I read those essays as well. I think they should be required reading for anyone who plans on writing in Gundam Wing fandom. Those essays made me realise that I would never want to WRITE in the fandom, for the same reason you stated: canon-faithful portrayals are shouted down, met with tar and pitchforks, etc.
Using my main fandom as an example, someone writes a fic about Character A's past. Character A's past is generally unknown, so you could say he came from a broken home and I could say he was the son of a politician and that guy over there with the funny hat could say he grew up in a colony of women. Either take would be considered 'correct' because the truth of the matter is, no one knows. This fic is so well written and other people agree with what is presented, so then they write that as Character A's past in their fics, and it all goes down the line. It becomes a case where fanon is like the new canon, where the fanon is accepted more than the canon, etc. etc. (Except my fandom usually writes Character A in character, but there are certain things that I think everyone who writes Character A puts in there. Like him liking alcohol a whole lot. And I do this too because--oh, look at this--I saw it in a fic, I liked it, it fit in with my image, and I used it.)
But in a fandom like Gundam Wing, I feel that people cling so hard to their image of So-and-so because it's my precious and all that. I came into Gundam Wing fandom a lot later--two years after it had been played in America, seven or so years after it aired in Japan--so I had a different mind-set I guess. I got into it through the dub (all of one episode) and then I, like everyone else, watched fansubs because subtitled anime was generally unheard of, so you had to find it online. And these fansubs, depending on which group you watched, had different takes on lines and dialogue and blah. At least when I had entered the fandom, there was a lot of dub influence, especially on Heero. The whole 'cold, monotone warrior' came from the dub (at least in part) because the casting director told Mark Hildreth (Heero's dubbed voice actor) to sound that way. And I hated him for that lol And if you never saw the original, well, how were you supposed to know? But since I shunned the dub and still do...
I was a weird Gundam Wing fan anyway. Fandom generally shunned me because I A) liked Relena and B) didn't ship Heero/Duo and C) instead shipped Heero/Relena and the only slash pairings I liked were Trowa/Quatre and Heero/Zechs and D) I didn't care what they thought, I was there for Heero.
As someone who comes from Super Smash Brothers fandom (and someone who ships Marth/Roy), I whole-heartedly agree with you. Many of them would argue, however, that Marth and Roy aren't in their own universes, so their characterisations can be thrown out the window there are different influences. Which would be one thing if you were writing an AU, where they turned out different-but-still-recognisable because of Event A. But most of the time it's an excuse to be lazy. I myself, in my younger SSB fandom days, was guilty of this. I think everyone in the fandom was, because especially when I started writing for the fandom (2003), Marth and Roy were those mysterious characters no one outside of Japan had heard of who spoke Japanese and sounded extremely sexy. If you wanted information, you had to use an online translator or find game scripts, which wasn't as easy back then as it is now. And most people aren't go through all that trouble. As a result, you had all the 'fire and ice' metaphors and shitty slash where I could call Marth and Roy 'Bob and Tom' and you wouldn't know the difference.
(I have noticed that my portrayals of Marth and Roy are different depending on if I'm writing for their original fandoms or if I'm writing Smash Brothers. I think I have my headcanon to blame and the fact that I write modern day AU stuff for Smash Brothers. I wouldn't call my portrayals of them in SSB fandom exactly canon breaking either. I consider them better than what I've seen, hahaha.)
You should post that dissertation. I would read it!
I got a little long-winded [Part 1/2]
Using my main fandom as an example, someone writes a fic about Character A's past. Character A's past is generally unknown, so you could say he came from a broken home and I could say he was the son of a politician and that guy over there with the funny hat could say he grew up in a colony of women. Either take would be considered 'correct' because the truth of the matter is, no one knows. This fic is so well written and other people agree with what is presented, so then they write that as Character A's past in their fics, and it all goes down the line. It becomes a case where fanon is like the new canon, where the fanon is accepted more than the canon, etc. etc. (Except my fandom usually writes Character A in character, but there are certain things that I think everyone who writes Character A puts in there. Like him liking alcohol a whole lot. And I do this too because--oh, look at this--I saw it in a fic, I liked it, it fit in with my image, and I used it.)
But in a fandom like Gundam Wing, I feel that people cling so hard to their image of So-and-so because it's my precious and all that. I came into Gundam Wing fandom a lot later--two years after it had been played in America, seven or so years after it aired in Japan--so I had a different mind-set I guess. I got into it through the dub (all of one episode) and then I, like everyone else, watched fansubs because subtitled anime was generally unheard of, so you had to find it online. And these fansubs, depending on which group you watched, had different takes on lines and dialogue and blah. At least when I had entered the fandom, there was a lot of dub influence, especially on Heero. The whole 'cold, monotone warrior' came from the dub (at least in part) because the casting director told Mark Hildreth (Heero's dubbed voice actor) to sound that way.
And I hated him for that lolAnd if you never saw the original, well, how were you supposed to know? But since I shunned the duband still do...I was a weird Gundam Wing fan anyway. Fandom generally shunned me because I A) liked Relena and B) didn't ship Heero/Duo and C) instead shipped Heero/Relena and the only slash pairings I liked were Trowa/Quatre and Heero/Zechs and D) I didn't care what they thought, I was there for Heero.
As someone who comes from Super Smash Brothers fandom (and someone who ships Marth/Roy), I whole-heartedly agree with you. Many of them would argue, however, that Marth and Roy aren't in their own universes, so
their characterisations can be thrown out the windowthere are different influences. Which would be one thing if you were writing an AU, where they turned out different-but-still-recognisable because of Event A. But most of the time it's an excuse to be lazy. I myself, in my younger SSB fandom days, was guilty of this. I think everyone in the fandom was, because especially when I started writing for the fandom (2003), Marth and Roy were those mysterious characters no one outside of Japan had heard of who spoke Japaneseand sounded extremely sexy. If you wanted information, you had to use an online translator or find game scripts, which wasn't as easy back then as it is now. And most people aren't go through all that trouble. As a result, you had all the 'fire and ice' metaphors and shitty slash where I could call Marth and Roy 'Bob and Tom' and you wouldn't know the difference.(I have noticed that my portrayals of Marth and Roy are different depending on if I'm writing for their original fandoms or if I'm writing Smash Brothers. I think I have my headcanon to blame and the fact that I write modern day AU stuff for Smash Brothers. I wouldn't call my portrayals of them in SSB fandom exactly canon breaking either. I consider them better than what I've seen, hahaha.)
You should post that dissertation. I would read it!