Fanon Stereotypes! or How We Learned to Continue Worrying and Rant a Bunch

[jazzflower92]

I don't know if anyone remembers but in Crisis Core Sephiroth invokes the issue of Shinra and himself. He said even he thinks that the company could see him as expendable just like with his friends. It seems to show that to some extent Sephiroth knows that Shinra does see him as a powerful weapon who can discard him when outlives his use.

 

[Roger]

To be fair to Angeal and Genesis, do you think once they grew those wings, the Science department would just have let them continue working for SOLDIER? It was rebel or risk being dissected.

From what I can tell they can retract the wings back into their bodies whenever they want to though. And would they? They're SOLDIER First Classes, Genesis was commander of a huge battlegroup during wartime. Hojo might have the authority to pluck them out of circulation but he doesn't care about anything Hollander made.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

One that's not that common but annoys the crap out of me when I see it is when Cid is portrayed as an idiot. Cid is probably the smartest member of the party(besides Red XIII, obviously). He is shown to be a capable pilot, engineer, and astronaut, which one needs great intelligence for. Sure he stubbornly wanted to take off without checking the last engine, but as BC reveals, as far as he knew he'd had it checked and it was fine and didn't need to be checked again. But throughout the compilation, he has been constantly shown to be a mechanical genius, being able to design and build ships(such as the Sierra), make rockets(the hole in Aerith's church is implied to be from a test rocket Cid fired one day), etc.

One that more confuses me than anything is the portrayal of Reno as a womanizer/pervert. As far as I know this has never been shown in the compilation, yet he's portrayed like this in nearly every fanfic. It makes me wonder if he actually has and I just missed it.

Also, the sheer number of post-VII fanfics not depicting Cloud and Tifa as being in a relationship appalls me, especially when a large number of them are Cloti fics.

Spoiler: Addendum

I love the title of this thread's reference to Dr. Strangelove; or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

 

[jazzflower92]

Or how about Gast and Sephiroth's connection with each other. Although the Compilation hasn't shed any further light on their relationship many fan writers try to expand what it could have been like and how long he was in Sephiroth's younger years. Some people have him be until he was three while others say it was until he was seven or eight. Not to mention how involved was Gast with Sephiroth is left up to interpretation as well. Some say it was minimal and it left a big impact while others think he was actually somewhat constant in Sephiroth's life until he left.

 

[Roger]

One that more confuses me than anything is the portrayal of Reno as a womanizer/pervert. As far as I know this has never been shown in the compilation, yet he's portrayed like this in nearly every fanfic. It makes me wonder if he actually has and I just missed it.

Nope, Rude, Tseng, Elena and Cissnei we know who they like, Reno nuthing.

 

[jazzflower92]

Nope, Rude, Tseng, Elena and Cissnei we know who they like, Reno nuthing.

Speaking of Cissnei after reading Final Fantasy 7: Another Side it has made people into Sephissnei shippers. Yeah, its a crack pairing on the outside but underneath it really develops the two out into a plausible couple.


https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6595872/1/Final-Fantasy-VII-Another-Side

 

[CameoAmalthea]

One that's not that common but annoys the crap out of me when I see it is when Cid is portrayed as an idiot. Cid is probably the smartest member of the party(besides Red XIII, obviously). He is shown to be a capable pilot, engineer, and astronaut, which one needs great intelligence for. Sure he stubbornly wanted to take off without checking the last engine, but as BC reveals, as far as he knew he'd had it checked and it was fine and didn't need to be checked again. But throughout the compilation, he has been constantly shown to be a mechanical genius, being able to design and build ships(such as the Sierra), make rockets(the hole in Aerith's church is implied to be from a test rocket Cid fired one day), etc.

One that more confuses me than anything is the portrayal of Reno as a womanizer/pervert. As far as I know this has never been shown in the compilation, yet he's portrayed like this in nearly every fanfic. It makes me wonder if he actually has and I just missed it.

I think both these trends come down to accents and stereotyping.

Cid's accent is "country" so people tend to write him as an idiot, because the "country" accent is associating with bumbling stupidity. While the canon Cid subverts the "stupid country hick" stereotype by making Cid a literal rocket scientist, but the fandom still can't see beyond the way he speaks.

