One look on my FanFiciton.Net account, and you’ll see that besides an avid Mary-Sue guru, I’m an avid CanonxOC shipper, so this complaint seems especially stupid to me because it‘s a little more personal. So what if you’ve read a few bad CanonxOC stories, it doesn’t mean that everyone who writes those pairings is a bad writer or their OCs are Mary-Sues. I like reading them, but it doesn’t mean I don’t run into ones that I end up hating. Maybe it’s just not to your taste.
As long as the character is balanced, follows the rules of the universe, has an explanation that works for the universe for anything abnormal about the character, and as long as the writer keeps everyone in as close to being in character as possible, it’s fine!
Then there’s those people that say “Why would [insert canon character here] like your OC?”
Uh, read the story and find out. Stories usually come with plots and character development, so the answer is usually somewhere in there. This also usually includes why a canon character would break up with, or not be in a relationship with, their original canon partner. I get it. You totally support the CanonxCanon pairing for a bunch of characters (“They are so perfect for each other, so why create an OC to disrupt that?”), and so do a lot of people who would create an OC for one or both of the characters; however there will always be at least a few who didn‘t like the pairing. In my opinion, as long as there is a viable reason for an OC to break up a canon pairing, it’s fine.
“They always end up killing off a character!”
As much as I agree that it’s a dick move, and that it does annoy me from time to time, I think it‘s still OK for one of them to die, but you will get even more points if the character was killed off tastefully. Did they have a secret enemy? Maybe it was an unpredictable accident, or perhaps the character has a known mental or physical illness and couldn’t take it anymore, opting for suicide. What will also get you more respect is when the other canon character, the one who didn’t die, is shown to mourn for their loss, and have time to mourn, move on, and develop another romantic bond with someone else. If you plan on killing off a character, there should be time given for these, or else it’ll look like the canon character really didn’t love the other, and just makes them look like a player, cheap, and uninterested. It ultimately depends on how the story is written, and if the reader likes the story or not.
Now what if the canon character met the OC first before their original canon partner? That’s practically a separate string of events creating a new flow for a story. The same amount of romantic development should be applied between the OC and the canon character, but, depending on the plot, it would also be nice to see how the originally intended canon partner reacts to it. Maybe they used to hate the canon character and are glad they aren’t interested, and maybe falls in love with someone else, or maybe they get jealous and react badly to the relationship. It still depends on the priorities of the story and the characters.
Another way would be for the original canon couple to break-up, for whatever reason that is deemed acceptable. Even though they were perfect for each other, maybe one of them was manipulative and abusive, or maybe the love simply fizzled out. It happens. There could be thousands of ways to break-up a canon couple.
I actually had a close call about breaking up a canon couple, but in the end, I’m so glad I decided to write the story (I’m still writing it, but slowly). The main inspiration for writing “Living in a World of Strangers”, my fan fiction revolving around Fruits Basket (Natsuki Takaya), is that I had never seen Akito Sohma in this specific kind of pairing. In the manga version, Akito is a female, but in the anime version, he was declared a male (there were abundances of internet wars going around until it was finally accepted), and so because there was a male version of the character, if Akito was going to be paired with an OC, the OC would probably be female, while Akito would be male. I didn’t like the male version of Akito because he didn’t have any background. He was basically just an evil character who was angry because he was born sick and was probably going to die. In the manga version, she had so much depth and development, that by the time I finished the series, I loved her—a rarity since I am quite choosy about female characters. So, I paired a male OC with a female Akito, but that was the basis of why I wanted to write this fan fiction.
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The Mary-Sue Complaints Checklist
Non-FictionMy second Mary-Sue series revolving around specific complaints most people would declare as Mary-Sueish or considered as bad writing, which I don't agree with. This series includes: Writing solely in second person Using cliches or writing self-inse...
