To Denounce the Evils of Bad Fanfics
by Cori
Just recently, a good friend of mine wrote a rant about fanfics and how much she detests Team Rocket fics that contain disturbing and depressing material. And ya know what? I couldn't agree with her more on that issue! I agree with her so much, in fact, that I've been incited to go off on yet ANOTHER rant about how much I hate all these sick fics out there! 

Seriously, people, the level of violence and perversion in Pokemon fanfics and fanfic in general has reached critical mass! There are so many fanfics that have this crap in them that it's mind-boggling! My question is, what the bloody, freakin' HELL possesses people to write these things?! How can anybody in their right mind write a fanfic about characters they like dying or having bad things happen to them when there's no kind of positive outcome?! And some of the things that people write about, like rape and death, are so grim that no satisfying outcome is even remotely possible! What goes through their minds when they write this shit?! "Oh, I love this character! They're so wonderful! Gosh, I'd really love to see them DIE! Wouldn't that be great?" or "Wow! What a terrific show! But ya know what'd make it even better? If everybody got raped, and they all started having kinky sex with each other!" Give me a f***ing break. -_____- 

And sadly, this crap isn't limited to Team Rocket fanfics! Lots of people write horrible fics about Gary, too -- if he isn't being abused by his family, he's either abusing his pokemon, beating up or raping Misty or his cheerleaders, or he's involved in some creepy pairing with characters like *shudder, twitch, barf* Ash or Tracey! There's even an occasional sick fic about the twerps, but an overwhelming majority of the bad fics seem to target Team Rocket and Gary! (Honestly! Why the hell are people so mean to the characters that I like?! Why does everybody hate them so much?! Nobody who actually liked them could be capable of writing the shit that I've seen and heard horror-stories about! X_______x) The people who write these rape/death/torture/abuse/creepy pairing fics must be pulling their characterization and plot ideas out of their asses...because they sure are shitty! >D 

Pokemon just isn't a show about death -- fics where ANY of the main characters die are wrong! I don't really have a problem with death fics about characters that are canonically dead, like Miyamoto or Brock's mom, and I don't mind if truly evil villains who aren't an integral part of the show, like Butch & Cassidy or Jessiebelle, die in a fic (I even killed off Jessiebelle in one of my alternate reality fics, and I'm damn proud of it! Bwa, ha, ha!!! >D), but why kill a main character that's in every ep? What's the point of having a main character die from being in an accident, coming down with an incurable illness, committing suicide, being murdered, etc?! I'm sorry, but any fanfic where doing something like that to a main character is necessary to the plot isn't even a fic worth writing, let alone reading or enjoying! >P I once had the misfortune of reading a fic where Jessie and Pikachu die in a car crash (very graphically, I might add...and then the author wrote a sequal where Ash kills James to get revenge X________x), and every goddamned site where that thing is posted describes it as a beautiful story! The author herself even included a note that she "just had to write this story!" Uh...okay. Anybody who "just has to write" a fic like that is either being held at gunpoint or seriously f***ed in the head! (I'm gonna go with the latter, myself -- the odds of a crazed gunman breaking into your house and demanding that you write a fic where a bunch of Pokemon characters get killed aren't that great, after all. +P) And will somebody PLEASE explain to me what the f*** is supposed to be so goddamned beautiful about shit like that?! I sure as hell don't see what it is! (Note: I don't really object to death fics about Ash anymore. I'm at the point where I'm so disgusted by that twerp that I could care less what happens to him. He fits into the "truly evil villain who deserves to die" category these days. The only thing I really have a problem with in death fics about Ash is if J, J & M are the ones who kill him. I can't stand out of character stuff like that about TR, but Ash can go to hell for all I care.) 

