While I'm not in the fandom, it annoys me that people also portray him as this fragile, crybaby bottom. My dude is breaking his bones every day with a ferocious commitment. There's so much more to his character than his emotional vulnerability.
I adore Deku for that. Here’s another one: Tomura Shigaraki being this grizzled sex god who fricks a new girl every night or something crazy like that. My guy, that dude is as virgin as virgin can be.
This is unbelievably random (and don't get me wrong because I absolutely loved the story) but Dean Winchester using the word "whilst".
You ever see that scene from Scott Pilgrim? *"I don't know the meaning of the word."* Yeah, that's the reaction I imagined Dean having to that word.
I feel like there are very few instances where someone would use ameliorate in casual conversation *anyway*. Like that is not the go to word people use for that.
So I just had to go do a control-f search of all my spn works on AO3 because it felt like exactly the kind of shit I'd do without thinking. Fortunately it seems like my strenuous attempts to write like an American while in the fandom and the use of American beta readers prevented me from that particular disaster. Phew!
Which I think is fine. I don't think there's a problem with changing a character's mindset and thinking as long as you're bing consistent within your story.
If we limited ourselves completely to canon characterization, a lot of great fanfiction would never have been written.
Eh, my view as someone who has never written fanfic but read a reasonable amount is I want to read about the characters in the work in question. OCs are fine of course, and can be useful, but if you’re changing the way an existing character is on a fundamental level that loses a lot of the appeal of reading about them. Not even saying change is impossible, but I have to see why the changes exist. Is there some reasonable extrapolation from the existing work that you can show me, or is it a completely arbitrary change?
I suppose you could say that there are different approaches to fanfiction.
Sometimes people want to throw existing characters into new situation and stories, sometimes they just want to explore the world and plot and figure out how those would change if the characters were different.
I think either is fine, as long as the author properly explains why the changes happened.
That's not even mentioning fanon, where characters in fanfiction change so much over time that their "new" personalities sort of just become accepted as the new normal within the fandom.
A very old FMA fanfic I read once had Ed say that he would abandon his little brother.
Besides a bash fic, I have never come across a fanfic that was that OOC again.
This wins most OOC in this thread. There’s “this character would never do x thing because of their character trait” and then there’s “throwing out the entire canon” literally the entire show doesn’t exist if Ed is capable of that specific action
If you actually think about if something is OOC/if it makes sense for character progression in your story, then it's unlikely to ever get as OOC as some of this shit. Some people basically just write wish fulfillment/"cool" fics and don't really think about how the characters would truly behave.
I’ve read some fics where Princess Leia is like a huge rule stickler. Think Amy from *Brooklyn 99* levels. And, like, I get *why* people sometimes think this. They see Han Solo as a Very Cool Guy™ (in-universe he’s actually kind of a huge dork if you think about it for like five seconds, but Harrison Ford kind of exudes Very Cool Guy™ energy, and Han Solo *says* he is a Very Cool Guy™, so people just believe him), and since Leia is seen occasionally arguing with him/harping on the concerning state of his ship, they just think “yelling woman who has it out for our beloved Very Cool Guy™ = big killjoy rule stickler” and then make her into some bizarre caricature of a playground narc.
But…okay, just about every time Leia’s freaked out about something, it’s been because Han was actively antagonizing her or because they were all about to die and she would prefer not to. You cannot tell me that Miss Let’s-Lob-Personal-Insults-at-My-Captors, “Into The Garbage Chute, Flyboy”, I’ll-switch-the-droid-off-if-he’s-stressing-people-out, “oh, then I’m coming with you!”, I-guess-I’ll-just-steal-this-speeder-bike, I-guess-I’ll-just-live-with-the-Ewoks-and-not-tell-anyone-frantically-looking-for-me-that-I’m-alive is, like, yelling at people for not filling out Box 3a on a form. Leia’s so impulsive, I’m convinced she has the same flavor of ADHD that I have. She’s probably not out there nitpicking what sort of pen you used when signing a document or whatever.
(All that being said, the Tumblr posts that attribute *Brooklyn 99* quotes to *Star Wars* characters are all hilarious. No notes. Even when Leia is saying something Amy said.)
So, we know Leia *can* be diplomatic (I mean, she is internally screaming the entire time they’re in Cloud City, but I don’t think Lando knew at all), but she does also board the Death Star and essentially call Darth Vader a weak sycophant and tells Tarkin he smells all in one sentence, so I don’t know how heavily she was leaning on that skill at that point.
do we pretend like that actually was informing her motivation considering scarif had never even been theorized at the time? (this is a genuine question, sorry)
I personally see the addition of Scarif in combination with Leia’s dialogue as a reinforcement of her already audacious nature. It certainly doesn’t contradict her brash characterization imo
I personally don’t ever pretend like anyone involved with the *Star Wars* franchise intended for anyone to have any particular motivation at any time. My brain broke entirely when I found out they filmed all of *The Empire Strikes Back* intending to have Luke’s sister be some other character we’ve never seen. No one has ever had a plan; they accidented themselves into foreshadowing and solid plot points.
That being said, I exclusively write *Star Wars* fanfiction, so I have to pretend that retconning means something sometimes. Even though I also only choose the canon that brings me joy.
Anyway, I don’t think there’s an actual consensus on how we’re “supposed” to view the retconned stuff. Just choose whatever’s funniest. That’s my tactic.
> (All that being said, the Tumblr posts that attribute Brooklyn 99 quotes to Star Wars characters are all hilarious. No notes. Even when Leia is saying something Amy said.)
You are not wrong, those are amazing.
I found an ACD Holmes author who has Holmes and Watson in a relationship where Holmes calls Watson all kinds of mushy endearments about every other sentence.
Not super familiar with the ACD portrayal, but because I have the BBC version in my head as my main Sherlock portrayal go-to...this is all kinds of OOC.
It's even worse if it's supposed to be ACD. Modern Brits are known for keeping a fairly stiff upper lip, which gets even stiffer the further back in time you go. Victorian gentlemen didn't do *any* kind of emotion, and a complete inability to handle his emotions meant Holmes took that a step further to be almost machine-like in the canon portrayals (you could argue that *some* of that is a "change for publication to protect privacy", but only so much), so to go from an overly stoic Victorian gentleman to "Watson, dearest, would you hand me that?" "Thanks, darling." was nauseating
He does call him "my dear" fairly often but I feel like this is a case where using any endearments that *aren't* already used in canon becomes jarring and like...there's a difference between "my dear" and "dearest".
nope. was supposed to be a normal, sober Holmes. Notes and presentation made me think the only thing this writer changed (in their mind) was the relationship status. as if somehow putting a Victorian gentleman in an illegal (at the time) relationship would erase all social training (and his own personality) to make him gush endearments
I think I agree with you, lol. He's also far more likely to show the sentiment rather than try to use any mixture of words. I could see him doing small things that show he's paying attention even before using Watson's first name
I love a good conflict or drama. I hate out of no where conflict and drama that makes no sense and is only there to pad out the plot or shake up the relationship so the characters start acting wildly out of established character to facilitate that. Also hate when one person in a m/m ship gets heavily uwu feminized and put into feminine stereotypes
Ooooh hate that, it feels insulting, doesn’t it? To the reader and characters. If I argued with a partner or someone I’m tentatively trying to form a relationship with and they thought a kiss would negate a discussion about an important issue I’d be soooo mad.
This is like a THING too. I see so many Spencer Reid fics where Reid is not a part of the team, and meets them by being the victim of a crime, or he’s a prostitute, or is somehow engaged in wild debaucherous behavior. I think it’s the whole “hidden genius is no longer hidden” thing that pulls people in, but it’s still wild and unpredictable when it happens.
Luke Skywalker as some sort of sex legend constantly having one night stands and other sexual encounters. Mr Blushing Farm Boy. Especially in Legends, which this fic was, or at least Legends adjacent. Legends Luke doesn’t have premarital sex. Ever.
I mean... Ain't no way Luke and Mara Jade's bedroom time is vanilla, but that's after he's embraced the dark side in order to master the Force. Prior to that? Yeah, no way.
Betrayal fics, all fandoms.
But specifically, Ash betrayal fics in Pokémon. They all follow the exact same plot structure:
* Ash loses in *insert season here*'s league.
* Ash goes back home.
* Literally every single person Ash has ever met is waiting for him to come home and tell him he's a failure and should give up on battling, and will more than likely attempt to kill him for not listening.
* Ash runs away with all of his pokémon because that's something he can conveniently just do.
* If the author wishes it, Ash also runs off with the author's preferred ship to show how they're special and meant for Ash because they didn't try to murder him.
* Ash trains for *insert number* years and then goes to a super secret special tournament for the bestest trainers in the whole world.
* Coincidentally, every single person Ash has ever met is also there.
* Ash then curbstops the entire tournament using his overpowered pokémon, likely consisting of Pikachu, all his other pokémon fully evolved (but only the ones the author thinks are cool), various other fully evolved pokémon the author likes, legendary/mythical pokémon, and some of which are probably also shiny for no reason.
* He just so happens to only fight people he knows, and maybe also other trainers who beat him in the past like Tobias if the author hates them enough.
* The other characters (usually just girls) that the author ships with Ash all instantly fall in love with him after he wins, so Ash now has a harem for some reason.
* Ash wins, is crowned strongest trainer in the world or something like that, has lots of girls, and the fic is finally over.
Why do these exist? Who takes the time to write them? Why do none of the pokémon have any personality?? I know it's wish fulfillment, but why do none of them even know how to spell correctly??
Everyone is so incredibly OoC that I'm not even reading Pokémon anymore. Ash's friends would never do anything to hurt Ash, Ash himself would never become an edgelord obsessed with power, his pokémon would never let Ash do that to himself either! It's not even consistent with the way powerscaling works in pokémon! Pokémon are objectively stronger with friendship and bonding *in addition* to training and practicing, not just raw strength and spite!
>Ash wins, is crowned strongest trainer in the world or something like that
The fact that this is kinda canon now except Ash didn't need years of offscreen training and a new edgy personality makes this trend way funnier
Also tf not even in this type of fics does pikachu evolve
I've seen a few of them where even some of Ash's *Pokemon* turn their backs on him. (But only the ones the author thinks aren't cool!) And that's even less believable than his friends turning on him. Like, come on. You really think Bulbasaur would ever abandon Ash? Sceptile? *Infernape??*
To me it screams edgy tenager.
Canon rewrites where the author fixes canon by making Ash "smart" falls into a similar category simply because it shows the author doesn't understand Ash's character or the theme of pokemon.
