What I noticed in some fanfics

[on:]

In some of these recent fanfics, I've noticed that some people make Fry be this big huge hero who has to save Leela.  What's up with that?  I've noticed this for the past few months now.  These fanfics you can find some on Futurama Madhouse.  Is this some kind of new trend in Futurama fanfics? 

Also, this was another reason why I stopped writing Futurama fanfics and now writing American Dad ones, and passed the torch to my sister. 

[Reply #1 on:]

You've only started noticing that most fanfics are stupid in the past few months? Wow. That's pretty, well, stupid.

[Reply #2 on:]

In some of these recent fanfics, I've noticed that some people make Fry be this big huge hero

I'm guilty of that.

Literary convention, as distinct from the sit-com. Not many writers (proper writers as well, not just fanfic writers) can truly adopt the pure everyman-styled anti-hero in written fiction and have absolutely no heroism on the part of a story's protagonist, especially if it's a sci-fi adventure, comedic or otherwise. Even old Arthur Dent got an heroic injection in the last Hitchhiker's movie.

Basically, everybody loves a hero.

Although I do still try to make Fry abysmally stupid, despite his uncharacteristic heroism.

[Reply #3 on:]

I just realized that water is blue because it reflects the sky!

[Reply #4 on:]

I just realized that water is blue because it reflects the sky!

Dude!
What the fuck...?!
You just spun me out.

[Reply #5 on:]

Wow, I always thought it was blue because KurtPikachu's an idiot.

[Reply #6 on:]

I just realized that water is blue because it reflects the sky!

BLASPHEMY!! The lunch ladies at my school dye the water blue. Good ol' Blue Coloring 47...

[Reply #7 on:]

You could probably count the number of good fanfics on one hand.

[Reply #8 on:]

Oh that's not fair, there's at least enough to get two hands and a big toe. Before anyone says so, no, I'm not counting my fics; that would be silly.

[Reply #9 on:]

Speaking as an old FM contributor, I speak with experience when I say most fanfics suck. You can't really expect fanfic writers to be that creative since they are stealing the characters and setting from an established fictional universe. And most fanfic writers only write stuff they want to see happen so they will write the characters in a way that makes them well...out of character.

[Reply #10 on:]

I only wrote one that didn't suck. And it was all reality-bending self-referential meta-fiction that contained an internal explanation for its own gritty realism (and out-of-characterness), being the imminent conversion of all Universes (including the Futurama TV show Universe, and our own real world), which also resulted in the characters noticing for the first time that they have five fingers instead of four and coloured irises instead of just a black dot in a white orb.

This is all, of course, quite insane.

[Reply #11 on:]

Speaking as an old FM contributor, I speak with experience when I say most fanfics suck. You can't really expect fanfic writers to be that creative since they are stealing the characters and setting from an established fictional universe. And most fanfic writers only write stuff they want to see happen so they will write the characters in a way that makes them well...out of character.

Yeah, as one who's read a lot of bad fanfic, youre comments are pretty perceptive.  Also, doesn't 80% of everything just suck in general?  But people have been dumping on fanfics for nearly 500 years now (e.g. Don Quixote) but they're never going to go away.  Also, it's a neat achievement when someone can take an established character and set of rules, yet somehow come up with something completely different.  Something like jazz, where the overall structure of a pop song is kept but the melody is different.

[Reply #12 on:]

I have a threory.  I think I know why some people who write fanfics make Leela meet a horrible fate like getting wrongfully accused, kidnapped, or sold to a harem and the whatnot.   I think it's because most of these fans are Fry/Leela shippers and they're probably mad at Leela for rejecting Fry so many times.  So they write fanfics about something really terrible, gruesome, or grisly happen to her.   Fans like that want to see Leela feel the pain and get punished to the fullest extent. 

Also, I think one of the writers of the Futurama comic book is a Fry/Leela shipper who is mad at Leela for rejecting Fry, so that's why she was the victim in issue #54.

That's my 2 cents. 

[Reply #13 on:]

Fry has his moments, but he's not a 'Rambo' type. I'd never write him like that. He's hard enough.

And Leela has to get in trouble some of the time...

[Reply #14 on:]

That's my 2 cents.  

MORBO DEMANDS 3!

And Mr. Eric Rogers wrote Issue #54 (AGAIN WITH THE ISSUE #54 KURT?! GIVE IT A REST!) and I can guarantee he is not a shipper who is mad at Leela in any way, shape or form.

[Reply #15 on:]

Holy shit, fan fiction writers create stories as an outlet to their frustrations?

NO FUCKING WAY MAN!

[Reply #16 on:]

That's my 2 cents. 

MORBO DEMANDS 3!

And Mr. Eric Rogers wrote Issue #54 (AGAIN WITH THE ISSUE #54 KURT?! GIVE IT A REST!) and I can guarantee he is not a shipper who is mad at Leela in any way, shape or form.

Ever stop to thing he was merely using the main cast in a damsel-in-distress type scenaro? 

[Reply #17 on:]

Why are you telling me that?! Kurt is the one who doesn't like it!

I have no problem with Issue #54.

[Reply #18 on:]

It was insulting and degrading to make a tough fighting girl like Leela be a damsel in distress.  She should've beaten the crap out of those vampires from the very beginning and Fry and Bender get made into pets!  And Leela and Amy have to help Nibbler save Fry and Bender who could've been both bound, gagged, and shackled! 

[Reply #19 on:]

Someone has a fetish!

[Reply #20 on:]

Talk to El-Man.

