Board Thread:Fanon Discussion/@comment-4598697-20140407203338/@comment-10860529-20140615040047

Emmarainbow432 wrote: Not to mention how one popular OC of one fairytale starts off a list of new ones who have just a variation of that name (Jane Hook started the lines of Jake, Jackson, and Janelle Hook). While I definitely condemn copying off older or more popular OCs, I'm going to play devil's advocate with the Jane Hook example by saying that I honestly don't think that people were purposely copying Jane's popularity by giving their Hook OCs names that start with the letter J. Captain hook's first name is James after all and if very much begins with the aforementioned letter, so it actually makes sense for that to be a trend among fan-children for such an infamous villain.

On the topic of of stories: While I know that a lot of the stories I've used aren't too obscure (The Ugly Duckling, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, ect), I find it refreshing when people choose lesser known tales to base their characters on. Another thing that I'd love to see more often are others' takes on minor characters from more famous tales. We've seen a lot of Little Mermaid OCs and maybe a sea witch here and there, but what about the prince, or whoever princess was selected to be the woman that he falls in love with? And the titular character's sisters as well, although I could probably name maybe two or three I've seen floating around. Admittedly I've guilty of choosing the main character(s) of given stories from time to time, but I think a lot of us have as well.

To bring up a semi-new problem, here's something I noticed: On one hand yes, there are a lot of Frozen-based OCs. While it's annoying, I'm also going to be honest when I say that I've seen more properly made Snow Queen fan characters than I've seen accurate Aladdin OCs.

In fact, without actively looking for both Snow Queen and Aladdin-based characters, the amount of said accurate Aladdin OCs can be counted with one hand, at maybe about 2. While Frozen carbon copies might seem rampant, I've also seen a lot of promising Snow Queen-related OCs.

Which leads to my main point: Lately I've been disapointed that stories set outside of Europe featuring characters of color are more apt to be ignored or be done inaccurately simply based on inaccurate adaptations and their origins being less likely known as common knowledge. Which isn't to say that the original Aladdin tale in particular is obscure, it's just that more people have probably read Puerperal/Grimm's Cinderella than the have Aladdin from later publications of A Thousand And One nights. It doesn't take long to look up a given tale, but more than a few people are too lazy to do even that and it just makes me wonder if they should bother when they don't even try to acknowledge and respect the culture that a character comes from.

While I know that some more well known fairy tales in the Western hemisphere are from Europe, but just because the show hasn't touched upon stories from outside that particular continent doesn't mean that people should be just as dismissive of them within the fandom. Simply looking up "*insert country/culture/ethnic group* fairy tales/folklore" will do you wonders, seriously. I know I haven't quite taken advantage of non-European tales, but hey - better now than never I guess.

Another thing in mind is that, for both traditionally European tales (although particularly those that might be more popular/universal), sometimes I wish that folks would be a little more daring when it comes to diverse casting choices. If Disney can make an adaptation of the German tale Emperor's New Clothes and change the setting so that it's in South America/the Incan Empire (say what you will about the film's fairy tale accuracy, it kind of was a fun movie), then there's no reason why you can't make your son of the Beast Chinese or your daughter of Clara from The Nutcracker Suite Latina. It'd also be rather interesting to see more multiracial or mixed race OCs, which I think could work well especially for fan characters whose fairy tale parent isn't destined to marry a particular person (the world is a pretty big place and, with advances in travel and immigration, people from all stretches of the world can be found pretty much anywhere if you look closely).

Sorry to ramble, but much of this has been on my mind for a while and I felt the need to net it out. What I've addressed above is one of the big reasons for some of the character aesthetics I've chosen for my characters (Cynthea Mallard, Blanchard Lunaire, ext), and while having less melanin in OCs isn't bad per say, lack of representation is unfortunately a big problem in general that should be addressed here as well.