Similarly, Reno sounds slangy and although this isn't really shown in the English translations, fans are aware of how he sounded in the original Japanese and try to approximate it with "yo's" and whatever they see as equivalent slang. Be it American "ghetto" or London street kid or a [spoiler="mix'] (I'm writing a collab fic with a Cherry. I grew up in the projects in the US so my sense of slang is very American and she's British, so half of writing is explaining to each other what slang words mean and which we think would fit for Reno here). [/spoiler]

From his manner of speech people assume Reno is from the slums and from there we get the "bad boy" image. In canon all we know about Reno is he drinks, he speaks in slang, and he gossips about other people's love lives, but writers assume from the first two that he is from the wrong side of the tracks and has all the "vices" you'd associate with that kind of boy (drinking, smoking, sex, drugs, rock and roll). He falls into the "rough" archetype, the desirable "bad boy" and with that comes the assumption that he's a womanizer.

In short, it's all stereotyping. People who talk ghetto are "bad boys", people who talk country are "idiots".

 

[jazzflower92]

In some fanfictions they amp up Zack's immaturity to make him seem more puppy like.

 

[Clement Rage]

Does Reno ever actually say 'yo' as a verbal tic in canon? The only one I remember is a few natural-ishs ones in AC along the lines of 'yo rude'

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It hasn't been used in an official English localization, no. It would be a valid localization, though, to express his informal speech mannerisms.

 

[jazzflower92]

Or how about Hojo in fanon being considered Wutaiian. I know nothing has confirmed about him being Wutaiin descent but most people think he is because of his name. Also if Hojo is full Wutaiian this would make Sephiroth half Wutaiian. Something that a lot of fans have lashed onto as well.

 

[CameoAmalthea]

In the Japanese he says zo to (ぞ, &#12392, yo to (よ, &#12392, or simply to (&#12392 at the end of his sentences. These don't mean anything, but the closest approximation in English is "yo". When not used as greeting or pronoun, 'yo' is a meaningless slang word tacked on at the end of sentences, a space filler.

I've seen some writers who are against having Reno say "yo" because "it makes him sound like an idiot" (personally, I do not think slang and intelligence are mutually exclusive). Personally, I feel that it's a fair to try to capture Reno's verbal tics even if Japanese slang cadence isn't completely translatable. I think the official translation simply dropped the meaningless/untranslatable slang words because they don't have a direct translation and are more "flavor".

As for race? Anyone could be bi-racial, it doesn't matter to me what writers choose to do. I personally never read Hojo as Wutain and assumed the name Hojo came from Kabbalah (like Sephiroth).

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Cid is probably the smartest member of the party(besides Red XIII, obviously).

No, it's still Cid.

 

[Skan]

In the Japanese he says zo to (ぞ, &#12392, yo to (よ, &#12392, or simply to (&#12392 at the end of his sentences. These don't mean anything, but the closest approximation in English is "yo". When not used as greeting or pronoun, 'yo' is a meaningless slang word tacked on at the end of sentences, a space filler.

I've seen some writers who are against having Reno say "yo" because "it makes him sound like an idiot" (personally, I do not think slang and intelligence are mutually exclusive). Personally, I feel that it's a fair to try to capture Reno's verbal tics even if Japanese slang cadence isn't completely translatable. I think the official translation simply dropped the meaningless/untranslatable slang words because they don't have a direct translation and are more "flavor".

As for race? Anyone could be bi-racial, it doesn't matter to me what writers choose to do. I personally never read Hojo as Wutain and assumed the name Hojo came from Kabbalah (like Sephiroth).

I can't stand the "yo" tic myself, and I sometimes do say "yo" (verbally). A few times is fine, but it sounds odd when it's tacked onto the end of practically every single sentence Reno utters (which I've seen in some fics). No doubt the English translation of FF7 is influencing me here, but I'd just prefer it if people utlized their knowledge of English slang to capture his speech rather than throwing yo's around willy-nilly as if that makes everything he says informal slang.