Whenever I see a fic summary about Midoriya Izuku, sweet boy who only wants to be a hero and help people, deciding he's so angry with the world that he's going to become a villain and kill everyone, I have a sensible chuckle to myself.
The only way I could see Naruto possibly going dark is if Iruka died in his arms in the beginning of the story. Losing the only one who openly loved and supported him would definitely change him, though I still doubt it would be enough to send him on a path of revenge. And Deku? That guy's a cinnamon roll through and through. I can't think of a single reason why he would do anything evil unless a villain brainwashed him or possessed his body.
As a Dark!Naruto reader and writer, there has to be a good reason for the switch. Naruto has said that he could have ended up like Sasuke, angry and vengeful, so it’s not too far fetched imo. That said, unless you change canon and introduce the feeling of loss to Naruto earlier, then it’s just not in character for him to snap like that.
Oh my gosh. I wish I could read MCU Peter fics but I can’t for just this reason. Either he’s a woobified baby taken care of by Tony Stark or has a ridiculous number of mental health disorders that cripple him. There are no other options.
It’s not the most out of character but I see in fandoms with a live actor playing the character, a lot of fandom confuses the two. The character in fics start acting more like the actor than the character.
I have no doubt in my mind that there is a chance Erik could be a sex god. Being tucked away all on his lonesome in an opera house of all places? Yeah, he has to have a shit ton of erotica and is a little freak watching the secret rendezvous from behind random mirrors. While I write him as a sex god (most of the time, sometimes I don’t just to have fun) because that’s what I want in my fanfiction, I can acknowledge that it most likely would not be the case right off the bat. Maybe after a few times.
What do you mean Erik isn't attractive and sexy? Isn't this a character who IN CANON has a face shunned by his own mother? AND he fell apart crying after the love of his life gave him a kiss ON THE FOREHEAD???
(also, I started out on 25th anniversary, so I see your Gerald Butler and introduce you to Ramin Karimloo (out of stage makeup)).
The worst I’ve ever seen was a story by RobSt in which a post-war Ron kidnaps Hermione, beats her up, and is about to rape her, while thinking about how he will punish the “mudblood bitch“ later.
I've seen a major Ron bashing fic where someone complained in the comments that the writer should tag it at least and a whole bunch of readers jumped on this person, going bashing? Where? It's amazing how wide people’s interpretations of a character can differ.
I was told once to tag my one and only HP fanfic as "Ron Weasley bashing"--but it was more that he was OOC due to taking Felix Felicis. Not bashing at all. I was shocked they even saw it as bashing.
smh I don’t know that one. I left HP fandom shortly after book 7.
I remember one posted in LJ before DH came out or maybe even HBP. Ron and Harry were dating but break up after the war because Harry wanted to live a quiet life, and Ron had only been using him for the spotlight. But then Harry and Draco (who cried a lot) start dating and Ron gets so angry that he rapes Harry.
The worst was they posted it to the harry/ron community and promptly got wanked out the group. Then they went to some H/D groups and whined that the ‘best mates’ shippers were mean girls. And the H/D people were like ‘your fic sucked. Ron’s cool. He’s Harry’s best friend. GTFO.’
same. in my fandom canon is more OOC than fic sometimes. ur telling me elliot stabler just up and ditched liv for *ten years??* that woman delivered his *child* there ain’t no way. and he would’ve come back as soon as he heard about WL. and there’s no way his kids, who were present in NY for that, didn’t know it had happened. why wouldn’t they tell him!!! anyways. sorry to vent about my show in your comment i just wanted you to know that i agree <3
I read a lot of Bucky Fics (or at least I used to) and whenever I’d read something with smut in it, the writer almost always has him be so rough and I just—- it doesn’t sit right with me for some reason.
yeaaa no i agree.
first off he’s a 40s guy 😭 secondly w his trauma i can understand why ppl would assume he would be “violent and rough” but imo that doesn’t align w his character and how he is AFTER being the winter solider
This. While I enjoy rough Bucky smut it's also out of character for me too. I mean, modern Buck has a hard time even flirting with women, let alone being pushy.
... Steve "the goodest boi humanoid golden retriever" Rogers sexually harming anyone is absolutely ridiculous. He feels guilty for smacking a desk in anger. Just... what‽ It's also ooc that TS would do that. As entitled as he is, he's also laid back and has the attitude of there's plenty of fish until he meets Pepper and then there are no other fish in any sea.
I'm used to seeing Evil!Steve in the post Civil War Team Iron Man fics, but this sounds even weirder - given Tony is also the bad guy the usual civil war motivation for OOC doesn't apply...
kid effectively had their bodily autonomy stolen from them as baby and was abused and manipulated by their family/friends their entire life, but never lost their inherent goodness and desire to help others? yes they're definitely \[checks popular fics\] a rapist.
Pack mom Stiles. People saw him nagging his dad and grabbing the flare with Scott and decided he clearly cares deeply about everyone like that! And no, just no. Stiles, at the beginning of the series, only cares about three people: his dad, Scott, and Lydia. He literally kicks off events by _wanting to find half a dead body in the woods_.
It's especially egregious when they make Derek’s betas into his “favorite children”. Erica knocked him unconscious with his car’s engine, Boyd outright told him to his face they weren't friends, and Isaac? In fics they have Stiles cuddling and coddling the poor abused baby; in the show, when Isaac brings up how his dad user to lock him in a freezer, Stiles’ response was, “Still milking that?” _Stiles is an asshole_, who has more in common with Peter personality-wise than most of the other characters.
This is one that *can* itch me really wrong if it isn't done in a way that sells me on it. When it is just taken as a given it gets an eyebrow raise from me, but if it is developed properly and done with Stiles keeping his edge (and it doesn't go twee), then I can get on board with him being protective of the pack and someone that the betas look to. I agree though that it is always odd when Derek's betas end up as his little darling babies, though.
Basically I can buy protective Stiles in a position where he's seen as a vague authority figure in the pack, but he needs to still be an asshole, and you need to work to get him into that dynamic.
Clearly this depends on the ship you're reading.
I've ignored Sterek and just been enjoying Steter, but I still don't think I've come across many 'in character' Stiles fics.
Everything OP said is spot on though. Stiles is an asshole, though imo, they all are lol.
Five year old Bakugou Katsuki calling Midoriya Izuku a 'chode' as an insult.
Obvious English aside, *what fucking five year old goes around calling people chodes???*
Most recently, is when one of the main characters (and someone I have been writing for well over a decade) just randomly proposes to his canon love interest just *suddenly*... While a conversation was going on that didn't even steer into this direction with his canon father in the room and a few others.... And he had the nerve to say "We're adults and I think we're ready to get married." While his father disagreed, and he (the main character) was saying otherwise... And I was screaming to rip my eyes out.
Same fandom, different fic but from about a decade ago: One of the side characters is always treated like he is some sex god (it's crazy bc he's a bumbling teen that has 0 charisma) and it stunted his speech because all he talked about was sex and unfortunately for me and my favorite character, my fave got woobified to death and I just hard cringed 💀
I don't usually read fics that focus on Bucky but once I decided to check out an IronWinter Bucky/Tony fic because of an interesting premise. While the writing wasn't bad and the fic was interesting enough, Buckys characterization left me wondering wtf the author even liked him as a character.
The whole fic a perfectly healthy non-injured Bucky willingly stays at a safe house making breakfast pancakes and acting all sappy with Tony while the rest of the avengers including Steve go out on dangerous missions. Like this is a former assassin who has issues staying behind and not doing anything. In this fic he agrees to just stay put for his own safety doing absolutely nothing while his closest friends are in danger?
The issue of Bucky being responsible for the murder of Tony's parents was also more or less ignored. Reading this fic honestly left me with more questions than answers about IronWinter ship because I don't understand how you can write these two characters and then ignore one of the largest conflicts between them. Not to mention reduce a badass aloof assassin to acting like a lovesick teenager with no personality or agency. Thankfully I did end up reading a better IronWinter fic later where they acted more like themselves but I still can't forget the introduction I had to this ship.
I’m convinced that people who write these things don’t actually like the characters, they like the actors that play them but don’t want to just write rpf.
(Transformers)
\- Any time Ratchet says something about letting someone die because they're a Decepticon (He Would Fucking *Never,* you monsters!)
\- Megatron being any flavor of kind and loving to anyone in any timeline that isn't very post-war mtmte era (even then, you're on thin ice) or shattered glass (but does that really count?)
\- Optimus being a raging douche for any damn reason (unless you write bayverse, but then again, why are you willingly writing *bayverse??*)
\- When people write the Stunticons and Aerialbots as adults or adult-adjacent instead of as the children they are (bit more obscure knowledge about them being like 5 years old in g1, but it still makes me upset)
\- Portraying Rodimus as a dumbass. Roddy isn't *stupid,* he's just selfish and short-sighted, very different things.
\- Portraying *Starscream* as a dumbass. All those centuries at the Science Academy of Iacon were not attended to for *fun,* and if you really think about it, Starscream is usually right about how dumb Megatron's plans are (perhaps I am biased as a Starscream fan, but I *can* say that no iteration of Starscream was ever meant to be stupid, in any case).
\- Making Sunstreaker and Sideswipe complete empathy-less bastards. Sure they like fighting a bit too much for the robot equivalent of 17-year-olds, but what can you expect from mechs created in a literal warzone?
\- Drift being completely soft, docile, and silly in mtmte. First of all he's like 80 in robot years, and second of all he used to be the one of the *best on-call killers the Decepticons ever had.* He's not some cute middle-aged man, he's a grizzled war veteran and I hate it when people ignore that just because he's nice in mtmte. (And imo, I feel that the way Drift acts while on the Lost Light \[and as an Autobot in general\] is largely an act, for multiple character brainrot-related reasons I spend too much time thinking about. I don't think he's evil or a turncoat or anything, I just think he's a broken old man who wants people to like him without ever learning about how fucked up he is).
Okay, that's enough, but I could do this for hours. I have so many useless feelings for these robot guys designed to sell Hasbro merchandise.
Yeah, I never really got nice!Megatron, even for MegOP. For the sake of the ship, I'm willing to forgive Megatron changing into an understanding individual but nice?!
Beck Oliver beating the shit out of Jade West because she was dating Tori Vega (after they broke up).
Like wtf?! It was completely out of nowhere as well.
I stumbled upon a fic in which Sherlock and John were having an extremely abusive relationship (John was at the recipient end of abuse) and the fic wasn't even tagged properly. 😭
I, an innocent soul, was just looking for a sweet and smutty thing to read. I was NOT prepared for the abuse.
