My view with all fiction (fanfic, profic, movies and all) is that the plot should always be a slave to the characterization, not the other way around. Because the characters are no-longer the characters I'm interested seeing/reading about if the way they act is based on what the plot dictates, not on "what would Buffy do".
My biggest problem with OOC-characterization is then that it feels like cheating to me; rather than coming up with a way to make the plot work within the boundaries set by the characterization, the writer takes the short-cut and changes the character. I feel the same way about fanon.
As for AUs and ARs - different circumstances can change a character, but the change has to be justified (though I don't get the point of OOC all human AUs - isn't the whole idea of an all human AU to have the same characters in a different setting?). That's actually one of my complaints about the S8 comic - the characters feel OOC, but that could be explained by the fact that 1,5 years has passed from "Chosen", except hat we're not given any explanation why they have changed.
Kinkfic is a whole different matter, IMO, because the kink is the focus there, not the characters or the plot. I don't think a pure kink PWP needs to have strictly canon characterization because it's main function is to just titillate the reader. I do wish, though, that more kinkfic writers would mark the fics as such because a lot of bad feeling comes from people not interested in pure kinkfic reading it and expecting canon characterization, and then leaving bad feedback about the characters. Of course, the line between kink and non-kink isn't set in stone. Take the daddy-kink, for example: I can't see a scenario where Spike would call Angel 'daddy' in all seriousness (especially since he's pretty much the only character in Buffyverse who doesn't have daddy issues), but I can see Angel thinking of Spike as his son in a way (on the other hand, I can't really imagine Angel getting turned on by seeing Spike as his son, unless the story has Angel/Connor undertones...)
And I'm just gonna stop here, I think, before my comment reaches thesis-length - can you guess that I'm having a boring day at work? ;)
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My biggest problem with OOC-characterization is then that it feels like cheating to me; rather than coming up with a way to make the plot work within the boundaries set by the characterization, the writer takes the short-cut and changes the character. I feel the same way about fanon.
As for AUs and ARs - different circumstances can change a character, but the change has to be justified (though I don't get the point of OOC all human AUs - isn't the whole idea of an all human AU to have the same characters in a different setting?). That's actually one of my complaints about the S8 comic - the characters feel OOC, but that could be explained by the fact that 1,5 years has passed from "Chosen", except hat we're not given any explanation why they have changed.
Kinkfic is a whole different matter, IMO, because the kink is the focus there, not the characters or the plot. I don't think a pure kink PWP needs to have strictly canon characterization because it's main function is to just titillate the reader. I do wish, though, that more kinkfic writers would mark the fics as such because a lot of bad feeling comes from people not interested in pure kinkfic reading it and expecting canon characterization, and then leaving bad feedback about the characters. Of course, the line between kink and non-kink isn't set in stone. Take the daddy-kink, for example: I can't see a scenario where Spike would call Angel 'daddy' in all seriousness (especially since he's pretty much the only character in Buffyverse who doesn't have daddy issues), but I can see Angel thinking of Spike as his son in a way (on the other hand, I can't really imagine Angel getting turned on by seeing Spike as his son, unless the story has Angel/Connor undertones...)
And I'm just gonna stop here, I think, before my comment reaches thesis-length - can you guess that I'm having a boring day at work? ;)