OCs vs. canon characters in roleplay and fanfic

Yesterday I was looking at someone's DeviantArt gallery and they had some fanart related to an RP they were in. They were playing an OC themselves but others were playing canon characters.

I have never quite understood the desire to roleplay existing canon characters from various book or television fandoms (still less roleplaying their actors, where applicable -- the idea of roleplaying another living person is quite weird to me), except maybe for brief appearances as NPCs. Roleplaying seems to me to be all about the original characters and I find it somewhere between puzzling, awkward, and arrogant to be playing canon ones.

Not that I am against telling alternate stories with canon characters, not at all -- that's fanfic, of course. But OCs, inversely, are one of my fastest turnoffs in fanfic; rarely do I find one that seems to mesh into the existing world. I don't mind them quite so much as just "extras", but mention of an OC in a slash or romance role with a canon character is very, very likely to make me skip to the next item in the feed.

But why should it be such a problem in fic when I have the complete reverse thought about RP, and get annoyed when people don't make up their own characters?

I am not sure whether this pattern of thought is hypocritical, merely inconsistent, or actually perfectly reasonable.

OCs vs. canon characters in roleplay and fanfic

Yesterday I was looking at someone's DeviantArt gallery and they had some fanart related to an RP they were in. They were playing an OC themselves but others were playing canon characters.

I have never quite understood the desire to roleplay existing canon characters from various book or television fandoms (still less roleplaying their actors, where applicable -- the idea of roleplaying another living person is quite weird to me), except maybe for brief appearances as NPCs. Roleplaying seems to me to be all about the original characters and I find it somewhere between puzzling, awkward, and arrogant to be playing canon ones.

Not that I am against telling alternate stories with canon characters, not at all -- that's fanfic, of course. But OCs, inversely, are one of my fastest turnoffs in fanfic; rarely do I find one that seems to mesh into the existing world. I don't mind them quite so much as just "extras", but mention of an OC in a slash or romance role with a canon character is very, very likely to make me skip to the next item in the feed.

But why should it be such a problem in fic when I have the complete reverse thought about RP, and get annoyed when people don't make up their own characters?

I am not sure whether this pattern of thought is hypocritical, merely inconsistent, or actually perfectly reasonable.

(no subject)

Does anyone know of a way to turn off notifications being sent to the LJ "Inbox"? (http://www.livejournal.com/inbox/) The message settings allow you to turn on or off various methods of delivery, but not that one. I am very tired of having to go clean out 500 accumulated notifications on subscriptions and whatnot. Select all, delete. Select all, delete. Through thirty or forty pages of them. Basically I want only email, because I almost never look at the main LJ front page nor "My LJ", thus, I almost never see the message center thingy.

(no subject)

Does anyone know of a way to turn off notifications being sent to the LJ "Inbox"? (http://www.livejournal.com/inbox/) The message settings allow you to turn on or off various methods of delivery, but not that one. I am very tired of having to go clean out 500 accumulated notifications on subscriptions and whatnot. Select all, delete. Select all, delete. Through thirty or forty pages of them. Basically I want only email, because I almost never look at the main LJ front page nor "My LJ", thus, I almost never see the message center thingy.

(no subject)

Why is it that the elegant solution never reveals itself until I have spent days and days (in this case, something like a month) messing around with klugey ones? Is it some kind of test or initiation? Some gate I must pass before I am worthy of the elegant solution? Or a situation comparable to that apple tree that tricked me into walking through clouds of mosquitoes over impassable vegetation to try ask my question of the river because "I just wanted to see if you would do it"?

*humph*

Genius: n. The ability to spot the elegant solutions right off.


(speaking of elegant solutions, baxil, what was the deal with the "coal club" sandwich anyway?)

(no subject)

Why is it that the elegant solution never reveals itself until I have spent days and days (in this case, something like a month) messing around with klugey ones? Is it some kind of test or initiation? Some gate I must pass before I am worthy of the elegant solution? Or a situation comparable to that apple tree that tricked me into walking through clouds of mosquitoes over impassable vegetation to try ask my question of the river because "I just wanted to see if you would do it"?

*humph*

Genius: n. The ability to spot the elegant solutions right off.


(speaking of elegant solutions, baxil, what was the deal with the "coal club" sandwich anyway?)

typo of the day

San Crancisco n. A place that really gets jumpin' around Thanksgiving.

typo of the day

San Crancisco n. A place that really gets jumpin' around Thanksgiving.