I just realized something. I have a serial I've been writing. Unpublished and unfinished, yeah, but I do have my own little world, with my own little characters, and my own plots, my own conflicts, and so on. What if I do publish my series? People are gonna write fanfics about it.
Oh dear god, the fanfiction. I'm not even a professional writer, but I understand what you're feeling, J.K. Rowling.
You see, in my series, one of the central themes is one of the main characters, a guy, trying to find the right girl for him. It takes him many years, but eventually finds the one for him. (Yay! Happy ending! Well, that's one happy ending, anyways.) However, before he met Teh One, he went out with other girls. And you know what that means for the fanfic community . . .
SHIP WARS!!!!!
Oh Lord, even if my series doesn't have that large of a fanbase, there's going to be ship wars. Like that of which you can't imagine. I mean, even I struggled with what girl the guy ends up with at the end. Eventually, I did reach a "canon" decision, but I know not everyone's gonna agree with my decision. I can see it now . . .
"Girl A, he's known Girl A longer! They have more in common, and, that scene in (name of episode) solidifies his true feelings for her!"
"Nuh uh. Girl B is more stable, more empathetic, more understanding, and prettier. You know he loves Girl B the most!
"No way in Hell! Girl B is a ho!"
"Bullshit! Girl B is like, hella chaste for a woman of her age!"
"Hey guys, what about Girl C? You know, that girl he liked back when he was a kid? You think they could still hook up?"
"Dream on!"
"Fellas, fellas. We all know he's bi. And that his One True Love is (insert name of Male character.)"
"Shut the fuck up, fucking Yaoi fangirl!"
"You haven't looked at the subtext closely enough!"
"The Author himself stated his character is strictly hetero! STFU already!"
Oh boy, guess that's why some forums ban relationshipping discussions.
What about people who don't understand the nuances of characterization?
"Even though it completely goes against my previously established characterization in the canon series, in this fanfic, I'm going to jack off to porn, because the fanfic author is a 13 year old who thinks that's really funny."
Yeah, let's just hope that people write these fanfics after I'm dead.
Oh god. What if someone does a crossover? What if somebody crosses my franchise, with one that I personally despise?
"You must reciprocate Girl A's love! Lelouch of Britannia commands you!"
"Bitch! I don't take orders from a Japanophiliac terrorist!"
Okay, that last one left me laughing, and simultaneously enjoying that one piece of fanwritten dialog more than the canon Code Geass itself.
Hey, that reminds me of something. The upside of fanfiction is that it can be totally outlandish, yet still entertaining.
I can kind of relate to the shipping, though. I already did that one Tales of Legendia 'fic. And I did say this about Chobits, "If I were Hideki, I would've gone with Chitose instead!" Yeah.
