Fanfic Fuel: Difference between revisions

Many times a creative work will leave large gaps in a character's [[Backstory]], or not mention what happened between two instances of seeing a character, or object or place. We might get a bit of explanation, usually a throwaway line that suggests a [[Noodle Incident]], but either way we are left to imagine it ourselves.

 

 

Summers between school years in high school dramas are often great sources of Fanfic Fuel, as well as the draw of giving a mysterious character more backstory (which may result in [[Draco in Leather Pants]]) or rewriting things from the perspective of someone else whose viewpoint we never saw in canon.

** [[Backstory]]: L's / Mello's / Near's / B's / Matt's [[Dark and Troubled Past|Dark And Troubled]] [[Mysterious Past]]. What does Wammy's House do and why was it built? / Light's career as a [[Kid Hero|teen detective]] and/or [[For Want of a Nail|what would happen if Light didn't find the notebook]] or [[What If|what would happen if]] {{spoiler|Light didn't get his memories back.}}

* ''[[Dragon Ball]]'' has lots of these. Like the five years between ''Dragon Ball'' and ''Dragon Ball Z'', the time between the Cell and Majin Buu arcs, the years that Goku spent training with Kami-sama, the years of training before the attack of the Androids 19 and 20... there are many others like those. Also, there is the fact that we know there were at least 20 androids created by Dr. Gero, but we don't know all of them; the fact that Saiyans were sent to other planets when they were babies to grow up with the planet's civilization to later destroy them and come back to Planet Vegeta, that let open the idea that there may be other Saiyans still alive, living in the planets they were assigned to destroy; the alternative Universe Future!Trunks came from, and the idea that more alternative dimensions can be created with the Time Machine... ''Dragon Ball'' is totally made out of fanfic fuel. But it was to be expected from a story of such length (and that was mostly improvised by Toriyama!) and for all the [[Plot Holes]] created by the anime series that needed to keep adding fillers while waiting for [[Overtook the Manga|the manga to catch up.]]

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' persistently reveals a lot of background detail to the audience without actually telling them ''anything'', leaving enormous room for speculation. Most of this concerns the past relationship between Spike, Julia and Vicious, though other characters (especially Ein, Wen, and Mad Pierott) aren't exactly lacking.

* Fans of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' have plenty of fun writing for the nations, with all the history between them.

** Every fan has their own opinion about the various inconsistencies of the saga. Some issues (like how the school(s) were created, how magic and technology have evolved together, or how British wizards can possibly be so bloody dumb) are almost never addressed and are calling for a lot of imagination.

* Two points in ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' have launched a thousand fics:

** 2.) Susan's absence in ''[[The Last Battle]]'' is brought up once, quickly dismissed, and never mentioned again. Adding to [[Inferred Holocaust|the potency of]] [[No Endor Holocaust|this fuel]] is the [[Unfortunate Implications|phrasing of the reason given for her absence]].

* [[The Hunger Games]] has [[Elsewhere Fic]] fuel aplenty. After all, ''someone'' (be it a canon character or an OC) has to have won the [[Deadly Game|Games]] for years 1-73, and most of them we know little or nothing about.

* ''[[A Wrinkle in Time]]'', in addition to all the science fiction elements not explored in great detail (the history of the [[Individuality Is Illegal|planet]] [[Dystopia|Camazotz]], the [[Another Dimension|2-dimensional planet]], etc.), there's also the specific story of the project Meg's father was working on (with the tesseract) and what happened to the first man who tried to tesser. He's mentioned ''very'' briefly, when Meg's father is giving Calvin some of the backstory about the project. He left successfully, but they never found out what happened to him (and none of the sequels give any indicator, either).

 

** Wish!Verse: Remember that [[Alternate Universe]] where Buffy never came to Sunnydale? How did Xander get turned? How did Willow? What happened with Darla? How did Angel became a wreck?

** Insert!Dawn-Fic: Everyone in the Cast was given false memories of Buffy's little sister Dawn in the Fifth season. How would any given episode in the first four seasons play out with Dawn there?

** Yet Another Halloween Fic: Also called YAHF for short, these deal with the episode where people wearing cursed Halloween costumes started turning into the things they dressed as. ''[[Halloween World]]'' is probably the most famous among the fandom.

*** Hell, Halloween Fics have sprouted a tiny subgenre: Xander gets all the abilities and hardware (including a certain blue AI) of [[Halo|Spartan-117]]

 

== Tabletop Games ==

 

 

== [[Theater]] ==

** Not to mention the 2 to 5 year (depending on what you like to believe) gap between Act 1 and 2 where we go from Elphaba Defying Gravity to Fiyero and Glinda working for the Wizard and Nessa becoming Governor and enslaving Boq. There's a tonne of missed action just there. Also the fact we only get a few Shiz scenes in the musical...

 

** The introduction of Tartarus and time travel spells in "[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic/Recap/S2/E20 Its About Time|It's About Time]]" has given rise to many fanfics

** Now that the second season finale has aired, it's provided plenty more potential fuel. The biggest example is the finale's [[Big Bad]] Queen Chrysalis, who {{spoiler|isn't killed or [[Sealed Evil in a Can|sealed]], just defeated. Which means she's still out there...}} You tell me that's not a dozen fics just waiting to happen.

* ''[[The Lion King]]'' has a lot of this. For starters, the movie [[Leitmotif]], the never ending Circle of Life, means that you can write entire sagas of the royal lion family. Then, there are lots of characters that were introduced but not developed in comics or books, like Ni, Tama, Tojo. Also there are many story gaps that fanfic writers love to fill, like the years of Scar's reign, or were the Outlanders from the second movie came from.