Hey, check it out! The Fandom's Fanfic is suffering from Sturgeon's Law! Terrible spelling and grammar is everywhere, OCs are making everyone OOC, and Squicky pairings are being written! We should do something!
Except, what?
Why of course! Bring the fanfic writers who are causing this mess into the canon itself and teach them how to write proper fanfic!
First done by Camilla Sandman for Middle-earth in 2002, offsprings quickly started spawning everywhere. Originally these fanfiction universities required Sandman's approval to become "official", but now you're fine writing one as long as you mention Miss Cam anywhere, and don't write a blatant ripoff.
All OFUs share a multiverse with the Protectors of the Plot Continuum. PPC agents have dropping by their favorite Official Fanfiction University to "help" since Jay and Acacia visited The Official Fanfiction University Of Middle-earth.
Tropes:
- Berserk Button: Stiffener Medick is fed up with jokes about his Unfortunate Name. He's even threatened Agent Luxury over it.
- Black Comedy: In spades.
- Of the student at the Redwall OFU who sang the Hedgehog song*: , they did not find all the pieces.
- At the Myst OFU, the course on animals of the Ages is taught by a Red Shirt from one of the tie-in novels, who was killed by invasive predators on one of these Ages.
- At the Cats OFU, a jelly monster ran amok on Halloween, killing several of the students (but see Death Is Cheap below).
- Comedic Sociopathy: Some of the treatment of the students crosses into this. Sociopathic canon characters can also have their sociopathy Played for Laughs.
- Death Is Cheap: Because the students essentially apply through Brain Uploading, new bodies can be created with ease.
- Exact Words: The applications take a fiendish delight in Deconstructing the flowery prose of their "applicants". For instance, one of said writers who said she had "creamy" skin arrived in the D'ni cavern with literal cream for skin.
- Fangirl: Most of the students are the stereotypical "squeeing fangirl" type, hence they're enrolled to get over it.
- Fisher Kingdom: Any OFU for a world with nonhuman sentients will ask "race" on the entrance application. Any fanfic author who fills in "Elf" or "Vulcan" on the form will be transformed into a member of that race while in attendance.
- Which led to some disappointment at the Hogwarts Fanfiction Academy when some students signed up as "Elf", thinking they'd be Tolkien Elves.
- Of course, students don't get special powers, as a student who signed up as a Bahro complained.
- One student at the Redwall OFU signed up as a hermaphrodite, and got a major surprise the first time she used the bathroom.
- Which led to some disappointment at the Hogwarts Fanfiction Academy when some students signed up as "Elf", thinking they'd be Tolkien Elves.
- Furry Reminder: A student at the Redwall OFU who signed up as a mouse is horrified to learn that she'll be going into heat every three days.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Sakura, a catgirl at the Redwall OFU, spoke in it, as did a fanfic-generated character replacement for Eedrah at the Myst OFU.
- Groupie Brigade: Almost every canon character teaching at an OFU will have a group of students going after him/her.
- Half-Identical Twins: There's a pair in the Official Fanfiction University of Redwall
, thanks to a typo in an early edition. - Rouge Angles of Satin: All OFUs are guarded by mini-versions of a particular animal or enemy from the series, e.g. Balrogs, Acromantulas, or Camoudiles. They are spawned whenever a misspelling occurs of a proper name in that continuum, a practice that subsequently spread to the PPC.
- Sometimes this produced other things; at the Cats OFU, the Heaviside Lair*: was a staff room and the Russile*: Hotel became a second pen for mini-Pollicles.
- Squee: A lot of it occurs on the first day. This produces Piercing Squees*: in continua where "squee" refers to a person, place, or thing.
- Stylistic Suck: The main character is always introduced writing a fanfic that combines several features of badfic in the fandom.
- Training from Hell: The usual educational program of an OFU.
