The urge to change Gaitan's story is published primarily online on sites such as AO3, Tumblr, fanfiction.net, among the subset of fans writing fanfiction, or fanfiction original stories, borrowing characters, plots and settings from established media properties.
More and more, these fans are taking problems into their own hands by writing “Fix-It FIC” or simply “Fix-IT.”
“The Last of Us” is “Internet Dad” Pedro Pascal killed a male lead incredibly early. Although it can be difficult to track actual numbers due to inconsistent labeling, over 50 “our last” stories tagged as “Fix-It” were uploaded to AO3 a week after Joel's death and ranged from around 300 words to about 80,000.
But if a TV writer can dream of it, fans can feel betrayed by it. It has appeared in recent months for series such as “Daredevil: Reborn”, “Retirement”, and “White Lotus.”
“When something happens to a character that doesn't resonate with how you see them, and you can't let it go, you want to go out there and say the story differently,” praises Starship Therapists: Fans of Creating to Rewrite Your Life, who co-authored the book with Chicago licensed therapist Justin Mastin, and when it's death, revisions can be similar to the negotiation stage of grief.
“We're going to be fanfic to mourn,” Garsky said. “This beloved character was taken from us, so we're going to go to fanfic to try and get the agency back.”
Fanfiction has undoubtedly been around for centuries, but its modern incarnation dates back to at least the late 1960s Star Trek fandom. By the 2000s, fan fiction's popularity had exploded with widespread internet access.
Fanfic frequently written under pseudonyms can be very experimental, playing around with storytelling conventions, timelines, identities, and embarrassing eroticism. (Such elements have long been a safe haven, Mastin observed for people because of “on the fringe: nerds, nerds, punks, lgbtqia people.”) Occasionally, fanfic evolves its own life. The “Fifty Shades” series began as “Twilight” fanfic.