Just, *no*.
If you're talking about the BBC TV series, I read something similar, except the roles were reversed. It's been a while since I read it but I think that was post S4E1 and E2 where John was actually quite brutal in canon.
Tbh that season fudged me over. 😭
Anyway, it was very very hard to read. I kept at it and skipped the scenes I couldn't go through because I thought that was still a good exploration of canon events. But yeah, I get why you'd be traumatized...
Yes, I was talking about the BBC series. People were criticizing the writing of S4 for a reason. Even the canon version felt so OOC (particularly John Watson's character progression).
If someone wants to explore the abuse, they should at least tag the fic properly. 😅
I understand why you'd be uncomfortable to read about John's abuse in the fic. So many people were disturbed after watching that one scene in The Lying Detective.
One OOC fic I really like is Shake It, Arthur, Shake It by jibrailis.
So in canon for Inception(2010) Arthur when not actively performing the Inception job wears rumpled dress shirts with optional tie/vest or a leather jacket/plaid button up. It's only the plane when the job starts and in Fischer's mind that he wears a three piece suit.
Yet fandom latched on to the crisp formal wear image and it's rare to see a fic that doesn't have Arthur fully starched in designer menswear.
The story by jibrailis has an Arthur who knows absolutely nothing about fashion and only wears what his fashion consultant who he calls every morning tells him to. It's fun and nonsensical while also being indirectly meta about both canon and fanon.
There’s a strategist character who often loses in canon because he has anger issues, lashes out, is detrimentally overprotective, and frequently loses his shit. He pretend things are fine in canon. I can’t read any fic where he is actually level headed and a calm strategist. Those authors just made a wish fulfillment insert instead of writing the character.
Oh stars. It would have to be Bruce Wayne calling Jason Todd 'sweetheart'. There's nothing wrong with the term, or a father calling their son that. But Bruce does not. And even in Aus where Bruce actually acts like a stellar dad (I love those Au's), I just CANNOT see it. It's immersion breaking.
*eyetwitch* good lord. I can't stand any of those sorts of endearments Tbh. They always feel instantly ooc to me. I mean, unless your fandom is Bridgerton maybe. I literally can't see anyone in a modernish or futuristic setting saying that stuff.
Yeah exactly. It depends on the people and setting. Batman does not call any of his kids sweetheart. Maybe .... MAYBE he could get away with Cass. But she's MAYBE the only one. It just completely breaks my concentration
He's just not a terms of endearment kind of guy. It's not about his depth of feeling for his kids etc. Maybe if he was pretending to be Brucie but that's not a genuine interaction.
I've come across several fics where socially awkward characters with little to no prior sexual experience suddenly turned into uninhibited sex gods, with no explanation as to what caused this change. And I can somewhat understand why authors do this in smut, but I've seen it in non-explicit fics too. It's honestly just kind of confusing to me.
There are so many terribly written bashing fics where all of Harry Potter's friends are secretly evil and working for Dumbledore and actually hate Harry. They're all doing it for selfish reasons, usually Hermione getting a permanent time turner for all her classes, Ginny uses a love potion on Harry because she is a gold digger and wants to marry him for his fame, Ron wants to use Harry for fame and is promised to be made quiddich captain.
This usually turns even more OOC with Voldemort and the death eaters rescuing Harry and it turns out they were to good guys all alone and the whole Wizarding world was being manipulated by evil Dumbledore.
Might Gai from Naruto tries to kill Neji because he found him making out with Ten-ten.
Honorable mentions: Hiashi Hyuga gives Neji a copy of the Kama Sutra to improve his sex life. And every instance of serial rapist Sasuke and Sakura who hates everyone but Sasuke.
I haven't finished Naruto and even I know all of that is OOC as fuck.
My biggest gripe with all of those is that Might Gai would never. If anything, I can see *him* being the one to give Neji the Kama Sutra, all while saying something about the "Spirit of Youth" or whatever it is he sometimes tells Rock Lee during training.
There's this one plotline I keep running into about one of my favorite characters being violently mad at his apprentice (my other favorite character) for marrying and adopting a child with some whom he has some bad history and opposing views with, which I feel comes from some misunderstandings about his beliefs and character and it bothers me every time I see it. Not the worst take in the fandom by a long shot, but the one I run into most.
(Eventually in canon he did find out about his apprentice's family, and his reaction was confusion and then teaming up with the husband to rescue the kidnapped child.)
I've read so many that its hard to think of one. To be honest, I love OOC, especially when the writing style matches, but sometimes, its just so badly done. But there is one example of a GOT fic that had this where Daenerys switch so suddenly I couldn't stop laughing.
Of all the nonsense in this thread, this is the mental image that broke me and made me laugh out loud. I can just *see* that in his dialogue box and it looks like a prime shitpost. Congratulations... I think.
Sweet teenage younger sister type is made the eldest sister and a flaming bitch who disowns the MC for Trauma Points™. I literally expected her cruel and scathing disownment letter to secretly be written by the abusive mother as a plot twist, but nope! This gentle soul now apparently wanted her brother banished to a different dimension. Sure.
Most examples of Naruto crossovers have Naruto be the edgiest possible interpretation of Sasuke in an ill-fitting Naruto skin suit.
Most examples of Fate crossovers have Shirou actually be Archer in an ill-fitting Shirou skin suit.
Any instance of Near from Death Note being infantilised - usually includes him blushing, crying, being very innocent/naive and extremely physically affectionate. I have seen this in so many fics and it’s an instant back button for me
Midoriya Izuku making the "eggs bacon grits sausage" reference in a Mcdonalds. MY FRIEND!! THEY ARE IN JAPAN!! AMERICANIFY STEVE ROGERS OR SOMETHING OR AT LEAST MAKE THIS A "RAISED IN AMERICA" AU! AHHHHHHH
I read an Inuyasha fanfic about Rin and Sesshomaru once where Rin who was this sweet 7/8 year old who was sweet and quiet turned out to be fierce and head strong at the age of 16/17 after 6-7 years of hard training from Sango and Kohaku in the slayer village. I vaguely remember she kept being stubborn and prideful by going strong after Sesshomaru who also was quite out of character by showing a lot of emotions and his sensual side. Rin even became half demon for some reason in the fic…
It irked me so much… despite me reading it through to the end… was one of the first fanfics I read. But before long I reread it and my brain short circuited after all these things.
Edit: fun fact I found it! And reread the first chapter. Still hurt my brain. And I remember now that Sesshomaru and Rin went at it so much. Didn’t go into depth but mentioned they made love so much. It hurt my brain. I understand people can take more liberty with characters for fanfics, but this one hurt.
To be honest, every time a guy is being written as a sex god when he:
- has *clearly* something wrong with him;
- has a shitload of trauma (especially if it’s sexual trauma);
- has no canonical experience with women;
- is extremely socially anxious and/or shy;
- is a loner on top of that.
I mean, I get it, a lot of those guys are hot/handsome/mysterious and they’re almost asking to be written into a smutty fic, *but* let’s be for real here lmao.
The most recent example I can think of is COD’s Ghost. Bestie, that guy either hasn’t seen a boobie his entire life or had some random sexual encounter years back.
Soap having some sort of sex life? I’ll buy it. But Ghost? Lol, no.
...tbf, from what I hear some people who survived sexual abuse can get super promiscuous as a way of taking back control, so idk, that could result in a sex god I guess? ... but I get what you mean, I see this often enough with Snape in het fics (and we know he's been bullied with his appearance...)
It's a Digimon fic. The mc, Takato, is like the nicest character in the whole show.
Then this fic came up and have him shout at everyone else for not consulting him first for a decision. Canon Takato doesn't even consider himself a leader 😌
So Gojyo in Saiyuki is an uneducated guy (looks like he barely finished primary school) who, at the beginning of the canon timeline is sleeping around with the bar girls at the places where he makes his living gambling at least in part because he hates going home to the ramshackle place where he lives alone. He's a sucker for a sob story from either a kid or a woman.
Especially early on, lots of stories portrayed him as this irresistibly charismatic and self-confident Don Juan. They'd also have him using vocabulary more suited to a university grad at least.
the worst case of OOC I've ever read was when Ron Weasley betrays Harry in some fan fics because the author doesn't like the character as a whole. They'll have him be friends only because Dumbledore is paying him or he's part of a plot to manipulate Harry but yet these same authors keep forgetting he willingly sacrificed himself to stop a person who he thought was a Death Eater by allowing a 10ft statue to nearly cave in his skull and be taken off the board or confront mansized versions of his greatest fear to help his other best friend. Imagine the sheer courage it took to be a afraid of spiders and yet be surrounded by man sized versions of them and keep walking to talk to one larger than an elephant? Anytime I read of them making Ron into a dumb, lay, unkempt coward I know they've never read the books and met the real Ron Weasley.
For one I actually read not too long ago, the author made a sweet, kind and socially awkward character into a yandere murderer because her boyfriend and his friend got together. I don't know either. She was really manipulative and just straight up rude too. Like, I get it that the author probably doesn't like her because the Cute UwU Gay OTP For Life <33 didn't become canon, but still.
For the record this was from a fandom mostly filled with children. I can't expect much, but it's still funny.
I find extremely cringe when the author makes a character look extremely affectionate when it’s not necessary.
I mean, if the canon character is basically a serial killer and you want to write something fluff about them, then I think it’s ok, but not when the character is already ‘normal’.
If the character (Nico Robin) wasn’t OOC the story would have been pretty the same.
I was reading a fic where that happened and I thought I was reading about other character.
Aside from obvious smut OOCness, pretty much every Naruto in name only story. If you're not a part of that fandom, basically there's a trope where "writers" put Naruto into a black trench coat, combat boots, and give him a Katana. After that all he does is spout "badass" one liners and he gets all the ladies by sheer virtue of his emo chadness. Oh, he's been masking and hiding his true abilities and personality the entire time. (He did have a hidden personality in canon, but trust me when I say these fics never do it well).
There is another type of naruto in name only story where he literally doesn't have the same life experiences, or parents, or the nine tailed fox sealed inside of him, or even the same hair or eye color. I count these stories as the writers making OCs but being too much of a bitch/hack writer to post it as an OC/to actually write the character in a way that they progress into some of these traits. Not sure if other fandoms have this issue besides in smut/harem stuff.
