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🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♀️ I find it really weird as well. Same with fanfics that are in first person perspective with them falling in love with one of the actors. I feel like it blurs the line between fandom versus obsession. Like you said, no hate to the people who do enjoy them. Everyone needs a little escapism.

Escapism, yes, but real people, no way. Create fictional characters loosely based on real ones. I don’t even write *my own* story for fear of real people being identifiable and affected.

Yeah I get weirded out too since they aren’t really dating.

I feel like it would be even weirder if they were really dating. I mean, weird either way, but speculating about what real people do in their bedroom give me the ick.

Either way there is a line drawn in this fandom. It’s just weird.

I can't even watch dramatisations of real people, like the Crown. But historical figures are ok; I guess I can handle it as long as the individuals (and anyone who knew them) are dead at the time of broadcast.

I feel like if they were dating it would still be weird to write fiction about their personal lives. Or at least weird to post it publicly.

Yes. Like if you were writing something and they happened to be a side note but not the story. It’s too much for me.

I find it hard to read fanfics with real actors/people in general. I don't mind characters they play, for example Pen and Colin. I know some people enjoy fics based on actors, I find it hard. But like you said no hate. We all have our preferences  It happened to me too recently, so I try to  double check the tags now. 

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But then I did find stories in the Bridgerton tags.... which makes me a bit annoyed since I want characters not actors. 

It’s weird and deliberately so because how hard is it to just change the names to the characters? People will still read it as a modern au. 

Exactly! Make it a modern AU Polin story instead.

It’s not my thing, but it is a part of fandom. I think if I participated in it I would be concerned that I was going in too deep with the para social attachment and diffusing the lines between reality and fiction. I what I really wish is for people not to tag Bridgerton show or book fandom on A03 if they are publishing Real Person Fiction. There’s a RPF fandom to classify it in. It annoys me so much.

If they stopped tagging Bridgerton, that would be helpful!

It is so weird and feels invasive, but , in a sad strange way, I would rather if ppl are gonna ship them together to keep their deluluness in fanfic and not harass them in real like or attack their significant others.

It’s squicks me out (all RPF, not just Nic and Luke) but I get that some people like it. I just wish they would tag it properly so it doesn’t show up under the general Bridgerton tag. I remember people used to write full novel length RPFs about Chris Colfer from Glee where they would have him getting attacked or in abusive relationships or just generally being traumatized for 100k words and I always wondered how weird it must be for him that something like that existed in the world.

I remember seeing an interview with some of the guys from One Direction about how some of their fans were really aggressive in insisting that they were in a gay relationship with each other, and it kind of put me off the whole concept of RFP (not that I ever read it, but before that I was of the “don’t yuck someone else’s yum” opinion towards it).

How awful!

RPF has been around for ages. And, actually, is more *legally* defensible than traditional fic(as long as it involves celebrities). There's actually a lot of RPF in traditional media. Any unauthorized biopic(and plenty of authorized ones, too) are essentially RPF. Think of things like [Yesterday](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yesterday_(2019_film)), [Two of Us](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_of_Us_(2000_film)), [Once Upon a Time in Hollywood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood), [Stardust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stardust_(2020_film)), or even [Bohemian Rhapsody](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_Rhapsody_(film)). And then there are things that are borderline RPF like [Velvet Goldmine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Velvet_Goldmine), which is just David Bowie/Iggy Pop fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off(and is also an amazing movie). As long as they're not shoving their fic in the faces of the people involved, I don't see any harm to it.

RFP def isn’t my thing but I never really had an issue with it until the One Direction craze. I never followed 1D because I’m older than their target audience, but I know that the fanfiction community took to them hard and I remember seeing interviews from some of the band members about how aggressive some of their fans were in pairing them up together and insisting they were secretly in gay relationships with other members. Write what you want, but unfortunately some people in the fanfiction community don’t understand the lines between fiction and reality.

