Not to worry Wade!!

Fanfic is an amateur work of fiction based on an existing movie, TV show, book, etc. If you look at the threads here, you will find tht a lot of us write fanfiction - and usually under the name we post here as (eg: Madilayn, Transmute Jun, Green, etc.)

The largest Gatchaman / Battle of the Planets collection is at Gatchafanfic.com .

One of the largest fanfic collections on the net is at Fanfiction.net and many of us are archived there as well.

You will find fanfic there at: BotP Fanfic
and
Gatchaman Fanfic

You will find tht most of us have a preferred incarnation of the team that we prefer to write about and rarely deviate - usually it is the incarnation we are most familiar with.

Those of us who do write in different incarnations (eg: Gatch and BotP) tend to do so becuse the idea of the fic suits one or the other.

One of the terms to watch for in fanfic is Slash or Yaoi. This means that there is a male homosexual pairing in the story. The term goes back to the late sixties and Star Trek when fandom really kaboomed and there were a lot of Kirk/Spock fics written - and the "slash" came from the slash between the pairing name.

Another term is Ship - short for relationship. Eg: Mark/Princess. Shippers are the fans who support that particular relationship (In the Harry Potter fandom, they go so far as to give the Ships actual names - for example in HP I ship Remus/Sirius and that ship has the name Wolfstar).

Whenever you see names separated by a / then you know that there will be a relationship involved - but it's not always made clear in the description at first.

Interestingly, the Gatch fandom is one where the Slash pairings are not really accepted by a lot of mainstream fans - it may be because so many of us grew up with it and see it as a childhood memory. It's also one of the few fandoms where explicit sexual description (smut!!) is frowned on by a number of fans (again - I think it's the childhood thing).

You may have noticed from threads that some of us do tend to write a lot of smut and I know that I'm one of the few Gatch fan writers who will write a trio of Eagle/Swan/Condor.

Fanfic quality tends to range from semi-professional standard of writing to absolute crap, however Gatch is one of the few fandoms I've come across that seems to have a consistently high standard - again I think it's because the writers are older. We're also better at staying in canon or, when we do break out, it's in a believable way.

Canon and Fanon are another two terms you'll hear a lot.

Basically - Canon is from information we are given in the show, or that comes from the original production house (eg: Tatsunoko for Gatchaman and Sandy Frank for BotP). The Jason Hofius book is considered Canon as the information he uses comes from these sources.

As far as Eagle Riders and G-Force Guardians of Space, then canon for them would come from the shows, plus the Turner Group and Saban respectively.

Fanon is sort of established lore that the fans have come to consensus on. Examples of this are the bird designations from Gatchaman being applied to BotP.

Another popular fanon is that Jason is Italian - simply because Joe is and we know absolutely nothing about Jason's parentage.

Fanon is the supposed relationship between Ken and Jun. In Gatchaman - unlike in BotP - there was no REAL hints of any mutual romantic attachment (perhaps James can correct me on this??).

In BotP however, a mutual attraction between Mark and Princess is canon because it's mentioned a number of times. Fanon is that they don't act on it (although there is debate on that as well).

I hadn't intended to be this long winded, but I wanted to give you some help understanding what you've gotten yourself into.

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"When I'm old, I don't want them to say of me, "She's so charming." I want them to say, "Be careful, I think she's armed." -G. Stoddart

Nice summary, Maddy.

Another big fanon is Jason being Spectran. I think that may have two possible origins: Joe being the child of Galactor and the comic books blending the two universes.

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Perspective Alters Reality

quote:

Originally posted by WadeInLincoln Don't know if I'd be any good at it.... Have enough problems just trying to figure out my thoughts here

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Perspective Alters Reality

ITA! And you've got a supportive group here to back you up!

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There is no problem that cannot be solved with time, patience, and a judicious amount of high explosives.

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I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers so far...

I figured that people had made Jason Spectran (in whole or in part) either as part of equating him more closely with Joe, or because of his appearance (or even both). If you went by eye-shape, Jason and Mala could be the same family (siblings or cousins) or species.

Wade, when you read the fanfics, you'll find that most of the writers were quite imaginative in their additions to the characters. Both Gatch and BotP left a great deal to fill in, and people took off running.

It's that odd relationship between Ken and Jun that's behind the fics depicting the mighty Eagle as completely clueless with women -- especially a certain Swan. Are they just friends, or is there more to their feelings?

(Read through some of the older threads. You'll learn some amazing things about the original show and the plans for it.)

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Benefits, not features; benefits, not features

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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

I would say the same thing as Marie Wade.
Scan the pictures and post in a thread here. No need to go through the gallery. If you wish you could then post over at the archives that Amethyst mentions. In fact I very rarely visit the gallery on this forum - probably because I find it very hard to navigate through.

I would not say any of the writing here were "exercises." At least I don't consider it an exercise like I had to do in high school or University, write about a certain topic, or stick to a certain amount of words.

So saying, there are some fun writing challenges put forward here that are very like that. Maddy has just started a "drabble" exercise and we have done write a Christmas or Valentine themed challenge as well.

Most writing here is done for fun - and seems to stem from "dreams" people have about our favourite birdies. There are some people who will write a fic based on a picture or draw a picture based on an event that happens in a story, but that is not usually the case.

As for Jason Hofius' book. I was not aware of there being two different covers. I have the 2003 edition and I thought it was the same as the earlier edition.

Perhaps some one can point James our Gatch Guru in this direction and he can fill us in further on this matter.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.

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Bird Go!!!

Wade, I did not intend to offend you or to send a tone that made you feel like I was.

The only way to learn is to ASK those questions. Trust me I went through the same feelings when I first arrived here, I think we all do/did. Especially those of us who have never encountered such things as forums or the internet before - like I was.

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Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things.