paratti

I've gathered from Fandom_Wank and from Heroes LJ (I've forgotten its name) that there's a fair amount of fic being written. I've never noticed fandoms to be hampered by repetitive natures of shows. I'd put its being more rare based on it's younger and it hasn't yet had a summer hiatus. That tends to be what usually kicks fanfic into gear.

That's part of it, but I'm always inclined to think that the lack of an obvious romantic pairing is what leads to a lack of fic. Plus, there are just so many characters that it's been tough for any of them to break free of their archetypes and start feeling like real people.

I really think a lot of it does boil down to the shipping. I mean, we have to face the fact that most fanfic revolves around ships and Heroes is not a shippy show, at least not to the extent that a certain pairing inspires someone so much that they feel compelled to spend hours and hours writing about it. I haven't noticed any shipper-style fanwars, either, other than the few diatrabes against people who still like Claire/Peter despite the fact that they are related (and really, come on, the way those two actors look at one another is kinda pervy, but that's a tangent.) So, basically that narrows the field down to gen for the most part, and it's oddly difficult to write gen about a show that relies more heavily on plot than any other element. Hell, we get a new twist every week, so the fic is pretty much going to become non-canon-compliant before you've even finished it.

That's interesting. If the show is good enough that it is telling the story(ies) in a satisfing way and not spurring fans to write fic that fixes problems, it's definitely worth checking out. Or are you saying that it's kind of boring?

Looking at the comments, it seems to me that if there is no shipping, then it is highly unlikely that there will be a lot of fanfic. When it comes right down to it, I think fanfic is driven by sex, like so many other things. ;). Many people have a need for romance. Relationships are incredibly interesting to pick apart, and are a real driving force in a lot of fiction. The shipping fic always outnumbers the gen. Anyway, I just had this on my mind because shipping has caused so many problems in the PotC fandom lately, and made me think about why shipping is such a driving force, for good and bad. Although there are many interesting things to write about, a good fic needs a good character, and it's always interesting to see how someone reacts to other people -- and so it goes.

At any rate, I'm interested in checking out Heroes. It was on a bad night for me, but I want to try to catch it next season, and it would be nice if there were some reruns before that, to try to hook new viewers -- I'm guessing there will be.