What are your fan fiction gripes?

I Understand The Dynamic You're Going For, But Slotting Those Characters Into It? Really?: The Musical

 

*flashbacks to that time my friend who cruises for bad Yuri on Ice fic found an AU where the cast were in a production of Phantom of the Opera but everyone was in the wrong role*

 

the true fanfic gripe is writing something and really liking it but realizing entirely too late that if you ever post it youll be stapled to the wall in an instant

 

you could always post anonymously! though there’s still the risk of your writing being recognized.

 

Yeah ao3's 'orphan work' feature is a real blessing for when you wanna write Like That but don't want your name attached to it

 

author, please, i am begging you: tie up your fucking plot points

like, yes, this is a romance novel. yes, we really only mostly care about the main pairing. but who was trying to murder them?????? why does their friend eat souls?????

this work is marked complete, and you did, like, tie up the romance drama, to be fair, but i. i have so many questions. so many

 

Thaaat... sounds confusing. I'm morbidly curious what fic this was now and whether murder and soul-eating are normal in that fic's 'verse.

 

you don't even need to orphan it, just create a new account with a username no-one will recognise

 

yeah, i have an alt but its still like Do I Want To Be Bothered

so far ive decided to write more vanilla stuff first and then plop this story in the middle of the series like a cuckoo bird

 

It is a twenty chapter fic. There is a seven chapter arc of someone trying to murder them, and an entire chapter where they are essentially imprisoned by their own security, because their security is that freaked out about this would be assassin, who is outright stated to be a traitor within their own ranks, and heavily implied to be a former friend (and, therefore, a canon character) of one half of the pairing... and then their security chief is like "we've got the guy" and it's never mentioned again. we're never told who it was. we're never told what their actual motive was, not just security's speculations. we're never told what happens to them.

we also find out that their friend/second in command of their security is like.... some sort of eldritch horror who eats souls in a one off scene where he and the other half of the pairing are taking vengeance on some noble who eats babies (not an eldritch horror, just your run of the mill cannibal). this is never mentioned again.

this was actually a really enjoyable fic, imo, and hit basically all of my favorite trope points, but it's like the author thought the only plot that needed to be narratively tied in a bow was the romance, and left pretty much every other subplot hanging

 

You did get to a good stopping point. You also explained why you were ending it where you were, which you absolutely were not obligated to do but was really thoughtful. I've read it at least twice and didn't find it unsatisfying. It didn't feel like flawed plot construction by someone who's still trying to figure out what they're doing. It was more like season one of a really good show.

 

Look. Fic author. I get that clone troopers are awesome, and Mandalorians are also awesome, and these are two great tastes that go great together. But.

Clone troopers are not going to just casually go "oh hey cool, we found a cache of Mandalorian artifacts, let's go desert and restart this dead clan". Desertion is a big deal! Treat it as such! These boys have been drilled since decanting that they are to support their brothers and obey orders! Deserting means they are abandoning the fight and leaving their brothers without support! That's something they should show some conflict over!!

It's not something they should show barely any hesitation about during the space of one! fucking! chapter! before THE WHOLE DAMN SQUAD decides "shit, let's be Mandos"!

Nor would these trained soldiers be 'dreamy' over bone armor that, in all likelyhood, is barely better than their standard plastoid. (What fucking Mandalorian would wear bone instead of proper beskar or at least durasteel, anyways? What the fuck.)

Also, you named the clan's heroic ancestor Mir'shebs the Saviour and I'm sorry, but I fucking Cannot. It's a valid clone name, sure, but no one with actual parents is getting named Mir'shebs, you fucking Mando'aboo.

 

I know I've complained about the "Fall of Equestria" 'verse here before but it just struck me there's an extra layer of potential problem with the setup, beyond the female characters all being rendered helpless. The overthrowing army are caribou, i.e. from a cold climate. Equestria is ruled by Celestia, the goddess-or-nearest-equivalent who controls the sun. Methinks there ought to be a certain level of elemental rock-paper-scissors going on there.

 

I woke up annoyed this morning over a fic that I thought was going to be a recovery fic, but turned out to be "character is actually much better as a traumatized near-zombie slaveboy who needs constant supervision so he will actually eat and relieve himself, and his former friends are evil for suggesting that maybe, possibly he needs some fairly intensive therapy" fic.

I'm equally annoyed over people who had told me that "the writer has really improved so you should try her out again." I don't care. Demonizing characters annoys me almost more than bait and switch unrecovery fic where the writer in comments literally says the character is better being severely traumatized. (I guess that way romantic interest has a reason to take care of them? I don't know.) I'm also annoyed that the suddenly evil! characters were evil! because they wanted to help the character.

 

Did they mean that the character was better off in themselves without recovery, or that the character is more interesting to write about without recovery?

 

They absolutely meant that the character was better off in themselves without recovery. Despite needing someone (the romantic interest) on hand to make sure the character was doing basic self-care.

See also: reason ten billion why I stopped involving myself in btvs fandom in general and the spike/xander pairing in specific.

 

I am not sure this is a gripe per se but I am delighted by nier automata au fic where 2B and 9S are stilled named 2B and 9S despite if they're in medieval fantasy land or modern day or whatever. The sheer moxie of it.

 

there's a thread for fic delights, you should totally crosspost this there!

 

Please Tag Your Modern AUs, I Want Canon Setting Not This: A gripping trilogy by me,

who just had to back out of yet another witcher fanfic because the only outside hint of 'modern au' was a 'phone sex tag' crammed in with all the other tags that i predictably missed. For the love of all things good on this planet, if your base setting is 'weird pseudo-medival fantasy' PLEASE let me know if you plan to port everyone into the 21st century so that i can avoid AND FILTER it