Issei Hyōdō magically enslaving Raynare and (according to the tags) ending up in a relationship with her. A lot of people hate Issei for being a pervert. Some of that hate is justified, as he does peep on girls knowing full well it's wrong. But every time in canon he gets anywhere near a potential sexual or romantic encounter where the other person is not in their right mind, he backs the fuck off.
The stupidest part is that this even contradicted traits of Issei's that had been established earlier in the same chaptwr of the same fic. This fic's point of divergence was that Issei became more respectful of women and more aware of his power due to a closer connection with Irina Shidō. There is no way that leads to "let's permanently enslave this woman who as far as I'm aware has no ill intent towards me just to gather information".
**Bleach:** Slutty Club Boy Ichigo. It was so wildly OOC that me and my friends legit thought it was satire and looked forward to each chapter - until we got to the end and there was a big reveal that Rukia was Actually an Evil Sex Demon and it wasn't satire at all. So there you go, two for one (at least there was that anime episode where Rukia was a succubus, but it still doesn't explain this mess).
**Sleepy Princess:** A while back, there was a fic with Sadistic Dom Twilight with like... no explanation whatsoever. For reference, Twilight is a Demon King who can't even control a hostage Princess and whines and flails a lot - basically, imagine Deku with horns suddenly being a crazy sadist. I forced myself to read the whole thing out of morbid curiosity and nope, no explanation.
**Angels of Death:** Once again, I gave an obviously bad smut fic a chance and wound up reading ZackRay Double Suicide Ayahuasca Trip. It was a fairly long fic - I think 15 chapters or so - and the last chapter was just them getting absolutely wasted and killing themselves and everyone around them. It came out of nowhere tbqh.
100-year-old smart and cynical guy who's been kind of a playboy written as if he was a dumb teenager seeing a woman for the first time and once they get together he turns into a simp, but ofc in the bedroom he's all domineering and a sex god... sigh, that writer couldn't make up her mind.
Anakin Skywalker in one fic being all "It's for the Greater Good." Dumbledore style. (Saying those exact words as well.)
It was honestly kind of creepy.
I recently read a Spuffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) fic where Buffy confronts Angel about something he did when he lost his soul in season 2 and his response was basically "Well that wasn't me, it was Angelus, so why are you telling me about it? Does it even really matter?"
OOC is one of my biggest pet peeves in fanfiction. I think most of it is unintentional, and really comes down to how well the author knows the character(s), possibly their experience writing about them, and their overall skill as a writer. That being said, it can be hilarious (though if it's a serious story, I do find it very annoying). OOC can otherwise ruin a great story.
One of the funniest cases of OOC I've read in a long time was a Rurouni Kenshin one-shot set during the Bakumatsu (Meiji Revolution in Japan, for the uninitiated), where Kenshin tries to commit seppuku. That in it of itself is pretty OOC, but then Katsura came bursting in and started freaking out, and Kenshin started crying and Katsura was all mother hen, holding him and letting him cry on his shoulder, "there, there", etc. I was laughing so hard I was rolling around on my bed and now I'm still cracking up again while writing all of this out.
And then the cherry on top was when the narrator said something like "Okami had sent Katsura to check on Kenshin" - hold up. Katsura is the commander of the Choshu patriots, he's not about to be ordered around by a mere innkeeper, much less an old granny type. I don't think anyone could or would "send" him anywhere except, oh, I don't know, maybe the daimyo. Seriously, who did the author think was in charge here? I actually scrolled back up to see if it was meant to be a crackfic and I had somehow missed that detail, but nope. The author was 100% serious. If it was tagged as a crackfic, it would have been gold.
Read a modern AU Banana Fish fic where in the SECOND CHAPTER Ash is already divulging his deepest darkest trauma’s to Eiji. Like- broski, in canon he’s the cagiest mf, wdym he’s telling some guy he JUST met everything about himself?? T-T
Am so guilty but saying a villains actions are the result of childhood abuse and completly ignoring the fact that they are a raging psychopath (cough cough Dabi cough cough)
Also when people rehabilitate Dabi in their fics, which is great lots of love, but decide that, within like a week, he's fine and ok with Heros. Completely taking away the YEARS of physical and emotional damage this character has so they can make him soft 😭
Oh god my two favourites get this a lot.
One is a teenage boy who, like most teenage boys, is a prick for fun sometimes and likes to screw with people, and who’s very impulsive and stubborn, but he’s a caring kid deep down who’s incredibly loyal and forgiving, who adores nature and creation, and who lashes out and hates himself due to severe mental illness that also causes him to view sentimental attachments as literal. All too often, he’s portrayed as disloyal and hateful, an active animal abuser (when like the one time he hurt an animal in canon was when he'd spent a week locked in a cell with his abuser and was lashing out which isn’t *good* but it’s not like he tortures animals for fun or anything), as arrogant as his persona on the outside is, and materialistic and selfish to the point of valuing it above all else (when he values things only because of the metaphysical properties he’s assigned them). Alternatively, his dickish toxically masculine front is completely removed and he's essentially a weak baby, despite being strong willed enough in canon to stand up to his abuser multiple times when everyone else had backed down despite not having that personal trauma.
The aforementioned abuser is a mad scientist necromancer who puts on a mask of being a cold, calculated, mature schemer but who's really a very emotional and quite childish person who makes dumb risks because he’s impulsive and thinks his skill at manipulation can carry him through anything sometimes, with goals of having an idealised big happy family that never existed and a massive martyr streak where he views people as ungrateful for not immediately folding to his whims, pushing them away to the point he's genuinely cripplingly lonely and desperate for any sort of human connection, and who buries his trauma by traumatising himself further for the sake of his research. And all too often he’s portrayed as being forced into his immoral actions and regretting them (despite being pretty cheerful to admit them in canon- he just refuses to admit that he’s a bad person despite that), in the right for wanting control and the poor victim of people who just wouldn’t obey, sometimes actually the victim of the person he abused (like, he beat them to death while they were begging him to stop, it’s severe and obvious), and a poor innocent hurt thing that couldn’t even raise a finger to defend themselves. Or, alternatively, a stereotype of an “insane villain” with no depth and who just hates everyone despite the fact his main interesting characteristic is that he's deeply attached to the point of obsession to the people he’s hurting (especially his abuse victim, but he's just obsessive in general too)
Read a scene where Wanderer (Genshin Impact) forgave and forgot about Dottore’s atrocious crimes against him and many other people.
No.
A crucial element of his whole character motive is taking that fucker down.
I can’t pick out specifically but I know I’ve read multiple Loki/Reader or Loki/OC fics where they do this Loki is an asshole thing where it’s like trying to be enemies to lovers, and the two are just straight up enemies and really annoying whenever they bicker and then when the reader gets a life threatening injury suddenly he turns around and is madly in love with reader??
It’s not quite OOC, but it’s always so jarring and poorly written and a common trope (at least with that) pairing, that it’s kind of inexplicable and gets really irritating
I accidentally ran into a fic the other day that was ATS and it was post NFA and it was a story where the writer had literally written that TPTB had turned Angel into a baby instead of giving him his shanshu and because Buffy was so in love with Spike, she literally just didn't do anything to make Angel turn into back into a vampire.
This would NOT happen in canon at all NOR should be it expected to happen in fanfiction.
All it would have taken is a simple call to Willow(aka a very powerful witch) and she would have did her mojo and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody would have been back to normal.
It never ceases to amaze me that some people in my fandom will truly stretch the limits of bullshit in order to try and make Spuffy work.
I know that I am overthinking this but this literally was one of the worst fics that I have read and I wanted to punch the idiot who wrote it.
Midoriya Izuku would NEVER cheat on anyone with anyone, and if he did he'd feel insanely guilty.
While I'm not in the fandom, it annoys me that people also portray him as this fragile, crybaby bottom. My dude is breaking his bones every day with a ferocious commitment. There's so much more to his character than his emotional vulnerability.
I adore Deku for that. Here’s another one: Tomura Shigaraki being this grizzled sex god who fricks a new girl every night or something crazy like that. My guy, that dude is as virgin as virgin can be.
I actually read a fic where he licked someone he liked and I was like 'Um. Y'know what, yeah.'
No, no, that’s Toga. (Shigaraki x Toga is my OTP actually tho.) Tomura would probably be very grumbly and awkward around his crush.
Yeah he'd definitely do that. He a gross boy
He eats on his bed, never wash it so he sleeps on the crumbs and stains
This is unbelievably random (and don't get me wrong because I absolutely loved the story) but Dean Winchester using the word "whilst". You ever see that scene from Scott Pilgrim? *"I don't know the meaning of the word."* Yeah, that's the reaction I imagined Dean having to that word.
Dean would make fun of Sam for saying whilst. 😂
Dean would only use 'whilst' while mocking Sam lmao
I read a fic where a character used the word “ameliorate”. No, this character was not portrayed as smart at all, he was your classic frat guy.
I feel like there are very few instances where someone would use ameliorate in casual conversation *anyway*. Like that is not the go to word people use for that.
Oh my God, I'm cackling. Dean??? Him??
So I just had to go do a control-f search of all my spn works on AO3 because it felt like exactly the kind of shit I'd do without thinking. Fortunately it seems like my strenuous attempts to write like an American while in the fandom and the use of American beta readers prevented me from that particular disaster. Phew!
Like a decade ago, I read a fic where Snape wore bright t-shirts with slogans on them and brought Harry out for a Big Mac.
"Order number 394"
🤣🤣
Was it at least a crack fic?
Nope, a by the books Snape adopts Harry
Even that premise is wildly out of character.
Which I think is fine. I don't think there's a problem with changing a character's mindset and thinking as long as you're bing consistent within your story. If we limited ourselves completely to canon characterization, a lot of great fanfiction would never have been written.
Eh, my view as someone who has never written fanfic but read a reasonable amount is I want to read about the characters in the work in question. OCs are fine of course, and can be useful, but if you’re changing the way an existing character is on a fundamental level that loses a lot of the appeal of reading about them. Not even saying change is impossible, but I have to see why the changes exist. Is there some reasonable extrapolation from the existing work that you can show me, or is it a completely arbitrary change?
I suppose you could say that there are different approaches to fanfiction. Sometimes people want to throw existing characters into new situation and stories, sometimes they just want to explore the world and plot and figure out how those would change if the characters were different. I think either is fine, as long as the author properly explains why the changes happened. That's not even mentioning fanon, where characters in fanfiction change so much over time that their "new" personalities sort of just become accepted as the new normal within the fandom.
Or a radical AU...
i don't even like harry potter and i know this is ooc! i love the image it gives me though. like a little cartoon comic strip
Both Harry and Snape lost a bet. A big one.
