Fanfiction themes that creep you out.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Literature could do without romance

It's like your appendix, or one kidney

Literature can be done without romance. It can also be done without swords, guns, dragons, national politics, religion, or anything else, as long as it has one source and one means of conflict from the long list of possibilities, so I'm not sure what your point is.

[Aotrs Commander]

Literature can be done without romance. It can also be done without swords, guns, dragons, national politics, religion, or anything else, as long as it has one source and one means of conflict from the long list of possibilities, so I'm not sure what your point is.

Or characters, even, except by possibly the broadest definition of "character" as "Thing The Story Is About."

[Talakeal]

While I absolutely agree that nothing in Pokemon canon even comes close the the porn!fanon attempts to justify the sexual slavery of creatures that can't choose for themselves in any capacity, I would like to point out that "inflatable fake boobs" is one of the tamer parts of that episode. As an example, there's a part where an old man is ogling Misty's bikini-clad body (and Misty is 10 yo, to be clear), and the old man says "you remind me of my granddaughter". Again, nowhere near as creepy as the Pokemon furry porn fanon stuff, but still pretty ****ed up.

Correction, Ash is 10. Misty is 12. That makes a big difference.

[AvatarVecna]

Correction, Ash is 10. Misty is 12. That makes a big difference.

Really? I coulda sworn she was 10 as well, and that Brock was the oldest in the group. Of course, even if she's 12, that's still not exactly an improvement.

[8BitNinja]

Literature can be done without romance. It can also be done without swords, guns, dragons, national politics, religion, or anything else, as long as it has one source and one means of conflict from the long list of possibilities, so I'm not sure what your point is.

You do have a point

[TeChameleon]

Eh, I can't say that I mind romance as long as it's done well (although I can quiet happily live without it as a genre), the problem is that it so very, very rarely is, and it's virtually omnipresent, getting shoehorned in all over the place, especially when anything gets adapted to TV or movies (cf. the Shannara Chronicles TV series, where suddenly the teenaged characters are sleeping around and having romance... 'drama' all over the place. It's arguably better done than some of the romance plots that get jammed into things, and it's still grating and incredibly jarring- "Oh noes, we can't work together properly in the face of demonic annihilation because we two female leads are both attracted to the gormless male lead because... reasons. Our entire species is going to be murdered and eaten by actual, literal demons thanks to our silly, silly hormones." Blech.)

Yes, people falling in love and entering relationships is part of the human condition. No worries there, I'm actually a fan of this, which is probably just as well, as I'm celebrating my fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow That doesn't mean that Every. Single. Story. has to violently derail the plot off into a third-rate Valentine's Special just because two characters of compatible sexuality happen to exist someplace in that fictional universe.

I swear, there are times that I think that there needs to be somebody standing behind the Hollywood Executive-types with a clue-by-four and bludgeoning them every time they utter the word 'demographic' as justification for forcing story changes.

... and yes, that Pokégirls thing is creepy as all hell >.>

[8BitNinja]

Eh, I can't say that I mind romance as long as it's done well (although I can quiet happily live without it as a genre), the problem is that it so very, very rarely is, and it's virtually omnipresent, getting shoehorned in all over the place, especially when anything gets adapted to TV or movies (cf. the Shannara Chronicles TV series, where suddenly the teenaged characters are sleeping around and having romance... 'drama' all over the place. It's arguably better done than some of the romance plots that get jammed into things, and it's still grating and incredibly jarring- "Oh noes, we can't work together properly in the face of demonic annihilation because we two female leads are both attracted to the gormless male lead because... reasons. Our entire species is going to be murdered and eaten by actual, literal demons thanks to our silly, silly hormones." Blech.)

Yes, people falling in love and entering relationships is part of the human condition. No worries there, I'm actually a fan of this, which is probably just as well, as I'm celebrating my fifth wedding anniversary tomorrow That doesn't mean that Every. Single. Story. has to violently derail the plot off into a third-rate Valentine's Special just because two characters of compatible sexuality happen to exist someplace in that fictional universe.