Now, I know that the death of a main character isn't uncommon in anime, but the death isn't usually an ending, like it is in all these crappy fanfics -- it's a new beginning (kind of a reflection of Japanese culture's belief in reincarnation). When a main character dies in the first episode of an anime, the rest of the series is usually about their adventures in a new life or in the afterlife, and when the main character dies after a few series, the next series shows what happens to them after they die. (That's what happened in Dragonball Z -- the main hero, Goku, dies in one of the series, but afterwards, the show has episodes that take place in the afterlife and deal with his continuing adventures, and he even returns to Earth a few times and interacts with the living characters.) In other cases, there's usually a plot twist where the character that died is brought back to life somehow. This even happened in Pokemon a couple of times. In "The Tower of Terror," the ghost pokemon took Ash's soul from his body for awhile, but they returned him to life once they were done playing. And in Mewtwo Strikes Back, Ash was turned to stone in the battle between Mew and Mewtwo, but he was promptly revived by the enchanted pokemon tears. That's as far as the death theme goes in Pokemon, though. Like I said before -- it's just NOT a show about death, and no matter what happens in the series, it's NEVER going to become so dark that the permanent death of a character that's in every ep would be necessary to the plot! This is why permanently killing a main character shouldn't be necessary to the plot of Pokemon fanfiction either -- it violates the spirit of what the show is about! (And personally, I don't think those stupid "reunited in Heaven" or "reincarnated as pokemon" resolutions are satisfactory for all these TR death fics either. I mean, it's Jessie and James for godsake! They shouldn't have to go through something like that...especially not with all the crap they already put up with on the show! >P) 

And I don't care who the victim is, but all rape fics are wrong, too! I've said it in a previous rant, and I'm saying it again -- Pokemon isn't about sexual perversion either, and there is NEVER, EVER a valid reason or excuse to write a fanfic where one of the characters gets raped! A plotline like that shouldn't even be entering the mind of somebody writing a Pokemon fanfic! I remember, I almost had a heart attack when I read about poor Jessie getting raped in The Hard Fall! I asked myself, "Can somebody even DO that in a fanfic?!" The only reason I kept reading that piece of shit was because I kept waiting to see if it was some kind of joke! (Big mistake -- it only got worse from there. X_____x) And the fics where Misty gets raped aren't any better -- Misty is a CHILD, for godsake! Would these people want to see a kid get sexually molested in real life? Even fics about Cassidy and Jessiebelle getting raped make me sick -- as a woman, I wouldn't wish something horrible like that on ANYBODY...even a person I hate! And don't even get me started on how unfair that is to the male characters, too! James, Brock, Giovanni, Professor Oak, and Gary are great guys, and they'd NEVER rape anybody or anything! Not even a sleaze like Butch would be a rapist, and Ash and Tracey would never rape anybody either! Making the male characters rapists is a case of character-rape, if ever there was one! (Hey, if a fic makes me feel sorry for evil bitches like Cassidy and Jessiebelle or a hideous toad like Butch, ya KNOW it's gotta be bad! >_<) 

Even non-Pokemon fanfics have a lot of this disturbing stuff in them! I recently went net-surfing and found a bunch of sites devoted to The Raccoons -- a now out-of-production cartoon that I used to watch when I was a kid. (The site I linked to is a really good one -- it's mostly just information and downloads. There's no fanfics posted there, and if that's a choice the webrunner actively made, then I don't blame him one bit, considering all the awful stuff that people write! *shudder*) Which brings me to the point of this little tangent -- one of the sites I found had a fanfic archive, so I decided to check it out. I figured that since the main fanbase of The Raccoons is nostalgic adults like me, the fanfics would be nicer than the shit that a lot of so-called fans write about Pokemon. I figured wrong -- I almost cried when I read some of the descriptions of the fics posted there! There were a lot of death fics, a lot with violence and swearing, and there was even one which was described as having a graphic sex scene! O_o;;; Now, why the hell would I want to read a fic about cute talking animals getting killed or having graphic sex with each other?! What possessed these people to kill off these characters and have them talking like Eminem?! And I don't even wanna KNOW which characters were involved in that graphic sex scene! >_< These were CARTOON characters from a family show for crying out loud -- they should NOT be having graphic sex! Sheesh! X_____x 

