Things in Fan-Projects that annoy you?

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

Have you ever read, listen to or look at a fan project and find a couple of problems that you tend to get a little annoyed by and find it a bit hard to get immersed into the project? I tend to find these issues a lot when it comes to fan-made animations and audio dramas in particular.

 

Issue #1 - With some voice actors you can hear their voices echo in the room they recorded their lines in. While this is a problem with the actor the bigger problem is the person who allowed these actors to be cast. Just today I was listening to an audio drama and I heard one of the main characer's voices echoing in the room they were in. When this comes up it's really hard to get immersed in this fan project and I end up wanting to ask whoever was in charge of editing this video "How could you and why would you accept recordings in this condition?". If I were in charge of a fan project and heard this, I would say to the actor "Listen, I can't work with this, I can hear the echo and when I hear it I don't believe that your character is performing on a stage in the center of town, I imagine her speaking in an empty room. "Listen, I can't work with this, I can hear the echo and when I hear it I don't believe that your character is performing on a stage in the center of town, I imagine her speaking in an empty room. Re-record your line in a place where there isn't an echo and send it to me or else I'm going to have to replace you."

 

Issue #2 - When the voice actor or actress sounds nothing like the character he or she is supposed to be portraying. This is one of the most common issues in fan-projects within this fandom. I don't mind if it's a character that very rarely talks like Derpy, who's only ever talked in one scene, or BonBon who's voice seems to change with each appearance but when it comes to main characters or secondary characters who've talked for an extended amount of time on the show, that's when I take issue and find it rather hard to believe that it's the character they say they are. Take people in fan projects who try to voice Twilight Sparkle for example, I'm not saying you have to sound exactly like Tara Strong's portrayal of the but at least try to sound close to it! There was one audio drama where the person voicing Spike sounded like Louis from Left 4 Dead and I really wanted to ask why they cast that voice actor for Spike! Even today, same audio as I mentioned in issue #1, that voice actress was playing Trixie who was a main character in this audio. Now we've seen Trixie in the show, she's had two episodes where she's the antagonist and she's had a speaking role in Equestria Girls, that's plenty enough time to get really familiar with her voice. Again the actress didn't even sound close, I was actually thinking that she sounded like Peri from Classic Doctor Who. A word of advice people making fan projects, if the voice actor or actress can't even sound close to the character being portrayed, DON'T CAST THEM!! It can make the fan project a little difficult to get into.

Edited September 9, 2014 by The Coffee Pony

[Moved to Elsewhere 11,331]

It's not the fan projects themselves, it's more of the mindset some people have when making them thinking they can do better than the show can. It feels like most fan animations are just elements the makers think would be awesome in the show. Double Rainboom is pretty much what would happen if fans worked on MLP.

[[NULL] 907]

Well besides bad acting, writing, animation, cinematography, and flat original characters, I do have a few personal gripes.

 

I do get kind of annoyed when they make something melodramatic. Don't get me wrong, making something epic and dramatic is fine. I'm a sucker for that kind of stuff. However, it only works if it's warranted. Derpy doesn't need a "tragic" backstory. She's a sight gag.

 

But that's just nitpicking in comparison to this. What annoys me more is whenever there's criticism given to the fan-created project, other people come to it's defense, saying "You're being too harsh on it! It's a fan animation, so it's okay! It's not made by professionals!" So?? How are people supposed to improve if they can't even take criticism?

 

Don't get me wrong, I know that there is good fan created content out there. JanAnimations' videos are pretty good. Oh wait...

Edited September 9, 2014 by SpaceOnion

[The Coffee Pony 1,390]

But that's just nitpicking in comparison to this. What annoys me more is whenever there's criticism given to the fan-created project, other people come to it's defense, saying "You're being too harsh on it! It's a fan animation, so it's okay! It's not made by professionals!" So?? How are people supposed to improve if they can't even take criticism?

 

What's worse is when they try the "Let's see you do something better excuse!" That is the weakest defense you can put out there. That's basically saying that you don't have a right to give criticism if you can't make the project. It's either like it or shut up! Life doesn't work like that everyone has the right to make a complaint if they find an inconsistency, they have to be a writer, a programmer, an editor or a musician to point out a flaw. Not everyone has the time or the willpower to make a project but if you can see the flaws you have the right to point it out as you have seen better. It's doing a disservice to the audience who's looking for a good fan project, it does a disservice to the critics who are trying to help and it's doing a disservice to the creator the people using this excuse are preventing him from getting better.

[M'aiq the Liar 5,804]

Well, besides the obivous poorly made, poor dialog, and rushed story with more holes than 7 year old swiss cheese I do have a few gripes with tropes that seem to occur frequently in fan works.

 

 

Pointless "edgy" or dark scenes. This seem to occur most often in FoE fics (and arguably even the main FoE fanfiction itself). It seems to occur when the writer wants to prove that the story is dark and serious, and is going to depart from the light hearted nature of the show. However most often they are not connected to the plot, do not further the goals or growth of the characters and just serve as a "see, look guiyz she burned and raped en entire town!! muh story be dark". There are ways to show that the story is going to be of a darker tone than the show it derives from, but adding in pointless mass murder and sexual assualt scenes only serve as rather annoying and potentially offensive pandering. I can actually enjoy a darker story, but these sorts of events seem to feel very "tacked on" and out of place.

 

Pointless shippings. I do not mind if love is part of a story, or even if the shipping makes no sense in terms of the show. But I greatly dislike when a fan work about two characters interacting ends in sex or a pairing. It is possible to have characters become friends and assist another in personal matters without having a 7 chapter sex scene. Now, if the fan work is a "shipfic" then I do not apply this, as the entire point of the fan work is to focus on the pairing. But when fan works focused on characters interacting normally in a non-romantic setting, and then suddenly AJ and Rarity have a 30 page sex scene I do get rather annoyed. This also applies to random acts of sexual intercourse, were two characters meet and then begin instantly having sexual intercourse. Unless it is in a parody.

[Odyssey 5,719]

A few things. One thing that annoys me in fanmade projects is the overuse of memes and fanon beliefs, such as evil Princess Celestia or glorifying a certain character. It's unoriginal and gets tiring quickly.

 

Another gripe I have is bad voice acting. I know voice acting isn't always perfect, but hearing a person attempting to imitate a character is like chalkboard scraping to my ears. Especially anyone who tries to voice Rainbow Dash, there's something really off-putting about their imitation of her. I think people should try to listen more voices rather than choose the first person who applied.

 

My final gripe is when they boast about how great their project is. When someone does so, you know it's going to be a bad fanmade project.

 

Despite my gripes, I actually really enjoy fanmade projects. Seeing people work hard on animation, writing and whatnot is awesome.