Peter L. Ward wrote:

My fics weren't the first ones to have original characters, nor
will they be the last.  In fact, I know of a few favorite fanfic
classics that have original characters.  For instance, we have
the first anime fanfics by Ryan Matthews, which were Dirty Pair
fics that had original characters.  Lord Robin still sticks in my
mind as a favorite original character.  

	I don't think anybody objects to creating original characters
to act as villains/antagonists.  This is *necessary* for shows like
Dirty Pair, Vampire Princess Miyu or Sailor Moon where the antagonist
changes from episode to episode (or series to series in the last
case.)

	The issue here is that of creating new *protagonists* to
supplant the ones from the source series.  I think these, like
self-insertion stories, need to be judged on a case-by-case basis.
The important thing is to make sure that the original characters don't
come off as being better than the existing characters, and that their
story is made interesting to the reader.

-- 
 Julian Fong                                     jhfong@ea.oac.uci.edu
   00001000111110000100010000000011111111100001000100001111100010000 
"I will chide no breather in the world but myself, against whom I know 
 most faults." - William Shakespeare, _As You Like It_, Act 3, Scene 2