For a change, this is not due to become a fanficrants post, because I know the opinions I'm about to express seem to be rather unpopular, but it was inspired by one...

Because sometimes I just don't get fanficcers.

Bear with me a second, because I'm going to get out the analogies. If I were to take an interest in a new book and the minute I glanced at the synopsis I discovered that Characters A and B were ultimately going to hook up and Character X was killed, I'd be rather annoyed and probably wouldn't see the point of reading the book any more. Why bother when I already knew what was going to happen? If I were to go and see a movie, and the trailer told me the same things (and the sad fact of the matter is that, these days, a lot of trailers do just that), there wouldn't be much point me dropping £12 on a cinema ticket plus a little bit extra for the popcorn.

So why is it that this kind of thing is perfectly acceptable in fanfic? Why do so many ficcers load their summaries with so many content warnings that any chance you the reader might have of actually being surprised by an upcoming plot twist is rendered pretty much null and void?

Okay, I admit it, I can almost understand content warnings on short fics whose sole purpose is to write about Plot Angle A. Why? Because that's pretty much the whole point of the fic. What with the sensitivity some people have to 'hot button' issues such as rape fiction, character death or even heavy angst, it seems sensible to warn in that case just so that people who don't want to know can avoid reading a fic which exists solely because the ficcer wanted to write about a hot-button issue.

( On longer fics, though, it's a very different story... )

I really don't think readers in their late teens, their twenties and beyond should need all the hand-holding that content warnings frequently provide - if you're mature enough to be reading a fic which deals in darker themes in the first place, you should be mature enough to handle reading about the characters dealing with them. I am an adult. I write for adults. I don't see why I shouldn't presume my audience can cope with a surprise or two. We handle being surprised in published works unless we're in the Harry Potter fandom, so why can't we in fic?

When I open a book or go to a movie, I positively want to suck it up and be surprised and would be very annoyed if I found out that oh, that guy dies before I've so much as cracked open the cover or taken my seat - why should I have totally different expectations for fanfic?

And finally, for all of you who are sick of fanfic rants:

Since everything's better with cute cross-dressing androgynous bounty-hunting boys who were raised as girls and kill people with yo-yos, this update sucks and is now about Bridget.