[Fandom] ...in some ways this was inevitable.

[jennaria]

I check AO3 semi-regularly for more Yuri On Ice Stories I Am Interested In, which (as usually happens) are getting thinner on the ground. Unfortunately, this means I'm hitting the stage of the fandom life-cycle where I start to get grumpy.

...specifically, dear fanfic authors: why the heck are you writing stories wherein the only trace of this being a Yuri On Ice fanfic, as opposed to Any Other Fandom Ever, is the names? I don't even mean that I don't agree with the characterization. I mean 'fairy tale retelling' wherein the prince is now named Victor, and the brave maiden who rescues him is now a boy named Yuuri, and the helpful fairy is now (depending on which retelling) either Minako or Phichit, and Russian Yuri appears for at most three sentences to yell at everyone before vanishing again.

If you're going to write a fairy tale retelling, couldn't you maybe pick (a) a non-Disney fairy tale, and (b) think about what putting the YOI characters into the roles would mean? I don't feel like that's too much to ask. Grump.

Comments

[jennaria]

Realistically, yes - a non-zero portion of those I'm complaining about are teenagers or other less experienced writers. (Which is why I'm grumbling in my own space, rather than saying anything to them, because I'm not that much of a bitch.) I feel like the 'imitating the popular stuff' is definitely a thing, see also: the huge number of Mafia AUs, the huge number of group chat stories, the huge number of soulmate stories (...those are a guilty pleasure, not gonna lie), the huge number of ABO stories.

Even among those - I'm pretty sure I could point to the specific Mafia AU story and group chat story that spurred the trend, but soulmate stories and ABO stories are a constant across fandoms. Maybe more omnipresent in YOI, but I also haven't been in a Big Fandom for a while, so my data might be flawed. I suspect half my grumpiness about the fairytales in particular is because I like retellings of fairytales, at least in theory, so it's kinda YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE GOOD, WHY AREN'T YOU GOOD. :wry: Unfortunately, comments of BECOME GOOD FASTER are unlikely to be productive.

[merit]

Oh yeah genres definitely become popular. I've seen Mafia AUs be popular in the past (and read some of the most popular YOI AU one). There's some I like more than others. I'm surprised by how long ABO has managed to remain popular, especially considering some of the elements of the trope. But I suppose ABO has changed quite a bit over the years. I read a post on it a few months ago and the elements were completely unknown to me, but they were common enough to be discussed between different people.

I like fairytales too :( but from the summaries/tags alone I knew I probably was going to be disappointed.

YOI is probably some people's first big fandom. First real fandom as well. When there's so much being produced, I think it becomes easier for someone to /finally/ try writing something. Which results in some of the fic being produced. And ahah guess I'm setting high standards for my own fic, but I'm just a critical reader ^^;;

[jennaria]

Sometimes the tags are warning enough, and sometimes they aren't, for me - it partially depends on whether the author tags tumblr-style, where you get more information from the tags than from the summary field, or old-school, where it's more 'um, I dunno, what here applies?' :is maybe projecting a bit here, heh:

At one and the same time - yay for people who are putting their toes in the water, fanfic-wise! Hell, YOI is tempting me to write fanfic for something other than Yuletide. But that doesn't mean I can turn off my own critical reader. Unfortunately. (Good luck!)

[king_touchy]

YOI is tempting me to write fanfic for something other than Yuletide.

Oh, let me encourage that thought!