- Created By MikazukiYuki
The Bond of Flame (a fanfic of my own fanfic)
((yes, you read the title right. This is pretty much a scrapped plot-line from Twilight Dreams, which will eventually make its way here. It no longer applies except in maybe an Alternate Universe of Twilight Dreams...so its now a fanfic of a fanfi...How To Not Get In A Fight With MiYu, Part One: Fancharacters and OC's in Fanfiction
First, definitions.
Fancharacter: A character that was created by the writer of a fanfiction specifically for that fanfiction. That character, if removed from that fanfiction and put in another fanfiction or original work, would not be able to function properly, because a huge chunk of their identity is tied to the universe of the fanfic they come from. If you have to change them to the point where they are no longer easily recognizable to fit them somewhere else, it's a fancharacter. An example would be a Heartless character in a Kingdom Hearts fanfic--it would be very, very difficult to put that character in, say, an InuYasha fanfic without it being out of place (or indicating a cross-over), and could never be used in an original work because it screams copyright infringement.
Original Character: A character that was created by the writer of an original work OR a fanfiction who, while they can be USED in the fanfic's universe, wouldn't have much trouble going into another fanfic or story with most of their distinguishing features intact. Their identity is NOT reliant upon the story they are in at the time, even though they may play a major role.
Let's make up an example here...We'll call her Jani Do. Ms Do is a main character in X's Hellsing fanfic, where she is a new recruit to the Hellsing organization. She hates vampires with a passion because they killed her whole family, and as such despises Alucard and Seres(sp?). She refuses to get along or work with them, and while she fears Alucard, she has no respect for him. For simplicity's sake, lets say that the story is short and going to end with her becoming the thing she hates, a vampire, and instead of choosing to kill herself, she decides to live as one and use her skills to kill other vampires, saying something like "I can use this curse to rid the world of leeches like me...And once the last one's blood is running through my fingers, then and only then will I kill myself and be free."
Not only could this apply to hundreds and hundreds of OTHER vampire fandoms, it could also be used in an original story that may have nothing to do with vampires. For example, she may hate a particular racial or social group, learn she is part of this group, and become a serial-killer on a mission. Jani Do is an OC, not a fancharacter.
Now that we're clear on that...
I use both types of characters in my fanfiction. I DO use the canon characters, and often I enjoy it. Sometimes, however, canon characters are very, very hard to write and may be interpreted in dozens and dozens of ways. There's also the fact that we already KNOW a ton about the canon characters--their lives, their viewpoints, their feelings, etc--because, well, they're canon. The story is ABOUT them, after all. I don't like to read novelizations, and I for sure am not ever going to write one. Novelizations are NOT fanfiction, they're the same story with the same characters, with the same dialog and the same events and sub-plots, that happened to be written by a fan. If I wanted to see the story of YYH's Demon Tournament, for example, I would go WATCH THE RELATED EPISODES.
If you're the type of person who hates OCs, FCs , or both, then I BEG you to not read my work. That will save BOTH of us a ton of headaches in the long run. Then again, if you're the stubborn ass who hates OCs/FCs, reads this warning, then reads my fanfiction all the way to the end, then comments about how much you hate OCs/FCs, I tip my hat to you, because that is some SERIOUS dedication.
First Order
----prologue in the works, will be added when finished---- Act One Potential (& a Warning) The Commander, dressed in red, paced back and forth in front of the fresh-off-the-bus cadets as he spoke. “So, you&rsq...End
