All fanfic writers are creatively bankrupt thieves.

cabbag3

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I've never understood fanfiction authors. It's like, your brain is a toybox that will magically fill itself with whatever toys you can imagine, and you decided you'd rather take the toys from the kid next door's toybox instead?
I mean, McGonagall's looking fine tho~ ??
 

RepresentingWrath

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that comrade must be a staunch anti-capitalist.
 

NotaNuffian

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I've only read 1 fanfic that i would consider great and it was almost 20 years ago :ROFLMAO:
Funnily, I read a The GamerxRWBY fanfic and the only reason it is good is because it did not shanked the OG works.

Pity that in the end the author buggered off because the plot ran into a major wall.

Helped by the fact that RWBY's own plot becomes crap.
 

Tyranomaster

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The level of mental gymnastics that fanfiction writers go through to convince themselves that taking entire settings and characters verbatim from someone else's work is the equivalent of modifying a concept is on a level not seen since all those people drank the kool-aid at Jonestown.
 

RepresentingWrath

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The level of mental gymnastics that fanfiction writers go through to convince themselves that taking entire settings and characters verbatim from someone else's work is the equivalent of modifying a concept is on a level not seen since all those people drank the kool-aid at Jonestown.
fr fr
 

3guanoff

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The level of mental gymnastics that fanfiction writers go through to convince themselves that taking entire settings and characters verbatim from someone else's work is the equivalent of modifying a concept is on a level not seen since all those people drank the kool-aid at Jonestown.
I don't know, mate. Your usage of "verbatim" is much more of a stretch.

Have you ever read The System's Black Tech Internet Cafe (系统的黑科技网吧)?
The author did a good job* using all the different settings. After reading it, I even tried some of the video games, because he made them sound so interesting.

To me, someone who knew nothing about these settings and characters, it was exactly like the first time being tossed into a Japanese novel utilizing characters and setting from their history and shinto religion. As a reader, it felt no different.

As a writer, I would feel no confidence using someone else's characters unless, perhaps, I were writing a parody of a shitty work. I am not nearly obsessed enough with any work to fully know any of its characters.
Whatever I would write would be different characters with some similarities at best and poor imitations at worst.

(The term "shitty work" applies to those where poorly crafted, mangled corpses of concepts are considered "characters", as is the case in many a work of modern fiction. They have been passed through the hands of countless writers, and survived innumerable reboots, adaptations of adaptations, and special episodes. Thus, they are more trademark than character.)

*Not the height of literature but a passable fanfiction.
 

Anonjohn20

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The level of mental gymnastics that fanfiction writers go through to convince themselves that taking entire settings and characters verbatim from someone else's work is the equivalent of modifying a concept is on a level not seen since all those people drank the kool-aid at Jonestown.
As long as the fanfic writer doesn't try and make a profit from the fanfic, then most owners of intellectual property really don't mind. Most fanfics are trash anyway, for every good fanfic, there are dozens of bad ones.
 

Nolff

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I hate fanfics.
I can respect that you use stereotypical and cliched characters and stereotypical and cliched worlds, but please, do not use characters and settings from another author.
Can't prevent me either.

ehehe.jpg
 

Rhaps

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I like fanfics where it respect the original author and work, something often seek and don't find often.

Then there is the situation with my literature Idol, mushroom man 24/7 on shroom Kinoko Nasu, he has an "unrestricted creativity" policy, all fanfics are technically canon by the rules he established. This is a man who break rules as often as he establish them.
 

Anonjohn20

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he has an "unrestricted creativity" policy, all fanfics are technically canon by the rules he established.
Cool, just like the developer of the original Doom games saying that all the mods and fanfics are canon alternate universes (even HDoom).
 

theInmara

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The vast majority of fanfics are harming literally no one. They exist only in fandoms, shared originally at conventions, and now circulated online for FREE.

They aren't done for profit or any material gain, not even fame. They're done for the fun of it. They're done because the author is not done engaging with the original work, even though the original may have come to an end. And every human being has the right to do that. They're daydreams on paper of things that could be or could have been, often with self inserts.

And if you don't like them, fine. Don't like them. Your like or dislike is utterly irrelevant.

This whole thread should end. There's no point to it at all. The OPs anger is grossly misplaced, but ultimately harmless if we all ignore it.
 

