The line between IC and OOC

[Windrider Shiva]

Hi hi!

Yesterday, I was ranting chatting with a good friend of mine about how I've been getting constant ideas and plot devides for my current fandom, and how I like using set personalities and mold them to different environments. See how they react and deal with changes. What makes them tick, go nuts, break down and cry, or have complete personality or alliance changes.

I'll take a quick example with my current fandom, Final Fantasy IV. The MC's your courageous, "no BS, I gotta get moving (on)" bishie knight with a strong sense of loyatly and justice. He does what he feels is right, yet is sometime blinded by his loyalty. He has problems showing his emotions to others, with the exception of his male best friend, whom he's very close to. If you remove the courageous part of his character, I'd feel something is missing. And yet I have no problem making him break down... as long as he goes "Okay, enough, I need to get over it" somewhere in there. Or exploit his loyalty to make him work for the bad guys.

Considering fanfiction is well, fan fiction... It'll never be completely canon, else it wouldn't be fanfiction anymore. So I wonder: What do others think is "too much" OOC? Where's that line between IC and OOC? What warrants or justifies a major change in a character's personality? I know it varies depending on the characters themselves, on the fandoms, on the authors... but I'm really curious about what others think.

Feel free to give examples as well ^^. Thanks!

[CloverReef]

Hi hi!

Yesterday, I was ranting chatting with a good friend of mine about how I've been getting constant ideas and plot devides for my current fandom, and how I like using set personalities and mold them to different environments. See how they react and deal with changes. What makes them tick, go nuts, break down and cry, or have complete personality or alliance changes.

I'll take a quick example with my current fandom, Final Fantasy IV. The MC's your courageous, "no BS, I gotta get moving (on)" bishie knight with a strong sense of loyatly and justice. He does what he feels is right, yet is sometime blinded by his loyalty. He has problems showing his emotions to others, with the exception of his male best friend, whom he's very close to. If you remove the courageous part of his character, I'd feel something is missing. And yet I have no problem making him break down... as long as he goes "Okay, enough, I need to get over it" somewhere in there. Or exploit his loyalty to make him work for the bad guys.

Considering fanfiction is well, fan fiction... It'll never be completely canon, else it wouldn't be fanfiction anymore. So I wonder: What do others think is "too much" OOC? Where's that line between IC and OOC? What warrants or justifies a major change in a character's personality? I know it varies depending on the characters themselves, on the fandoms, on the authors... but I'm really curious about what others think.

Feel free to give examples as well ^^. Thanks!

Well you know what I think. When it comes to writing, even a little touch of OOCness is too much, and it's almost impossible not to be a touch OOC with characters I didn't create. That's why I don't write fan fiction any more. But at the same time, when I'm -reading- fan fiction, it's different. I'm pretty tolerant of people bending characters to their will as long as it's somewhat realistic and somewhat true to the canon. Unless of course, they're bending the characters in a direction that I don't find all that interesting or entertaining.

For me, what warrants a major change in a character's personality depends one hell of a lot on the author's style and skill. Some people can pull it off and keep it wildly captivating. Others can't. But in general, AU has always crossed the line for me in fan fiction, so I avoid reading those altogether.

[Windrider Shiva]

Well you know what I think. When it comes to writing, even a little touch of OOCness is too much, and it's almost impossible not to be a touch OOC with characters I didn't create. That's why I don't write fan fiction any more. But at the same time, when I'm -reading- fan fiction, it's different. I'm pretty tolerant of people bending characters to their will as long as it's somewhat realistic and somewhat true to the canon. Unless of course, they're bending the characters in a direction that I don't find all that interesting or entertaining.

For me, what warrants a major change in a character's personality depends one hell of a lot on the author's style and skill. Some people can pull it off and keep it wildly captivating. Others can't. But in general, AU has always crossed the line for me in fan fiction, so I avoid reading those altogether.

I believe you can keep more chars relatively IC without sticking to the exact canon, and without being too OOC. Characters, just like real people, may or may not behave the same while they're facing a certain situation. And it's possible to have a different reactions even for the same personality. Making a character react different than what you'd expect him may not always be OOC. Depends of the motive I guess (killing in self-defense doesn't mean the character would kill in cold blood).

As long as the writer conserves most traits, or major ones, the reason behind the changes may be valid - the character may acquire, after killing for self-defense... a taste for blood. Or just as well, may go nuts. To me, it becomes too much when there's no explanation for sudden changes to key traits. or the reasons aren't valid by a longshot

[Matrilwood]

So long as what makes the character who they are remains in-tact it's ok. It's ok to add your own spin to the character, so long as you don't massacre their personality.

Take FlutterShy as an example; a timid, quiet girl with extremely low confidence.

Making her a dominant player would be totally, unexceptable, but anything else is ok, so long as she remains as FlutterShy and not FlutterSomethingNotShy.