1. Annika Smith #479
Mark Jalovick
THE 100
5/4/16
Theology of Fanfiction
Fanfiction is a developing genre of online literature centered around the creation of new
stories using worlds and characters created by published authors and screenwriters. Stories are
written and “published” online by fans of books, movies, television shows, animes, and even
songs and bands using websites such as fanfiction.net, which allows almost unmonitored “fic”
posting and a system through which others can read the fic and post reviews to give feedback or
just encouragement to write the next chapter. The system allows unlimited creativity on the part
of the writer, and masses of free reading material to fans who aren’t satisfied with official plots
and character portrayals. However, the online fanfiction community is sometimes troubled by
“flaming” – a user leaving unnecessarily rude or hateful reviews on fics. Fanfiction also has an
infamous reputation for being shot through with heavy streaks of explicit sex fics (“lemons”),
homosexual romance (“slash”), and erotica. One area of fanfiction particularly notorious for that
kind of content is the Harry Potter fanfiction community, which will be focused on in this paper.
Despite the negative uses for fanfiction, however, it can be used positively.
Because fanfiction is generated through creative writing, which is an exercise of the
human ability to create, fic writers exercise one of the gifts mankind has because of being
created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27). Through creating new stories and characters, writers are
able to express themselves in varying ways and have the opportunity to impact and connect with

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readers. They can do this by reworking existing ideas from published works, adding more onto
publishing storylines (called “canon”), writing subplots into the additional story, creating their
own prequels or sequels, or explore what the world would look like if one event in the plot had
turned out differently (called “alternate history” or “AU” for short). Writers are also able to
explore the potential of combining characters and worlds from multiple different “canons” –
such as the fic Wand and Shield by Morta’s Priest (fanfiction.net), which took the character of
Harry Potter and put him in the world of Marvel’s Avengers, or Seeing an Eternity by xScenex
(fanfiction.net), which took Harry Potter and put him in the world of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of
the Rings. The possibilities are endless, and since writers freely copycat published ideas to build
off of and use in their own unique stories, no one is limited in the directions they can freely play
with their fics. Creativity through language is also supported in the Bible through the various
songs and poems scattered through its pages and an entire book of poetry and songs, the Psalms.
In addition, the fanfiction community’s review system not only allows writers to improve
their writing skills and refine their ideas through feedback, but it allows writers and readers to
form relationships with each other, making the fanfiction community an online social outlet.
There are various ways this sociability takes form, the primary one being reviewers writing
reviews on their favorite fics every time the author posts a new installment or chapter. Through
this loyal readership and authors often responding to their reviewers through private messages,
users after a while start to form a relationship based on a mutual give and take of reading
material and useful feedback and encouragement. Through reviews and sometimes private
messages depending on the nature of the fanfiction website, users also often recommend fics to
each other, and have the opportunity to start up conversations based on common interests.

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Authors may also choose a “beta reader,” another user (who at least on fanfiction.net
must have at least one story of their own posted) who agrees to read new installments of the
author’s fic before it is even posted for the purpose of giving feedback, editing out
inconsistencies, proofreading, or any combination of that kind of assistance. This allows authors
to have a more professionally written fic posted and gives the beta-reader “first glimpse” of a
new story, and, since authors often recognize their beta-reader in their posted installments, it is
also free publicity for the beta-reader. This kind of mutual relationship requires both parties to
exercise respect and an ability to work together – a definite practice of social skills. Human
beings are social creatures, and the ability to socialize is a common grace God has granted us so
that we mirror the social nature of the Trinity and God’s desire to have fellowship with His
creation. Fanfiction provides one outlet of exercising that social nature.
Beyond that, fanfiction can just be fun. If a user reads it, writes it, or both, exploring new
ideas in often familiar worlds is interesting and can provide hours of relaxation getting lost in
other worlds and possibilities. The value of relaxing and having fun is often underestimated,
despite it being a gift from God to all mankind.
All this positivity does lead into a dark side of fanfiction, however. First of all, the total
freedom of creativity allows human sins to be indulged in. A lot of fanfiction is the equivalent of
word-pornography, indulging in highly detailed sex scenes often, and rarely in the God-approved
context of a same-sex marriage. Authors often include the label of “lemons” in their fic
description if their fic includes a sex scene (and there is rarely only one). These scenes don’t
even have to make complete sense – there was one fanfiction which has become lost in memory
in which Harry Potter had intercourse with Hogwarts’ magic and nature manifested in a changing
female form, and that is not the most bizarre of it. “Harem” fics are fairly common, and are

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characterized by (most often) a male character having ongoing sexual relationships with multiple
female characters all at once (miraculously, there never seems to be any jealousy among these
female characters for each other).
Erotica, specifically BDSM, also appears frequently and often goes to the extreme of
sadistic sexual relationships without the health of love and consent to the treatment also present.
In Harry Potter, there are many fics which follow explore the question “what would have
happened if the Light Side had lost the war with Voldemort?” This frequently results in
Hermione enslaved to a pureblood and left to their mercy – Lucius Malfoy and Draco Malfoy
being two purebloods of choice. These erotic relationships are also often homosexual in nature.
A Voldemort and Harry Potter pairing is highly favored in the fics trying to answer the question
of what the world would look like if Harry had lost. Severus Snape and Harry Potter are also
frequently paired together (called Snarry). Both pairings are often set in the context of an
unloving BDSM master/slave relationship. However, non-erotic homosexual romance is equally
common. The favored pairings are Harry Potter with either Draco Malfoy (“Drarry”) or Severus
Snape (“Snarry”). Voldemort, Oliver Wood, Lucius Malfoy, and Ronald Weasley are also not
uncommon.
All of these kinds of relationships explored freely and frequently in fanfiction (especially
Harry Potter fanfiction) are indulgences in lust and perverted sexuality. Not only is it harmful for
authors to fantasize about sexual ideas which are immoral and in some cases would be physically
harmful to those involved if it was acted upon in reality, the never-ending stream of “word-porn”
available in fanfiction is a trap to readers who allow themselves to become addicted to the ideas
and images the fics produce in a reader’s mind. Because there are no limits on what can be