And it's not just cartoon fandoms that have sick fics either -- I've heard horror-stories about Lord of the Rings and Beatles yaoi on Fanfiction.net, too! Why the f***ing HELL are people writing yaoi about Lord of the Rings and the Beatles?! O___o If these losers were REAL fans of Tolkien or the Beatles, they'd treat them with reverence and write TASTEFUL stories! Yaoi about stuff like LOTR and the Beatles isn't just sick -- it's downright disrespectful...to the characters, the people, AND the fans who love and respect them! (That's one of the main reasons I left ff.net -- I couldn't stand the overload of sick fics there, and being affiliated with that damn place was making me feel dirty! >.<) I don't care if the authors of fics like these aren't making any money -- Tolkien's estate should be able to sue these assholes for doing such degrading things to his characters! And yaoi about real people like the Beatles isn't fanfic -- it's LIBEL, which IS a criminal offense! >( People who write sick fics about classic literature and real people need a serious ass-kicking! *kicks sick fic writers into the fires of Mt. Doom* Sorry, folks, but that's sacred stuff, and it deserves respect! 

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind subversive elements in fanfic. In this censorship-happy society, I think it's refreshing to hear cartoon characters use foul language every now and then! >D But "every now and then" are the key words -- when the dialogue is a constant string of "f*** this" and "f*** that," it crosses the line. And as you all know, I absolutely LOVE shippy and erotic stories about Jessie and James! However, the reason why sex scenes about J & J are okay to me is because they're not really cartoon characters, per se -- they're anime characters. Anime deals with more mature themes than regular cartoons do (Pokemon is NOT a little kids' show in Japan!), and Jessie and James are the adult-oriented characters on that show. Now, if it's a fic about Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, or the cast of The Raccoons having sex, that's disturbing because they really are cartoons, and sex isn't what they're about. But when the characters are a beautiful young man and woman who truly love each other and appeal to mature audiences (as is the case with Jessie and James), sex is perfectly natural, and I don't see anything wrong with it! (So, no, I'm not being a hypocrite on this issue! +P) 

But back to the main point of this rant -- the overload of sick fics and why they're so terrible. From what I've seen, no fandom is safe from these things! The fact that so many people make the poke-world and the world of so many other fun shows into dark and disturbing places in their fanfics really makes me sad. I always thought that fanfic was supposed to be about delving deeper into the psyche of a character or writing about stuff that you WANT to see on the show (and no real fan would ever want to see the characters they love get raped, killed, etc.)! I don't even mind the fics with darker themes and ones about dealing with adversity if the author gives them a satisfying resolution! But that's the key -- it needs to have a POSITIVE outcome! And too many authors just can't seem to do that! ~_~ 

This is a big reason why I stopped taking fanfic submissions on my site. I had my submission rules to weed out the garbage, but you know what? Nobody was taking the time to read and follow those rules! In spite of my insistence on no death or perversion, I kept getting fics about...you guessed it -- death and perversion! Writing these things to begin with is disrespectful to the characters, but when people said they read my guidelines and then proceeded to break them anyway, when they "forgot about" my guidelines, or when they didn't even bother to look at my guidelines and just sent me some piece of crap, that was disrespectful to ME, too! I'm sorry, but I'm a cranky old lady, and I have no tolerance for people who treat me and the characters I love like shit. Running this site and writing fanfic is my hobby -- it's what I do in the little spare time I have to make myself happy, and I just don't need depressing and disturbing stuff ruining one of the few things that I truly enjoy. 

I'm not trying to sound like one of those censorship nuts with this rant -- if anything, I'm AGAINST censorship! However, just as I believe wholeheartedly in the freedom of expression, I also believe wholeheartedly that this right comes with RESPONSIBILITIES! I'm not censoring anything or violating anybody's right to free speech by refusing to post fanfics, fanart, rants, and links that I don't like on my site -- I'm simply controlling the content of my site and enforcing my editorial policies. (There's a world of difference between censorship and editorial policy, folks!) I don't want my site to be a dark place of violence and perversion or a portal to shit like that, and taking steps to ensure that it doesn't become one is both my right and my responsibility. Freedom of expression is a two-way street! 

