On fanfiction trends

[Dreamstalker]

And then again, what triggered the intitial post was stumbling across someone who wrote an entire series of stories about Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora boffing each other's brains out at ever opportunity.

The communities I'm involved in have an unspoken total ban on RPS (slashfic involving the actors). The major reason for that, besides the squick/weirdness factor, is possible legal issues should an actor or his/her agents stumble across it.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Another problem is with people who basically take characters and make them into sock puppets. Some people need to think, is this story more fiction than fan? If so, then give the characters original names and write it as original fiction.

[SorryIsGoodEnough]

EDIT: I just avoid the Harry Potter stuff. Those characters are kids. And too many people write too much sex stuff, so I just avoid that stuff altogether. Talk about having my crank turned backwards.

Pretty much the only fic I read anymore is Severus/Hermione fic. Almost everything I've read took place when she turned of age, but yeah. Sometimes Sirius/Hermione. Sometimes Remus/Hermione.

Notice a pattern?

And the only slash I'll read is Harry/Draco. And that is ONLY if it comes highly recommended by intelligent adults. Which is rare.

[Slytovhand]

Dreamstalker; I've come across a bit in the Harry Potter fandom, not so much in the LOTR fandom tho. That's mostly Legolas and Aragon getting it on and some of it is so bad, it's funny.

Aragorn and Legolas??? Oh come on... everyone knows Legolas has the hots for Gimli...

[RecoveringKinkoid]

All of you who answered have done a great job of taking some of the mystery off the question for me, thanks.

However, I have another question now.

Male pregnancy.

No, I didn't just see it just the one time.

The Fck??????

[MystyGlyttyr]

However, I have another question now.

Male pregnancy.

I like to play with the laws of physics as much as the next girl?

Though to be honest, the closest I've come to a "male pregnancy" in a story is having shapeshifting characters, and allowing for them to swap genders because of it. In my AU worlds, shapeshifters are, by their nature, androgynous, and can choose either gender at whim. Some have to become female and remain that way to carry a baby to term, but I also made certain kinds of them "humanoids" instead of actual humans, and altered a lot of things about pregnancy so that it's less an actual pregnancy and more an incubation. That breed of character has to shapeshift into a female to GET pregnant, but once they are, the baby forms it's own sort of womb and doesn't require any sort of connection to the parent (they feed off energy and emotions, not needing actual food), so once the parent is pregnant, they can swap back and forth at will again.

So far as birth, as one of them put it, "When it's time, you either get a C-section or you turn back into a girl and push it out. It's not rocket science."

I find male pregnancy a fascinating concept, though. I'm not sure if it's the thought of watching a male having to figure out all the stuff that comes with it, if it's the way anything pregnant instantly becomes a more vulnerable subject capable of all kinds of new emotional development, or if it's just because it's something taboo and verboten and that's the sort of stuff I like to play with.

So far as why most people do it, though, it's probably just a way to lead into more cuddling tearful uke scenes within their slashfic.

[Boozy]

Blurring the line between the sexes is appealing to some people. And what could be more "female" than pregnancy?

[Rapscallion]

There was a great story in the Judge Dredd Megazine called "Al's Baby". The main character Al was married to the daughter of the mob (he was one of the chief enforcers), and she didn't want to ruin her figure, so...

Yeah, ended up with a a pregnant male gangster going around shooting people. It wasn't fanfic, and it was done really well. Pretty funny as well.

Rapscallion

[Amethyst Hunter]

However, I have another question now.

Male pregnancy.

No, I didn't just see it just the one time.

The Fck??????

I'm right there with ya on that one. XD The only way I could write one of those would be if it was a total crackfic/parody. *Regular* pregnancy in general squicks me out; I have no interest in writing mpreg myself.

But, as with all things, I understand that others have their kinks/squicks, and I just go my merry way while they go theirs, and all is well.

(For the record, my squicks: Rapefics, incest, abuse, and the abovementioned mpreg. There're probably more, but those are the big ones that I *refuse* to write.)

