hey, i know you probably didn’t intend to come off this way, but it’s extremely rude to post a critique about a fanfiction. someone made that for free, in their own free time, out of their love for a fandom, and you’re making a post about how bad it is? think about how the author might feel if they saw your post.
Well, why would it be rude to post a critique of a fanfiction? So much online discourse revolves around film and TV critique and it's certainly possible that the writers will find that video essay and feel a little bad about not realizing some of the implications, or continuity errors, and so on. Just because they got paid to write that episode doesn't make it any less a labor of love.
The other thing is that when you put something out there for the world to see, anyone is allowed to have any opinion on it. If you're going to accept unsolicited praise why would it be unreasonable for people to have some criticism? Obviously I'm not condoning bullying and harassment or even asking the author questions about when the next update is coming (I definitely learned that last point a long time ago) But if you're going to post your fanfiction on a forum that allows for comments or you enable comments to be made, then feedback is something that you're opening yourself up to. And honestly it takes much less effort to type in "I loved your fanfic!" than to give a 5 paragraph essay explaining things that could be improved. The former may give you a small dopamine boost and make you feel good about yourself, but considering a well thought out critique can help you see the shortcomings in your own writing. And it also indicates that your readers took the time to help you improve your writing.
Plus, when I was little, I remember writing my own fanfics (before I even know what fanfiction was!) I bound them up on little sheets of printer paper that I stapled together and wrote them all out by hand. I used a pen and some crayons for the illustrations, and I remember being so proud of my work that I showed it to my older sister, asking what she thought of it.
Near the end of a fanfic I wrote about a wedding, I remember writing about the husband coming home from a long trip, and his wife just had a baby. And I wrote it in such a way where she was literally telling him that after the baby was born, not thinking about how weird it would be to not announce to your husband beforehand that you're pregnant. Needless to say, my sister told me about this, and on some level my 11 year old self felt embarrassed about this. But I had asked for it by showing if off to her looking for feedback, and I think my writing has significantly improved since then. And I needed to learn to swallow my pride and realize that my writing wasn't the most amazing thing ever made.
If fanfic authors don't want any feedback whatsoever then we can all just write it in a journal or diary and write it up on a computer and never post it anywhere, keep it to ourselves for our own enjoyment. But we all know that art is something meant to be shared and we do crave that praise. But you simply cannot have honest compliments without allowing for the possibility of honest criticism. To have it any other way is a double standard.