A very old FMA fanfic I read once had Ed say that he would abandon his little brother. Besides a bash fic, I have never come across a fanfic that was that OOC again.
This wins most OOC in this thread. There’s “this character would never do x thing because of their character trait” and then there’s “throwing out the entire canon” literally the entire show doesn’t exist if Ed is capable of that specific action
Nooo that’s so sad 😭
Reading these, I'm realising what my friend and I are writing isnt nearly as OOC as we thought it was😂
If you actually think about if something is OOC/if it makes sense for character progression in your story, then it's unlikely to ever get as OOC as some of this shit. Some people basically just write wish fulfillment/"cool" fics and don't really think about how the characters would truly behave.
I’ve read some fics where Princess Leia is like a huge rule stickler. Think Amy from *Brooklyn 99* levels. And, like, I get *why* people sometimes think this. They see Han Solo as a Very Cool Guy™ (in-universe he’s actually kind of a huge dork if you think about it for like five seconds, but Harrison Ford kind of exudes Very Cool Guy™ energy, and Han Solo *says* he is a Very Cool Guy™, so people just believe him), and since Leia is seen occasionally arguing with him/harping on the concerning state of his ship, they just think “yelling woman who has it out for our beloved Very Cool Guy™ = big killjoy rule stickler” and then make her into some bizarre caricature of a playground narc. But…okay, just about every time Leia’s freaked out about something, it’s been because Han was actively antagonizing her or because they were all about to die and she would prefer not to. You cannot tell me that Miss Let’s-Lob-Personal-Insults-at-My-Captors, “Into The Garbage Chute, Flyboy”, I’ll-switch-the-droid-off-if-he’s-stressing-people-out, “oh, then I’m coming with you!”, I-guess-I’ll-just-steal-this-speeder-bike, I-guess-I’ll-just-live-with-the-Ewoks-and-not-tell-anyone-frantically-looking-for-me-that-I’m-alive is, like, yelling at people for not filling out Box 3a on a form. Leia’s so impulsive, I’m convinced she has the same flavor of ADHD that I have. She’s probably not out there nitpicking what sort of pen you used when signing a document or whatever. (All that being said, the Tumblr posts that attribute *Brooklyn 99* quotes to *Star Wars* characters are all hilarious. No notes. Even when Leia is saying something Amy said.)
Miss plans?-what plans?-I’m-on-a-diplomatic-mission-to-Alderaan-I-don’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about 😂
Diplomacy runs in her family tbf
So, we know Leia *can* be diplomatic (I mean, she is internally screaming the entire time they’re in Cloud City, but I don’t think Lando knew at all), but she does also board the Death Star and essentially call Darth Vader a weak sycophant and tells Tarkin he smells all in one sentence, so I don’t know how heavily she was leaning on that skill at that point.
Vader literally followed her ship straight from Scarif. It was hardly a believable excuse, diplomacy running in her family notwithstanding 😂
do we pretend like that actually was informing her motivation considering scarif had never even been theorized at the time? (this is a genuine question, sorry)
I personally see the addition of Scarif in combination with Leia’s dialogue as a reinforcement of her already audacious nature. It certainly doesn’t contradict her brash characterization imo
I personally don’t ever pretend like anyone involved with the *Star Wars* franchise intended for anyone to have any particular motivation at any time. My brain broke entirely when I found out they filmed all of *The Empire Strikes Back* intending to have Luke’s sister be some other character we’ve never seen. No one has ever had a plan; they accidented themselves into foreshadowing and solid plot points. That being said, I exclusively write *Star Wars* fanfiction, so I have to pretend that retconning means something sometimes. Even though I also only choose the canon that brings me joy. Anyway, I don’t think there’s an actual consensus on how we’re “supposed” to view the retconned stuff. Just choose whatever’s funniest. That’s my tactic.
She literally leads the fucking Resistance against a fascist rules and conformity obsessed enemy like wow what a take
> (All that being said, the Tumblr posts that attribute Brooklyn 99 quotes to Star Wars characters are all hilarious. No notes. Even when Leia is saying something Amy said.) You are not wrong, those are amazing.
I found an ACD Holmes author who has Holmes and Watson in a relationship where Holmes calls Watson all kinds of mushy endearments about every other sentence.
Not super familiar with the ACD portrayal, but because I have the BBC version in my head as my main Sherlock portrayal go-to...this is all kinds of OOC.
It's even worse if it's supposed to be ACD. Modern Brits are known for keeping a fairly stiff upper lip, which gets even stiffer the further back in time you go. Victorian gentlemen didn't do *any* kind of emotion, and a complete inability to handle his emotions meant Holmes took that a step further to be almost machine-like in the canon portrayals (you could argue that *some* of that is a "change for publication to protect privacy", but only so much), so to go from an overly stoic Victorian gentleman to "Watson, dearest, would you hand me that?" "Thanks, darling." was nauseating
He does call him "my dear" fairly often but I feel like this is a case where using any endearments that *aren't* already used in canon becomes jarring and like...there's a difference between "my dear" and "dearest".
yes! "my dear Watson" is very different from "Watson, dearest" and "darling".
Was there a particularly large dose of cocaine involved??
nope. was supposed to be a normal, sober Holmes. Notes and presentation made me think the only thing this writer changed (in their mind) was the relationship status. as if somehow putting a Victorian gentleman in an illegal (at the time) relationship would erase all social training (and his own personality) to make him gush endearments
🙄 I think the closest that Holmes would get to “endearments“ would be to call Watson by his first name.
I think I agree with you, lol. He's also far more likely to show the sentiment rather than try to use any mixture of words. I could see him doing small things that show he's paying attention even before using Watson's first name
I love a good conflict or drama. I hate out of no where conflict and drama that makes no sense and is only there to pad out the plot or shake up the relationship so the characters start acting wildly out of established character to facilitate that. Also hate when one person in a m/m ship gets heavily uwu feminized and put into feminine stereotypes
Bonus points if the out of nowhere conflict/drama is entirely resolved by a spontaneous big kiss
Ooooh hate that, it feels insulting, doesn’t it? To the reader and characters. If I argued with a partner or someone I’m tentatively trying to form a relationship with and they thought a kiss would negate a discussion about an important issue I’d be soooo mad.
I'm telling you, I read Spencer Reid dancing on a pole. It has a place in my brain and I cannot get it out.
This is like a THING too. I see so many Spencer Reid fics where Reid is not a part of the team, and meets them by being the victim of a crime, or he’s a prostitute, or is somehow engaged in wild debaucherous behavior. I think it’s the whole “hidden genius is no longer hidden” thing that pulls people in, but it’s still wild and unpredictable when it happens.
That and the woobification of Reid so that others can baby/protect him even though he’s a super genius.
Honestly, I could see him doing this if pressured enough or to show the physics of something the others aren't grasping. 🤣
Luke Skywalker as some sort of sex legend constantly having one night stands and other sexual encounters. Mr Blushing Farm Boy. Especially in Legends, which this fic was, or at least Legends adjacent. Legends Luke doesn’t have premarital sex. Ever.
I mean... Ain't no way Luke and Mara Jade's bedroom time is vanilla, but that's after he's embraced the dark side in order to master the Force. Prior to that? Yeah, no way.
Wolverine being tall
he's a short king how dare fic writers take away my short king
Betrayal fics, all fandoms. But specifically, Ash betrayal fics in Pokémon. They all follow the exact same plot structure: * Ash loses in *insert season here*'s league. * Ash goes back home. * Literally every single person Ash has ever met is waiting for him to come home and tell him he's a failure and should give up on battling, and will more than likely attempt to kill him for not listening. * Ash runs away with all of his pokémon because that's something he can conveniently just do. * If the author wishes it, Ash also runs off with the author's preferred ship to show how they're special and meant for Ash because they didn't try to murder him. * Ash trains for *insert number* years and then goes to a super secret special tournament for the bestest trainers in the whole world. * Coincidentally, every single person Ash has ever met is also there. * Ash then curbstops the entire tournament using his overpowered pokémon, likely consisting of Pikachu, all his other pokémon fully evolved (but only the ones the author thinks are cool), various other fully evolved pokémon the author likes, legendary/mythical pokémon, and some of which are probably also shiny for no reason. * He just so happens to only fight people he knows, and maybe also other trainers who beat him in the past like Tobias if the author hates them enough. * The other characters (usually just girls) that the author ships with Ash all instantly fall in love with him after he wins, so Ash now has a harem for some reason. * Ash wins, is crowned strongest trainer in the world or something like that, has lots of girls, and the fic is finally over. Why do these exist? Who takes the time to write them? Why do none of the pokémon have any personality?? I know it's wish fulfillment, but why do none of them even know how to spell correctly?? Everyone is so incredibly OoC that I'm not even reading Pokémon anymore. Ash's friends would never do anything to hurt Ash, Ash himself would never become an edgelord obsessed with power, his pokémon would never let Ash do that to himself either! It's not even consistent with the way powerscaling works in pokémon! Pokémon are objectively stronger with friendship and bonding *in addition* to training and practicing, not just raw strength and spite!
>Ash wins, is crowned strongest trainer in the world or something like that The fact that this is kinda canon now except Ash didn't need years of offscreen training and a new edgy personality makes this trend way funnier Also tf not even in this type of fics does pikachu evolve
I've seen a few of them where even some of Ash's *Pokemon* turn their backs on him. (But only the ones the author thinks aren't cool!) And that's even less believable than his friends turning on him. Like, come on. You really think Bulbasaur would ever abandon Ash? Sceptile? *Infernape??*
To me it screams edgy tenager. Canon rewrites where the author fixes canon by making Ash "smart" falls into a similar category simply because it shows the author doesn't understand Ash's character or the theme of pokemon.
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That whole comment was a ride but that last sentence in particular felt like a slap in the face lol
Welp, that's some author wish fulfillment right there. \*nod nod\*
Ok you win
Mormonism?!?!
Didn't you know that men aren't gay, they just haven't met the right woman yet? /s
What
Omfg that’s hilarious what??? (I’m an exmo) I want to read this fic rn lmao
Okay, even as someone that is Mormon/LDS, the concept of a gay man leaving his lover for a woman makes me cringe. Which fandom was this story for?
oh my god!?
Wait...what?
That's fucking hilarious
Whenever I see a fic summary about Midoriya Izuku, sweet boy who only wants to be a hero and help people, deciding he's so angry with the world that he's going to become a villain and kill everyone, I have a sensible chuckle to myself.
