User blog comment:Adelina Le Morte March/Fanfiction Pains: annoying things I've noticed related to Merlin fanfics/@comment-5995315-20130126141054

The annoying thing about fanfic is the slash that pops up everywhere, along with vulgar photoshops and invariably beginner-level drawings. It's impossible to do a search without seeing slash.

I don't read fanfic. The actual Merlin gives everyone a world of interpretations and things to talk about without pulling stuff out of thin air. And you're right that the plots they come up with are implausible. The talentless fiction I've seen is devoid of creativity or style.

Although I'm all for the Merlin/Arthur relationship as a same-sex bond of some kind, what the fanfic and art dwells on is romance. That's the least likely way the two related to each other, given the actual episodes, so this "feminization" of the pair really grates at me. There's a dull sameness to it all, as if nobody else on the planet had ever thought up a romantic angle. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be the case.

The good thing about it is that it's so tasteless and awful that it's obvious to anyone who comes across it that some kid or wannabe writer put it online as a matter of ego. I hope it will eventually drop off the Internet radar.

Edit to add:  I know there are some serious fanfic sites out there, and I saw on Goodreads that at least one fanfic book is coming out. My gripe is aimed mostly at the stories mixed in helter skelter throughout cyberspace that take me be surprise.