Don't fanfiction readers like originality?

[Dumbledork]

I asked myself that question after the latest review I got for 'The Legend of the Raging Fist'. I was once again asked when and if Ranma wil join Luffy's crew, and I answered once again that he won't since I want to be a bit more original than that.

I noticed that in a lot of reviews for crossover fics where Ranma is either sent to another universe or has an alternate history in that universe. I have the impression that people want Ranma to do exactly the same things the character he replaces has done in canon.

[LawOhki]

I asked myself that question after the latest review I got for 'The Legend of the Raging Fist'. I was once again asked when and if Ranma wil join Luffy's crew, and I answered once again that he won't since I want to be a bit more original than that.

I noticed that in a lot of reviews for crossover fics where Ranma is either sent to another universe or has an alternate history in that universe. I have the impression that people want Ranma to do exactly the same things the character he replaces has done in canon.

Because it's more about familiarity and reading about their favorite characters.

[Spokavriel]

The problem is some people will insist on things going the same way to the point where another character being in the role is pointless and once its clear that is what is happening why read it instead of watching/reading the original?

Saotome Ranma is not Anakin Skywalker, never should be. He isn't the Straw hat brat ruining One Piece either. Having him/her replace either character changes the entire nature of the stories because Ranma is not like either of them. And the way Ranma would go about things would be different because of not being them.

[Spica75]

Don't fanfiction readers like originality?

Some certainly don´t. Screw them. If all they want is for an almost carbon copy of the original story(or ~etc), then they´re not really interested in YOUR story, or, they want/should write one of their own.

It´s your story first of all. Wether I or someone else likes what you do to it exactly doesn´t really matter.
Taking suggestions and good critique is one thing, but never let it overrule your sense for the story you have in mind.

[Crescent Pulsar S]

Fan-fiction is generally about doing something new with the old. Potentially, at some point not only does something canonical get too old in fan-fiction, but the once-new things done in fan-fiction that were foreign to the canon also become old. But I don't think that expectation should be confused with a lack of originality.

For instance, of the thirteen Ranma 1/2 and One Piece crossovers that I see at FF.net, only one summary directly states that Ranma is a part of Luffy's crew, while one implies that it will likely happen. Not only do I not see the scenario having happened enough to call it unoriginal, but they may have even asked because it hasn't happened enough.

At a certain point, unless someone enjoys a particular thing enough, something is bound to become unoriginal to them. Some think that everything after the first time is unoriginal, and there's some logic to that. In the case of fan-made content, which is often based on material and elements that have been done/used before in other mediums, settings and contexts, I think we can allow more than one or a few examples of something before it becomes unoriginal.

[Cheb]

I was once again asked when and if Ranma wil join Luffy's crew, and I answered once again that he won't since I want to be a bit more original than that.

Because it's more about familiarity and reading about their favorite characters.

In this particular case, not intervining Ranma's world line tightly with the straw hats' world line is a *bad* thing.
If he's not with them, he's somewhere else. And you have to build/detalize the OP world around him. All by yourself. That's a lot of work, a mighty challenge, and people could doubtful if you can pull it off.
What's worse, OP is far from finished, OP has a very interconnected universe vital parts of which weren't uncovered yet, and in going away from the Straw hats' worldline you have a very real risc to running head first into contradicting canon as something important is revealed a the nearest future. Cue all the alternate theories about the nature of Kyuubi written before Juubi and Rikudo Sennin were revealed. Granted, some of these are really good fics - but would you take responsibility for your fic *suddenly* turning to be an AU?

Running the character crossing over off the tracks is an arduous task. It often requires to have as much skill for expanding the universe details as the original author does have.

[Dumbledork]

He'll team up with Luffy to free Ace but before that he won't meet any of them.

[Konsaki]

He'll team up with Luffy to free Ace but before that he won't meet any of them.

So, Ranma will meet up and work with Luffy's group to try and save Ace, but wont travel with Luffy's crew after that, then?

He isn't the Straw hat brat ruining One Piece either.

I have to ask, how is Luffy ruining OP, in your opinion, if the OP manga is literally centered around him and his adventures? To me, that's like saying Ranma ruined Ranma 1/2.
Spok, I do agree with your other point; that placing Char A in Char X's slot would change the story due to how Char A would and should think differently than Char X.

[Dumbledork]

He won't join them for the two year skip at least. They'll meet him under the sea when they travel to Fishman Island. That's the plan at least.

[Noy Telinú]

I like originality.

Its why I look for things that haven't happened before and write what i can't find.

Yet, some people DEMAND that certain events take place or have something predictable happen.

For example, my "Ranma is born a girl" fic had a reviewer saying when Ryoga is going to come and have the two slowly fall for each other.

I laughed. That would NEVER happen in any fanfics I write.