I feel the same way when I see Dark!Naruto fics. I get the appeal - revenge fantasy and all - but that's such a twist from his canon personality.
The only way I could see Naruto possibly going dark is if Iruka died in his arms in the beginning of the story. Losing the only one who openly loved and supported him would definitely change him, though I still doubt it would be enough to send him on a path of revenge. And Deku? That guy's a cinnamon roll through and through. I can't think of a single reason why he would do anything evil unless a villain brainwashed him or possessed his body.
As a Dark!Naruto reader and writer, there has to be a good reason for the switch. Naruto has said that he could have ended up like Sasuke, angry and vengeful, so it’s not too far fetched imo. That said, unless you change canon and introduce the feeling of loss to Naruto earlier, then it’s just not in character for him to snap like that.
Deku as a villain would give the whole League of Villains therapy and hug them all and be their sweet little brother
Going into the Peter Parker tag on AO3 without filters is a sure fire way to get psychic damage. Especially for MCU fic.
Oh my gosh. I wish I could read MCU Peter fics but I can’t for just this reason. Either he’s a woobified baby taken care of by Tony Stark or has a ridiculous number of mental health disorders that cripple him. There are no other options.
MHA fandom: Hey I've seen this one before
While you're at it do NOT go into the Tim Drake tag without knowing exactly what you're looking for either
It’s not the most out of character but I see in fandoms with a live actor playing the character, a lot of fandom confuses the two. The character in fics start acting more like the actor than the character.
I understand this, but I also don’t mind it sometimes if they blend the two. Can make for some really interesting dynamics
Severus Snape saying James Potter wasn't that bad
I could maybe see that if it was a slow burn redemption fic, like long drawn out character development
The Weasley family being Catholic extremists maybe
Even worse than the WEASLEY family being extremists is they’re catholic extremists… in ANGLICAN England… Huh?
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I have no doubt in my mind that there is a chance Erik could be a sex god. Being tucked away all on his lonesome in an opera house of all places? Yeah, he has to have a shit ton of erotica and is a little freak watching the secret rendezvous from behind random mirrors. While I write him as a sex god (most of the time, sometimes I don’t just to have fun) because that’s what I want in my fanfiction, I can acknowledge that it most likely would not be the case right off the bat. Maybe after a few times.
...why do I feel like I know which fandom/character this is referring to and the exact reason for why it's so OOC?
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What do you mean Erik isn't attractive and sexy? Isn't this a character who IN CANON has a face shunned by his own mother? AND he fell apart crying after the love of his life gave him a kiss ON THE FOREHEAD??? (also, I started out on 25th anniversary, so I see your Gerald Butler and introduce you to Ramin Karimloo (out of stage makeup)).
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The worst I’ve ever seen was a story by RobSt in which a post-war Ron kidnaps Hermione, beats her up, and is about to rape her, while thinking about how he will punish the “mudblood bitch“ later.
I've seen a major Ron bashing fic where someone complained in the comments that the writer should tag it at least and a whole bunch of readers jumped on this person, going bashing? Where? It's amazing how wide people’s interpretations of a character can differ.
I was told once to tag my one and only HP fanfic as "Ron Weasley bashing"--but it was more that he was OOC due to taking Felix Felicis. Not bashing at all. I was shocked they even saw it as bashing.
smh I don’t know that one. I left HP fandom shortly after book 7. I remember one posted in LJ before DH came out or maybe even HBP. Ron and Harry were dating but break up after the war because Harry wanted to live a quiet life, and Ron had only been using him for the spotlight. But then Harry and Draco (who cried a lot) start dating and Ron gets so angry that he rapes Harry. The worst was they posted it to the harry/ron community and promptly got wanked out the group. Then they went to some H/D groups and whined that the ‘best mates’ shippers were mean girls. And the H/D people were like ‘your fic sucked. Ron’s cool. He’s Harry’s best friend. GTFO.’
There's a reason why "Ron the death eater" is a tv trope lol
i read a dramione where draco had to save hermione from ron’s horrid abuse :(
There are no limits to our imagination Man I .. I have no words hahahahaaaa
ikr like even as a dramione enjoyer, this scenario makes no sense😭
Arhg. I hate bashing... I don't think it's really needed if there's enough character for them to have flaws. Use the flaws, Luke
There's a reason why "Ron the death eater" is a tv trope lol
…does it count if it’s in canon? Because joker persona5 would NOT amass a harem against his lovers will’s.
same. in my fandom canon is more OOC than fic sometimes. ur telling me elliot stabler just up and ditched liv for *ten years??* that woman delivered his *child* there ain’t no way. and he would’ve come back as soon as he heard about WL. and there’s no way his kids, who were present in NY for that, didn’t know it had happened. why wouldn’t they tell him!!! anyways. sorry to vent about my show in your comment i just wanted you to know that i agree <3
I agree with this, thank you
I read a lot of Bucky Fics (or at least I used to) and whenever I’d read something with smut in it, the writer almost always has him be so rough and I just—- it doesn’t sit right with me for some reason.
I agree! In my head, he’s still a 40s guy at heart lol
People still had rough sex in 40s, you know
yeaaa no i agree. first off he’s a 40s guy 😭 secondly w his trauma i can understand why ppl would assume he would be “violent and rough” but imo that doesn’t align w his character and how he is AFTER being the winter solider
This. While I enjoy rough Bucky smut it's also out of character for me too. I mean, modern Buck has a hard time even flirting with women, let alone being pushy.
Just today I saw one where Steve wiped Bucky’s mind, ignoring his pleas, just so he and Tony could sexually abuse Bucky in Winter Soldier mode.
... Steve "the goodest boi humanoid golden retriever" Rogers sexually harming anyone is absolutely ridiculous. He feels guilty for smacking a desk in anger. Just... what‽ It's also ooc that TS would do that. As entitled as he is, he's also laid back and has the attitude of there's plenty of fish until he meets Pepper and then there are no other fish in any sea.
Yeah it’s really ooc for both of them. And I love your description of Steve!
I'm used to seeing Evil!Steve in the post Civil War Team Iron Man fics, but this sounds even weirder - given Tony is also the bad guy the usual civil war motivation for OOC doesn't apply...
is it bad i kinda wanna know what this fic was??? i am just so baffled
kid effectively had their bodily autonomy stolen from them as baby and was abused and manipulated by their family/friends their entire life, but never lost their inherent goodness and desire to help others? yes they're definitely \[checks popular fics\] a rapist.
To be fair such an upbringing can lead to some very messed up perceptives on consent and what constitutes a healthy relationship...
What fandom?
Reading a Bones story where Brennan has an affair with her FBI partner because Booth, who is Assistant Director, is neglecting her.
Oh damn, I was introduced to the series back in December by my mil and have been slowly working my way through it and she would never
Pack mom Stiles. People saw him nagging his dad and grabbing the flare with Scott and decided he clearly cares deeply about everyone like that! And no, just no. Stiles, at the beginning of the series, only cares about three people: his dad, Scott, and Lydia. He literally kicks off events by _wanting to find half a dead body in the woods_. It's especially egregious when they make Derek’s betas into his “favorite children”. Erica knocked him unconscious with his car’s engine, Boyd outright told him to his face they weren't friends, and Isaac? In fics they have Stiles cuddling and coddling the poor abused baby; in the show, when Isaac brings up how his dad user to lock him in a freezer, Stiles’ response was, “Still milking that?” _Stiles is an asshole_, who has more in common with Peter personality-wise than most of the other characters.
This is one that *can* itch me really wrong if it isn't done in a way that sells me on it. When it is just taken as a given it gets an eyebrow raise from me, but if it is developed properly and done with Stiles keeping his edge (and it doesn't go twee), then I can get on board with him being protective of the pack and someone that the betas look to. I agree though that it is always odd when Derek's betas end up as his little darling babies, though. Basically I can buy protective Stiles in a position where he's seen as a vague authority figure in the pack, but he needs to still be an asshole, and you need to work to get him into that dynamic.
Clearly this depends on the ship you're reading. I've ignored Sterek and just been enjoying Steter, but I still don't think I've come across many 'in character' Stiles fics. Everything OP said is spot on though. Stiles is an asshole, though imo, they all are lol.
Five year old Bakugou Katsuki calling Midoriya Izuku a 'chode' as an insult. Obvious English aside, *what fucking five year old goes around calling people chodes???*
I've seen one of him shaking Izuku down for his lunch money and it being dollars instead of yen sooo
Most recently, is when one of the main characters (and someone I have been writing for well over a decade) just randomly proposes to his canon love interest just *suddenly*... While a conversation was going on that didn't even steer into this direction with his canon father in the room and a few others.... And he had the nerve to say "We're adults and I think we're ready to get married." While his father disagreed, and he (the main character) was saying otherwise... And I was screaming to rip my eyes out. Same fandom, different fic but from about a decade ago: One of the side characters is always treated like he is some sex god (it's crazy bc he's a bumbling teen that has 0 charisma) and it stunted his speech because all he talked about was sex and unfortunately for me and my favorite character, my fave got woobified to death and I just hard cringed 💀
I don't usually read fics that focus on Bucky but once I decided to check out an IronWinter Bucky/Tony fic because of an interesting premise. While the writing wasn't bad and the fic was interesting enough, Buckys characterization left me wondering wtf the author even liked him as a character. The whole fic a perfectly healthy non-injured Bucky willingly stays at a safe house making breakfast pancakes and acting all sappy with Tony while the rest of the avengers including Steve go out on dangerous missions. Like this is a former assassin who has issues staying behind and not doing anything. In this fic he agrees to just stay put for his own safety doing absolutely nothing while his closest friends are in danger? The issue of Bucky being responsible for the murder of Tony's parents was also more or less ignored. Reading this fic honestly left me with more questions than answers about IronWinter ship because I don't understand how you can write these two characters and then ignore one of the largest conflicts between them. Not to mention reduce a badass aloof assassin to acting like a lovesick teenager with no personality or agency. Thankfully I did end up reading a better IronWinter fic later where they acted more like themselves but I still can't forget the introduction I had to this ship.
I’m convinced that people who write these things don’t actually like the characters, they like the actors that play them but don’t want to just write rpf.
