OCs vs. canon characters in roleplay and fanfic

[arethinn]

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.

Comments

reasonable to me

[lizzydear.livejournal.com]

I totally get it. FanFic is about working with established universe and characters; and it is hard to "blend in" to someone else's cosmology.

And having roleplayed extensively in my late teens through early thirties, I can't imagine playing a character someone else established. The only time we did that is when we were learning D&D (back when the books were paperback pamphlets and "advanced" hadn't made it into the game title), and those were "pre-rolled" characters from the DM just to hasten our getting a grip on the game. Even in "Paranoia", we created our own characters--and those are highly disposable.

I think it comes down to orginality in both venues--you don't write someone els'e fiction and you don't play someone else's character.

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

It's not hypocritical. You just have different expectations of your role-playing vs. your fanfic reading/writing.

One of the things I've noticed being involved with online RP based on Harry Potter is that it's less like traditional role-playing games and more like a collaborative fan fiction project.

Here's how I see it:
Including OCs in established fictional 'verses takes the stage away from the canon characters. Especially given that so many fan fictions are short stories, every paragraph taken away from a canon character takes one out of the 'verse, unless it's done exceptionally well. In some cases, the balance and number of the canon cast is important, and adding in new characters can throw the rhythms off, crowd the stage, or call in continuity questions (like, "Wait, if this OC has been in Gryffindor the whole time, why haven't they been mentioned? Where has he been sleeping, since we know who's been in the boys dorm...")

Playing canon characters in RPs set in established fictional 'verses is all about entering into the existing story and becoming part of the lives of those characters. It's about enjoying the 'verse as it is, not about remaking it.

Unless, of course, it is, which is what AU fictions and RPs are for.

Re: reasonable to me

[arethinn]

But.. but you DO write someone else's fiction. Sort of. I mean, I have nothing against totally original fiction either. But for fanfic I tend not to want the author to be making up their own new stuff, because it doesn't usually "feel right".

[elf]

Damn; had a nice long comment and LJ ATE IT!!!! Grr.

Was mostly agreeing--I share the same squeamishness (if that's what it is) about non-original characters in RP and OCs in fanfic. I wonder if it's a "suspension of disbelief" thing--in rpgs, I can believe "in the fictional world of Greyhawk, these events really happened" for the duration of the game.

But fanfic is different--in the fictional world of Harry Potter, he never married Severus Snape. I know this. I know he also didn't have a steamy forbidden affair with Draco after the end of Book 7, even if canon has left out enough details that it would be possible. So all the fanfic takes place in "the world next door to the fictional world in which Harry fought Voldemort." And RPing, already a step removed from "reality," is an extra step from that.

However, canon characters mixed with OCs in licensed RPGs don't bother me (unless they're badly RPd.) Not sure why that is; I'll have to think about where the line is.

Re: reasonable to me

[lizzydear.livejournal.com]

That's more or less what I meant. FanFic traditionally uses the established character's, etc. If the fan starts inserting his/her own new characters, it loses the original flavor.

It's like if you mess too much Grandma's chicken soup recipe, it doesn't taste like hers anymore, but it is still chicken soup.