User blog comment:SeddieShipper29/The Roleplaying Has Gotten Out Of Control/@comment-3037452-20110519092228

There seems to be a *confusion* btwn what is considered "in-character" vs. "out-of-character" and what is actually, in correct wordage, "canon" vs "fanon". All four are completely different things.

CANON: whatever has happened in the official show/movie/etc & that has been stated unequivocaly with NO discernible ambiguity.

FANON: whatever a fan chooses to make up & be creative with, *based* on a canon but without having to stick to it in any way.

IN-CHARACTER: to act as closely to the way that a character acts in their canon, in personality/mannerisms/opinions/etc ONLY.

OUT-of-CHARACTER: to act differently from the way a character acts in their canon, in personality/mannerisms/opinions/etc ONLY.

The majority of fans spend their time turning canon moments into fanon ones, & dreaming up their own fanon stories based on canon. Especially with all the moments that are quite ambiguous, they really could mean whatever the fan dreams up. And there is NO "law" against rejecting certain parts of canon. But the biggest thing certain shippers can get too hung up on: ships do NOT count as part of one's "characterness". Anyone can fall in love with anyone, it does not affect their personality or who they are as a person & shipping certain chars together does not make them "less in-character" (at the most, for certain ships, it just makes them "weird", lol.) Now here are some examples.

Someone writes a fic, it sticks to canon so much, that it's just like reading the show in written form. Sure, the characters are in-character, but nothing really special has happened because sticking to canon so strictly ended up affecting the writer's creativity, & it just comes across as rather "boring" to most readers.

Next, another someone writes a fic, but it's so far into some random version of fanon, that it's practically a "crackfic"! And wow, the characters are so totally "OOC"! But actually.. it's still pretty funny, & they had fun making it, & other ppl reading it are thinking it's lulzy.. so, mission accomplished?

Then, there's another fic, but this one is very interesting.. it sticks to most canon points very well, & the characters seem all in-character, talking & acting just like they would on the show, etc.. except there's something *more* added to the story- a fanon plot! Using canon as merely the guide it's meant to be, the fic expands on the story & goes places that canon hasn't yet gone or probably won't ever go for whatever reasons (ie, a diff ship, a diff adventure, etc etc). And it works!

Basically, it is NOT wrong for anyone to act out their fanon in whatever ways they enjoy.. cuz everyone likes different things. RP is just like "interactive fanfic".. as long as they're not breaking any rules, not harassing ppl or being violent or whatever.. why would you want to police other ppl's right to creative freedom? There's things (& many ships, ahaha) that *I* don't like & have to ignore, but I wouldn't waste time mentioning them when I could just be focusing on the stuff that *is* fun for me ;P

xoxoxo