Twitter Is Baffled By Skittles' Self-Insert Fanfiction
Skittles is getting in on the self-insert fanfiction game, and people have feelings — wide-ranging, passionate feelings, which you might say are all the colors of the rainbow. (See what we did there?) Anyway, the candy brand recently joined popular fanfiction site Wattpad, and people are confused, intrigued, and occasionally impressed by the action.
It all started when the brand tweeted that it had created a Wattpad profile with an "about" section that says, "Skittles R. JK. LOL Rowlings Martin is a New York Times best selling novelist" who has "written popular works such as Game of Chairs and Parry Hotter: the child magician." The fictional author, of course, is clearly a play on the names of "Harry Potter" author J. K. Rowling and "Game of Thrones" author George R.R. Martin. Immediately, Wattpad readers inquired about when Skittles would drop its first tome, to which the account replied, "Sooner than you think." Indeed, Skittles tweeted the next day that it had published its first bit of self-insert fanfiction (a genre in which the author is a character in the story).
Before you go cozying up for a long night's read, the Skittle fanfiction is only a few paragraphs long. However, it is filled with gems like, "Lime was back, which meant Skittles could no longer do the one thing that brought them the most joy, trolling angry fans that hated Green Apple." If fan response is any indication, Skittles should be able to quickly replace trolling those haters with trolling those critical of its Wattpad effort.
Here's how fans have responded to the Skittles fanfiction
Right off the bat, Skittles chose a perplexing title for its first fanfiction ("Chapter 3, Season 4," "picking up from where season 3 left off") even though there are no previous entries to be seen. Understandably, people were immediately flummoxed when the brand announced its fanfiction on Twitter. "WHAT IS THIS," said one follower, "Skittles what's going on?" said another, and yet a different person encouraged the brand to "please seek medical attention." Others were merely concerned, with one user writing, "blink twice if you need help."
It's also causing confusion that no one really knows what the fanfiction is fanfiction of. There is a reference to "Five Nights at Freddy's," but according to the Explaining Skittles account, the title of the work is likely "referencing Fortnite's season count." And while no Twitter users appeared to bring this up, it's an interesting choice on the brand's part to associate this promotion with J. K. Rowling, who has come under fire in the press in recent years for her comments on the transgender community.
Others are nonetheless interested in what one person deemed "Skittles lore." One commenter said, "now I wanna buy it," but Skittles generously reminded them that the fan-fiction is free to view. Well, that's always good news, at least.