Composed Writers + Fanfiction: My true OTP

Hello everyone,

What with all of the entertainment material that is being released, a quick glance on social media can tell you that some, if not all of them have some sort of following. There are those that are simply interested in the subject matter, and then there are those that furiously passionate about their love for the material.

These people are called "the fanbase," by most, but can also be given a more specific name, such as Lady Gaga's "Monsters," or American anime fans referring to themselves as "Otaku" (that's Japanese for nerd).

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic has a massive fanbase that dominates the internet. This is spearheaded by a primarily male fanbase known as "Bronies" (a combination of "bros." and "ponies")

 Something present in most of these fanbases are obsessive fans that write fanfiction. Now this doesn't apply that often to superstars, but many shows, books, video games, and even toys with a cult following have hordes of fans that write these story expansions based off of what they believe. Such beliefs include telling the story of a forgotten character, to having two unlikely characters have... *ahem*... sexual interactions (these unlikely characters are typically referred to as a person's "One True Pairing,"or "OTP," the namesake of this post. Another term is "shipping" characters, using the analogy of setting these characters off on a boat into what lies ahead. As a noun it is referred to as a "ship.").

The issue here is that some of these fans (let's refer to them collectively as "Dave")... Dave is so unbelievably passionate about his fanfiction, that nothing else stands. His stance: This is the story, and how it ends. You nor anyone can change that.

This usually leads to other fans (many of which have conflicting fanfictions of their own) to absolutely destroy Dave's fanfiction, often done by either waving their own "OTP flag" to outright threatening Dave's life.

Legend of Korra, along with it's prequel, Avatar: The Last Airbender is full of lush characters that fans adore to pair up together, some a bit more outrageous than others...

Dave's passion for his fanfiction can also lead to him being absolutely enraged that his fanfiction has been destroyed by how the official canon (storyline) of the official show, book, etc. has turned out. This again leads to other fans wanting to rage war on his self esteem.

The issue, is that Dave is a little too passionate about his story, and that there are others like Dave who are as well. All of the Daves out there need to be a little bit more composed when it comes to their fanfiction, because, if they are flagrant with their story, they will ultimately be defeated by those who have no interest. If Dave presented his story as a possible storyline, and posted his fanfiction where composed fanfiction writers gather, he may just find that although he is passionate about his source material, just as many, many others, he may find constructive criticism that may blossom into something totally new.

In all honesty here, we all will have our own little fanfictions, but why not develop that into something more, create something out of that and accept the criticism of others. That's how I developed my love of writing (not the sexual kind, mind you), and I even touch up some old fanfiction fossils to this day.

Rooster Teeth's RWBY has a fanbase that is also susceptible to pairing characters up. The issue at hand is that Rooster Teeth loves to poke fun at these pairings and fuels the OTP fires.

Just be passionate, but don't get out of hand. It's okay to love these stories with a passion. That's why most forms of entertainment are created, right?

Let me know what you think in the comments.

Thanks all,

-Peter

NOTE: All of my examples are shows from the animation industry. A fanbase, and fanfictions are not limited to only animations, but even branch to live-action programs, such as The Walking Dead, that have massive followings and a fanfiction writing fanbase to boot!