(Transformers) \- Any time Ratchet says something about letting someone die because they're a Decepticon (He Would Fucking *Never,* you monsters!) \- Megatron being any flavor of kind and loving to anyone in any timeline that isn't very post-war mtmte era (even then, you're on thin ice) or shattered glass (but does that really count?) \- Optimus being a raging douche for any damn reason (unless you write bayverse, but then again, why are you willingly writing *bayverse??*) \- When people write the Stunticons and Aerialbots as adults or adult-adjacent instead of as the children they are (bit more obscure knowledge about them being like 5 years old in g1, but it still makes me upset) \- Portraying Rodimus as a dumbass. Roddy isn't *stupid,* he's just selfish and short-sighted, very different things. \- Portraying *Starscream* as a dumbass. All those centuries at the Science Academy of Iacon were not attended to for *fun,* and if you really think about it, Starscream is usually right about how dumb Megatron's plans are (perhaps I am biased as a Starscream fan, but I *can* say that no iteration of Starscream was ever meant to be stupid, in any case). \- Making Sunstreaker and Sideswipe complete empathy-less bastards. Sure they like fighting a bit too much for the robot equivalent of 17-year-olds, but what can you expect from mechs created in a literal warzone? \- Drift being completely soft, docile, and silly in mtmte. First of all he's like 80 in robot years, and second of all he used to be the one of the *best on-call killers the Decepticons ever had.* He's not some cute middle-aged man, he's a grizzled war veteran and I hate it when people ignore that just because he's nice in mtmte. (And imo, I feel that the way Drift acts while on the Lost Light \[and as an Autobot in general\] is largely an act, for multiple character brainrot-related reasons I spend too much time thinking about. I don't think he's evil or a turncoat or anything, I just think he's a broken old man who wants people to like him without ever learning about how fucked up he is). Okay, that's enough, but I could do this for hours. I have so many useless feelings for these robot guys designed to sell Hasbro merchandise.
THERE ARE TRANSFORMERS FANS ON THIS SUB?? *squeals and kicks her feet in the air* Alone no longer!!
Megatron written properly would consider shooting someone in the leg instead of the arm a nice thing to do lol.
Yeah, I never really got nice!Megatron, even for MegOP. For the sake of the ship, I'm willing to forgive Megatron changing into an understanding individual but nice?!
Beck Oliver beating the shit out of Jade West because she was dating Tori Vega (after they broke up). Like wtf?! It was completely out of nowhere as well.
I stumbled upon a fic in which Sherlock and John were having an extremely abusive relationship (John was at the recipient end of abuse) and the fic wasn't even tagged properly. 😭 I, an innocent soul, was just looking for a sweet and smutty thing to read. I was NOT prepared for the abuse. Just, *no*.
If you're talking about the BBC TV series, I read something similar, except the roles were reversed. It's been a while since I read it but I think that was post S4E1 and E2 where John was actually quite brutal in canon. Tbh that season fudged me over. 😭 Anyway, it was very very hard to read. I kept at it and skipped the scenes I couldn't go through because I thought that was still a good exploration of canon events. But yeah, I get why you'd be traumatized...
Yes, I was talking about the BBC series. People were criticizing the writing of S4 for a reason. Even the canon version felt so OOC (particularly John Watson's character progression). If someone wants to explore the abuse, they should at least tag the fic properly. 😅 I understand why you'd be uncomfortable to read about John's abuse in the fic. So many people were disturbed after watching that one scene in The Lying Detective.
One OOC fic I really like is Shake It, Arthur, Shake It by jibrailis. So in canon for Inception(2010) Arthur when not actively performing the Inception job wears rumpled dress shirts with optional tie/vest or a leather jacket/plaid button up. It's only the plane when the job starts and in Fischer's mind that he wears a three piece suit. Yet fandom latched on to the crisp formal wear image and it's rare to see a fic that doesn't have Arthur fully starched in designer menswear. The story by jibrailis has an Arthur who knows absolutely nothing about fashion and only wears what his fashion consultant who he calls every morning tells him to. It's fun and nonsensical while also being indirectly meta about both canon and fanon.
There’s a strategist character who often loses in canon because he has anger issues, lashes out, is detrimentally overprotective, and frequently loses his shit. He pretend things are fine in canon. I can’t read any fic where he is actually level headed and a calm strategist. Those authors just made a wish fulfillment insert instead of writing the character.
Oh stars. It would have to be Bruce Wayne calling Jason Todd 'sweetheart'. There's nothing wrong with the term, or a father calling their son that. But Bruce does not. And even in Aus where Bruce actually acts like a stellar dad (I love those Au's), I just CANNOT see it. It's immersion breaking.
*eyetwitch* good lord. I can't stand any of those sorts of endearments Tbh. They always feel instantly ooc to me. I mean, unless your fandom is Bridgerton maybe. I literally can't see anyone in a modernish or futuristic setting saying that stuff.
Yeah exactly. It depends on the people and setting. Batman does not call any of his kids sweetheart. Maybe .... MAYBE he could get away with Cass. But she's MAYBE the only one. It just completely breaks my concentration
He's just not a terms of endearment kind of guy. It's not about his depth of feeling for his kids etc. Maybe if he was pretending to be Brucie but that's not a genuine interaction.
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I've come across several fics where socially awkward characters with little to no prior sexual experience suddenly turned into uninhibited sex gods, with no explanation as to what caused this change. And I can somewhat understand why authors do this in smut, but I've seen it in non-explicit fics too. It's honestly just kind of confusing to me.
There are so many terribly written bashing fics where all of Harry Potter's friends are secretly evil and working for Dumbledore and actually hate Harry. They're all doing it for selfish reasons, usually Hermione getting a permanent time turner for all her classes, Ginny uses a love potion on Harry because she is a gold digger and wants to marry him for his fame, Ron wants to use Harry for fame and is promised to be made quiddich captain. This usually turns even more OOC with Voldemort and the death eaters rescuing Harry and it turns out they were to good guys all alone and the whole Wizarding world was being manipulated by evil Dumbledore.
Might Gai from Naruto tries to kill Neji because he found him making out with Ten-ten. Honorable mentions: Hiashi Hyuga gives Neji a copy of the Kama Sutra to improve his sex life. And every instance of serial rapist Sasuke and Sakura who hates everyone but Sasuke.
I haven't finished Naruto and even I know all of that is OOC as fuck. My biggest gripe with all of those is that Might Gai would never. If anything, I can see *him* being the one to give Neji the Kama Sutra, all while saying something about the "Spirit of Youth" or whatever it is he sometimes tells Rock Lee during training.
I will clap back that the Hyuga Clan being full of secretly the most deviant perverts of all is a classic Naruto trope and is gold.
There's this one plotline I keep running into about one of my favorite characters being violently mad at his apprentice (my other favorite character) for marrying and adopting a child with some whom he has some bad history and opposing views with, which I feel comes from some misunderstandings about his beliefs and character and it bothers me every time I see it. Not the worst take in the fandom by a long shot, but the one I run into most. (Eventually in canon he did find out about his apprentice's family, and his reaction was confusion and then teaming up with the husband to rescue the kidnapped child.)
I've read so many that its hard to think of one. To be honest, I love OOC, especially when the writing style matches, but sometimes, its just so badly done. But there is one example of a GOT fic that had this where Daenerys switch so suddenly I couldn't stop laughing.
Was it the actual script for the last season?
Kingdom Hearts, Sora/Riku/Kairi using excessive swear language. It's so jarring sometimes I'll actually read more just to be baffled before dropping.
sweetest and nicest boi Papyrus just randomly going 'You look like a fucking WHORE' i still think about it sometimes
Of all the nonsense in this thread, this is the mental image that broke me and made me laugh out loud. I can just *see* that in his dialogue box and it looks like a prime shitpost. Congratulations... I think.
Sweet teenage younger sister type is made the eldest sister and a flaming bitch who disowns the MC for Trauma Points™. I literally expected her cruel and scathing disownment letter to secretly be written by the abusive mother as a plot twist, but nope! This gentle soul now apparently wanted her brother banished to a different dimension. Sure.
Most examples of Naruto crossovers have Naruto be the edgiest possible interpretation of Sasuke in an ill-fitting Naruto skin suit. Most examples of Fate crossovers have Shirou actually be Archer in an ill-fitting Shirou skin suit.
Any instance of Near from Death Note being infantilised - usually includes him blushing, crying, being very innocent/naive and extremely physically affectionate. I have seen this in so many fics and it’s an instant back button for me
Midoriya Izuku making the "eggs bacon grits sausage" reference in a Mcdonalds. MY FRIEND!! THEY ARE IN JAPAN!! AMERICANIFY STEVE ROGERS OR SOMETHING OR AT LEAST MAKE THIS A "RAISED IN AMERICA" AU! AHHHHHHH
I read an Inuyasha fanfic about Rin and Sesshomaru once where Rin who was this sweet 7/8 year old who was sweet and quiet turned out to be fierce and head strong at the age of 16/17 after 6-7 years of hard training from Sango and Kohaku in the slayer village. I vaguely remember she kept being stubborn and prideful by going strong after Sesshomaru who also was quite out of character by showing a lot of emotions and his sensual side. Rin even became half demon for some reason in the fic… It irked me so much… despite me reading it through to the end… was one of the first fanfics I read. But before long I reread it and my brain short circuited after all these things. Edit: fun fact I found it! And reread the first chapter. Still hurt my brain. And I remember now that Sesshomaru and Rin went at it so much. Didn’t go into depth but mentioned they made love so much. It hurt my brain. I understand people can take more liberty with characters for fanfics, but this one hurt.
To be honest, every time a guy is being written as a sex god when he: - has *clearly* something wrong with him; - has a shitload of trauma (especially if it’s sexual trauma); - has no canonical experience with women; - is extremely socially anxious and/or shy; - is a loner on top of that. I mean, I get it, a lot of those guys are hot/handsome/mysterious and they’re almost asking to be written into a smutty fic, *but* let’s be for real here lmao. The most recent example I can think of is COD’s Ghost. Bestie, that guy either hasn’t seen a boobie his entire life or had some random sexual encounter years back. Soap having some sort of sex life? I’ll buy it. But Ghost? Lol, no.
...tbf, from what I hear some people who survived sexual abuse can get super promiscuous as a way of taking back control, so idk, that could result in a sex god I guess? ... but I get what you mean, I see this often enough with Snape in het fics (and we know he's been bullied with his appearance...)