Tyranomaster

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The vast majority of fanfics are harming literally no one. They exist only in fandoms, shared originally at conventions, and now circulated online for FREE.

They aren't done for profit or any material gain, not even fame. They're done for the fun of it. They're done because the author is not done engaging with the original work, even though the original may have come to an end. And every human being has the right to do that. They're daydreams on paper of things that could be or could have been, often with self inserts.

And if you don't like them, fine. Don't like them. Your like or dislike is utterly irrelevant.

This whole thread should end. There's no point to it at all. The OPs anger is grossly misplaced, but ultimately harmless if we all ignore it.
I know 2 people IRL who make hundreds of dollars a month writing MHA smut fanfiction. What is your opinion on people who ARE profiting from the matter? You don't even have to look far to find fanfictions that have patreons or paypal donations. They are profiting from it.

Your argument that "some people" aren't profiting some of the time isn't a foundational argument, since there are obvious counter examples that you don't acknowledge, you just ignore.

I dislike it for 2 fundamental reasons, and 1 personal one. There is a caveat for stories where the author encourages fanfictions of their work, but having that option is a privilege only the author can give.

1. It misrepresents the fanfiction author's skill in a public setting. They are piggybacking on other works. The chinese do this with all kinds of products, making cheap knock offs and selling it as the real thing off the brand recognition. It is duplicitous. Even if you know it's a knockoff our brains aren't actually good at quarantining that knowledge, and it subconsciously bleeds in, ruining our image of the original product.

2. Public domain, fair use, and parody exist. The rest of society has agreed on those being the limits on what you can and cannot creatively take and use. Even then the lawsuits roll out and people fight over what is or is not fair use or parody. Change the law if you want it to be fair use, it currently isn't.

My personal reason is that many fanfiction authors that get any traction usually end up being an asshole. They talk big game, and start complaining about the various rules they said they didn't care about before, like being able to profit from "their work". Often time they'll take people's money on commissioned works. Ultimately many come off as whiny communists who want other people's labor, then when they get some of it, are suddenly anarcho capitalists who don't believe laws regulating profit should exist.

Muh community "needs" my fanfiction. The internet is a public square, not a quiet room in your house. Every website is just a part of the massive public square, and there are search engines to let you find anything quickly in it. That fanfiction, essentially, is like standing outside a line at a movie theater and selling or giving away your fanfiction of the movie to people going in to see or are just leaving after having seen it. It isn't sharing it with a few friends. For a small TV show or manga, if your fanfiction gets big enough, it could show up on the first page of google, and that would easily confuse people.
 

RepresentingWrath

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I know 2 people IRL who make hundreds of dollars a month writing MHA smut fanfiction. What is your opinion on people who ARE profiting from the matter? You don't even have to look far to find fanfictions that have patreons or paypal donations. They are profiting from it.

Your argument that "some people" aren't profiting some of the time isn't a foundational argument, since there are obvious counter examples that you don't acknowledge, you just ignore.

I dislike it for 2 fundamental reasons, and 1 personal one. There is a caveat for stories where the author encourages fanfictions of their work, but having that option is a privilege only the author can give.

1. It misrepresents the fanfiction author's skill in a public setting. They are piggybacking on other works. The chinese do this with all kinds of products, making cheap knock offs and selling it as the real thing off the brand recognition. It is duplicitous. Even if you know it's a knockoff our brains aren't actually good at quarantining that knowledge, and it subconsciously bleeds in, ruining our image of the original product.

2. Public domain, fair use, and parody exist. The rest of society has agreed on those being the limits on what you can and cannot creatively take and use. Even then the lawsuits roll out and people fight over what is or is not fair use or parody. Change the law if you want it to be fair use, it currently isn't.

My personal reason is that many fanfiction authors that get any traction usually end up being an asshole. They talk big game, and start complaining about the various rules they said they didn't care about before, like being able to profit from "their work". Often time they'll take people's money on commissioned works. Ultimately many come off as whiny communists who want other people's labor, then when they get some of it, are suddenly anarcho capitalists who don't believe laws regulating profit should exist.

Muh community "needs" my fanfiction. The internet is a public square, not a quiet room in your house. Every website is just a part of the massive public square, and there are search engines to let you find anything quickly in it. That fanfiction, essentially, is like standing outside a line at a movie theater and selling or giving away your fanfiction of the movie to people going in to see or are just leaving after having seen it. It isn't sharing it with a few friends. For a small TV show or manga, if your fanfiction gets big enough, it could show up on the first page of google, and that would easily confuse people.
 
