But doesn’t English already have a perfectly good convention? Why write “invisible!Batman” when you can write “invisible Batman” and be understood by Muggles?
Because with fanfiction!English, you get to have neat jargon that makes you feel like part of an in-group. (Which is not a notion to be dismissed out of hand)
I think it’s also meant to signify either the primary defining feature of the character or the way that the theme of the fanfiction differs from the source. You would probably not write a story about invisible!Batman (assuming that can’t be fleshed out to to be the actual theme of a story), but instead (say) Dark!Batman for a story that is darker than normal Batman stories (Batman himself need not be dark; perhaps Barbara Gordon decides killing the Joker through bludgeoning him to death publicly in front of city hall is the best way to restore order to Gotham).
Alternatively, you could write a story with Detective!Batman for a story that focuses on Batman’s use of detective work (CSI-style fic) to try and solve mysteries. The ! tag is acting as little more than “Detective Batman” would, but with the understanding that Batman being a detective is what the story is mainly about.
In the first case, the ! tag does act in shorthand to describe the story’s main idea, but I agree that the second case is iffy.
What’s with everyone using exclamation marks in the middle of words? Isn’t that what spaces or hyphens are for?
It’s a fanfiction convention—descriptor!Character is the standard version.
But doesn’t English already have a perfectly good convention? Why write “invisible!Batman” when you can write “invisible Batman” and be understood by Muggles?
Because with fanfiction!English, you get to have neat jargon that makes you feel like part of an in-group. (Which is not a notion to be dismissed out of hand)
Is that meant to be a justification or merely an explanation?
Also, often certain variants of description!Character take on a life of their own, outside of the generic “description Character” description.
For instance, fat!Vriska draws some of her vindictiveness from being overweight, whereas a fat Vriska may not.
Part of a justification. (Perturbation’s answer is also relevant)
I think it’s also meant to signify either the primary defining feature of the character or the way that the theme of the fanfiction differs from the source. You would probably not write a story about invisible!Batman (assuming that can’t be fleshed out to to be the actual theme of a story), but instead (say) Dark!Batman for a story that is darker than normal Batman stories (Batman himself need not be dark; perhaps Barbara Gordon decides killing the Joker through bludgeoning him to death publicly in front of city hall is the best way to restore order to Gotham).
Alternatively, you could write a story with Detective!Batman for a story that focuses on Batman’s use of detective work (CSI-style fic) to try and solve mysteries. The ! tag is acting as little more than “Detective Batman” would, but with the understanding that Batman being a detective is what the story is mainly about.
In the first case, the ! tag does act in shorthand to describe the story’s main idea, but I agree that the second case is iffy.
It’s characterization tags (Warning: TVTropes)