I think you're probably right about that. A lot of the fanfic I've read that consciously rebels against the authors' attitudes, however, ends up making the Goodkind mistake (the characters the author dislikes become flattened out, the characters the author likes are heroes without restraint; see many pro-Slytherin fics in the HP fandom) or the authors' own needs and attitudes get stamped on the characters (a lot of LOTR fics which take Arwen and Eowyn out-of-character in order to make them feminist heroines, and any possible in-canon origins of this feminism are not explored or justified). Dissatisfaction and irritation with the original source are, I think, creative forces; they often have been for me. But unless you're writing pure satire of the original, you eventually have to go beyond that and create a positive good of your own. What is it going to be? What kind of attitude will you express? The diametric opposite of something you dislike is usually not more clever, clear, or subtle.

I should add that I've read some fanfics that do thoughtfully question aspects of the canon world, especially in LOTR and X-Files (I think fewer in HP, because the irritation seems to take precedence over the thoughtfulness there). I just don't think it really escapes the problem.

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