Which brings me back to the subject of sick fics. I think it's wonderful when a person is inspired by a TV show, movie, etc. and wants to use their imagination to write a fanfic. However, I don't think these fics about rape, death, etc. count as creative expression. Shows like Pokemon should NOT be inspiring stories about crap like this, and these so-called fans have no right to write these awful fics and post them on the internet for everybody to see! (I don't even think warnings are a satisfactory safeguard against sick fics. Just knowing that these damn things are out there and that somebody was disturbed enough to acutally write about such terrible stuff happening to Pokemon characters is enough to upset me! Bad fanfics have no right to exist, and that's all there is to it!) And I've got news for ya, folks -- freedom of speech and expression is NOT protected when it's deliberately used to hurt other people! Yelling "fire" in a crowded place and causing a stampede when there's no fire, hate speech, child pornography, and the like don't count as freedom of expression because all they do is hurt others! And that's precisely what disturbing and depressing fanfics do -- they hurt and traumatize the real fans who happen upon them, and NO author has the right to do that! 

If somebody wants to write a story about rape, death, or other forms of suffering because they need an outlet for their fears, they want to expose something negative about the world in which we live, etc. that's fine. People write stories about stuff like that all the time, and a lot of negative stories have actually made our world a better place by inciting political action, raising awareness, etc. However, when a person feels the need to write a story like this or use their right to creative expression in a negative way, they need to go a step further and USE THEIR OWN CHARACTERS!!!!! I can tolerate sad or disturbing stories (provided they have a solid plot and a good story line) with less than uplifting outcomes when the characters are the author's own creation. But when I read a story that involves characters that I already know and love and have a tremendous emotional investment in, a positive outcome is imperative! 

A REAL author who wants to write a negative story should be smart enough and creative enough to come up with their own characters to do all of this bad stuff to and leave the cast of Pokemon and all these other shows out of it entirely! Besides, it's just common courtesy to not write upsetting stories about characters that aren't your own. Sick fics are disrespectful to the characters, they're an insult to the people who really do own the characters (I think Satoshi Tajiri would be disgusted by a lot of the Pokemon fics out there! And poor J. R. R. Tolkien is probably turning in his grave because of all that goddamned LOTR yaoi! >_<), and last but not least, they're a disservice to the REAL fans who truly love the characters and don't want to read disturbing stuff about them! 

People who write these bad fics either need to get a life and stop writing a bunch of crap about characters they hate, use their imaginations and come up with their own characters for their dark stories, or get a clue and realize that the sad and disturbing stories they're writing about characters that they claim to love are NOT entertaining and that all they're doing is traumatizing their fellow fans! Everybody has the right to freedom of expression, but it's time to start facing up to the responsibilities that come with this right. As fans, as writers and artists, as considerate human beings, we can do no less. 

And this concludes yet another of my big, angry rants that probably just offended everybody who read it! Woo hoo! My work here is done! *takes a bow and steps down from her soap-box* 

@->->- 

To Denounce the Evils of Bad Fanfics Part 2: An Addendum
by Cori
Okay, I thought I'd said it all in my previous rant, but apparently there's some stuff I need to add. The point I was trying to make was lost on a few people, so I need to clarify a couple of things. 

