Hello My Imaginary Friends,
I have seen countless actors, writers, and creators complain about fan fiction, shipping, and head-canon. Especially when it comes to character’s sexuality or gender.
For a long time LGBT+ characters and stories were banned from all forms of media and other minorities weren’t included for many terrible reasons. That meant that people had to read into the subtext of characters and stories to try and see themselves. Now it’s less illegal but still greatly lacking.
Fiction is incredibly powerful, it can change the way you think and can even the way you act.
The emotional bond we feel towards fictional characters is incredibly strong. Not the least because we project ourselves onto them and their surroundings. Between that and emotionally intense fictional events can cause a weird disconnect between reality and fiction. I’ve always described that like a fog combined with awe.
As a writer, I’ve come to realize that once I release my characters into the world I no longer have control of what people think or do with them. Isn’t that amazing? To have created something that is absorbed into the daily life or identity of others. That’s fantastic. To have people love what you’ve created so much that they want to build on it and continue the story is just beautiful.
Now you may think that anything that doesn’t come from the creator’s mind is worthless and devalues the characters. I disagree completely. If your stories can bring joy to others, then you’ve helped make someone happy. If that means they want to ship two characters that you think shouldn’t be together, then don’t read it. You are not obligated to read or create fanfiction, slash, ships, head-canon, fanon, or anything else.
You do not have to right to judge, insult, or humiliate others for loving something you created so much that they want to see themselves in it or play with the world.
I look forward to finding out what people love, what people see, and what people do with my creations. To me that is a completely new form of success.
Later Days,
Éric
Disclaimer: I am speaking of non-commercial use and emotional bonds. I do not support or condone the infringement of someone’s intellectual property. Plagiarism is bad… Duh!
I was ready to argue with you, but yeah. I agree completely. There is an issue when that attitude spills over into harassment of an author because they didn’t write what you expected or wanted, but yeah. Fan-fiction is awesome.
Oh absolutely. As much as an author has no say what people ship and imagine; a consumer has no say in what the author does with their characters.