I swear, there are times that I think that there needs to be somebody standing behind the Hollywood Executive-types with a clue-by-four and bludgeoning them every time they utter the word 'demographic' as justification for forcing story changes.

... and yes, that Pokégirls thing is creepy as all hell >.>

I agree

I'm still waiting for a good character that, I. The midst of the love acting up, can say "This isn't important right now, there are three squads of soldiers over that hill, and some group of heroes has to take them out" and instead of anything mushy happening, they charge the enemy forces, guns blazing

They did do that once

In Predator

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Tell that to the manga writers.

I would but I don't have their contact information.

[DomaDoma]

Eh, I can't say that I mind romance as long as it's done well (although I can quiet happily live without it as a genre), the problem is that it so very, very rarely is, and it's virtually omnipresent, getting shoehorned in all over the place, especially when anything gets adapted to TV or movies (cf. the Shannara Chronicles TV series, where suddenly the teenaged characters are sleeping around and having romance... 'drama' all over the place. It's arguably better done than some of the romance plots that get jammed into things, and it's still grating and incredibly jarring- "Oh noes, we can't work together properly in the face of demonic annihilation because we two female leads are both attracted to the gormless male lead because... reasons. Our entire species is going to be murdered and eaten by actual, literal demons thanks to our silly, silly hormones." Blech.)

I mean, there absolutely was a love triangle there in the book. But no one involved took leave of their senses on account of it. Also I don't remember the gypsy girl whose name escapes me being onstage at the same time as Amberle, but it's admittedly been a while. I do seem to recall Wil was fairly gormless, mind, but then that's bog-standard for fantasy protagonists at the height of the "Fantasyland" period.

See also, on the topic of romance drama impeding the prevention of demon mass murder: bad Oblivion-fic. My headcanonical/fic-worthy Hero of Kvatch did have it bad for Martin, because honestly who didn't, but she kept it to her ruddy self because, you know, you really don't want the one guy capable of saving the world taking stupid risks on account of you. (Plus, I don't think I've met the person who integrates this romance into Skyrim fanfic while sufficiently accounting for events between the Oblivion Crisis and the Great War.)

[Frozen_Feet]

That question I have no answer to. But then, I have no answer to why adults play Pokemon to begin with.

You might as well ask why adults play cards. Or football. Or listen to the same songs they liked as teenagers.

Things don't magically stop being fun when you reach a certain age. Adults simply have more responsibilities and less time, so playing falls down the priority list.

Usually it comes back when the adult gets kids of their own. But abundance of free time can lead to similar behaviour.

[Rater202]

Things don't magically stop being fun when you reach a certain age

Relevant thingy

[danzibr]

I only read the first 2 posts. I get the feeling I don't want to know what slash is.

[Rater202]

I only read the first 2 posts. I get the feeling I don't want to know what slash is.

Romantic or sexually explicit fanworks that involve two or more males in some sort of relationship.

It's infamous in certain fanfic communities because a large percentage of slashfics are written by unskilled teenage girls who don't seem to understand that only about 1-in-10 men identify as a homosexual...

...Or that certain characters liking female characters in the canon probably means that the character in question does not like male characters...

...Or how relationships work...

...or that men can't get pregnant.

[ThinkMinty]

Honestly, I get most creeped out by failures with things like syntax or grammar or spelling. As well as stuff like pacing issues or breaks in the verisimilitude of the piece. If someone wants to play out some sick sexual fantasy using pre-existing characters as actors, that's fine by me, just do it right for ****'s sake.

I also thought those really dark things where the ponies kill each other (Cupcakes, off the top of my head) were a bit much, in a juvenile kind of way. Then again, I used to draw bunnies killing themselves, so I get why people do it.

People airing their sick sexual fantasies out doesn't bother me much (as I can always walk away), but that's because I'm personally into some strange stuff and feel I lost the high ground on that one sometime between tenth grade and now.

[John Cribati]

Things don't magically stop being fun when you reach a certain age.

Permission to sig?

[Frozen_Feet]

My copyright lawyers won't show up on your door if you choose to do a thing with a line of text, if that's wgat you fear.

Surely you can't mean this Barney, can you?

