Regarding the future of Roots: (important, please read)
As all of you know, 2020 has been full of justified anti-law enforcement protests since late May. If it hasn’t already been made clear by my likes and retweets over the last few months, I am in full support of BLM and abolishing the police. Just want to state that before I lay all this out for you.
I planted the first seed for anti-hero/anti-law enforcement protests way back in chapter ten of Roots, which was published in summer of 2018. Since then, tensions have been building in my story, and I planned on constructing the final arc’s climax around these anti-hero protests, which would ultimately end with the hero system getting dismantled and restructured to be fairer and not as celebrity-based as it is in the source material of BNHA. That’s what my story has always been about, first and foremost; the romance of the two characters was always secondary to the main overarching plot.
However, I am not blind to the parallels between my fanfiction and what’s happening in the world right now. With tensions rightfully rising and the unjustness of the system being more apparent than ever, I’ve decided I can’t continue Roots like nothing has happened. It’d be disrespectful, and I wouldn’t be comfortable with it. Some of you might roll your eyes and say “it’s just a fanfiction, it’s not that big of a deal,” but I’m here to tell you that you are wrong. Even if my plot points for anti-hero protests and uprisings were laid out a while ago, I cannot in good conscience continue my story as if the world hasn’t changed. Fiction influences reality whether you believe that or not, and I have to consider the effect my writing will have on those reading it during these times.
To that end, I have narrowed down my options to the following three:
I continue Roots from its current chapter, but I only continue the love story and leave out all mentions of the anti-hero protests out of respect for the events of 2020 and the victims of an unjust system. I would instead focus on the romance between Shouto and Izuku and Shouto’s reinstatement as a hero at his agency. I would also edit the last ten/twenty chapters to minimize the references to anti-hero protests so the change wouldn’t be as noticeable for new readers. I would, however, have to leave the apartment bombing in the story since it affects Shouto’s arm and his living arrangement with Izuku. Anything after that point would be fair game for removal and editing.
I do NOT continue the story at all, and instead I leave it where it ends right now. I would add an epilogue instead of chapter 47, and that would be the end of Roots as we know it. Short but clean, and I could do a few spin-off one shots about their relationship to fill in some of the blanks leftover by the end of the story if anyone actually wants those. None of these stories would feature protests or anything relating to them.
I remove the story altogether from AO3 and instead make it downloadable as a PDF for those who would want to keep a copy, but no further chapters would be updated, and prior chapters would remain unaltered. All translations would be taken down on their host sites at my request. The story would no longer be publicly available.
Regardless of what happens to my story, I will not be resuming normal updates because doing so feels very wrong to me. Please know that I’m not trying to draw attention to myself or my fic with this post. My only goal here is to be as understanding, respectful, and considerate as possible in regards to the people reading my stories at home. At the end of the day my story is simply fanfiction, and it pales in comparison to anything else currently happening right now. I hope you all understand.
EDIT: I would like to clarify that by calling them "anti-law enforcement" protests, I was attempting to draw a more direct parallels to my fic in relation to current events. I have been informed that this is trivializing the actual purpose of the protests, which I am truly sorry for. Specifically, the protests are about combating white supremacy and/or fascism. I shouldn't have attempted to narrow them down to something more specific in relation to my writing. I'm very sorry for the mistake, and I'm thankful to the person who reached out to inform me of this!
