I realize that this post is over a month old, but I only now did the ego search (I wrote "Legendary Athlete") and noticed it.
I will admit that my first reaction was "oh, great, Farla's talking about one of my fics" before I understood that this post was quoting a review. And I will also admit that I have often disagreed with her opinions in the past, and that I am still a troper. But none of that is why I'm replying.
I'm replying because I disagree with Vryheid, and think that citing my fic in this argument was a bad idea. This is for three main reasons.
First, one of the nice things about fanfiction is that you don't need to stick to a single character interpretation. (This can also be one of its faults if done poorly.) This is especially true for a fandom that has several canon universes and plenty of AU potential on top of that. I have never jumped on any writer for imagining a character differently from how I do. It may make me stop reading in some instances, but that's a different thing altogether. In fact, I once got a PM from someone asking if they could use my version of Mewtwo as a cameo in their fic. I suggested that they not do so, because I would rather see their interpretation of the character and would hate for mine to be considered the correct one.
Second... "terrible anime movie"? I know some people don't like the show, but it's a really bad idea to bring that up while recommending my work. After all, I enjoy the anime, and while I still haven't finished the story, I've put in more than enough hints (ones that are less subtle than this fic's hints about Mewtwo) that the Mewtwo in my story is the same as the one from a previous fic I wrote... which happened to take both movies as canon and even referenced the anime version of Sabrina.
And third... let's just go down a few of the other complaints. "Mewtwo can't learn Teleport without the use of a TM" - my Mewtwo teleports often, and did so in the previous fic before he ever learned what a TM was. "Mewtwo doesn't have hands, it has paws" - In the eleven chapters released so far, I refer to Mewtwo's hands seventeen times, not counting figurative uses such as "handful" or "out of his hands". "There's no indication Mewtwo even needs to eat" - his need to do so was a minor plot point in the previous fic. "HURR DURR CINNEBAR ISLAND" - It's explicitly mentioned in my story. (As a bonus, while it's not ready yet, the black Pokéballs will be referenced in a future chapter as well. Once I have a chance to get back to it.) And most of all, "it's pretty much set in stone that Mewtwo hates trainers and humanity in general" - his struggle to overcome this happens to be one of the central points of my fic and its predecessor!
I'm not saying my story is perfect, and I'm pretty sure a critical reader can point out many things wrong with it, but it simply cannot be used as an example of a story that avoids the criticisms being levied here.
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Date: 2013-06-10 06:52 pm (UTC)I will admit that my first reaction was "oh, great, Farla's talking about one of my fics" before I understood that this post was quoting a review. And I will also admit that I have often disagreed with her opinions in the past, and that I am still a troper. But none of that is why I'm replying.
I'm replying because I disagree with Vryheid, and think that citing my fic in this argument was a bad idea. This is for three main reasons.
First, one of the nice things about fanfiction is that you don't need to stick to a single character interpretation. (This can also be one of its faults if done poorly.) This is especially true for a fandom that has several canon universes and plenty of AU potential on top of that. I have never jumped on any writer for imagining a character differently from how I do. It may make me stop reading in some instances, but that's a different thing altogether.
In fact, I once got a PM from someone asking if they could use my version of Mewtwo as a cameo in their fic. I suggested that they not do so, because I would rather see their interpretation of the character and would hate for mine to be considered the correct one.
Second... "terrible anime movie"? I know some people don't like the show, but it's a really bad idea to bring that up while recommending my work. After all, I enjoy the anime, and while I still haven't finished the story, I've put in more than enough hints (ones that are less subtle than this fic's hints about Mewtwo) that the Mewtwo in my story is the same as the one from a previous fic I wrote... which happened to take both movies as canon and even referenced the anime version of Sabrina.
And third... let's just go down a few of the other complaints.
"Mewtwo can't learn Teleport without the use of a TM" - my Mewtwo teleports often, and did so in the previous fic before he ever learned what a TM was.
"Mewtwo doesn't have hands, it has paws" - In the eleven chapters released so far, I refer to Mewtwo's hands seventeen times, not counting figurative uses such as "handful" or "out of his hands".
"There's no indication Mewtwo even needs to eat" - his need to do so was a minor plot point in the previous fic.
"HURR DURR CINNEBAR ISLAND" - It's explicitly mentioned in my story. (As a bonus, while it's not ready yet, the black Pokéballs will be referenced in a future chapter as well. Once I have a chance to get back to it.)
And most of all, "it's pretty much set in stone that Mewtwo hates trainers and humanity in general" - his struggle to overcome this happens to be one of the central points of my fic and its predecessor!
I'm not saying my story is perfect, and I'm pretty sure a critical reader can point out many things wrong with it, but it simply cannot be used as an example of a story that avoids the criticisms being levied here.