Embracing bad writing, or Why you shouldn't always write a fix-fic.

[ToaArcan]

It's no secret that one of the most popular sorts of fanfiction is the fix-fic, wherein the writer latches onto something they saw as bad writing in the original work, and writes a story to "correct" that mistake, which will often please them and those like them, but may not be so popular with the fanbase of the original work as a whole. You see this frequently with Sonic fans- Writers who want to preserve the Sonic vs. Robotnik dynamic will often take the modern-day Eggman and write him to be functionally identical to the SatAM incarnation of the character, without any of his unique strengths and weaknesses. It's also not uncommon to see Scourge the Hedgehog promoted from an obvious sleaze with an explosive temper and little forethought to a smooth-talking ladies' man and a slick criminal mastermind, and his sidekick Fiona Fox presented as a legitimate villain with an actually-well-explained motive and a successful career as a foe of the Freedom Fighters under her belts, instead of a poorly-written piece of Hot Topic-styled jailbait arm candy.

This can result in good things... or it can result in the writer developing an inflated ego, believing themselves to be completely superior to canon (Though they often are, it's always good to be humble), or, in the less-skilled cases, the "fixed" characters turning into creator's pets and being used very badly.

 

Instead of always doing this, why not embrace these mistakes? Now, I'm not for a second suggesting that you should start writing flimsy characters and bad stories. Instead, I'm suggesting that you look at these cases and ask yourself "Why are they portrayed this way?", "Why does this not make sense?", "How could I explain this without changing the events depicted?" And then do that. Don't change things you think were poorly-done, explain them and make them work in the universe.

This is something I attempted with Fiona myself. I looked at her portrayal, and tried to come up with explanations for why she turned against her friends, what her motives were, why she'd suddenly be into someone who she'd previously been visibly put off by? Unfortunately, I didn't draw up any explanations that didn't involve mind control, but that's not necessarily a bad thing- Mind control is a very common theme in Sonic material, has been since at least one of the manuals for the original Sonic 1, and it does actually work, in a way. After all, who was Scourge working for at the time? Doctor Finitevus. Who does Fiona work for and display a heavy amount of loyalty to after Scourge is captured in Bold New Moebius? Doctor Finitevus. Who has displayed the ability to brainwash people, and did so with one very high-profile hero, completely inverting their morals? Doctor Finitevus. And who is one of the best villains the Sonic franchise has ever had? Doctor Finitevus. So in doing this, I explained a plothole in a character's story without removing everything after the plothole and starting again from scratch, I kept it close to one of the running themes of the franchise, I hit all the important points, and I tied it to one of the franchise's best villains.

 

So yeah, you don't always have to rewrite bad moments, you can always take a different route and explain it, making the bad point work without throwing out anything that grew from it, including potentially good moments.