneaded the dough for hours until something fundamental was lost.
Stories are more than just a series of events in which things happen, or cool moments and feats, or a parade of blorbo. There is structure, narrative, developments, takeaways. But a lot of fanfic feels like, I dunno, like if someone just overkneaded the dough for hours until something fundamental was lost.
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Reveen
Castro-Trudeauist
It really isn't that complicated. For the majority of dudes inclined to fixating on masculinity to soothe their personal problems having a father figure vs not having a father figure are different roads to the same result: being a dumbass.
Like you talk about kids turning to Andre Tate. As if a kids with fathers arent perfectly capable of being taken in by Tate anyway and b. Can easily just be taught that shit by a shitty dumbass father.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
On a broader note it's a tad frustrating how dominant some fandoms are when it comes to fanfiction, and in turn how absent others are. To illustrate how mammoth the gap is let's look at regular fanfics on fanfiction.net for book series.
848k=Harry Potter (#1 series) {accounts for 51.1% of all book fanfic}
80.6k=Percy Jackson (#3) {top 3 account for 69.4% of all book fanfic}
8.4k=Divergent Trilogy (#16) {top 16 account for 84.6% of all book fanfic}
870=Dragonlance (#79) {top 79 account for 94.2% of all book fanfic}
I get the impression past a certain point this sort of thing becomes a natural monopoly, if everyone is playing in the same sandbox, they can work off the same references, knowledge base, fanbase etc etc. Things like Harry Potter and Naruto have transcended into mediums unto themselves. Though sometimes you get localized fixations, such as a certain annelid titled web serial that makes #54 spot on fanfiction.net's books list, but has a commanding presence on SV/SB.
848k=Harry Potter (#1 series) {accounts for 51.1% of all book fanfic}
80.6k=Percy Jackson (#3) {top 3 account for 69.4% of all book fanfic}
8.4k=Divergent Trilogy (#16) {top 16 account for 84.6% of all book fanfic}
870=Dragonlance (#79) {top 79 account for 94.2% of all book fanfic}
I get the impression past a certain point this sort of thing becomes a natural monopoly, if everyone is playing in the same sandbox, they can work off the same references, knowledge base, fanbase etc etc. Things like Harry Potter and Naruto have transcended into mediums unto themselves. Though sometimes you get localized fixations, such as a certain annelid titled web serial that makes #54 spot on fanfiction.net's books list, but has a commanding presence on SV/SB.
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- Location
- Elsewhere
Part of it is how accessible the original work is to fanfiction.
Some stories don't have a good entry point and are tightly wrapped enough that shoving something new in in an exercise in frustration.
Other stories have such a convenient hook that there's a huge body of fics that all use the same entry and then die because they have no idea what to do with the rest of the canon storyline.
Some stories don't have a good entry point and are tightly wrapped enough that shoving something new in in an exercise in frustration.
Other stories have such a convenient hook that there's a huge body of fics that all use the same entry and then die because they have no idea what to do with the rest of the canon storyline.
- Location
- Volksstaat Hessen, Deutsches Reich
Ships. Stories are ships. That's all anyone ever cares about, at least on fanfiction sites.
And that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy then. Like, as my last post said - if you have a story that just happens to contain romance, nearly all feedback will be about that. Not about themes or plot development or takeaways. Those just don't matter as much.
And if the only way to get feedback is to focus on shipping, well... I guess takeaways become very much less important.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
There's also just the popularity of the original work to consider. People rarely write fic for media that they haven't consumed or even heard of. There's lots of works out there that I wish had more fic, but they're just not that well known.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
Yeah, I've had the problem of reading/watching something, wanting some fic of it, and just not being able to find anything. Not being unable to find something good, but being unable to find anything at all.
- Location
- Neptune
And if your fic doesn't contain romance then all they talk about what romance it should contain.
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Hmm..., just re-read an old Buffy/Ranma crossover (The Council's Ace) and I stumbled over something that annoyed me quite a bit, but that bit was taken straight from canon... So, I guess, I could say that a pet peeve of mine is if a fic just copies/reproduces things that are kinda wrong.
The fic starts in Buffy Season 2 and thus also includes the episode where the Sunydale students have to science project. The resident mean girl Cordelia wants to do the project "tomato - fruit or vegetable?" and asks Willow (the genius girl) what the answer is. She then gets the terse answer that it's a fruit, like in canon.
The thing is, that's kinda wrong? I mean, sure scientifically/botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruit, since they fulfill the definition of fruit ("being a part that developed from the ovary of a flowering plant". wiki vegetable). However, the project isn't "are tomatoes fruits?", it's "are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?". And since "vegetable" doesn't have scientific/botanic definition*, you can't answer the question using the scientific definition. Instead you have to answer it using a cultural/culinary definition. In which case tomatoes are, at least in the US based on a decision of the Supreme Court, vegetables.
*the definitions for vegetable range from "matter of plant origin", over "any plant, part of which is used for food", to "any plant part consumed for food that is not a fruit or seed, but including mature fruits that are eaten as part of a main meal". In all cases tomatoes would qualify as vegetables. Though you might argue that fresh tomatoes that are eaten as snacks, would qualify as fruit, but not those that are used in a meal, using the last definition.