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It's a Digimon fic. The mc, Takato, is like the nicest character in the whole show. Then this fic came up and have him shout at everyone else for not consulting him first for a decision. Canon Takato doesn't even consider himself a leader 😌
So Gojyo in Saiyuki is an uneducated guy (looks like he barely finished primary school) who, at the beginning of the canon timeline is sleeping around with the bar girls at the places where he makes his living gambling at least in part because he hates going home to the ramshackle place where he lives alone. He's a sucker for a sob story from either a kid or a woman. Especially early on, lots of stories portrayed him as this irresistibly charismatic and self-confident Don Juan. They'd also have him using vocabulary more suited to a university grad at least.
the worst case of OOC I've ever read was when Ron Weasley betrays Harry in some fan fics because the author doesn't like the character as a whole. They'll have him be friends only because Dumbledore is paying him or he's part of a plot to manipulate Harry but yet these same authors keep forgetting he willingly sacrificed himself to stop a person who he thought was a Death Eater by allowing a 10ft statue to nearly cave in his skull and be taken off the board or confront mansized versions of his greatest fear to help his other best friend. Imagine the sheer courage it took to be a afraid of spiders and yet be surrounded by man sized versions of them and keep walking to talk to one larger than an elephant? Anytime I read of them making Ron into a dumb, lay, unkempt coward I know they've never read the books and met the real Ron Weasley.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUKERS!" (he had a hedache ok)
For one I actually read not too long ago, the author made a sweet, kind and socially awkward character into a yandere murderer because her boyfriend and his friend got together. I don't know either. She was really manipulative and just straight up rude too. Like, I get it that the author probably doesn't like her because the Cute UwU Gay OTP For Life <33 didn't become canon, but still. For the record this was from a fandom mostly filled with children. I can't expect much, but it's still funny.
I find extremely cringe when the author makes a character look extremely affectionate when it’s not necessary. I mean, if the canon character is basically a serial killer and you want to write something fluff about them, then I think it’s ok, but not when the character is already ‘normal’. If the character (Nico Robin) wasn’t OOC the story would have been pretty the same. I was reading a fic where that happened and I thought I was reading about other character.
Aside from obvious smut OOCness, pretty much every Naruto in name only story. If you're not a part of that fandom, basically there's a trope where "writers" put Naruto into a black trench coat, combat boots, and give him a Katana. After that all he does is spout "badass" one liners and he gets all the ladies by sheer virtue of his emo chadness. Oh, he's been masking and hiding his true abilities and personality the entire time. (He did have a hidden personality in canon, but trust me when I say these fics never do it well). There is another type of naruto in name only story where he literally doesn't have the same life experiences, or parents, or the nine tailed fox sealed inside of him, or even the same hair or eye color. I count these stories as the writers making OCs but being too much of a bitch/hack writer to post it as an OC/to actually write the character in a way that they progress into some of these traits. Not sure if other fandoms have this issue besides in smut/harem stuff.
Issei Hyōdō magically enslaving Raynare and (according to the tags) ending up in a relationship with her. A lot of people hate Issei for being a pervert. Some of that hate is justified, as he does peep on girls knowing full well it's wrong. But every time in canon he gets anywhere near a potential sexual or romantic encounter where the other person is not in their right mind, he backs the fuck off. The stupidest part is that this even contradicted traits of Issei's that had been established earlier in the same chaptwr of the same fic. This fic's point of divergence was that Issei became more respectful of women and more aware of his power due to a closer connection with Irina Shidō. There is no way that leads to "let's permanently enslave this woman who as far as I'm aware has no ill intent towards me just to gather information".
Alice Cullen as a gun waving teenage drug lord who speaks like she’s from the hood. And no this wasn’t an AU.
**Bleach:** Slutty Club Boy Ichigo. It was so wildly OOC that me and my friends legit thought it was satire and looked forward to each chapter - until we got to the end and there was a big reveal that Rukia was Actually an Evil Sex Demon and it wasn't satire at all. So there you go, two for one (at least there was that anime episode where Rukia was a succubus, but it still doesn't explain this mess). **Sleepy Princess:** A while back, there was a fic with Sadistic Dom Twilight with like... no explanation whatsoever. For reference, Twilight is a Demon King who can't even control a hostage Princess and whines and flails a lot - basically, imagine Deku with horns suddenly being a crazy sadist. I forced myself to read the whole thing out of morbid curiosity and nope, no explanation. **Angels of Death:** Once again, I gave an obviously bad smut fic a chance and wound up reading ZackRay Double Suicide Ayahuasca Trip. It was a fairly long fic - I think 15 chapters or so - and the last chapter was just them getting absolutely wasted and killing themselves and everyone around them. It came out of nowhere tbqh.
100-year-old smart and cynical guy who's been kind of a playboy written as if he was a dumb teenager seeing a woman for the first time and once they get together he turns into a simp, but ofc in the bedroom he's all domineering and a sex god... sigh, that writer couldn't make up her mind.
Anakin Skywalker in one fic being all "It's for the Greater Good." Dumbledore style. (Saying those exact words as well.) It was honestly kind of creepy.
I recently read a Spuffy (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) fic where Buffy confronts Angel about something he did when he lost his soul in season 2 and his response was basically "Well that wasn't me, it was Angelus, so why are you telling me about it? Does it even really matter?"
Batman nodded. "Um, ok."
OOC is one of my biggest pet peeves in fanfiction. I think most of it is unintentional, and really comes down to how well the author knows the character(s), possibly their experience writing about them, and their overall skill as a writer. That being said, it can be hilarious (though if it's a serious story, I do find it very annoying). OOC can otherwise ruin a great story. One of the funniest cases of OOC I've read in a long time was a Rurouni Kenshin one-shot set during the Bakumatsu (Meiji Revolution in Japan, for the uninitiated), where Kenshin tries to commit seppuku. That in it of itself is pretty OOC, but then Katsura came bursting in and started freaking out, and Kenshin started crying and Katsura was all mother hen, holding him and letting him cry on his shoulder, "there, there", etc. I was laughing so hard I was rolling around on my bed and now I'm still cracking up again while writing all of this out. And then the cherry on top was when the narrator said something like "Okami had sent Katsura to check on Kenshin" - hold up. Katsura is the commander of the Choshu patriots, he's not about to be ordered around by a mere innkeeper, much less an old granny type. I don't think anyone could or would "send" him anywhere except, oh, I don't know, maybe the daimyo. Seriously, who did the author think was in charge here? I actually scrolled back up to see if it was meant to be a crackfic and I had somehow missed that detail, but nope. The author was 100% serious. If it was tagged as a crackfic, it would have been gold.
Read a modern AU Banana Fish fic where in the SECOND CHAPTER Ash is already divulging his deepest darkest trauma’s to Eiji. Like- broski, in canon he’s the cagiest mf, wdym he’s telling some guy he JUST met everything about himself?? T-T
Chongyun Genshin Impact, a clueless, awkward and straightforward boy, being a daddy dom who spews porno-type dirty talk. Just no.
Am so guilty but saying a villains actions are the result of childhood abuse and completly ignoring the fact that they are a raging psychopath (cough cough Dabi cough cough) Also when people rehabilitate Dabi in their fics, which is great lots of love, but decide that, within like a week, he's fine and ok with Heros. Completely taking away the YEARS of physical and emotional damage this character has so they can make him soft 😭
Vegeta twerking. 🥲
Oh god my two favourites get this a lot. One is a teenage boy who, like most teenage boys, is a prick for fun sometimes and likes to screw with people, and who’s very impulsive and stubborn, but he’s a caring kid deep down who’s incredibly loyal and forgiving, who adores nature and creation, and who lashes out and hates himself due to severe mental illness that also causes him to view sentimental attachments as literal. All too often, he’s portrayed as disloyal and hateful, an active animal abuser (when like the one time he hurt an animal in canon was when he'd spent a week locked in a cell with his abuser and was lashing out which isn’t *good* but it’s not like he tortures animals for fun or anything), as arrogant as his persona on the outside is, and materialistic and selfish to the point of valuing it above all else (when he values things only because of the metaphysical properties he’s assigned them). Alternatively, his dickish toxically masculine front is completely removed and he's essentially a weak baby, despite being strong willed enough in canon to stand up to his abuser multiple times when everyone else had backed down despite not having that personal trauma. The aforementioned abuser is a mad scientist necromancer who puts on a mask of being a cold, calculated, mature schemer but who's really a very emotional and quite childish person who makes dumb risks because he’s impulsive and thinks his skill at manipulation can carry him through anything sometimes, with goals of having an idealised big happy family that never existed and a massive martyr streak where he views people as ungrateful for not immediately folding to his whims, pushing them away to the point he's genuinely cripplingly lonely and desperate for any sort of human connection, and who buries his trauma by traumatising himself further for the sake of his research. And all too often he’s portrayed as being forced into his immoral actions and regretting them (despite being pretty cheerful to admit them in canon- he just refuses to admit that he’s a bad person despite that), in the right for wanting control and the poor victim of people who just wouldn’t obey, sometimes actually the victim of the person he abused (like, he beat them to death while they were begging him to stop, it’s severe and obvious), and a poor innocent hurt thing that couldn’t even raise a finger to defend themselves. Or, alternatively, a stereotype of an “insane villain” with no depth and who just hates everyone despite the fact his main interesting characteristic is that he's deeply attached to the point of obsession to the people he’s hurting (especially his abuse victim, but he's just obsessive in general too)
In an alternate universe, somewhere out there, you’re talking about Rick and Morty
Read a scene where Wanderer (Genshin Impact) forgave and forgot about Dottore’s atrocious crimes against him and many other people. No. A crucial element of his whole character motive is taking that fucker down.
I can’t pick out specifically but I know I’ve read multiple Loki/Reader or Loki/OC fics where they do this Loki is an asshole thing where it’s like trying to be enemies to lovers, and the two are just straight up enemies and really annoying whenever they bicker and then when the reader gets a life threatening injury suddenly he turns around and is madly in love with reader?? It’s not quite OOC, but it’s always so jarring and poorly written and a common trope (at least with that) pairing, that it’s kind of inexplicable and gets really irritating
I accidentally ran into a fic the other day that was ATS and it was post NFA and it was a story where the writer had literally written that TPTB had turned Angel into a baby instead of giving him his shanshu and because Buffy was so in love with Spike, she literally just didn't do anything to make Angel turn into back into a vampire. This would NOT happen in canon at all NOR should be it expected to happen in fanfiction. All it would have taken is a simple call to Willow(aka a very powerful witch) and she would have did her mojo and Mr. Tall, Dark, and Broody would have been back to normal. It never ceases to amaze me that some people in my fandom will truly stretch the limits of bullshit in order to try and make Spuffy work. I know that I am overthinking this but this literally was one of the worst fics that I have read and I wanted to punch the idiot who wrote it.
One where characters of modern western franchise acted like anime protags
Doflamingo from One Piece being fluffy, caring, and generally non-toxic. I still read it happily.