Let's Talk Fanfiction!! {Closed}

Hello, hypocrite me.

You're probably thinking," Wow. Another update. She must be really bored."

And you would be right.

So before you read this rant, hear me out.
There's a couple of dorks on here who reeeeaaally like pranking to the point where they made an account for it.

LazyLyrics

This is where you as the reader can enter these contests in their book "Hall of Pranksters" (above).
The prizes are as follow:

1st: Votes on every chapter of a story you wrote, follow, and a special shout-out (and a place in the Hall of Pranksters).

2nd: A follow and a special shout-out

3rd: a special shout-out

The rules will be on their profile.
I have no idea what these pranks will be except for "lyric pranks" that are either the monthly or the weekly challenges...or both?

I dunno.
But I have a friend who is one of the admins and since apparently more people read this than I thought, they asked if it could be advertised on here.

SO.
If you're looking for a free follow or a few more reads on a book OR you just love practical jokes as much as these two geeks do, then I HIGHLY suggest checking this out.
Heck, I might even join in.

And now for what you actually came to read.

I've already pointed out that once upon a time I beat up guys.
Never girls. I will never fight a girl. (I am not sexist, I'm a girl, but last time I even argued with another chick, she started telling everyone that I hit her. And I didn't. So no I do not fight them.)

Anyways, I guess you could label me a "bully" because of it. And I'm no stranger to calling people names.

Which is probably why I hate how people make "bullies" in stories. Especially fanfiction.
Sometimes the Canon character will be the bully and the OC will be the one being bullied. And the only reason the Canon is bulling the OC is because
A.) they secretly like the OC
B.) they have a terrible home/past

There's no other reasoning. That's it. Right there.

I mean, what other reasoning could there be, right? Love and sadness– the two reasons why anyone snaps!!

Except that wasn't my case and I'm sure it wasn't the case for billions of others labeled as "bullies".

Or sometimes the OC is being picked on by a different person. This said person goes over the top by throwing paper airplanes, rocks, cuss words on a daily basis– all for no apparent reason. And then the Canon comes in and kicks their butt.

I'm sure somebody somewhere out in this big world is acting like that towards somebody else.
But I think in most cases, the bully doesn't realize what they're doing is wrong.

This one time I got into a fight with this boy. A total jerk, really. He'd been a bully himself, especially to one of my friends. So I went up to him and for the next two days we called each other names because neither one of us wanted to fight.

Because who would hit a short girl, right?

In the end, I was the one in trouble because I was the one who started it. They called it "harassment", and I was suspended. That kid walked away record clean– but he left my friend alone when he found out she was part of my group.

I didn't realize that was considered "bullying" because I thought I had good reasoning for it.
But either way, it was me being a jerk. It took me a long time to realize it.

And I think that's a scenario we often forget when it comes to writing. We always want to make our OCs flawless that sometimes we make other characters outrageously flawed. Like making someone pick on the MC for no real reason.

At the same time, I think we get the perspective of the victim wrong. And that's a terrible way to put it because there's no "wrong" way of being bullied.
I've seen so many scenarios where the OC just gives up. Someone else has to fight for them (like the fricking Canon character, of course). Or they'll just blow up and leave the bully stunned.

And while these two scenarios probably happen quite often in real life, they don't happen ALL THE TIME and they certainly don't end all the same way. What if the victim's bully was someone very close to them? Someone they really, really cared about? Let's just say it's a little brother or a little sister. And no one in the family considered it bullying because all siblings fight, right?
Except the MC wasn't fighting back because he/she didn't want to hurt their little sibling. So this endless cycle of hurt just goes on and on and on and no one really does a thing about it.

What's the reaction for that? Is there even a protocol?
We've always been told if we're being "bullied" that we should either ignore them, fight back, or go tell someone.
But none of these options would actually solve the problem because, again, it's the MC being unknowingly bullied by someone they cared about.

It's situations like these that I don't see enough in stories. Everybody and everything has to be "good" or "bad" so that the story's clearly on the MC's side. There's never any really complicated issues like this that actually have to make you think. Which side is wrong? Is there even a wrong side if the antagonist doesn't realize they're antagonizing?
Or does the MC really deserve it?

WELP, there's my lovely tale of why I'm a jerk!
Vote!
Comment!
And I will see YOU in the next rant!