What are your personal "red flags" before reading any fanfic?

There is, however, a difference between Anti-Hero and Designated Hero.

If the protagonist is mean/cruel/psychopathic, but the narrative treats them as a paragon of moral goodness, and never suffering any consequences for their selfishness because everyone loves them too much to call them out for it (or even realize they are being selfish), then it gets annoying.

And generally, a show with an anti-hero or a villain protagonist has more things working to keep the audience engaged. Like conflict. Or character development.

Or at least someone who is actually and demonstrably worse rather than relatively a lighter shade as the supposed antagonist.

edited 22nd Nov '14 8:19:57 PM by Night

Basically, Designated Hero and Jerkass Sue are widely loathed tropes. Anti-Hero and Villain Protagonist are perfectly fine if the narrative doesn't bend over backwards to excuse the questionable actions of the main character. Also, it breaks Suspension of Disbelief if there's a character who regularly kicks puppies but is treated as a paragon of virtue.

This is more if I'm coming to look at a person's fanfiction after seeing their tumblrs or their presence on other fan sites/events, but... interpretations that cherry pick canon, or seem to basically take a few things and run with a personality archetype that contradicts other canon views. I'm generally open to different interpretations of canon if I can see where they came from, and the evidence used to support it. However, if they do things like 'Anakin Skywalker was always Obviously Evil' or 'Katara was always just waiting for someone to save her and make her special' then you just kind of have to run away.

Anti-Hero and Villain Protagonist are fine and perfectly serviceable.

So long as the story treats them as such.

The problem is when they become a Designated Hero, where the story doesn't acknowledge how incredibly evil they are.

I was talking about Ronthe Death Eater type stuff. Where a canon good guy is turned into a villain for bad reasons.

Depending on the fandom, those tend to go hand in hand.

A Peggy Sue usually raises some red flags, but so far, all I've read have been both believable, and very enjoyable.

I found a summery for a piece of fanfiction with the most red flags that I have ever seen in a single summery.

EDIT: The characters listed are: Naruto / Kushina / Naruko / Mikoto

Who reads this stuff?

edited 24th Nov '14 1:17:34 AM by 32ndfreeze

I don't usually rely on red flags, for the most part if it's something I won't like reading I lose interest after reading a few sentences.

Something else I'm starting to notice: really unoriginal OC names. :|a I can't tell you how many times I've found a KH fic with an OC named Luna, Hikari, Dawn. Oddly, the name Penelope is insanely popular for KH OCs, and the thing that baffles me the most is when these summaries are written as if the OC's existence is something we should accept from the get-go with no introduction.

...I'm pretty sure I know exactly what story you're referring to.

Ohly partially, JT. There are other, far worse offenders.

What I don't understand is how an author can be so blind to jerkass characters. I've mentioned abusive relationship fic before, but in general, it's just baffling how published works will glorify arrogant, selfish, and violent behaviors, let alone fanworks.

I feel like it may have something to do with the idealization of rugged, assertive action heroes in movies, but I'm not totally sure.

In the case of Fallout: Equestria it was mostly a case of trying to be morally ambiguous but ultimately have the hero end up being, well, the hero. Some of us (read: I) simply didn't buy that. Not a case of obliviousness, necessarily, but I don't think the story's themes meshed as well as the author would like.

Other cases are far, far less forgivable and far more oblivious. Like Harry siccing Fenrir Greyback on thirteen-year-old Dudley Dursley.

Rugged and assertive are both still a few solid steps away from dominant and abusive. I think the problem is most writers don't quite realize that, or they just think that the actions of a character in the past justify the actions done to them in the present, regardless of the situation. It's one of those gray areas that really shouldn't be a gray area.

Here's one I hate, something I saw in the Pony Fanfic Thread, fics where background characters are the hero and the canon characters are deluded fools. I've seen one of those,and it pissed me off. Then I saw one that's worse, because it was eight OCs fooling one canon character. Characters that SHOULD be teaming up with and helping said canon character. It's a well-written fic, but the main characters are utterly reprehensible, and the only excuse the author brings up is that because they're ninjas, they need to run a stealth operation with a decoy, and if the decoy doesn't know he's a decoy, then he's a perfect decoy and is less likely to blow everyone's cover.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that.

edited 24th Nov '14 8:35:23 PM by Robotnik

The Rugged and Assertive/Dominant and Abusive thing. Based off what I'm reading here, it's often set up that an abusive character is said as being assertive and gets away with more than they really should for various reasons, when really, the character has crossed a line and the writer doesn't even realize it. This sets a bad example, but one that can be dodged/disproved/something like that with enough research and effort.

Here's hoping that made sense.

Who decides what a character "should" get away with and whether they've "crossed a line"?

Circumstance, and that's the best answer I can come up with this late at night.

@1492: That is one of the reasons why I tend to avoid fanfics that casts background characters into a spotlight, because OC Stand ins are usually just poorly disguised Mary Sue.

edited 24th Nov '14 9:56:53 PM by theAdeptrogue

EDIT: Herp, I misread, but I feel that background character fics CAN be cool, but either focus explicitly on background characters or acknowledge that they aren't the main heroes.

It's even weirder when authors use a canon character as a self-insert, writing them as the character in name only. Kairi is a big one in KH, but I've heard it happens a lot with female chars with limited screentime. I guess it's because there's so little to go on that there's an excuse to do so.

As for the rugged versus abusive thing... I was thinking when they try to make a tough, rugged character, but it comes across as abusive and the characters act as if that's okay. It creates this really bizarre disconnect. >.o

edited 24th Nov '14 10:39:25 PM by Dorked

The fic described itself as "Harry with a backbone." But it was actually "Harry as a complete fucking sociopath."

edited 25th Nov '14 2:57:30 AM by Robotnik