hi, I'm Jay, use he/they, and...post random shit!

When I said that redesigning AND rewriting a media is rude, I meant it literally.

If by redesigning you think of adding your headcanons onto the original design of the character, or by rewrite as in write an AU where a key plot point is different and what you think would happen, that is fine. Because you're not taking the person's planning and changing it completely, you're just sharing your thoughts and musings with the fandom.

What I meant by redesigning and rewriting is if someone were to take a character and stripe away fundamental stuff for no reason. Like let's say I take Rudy, yeah? And I give him..blue eyes maybe. I change his hair color, wardrobe, and his entire personality but still say he's Rudy even when he doesn't resemble Rudy at all. But redesigning isn't even my biggest concern with stuff like this and has more leeway as long as people aren't saying that these designs are the canon ones, because they aren't.

Now when I talk about AUs and rewriting, there's a difference. At least in my opinion.

Aus, as I said, is take the characters and their personalities and thinking what they could be like in a different time line diverged from the same comic. Alternative Universe, as it stands. But when I say rewriting, I'm talking about people who erase characters for no reason other than that character being "irrelevant", or they don't like them. Or if someone were to change up a character's whole personality and backstory, like changing their parents, their origin, completely changing the character and the story, but still labeling the story with its original name. What makes it worse if people pass it off as the better version of the comic or not credit the creator of the original characters.

AUs are like if we change something subtle or add new things into the environment and explore how the characters and the story would progress through these new changes. A rewrite is supposedly taking the same plot, removing whatever you want and adding new stuff then slapping a label on it and calling it a better, or newer version of this media.

I keep seeing people like.... saying they want to redesign and rewrite GE. And it kind of bothers me as a creator myself with OCs and lore and other things of the like.

I mean....you do know these characters are...OCs, right? Original characters of the creator. Brain children. Like you have OCs, I doubt you don't.

I want you to think about your ocs. The story you write for enjoyment and wimsy. I want you to pretend that you're sharing it with the world, share your entertainment, right? Now. There are people who hate it. Obviously. And they don't...stop reading. They come back again and again, read and make fun, read and make fun, just criticizing everything without telling you how to fix it. Just that it's bad. Not listening to your reasoning about it, not trying to understand why, not looking at it from another perspective nothing. (I will say that I'm speaking in general right now, not just GE because I know similar situations have happened in other medias.)

And I mean...does that feel nice? Having your work constantly criticized? You're a one person show, you're the writer, the artist, the creator of this thing. And no one else is helping with it, because it's originally something you wanted to do for you. But now that it's on the internet, you care about people's opinions, or at least most would.

Now imagine instead of just hating, some people take the names of your characters...and completely change them. Design, backstory, behavior, plot, EVERYTHING is changed and rewritten. How do you feel now? Your oc isn't yours anymore, it's theirs now. They changed everything you made other than the names and made it something of their creation instead....not a nice feeling, huh?

I feel like it's a spit in the face of the original thing. In my opinion, if you hate something to the point you want to change it completely, you probably should read something else. Because you're not a fan.

Criticizing is one thing, joking about poor decisions is one thing, head canons, what ifs scenarios and discussions, aus, AAAALLL that stuff is fine, it's fandom etiquette really. What's not fandom etiquette is taking a single person's hard work of YEARS, and turning it into something of yours, potentially sharing it on the internet and taking away the audience of the actual original media. And that's cruel.

Now with bigger fandoms and shows, like TV shows, cartoons...things that have a crew of writers, a team of editors, reviewers and stuff of the like, a franchise made for money if you will, those the kind of medias I suppose you can redesign and rewrite as much as you like. Because you can never overshadow the actual well known show with your rewrite. A single creator's work? On webtoon or Tapas or anywhere really? Very possible. And some people make a living from that.

Butterfly Effect AU:

Tobias: we know he likes art and poetry, thanks to journaling and Mattias telling him to draw the outdoors and animals instead of killing them. Tobias advances and starts drawing his family members as well, as long as things he finds "remarkable" and or "odd", "note worthy" or simply pretty. Rudy gives him an old camera he found at his house before the field trip, Tobias takes LOTS of pictures.

Rudy: adores Tobias. That is his Best Friend ™. Likes to play with Tobias' hair and lets him burrow his hair clips to keep Tobi's hair out of his eyes (Tobi's hair is long in this AU!). Rudy teaches Tobias how to use a phone and introduces him to his favorite music (I feel like he'd like rock music but also k-pop, like anything that's loud, energetic or speedy tbh). Tobias likes some songs, dislikes others, and mostly just panicked the first time he listened to them. Rudy also throws Carmelo over his shoulder earlier on than the field trip.

Carmelo: Tobias frustrates him. He thinks Tobi is weak, which without Edburt's influence he kinda is for reasons more than the obvious, but still Tobi manages to get in the way of Carmelo's usual bullying to Rudy, who also starts kind of scaring him. Kind of glares at Tobias everywhere, may or may not have been caught staring at Tobias and Rudy more than once. Tobias likes to retaliate by staring him dead in the eyes right back. Carmelo has never won any of those staring contests, Francis keeps track to piss off Carmelo. (Emilio does too, mostly because he takes note of everything more than actually holding it over Carmelo, although he is not above bringing it up if he wants to.)

Emilio: since Tobias doesn't kill animals, hasn't done that for years, Emilio doesn't see him kill anything (again, because he doesn't kill) so he keeps observing Tobias from afar, the knife incident doesn't happen. He still finds Tobias fascinating, due to his unique eyes, closed off behavior and his intellectual genius, in contrast to Tobias' social delay. Emilio still watches Tobias from afar, and is very interested in Tobias' journal. He really wants to see what's inside, and had once stolen it temporarily while Tobias was doing the Evelyn audition. Reading about Edburt, Emilio is VERY interested in Tobias now.

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Gang AU:

Tobias: is the quite one of the group, usually on the look out for teachers with Emilio, sometimes holds down kids for Carmelo as well. Every member of Carmelo's crew uses him as a wall to lean against except Emilio. Uses Dino as a climbable chair, climbs onto him when tired and wants to nap or feel glum, Dino doesn't mind. Lets Francis put eyeliner on him once or twice, takes it off after school ends so his father doesn't see. Is still weary of Emilio. Befriends Rudy first and introduces him to Carmelo and the others. Francis is his best friend.

Carmelo: was the last one to know about Tobias and just recruited Tobias into the group since he already kinda was. Tobias bit him once for touching him early on, it took Carmelo six months to get over it and try again. Bakes stuff for Tobias after finding out he didn't try a lot of sweet stuff, Tobias appreciates the gesture but doesn't like overly sweet stuff. He likes the bagels Carmelo bakes, usually sneaks the sweet stuff to Stanley and the younger ones behind Lucas' back, Stanley swore secrecy. Carmelo doesn't know that Tobias does this until he gets Tobias more baked goods after learning the sheer amount of siblings he has, only for Tobias to tell him the truth. Will never admit it, but he thought Tobias looked good with the eyeliner.

Rudy: met Tobias when he transferred to the school before he met Carmelo. Clings to Tobias. Thinks Tobias is cool and is a little scared of the group but can't say it out loud to Tobias because he's scared Tobias will stop being his friend, so he usually sits besides Tobias awkwardly with the group. Prefers to catch Tobias early before the others arrive/see them so they can hang out without them because he doesn't like the bullying and Carmelo does pick on his girly clothes. Feels a little left out in the group because he's new, doesn't relate to their sense of humor and feels very awkward. Tobias, not the best socially even now, doesn't help him much.