OKAY SO.

I need to rant about this to SOMEBODY, so I figure, why not people who might actually respond/know what I'm talking about? (Cough, not my journal.)

You know how the most satisfying stories are the ones with characters that feel real? The characters that always seem the most "real" are the ones with distinct attributes that are consistent throughout the story. They might change over the course of the story, but there are always certain things about them that are constant. That makes them both dynamic, which is interesting, and constant, which is "real".

So when people f#*% up one of those two things, it's always really frustrating. When people create a character with cool attributes that never really change, it's kind of...a let down. I mean, I know sometimes that's the WHOLE POINT (such as the "stuck in the past" tragic hero, or whatever), but...it's just so anticlimactic. Sometimes it's even bad, even when it's the whole point, because a character has to change at least in some way over the course of a story, otherwise it's just not worth reading.

But what really gets me irritated is when characters change TOO MUCH. They start off as one person, and then at some point during the story...BAM. They are a different person. It's cool if people change dramatically over the course of a story, but they shouldn't suddenly go through a dramatic change in between Chapter 5 and Chapter 6 without some sort of explanation. (And it better be a damn good explanation, too.)

This one is the most irritating in fanfiction. I mean, I understand why people write fanfiction: you get so attached to something in a story someone else created that you begin to wrap your own imagination around that element, and then you want to make it "real". I understand. I DO it. Sometimes you read/watch/play something that's so gripping, you want to build your own story on it, too. (Pokemon franchise, I'm looking at you.) It's especially an issue when you get wrapped up in someone else's story and hope one ending happens when, in reality, another takes place. That can be so frustrating!

Especially with relationships. Sometimes its the creator's fault - they try to write two characters into a relationship when, in reality, they've ended up unintentionally creating more chemistry with different people. (That's probably the most frustrating of all.) Sometimes its not, like with characters that have equal chemistry with multiple potential partners, but the creator ends up picking one...maybe the one you don't. Other times one character has chemistry with multiple people, but a greater amount with the one they end up with - that one is frustrating, too, because it seems like a convincing story could be written in which the end result would be different.

So these frustrated people end up going and writing their own story, usually as an outlet in which to make their desired result become "real."

So, fellow writers and readers, please tell me WHY people INSIST on writing these characters SO DAMN OUT OF CHARACTER? I mean, they just completely ignore certain character attributes that SHOULD REMAIN CONSTANT. If they aren't constant, they aren't the same character! And that's not satisfying.

Like, here's an example: Disney sitcoms. Each episode of the sitcom must retain a certain equilibrium: permanent changes in the storyline must be sparse and relatively unimportant. The content has to be age-appropriate for a young audience, and it has to be fairly conservative.

An example of such a show is Kim Possible, which is fairly well-written for a Disney cartoon in the sense that the main characters are fairly unique. The creators admitted that from the beginning, they planned on having Kim and Ron (the two main characters) become a romantic couple at the end of the series, and spent much of the first three seasons dropping hints. However, although Kim and Ron had a lot of chemistry with each other and were convincing as a couple, they also had possible chemistry with other characters (either one-way in either direction or reciprocated). One of these "possible" couples (no pun intended), was a same-sex attraction between Kim and Shego, one of the main villains.

Now, OF COURSE Disney wouldn't allow any sort of same-sex attraction on one of their kids shows at this point, so no matter how many fans it had, Kim/Shego would never happen. Not in a "real" sense. But in fanfiction/fanart/what-have-you, it is fairly popular.

Unfortunately, most of it is fairly unconvincing. Especially when both Kim AND Shego have distinct character attributes that are ROUTINELY IGNORED. Now, I like Kim/Ron (and Shego/Drakken, though rarely) but I think that Kim/Shego is pretty cute, too (same with Ron/Yori). (I'm kind of divided, haha.) If I were going to read fanfiction that focused mostly on a relationship, I'd probably want to read Kim/Shego just for the fact that it isn't canon, so I wouldn't see it on the actual cartoon.

But it TOTALLY SUCKS when Shego is written completely out-of-character, and Kim isn't portrayed all that well, either. It's like...why bother? It's no longer Kim and Shego. It's two people that have their names, but aren't them. It's not satisfying.

SOOOO author-people, if you're going to do something non-canon (which, hopefully, should be what all fan creations are), at least make it convincing. Try not to change too much of the original canon, because otherwise it won't be believable. If you ARE going to change something (which you should) or take artistic liberties on something that's vague (coughcough trainer age requirements/conventional beginning trainer age in Pokemon), then EXPLAIN YOURSELF AND MAKE IT BELIEVABLE. With the Kim Possible example...Shego is sarcastic, not sweet. Even if she were to fall in love with Kim, she wouldn't be the type to go through the relationship saying "I love you" all the time and being all cutesy. She'd probably spend half her time making sarcastic comments or scathing remarks, even though Kim might take them the wrong way.

Yeah, the way Kim is written in the show, she probably would be better off with Ron. But in one episode (fourth season, "Stop Team Go") she ADMITS that underneath the barrier of "good VS evil", she and Shego have a lot in common and could be good friends. Shego hugs Kim frequently during that episode. So, in a potential Kim/Shego story, Shego could hug Kim frequently. But, hopefully, she'd still mutter sarcastic things and probably be really mean to other people.

And that goes for original creators, too, be it fanfic writers with original characters or writers with original fiction. If you've got one character that spends most of their time being sarcastic and standoffish, they shouldn't suddenly flip to being sweet and demure. It just isn't satisfying, no matter what end you're trying to get.

So effing STAY IN CHARACTER. Grumblegrumble.

(I'm probably guilty of not staying in character, especially with relationships. If I do it, especially with Poltergeist's, call me out on it earlier rather than later.)

</rant>

...Anybody read all of this?