Shipping?

[Icelle]

Hmm there isn't really any shipping in my first fanfic but in the sequel I was planning on pairing my main oc with someone from the show. I asked a couple of Poke'mon fans at school and a while back some others on a different forum what they thought and the general reaction (from a lot of people O_O;;; ) was "WTF is wrong with you? That's stupid! Why the heck would you do that?!? You're lame. The 'real' characters ONLY go with other 'real' characters and OC's ONLY with OC's!!1!" Now, some folks said they didn't like it because it was their personal opinion that the character was better paired with someone else specifically, or because they had a "crush" on that character and were too immature to acknowledge that it's a FICTIONAL character that does not belong to them. So I don't care about those replies.

I was asking for opinions and I'm glad that's what I got... But seriously, what's so stupid about it? Is it some kind of unspoken rule? Does it simply make no sense? I've seen it done before. I'm a little confused. I'm just wondering why some people don't like the idea. What's your opinion on the subject?

 

[Scarlet Weather]

Personally, I think the main reason that authors usually avoid pairing canon characters with OCs is that having a canon character fall for your original character is one of the main signs of Mary-Sueism. Even if there isn't much else objectionable about the character, something as crazy as having a main character who wasn't even interested in engaging in a romantic relationship in canon (as far as we know) suddenly fall for this new person that they haven't had as much time to develop a relationship with as they have with most other canon characters sends up a signal flare that'll cause many people to judge your main character (and therefore your fic) badly. So really, it's something you may as well stay away from if you can avoid it. Sort of like giving your main character eyes that double as mood rings (change colors) or something like that. They could otherwise be perfectly palatable, but the one feature is so universally recognized as being a Mary-Sue staple that from that point on it's going to be hard to enjoy the fic.

 

[Astinus]

Agreeing with what ACC-kun said.

But I'm giving you words of encouragement. I am writing two fics for two different fandoms in which an OC gets into a relationship with a CC (canon character. And that's a reminder for myself. CC to me means custom content. I'll shut up now).

It depends on who the CC is. If it's someone like Ash who has no interest in romantic relationships at all, then eyebrows might be raised if he was suddenly head-over-heels in love. If it was someone like Brock who wants a girl, then it might be understandable.

It also depends on time. This means two things. One is the time that the relationship is happening. Two young people in love might be a no. And there's also the time of the relationship. If it happens too quickly without much build-up, then it gets weird.

Ah, for an example. One of my fics (which is actually a series) has the two characters meet when one is eleven and the other is fourteen. But it's not until seven years later that they get together. I spaced that out so that the ages that they get together isn't odd, and so that the relationship is developed.

Heh. What you're planning on doing is exactly what I thought of doing for my Pokemon fic. The two characters meet in the sequel and don't get together until the third book.

xD I probably went way off the track here from what you wanted to know. Sorry!

 

[Icelle]

Personally, I think the main reason that authors usually avoid pairing canon characters with OCs is that having a canon character fall for your original character is one of the main signs of Mary-Sueism. Even if there isn't much else objectionable about the character, something as crazy as having a main character who wasn't even interested in engaging in a romantic relationship in canon (as far as we know) suddenly fall for this new person that they haven't had as much time to develop a relationship with as they have with most other canon characters sends up a signal flare that'll cause many people to judge your main character (and therefore your fic) badly. So really, it's something you may as well stay away from if you can avoid it. Sort of like giving your main character eyes that double as mood rings (change colors) or something like that. They could otherwise be perfectly palatable, but the one feature is so universally recognized as being a Mary-Sue staple that from that point on it's going to be hard to enjoy the fic.

Um sorry if this is a dumb question, but what is mary-sueism?

 

[Astinus]

The Wikipedia article

Basically, they're just characters that are exceptionally perfect, can do no wrong, never fail, have everything handed to them, the whole world loves them (except for the bad guys, then it's hate), extremely beautiful, and a lot of them are self-inserts. Self-inserts are where the author places themselves into the story, give themselves super-special powers to make them cooler, and then fall in love with the canon character of choice.

The Wiki article explains it better than I could. I fail at explaining things.

 

[Pague]

OCxCC is only a problem to me if its hard to believe. Ash, as an example used before, falling head over heels with someone at first sight is totally unbelieveable and sends my mouse speeding for the 'close tab' button. The same character building up a relationship gradually is more believeable and forgiveable. (Though for the Ash example you'd have to have to OC a little more open with thier feelings than some of the other characters because Ash is a blockhead).

Brock falling in love at first sight is believeable, but him being totally loyal and not flitting off as soon as he sees another pretty girl is not. Again, it's something that needs to be done gradually.


General rule of thumb - make it believeable, whether it's canon or original characters, and people won't have any reasonable reason to complain about it. (That doesn't mean they won't)