Issue 12: January 20, 2013 |
As I was pondering what to write for the WLS issue this weekend, I remembered the irony that the WLS tends to focus on writing itself. For a newsletter that revolves around anything fanon-related, why shouldn't we have content that reflects the essence of an actual fanon? And I mean that literally. Forget writing an article about the common trends of "life" in the fanon portal (my original plan) - I'm just plain-out writing about life here now. As in I've written this as a fanon author. You'll see what I mean.
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Searching for other real-world allusions on the fanon portal, I discovered two that reference the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, Jump by Azulazulazula with a tribute through the series infobox and Alone by Millennia2 with the chapters "Twin Towers," Parts 1, 2, and 3. If you haven't been able to piece this together already, Heiress of the Nile by Lady Lostris, which is objectively one of the most well-written fanons on the wiki, takes place along the Nile River in Egypt and the setting reflects the time and culture of the Ancient Egyptians.
I was also able to catch up with Typhoonmaster, who shared some of the real-life influences in his writing. His one-shots, Happiness and Determination, are influenced by the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ryan Bradbury and the Rocky series, respectively. He also told me that his Dreams has the underlying theme of euthanasia, a topic he says he can understand both sides of but has no position himself.
A different user, who has elected to stay anonymous, was at first confused when I asked him/her of his/her fanon contained any real-world references. After I explained, he/she made it clear that he/she was not a fanon. "I hate when people think they can just steal from another show or something or something that like actually happened and just wham into their fanon," she/she said. "It's like they just couldn't think of anything themselves, because they have absolutely no creativity." As someone who is guilty of everything this user has described, I asked further questions about the matter, to which he/she responded "I think some people just don't know how to write for their life so they just Avatarise everything that already exists." (Gulp. Hopefully this person hasn't read my fanons…)
So what do you think? Are authors "referencing" or "cheating?" Are these examples "influences" or "stolen material?" Check out the poll below! | ||||
Fanon-writing is a creative activity, just like other forms of writing. The fanon portal of Avatar Wiki is home to a lot of creative authors with creative stories based on the Avatar franchise. For many, though, the creativity does not end with writing the stories themselves. With the wide array of possibilities wiki-coding has to offer, users can decide how best to set up their fanon articles, chapters and story pages. Just like with anything else, trends and fashions change over time. Avatar Wiki has been witness to this for fanon story pages in the 3 1/2 years since the merger.
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Ugly People
Love the Fanon Urban Dictionary? Miss any definitions? See the complete collection here! | ||||
Hey there, God here with the latest scoop on the Fanon Advertising System. This week's winner is TheLoKnessmonster for his thoughts on Avatar: Advent of Earth. The fanon is full of beautiful title cards and a riveting story.
It's 220 ASC, thirty years after Korra's death, and the legacy of the Avatar is all but forgotten. Killed in her sleep by a force that to this day remains a mystery, Korra was not reincarnated. Naturally, her spiritual disappearance was followed by a short era of mass hysteria, but... as the four nations remained undisturbed by conflict in her absence, her memory slowly faded from the earth. Three decades passed, and still, this peace remained. The same cannot be said for our world, which seems to be stuck in an era of conflict, and struggle. However, one fateful day, a wormhole inexplicably opens, leading from our solar system to a destination unknown. Unbeknownst to our technologically advanced civilization, on the other side lies the Avatar Earth, where a historic event is taking place. The United Republic of Nations, commonly abbreviated to “the URN”, has won a worldwide space race, and is leading its sister nations into the final frontier by sending a rocket filled with intrepid individuals to its only moon. However, this groundbreaking expedition takes an unexpected turn when another wormhole suddenly opens out of nowhere, and sucks the rocket in! Thus, it and its crew soon come flying out the other end, in the skies of Our Earth!
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Fanon Word Search
Newsletters have these sorts of things, so why not? Here's a little something for any WLS readers who appreciate a good puzzle.
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Fanontastic Polls
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