How your fandom will butcher your book.

There's a thread for how Hollywood will ruin your book for fans, so I thought, why not have a thread about how the fandom will ruin it for you?

Saint Nicky is the one I'm really dreading, because if it ever gets a fandom (or especially if it gets a hatedom) there will be people pairing up Nicky and her brother. If I'm lucky, they'll wait until her actual boyfriend is out of the picture to do so. O_O

Orphean: they would make Will's love for Alicia be romantic rather than paternal. He's about five hundred years old and looks old enough to be her grandfather. He's a surrogate dad, NOT a romantic interest! But since they're the main characters...

Other than squicky ships, in 99.5%, someone somewhere would have Olivia get an abortion or give up Rose for adoption. Look, it's not that she's not pro-choice, it's that she couldn't do that to her own baby. She was going to--but she balked. And Rose is kind of important to Olivia's character and the future stories in that universe.

Lost Little Lions: Someone would make the Lioness sympathetic. She's not. She's ruthless, Machiavellian, and killed her cubs' families so she could adopt them. The most sympathetic thing about her is when she tells her cubs to move on when she thinks she's dying.

...Yeah, I work on a lot of stories at once. Two of those at least have a draft finished, though.

If the book(s) my friend and I are writing ever gets published and gets a fandom, I can only imagine the things fans will try to do. I'm not sure it would "ruin" it for me, but they'd certainly be rather off base with characterizations, if they tried these things.

--Slash Alex and Bobby; this just doesn't work on so many levels, though. Bobby works for Alex. That's the entire basis of their relationship. Plus, Alex is very happily married, and Bobby ends up very happily married.

--Putting Alex and Katrina together; they are so not each others' type. They're rivals. Somewhat friendly rivals, but still rivals. And see above about Alex's happy marriage. Also, Katrina ends up with James, and they're very happy together, too.

--Putting Bobby and Katrina together; dear God, no. Bobby's half terrified of the woman. On a professional level. Really.

--More minor slash pairings (John/Alex, Paul/Alex, Bobby/Mark, Bobby/Harry, maybe something crazy like Alex/Fletch)

--Putting Will and Melissa together; this one would just be amusing to see, because he's half in love with her, and she knows it, but she's very happy with her girlfriend. (She's invited him along for a threesome, though...)

Kind of going in the opposite direction, but I think it would be fantastic to see a story where Bobby decided to stay in the Navy and took command of Resolute instead of running off to play politics. It would change so much about how things play out in the second half of the war, and if done well, could be absolutely fascinating to read.

I saw this and thought 'Elijah and Zhan.' I immediatly facepalmed and tried to walk away. Elijah is one of my MMCs, and he's in love with my FMC, Hannah. Zhan is my other MMC and is also in love with Hannah.

My next thought was Hannah and Chef Vlad. I tried to sprint from that one. Vlad is a fifty year old Transylvainian chef. Hannah is an eighteen year old cyborg. Ain't gonna happen.

Finally, Zhan and Jimmy. Jimmy never even meets Zhan!

...Dear gods! It's going to be Team She and Team Desiree! Also, despite the fact that I clearly say who is going to be with whom, the fans will have some seriously screwed up hook-ups going on. I know I got the MMC with both of the FMCs, but that's that. He's not going to get another girl, neither of the girls are going to get another guy, he's got the girls and doesn't need any guys, and the girls got each other and don't need any other girls. I don't know what else I can say to cover anything else, so hopefully I've covered everything.

The two obvious parings (the two main males in the story, and the MC/ghost) are to be expected, bromance turning into romance in the lonely world, and even though the entire point of the human/ghost relationship is that it can't devolve into touching fandom finds a way.

Stripping heterosexuality or un-dooming doomed relationships is normal though. should more exotic pairings such as Fairy king/the 60 year old post-menopausal Linda or The Unicorn/anything happen, I'l go from disgusted to proud of the fan community. If there's enough of a fanfiction base for every possible pairing to happen I think I have it made as an author.

Pairing Falyn with Aren: Uh, no. Aren ends up working for the main bad guy who wants to kill Falyn. So, uh, NO.
Pairing Kieran with Shadow: Possibly, but no. They;re not each others types. Kieran has mixed feelings about him.

