Subject: As much as I hate TwoSet Violin and don't want to give them any kind of credit,
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Posted on: 2022-12-08 02:27:09 UTC
I wouldn't be able to make the musical analogy, or come up with the Bandverse idea at all, without them.
So, I've been getting deeper into fandom stuff on Twitter and Tumblr, and I have found myself being an unapologetic fan of two M/M ships I used to despise for being "non-canon". Now, I've been realizing that the whole "stick to canon characterizations" thing goes a bit against one point of fanfiction: to see how your own interpretations of your favorite characters' personalities would play out.
And that's when I feared: have I become the very thing I swore to destroy when I joined the PPC? I really like writing my own interpretations of characters and don't want to be told off because "it's not canon", but also my first Boardiversery is coming up and I'm eagerly awaiting the day that I can finally write for the PPC.
I don't necessarily accept all OOCness (turning characters into mouthpieces to bash something you don't like is not okay in my book), but I feel that it can be fun to write.
I don't know what to do. Help!
We've never taken a hard line that any deviation from canon is always bad all the time. One of the fanworks most celebrated in the PPC is The Official Fanfiction University of Middle-earth, which takes Lord of the Rings characters wildly out of character for the sake of comedy. Jay and Acacia even use OFUM's "Elrond out of character" as an assassination method in their sixteenth mission.
The reason OFUM can write all the characters OOC and still be considered good is that it knows exactly what it's doing and why. It was written with full knowledge and respect for the canon in mind, but respect doesn't mean strict adherence. There is always room for a writer's unique perspective in fanfiction. That is, indeed, the point of it. If we weren't open to that, we wouldn't read fanfiction at all.
And it has always been the firm stance of the PPC that anything can be written well. That includes non-canon slash pairings. What we take exception to is bad writing, especially when performed in willful ignorance with no respect for the original.
We are also well aware that subjectively enjoying something that is objectively garbage is a thing, and we don't shame people for it.
That you seem not to know any of this means you are quite far from being in a place where you'd be granted Permission, so perhaps worry less about that and more about actually learning who we are and what we're about?
Also: "swore to destroy"? Dude. It's just fanfiction. We're here to have fun. Calm down, aye?
~Neshomeh
there is no black and white when it comes to this issue. There's a difference between an interpretation of canonical character or element that might not be 100% accurate, and flat-out getting it wrong. See example about Gandalf randomly marrying a girl he comes across.
To use a musical analogy, you don't always have to play a piece exactly as the composer wrote it. You can change the key, the tempo, arrange it for a different instrument or style, or occasionally play a note differently … and all of that is quite different from mashing random keys on the piano and turning the piece into unrecognizable cacophony.
of a PPC AU centered around music, which I call "The Bandverse". In which, rather than using conventional PPC tech, agents use musical instruments or singing to carry out missions.
I could totally see an event where all the agents are forced to sing or speak in verse for a day happening. The concept has that sort of old-time minor-scale incident feeling to it.
I know that because I wrote it.
The Wiki page has links for those that wish to read it. While parts of it make me cringe close on two decades later, there are also parts that I have an immense fondness for, so you know, mixed bag! But it did end up giving me one of my current agents: Blank.
Why yes the 20th anniversary IS coming up in a few years. I may have something planned for it.
/Ekwy
the canon continuum is a ballet, and thus the Word World stages the fic environment like one. That means the agents can't talk during fic events and their bodies are forced to perform demanding, physically taxing dance moves for most of the mission.
I wouldn't be able to make the musical analogy, or come up with the Bandverse idea at all, without them.
have I become the very thing I swore to destroy when I joined the PPC?
Nope! I got into M/M when I started watching Hetalia waaaaay way back, and since then I've been into a lot of M/M ships in other fandoms, canon or non-canon.
Getting into non-canon ships is fun! Writing fics to enable non-canon ships is very fun! But that's why at the PPC it's the Department of Bad Slash and Het, not just slash or "non-canon pairings". Characters should retain some amount of their original personality regardless of who they're dating.
So no, you're not going against some unspoken PPC rule for liking non-canon pairings. I might adore Bilbo/Thorin and Legolas/Gimli (and believe you me I did not ship Legolas/Gimli when I was younger), but not everyone here likes those ships as anything other than platonic. That's fine, as long as we respect one another.