First off, somebody tried to argue with me that death doesn't make a fanfic bad, that the criteria by which a fic should be judged is how in character it remains, how original the plot is, etc. Now, while I agree that good fics need to remain in character and have original and compelling plots, I STILL stand firm in my belief that death does NOT need to be a part of that! I'm sorry, but I don't care how original or compelling a story is -- if Jessie, James, or Meowth permanently die in that "well-written" story, that automatically makes it not well-written anymore! Nothing craps up a Team Rocket fic like killing off Jessie, James, Meowth, or their pokemon! Besides, there's so many death fics out there that it's been done to death! (Pun fully intended.) There's no such thing as an original plotline involving the death of these characters. They've already been killed off in every way imaginable by all these crappy writers, so there's no way to make death "fresh," "original," or "compelling" -- it's just cliche. (Which is very, VERY sad when ya think about it.) We most certainly do NOT need more fics like that. -___- 

Another argument this person made was that if a sad story is well-written, it'll upset you, but that you'll go back and read it again. This has got to be, without a doubt, the biggest load of crap I've ever heard! Why the hell would I want to read something upsetting even once, let alone a second or third time?! >_< A story that traumatizes me and makes me have a nervous breakdown every time I think about it is NOT a good story that I'm going to reread! And that's precisely what perverted, death, anti-shippy, etc. fics about TR do to me -- they upset me to no end, and that makes them suck! (And one of the authors this guy was defending wrote a fic where James died, and Jessie ended up marrying Brock! O_o Uh, that DOUBLY sucks because it was a death fic, AND it was anti-shippy! Sorry, but anything that involves Jessie and James not in love and together forever automatically makes a story poorly-written as far as I'm concerned, and anything anti-Rocketshippy IS out of character! >P) 

But extremist Rocketshipper views aside, let's get back to the subject of death. I like original stories that explore new premises as much as the next person! Hell! That's what I'm trying to do in my own fics -- to write original Rocketshippy stories that are about more than just sexual tension and J & J admitting their true feelings for each other! But there are just some premises and ideas that should NOT be explored with Team Rocket! Death is one of them! Just watch the show -- TR has been through electrocutions, explosions, falling from the sky, drowning, illness, car crashes, being tortured by a psychotic bitch with a whip and a phony Southern accent...you name it, they've been through it! If there's one thing that can absolutely, positively be guaranteed about Pokemon, it's that no matter what kind of abuse J, J & M take, they're ALWAYS going to survive and come back in the next ep without so much as a scratch on them or a hair out of place! They're kind of like the Wile E. Coyotes of anime -- no matter how much they get hurt in the lame plot twists that ensure the "good guys'" victory, their defeat is NEVER fatal or something that's going to permanently scar them! They're ALWAYS going to keep coming back for more! Fanfics that explore the premise of one or more of them suffering a fatal injury or having something happen to them that they're never going to recover from are completely out of step with what the show is about, and taking away that little aura of invincibility TR has is just too disturbing for my taste! I don't enjoy fics that screw with my peace of mind like that! If I want to read a story that challenges me in a disturbing way, I'll read a book where the author is using their own characters that I don't already have a huge emotional attatchment to, thank you very much! 

Moreover, this person said he doesn't like "wholesome" because it's too fake and phony for his liking and that he prefers darker things. Now in my defense, I think he was taking my descriptions of Pokemon as wholesome completely out of context. I'm not saying that the poke-world is all sweetness and light -- I agree that there is some darkness in it, that bad things happen sometimes, and that there's some rotten people there. By wholesome, I simply meant that Pokemon is a clean and harmless show compared to a lot of other TV shows and animes. You're NEVER going to see somebody get raped, murdered, mutilated, etc. in the world of Pokemon! Even though bad things do happen on the show sometimes, it's not THAT bad! (Uh, would little kids be allowed to leave home and go on pokemon journies with absolutely no adult supervision if the poke-world had as much evil as the "real" world? I don't think so!) And while I like stories that deal with the subversive side of Pokemon (one of the main reasons I love J, J & M so much is because they're subversive characters who do things their own way and don't always abide by the letter of the law), I think that there's TOO MUCH negativity in a lot of Pokemon fanfics nowadays! I just DON'T see a lot of this darkness and evil that these other authors see! 

