I haven't had a good rant in awhile. I think I'll enjoy one today, wai!
Okay, you know what? I'm getting sick of this. Half the C&C I read sometimes
is the reviwer pointing out this is wrong, and then backing it up with
evidence from the Manga. Does anyone stop to think that the writer has only
seen the Anime and is drawing their information from that?
...
Hear hear. I've had my own problem with canon twonks pulling any number
of widely varied resources to say my stuff is urinating on 'THE' source
material, and I applaud your view on this -- and I'm taking it a step
further. I don't think it's reasonable to expect full compliance to any
variation of the canon whatsoever, because canon is subjective.
That's is the essential failure of canon. As Steve said, one man's IC is
another man's OOC. There are a dozen ways to interpret something and a
dozen factoids in the lore of any particular 'series' (since a series is
more of a crossmedia experience) that can back it up. Unfortunately few
otaku have an open mind about this sort of thing and are ready to scream
down nine kinds of holy hell on a fanfic because it disagrees with their
own world view, rather than saying
A) "This is a different perspective, I'll take it as it presents itself
as long as it makes sense internally. There are other aspects of writing
that the author might need help with I can concentrate on as well."
...or even
B) "I don't like this perspective, so I'll just read something else."
...which is preferable to
C) "This is badly written fanfic because I disagree with its
interpretation."
The beatings I've taken from canon twonks have are part of the reason
I'm doing an original fic now, and the key reason I don't roleplay on
MU* as existing characters anymore. It's not worth dealing with the
turkeys who refuse to think outside their own personal box. It's also
the reason I recommend to Ultra authors that they try to have their work
make sense inside ULTRA lore first, and any random manga / game / anime
/ radio play / whatever background second.
Essentially: There are far more important things to worry about in
writing than whether the Tendo household has a couch or not. I actually
had someone berate me for hours over that.
-2f