Temple of Ranma's Sailor Senshi Seifuku

Someone makes a major change to a canon story, i.e. Ranma getting a different curse, or a more specific example, in the video game KOTOR, having Revan _not_ lose his/her memories.....yet still rehash canon events for the majority of the story?

I just tried to read through one of said KOTOR fics, and I couldn't even stand it.

Exact dialogue, literally copying quests and writing them up.....couldn't continue reading it at all.

Granted, canon is needed, but just answering stock events with small changes to show how different your Ranma/Revan/whoever is seems like an easy way out to me.

I Know what you mean. You can see a lot of this in other fandoms as well, such as Naruto. I've read several fics where there is minimal change to the Wave Arc or the Chuunin Exams, but they are still fully covered for no real reason than that the fic had started before them. Focusing on events that have changed while mentioned those that have occured the way they did in canon, or even using a different perspective are both ways I can think of to spice things up a bit if the events themselves are the same.

Ohhhhh yeah. Pet peeve.

I once read a fic like that (a Justice League fic), but at about the end of the retelling of the divergence episode, the author got a clue.

Instead of retelling the whole seriess, he would show the begining, switch to a scene with a character not directly involved, and when he switched back the arc was over and the characters involved were gossiping about what had happened. Sometimes, the chapters would start with the end of the episode causing issues which needed resolving.

Made for a damn good fic, actually. Wish I could remember what it was called.

I just skim when I find that happening. Of course it can leave me disoriented if any changes actually happen.

Yes.
in fact...
Hell yes.

I find it very annoying, especially if the story is otherwise good. I hate it when the authors forget about their own changes in the story, and copy the events almost word for word from the original. Even a small change in a conversation will send it in a totally different direction.

I can think of one instance that annoys me to know end.

The Forest of Death in the Chunin Exams in Naruto Fanfiction. Too much rehashing of the entire thing, and too many times does Orochimaru put his seal onto Naruto.

If the canon events are still likely to happen, in spite of the major change, I don't object to the same events happening. Describing them in detail without changing anything... that's something a quick cursory scan-through can easily fix. I find it more annoying that the authors wastes their time and typing energy on describing what is assumed to be well-known to the audience, rather than spending those resources on what makes their story different from others.

It's my personal peeve with most AU stories. If I have to read through one more retelling of Ranma Meets the Tendos, I'm likely to go postal on something.

Yrael wrote:It's my personal peeve with most AU stories. If I have to read through one more retelling of Ranma Meets the Tendos, I'm likely to go postal on something.

It's kind of similar to me, only I can't bring myself to want to TYPE any kind of meet the Tendos thing. I've done two stories with Ranma meeting the Tendos, and I just can't bring myself to even THINK of doing the scene again in any variation. The very thought drives me to boredom and disinterest. It's got to be one of the most uninteresting scenes ever...

There's a writing trick that's useful in cases like this. Write all you want, including "meet the Tendos" if it's the way you think.

Then go over the story and throw out everything that happened before things start to actually happen. You can do that with scenes in the middle, too.

Lets you build up momentum in your head; but throwing the buildup away is like unto ignoring all the extensive stretches (etc.) before the fight actually begins.

Rehashing canon on a major change in the story tends to make me read the canon bits a lot faster... Then again, if the major change to the storyline isn't backed by some suitable justification (i.e. something plausible), I'm liable to just skip the story all together.

My greatest pet peeve is when they follow the canon plotline like nothing has changed. If you change anything, then everything should change with minor events snowballing into huge whopping changes!

The only events that shouldn't change are the ones from outside the area, for instance, Herb will still show up searching for the kettle, as little that is done in Nerima will effect him enough to alter that.

I hate when Ranma doesn't get cursed and yet somehow the author justifies him still being engaged to Akane straight off the bat for no apparent reason.

Nabiki was searching for a cute boy at the time and was in favor of the idea, but somehow that gets skipped completely and if they do engage Nabiki to Ranma then they somehow get Kuno after him anyhow, for some asinine reason, so they can stick to the same old 'Kuno attacks Ranma to free his loves' plot.