I've asked about this...and have been told that authors like the less-developed characters because they don't have so much canon to worry about...they can write the minor character any way they want.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the point, you know? If you want to write a minor character, so you don't have to worry about canon, why not just write an OC? Why jump through hoops trying to make X the character you need for your story, whether or not it fits with what we saw of him on-screen? Why not just create an OC that does what you need?

So, I asked someone else and they put forth the theory that minor characters are, in fact, a quasi OC character. And one that, unlike other OCs, everyone is allowed to play with. I'm still scratching my head over that one, but it makes a kind of sense. I guess.

But what is it with the minor character/minor character slash? A guy appears in one episode, another guy appears in a different episode in a different season. The next thing you know, people are writing curtain stories for the two of them and postulating that they're in love and going to live happily every after. Again, what IS the point? Why didn't the author just make up two characters and give them curtains?

Do authors just get tired of writing stories about the main characters? I'd suggest they move on to a new fandom, but that's easier said than done. There aren't that many shows that inspire an author.

I'd suggest that they try their hand at original fiction, but I'm a fanfic author myself and understand the attraction of playing in someone else's universe. (On the other hand, with the exception of one totally ridiculous AU, I have actually tried to make my stories something that wouldn't be impossible to fit into the canon universe, okay? To me, that's part of writing fanfic--the restrictions of the universe. So, I don't introduce plagues, or demons, or vampires, or drag in immortals from another show--I work with the characters we're given. Granted, like any author, I pick and choose the canon stuff I want to deal with.)

It doesn't have anything to do with physical attractiveness, because I've seen stories where characters deliberately portrayed as physically unattractive on-screen are slashed. It's not personality, because I've seen whiny, annoying, needy characters slashed. It's not for plot reasons, because these seem to be PWP stories most of the time. Which tells me that somewhere, someone wanted to see this guy nekkid in bed. Why?

Xovers fall into this whatthehell category for me when the author is writing Actor A from one show slashed with Actor A's character from another show. To me, there's something seriously weird about that, you know? You'll never convince me that the writer was interested in the characters. It was just some weird fantasy about the actor doing himself.

I don't have a punchy ending for this rant...it's just that someone forwarded me a major/minor character story yesterday and I read it, hoping for insight. Not only did I not figure out why the author wanted these two guys together, the story was very much, "any two guys."

But that's a different rant.