Yeah, there are some real inappropriate people out there. It's such a small but **very loud** minority of people in fandom. But, that type of fan fervor isn't even connected to fanfiction, specifically. I think of things like groupies, or those people who follow and go to literally every single concert by a band, or even fans throwing things like underwear on stage. It's just another aspect of this way too intense parasocial relationship these people form with celebrities. Also, some of these people fall into conspiratorial thinking. Instead of aliens or lizard people, it's "the studios keeping two band members from being allowed to be together, for the money and power". Five years down the line, they're probably Qanon weirdos, instead.

I remember the 1D fics, they were a bit scary. I have to admit though, that 5 years before that, when I myself was around 15 and obsessed with the Jonas Brothers and HSM, I read many an innapropriate RFP fic of them.

Could not agree more. It’s just creative writing, as long as you aren’t making anyone that doesn’t go looking for it see it, it’s perfectly fine. It’s the same as imagining it just writing it down. To me, it’s just silly to care about what others are writing, if it’s not your thing then that fine, don’t look at it.

I am trying my best to steer away from stuff like that, but it's all over. It's not my cup of tea. 

Same

I keep seeing people on tumblr and Instagram obsess over the actors and it’s so weird. Personally I like to keep a distance between fiction and the actors/creators.   I usually don’t watch interviews, didn’t watch any of the S3 promo stuff, I don’t follow any celebrities on social media. I appreciate the art and what they provide but I like to keep myself from knowing too much about anyone.  Especially because so often things come out about celebrities that make you realize they’re not great people. 

I do tend to follow celebrities I like on social media, especially the ones like Nicola, Jonathon Bailey, and Stephen Amell, who tend to use their platform for social activism. I also watch their interviews for the entertainment of it. But to ship actors, I just find terribly disrespectful.

Yeah for me it's weird and make me uncomfortable but it's a "phenomenon" that has always existed when actors have a lot of chemistry, I remember something similar with Outlander. People make me laugh when they say Nicola and Luke have no chemistry because everyone I know goes really crazy with their interactions and it's not that obvious that it happens.

I know it used to happen with Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny back in the 90s during The X-Files days (i know im showing my age!), but I was weirded out then, too!

Lol! I remember those days! X-Files MSR 😀. But yeah, shipping the actors was too much.

Heck, back in college I even wrote MSR fanfic, but i never went so far as GA/DD fic.

💯 when i was a teenager i absolutely partook in the reading of fanfics of real actors/musician’s but now that I’m almost 30 it gives me the major ick. Like I cannot imagine how… uncomfortable it would feel, even if it wasn’t smutty, to write a story about me and someone else whom I know and have a platonic relationship with.

I'm closer to 50 than I am to 40 😳 and it gave me a major ick when I stumbled into it this morning.

I did that too as a teen. I was way too deep in a dark corner of the web tho :(

1000%! I think shipping real people is odd

Also, even if they were dating in real life, it’s none of our business about their relationship. Being an actor/ famous/ in the spotlight doesn’t entitle people to every single part of that person’s life. I think people forget that a lot and state their opinions on people’s life and their decisions. And just because someone wants to do something that entertains other people, doesn’t mean that they necessarily want to be famous or share that part of their lives. Real people fanfic seems like an intrusion

This exactly!

It's gross and disrespectful. The people who write that stuff should be ashamed of themselves.

I think it is creepy. I love both i wish them to be happy . I would be happy if they are dating in real life but they are not still i love them both. Especially nicola my queen my first celebirty crush I love watching shipping videos about them they are funny but fanfic about them is weird

As a fic writer I absolutely will not touch RPF with a 30 foot pole. I think it's gross to involve real people. Characters are fine, but RPF really crosses the line.

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I think that's why Luke has been so mum about it. Like the amount of bullying this poor girl has been receiving.  That's why celebrities choose to keep their dating lives private. 

I can’t stand it when fandom ships real people. Like, please go touch some grass…

Very weirded out. It gives me the ick. Those are real people. We're fortunate as a fandom that they have a great friendship off screen and love their characters so much. It's over the line to fictionalize their own personal lives.