Oh dear lord... The main characters would all get paired up despite the fact there's NOTHING like that in the novels. The inevitable ones: Saskia and Emilio, Jasira and Ramiro. These two pairings are both FRIENDSHIPS. There's nothing there, but people would inevitably make it so. Also, some of the characters would inevitably have squealing fan-girls... Probably Ciro and Zero.

People would try to read romance/sex into things where it isn't, which would annoy me immensely!

Oh God, it would be terrible! For starters, they'd ship Caleb/Scarlett, which I shot down in the text. If I comfirmed Scarlett's sexualtiy (I'm leaning towards lesbian or asexual) there'd be tons of her with an OC. And then they'd write shipping fic for the canon pairing Caleb/Eloise (complete wiht some horrid name for it) with them out of character as an excuse for the mushy stuff. Maybe Scarlett/Eloise. Or worse: Eloise/OC, Caleb/OC.

And I can just imagine how much they'd ignore my fantasy world of E.L.M. and just write in the backround of the story—their lives in high school. Plus, with all the other characters I made, I wonder how few would actually get used.

Hmm . . . In Harry Potter fandom, Severus Snape has a lot of fans. Wonder if Mr. Moss, a similar sort of character, only more sympathetic, would be popular too? Probably.

And don't get me started on trying to write out of character slash or incest ships. I'd like to imagine a fandom for me would be sane, but . . . with my fandom experience, not a chance in hell.

But that was fun to think of.

I would have so much fun reading fanfics if my book ever got popular enough to warrant it's own fandom. I would spend way too much time giggling to myself over all the nutty stuff fans could possibly come up with. So far I'd imagine they would:

- Rosaire-Linc pairings. This would amuse me to no end, they are half-brothers who despise one another's existence. Which, based on my brief excursions into the world of fanfiction, seems to be the perfect chemistry for brothercest. I just would hope that fans would realize that Rosaire would, without a doubt in my mind, be the more dominant of the pair. And their relationship would be very abusive and violent.

- Hadrian-Linc pairings. This one would just gross me out because Hadrian is Linc's father. But I could actually see someone pairing them together because Hadrian is a might-bit obsessed with his son. Hadrian had an affair with Linc's mother, he actually loved her, and Linc is her spitting image. But he is not sexually obsessed with his son, but I could see a few fans taking it to be sexual obsession.

- Linc-Julia pairing that actually works out. Canon Linc-Julia ends badly for poor Julia, because she pours her heart and soul into loving Linc, who due to an annoyingly meddlesome god, is unable to love her back. He cares for her very deeply but, alas, he is legitimately unable to love anyone. Their sort-of-relationship goes sour real quick.

- Linc-Morgan pairings. Because... well, Morgan is a wicked awesome pirate chick and Linc is the mmc, so... I think there's like some divine law about these kinds of things.

- Morgan-Ransom pairings. Again, there must be some kind of divine law about this too, Morgan is a pirate queen, Ransom is a rapscallion king. It only seems fitting that the rulers of the underground crime empire would be hot for one another. Even though... ya know, Morgan and Ransom have never once met face to face, never will meet face to face, and would be obligated to fight to the death if they were to meet face to face.

- Morgan-Julia pairings. Pirate queen, cute little innocent niece of the queen. It's totally meant to be, right?

- Linc-patron god pairings. This one actually could potentially be slightly legitimate. Linc's patron god never gives a good reason as to why exactly he chose to meddle with Linc's life or why he's so obsessed with this particular mortal. It would stand to reason that perhaps he is sexually attracted to Linc. But... well, Linc can only hear him, he can't see him much less touch him. And their relationship would be a total love-hate thing, and probably unwilling on Linc's behalf. He is not nearly as fond of his patron god as his god is fond of him.

- And other ridiculous pairings that would just make me giggle. Like Linc-Morgan-Julia threesome. Linc-Morgan-Ransom threesome. Ransom-Rosaire pairing. Ransom-Rosaire-Linc threesome. Rosaire-Morgan-Julia threesome. Rosaire-Linc-Morgan threesome, Linc-Ransom pairing, and a dozen more.

- I'm sure someone would be upset that Hadrian and Linc never got a cutesy father-son-redemption scene or something like that. Linc ends up murdering his father and his half brother for political reasons and... well, Linc never has a proper father-son moment with his father and he never quite forgives Hadrian for not acknowledging him for the first fifteen years of his life and then suddenly, right when Linc is starting to look like a son a king would be proud to have even if he is a bastard, decide that he wants to claim him. Someone would probably write them a nice forgiveness scene or something.