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posted, and there are millions (perhaps billions) of fics to explore, addicted readers are almost
guaranteed to never run out of new material.
A much less but equally rampant problem stemming from the social sphere of the
fanfiction community is “flamers” – users who take advantage of the reviewing system to post
hateful comments on author’s stories. These comments can not only be discouraging to authors,
but emotionally and mentally harmful. Cyber-bullying is becoming a real problem, especially
amongst teenagers, and can be a real danger for people who are already emotionally and/or
mentally unstable, such as people with major depression or anxiety disorders.
Despite these all-too-common problems, fanfiction does still have some good to offer for
those who are careful in how they navigate the site and which fics they choose to read. The
warning labels authors often include in their story descriptions (“lemons” and “slash” among
others) help users avoid stories that contain inappropriate sexual content. Knowing how to enter
a search which excludes from the results list fics with such labels in the description aid readers in
avoiding these fics entirely. Fanfiction.net has a clickable link near the search engine which
shows a pop-up detailing the different keywords and terms to enter in order to exclude certain
words from appearing in search results.
Despite the helpfulness of this, however, the system is still faulty. Authors are not
required to include warning labels in their fic descriptions. More often than not they do, simply
so their story will appear for the people who read fanfiction specifically to indulge in that kind of
reading. However, because it is not required, surprises will still shock a reader every now and
then. Creating policies on individual fanfiction websites that require authors to thoroughly and
properly label their fics will help readers avoid unnecessary temptation.

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Another useful tool to eliminate stories with inappropriate content are maturity rating
systems. Fanfiction.net enables authors to rate their fic for maturity, but there are no hard and
fast rules as to what kind of content merits a certain maturity rating. Using the filters in the
sidebar, a user can choose to display only fics that fall into a certain maturity rating in order to
block out the rated “mature” content, but since there are no rules as to what “mature” content is,
surprises again are still frequent. In order to help solve this, websites should post descriptions of
their maturity ratings so that fics are accurately labeled.
In addition, websites could block fics rated “mature” from users with an age under
eighteen. While this wouldn’t stop a determined reader, who could always change their inputted
age, it would stop more oblivious under aged readers from accidentally gaining access to a story
they didn’t realize contained mature content.
Giving authors the ability to block certain users from their accounts and monitor their
own story reviews also allows a certain degree of monitoring over the review system and helps
reduce flaming. Additional account settings which block curse words from appearing in reviews
can also help an author avoid hateful comments, to some degree. The ability to flag users for
flaming (as is an option on fanfiction.net) brings troublesome users to the site’s administrators’
attention and will result in the flamer’s account being temporarily shut down. The account can be
permanently deleted if the flamer is a repeat offender, which not only is a deterrent but also helps
keep the number of determined haters on websites at a minimum.
Something to realize is that these problems do not only exist in fanfiction. They exist in
written literature and social media websites as a whole. However, because of the freedom of the
fanfiction culture and the unfiltered reviewing system, these problems become very prominent.
When given freedom, human sin will exist without restraint. Yet that doesn’t mean we can’t still

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see some redeeming qualities amidst the sin, and we can hope to bring those qualities to the
forefront and restrain the sin so that it becomes the exception rather than the usual.
Scripture clearly condemns homosexuality and lust and identifies them as sin (I Cor. 6:9-
11; I John 2:16; Jude 1:7; Lev. 18:22; Matt. 5:28; Rom. 1:26-28). Romans 8:6 says “to set the
mind on the flesh is death.” We are also to watch what we say, because “on the day of judgment
people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be
justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matt. 12:36-37 ESV). The sexual
perversity and immorality indulged in by fanfiction users as well as flamers are not acting
according to the Bible.
On the other hand, however, the Bible encourages creativity in language through its use
of poetic imagery (especially in Psalms, the prophetic books, and Job) and songs. The sociability
available in the fanfiction community is supported by Genesis 2:18, “Then the LORD God said,
‘It is not good that man should be alone’”, and Proverbs 27:17, “Iron sharpens iron, and one
many sharpens another.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 also makes it clear that it is much better to have
companionship than to be alone, and many people find friends through fanfiction.
Basic elements of fanfiction are actually very positive things; gifts from God. The ability
to exercise creativity and interact with others is precious and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Yet
human sinfulness has managed to pervert those gifts by using their creativity to indulge in sexual
fantasies and lust, and to hurt others with hurtful comments. Yet, there are ways to cut the sinful
elements back so that one can enjoy the benefits of fanfiction without getting mired in the sin it
also often includes.
*note to Professor Jalovick:Thispaper was based on my own knowledge ofthe community and workings ofthe
website, as I was a heavy consumer and writer of fanfiction for several years. I hope it isn’t a problem with cites.