Certain Characters "Sacred?"

[NightScribe]

In whatever fandom you write in, is there a certain canon character that you treat as practically sacred? By that, I mean, you would never write them into say, a slash fic, make them villainous (if they're basically decent), have them do extraordinarily kinky things, or avoid pairing them with another character because it makes you cringe, (even though it may be an extremely popular pairing)?

The reason I bring it up is because I've got plot bunnies for future fics for an obscure fandom, but there's two different source materials. It dawned on me then, that if I use the one, yeah, I'd pretty much treat the character as sacred, whereas with the other source, it's anything goes. The beauty is, depending on which I use, the character will pretty much stay canon (depending on the source, of course). Talk about the best of both worlds!

So are you a "that character is sacred" or an "I'll make them do anything" type of writer?

[Guest Agaib]

Heh, write whatever seems like a good idea to you. If it sucks you'll still have weird reviewers worshiping the ground you walk on anyway...

If its good then you'll deserve it though. I do hope you take pity on the poor masses and give them something worth of their ever present praise. I haven't read any of your writing so I wont say you're good or bad.

I don't personally treat any characters as sacred, but that could be because I write original fiction.

[redsliver]

I didn't consider any characters sacred while writing Naruto. And now that I do original, I do see some of my characters as untouchable, but I'll get better.

[foeofthelance]

I write originals, and will freely admit to using character shields. It just seems right to me. This doesn't mean that I won't kill a character or two, but it does mean that their deaths tend to have a time, place, and meaning. A good example is one of the two stories I am working on. One of the characters is going to die, and because of the way things worked out knows not only when, but where and how as well. The rest I expect to always survive, so they will, even if it means monkeying with the rules.

The other fic involves lots of space fights though, and since that is the one I am posting, there will be plenty of people with names going up in flames.

[NightScribe]

This doesn't mean that I won't kill a character or two, but it does mean that their deaths tend to have a time, place, and meaning.

I know what you mean. Back when I wrote original stuff, I knew the only way to advance the plot was to kill one of the characters and my initial reaction was "no, I can't do that!" But I felt it was necessary, so I offed him. Strange thing is, that particular story had four other character deaths that didn't faze me at all; probably because I always knew they had to go, that fifth one kind of sneaked up on me.

And I realize how strange it is that I started out writing original stories and now I only write fanfic. That's pretty messed up!

[EveKnight75]

When it comes to my fandoms, I do have certain biases towards certain characters. There are characters I like, characters I dislike, and characters towards which I am neutral.

But in the end, I don't think I have an issue with holding a character sacred. Well, not yet. I'd probably be more inclined to bash a character, but I monitor that inclination.

For me, it's important to keep someone in character no matter what. I try my best not to let my own feelings for a character seep through to the point that my biases affect my readers. Obviously, it's not possible for me to write a character and not have any of my emotions affect it.

So far, nothing has ever prevented me from harming or killing a character no matter how much I favor him/her, whether in fanfiction or originals. Come to think of it, the first time I harmed a favorite character, I was 8 years old. It felt odd but it didn't hurt.

If anything, I second-guess harming a character I don't like, because I have to question whether I was fair about it. If it turns out that it was necessary to the storyline and doesn't seem out of place or uncalled for, I can relax and continue writing.

By the same token, I'm careful about having luck favor the characters I like. It's allowed to happen, but if it's too often, highly unbelievable, or at the expense of a character I don't like, then I have to re-examine things.

Despite all that, I don't make it a rule to hurt the characters I love and have nice things happen to the characters I hate. That would require me having a guilt complex about my characters, and I don't. I just try my best not to let my personal preferences get in the way. That which is necessary must be done and I won't have qualms about it. It's cold but it also means I can write more effectively.

[Iggy_lovechild]

I'd like to say that I'm objective but sometimes...it's hard.

Best example I can think of is when I was writing for "Hellsing". As the manga progressed and things started to look very dismal indeed (and Hirano started handing out character death sentences left and right), I found it hard to keep my focus. I didn't want any of the main characters to die, especially Alucard. It didn't sit right with me and my demented concepts of a happy ending. So continuation fics became increasingly difficult for me to write due to my inability to completely disengage my personal feelings from the fandom's natural progression.

Another example is rather minor. With all of my yaoi stories, I try to make a point of not limiting any given character to the strictly "top" or "bottom" role when it comes to sex scenes. The only one who has managed to escape this treatment is Rufus Shinra, who is a perpetual top in all lemons. I've tried to work it otherwise, but even though I can picture the situation or scene in small degress, the muse rebels, and I just end up scrapping it in the end.