 

[jazzflower92]

You know whenever I see a fan fiction that has Sephiroth's Crisis Core personality it usually has him drinking and having a strong liking for coffee. Its probably to show how demanding his job was while working for Shinra.

 

[Starling]

Why is it that so many Cloti fics never mention the Highwind scene and act like neither admitted/made their feelings clear to each other at any point in time post-AC? Is it that the awkward not-yet couple dancing around each other until one or both admit their feelings and they makeout is the only plot they can think of writing because that's all I ever seem to find.

Also, making pre-Nibelheim Cloud a moe fanboy that can't be in the same room as Sephiroth without freaking out and has a massive poster of him hanging in his room. Those portrayals also tend to have him be pretty much unable to do anything without someone else's help or encouragement no matter who he's shipped with, if at all.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I'm fond of the "yo" in calculated doses, and when used in concert with other informal speech.

 

[Roger]

Those portrayals also tend to have him be pretty much unable to do anything without someone else's help or encouragement no matter who he's shipped with, if at all.

This right here. You'd think Cloud needed Zack to teach him how to walk in a straight line if most Crisis Core fanfics are to be believed.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

This right here. You'd think Cloud needed Zack to teach him how to walk in a straight line if most Crisis Core fanfics are to be believed.

The nadir of this characterisation of Cloud came for me in the doujinshi "Honey Blade" by Kiki, where Cloud is rescued from being gang-raped by a bunch of street louts by Reno (of all people!). I don't know which is more insulting to poor Cloud, the idea that he's incapable of defending himself against four yobs, or bringing a Turk in to rescue him.

It's here should anyone wish to see it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND5YWFwxYW8

PS If Reno were Canadian he'd put "eh?" at the end of his sentences, and if he were a Cockney (which is what his speech patterns remind me of) he'd put "innit?" at the end of his sentences.

 

[Starling]

As a Canadian I have to say the use of "eh" is far more prevalent in media than what I hear on a regular basis and I mostly hear it from french speakers as a way to prompt someone else to answer them, to turn a declarative statement into a question, gauge the person's current interest in what you're saying or simply as a substitute for what. It often sounds more like "ah" than "eh" for that matter but that may just be the specific region I'm from, since just about everyone speaks french as well as english. I've also never heard someone say "aboot" save for maybe a joke or two about Canadian stereotypes. Sometimes they emphasize it to the point where it gets pretty annoying, particularly because it's out loud rather than written like the use of "yo" for Reno in fanfiction. It wouldn't be so bad if the writer could make it sound more natural and maybe use other slang for variety.

 

[Octo]

Ok I think the whole 'yo' thing with reno has got totally out of hand. I swear to god I never heard of anyone adding yo to the end of a sentence before AC came out. And then 90% of fanfics have him saying it every five minutes. It's a japanese affectation isn't it? So unless he is speaking japanese he shouldn't be saying it. It just sounds weird, like he's turned into a weeboo saying 'desu' all the time. It's jarring and it annoys the fuck out of me.

EG

"Yo, Rude, lets go grab a beer" =ok

"Yo, Rude, lets go grab a beer yo" = No just no.

All we need to know is that Reno has a casual speech style whatever language he's speaking in.

/rant

 

[Strangelove]

The act of having characters saying some unique verbal tic at the end of sentences to give them an individual speech is something a lot more common in Japanese and I think just works better there.

 

[Master Bates]

The act of having characters saying some unique verbal tic at the end of sentences to give them an individual speech is something a lot more common in Japanese and I think just works better there.

Naruto's dattebayo comes to mind.

One Piece has lots of them as well.

But so do other popular shounens.

 

[Starling]

There's also Raijin's "Ya know?"

As for the yo thing, it's acceptable to end a sentence with it:

"What's up, yo?"

"Catch ya later, yo!"

But using it in multiple sentences in a row or within the same one is a big no.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yes, I've heard it used many times, including long before AC came out. It's an affectation I personally associate with an inner city kind of young crowd, which is probably also true of a lot of fanfic writers who have written Reno as originating from the slums.

I've also heard Canadians using "eh?" a fuckton in Ontario.