Discussion Fan Fic Pet Peeves?

Is that necessarily glorification, or is it an attempt to portray that crossover realistically?

I love Star Wars and I love Star Trek, and I love them equally. I see them as two entirely different things (Star Trek as science fiction, Star Wars as space fantasy) and I cringe when I see "Star Wars vs. Star Trek." However, if I had to give what I feel is a realistic attempt at saying who would win in a battle of technology, I would have to give it to Star Wars. There would be no competition there. By the time you get to the films, there's at least 25,000 years of space travel and technological development. The latest point in Star Trek canon, the 31st Century (the future that a character from Star Trek: Enterprise hailed from), is still only a thousand years removed from us. It's only a thousand years of space travel for humanity, and not much more than that for the other interstellar races.

Therefore, in terms of technological advances and the weapons that could be developed over time, Star Wars has a colossal head start. When you consider the amount of time and technological advances that led to an Imperial Star Destroyer versus the amount of time and technological advances that led to the USS Enterprise, the "What would win in a fight?" question seems really easy to answer. At least to me.

So I would just add caution to your statement about one side obliterating the other, because it may not necessarily be one author imposing their personal preference of franchises onto the outcome of a battle.

I don't deny that. Its when the author makes the fic precisely for that purpose. I may generally avoid them, but there are some VERY well written ST/SW stories out there, and yes, some very good ones that show how much of a stomp it would be for the Wars side.

So let me rephrase that...when it is a fic written entirely for the purpose of stomping one side because you don't like them.

I just read a fic where the speech was either all in italic, or all in bold. I read the first chapter and got a headache.

I had to download it, and change the font. Pity that the author did that, because it was really very good other than the poor formatting choice.

I only italic thoughts and ship names.

And I only bold authors notes.

I only italicize thoughts and ship names, as well. Why? Oldest reason in the book: It's what I was taught and what I observed.

Occasionally, I've seen flashbacks written in italics. I've toyed with that, too. It does help to delineate it from the rest of the story. However, I prefer the simple "Now" and "Then" headings and making sure that flashbacks start with a new chapter. Again, oldest reason in the book: It's what I was taught and what I observed.

I would say that I hate it when an author can't keep their own continuity straight, but honestly... I'm guilty of this, too. My reason being is that further along in a series, I'll come up with something else that I like better than what I had already established. Do I retcon what I had before? Not really. I tend to just ignore it if it's small and trivial enough, or work on allowing both items to coexist side-by-side. In that regard, when authors seemingly forget about their own continuity (and I don't mean obvious flubs), I hazard that they, like me, had come up with something else that they simply liked better. Now, if it's an obvious flub, a blatantly obvious flub, like all-out changing the established locale of something, the character's preferred vehicle, their clothes in the next paragraph, etc... then it's irritating.

I tend to italicize flashbacks myself, in addition to headers. But that's just the way I learned it.

Why do you pick on Tim Zahn that way?

To be honest, I actually haven't read any of his work other than the Thrawn Trilogy and the Hand of Thrawn Duology. Does he write glory fics for his characters?

You just mentioned them. Although Outbound Flight may have been even more of a glory fic for Thrawn.

Well I never had any bad experience with the Hand of Thrawn. That said, the Thrawn Trilogy itself is very critically acclaimed, and some people even like to think of it as the sequel trilogy. I didn't realize anyone considered it a glory fic.

I don't like Thrawn for how he's glorified in stories. He was the mastermind behind the Rebel defeat on Hoth? Please...

Wait...WHAT? How the kriff did I miss that?

And here I thought it was just overwhelming force that won for the Empire (that and the Rebels weren't TRYING to win).

EDIT: Wait...stories? As in fanfics? Please tell me that's right and Thrawn at Hoth isn't canon.

According to the Essential Reader's Companion, events in a short story called Side Trip where Thrawn suits up as Jodo Kast and gives Black Sun trouble, and the events in Choices of One make it seem that the Empire owes its triumph at Hoth to Thrawn. It was he who narrowed down the search to ice planets, he whose actions at Derra IV made certain that the Rebels at Hoth wouldn't have enough equipment, and he who recommended putting Veers in command of the ground forces.

WHAT. THE. KRIFF. ZAHN.

I was willing to accept Thrawn as he was. Overly impressive as he was...but this is just over the top. And I thought that they didn't limit the search to Ice Planets...Ozzel (idiot he may be) seemed convinced that it couldn't be there. Which would imply finding Hoth was a stroke of luck. I repeat...what the kriff?

So, yes... Character-glorification fics, either one shots or a whole damn series of fics that do little else than to show how awesome that character is and how others pale in comparison, how it was all their doing that won this or achieved that... Big pet peeve. And an even BIGGER pet peeve when I see it in professional work.

And people ask me why I hate Thrawn...

Well, assuming I ever get back to writing it, my SW/Earth story will have Thrawn get knocked down a peg. Assuming I ever get back to it.

I love Zahn and Outbound Flight and Choices of One. *shrug*

I also love Zahn's work. I don't think having glorified characters is that bad. This is Star Wars afterall. I expect some heroic figures. Without some Mary Sue qualities you end up with boring characters....like in the book Children of the Jedi...Gods even Luke is boring in that book.

Personally, I love what I've read of Zahn's work. Simple really, in that most of what I've read is the older stuff...before they tried to claim Thrawn was the reason for Hoth.

This is what happened: because of the types of materiel the Rebels acquired, Thrawn pointed out that their base would probably be on a planet with a cold climate.

If you're a Thrawn hater, you can say "SEE! Zahn is glorifying Thrawn!"

If you're a Thrawn lover, you can say "SEE! Thrawn is TEH BEST!"

If you're Thrawn ambivalent, like me, you can say "Neat!" and move on.

Personally I don't let it bother me that much. Its just somewhat annoying considering ESB made it fairly clear they weren't expecting an ice-planet.

Anyway, there is FAR worse stuff in fanfic after all.

Glorifying one character at the expense of all others is bad - if one is exceptional compared to competent others, not so bad. IMHO.

I agree. I like to see people good at certain things. Ghent is a top slicer, Wedge is the pilot, Mace is the uber-lightsaber master, Luke is the adorble Farmboy turned Jedi, Leia is the princess that can fight like she's a Special Forces soldier, Han is the smuggler that can get out of almost any bad situation, Lando is the lady's man.

Now if you had Luke coming off of Tatooine and within a couple years he became the expert pilot, slicer, lightsaber master, smuggler, lady's man...then that would be a bit too much.

I much prefer the heroic figure than the spice addicted Cade Skywalker who makes bad choice after bad choice. Poor Force Ghost Luke had to come back as a Drug Addiction Interventionist.

I'm fairly certain that someone somewhere has done a fic like that.

As long as the other characters aren't portrayed as little more than blithering idiots, or the opposition isn't there simply to make that character look good, then having a character who is a bit better than the others is fine. Just make sure that there is a character somewhere who is a bit better than that character. There is always a bigger, and better fish.