'Fixing' or Correcting Fanfiction?

[Stardust Live 43]

Have you ever had the urge to 'fix' or correct a fanfiction or popular fan world/setting? Like, the idea has merit but you don't think it's used the best way, or you REALLY don't like the idea of the world (especially the violent or gory ones) and want to either make everything better or save it? I've come across fics with really promising ideas, but the characters are either very flat or acting very OOC, despite the fact they COULD work in the setting.

Same with some stories set in alternative universes, like the Sombraverse, or fan universes (I won't name any as I don't want to pick on anyone). One universe had a really infamous and terrible theme, and I just really had the urge to set up a fic detailing a fight back/resistance, starting with the Princesses or major characters and working outwards from there.

Anyone else get that urge?

[SharpWit 2,510]

It depends on what the story is going for. What I can't stand is when people thrust their character into the lives of the mane six and give them some kind of great destiny, but on top of that, to make a character "unique" by making them a hodge podge of different creatures.

I like a fair number of fanfictions that explore darker elements because it's so different from the sunshine and rainbows we get from the show, and it's interesting to look into how a well known character would react to less than ordinary, and stressful situations. Here are a few that come to mind.

An Equestria where all fanfictions sort of come to life, and there's this influx of OC's flung into the world of the show who have to take on this sort of refugee status and require therapy because this isn't really the world they know. The two aspects that stand out were those who were really depressed because their pony waifu had no affection for them, and Pinkamena from Cupcakes was kept inside of a cage. It's a wild but interesting concept.

Another is Rainbow Factory. It didn't make a ton of sense, and I don't remember it being particularly well written, but I was fascinated by the mentality of Pegasus superiority and independence towards the rest of Equestria, as passed down from their tribal roots as a warrior culture. I don't think producing pretty sky colors through industrialized extermination could be kept hidden away, but when putting this society under the scope of realism, Cloudsdale could easily hold such values, which we've seen brilliantly executed in another popular fanfiction, Fallout Equestria.

But this can also be done quite poorly. The height of MLP kind of coincided with the height of the Zombie Craze, which I totally got into and sought a combination of the two. One I found was excellent when it came to describing the zombies, but character interaction was bizarre at best. There was a line where Twilight and Princess Luna were huddled in a cave with other survivors after escaping a horde, and during the discussion, Twilight just says, "You were always my favorite princess". Oh, so the years of mentorship under Celestia meant nothing?
 

Spoiler

 

Finally I'd like to call myself out. I'm a big fan of history and Luna's banishment being part of a greater conflict, and I've gone over several storylines of this. One of my originals was going to have her develop a secret weapon to destroy her enemies, i.e. Celestia and the citizens of Canterlot. She initially attempted this by crashing airships into the great castle's towers to mirror the 9/11 attacks but that was really only the start. She'd go about this with a set of massive artillery guns based off of the Schwere Gustav made in WW2, and they'd be imbedded in a mountainside, hidden and ready to tear the capital apart from miles away. No one would see it coming and she'd get her revenge in a single blow. These wouldn't get a chance to be used before her banishment however, and they'd be safely stowed away to be used over a thousand years later on a different enemy that threatened the existence of Equestria. The big issue here is that you can't have such modern technology developed in what would've likely been a feudal society, and trying to fit in several historical events that aren't directly connected and fail to correlate well.

In the story I'm working on at a snails pace now, I somewhat manage to do this with a ponified version of historical events that took place in Egypt. In 1798, Napoleon's naval forces were seeking dominance in the Mediterranean to secure Egypt as a step to invading India in order to drive the British Empire out of the French Revolutionary Wars. They managed to land the French Army but it was left trapped following naval defeat and eventually followed suit. In the period 29 to 65 years before "The Cleopatra" became Queen of Egypt, fighting between members of the royal family left the nation weak, so Rome stepped in and made them a protectorate. The timing between these events is immense, but I'm having it as their being a pony nation playing the role of the Egyptians, the Griffons play the role of the French who will play a factor in the nation's destabilization, the British will be played by another pony nation with differing beliefs, and fed up with the expanding powers of their rivaling neighbors, a batpony nation swoops like Rome to form the protectorate, only they're representative of the Germans, and this forms a major basis for conflict later on.

 

 

Edited June 4, 2020 by SharpWit

[heavens-champion 1,895]

I tried that, but then I lost interest in the fanfics. Looking back, they could have been done better.

[RDDash 18,929]

I am not sure if I want to fix such and such fanfics, but there was a fanfic based on real historical events with a lot more dramatic conclusion. The problem with that people in real life did all they could to avoid escalation of said conflict.

[KatonRyu 1,027]

I would, if there was a fanfic that bothered me enough that I felt I had to. Since fanfics aren't canon to begin with, though, I just stop reading fics like that and don't bother with them any further. I do occasionally write fix fics for things in canon that I don't like, though.

[ShadOBabe 18,985]

Oh absolutely. Me and a friend absolutely HATED where they took some story beats of the 2011 Thundercats reboot, so we straight up ditched it and did our own thing.

[Ixrec 86]

Not for me. Admittedly, I'm still struggling to keep up with all the fanfics EQD links, so I'm probably only reading solid fics. But if I read a fic that I didn't like for one annoyingly fixable reason, I definitely wouldn't be compelled to write a direct response to it. I could see myself getting the initial inspiration for a fic that way, but I'd no doubt combine it with a bunch of other ideas before daring to actually write something, especially since I don't plan on investing time in writing anything myself.