Do you remember Gary the Gray Power Ranger, the one who drove Titanus? Or what about Dustin the Animorph-Controller, who was both one of the good guys and one of the bad guys? Or Jedi Padawan Tasher Jaken? No? You don’t? Well don’t worry, you shouldn’t remember them. They never existed, not in the real shows, books or movies anyway. They are all my own fan fiction creations. All 100% my own ideas.

Creating my own original characters to fit into existing franchises has always been one of my favorite writing hobbies. I was even naive enough once upon a time to think I had a chance of making them a reality, if only I could speak with the writers or creators.

Now I know better. I was fooling myself.

But seriously, who’s driving this thing?

Yet even though it never worked out for me, the dream isn’t so far-fetched. Sometimes the creators and professionals really do listen to their fans. Sometimes that silly bit of fan fiction can take on a life of its own. Or maybe the fans will embrace a seemingly unimportant background character and adopt him or her like a mascot. It can happen. It has happened. I found six characters from TV, video games and movies that were – for the most part – created and embellished by the fans, only for the real creators to take notice and embrace these fan creations, bringing them into the real canon.

Read the rest of this entry →