THIS, THIS RIGHT HERE I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN SCREAMING THIS

THIS, THIS RIGHT HERE I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN SCREAMING THIS

WHEN I'M LOOKING FOR WORKS FROM A SPECIFIC FANDOM WHY WOULD I WANT TO READ A FANFIC WHERE NONE OF THE CHARACTERS HAVE THEIR CORRECT PERSONALITIES OR TRAITS AT THAT POINT MAKE YOUR OWN OCS THAT'S BASICALLY WHAT YOU'RE DOING AT THAT POINT

I'm glad Op is preaching this

there are many complaints about how fandom tends to focus too much on shipping to the detriment of everything else, but frankly, i really don't think that's the real issue with it. not that the hyperfocus on it can't be grating at times, but i think what really bothers me is just 'fanon' in general. like, at this point i'm willing to say that fanon is its own entity and its not even unique to any work in specific. it's a one size fits all of generic, pre-made tropes that will be forced into each and every piece of media that gets even a bit of attention, even when these tropes and scenarios don't fit the personality of the characters or are in any way related to the original story they are supposedly drawing from. basically stripping everything that makes these works unique in any way just so they can be somehow twisted and shoved into yet another college coffee shop au. it's why you see people saying that they read fanfiction or engage with fandoms of works they haven't even consumed, which sounds bizarre at first (shouldn't you be a fan of something you make and/or consume fan works of?) but makes sense once you realize that yeah, once anything gets hit with the the fanonfication beam, it really does not make a difference whether or not you are even familiar with what this fanwork was even supposedly about, because they all become pretty much the same, like dolls reenacting the same little plots and following familiar scripts over and over again