[Lace Neil Singer]

Rapefic makes me feel incandescent with rage; no, I have nothing against someone having a character who's a rape or child abuse victim, but ffs write them properly. Something like that would take years for the person to even manage to have a semblance of trust again... yet some idiots insist that just ten minutes of healing sexxors will cure them.

As for mpreg; I'm yet to see a fic deal with it properly. Regarding shapeshifters; well, if you ever decide to read the Norse myths, you will see an example of mpreg right there. XD

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Yeah, I have to admit if something says "male pregnancy" "incest" or looks like it involves kids in sexual situations, I won't touch it with a ten foot pole while wearing a haz mat suit. While it doesn't send me screaming into the night, I probably won't look a a rape story. And I feel kind of dirty after seeing some fics about real people in sexual situations, so I will go on and admit I'm apparently not comfortable with that either. Especially if it features (for instanceJ) Sambora playing hide the salami with Bon Jovi or some such thing. That just squicks me a bit too much. Really, I'm not entirely sure I'd be comfortable with het sex with real people. It just seems way too personal to me.

[the_std]

This thread made me wonder... Why do people get so grossed out by this kind of stuff? I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm genuinely curious. I mean, it's all made up and 95% is practically impossible to come true in real life.

I dunno, I've never had a problem reading mpreg or rape or incest of any kind of "devious" fanfic, but then again, I've kind of made an unofficial study of sex and sexuality of my life, so I might just be a little more used to it than the average person.

Anyways, personal viewpoints would be appreciated.

[anriana]

This thread made me wonder... Why do people get so grossed out by this kind of stuff? I'm not trying to be insulting, I'm genuinely curious. I mean, it's all made up and 95% is practically impossible to come true in real life.

I dunno, I've never had a problem reading mpreg or rape or incest of any kind of "devious" fanfic, but then again, I've kind of made an unofficial study of sex and sexuality of my life, so I might just be a little more used to it than the average person.

Anyways, personal viewpoints would be appreciated.

I don't understand why male pregnancy fics are gross. Weird, yeah, but gross? I don't get that either.

I've read plenty of rape fics and some of them are well done and help tell a story, but when they're essentialy PWP (porn without plot) rapefics, they are disturbing. I like dark stories, but when the author just writes a smutty story about rape because they think non-consensual sex is hot and doesn't have any serious impact on people (the characters bounce back from it in five minutes), it has disturbing implications. I used to frequent a Buffy BDSM newslist and was greatly disturbed by the number of non-con fics posted - BDSM must be consensual but 75% of the stories posted were poorly written rape and/or torture fap fests. What if those people actually practiced kink believing that non-con activities have little to no effect on people?

I don't see why consensual real life fics are that disturbing either. Our society already fetishizes celebrities, and most of them represent an idea more than an actual person. I know my best friend and would find it weird to fantasize over him, but I don't know celebrities as anything more than what the media presents them as. I'm also not sure why queer rl fanfic is more disturbing than het rl fanfic.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I'm not grossed out by mpreg, I'm just yet to see a fic that actually does it properly. Most fics just use it as an excuse to be misogynist, or to reduce a strong male character into a whimpering mess. I don't understand that attitude.

Re: rapefic; I agree with Anriana on the PWP thing. The absolute worst fic in that context I ever read was Celebrian, followed closely by this horrible fic written by this guy who talked about the HP characters being tortured and raped. I just don't understand why people can write stuff like that, and they might just one day decide to put their fantasies into practice on real people.

[Xanthina]

I stopped reading LOTR fanfics due to the overwhelming amount of Slash and MarySue and MarySue-Slash there is, lol. Legolas/Aragorn Legolas/Gimli Elrond/Aragorn Frodo/Bilbo Frodo/Sam Bilbo/Gandalf Merry/Pippin Merry/Pippin/Frodo/Sam

Weirdest I ever read, which was bordering on Parody was a Legolas mpreg as the surigate for Aragorn and Arwen

Best I've ever read is "The Very Secret Diaries"

'Still not King' *grumble*