D

Deleted member 76176

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I know 2 people IRL who make hundreds of dollars a month writing MHA smut fanfiction. What is your opinion on people who ARE profiting from the matter? You don't even have to look far to find fanfictions that have patreons or paypal donations. They are profiting from it.

Your argument that "some people" aren't profiting some of the time isn't a foundational argument, since there are obvious counter examples that you don't acknowledge, you just ignore.

I dislike it for 2 fundamental reasons, and 1 personal one. There is a caveat for stories where the author encourages fanfictions of their work, but having that option is a privilege only the author can give.

1. It misrepresents the fanfiction author's skill in a public setting. They are piggybacking on other works. The chinese do this with all kinds of products, making cheap knock offs and selling it as the real thing off the brand recognition. It is duplicitous. Even if you know it's a knockoff our brains aren't actually good at quarantining that knowledge, and it subconsciously bleeds in, ruining our image of the original product.

2. Public domain, fair use, and parody exist. The rest of society has agreed on those being the limits on what you can and cannot creatively take and use. Even then the lawsuits roll out and people fight over what is or is not fair use or parody. Change the law if you want it to be fair use, it currently isn't.

My personal reason is that many fanfiction authors that get any traction usually end up being an asshole. They talk big game, and start complaining about the various rules they said they didn't care about before, like being able to profit from "their work". Often time they'll take people's money on commissioned works. Ultimately many come off as whiny communists who want other people's labor, then when they get some of it, are suddenly anarcho capitalists who don't believe laws regulating profit should exist.

Muh community "needs" my fanfiction. The internet is a public square, not a quiet room in your house. Every website is just a part of the massive public square, and there are search engines to let you find anything quickly in it. That fanfiction, essentially, is like standing outside a line at a movie theater and selling or giving away your fanfiction of the movie to people going in to see or are just leaving after having seen it. It isn't sharing it with a few friends. For a small TV show or manga, if your fanfiction gets big enough, it could show up on the first page of google, and that would easily confuse people.
There are four main characteristics that can be seen in fans: investment, discrimination, productivity, and community.

1. A fan has an emotional attachment to the object of adoration. He may spend significantly more money, time, and energy on this object, for which he often feels a sense of "ownership" that separates a fan from a regular consumer. He, for example, would react strongly if something happened to their adoration they deemed to be wrong, e.g., cutting funding for his favorite franchise.

2. Fans differentiate strongly between objects of which they are fans and objects of which they are not. This also serves to build a community, establishing a boundary between fans and the "rest of the world." Discrimination also exists among fans in the form of "favorite actors, games, characters, shows, etc.," an accumulation of canon knowledge (elitism), opinions, and interpretations.

3. Fans take pleasure in manipulating and interpreting the meaning of objects they consume. Although the original ideas of producers may differ, this is not because of faultiness but rather for the appropriation of it. Gossips, discussions, and derivative works—fanart, fan-games, and fanfiction—are some great examples of fan productivity.

4. Fans want to talk to and share their adoration with like-minded individuals to heighten the pleasure.

Why am I telling you this? The fact that fanworks play an important part in keeping a fandom alive is a good reason for me to disagree with you. Virtually any discussion can and will poison your interpretation of the original work, but that doesn't mean we should stop doing it altogether. No, that is just silly.

Recently, I was reading about the early days of the yuri before it became an established genre. Suffice to say, derivative works played a huge role in establishing what we know to be yuri, with one survey claiming that more people read and have been introduced to the genre through derivative work than its original counterpart; the doujin artists themselves becoming yuri mangaka afterwards. Notably, Yuri Hime employed a similar strategy of fan interpretation to engage mainstream consumers and ensure the genre's continuity through the anime adaptation of 'Yuru Yuri.'

Then there is fan-driven community like Touhou. The official content for the franchise is extremely small compared to what the community has to offer, and that is the beauty of it; there is a reason why such niche games has such a longstanding and strong fan base.

People profiting of other's work is a valid concern, and I share that too. But I personally don't think it is part of the conversation here. On the note, calling fanfictions to be creatively bankrupt is a weird take. Because, going by what I've explained so far, fanfictions are not a show of creative expression but of a fan's pleasure in twisting the original meaning to his liking.
 
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