J. R. R. Tolkien

Why Do We Ship Non-Canon Couples?

December 15, 2015 // 5 Comments

As fans, we adore the things our favorite writers create for us. Why then do so many of us blatantly ignore canon and obsess over non-canon couples? There are plenty of canon love stories for us, yet for many of us, most of our attention is focused on the non-canon. According to a census of the most popular shipping tags on Archive Of Our Own, the most popular couple tag on the website in 2014 was Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from the tv show Sherlock, who canonically are a pair of mutual //

Why Mary Sues and OCs Are Hated (and Why They’re Not the Same)

November 5, 2015 // 9 Comments

I don’t really mind OCs in fanfiction. Even if a writer uses an OC as a main character, I’m cool with it—as long as the character in question isn’t a Mary Sue. Now, I understand that Mary Sue is a somewhat subjective term. If you ask ten different people what it means, you’ll get ten different answers: A Mary Sue is the author’s wish fulfillment. A Mary Sue is a character whose name and physical traits overcompensate for her lack of personality. A Mary Sue pushes //