Maybe my personal opinion of Team Rocket colors this view. I don't see it as some evil terrorist organization bent on ruling the world -- I think they're just a crime syndicate that buys and sells pokemon on the black market. Terrorists are people who murder, destroy, and do anything for the sake of their cause, and while some of TR's agents truly are evil (like Butch & Cassidy, Domino, Bishazu, etc.), I don't think any of them would be capable of mass murder or other true acts of terrorism. All Team Rocket does in the way of evil is steal pokemon for profit! Hardly the actions of terrorists! (And after the horrible events of September 11, 2001, I think the "Team Rocket is a terrorist organization" view is even more disgraceful and inaccurate than it already was! Putting Team Rocket into the same category as the likes of Al Qaeda is beyond tasteless, and the people who are still capable of thinking shit like this should be ashamed of themselves! >_<) Jeez, even "poaching" doesn't even have a literal connotation on Pokemon! The true definition of "poaching" is when an endangered or out of season animal is killed so that its fur, horns, meat, etc. can be sold for profit. On Pokemon, all "poaching" means is capturing pokemon that aren't allowed to be captured -- murder isn't even a part of it! Probably the most evil thing TR has ever done is when they killed a baby Cubone's mother at Lavender Town, but Jessie, James, and Meowth had absolutely NOTHING to do with that, and it wasn't even a part of the show -- it was only one of the sub-plots in the game! (And personally, I think Giovanni punished the Dan'in who were responsible for killing that Marowak. He may not be the nicest guy around, but he's NOT a pokemon killer!) 

And Jessie, James, and Meowth aren't evil by ANY stretch of the imagination! They've shown time and time again how much they love each other, how they're willing to make personal sacrifices for each other and the people and pokemon whom they consider their friends, how they're willing to work together with their enemies when it serves the greater good...I could go on forever! True, they act tough sometimes, but that's all it is -- an ACT! They have reasons for doing what they do! One trend I've noticed on the show is that during pure TR scenes, they're really sweet and the worst they do is tease each other. Sometimes they argue when they're in a bad mood, but the only time they're even remotely "mean" is when the twerps provoke them! Like I said before -- the worst they are is subversive. They just don't do things by the book, and being the outsiders has given them their own philosophies on life. This is what makes them so appealing to me. 

And this is why fics where they're portrayed as evil and villainous or hate each other are out of character and why fics where they get killed, permanently damaged, or lose their friendship and their love upset me so much! These are GOOD characters who already have too many bad things happening to them on the show! Fanfics where even more bad things happen to them and don't provide a satisfying outcome are just pointless, and I think it's really mean of people to do stuff like that to them! 8_8 I don't think I'd be able to even look at myself in the mirror if I ever wrote a death fic about TR -- I'd be too ashamed! Again, I'm sorry, but I still firmly believe that real fans don't kill characters that they like in their fanfics! It's just not done! I know a lot of these authors try to defend their upsetting stories by saying that they wouldn't really want to see anything like that happen on the show, but I just don't understand that line of reasoning! If you don't want to see something happen on the show, then why the HELL would you want to write about it or read about it?! It doesn't make any sense! Fanfic is about what you DO want to see on the show! A fanfic about something you don't really want to see is a contradiction -- stories like that defeat the whole purpose of what the genre of fanfic is about! Their other defense is that since stuff like rape and death wouldn't really happen on the show, it's okay to write about it in fanfic, but that doesn't make any sense either! If the mark of a good story is how well-written...how "real" it is, then you CAN'T dismiss or excuse fics like that by saying, "Oh, it's only a fanfic. It isn't real." Ya can't have it both ways, folks! Is it real, or isn't it?! Make up your minds! X_x 

Okay, have we got that cleared up now? Original plots are good, but if it involves killing off TR or gets too upsetting, it crosses the line, and it's not good anymore! Real fanfics don't explore subjects like that, and real fans don't write shit like that about characters they like! Since it involves using characters that aren't the author's own creation, fanfic is more than just creative writing. The creative element is extremely important, but fanfic is first and foremost an expression of love for the characters. And overly dark stories about these characters do NOT count as true fanfics -- they're blasphemy, pure and simple! There is NO defense for killing Jessie, James, Meowth, or any of their pokemon in a fanfic! Period. Paragraph. End of story.