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Time to pontificate, this time on the topic of bad characterization in fanfics.
While far from exhaustive, I think bad characterization in fanfic (and in bad profic written by people with a fanfic mentality) can be split into three major categories.
1. None. The writer simply doesn't write well enough to have characterization in the first place. Every character is like every other character, and one-dimensionality would be giving them too much credit.
2. Lockstep. The writer is well-versed in the character's history, and doesn't deviate from it. At all. There is no growth, no new insight about what makes the character tick, just a repetition of the canon.
3. Iconoclasty. The writer is convinced they know the core of what makes the character tick...and that everyone else who has written the character has missed the point. The opposite of type 2, the iconoclast sets out to ignore or even contradict all previous characterization. Now, sometimes a fresh take is good, and ignoring bad previous writing is desirable, but we're talking about the dark side of that here. Someone who's idea of the true nature of the character is wholly and foully wrong, but is bound and determined to express it anyway.
One thing about the changes in comics over the years is that where once you were likely to get Type 2 bad writers being offered jobs (maintain that Marvel Style!), nowadays it seems that the editorial staffs at the big companies are horribly embarrassed by their own heritage and actually seek out Type 3 iconoclasts in an attempt to bury the shameful past. Trying to make comics "grow up" means stuff like Civil War and Identity Crisis is not only proposed, it's greenlit and pushed to the hilt.
Obviously, good writing requires a balance. You have to respect what has gone before, but be willing to change things so that the characters can grow, or at least show new depths.
While far from exhaustive, I think bad characterization in fanfic (and in bad profic written by people with a fanfic mentality) can be split into three major categories.
1. None. The writer simply doesn't write well enough to have characterization in the first place. Every character is like every other character, and one-dimensionality would be giving them too much credit.
2. Lockstep. The writer is well-versed in the character's history, and doesn't deviate from it. At all. There is no growth, no new insight about what makes the character tick, just a repetition of the canon.
3. Iconoclasty. The writer is convinced they know the core of what makes the character tick...and that everyone else who has written the character has missed the point. The opposite of type 2, the iconoclast sets out to ignore or even contradict all previous characterization. Now, sometimes a fresh take is good, and ignoring bad previous writing is desirable, but we're talking about the dark side of that here. Someone who's idea of the true nature of the character is wholly and foully wrong, but is bound and determined to express it anyway.
One thing about the changes in comics over the years is that where once you were likely to get Type 2 bad writers being offered jobs (maintain that Marvel Style!), nowadays it seems that the editorial staffs at the big companies are horribly embarrassed by their own heritage and actually seek out Type 3 iconoclasts in an attempt to bury the shameful past. Trying to make comics "grow up" means stuff like Civil War and Identity Crisis is not only proposed, it's greenlit and pushed to the hilt.
Obviously, good writing requires a balance. You have to respect what has gone before, but be willing to change things so that the characters can grow, or at least show new depths.
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This could actually be the basis for a fun game: transcribe some dialog from an agreed-upon series, and have people guess the characters that were conversing. But technobabble and thick accents would have to be avoided.