Actually, upon watching that video, that seems entirely too plausible. A creepy guy in a nightmare-fuel dinosaur suit driving a bunch of kids somewhere unspecified...

Sounds like a good premise for a horror story. Pick the right genre and being creepy becomes a merit rather than a flaw.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I only read the first 2 posts. I get the feeling I don't want to know what slash is.

Just same-sex shipping. It's about as good as any other fanfic explicitly based on shipping - if the fanwriter has studied the characters and can write properly, then their slashfic will be based on compatible personalities and could actually be interesting to read. But this is fanfic, there is no quality control.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

Things don't magically stop being fun when you reach a certain age.

Actually, that's exactly what happens. Tastes change, bud. It's the reason I no longer listen to Guns N' Roses anymore. I stopped being 14 years old.

[DomaDoma]

Yep. You do outgrow things. Like, my username is after Final Fantasy VI, which is still probably the best Final Fantasy, but... yeah, I haven't played it in about a decade and I'm not keen on doing so. It's not got half the immersion it used to. (Pokemon never had an immersion quality to it. So I never played it. But I did collect Magic: the Gathering cards in an attempt to categorize the flavor text by country/culture until the world made sense.)

As mentioned, I do, as an adult, play and write about Elder Scrolls. Because that's some meaty worldbuilding I can sink my teeth into. Maybe in ten years I'll have no choice but to work my way up to the Silmarillion?

[Aotrs Commander]

Actually, that's exactly what happens. Tastes change, bud. It's the reason I no longer listen to Guns N' Roses anymore. I stopped being 14 years old.

But by the same token, people's tastes and whether or not they change and what they change to, are phenominally variable.

Mine haven't changed in thirty-six years in some regards (I was never interested in booze, sports (or actually, any kind of competative anything, come to that) or relationships and my starship obession has only grown) and only specialised in some areas; I have gone off games outside of (a very specific type of) table-top wargames, table-top roleplaying and computer gaming (single player only, and fairly narrow width of RPGs/RTS/4X and city-builders - basically something that either tells a story or lets me create something).

My musical tastes have essentially not altered since I was a child and the 1980s put me off it pretty much altogether and still compose 98% soundtracks from cartoons/anime and video games (and basically only the combat music at that).

(I read a lot of fanfic in part because I cannot afford either the space or the cost of fuelling my regular reading any other way. If you have a fairly large fandom, you can generally find the gems among the chaff - especially if there is some level of prescreening like and Fimfiction where the signal-to-noise ratio is considerable higher than on, say fanfiction.net.)

I remain as I was - an megalomanical starship-obessed outsider¹ that divorced humanity at age five and never looked back... (Though as an example of a sane person (or, arguably, a person at all...) I may not be the best example.)



¹That's the concept, not the D&D creature type.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

But by the same token, people's tastes and whether or not they change and what they change to, are phenominally variable.

That goes without saying, doesn't it?

[Rater202]

Actually, that's exactly what happens. Tastes change, bud. It's the reason I no longer listen to Guns N' Roses anymore. I stopped being 14 years old.

That's not the same as stuff magically not being fun anymore. Guns and Roses didn't change, you did.

[DomaDoma]

That's not the same as stuff magically not being fun anymore. Guns and Roses didn't change, you did.

I reckon it's his thesis that people are supposed to change as they grow older. And I can't argue with that. I mean, never mind Gameboy games and '80s cartoons, which have good claims to "brain rotting" even for kids. If Jackie Paper hadn't ditched Puff the Magic Dragon, it would be serious cause for concern. And adult men playing with tin soldiers was the single biggest sign in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that you needed a queen as regent STAT.

(I also thought your thesis was not a literal claim that supernatural media-editing forces weren't a factor, though. So maybe it's best that DJ speak for himself.)

[Rater202]

People don't stop playing with games or toys because they're not fun anymore.

They stop playing with them because they don't have the time anymore or because they're tastes have changed as they mature, or simply because society says they shouldn't be having fun anymore.

