Kimmimaru

I personally only have written two AU stories, my particular fandom being Harry Potter. However I suppose I do cheat in the fact that I use the Marauders, because there is a LOT of room to play around with those particular characters and it is a lot easier to slip them into an Alternate Universe. I have done a Non-magic AU which I am enjoying writing so much, it's a lot of fun to turn them Muggle. It's also fun to turn magical creatures into humans. I have to say though I haven't read an AU fanfiction story, I just enjoy writing them. Also OOC characters annoy me mightily because then it becomes almost an Original story but with someone eles' characters names, in my opinoin if you want to do that then why not just write an original story? Fanfiction, in my mind, is all about keeping the characters as canon as possible...even in an AU setting. It is difficult though, even though I do try my hardest to keep the Marauders as close to canon as possible it's made even harder by the fact that they are such minor characters and their personalities are subject to personal interpretation.

I removed the anon flames, and disabled anon reviewing for you. Unfortunately, as none of 'em are in our archive, there's nothing else I can do for you.

I've never written any but gawdammit, Remus is a werewolf. Any guy who can lick his own balls at the right time of month is gonna be taking charge.

I'm not a major fan of the exclusively top/bottom relationships within fandoms. For some characters it works, but for most, it wouldn't. It really depends of their personalities and the society or culture they revolve around, and then how they'd react to it...
And most would agree on being versatile.
It's insane how some people are willing to take some characters very OOC to keep with the top/bottom idea. That totally throws me off.
I know not everyone's familiar with Final Fantasy 4, but Kain Highwind and Cecil Harvey are a pretty common pairing. Cecil's more feminine, look-wise - but his personality more or less matches it. He's gentle, true... but for hell's sake, he's not a crying bottom. He's more likely to fight for dominance. If you're going to make him exclusively bottom, at least, go for the D/s relationship based on how it allows him to relieve the stress he's under (ruling a heavily militarized country, the medieval society they live in, etc), while this gives Kain the feeling of having even more power (mounting the king... out of everyone in the world...).
At least something that won't make them OOC. Please.
I'll admit, I like height differences. Small bottom / tall top. I dig it. But I won't do it if it clashes with characters' personalities. That's for fandoms anyways, because when it comes to original characters...
Then again, it depends of the culture they live in. In my original story, both guys are pretty tall (6'2 and 6'4). They have roughly the same build too. They're both warriors. Homosexuality wasn't unheard of, and it wasn't much of a big deal - as long as you were the top, because it meant you were powerful enough to mount another guy, therefore powerful enough in combat. Now the bottom was thought of to be less manly, and more at risk of being "defeated" on the battlefield.
So my "bottom" is an over-aggressive swordsman because he's constantly trying to prove his prowess in combat... because his "top" loves the power of mounting another guy and won't give it up easily. Over time, it'll become the main source of frustration. (But I'm nice, I'll have them work it out).

Now, I have been given a really hard time on my stories (Not on AFF, you're all nice (so far...lol)! ) I write Harry Potter Slash mainly centering around the Marauders, and mainly focussing on Sirius Black (with any partner)...people seem to have it in their heads that a gay couple have set roles such as 'bottom' and 'top' I like to mix it up and because of this I have had some rather hilariously useless attempts to make me stop writing. I know I am a reletively good writer, hell, I do it all the time whether Fanfic or Original stories. I am a little bored of trolls using the feedback sections to abuse me because my Sirius Black is 'unmanly' because he bottoms...now any ADULT could tell you that in real relationships the partners can switch back and forth if they so wish...so why is it so terrible that I follow this in my fics? What is it about people's obsession with a certain character being stuck in a definate role? It's not realistic, it's boring as hell and it's actually borderline offensive! Some people have some messed up naieve delusions and It confuses me completely...if anyone reading this can clarify why these trolls (and I use this term lightly...as at least real trolls make me laugh and don't bore me stupid!) continue to plague my internet footsteps I would be grateful.
Also, is there an issue with having a male character show emotion in fanfiction or something? People have told me my stories are...erm... 'shit' before (lol, original!) and I cannot understand why they seem so offended if a character is showing emotion! People are so weird!
Would love to hear other opinoins on this if possible, I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this way! lol.

I prefer my characters to switch roles, and none of my characters is exclusively a top or bottom. You're absolutely right in it being both unrealistic and outright boring. I couldn't enjoy just one position for the rest of my life, so why would I write that?
And emotional depth is what makes a character memorable. Men feel emotion, although certain societies expect men to pretend that they don't. Granted, I draw the line at the ever-sobbing perennial bottom (if I cried every time I had sex, I'd worry!), but I applaud you for letting your male characters show emotion.
As far as the little whiners who want their uke/seme pairings that never vary, I say let them read a good boy-love manga since I'm quite sure they need pretty pictures to get the point of what they're reading anyway.

You're not the only one that feels that way.
It makes me wonder if these same readers would be as offended if the "bottom" were to be riding the other partner. In that instance, they're "on top" even though they're the one being penetrated. But, as you say, naivety will keep them from understanding this.
As to emotional depth in a character, I for one much prefer it to pointless PWP.
However, if you've talking about the bitties on FFN, well... they tend to be children who want to read only porn. Not all of them, but there're a good number that leave the type of reviews you're talking about who are like that. Some may be absolutely horrid at expressing that they feel your depiction is out of character ("shit" is never a good way to say that), but unlikely abominable syntax aside, most probably it's just the PWP readers.

Now, I have been given a really hard time on my stories (Not on AFF, you're all nice (so far...lol)! ) I write Harry Potter Slash mainly centering around the Marauders, and mainly focussing on Sirius Black (with any partner)...people seem to have it in their heads that a gay couple have set roles such as 'bottom' and 'top' I like to mix it up and because of this I have had some rather hilariously useless attempts to make me stop writing. I know I am a reletively good writer, hell, I do it all the time whether Fanfic or Original stories. I am a little bored of trolls using the feedback sections to abuse me because my Sirius Black is 'unmanly' because he bottoms...now any ADULT could tell you that in real relationships the partners can switch back and forth if they so wish...so why is it so terrible that I follow this in my fics? What is it about people's obsession with a certain character being stuck in a definate role? It's not realistic, it's boring as hell and it's actually borderline offensive! Some people have some messed up naieve delusions and It confuses me completely...if anyone reading this can clarify why these trolls (and I use this term lightly...as at least real trolls make me laugh and don't bore me stupid!) continue to plague my internet footsteps I would be grateful.
Also, is there an issue with having a male character show emotion in fanfiction or something? People have told me my stories are...erm... 'shit' before (lol, original!) and I cannot understand why they seem so offended if a character is showing emotion! People are so weird!
Would love to hear other opinoins on this if possible, I hope I'm not the only one who thinks this way! lol.