actually, I made myself very very angry. so now you all get to hear the tale!
So, years ago, I was in a fandom and this fandom had a handful of main characters. Let's call them G, K, and B.
- G was my favorite character
- K was their canon love interest (and also one of my favorite characters)
- B was G's first cousin
- i hate B (to this day, even though I'm not in the fandom anymore)
I shipped G/K, which was canon. But the biggest ship in the fandom (at that time) was B/G.
Anyway, back on FanFiction.Net I got a PM offering to do a "Review Exchange" where the author PMing me would read and comment on my fic if I read and commented on one of their fics in return. They were a B/G shipper.
But whatever. I figured just reading something short was no big deal and they had a bunch of one-shots on their profile to choose from (I chose the shortest one).
It was a split timeline fic showing two different outcomes depending on who B chose to marry. The fist part being where B chose to marry his canon love interest at the time, G married K, G and K had a kid together and were happy, and B became President of Earth. The second half was if he married G and the author wanted the reader think this should be the better future because B was happier. But, B and G were living in a dingy camping van with their grandfather (who was somehow okay with both his grandchildren getting married?), B was unemployed and the family had no source of income, and, the new was reporting on how gross it was that B married and fathered a child with his cousin. And we're supposed to think this is the good future? Because B is happy?
First of all, B is the worst character. He is a shitty, egotistical, self-centered garbage human being.
Second of all, how come his choice is the only choice that matters? What about G's choice? G very clearly wanted K and the author didn't bother to EXPLAIN why G made a decision that went against everything they were shown to want in canon. But the author was all like "noooo~oo all B had to do is tell G he likes them then G will just fall into his arms bCaUsE hE's ThE hErO..." As if G has no autonomy of their own. (Yes, I know they're fictional. But they wrote B as if he were a nuanced person and wrote G as of they were just a sexy lamp.)
Finally, if you write for the most popular ship in a fandom and you have to barter with people to get comments, maybe you just write shitty fic! Like, if you write for the most popular ship in your fandom and can't get people from your own camp of that fandom to review your story, then you're doing something wrong.
But it was an exchange, so I wrote a polite review saying I disagreed with the conclusion but it was interesting to see a different perspective. Very short. Polite. I didn't direct it (mostly because I just didn't wanna invest anymore time in it than I already did).
Anyway, their review of my fic was along the lines of "this was very well written but I disagree with everything in it" and then it was three more paragraphs about how I should have made B the central focus (I made him a side character, honestly, I wish I could have just never included him at all), and that G shouldn't be with K because of something he did when they were children that was later retconned out anyway. G should be with B.
And I just like... did you request a "Review Exchange" because you thought it gave you license to be a jerk?"
Anyway, moral of the story is:
If someone approaches you bartering for comments on fic, don't do it!
Fan fiction is meant to be fun and if you have to put yourself through something unpleasant to buy a comment that will probably suck anyway, you're better off just not getting a comment.