[Reply #21 on:]

I think it's insulting and degrading to have the rape of any particular set of characters played for laughs, but there was an entire Futurama episode set around that premise.

[Reply #22 on:]

Which one?  I don't recall any rape.

[Reply #23 on:]

Which one?  I don't recall any rape.

Snu Snu? But then again, you can't rape the willing.

[Reply #24 on:]

Beast with a billion backs, dummies.

[Reply #25 on:]

Oh yeah, it was technically Tentacle rape.

[Reply #26 on:]

Why are you telling me that?! Kurt is the one who doesn't like it!

I have no problem with Issue #54.

Sorry for the confusion. I was quoting that for empasis. I really should direct my comments with an @Kurt next time.

Also, BWaBB was totally great for anyone into tentaclerape/porn. It was like a fetishist's dream [animated] flick.

[Reply #27 on:]

Talk to El-Man.

You're too young to look at that stuff. Then again, inspiring the next generation is kind of cool.

[Reply #28 on:]

Bah, too young. You, Marcus, Freako... I get bored, or whatever. You know what happens.

[Reply #29 on:]

Fanfic is often just wish-fulfillment? Crazy!

I notice the same thing too in some professional authors' work. "And I'm gonna give him a magical sword and a shadow panther friend that he can talk to and ride and he is super hot and strong and also is magic". I'm looking at you, Anne McCaffrey and Patrick Rothfuss.

[Reply #30 on:]

Don't forget Terry Goodkind.

[Reply #31 on:]

Also Andre Norton.

[Reply #32 on:]

What the hell is the point of writing if you're going to be bringing characters to life that you don't want to write.

A magical shadow panther sounds cool, though, I want one of those!

As long as the items fit the theme of the story, then I don't see a problem with it. But inserting a talking tiger into a book about a crime lord is stupid and pretty much literary suicide. But if you're writing another world, sure, go for it. Just make me like your characters.

Fanfiction for me is like this. I don't mind reading ridiculously outrageous pieces of work, as long as the author can take the characters I love and make me love them for other reasons. I read and occasionally write for a fandom where obscure pairings are more popular than the canon ones, and many of them are tripe, but there are a few that are so well written that half the time they can make me forget that I'm reading fanfiction, because they've developed a canon character beyond the canon and still kept most of the traits that they had from the book.

[Reply #33 on:]

I was just pointing out examples of the stated behaviour, not saying that I didn't enjoy the authors because of their literary devices.

FWIW, I loved reading Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Elisabeth Moon, David Weber, and others back in the day, even if some their characters were a little too noble and the various character's companions a little too convenient.  Sometimes I like the good guy/girl to win in the end, with better than a Pyrrhic victory, and I can happily cheer.

Can't say that I've been drawn in very deeply to any particular fanfic so far, but I enjoy reading some of them and wouldn't necessarily be put off by a convenient plot device.

[Reply #34 on:]

Thread maybe old, but I just got some spare time on my hands;)

In some of these recent fanfics, I've noticed that some people make Fry be this big huge hero who has to save Leela.  What's up with that?

Well..the "hero saves damsel in distress plot" is just a classic. It has been parodied often, so I see no reason why it should not work with the Futurama cast. (By adding humorous elements, of course).

- E.g. "A Bycyclops built for two". When Fry rushes in to stop the wedding, it's basically the "Knight in Shiny Armor arrives on this noble steed to save the maiden" scene.
Just instead of a sword, he did use a bunch of infuriated women as weapons;))

- Or let's look at "Insane in the mainframe". Fry basically fought a duel against the villain, and Leela was not above giving him that admiring "My hero" look (it had a reason that "Thanks for saving us" was delivered by Leela)
The emberassing part was that the hero was not mentally too sane when doing so...

- Or let's look a "The Why of Fry": He sets on his quest to save the whole universe because of Leela (okay...the byproduct was the survival of a some billions of other folks;)). A deed that hardly can be topped by any hero...
Also the classical "Chosen one setting"...just this time because he was his own grandfather, and unfortunately, no one did notice his deed (as already before in "Earth stood stupid").

- Or, on a smaller scale, he single handedly took down the Doomsday Machine in "D'uh Vincy Code". Unfortunately, by falling into it and hurting himself...

- The showdown in "The devil's hands are idle playthings" kept really close to the classical "Damsel-in Distress" plot.

To cut a long story short:
When measuring upon epic tasks sucessfully completed, Fry is indeed the biggest "hero" of the crew. His only problem is that there always seems to be a catch in it:
He acts really stupid, he accidently (not deliberately)  performs this task, no one realises what he did, etc..

So, a "Fry as a hero rescueing Leela" plot would not be OC. As long as the writers make sure that Fry upon the sucessful completion of his task yet remains a loser, and does not really profit from it (much). And the "HOW he does so" contains enough crazy elements...

[Reply #35 on:]

Kurt is long gone, I think he had some kind of problem.

[Reply #36 on:]

Other folks except Kurt are of course also allowed to read the post (I am just in a generous mood...not a very serious one, but a generous one )

[Reply #37 on:]

Kurt is long gone, I think he had some kind of problem.

He comes and goes like a passing wind really.

[Reply #38 on:]

And not like a gust of wind either, more like a slow fart with a large wet deposit at the end.

[Reply #39 on:]

A fetish for tough  women isn't really strange (it's much less creepy then the guy I know who has a thing for pregnant women, and I'm not even going to tell you some of the things an ex friend of mine was into)

Unless he likes to have his balls used as a punching bag by someone dressed like Wonder Woman.