[Guest Alien Pirate Pixagi]

It's pretty up in the air for me. I go with what feels right for both the story and the character. As long as you go with that, you should be fine. Does it make sense for the character to act this way? Am I holding back something I believe could actually work very well? These are the questions one should ask themselves, not "Is it wrong to show them in this light?" If everyone did that, we wouldn't have Biblical slash ^_-

As for character bashing, I tend toward Eve's likeness in that I find myself having to hold myself back in the character bashing. Often times I find myself making out a character far worse then necessary and having to kind of reign everything in. I get kinda personal. (See, now we just have an issue with folk like me who forget the threshold between "fictional character" and "person" )

[StoryJunkie]

I'm attracted to evil types. I read this one very disrespectful rendition of Ganondorf, and I was very surprised that I liked it. (He did, after all, have a motorcycle). I couldn't care less if Naruto or Inuyasha or any main-character heros get their come-uppance. Sometimes they deserve it. But when an evil character becomes a flaming queen or whining baby, I kind of shudder, however, with the reservation that goes with: "Is this author a good writer?" Usually a good writer makes it believable or laughable.

[Guest Gaara]

Sacred characters huh? Well I'd say no way for that. Take Naruto for example, a lot of people never bash the Fourth. I do. I like to take characters that everyone in the anime holds in awe and make them more human. But that's just me. When I write any character that comes to mind.

[Guest Yhitzak]

Only my own characters are sacred; everything else has been defiled by years of reading fan-fiction. I used to have serious affections for many of the HP characters, but after the sixth book, fourth movie, and more bad fan-fics than I can count, my affections have gone to the wayside. Yes, the popularity of this series has made it uninteresting for me. On the same token, I am a closet Inuyasha fan because I *hate* the otaku for that series, both in reality and online. In fact, I'd probably find the series more interesting to play with if the otaku weren't so ravenous, but they are, and it makes me feel like one of them when I sit down to write such a fic.

Overall, I wouldn't say that I consider any characters 'sacred,' as such, but there is some necessity even in fan-fiction for keeping things canon; otherwise, why not just write orginal stories? Not that I'm saying one can't play with prefabricated situations and characters, but when stories don't even resemble their mother series except for the names of characters and places, it's not enjoyable to read. I suppose, as I come to think of it, that I do hold characters sacred because I do believe that regardless of whatever the situation happens to be that the writer throws them into, they should at least be in character.

[Guest Serenanna]

I think it all depends on how serious your taste in fanfictions and sense of humor is.

Omake is omake, and parody is parody. Of course it'll be OOC a little for the humor, but on the whole it above all attempts to go for the funny.

Every other brand of fanfiction . . . then the capital effort should be to stay IC. Yes, I'm agreeing with you guys on the yaoi thing since the majority of them choose to blatantly ignore canon and charactization in general. But then again, a good author can make anything believeable with the right circumstances, thus characters being sacred is only up to how far an author is willing to dare themselves in giving proper reasoning and set-up.

Case in point, as said before, is Sasuke and Naruto from Naruto. The only way these kids would have sex with each other would be after a. beating each other to a pulp then b. fighting again for who's on top when c. they're not killing each other again when normal people would be in post-cloital bliss.

Now there's a yaoi fic I might read.

So yes, the impossible can happen with coaxing.

On the other hand, I will never ever read or write a fic with Roy/Ed. Now that is canonnally impossible. Ed hates Roy's guts and Roy is far to interested in women. Just, no.

Are all characters sacred to me? Well, of course I have my favorites, and those that are less so, but I've never come to the point that I hate characters enough to assassinate them. If I don't like a canon character, they just don't get written in. The only thing I won't do is kill a character indiscriminately unless they're one of my own. I hate that. I hate deathfics and I hate snuff. After all the time I spend trying to get a character to stay in character through everything I do to them, I am not one to just kiss them goodbye for the hell of it. I will do anything else to a character, torture them, molest them, beat them to hell and back, destroy their reps, and sparate them from what they love, but I will not insult them one last time by killing them without a very, very good reason.

So there. Only sacred holding I have when it comes to characters.

Sere

[Squallfan]

I agree with you, maiafay. Maybe that's because I write slash or yaoi, whichever you want to call it. As long as the characters are acting IC, the pairing can be made believable.

Personally, I've never tried to read or write fics from the Bible. Who would want to??? But, that's up to who does want to do it. I stick to Final Fantasy and Resident Evil, but I may try some other fandoms later.

As far as the characters in the fandoms I write, no one is sacred! Except anything involving children. I could never write something like that, or read it for that matter.