As with crossovers, many, many people like one series over the other and read them for that. And a lot of fanfics base their Ranma after fanfics of crossovers that had Ranma in it. So they expect certain things to happen.

In some cases, you HAVE to due to otherwise having to create most of the fic places and such yourself.

To some, its less "What if Ranma was in OP?" But, "What if Ranma replaced ___ in OP?"

But remember, YOU'RE writing this fic, so do what you want.

[PCHeintz72]

Any fan fiction story by definition is AU.

However, there are some fandoms I almost never read or post on not due to the quality or number of the stories, but the fans themselves. I will say despite everything I've encountered with Ranma fans over the years, this fandom has nothing on some others in respect to this aspect.

Some fandoms have fans so fanatical, crazed, and obsessed, they actually seem to almost not only define/refine that fandoms canon material despite released evidence, they go out of their way to deride stories going against that internal aka 'true' version. Some would call these canon cops but that is not really the the type I'm talking at. But when the bulk of a fandom is that way I call many of them annoyances. When a fandom is in that state they actually turn off potential new fans.

Not that fans are the only issue. Some authors I've seen actually hold off on thier stories until the next manga/episode comes out, just so they cannot contradict it. Even worse, I've seen some stop stories entirely when that next manga/episode does invalidate their story. I do not think that is an indicator to stop when a otherwise well liked story exists.

Two in particular come to mind. One a slapstick writer that did a Ranma cross with a series that had its first movie out and the second on the way... the story was good, as it worked what occured after the first movie, but when the second hit, he dropped it entirely as it conflicted. Another that had nothing to do with Ranma was a much more serious and well liked story that went with a premise, and after a certain point, the author was waiting for the next manga release, and had not updated since.... despite working on other stories since.

I have deliberately left out the writers, fandoms, and stories from the above, as this was not meant to single out any particular person or fandom, but a overall generality.

[Noy Telinú]

Yeah, I don't like writing stories with things not finished for this reason.

The nasty things usually come down to shipping.

The amount of hate that some fans ave to characters just because they are in the way of their OTP is INSANE!

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

In my ideal fanfiction world, you tip your hat to canon as you pass, with great respect. But while you respect canon, it's just not you. And you finish your stories whenever possible.

[ijp92]

yes and no.
In general originality is good because it makes you fic stand out from the crowd. Of course, originality (especially in the case of AUs) can end up removing what a fan likes about the original work.

As for your actual problem, its simply people demanding The Stations of the Canon.
Often people don't want to see "what would such and such character do in the such and such world" they want to see concrete examples of the changes that character is causing. And they want to see what the inserted character would do differently from the regular characters. Or at least what changes you write in comparison to other authors.
Its an interesting paradox. People want changes, but not so many changes they cannot compare it to canon or other fics.

Overall, I say that as long as you can pull it off, more originality is better.

[Drawde]

Originality versus canon is a fine balancing act which varies from person to person, and from day to day for individuals.

We are reading fanfiction here. There has to be SOME canon in there, or else we end up reading original fiction. Most of the time, when reading fanfiction you don't want to run across a story where the only canon is some names. But if the story is too close to canon you might as well read the original.

Crossovers add more variables to that. In a simple two-setting crossover, one of the settings is usually dominant. It's a Sailor Moon story with some Ranma characters in it, or a Ranma story with some Sailor Moon characters in it. And someone who doesn't know the crossed setting, or just plain isn't interested in it, isn't going to like running into a Sailor Moon story with Ranma characters in it, when what he wanted was a Ranma story. And then there's the fans of the crossed setting, who are expecting at least some canon to be there even if their setting isn't the dominant one.

So, for the above scenario, you run into people like me who will skip the story because we're trying to read Ranma fanfiction and not One Piece fanfiction. Or you find the opposite, where the One Piece fan doesn't like the Ranma characters. There's the fans of both settings who don't like it if the characters from one or both settings don't act like the characters should (what's the point of adding Ranma to One Piece if "Ranma" isn't anything like the original?) Then there's the fans who don't like it if the changes change too much canon (either the story focuses on Ranma when they wanted the canon One Piece charaters, or adding Ranma takes One Piece completely off the rails). And there's also ones who don't like it when a story follows canon too much (Ranma changes NOTHING from One Piece. The one differences is that Ranma is added to some conversations, so might as well not be there at all).

Add to this that some days you might want to read different things. Today you might have wanted to read something about the One Piece characters, but find a story where just the setting is used to add a crossover character to it. Or maybe you're just in the mood for an "overpowered Ranma gets back at all who wronged him" fic.

There's just too many people out there. "You can please someone every time. You can please everyone some of the time. But you can't please everyone all of the time."

PS What's with forums, where when typing a post in a section with a scrolling window, that the section constantly jumps when typing when the post gets past a certain point? I don't want to have to type the post out in Notepad and then copy/paste it into the posting window just to be able to read what I'm typing.