KildareAngel

Personally, I like to keep the characters in my fanfictions in cannon as much as possible when I am writing though, given certain situations, this becomes something of a sticky-wicket though and I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how the characters involved would respond in accordance to their personalities. However, if niether the anime or manga have addressed a specific senario, say gay relationships or other hot button issues, then this leaves a lot of leeway for an author to either hang or save themself with. We can only know to a point how a person, real or fiction, will react to a given set of circumstances but after that it is pretty much educated guessing and only the audience can determine if the author has guessed correctly or not. Sometimes when an author changes minor plot points, even if one does not immediately see it, this can have a cascading effect later in the story in surprising ways, very much like Chaos Theory. There is always the option of asking your audience directly what they would like as the outcome of a situation but this too can be risky as well as frustrating since very few readers actually do respond, and, when you do follow the majority vote, not everyone will agree with the outcome. The author then runs the risk of alienating even the most die-hard reader which can be almost as frustrating. In short, I agree that an author, especially a fanfiction author, has a duty to try and keep the characters they are using in cannon as much as possible. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible to completely keep characters in cannon unless you are the actual author of the series. Fanfiction comes with this inherent flaw and, whether you are reading it or writing it, it has to be fundamentaly understood that all of it is done for enjoyment. Writing is not an innate ability; it is something honed by trial and error, in some cases lots of error, just like any other skill we aquire as we grow. A fanfiction author using another's cast of characters has a duty to keep those chracters true to themselves as much as they are able in accordance to the story that the fanfiction author is trying to create, yes, but a reader should be willing to forgive missteps here and there. Authors are human and humans are flawed. If you are unhappy with the way a story plot is going, leave a review and say why constructively you dissagree with the turn of events.