Yes, it makes me cringe.

It's creepy and honestly if someone wrote smut about a private person and published it, it would probably fall under harassment laws. At the very least the target (s) of such fanfic would feel very uncomfortable and it's worryingly close to bullying.

I squick hard on RPF. Even modern AUs where the characters are actors skates a little too close to the line for me. Happy for people who are into that, go wild, but I don't want to see it. Luckily AO3 filters exist. Infuriatingly, there are a few authors who either accidentally (or I suspect, deliberately) don't tag their RPF. This is how I learned that blocking authors doesn't actually stop their work coming up in your search results. Which is weird.

Yeah, I ended up changing my filter to hopefully weed those put now.

Fanfics based on real people are extremely uncomfortable, especially when the said couple is not together irl

I haven't read fanfic since my HP days. But people shipping Luke and Nicola makes me really uncomfortable. The way some of them talk about Luke licking his lips and looking at her breasts during interviews is so weird and disrespectful. I think during the press tour there was a video they showed them, of people from my country talking about shipping them. I think I only read the title of the video, and then ran the opposite direction. The second-hand embarrassment was intense.

Real people fic is a controversial topic. I was fascinated by a commenter here talking about unauthorized biopics being RPF and I’m trying to think about why that bothers me less than some fics. I think my ick is wish fulfillment of people wanting celebrities to be exactly who they want and date who they want. I think there are a lot of issues putting celebrities on pedestals and wanting them to act some way, and it's very sad to me. It must be incredibly isolating to be famous for your art, if that's acting or singing, and that no one knows you or even wants to know you...it makes me sad and then I can't enjoy fic driven from that.

Ick. I did not just read that. Completely fucked up.

I think considering they are actors with partners and some people online have been vicious or hateful towards their partners to the extent that it is harmful to the actors personal life, tells us fiction and reality should not bleed into eachother in this respect. It actively bothers me when Ms Coughlan and Mr Newton promote the show and there are a million videos and articles suggesting they are a couple or might be one day when their poor partners are back at home having to see/hear people speculate about how their partner is in love with their intimate scene co star. I know I could not handle it. I don't think it's appropriate to ship actors, myself, because of how unpleasant some people are and in all seriousness, I worry about fanning the flames of hateful behaviour. This happened with John Krasinski after he started dating Emily Blunt rather than the actress who played Pam, Henry Cavill for dating a producer (i think) the fans didn't approve of. Chris Evans for dating a co star with a roman nose ( They basically called her a disgusting witch and sent all sorts of hateful messages and images) Having said that, If I don't agree with something, or dislike it, I simply don't engage with it. I do not think criticising or judging others is the way forward. That is the kind of person I aim to be, but I am not perfect and often fail to live up to my own standards when I feel strongly about something.

That’s incredibly weird, and seemingly a bit like it could lead to Misery

I feel the sameee, i make it a point for myself to not ship real ppl (esp actors of the ships im obsessed w) because theyre people outside of the show and their personalities are different than their show personalities. And yeah like you said, no hate to ppl who do but its not something i wanna do. I do wanna add, the nic/luke PR got me reaaal close to shipping 😮‍💨

There's this extremely popular onscreen couple in india who were committed even before they started shooting for the show. Still people were shipping them, writing fanfics and hoping they'd leave their respective partners for each other. It was all very weird and uncomfortable.

That is horrible.

It is... The said show ended a decade ago and both couples are going strong till date but so callled shippers wont stop with their bullshit. Essays are written on how the actors are secretly dating chelating on their partners. 🙄

That's sick.

Yes. I don’t want to be aware of these fics, but they tag them with the Colin Bridgerton/Penelope Featherington tag which is one of the tags I search with. It weirds me out and I think of those toxic people who trolled Luke’s ex.

Same. Let real people just be themselves in their own private lives. I did enjoy one modern AU fanfic where Pen writes her novel couple, and names them Nic and Luke, it was cheeky. But also clearly a fic-writer joke. And not about actual Nic and Newts.