There is nothing wrong with, once you've reached a certain level of maturity, your tastes not changing-I mean, a 20 year old watching Teletubbies unironically is kind of creepy, but a'int nothing wrong if the guy still reads his Spider-Man comic books-and if you still enjoy certain things, and these certain things are genuinely entertaining, then there's nothing wrong with telling society to shut the hell up on "supposed tos" and leave you alone when your watching your shows in your house.

[DJ Yung Crunk]

That's not the same as stuff magically not being fun anymore. Guns and Roses didn't change, you did.

Yes it is. Because "fun" can only be used in the context of a subjective opinion. It's not a quantifiable trait. So, yeah, they do stop being fun once you hit a certain age.

But we're getting into semantics of semantics now.

The point is, Glyphstone and myself can't empathise with people for whom the subjective trait of "fun" can still be applied to the Pokémon games.

(...maybe it's best that DJ speak for himself.)

That's a bad idea. Who came up with that?

[Dienekes]

Yes it is. Because "fun" can only be used in the context of a subjective opinion. It's not a quantifiable trait. So, yeah, they do stop being fun once you hit a certain age.

But we're getting into semantics of semantics now.

The point is, Glyphstone and myself can't empathise with people for whom the subjective trait of "fun" can still be applied to the Pokémon games.



That's a bad idea. Who came up with that?

I just don't see why it would matter. Empathize is just understanding that others have a feeling, not why. You'd have to be pretty self centered a person to not even be able to empathize that people like things different to you.

For example, I have mentioned before that I despise dance. I think it is the most boring thing I have ever witnessed or taken part in. But I have a friend who loves it and she can rather passionately discuss things about how wonderful the latest dance she saw was. And I can empathize just fine with that. We all have crap we are passionate about.

I just don't see how we can unilaterally claim one passion is better than another. If you like Pokemon or music. It's all just spending your time and entertaining yourself until you die. So long as it doesn't make you unable to function in society who cares?

The only exception of course would be passions that actually help society, like if your passionate about finding the cure for cancer, or cleaning the environment. Ok, those passions are better than everyone else's. Those guys could get to look down on all of us. It'd be kind of a jerk move to do so, but they'd be right.

[DomaDoma]

It's all just spending your time and entertaining yourself until you die.

No. No, it really isn't. I mean, even if you're rich and secular enough to think so, and you're not in fact developing a cure for cancer, don't you at least have friends and family you can do for? And there are definitely people kept from this basic joy and duty of life by spending too much time entertaining themselves. I don't mean the freak-of-the-week news features where someone's so hooked on Starcraft they let their baby starve; I mean several people I actually know, including myself circa age twenty.

[Dienekes]

No. No, it really isn't. I mean, even if you're rich and secular enough to think so, and you're not in fact developing a cure for cancer, don't you at least have friends and family you can do for? And there are definitely people kept from this basic joy and duty of life by spending too much time entertaining themselves. I don't mean the freak-of-the-week news features where someone's so hooked on Starcraft they let their baby starve; I mean several people I actually know, including myself circa age twenty.

The very next sentence I wrote added the caveat that so long as your entertainment doesn't prevent you from functioning in society.

Yeah, friends and family are also things you should "do for"

Also, I don't know what do for means. You may have missed a word or it may be an expression I am unfamiliar with.

But my point is there is nothing wrong with sitting in a room, alone for awhile listening to whatever new band you like, or playing whatever new video game you bought (or commenting on a forum). Both are equally unproductive and from a societal standpoint equally useless, except in the buying of the product which circulates some minuscule amount of currency which may add up to someone buying themselves food.

[Aotrs Commander]

And there are definitely people kept from this basic joy and duty of life by spending too much time entertaining themselves.

"Basic joy and duty?" It may be just the sheer weight of fatigue and stress piling on me at the moment impeding my mental functions, but that seems like an... odd choice of phrasing to me.

As I said earlier, tastes are subjective, so what you consider "joy" other people may not and vice versa, but I can sort of get what I think you mean...?

What do you mean by "duty," though? Societal expectations? Familial expectations? The aspect of passing on your genes?

[Coidzor]

Correction, Ash is 10. Misty is 12. That makes a big difference.

Fiction does follow reality sometimes, yeah. What with that being about the age most girls first notice adults checking them out.