Sorry to anyone here who doesn't read my fanfiction, but I wanted to post my thoughts.

I put a lot of effort into my writing. It's not, like some fanfic, exclusively superficial "lol it would be cool if X did Y ima rite superrr coolz awesomestory about it!!!1!", though it's hardly a literary masterpiece either. Indeed, what's unusual about is that it IS middle ground. It combines superficial stimulation (such as detailed fight scenes which would be glossed over in exclusively "literary" works) with writer's art, and all that other wonderful garbage that has been pounded into me through English class.
I put effort into it. There's a lot of metaphor, symbolism, allusions, and other "deeper" aspects to it, in addition to the characters romping around doing adventure things. There's a lot of attention to character development and exploration of who these people are. I explore rather intricate and detailed character relationships. There's a lot of picking apart and analyzing things like morality. There are shakespeare references (those are in all highbrow literature, am I right? ) too, and a few references to other things. I may also include some minor allusions to things like Wuthering Heights, if not in this story then in another. Hell, I intend to have a character paraphrase part of Hamlet later on.
TL;DR: Yes, it is fanficcy, but that doesn't mean it's shallow. It has depth in addition to "lol awesome" and "omg shipping".

But I feel like a lot of this goes over the heads of my audience. I suspect part of my problem is that I chose to "write for the art" when the subjects at hand are Pokemon and World of Warcraft, neither of which is exactly known for being intellectually stimulating to the average fan. Oh the joys of being young and immature enough to want to write about pokemon and WoW but intellectual and educated enough to do all that writer's art crap. Thanks, English class.

I wonder sometimes if anyone GETS the shakespeare references. I wonder if anyone stops after reading one of Misty's morality-examination monologues and goes "... whoa. I never saw it that way" rather than "lolwut?". I wonder if anyone picks up on the symbols and metaphors.

I don't want people to read my stories and just go "lol that was awesome MOAR FIGHT SCENES NAO!" and it pains me deeply when people refer to chapters that slow the plot slightly in favor of character development, linking of plot threads, or exploration, as "filler" chapters.
I have had facepalm moments when I spend several chapters exploring (not exclusively, of course! I don't often write chapters that are ALL writer's art) why the stupid conflict between the Horde and Alliance IS stupid, especially when it weakens them to a shared enemy, even have a character explicitly POINT IT OUT, developing and exploring characters on both sides of the conflict and tearing apart the propaganda each uses on the other, even destabilizing the central party with a pointless conflict fueled directly by the stupid war, and then get a review saying something like "lol I agree with Varian. Horde is just a bunch of war-hungry mongrels. Death to the Horde!" Congratulations sir, you just missed the point of the last seven chapters.
It saddens me when someone overlooks the symbolic meaning of something and the very specific purpose I did it for to go "lol you should have done it this way instead it would be cooler if...". Granted some of these requests are good ones. But when people request things that are both shooting the message AND going way off the main plotline, it's a little annoying.
It especially irks me when people fail to understand characters that I've spent quite a lot of time developing. I take a character (who shall not be named due to spoilers) and screw him up severely, explore why he's so psychologically damaged, even relate a couple things he's seen that would explain the PTSD, and the reaction is "he needs to get over himself. Cheer up emo kid." One does not just cheer up from psychological scarring and severe emotional trauma because another character pats him on the head and says it's okay.
Or character relationships. Yes, my most recent drama-engine has been primarily to play up an (imaginary) love triangle for tension, but I'm also exploring the boundary between friendship and romance, questioning when jealousy is justified, and deepening character interactions. The response? "LOL YAY THREESOME!" When I respond with "um, no" and an explanation, the person (who I really do adore as a friend and a reader, but I don't really think they always "get it") comes back with a reply that essentially boils down to "oh, well, can I have some yaoi subtext scenes then? I like slash fic!". I mean, I can understand WHY people do things like this, but it doesn't stop my inner literature geek from headdesking when people fail to get the nuances and details of what's going on. It's kinda like viewing a very pixelized gif file of a piece of detailed art. You're missing half of what makes it art.


I guess what I'm saying is that I want my stories not to just be stimulating for awesome battle scenes, epic quests, and cute romance, but to be INTELLECTUALLY stimulating and thought-provoking as well.
And I feel like a lot of people are missing that key second part.
It also bugs me that the crap I spend five minutes writing gets more attention and praise than the work I put my heart and soul into, but that's another (tangental) rant entirely.

P.S. The mood emoticons need a "mildly disappointed" setting.