Oh, that's a very interesting meta! Glad you crossposted, I probabbly wouldn't have come across it otherwise.
And YES, this is something that I've noticed, and which (unpopular opinions ahoy!) honestly bugs me about a lot of fanfics. If the canon is fleshed out enough that all that's left are the in-between spaces, I can understand wanting to fill them in with thoughtful character exploration. I appreciate it very much, when it's well-written and the characterization is on-point.
But - and this is very much a personal preference - if you take characters from an emotionally-charged canon and plop them in the middle of a coffe shop AU, I'm probably not going to read it. Not because it's badly written, or because I don't care about the characters, but because I care about the characters IN CONTEXT. I get invested in them if they are people with integrity, or especially compassionate, or clever, or just very entertaining narratively. (Looking at you, SHEEV PALPATINE. And cackling.)
How would they behave in adverse circumstances? How do their convictions clash against the world? How does the world work, and they within it? The slice-of-life moments are great for me when they set up my understanding of the characters and their relationships, behavioural patterns, ideals etc. for WHEN THEY ARE IN A DIFFICULT/UNWINNABLE SITUATION. Or even have to make a choice important to their lives, and the lives or others.
Otherwise, it's just... The epic 90% slice-of-life fics, especially if they focus on romance, do not have high enough stakes for me to get invested emotionally. In the fic itself, not necessarily the characters. At least not unless they also have fantastic style and interesting world-building outside of characterization going on for them.
Then again, I don't particularly like most positivist novels, modern "obyczajowe" (slice-of-life - is there an English literary term for it?) novels and TV dramas. It's all just "life goes on". Yes, it does, and I have enough of that IRL, I can ask for different things in my fiction. Such as, oh, the narration having a point, and the characters being capable of making important things happen. That's missing pretty much everywhere else.
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And YES, this is something that I've noticed, and which (unpopular opinions ahoy!) honestly bugs me about a lot of fanfics. If the canon is fleshed out enough that all that's left are the in-between spaces, I can understand wanting to fill them in with thoughtful character exploration. I appreciate it very much, when it's well-written and the characterization is on-point.
But - and this is very much a personal preference - if you take characters from an emotionally-charged canon and plop them in the middle of a coffe shop AU, I'm probably not going to read it. Not because it's badly written, or because I don't care about the characters, but because I care about the characters IN CONTEXT. I get invested in them if they are people with integrity, or especially compassionate, or clever, or just very entertaining narratively. (Looking at you, SHEEV PALPATINE. And cackling.)
How would they behave in adverse circumstances? How do their convictions clash against the world? How does the world work, and they within it? The slice-of-life moments are great for me when they set up my understanding of the characters and their relationships, behavioural patterns, ideals etc. for WHEN THEY ARE IN A DIFFICULT/UNWINNABLE SITUATION. Or even have to make a choice important to their lives, and the lives or others.
Otherwise, it's just... The epic 90% slice-of-life fics, especially if they focus on romance, do not have high enough stakes for me to get invested emotionally. In the fic itself, not necessarily the characters. At least not unless they also have fantastic style and interesting world-building outside of characterization going on for them.
Then again, I don't particularly like most positivist novels, modern "obyczajowe" (slice-of-life - is there an English literary term for it?) novels and TV dramas. It's all just "life goes on". Yes, it does, and I have enough of that IRL, I can ask for different things in my fiction. Such as, oh, the narration having a point, and the characters being capable of making important things happen. That's missing pretty much everywhere else.