The Law of Inverse Favoritism refers to the tendency of fanfiction authors to make their FAVORITE characters suffer the most, either INSTEAD of the ones they hate, or ALONGSIDE the ones they hate. For example, if you were a huge Sonic fan, and Tails was your favorite character, he would tend to go through the most serious shit in any stories you wrote, maybe he'd lose one of his tails, maybe he'd die, maybe he'd lose someone who meant a lot to him (Like Sonic himself).
This law does not always apply, however, and some authors may like certain characters TOO much to make them eligible for this, as if there's a sort of uncanny valley where, right before the character means the most to you out of any, ones short of that standard suffer, but the ones shorter or ahead of the valley do not.
This seems to often be determined by how innocent or pure the character is. The moreso they are, the more likely they'll be excluded. For example, I often write Animaniacs fanfics, and Wakko never gets hurt as badly as anyone else, so he would probably be an exception for the Law of Inverse Favoritism.
This law does not always apply, however, and some authors may like certain characters TOO much to make them eligible for this, as if there's a sort of uncanny valley where, right before the character means the most to you out of any, ones short of that standard suffer, but the ones shorter or ahead of the valley do not.
This seems to often be determined by how innocent or pure the character is. The moreso they are, the more likely they'll be excluded. For example, I often write Animaniacs fanfics, and Wakko never gets hurt as badly as anyone else, so he would probably be an exception for the Law of Inverse Favoritism.
Alice: You know how people who write fanfics often tend to torture their FAVORITE characters, and not the ones they HATE?
Bob: Yeah, I'm often guilty of that myself. I know how that works.
Alice: Well, you're one of my favorites to write in my stories now, so get ready for hell. That doesn't bother you at all, does it?
Bob: I t 's v e n g e a n c e f o r a l l I ' v e w r i t t e n
Alice: I also came up with a name for that. I'll call it "The Law of Inverse Favoritism".
Bob: Accurate.
(True story between me and a friend, names changed though for anonymity purposes)
Bob: Yeah, I'm often guilty of that myself. I know how that works.
Alice: Well, you're one of my favorites to write in my stories now, so get ready for hell. That doesn't bother you at all, does it?
Bob: I t 's v e n g e a n c e f o r a l l I ' v e w r i t t e n
Alice: I also came up with a name for that. I'll call it "The Law of Inverse Favoritism".
Bob: Accurate.
(True story between me and a friend, names changed though for anonymity purposes)
by Grabacr November 25, 2022