- Pre-Linc Era stories. Most likely centering around the love affair between Hadrian and Linc's mother, Margery, before she gave birth to Linc and subsequently died. Which would actually be kind of cute, because even though Hadrian is a major psychotic jerk, he truly did love Margery and was driven mad by her death. In fact, that might be something amusing for me to write about. Hmmm.

- Corrianna-Elias pairing that actually doesn't make Elias seem like the world's biggest ass. Since, ya know, he kind of forced Cori into a marriage she never wanted. In fact, poor Cori was on her way to a different country to denounce any royal titles or claims and pledge herself to a Temple of Knowledge to live out her days studying and reading, only to be brutally kidnapped and forced into a marriage she never agreed to. Either someone will have Elias find another way to claim the throne and set Cori free, or they'll make Cori find love with Elias instead of cold friendship. Which would make me giggle, Elias is a terrible man but he's a great king, and for that reason alone Cori doesn't hate him. Their relationship is just plain weird.

- Linc's children, Hadrian's other bastard children, Gemma and James's son Nathan growing up, and all sorts of other original characters thrown into the mix.

And... well that's all I can think of for right now. My book is kind of screwy already so... in my humble opinion, my fans would have a lot of fun and a lot of opportunity for first-class butchery.

To be honest, I like fandoms and wouldn't mind a lot of things they could come up with. In fact, I'd love to see what twisted pairings and fanfics they could dream up. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing Bramley/Wing and Wing/Morgan fic, as in my head it could work, were Morgan not evil and the canon love interests each of them has anyway.

But...

I would be kind of squicked out to see:
Wing/Gray incest
Wing/Amber incest
Sandy/any of her kids incest

I also wouldn't want:
Morgan made into a rapist as well as a murderer
People "redeeming" Morgan
Draco-in-Leather-Pants-ing of Blackjack

I just know that people would see some kind of romantic relationship with Jem and Indigo, even though Indigo is HAPPILY engaged to Naomi and Jem will always be Miry's. But still. And I could also see Miry/Isaac, Jem/Isi, Indigo/Miry, and all sorts of other disturbing matches. EEGAD.

Getting all the wrong people together would probably be the main thing. My stories are mostly about relationships so they lend themselves quite naturally to that kind of thing.

Then I suppose there could be changing the characters completely to where my reserved MC becomes a party animal and the ladies all have ninja training.

There would be major fangirl action over my compelling villains.

Oh, and let's add some magic and maybe a few unicorns.

Probably the worst thing though would be crossing my stories with others, like a DeFord Chronicles/Lord of the Rings/Narnia mash-up (all fine tales but let's not put them together) or Bridging The Gaps/Twilight (yeah, I can just see Melanie's heart throb becoming a vampire).

Well, of course, they'd screw up all the pairings, as everyone tends to do. Most people would probably turn my FMC into a heinous bitch (which she kind of is at the beginning, but, eh, she changes) and replace her with an OC that is super pretty and smart and also the nicest person to ever exist and even Eldren, Heart of Ice and all that, would fall madly in love with this OC and her life would just be So Hard because she'd have to choose from All These Guys.

(But I'm just being bitter because when I was 12 I was one of those fanfic writers too and god that is so embarrassing.)

People might try and redeem my antagonist, because he's supposed to be mildly sympathetic but still ultimately "bad," so I'm positive some people will want to root for him too.

Oh and they'd all skip over the fact that like a bunch of my characters are totally useless when it comes to physical fighting. And I mean that'd be cool if they'd write in the training, or have a big enough time skip between the end of my story and the start of theirs for the characters to develop the skills, but it probably wouldn't happen. Nerros would suddenly have like huge bulging muscles or s/t and he'd be ridiculously fit even though he's supposed to be like this really twig-like person?

And all of the women would be much more capable than they actually are. I don't have anything against very capable women - I love them, even - but very few of my female characters have been trained physically, so while they all develop the skills required to survive throughout the course of my story, they can't like jump from tree to tree or impress like "the strongest man in the land" or whatever by lifting something heavy with ease. Nor do any of them have some amazing superpower that makes her the strongest being to ever walk the planet. I know when magic gets involved in stories, that tends to happen to the fan's favourite character.

And probably a bunch of other stuff but idk this is what's coming up off the top of my head.

