Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-25898433-20141220121855/@comment-173.58.251.107-20141222004345

Andrew S-997 wrote: I actually have no problem with CannonxOC stories (And by that, I mean simply writing a story where OCs and Cannon characters interact, not necessarly romance one another), it's just hardly ever done well.

If you do it right, it's a great way stress certian aspects of the story or easily tell us some things about a character. Why create a template for interaction if you've been given a perfect one?

Here's an example: "It was his/her first day at Beacon, but ___ couldn't concentrate. Even the Headmsater's current introduction speech was white noise to him/her. All (s)he could focus on was the bowed, shadowy girl in black. She was attractive, __ noted, but there was something... off about her. ___ hummed in thought, attempting to figure out what was so odd about the girl in black. As he did this, though, her bow twitched slightly, she gave him a millisecond glance from across the room, and dissappeared into the crowd. __ chuckeled, saying to his/hersef, 'I do like a good mystery...'". (Forgive me, I wrote it in like 5 minutes, it's not meant to be serious)

From this, we know that the character in question is perceptive, as they pick up on the fact that Blake is trying to hide something right away, her bow twitch, and her quick glance. We also know that they have a rather blunt attitude towards sexuality, simply "noting" her attractiveness and leaving it at that. We know that they're indifferent to Blake's desire to keep her secret, well, secret. All of these things we know because we know about Blake; We're invested in the story because Blake's a part of it, and we want to see what happens if Blake is found out.

It's more about the characters we love than the OC's their creators do.

These things are good for a story. Replace Blake in this scenario with another OC and we lose things we instinctively know about the character, and thus lose knowledge about our main OC.

Problem is, as you have all said, it's always "Mary Sue / Marty Stu and All of the Sex - the Story", by Mr. Horny Teenager.

That doesn't make for a good story or a good... anything, really. I very rarely find a good OC story. The main issue is that basically every story that involves an OC shipping is "My character was sucked into the world of whatever it is I'm writing about and he/she is now going to become a powerful god who will turn all characters I wish into a mindless drooling slave who's only wish is to please the OC". I'd name names, but I'm not stupid and I don't want to make an enemy of anyone.

So I'll just say: To those of you who write RWBY stories where your OC is a superpowered harem god with a nuke firing chaingun who turned Beacon Academy into The Playboy Mansion, you know who you are.

Morrigan Disapproves -Infinity.