MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

This presentation will critique major themes in fanfiction as related to popular television, anime and contemporary literature including over reliance on romantic plots, making complex characters one dimensional, the role of aggression as a plot device and a generally provocative attitude towards original source material. Although fanfiction includes a wide array of source material: from the romantic turmoil at McKinley High (Glee) to the endangered lives of Harry Potter and his classmates, source material is transformed in a number of significant ways: exotic original settings are frequently disregarded in favor of placing the characters in a modern suburb; multiple original characters are reduced to a focus on two main characters who are placed in at-risk situations that teeter between angst inducing trauma and aggressive sexuality while other characters are left to briefly comment on the romantic entanglements of the main pair. The most frequent sacrifices in this process of personality and plot simplification occur among female characters. For example, Mikasa Ackerman, arguably the most recognized character, in the popular manga and anime series, Attack on Titan, loses the compelling facets of her personality and is reduced to a superficial obstacle in her foster brother’s romantic exploits. Further, female characters are regularly vilified in order to make another female character —typically a romantic rival— seem more appealing. However, fanfiction also reflects writers’ use of the forum as an important outlet for contemporary anxieties and aggressive and/or sexual urges. Often, the resulting story line tends to highlight the sanitized and conventional qualities of the original source material. At times, these efforts ironically result in predictable and repetitive stories that succumb to common plot devices. However, the best fanfiction writing brings energy, daring and a fresh, alternate perspective.