Limits of Fanfiction - What is appropriate?

[griffon8]

You know, I'm thinking of revising my statement about BEFFs.

There is exactly one bad ending with the potential to be successfully BEFFed, and that bad ending is The Deep End.

Hmm, never thought of my last short writing as the beginning of a BEFF. I just wrote it to give Hisao a new start with a whole new motivation to Not Screw Up This Time.

I have thought about turning it into a route, and have started making notes about it. I don’t have the time to devote to it though. If I did write it, Hisao would be with not saying.

[brythain]

Regarding BEFFs: I do think they can be salvaged, but I'm in agreement with another poster that I don't think they can be done well if they were continuations instead of timeskips. The bad endings come about as a result of bad decisions made by character flaws on behalf of one or both parties (although it leans heavily on Hisao since he's a PoV character), and we never really see past those endings to see how they change the people involved.

I think you're right in the sense that painting a broader canvas can give better perspective. As you point out, many different outcomes can occur over the long term simply because there will be other influences. In terms of negative situations: some people I used to know in high school hate my guts to this day and still malign me behind my back; some people who used to dislike me intensely are now good friends and actually take time to maintain the friendship in very positive ways.

So maybe a ten-year window (as some of our fellow fanfic writers have done) or greater might help clarify things, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer…

[brythain]

I have thought about turning it into a route, and have started making notes about it. I don’t have the time to devote to it though. If I did write it, Hisao would be with not saying.

Oh, I'd wait for that…

[Eurobeatjester]

Regarding BEFFs: I do think they can be salvaged, but I'm in agreement with another poster that I don't think they can be done well if they were continuations instead of timeskips. The bad endings come about as a result of bad decisions made by character flaws on behalf of one or both parties (although it leans heavily on Hisao since he's a PoV character), and we never really see past those endings to see how they change the people involved.

I think you're right in the sense that painting a broader canvas can give better perspective. As you point out, many different outcomes can occur over the long term simply because there will be other influences. In terms of negative situations: some people I used to know in high school hate my guts to this day and still malign me behind my back; some people who used to dislike me intensely are now good friends and actually take time to maintain the friendship in very positive ways.

So maybe a ten-year window (as some of our fellow fanfic writers have done) or greater might help clarify things, for better or for worse, for richer or poorer…

Honestly, the only route I don't see the potential of having a BEFF, even years later, would be Shizune's. While in her bad end she never officially finds out that Hisao cheated on her with Misha, I don't see Shizune ever giving Hisao another chance once that line is crossed because of her character.

The other four? I would see the friendships and good times they had together up until the bad ends to be enough where both Hisao and the girl in question could at least keep something cordial and maybe rekindle a friendship or something further...but it would take a much longer time than the remainder of the last year at Yamaku.

[brythain]

Honestly, the only route I don't see the potential of having a BEFF, even years later, would be Shizune's. While in her bad end she never officially finds out that Hisao cheated on her with Misha, I don't see Shizune ever giving Hisao another chance once that line is crossed because of her character.

Even that one is salvageable in the long term. Shizune is in a self-blaming mood there, and if she found out, she'd probably rationalise it as having driven her two best friends into each others' arms for just one night. And if said friends never did it again (as seems very likely), that rationalisation would probably be strong enough.

[Leaty]

Maybe it's just because failed romances that become strong friendships are something I've always found heartwarming (my roommate is still really close with his ex-wife and I've always found it so sweet,) but I like the idea of Hisao eventually taking Misha's place as Shizune's best friend in a post-bad end scenario.

Something like: Hisao and Shizune came back together as friends after some time avoiding each other (perhaps as a result of Hisao retaining his friendships with Akira, Lilly and Hideaki and eventually encountering Shizune at Lilly's wedding or Hideaki's graduation or something.) They wound up going into the same field, and became co-workers/drinking buddies/whatever, and since neither of them has ever really been good at forming new friendships, they reforge this sort of shared emotional dependency on each other, dealing with their feelings in their own idiosyncratic way--sort of like a Seinfeld/Elaine or Dante Hicks/Randall Graves thing, but played more seriously. They drink together and discuss their relationships (of which all eventually meet disaster,) and just generally act as wingmen to each other.

But then, let's say, Shizune finds love with the right person--somebody who is honestly and truly perfect for her--and Hisao finds that his best friend is drifting away from him, and realizes that for all the effort he's put into his life still hasn't made him any less alienated from others than he was on the first day he met Shizune. He loves Shizune, but they've long since borked their chances at being anything more than best friends, and after everything they've been through, Hisao realizes that he's finally in the position that Misha was in during the route; isolated, and seeing the person they love truly drifting away. And he has to reconcile his happiness for Shizune with his fears that, all along, he's been using her as a crutch, and without her, he can see how unfulfilling a life he wound up making for himself.

...Or something like that. I guess that's not really a BEFF so much as it's a Reconciliation-style fic for Shizune's route. But it's the only Shizune-centric fic I'd ever write.