No but seriously if I ever got a fandom I would write so much badfic for my own stories and get hated on so much by the fandom (or maybe loved who knows).

The Protector- The whole Bern-romance will get blown out of proportion and become the focus in fandom. The story is supposed to be about Bern and how the outside world is actually a huge challenge for her. Jacobe adoring her was just a fun bit I put in for the sake of having an endearing character. And then Seamus popped into my novel, but I think that's going to tie back to why Bern's afraid of the outside world. And Dustin... I think will end up learning a ton from Bern. But romance? No. No.

My only fear is that my fandom would misinterpret my characters' motives. I don't mind if they come up with random 'ships or play around with the plot; it's when people make the characters wildly OOC that I get annoyed.

Ray and Mathieu. O.o People will utterly destroy them. And will turn Adele and Daniel into the tru-love type, when they'e suposed to be very combative and nowhere close to fuctional! :D

And Lia and Parker would be forced together (even though he's gay) and Avery would get a happy ending.

I think it's obvious that my biggest worry is the relationships! >.<

Oh! And Laurel will be turned into a total b*tch... :D

Fans: "QAWUIBUAHEO Lysander and Clarisse should've gotten together WHY DIDN'T THEY GET TOGETHER?!?!?!?!?"
A: They're best friends. Not all relationships between guys and girls are romantic.
Fans: "QAWUIBUAHEO Karol and Clarisse should've gotten together WHY DIDN'T THEY GET TOGETHER?!?!?!?!?"
A: They're acquaintances. Not all relationships between guys and girls are romantic.
Fans: "QAWUIBUAHEO Midian and Clarisse should've gotten together WHY DIDN'T THEY GET TOGETHER?!?!?!?!?"
A: Dude, will you guys give it a rest? NOT ALL FMCs HAVE TO HAVE BOYFRIENDS!
Fans: "*sob* WE HATE YOU!"

ALL THE RELATIONSHIPS. Ned/Cain slash. Ned/Andrea, or vice-versa (especially after Ned is a vampire). Ned/anyone, really. Dace/anyone -- especially Artemas! Gahh! Andrea/anyone but Cain. Nonononononononononononono. Please, fandom, if you have any love for the author...DON'T touch the relationships.

Pairing everyone with everyone.
Actually, I'd like to see that because lololol, Gavin/Sparrow is my headcanon. Never happens in the novel though since they both agree to have a manly man-friendship (not phrased like this but yeah ... also, major flirting with women).
My writing group even suggested names for that 'main character' pairing: Garrow or Spavin. Someone pointed out that the first is the name of a character in Eragon which I find very funny since it doesn't really sound like a name to me, lololol.
Since there are no 'real' romantic relationships in my novel (it's a freaking fantasy adventure, no time for love! lol), everything goes!
I guess what would really ruin the whole thing would be ooc stuff like for example:
Morgan (female bounty hunter!) being some kind of whiny princess.
Sparrow being angsty all the time (he's an adventurer! why would he be angsty? plus, even Gavin points out that Sparrow is an excellent actor, even if he was angsty, he would never quite show it.)
Zane killing everyone (he's an assassin, I give you that ... but he wouldn't run around like a madman)
Gavin wearing robes or doing other cliché'd stuff. (he's like some kind of anti-mage: no pointy hat, no wand, no robes, no beard and he certainly doesn't play around with his magic)

And so on.

Well, pretty much anything that doesn't happen in real life... happening. But that would be pretty funny for me. Here I am, living this real life, and then... seeing how other people thinking everything ended up would be pretty funny.
I would be most o_O over the following possibilities:
-Melany does something OOC, like picks up and moves to California. (That's just a VAGUE dream for her. She's not going to do it.)
-Paul comes back and he and Melany get married. Easy!
-Petey and Melany kissing. Not gonna happen.
-Cat fights between Mindy and Melany.
-Gay couples involving straight characters.
-Straight couples involving gay characters.
-Someone throws in fantasy elements. Uh uh.
-Time travel becomes involved.
-Mindy/Paul Fitzgerald. No. They're like brother and sister. Same with Libby/Paul Fitzgerald.
-Melany/Bud. Nope. Really gross.
-Any character becomes a famous rockstar/movie star/reality star. No. Not happening.
-Petey or Paul deciding not to be Catholic anymore, thus solving the main dilemma. OOC and besides, that would just suck.
There are a lot of things that aren't likely to happen.