The fic starts in Buffy Season 2 and thus also includes the episode where the Sunydale students have to science project. The resident mean girl Cordelia wants to do the project "tomato - fruit or vegetable?" and asks Willow (the genius girl) what the answer is. She then gets the terse answer that it's a fruit, like in canon.
The thing is, that's kinda wrong? I mean, sure scientifically/botanically speaking, tomatoes are fruit, since they fulfill the definition of fruit ("being a part that developed from the ovary of a flowering plant". wiki vegetable). However, the project isn't "are tomatoes fruits?", it's "are tomatoes fruits or vegetables?". And since "vegetable" doesn't have scientific/botanic definition*, you can't answer the question using the scientific definition. Instead you have to answer it using a cultural/culinary definition. In which case tomatoes are, at least in the US based on a decision of the Supreme Court, vegetables.
*the definitions for vegetable range from "matter of plant origin", over "any plant, part of which is used for food", to "any plant part consumed for food that is not a fruit or seed, but including mature fruits that are eaten as part of a main meal". In all cases tomatoes would qualify as vegetables. Though you might argue that fresh tomatoes that are eaten as snacks, would qualify as fruit, but not those that are used in a meal, using the last definition.
- Location
- Neptune
So in other works, you're peeved about a common joke deriving from a bit of trivia.
- Location
- Volksstaat Hessen, Deutsches Reich
He is German after all. Pedantry is in our blood
But tbf, just because false information keeps being spread around as a meme doesn't make it less false. And while it is a very... specific peeve I daresay this thread has seen worse.
He is German after all. Pedantry is in our blood
But tbf, just because false information keeps being spread around as a meme doesn't make it less false. And while it is a very... specific peeve I daresay this thread has seen worse.
Isn't this just plain whataboutism?
Nah, it just means that the answer to the question is "Yes." (If the question was "are tomatoes fruits xor vegetables?", then the answer would be "No.")
Tomatoes are fruits. They are also vegetables. However, the cultural/culinary definition of "vegetable" is literally just "an edible part of a plant".
Which means, by on the cultural/culinary definition, Apples and Bananas are both vegetables too.
But, more importantly: it means that to people with an allergy to tomatoes, tomatoes are not a vegetable. Thus proving that the cultural/culinary definition is invalid for use in a scientific study, as it is a subjective measure rather than an objective one.
Therefore, the correct answer to the question is "Tomatoes are always fruits, but sometimes they are vegetables too."
Axslashel
I am a pessimist not a realist.
- Location
- Land of the Midnight Sun
Well it was supposed to be a science project. So a culinary answer would not be on topic to begin with. Should have had the project proposal rejected.
- Location
- Elsewhere
I vaguely recall it being suggested by the teachers.
Kinda as a "get the stupid kids to do an easy project so we don't have to deal with overreaching nonsense."
So having one come back with a Supreme Court ruling would be amusing.
"Here's a project that even stupid teenagers can't screw up too badly."
"The Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are vegetables."
"..."
Kinda as a "get the stupid kids to do an easy project so we don't have to deal with overreaching nonsense."
So having one come back with a Supreme Court ruling would be amusing.
"Here's a project that even stupid teenagers can't screw up too badly."
"The Supreme Court ruled that tomatoes are vegetables."
"..."
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
Having put a bit more thought into it, I don't think it's me being pedantic.* It's more that fics sometimes present a definite solution to a problem and more or less imply that people who don't get it are stupid, even though the problem isn't as clear cut or easy to solve in reality. And that's the thing that bother me.He is German after all. Pedantry is in our blood
But tbf, just because false information keeps being spread around as a meme doesn't make it less false. And while it is a very... specific peeve I daresay this thread has seen worse.
It's just that this time it's taken directly from the source instead of being inserted by the fic author.
*Well, not just me being pedantic at least. Given that there's a good chance I will check / guesstimate the correctness of a fic if it uses specifics instead of vagueness (that is the difference between "It only took us x days to make it to our destination y miles away" vs "we managed to make good time on our journey), I can't really deny the accusations of pedantry 😅
Yes! That's precisely what I'd want to see once in a while for this scene. Either as background in a different scene (which admittedly would be a lot easier in an actual tv series), or directly as someone contradicting Willow or giving a different answer to Cordelia earlier/later on. Just something that differs from just parroting the source.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
The Roberts court would probably rule that tomatoes are a dairy product.
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
When a misspelling is used to indicate a mispronunciation, but it would be pronounced exactly the same. Like, you write "frend" instead of "friend", or "there" instead of "their", and then some smartass breaks the 4th Wall and corrects the speaker. Even when it's done ironically I hate it.
- Location
- Right Where I Am
I have seen stuff like that turn into arguments over accents before. Some people saying that two things are pronounced the same, and others that they're clearly not.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
And so began the American-Canadian war of 18something...
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Pet peeve: time travel fix-its where the author follows the stations of canon. The entire point is to fix-it, having the same bad things happen at the same points in time defeats the purpose.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Sounds as if it could be a fun premise: Si gets stuck in a timeloop where they try to Fix the timeline. Only for the stations of cannon to keep repeating no matter what they do.