Who is "he", exactly?
Best Served Cold is a Duskwood Fan Fic written by IAmHoussem17 on Wattpad and Archive of Our Own. It puts us in the shoes of the MC (named Matthew) who decides to go to Duskwood himself to help his friends find Hannah and stop the Man Without A Face once and for all. It was followed up by a sequel, Those Who Love Us and a short story
happening between the events of the two.You can read the story here or here.
The fic provides examples of:
- Adaptational Villainy: Matthew (MC) turns out to be the true culprit behind the death of Lilly at the end of the story.
- Anyone Can Die: By the end of the story, Richy, Lilly and Hannah are dead as a result of Matthew's Evil Plan.
- Arc Words: "Trust" and "grudge" are repeated throughout the story. Turns out the repetition was just a ruse by Matthew to make us think he forgave Lilly, but he still has the grudge.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Not the kidnapper, but Matthew, as detailed below in Karma Houdini.
- Best Served Cold: It's right there in the title. Thing is, the one serving the revenge here is the hidden Villain Protagonist Matthew against one of his allies.
- Big Bad: The kidnapper, obviously. He's usurped by Matthew in the end.
- Big Bad Wannabe: The Man Without A Face ends up becoming this thanks to Matthew hijacking his plot to enact his own plan.
- Big "WHAT?!": The group's reaction to Matthew announcing his decision to go to Duskwood.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The finale reveals that Matthew was the one who orchestrated Lilly's death by tricking Richy. Hannah commits suicide as a result of losing her sister.
- Declaration of Protection: One of the reasons why Matthew wants to go to Duskwood is to be with Jessy.
- Demoted to Dragon: Matthew manipulates the MWAF in order to do his bidding for him.
- Driven to Suicide: Matthew tells us that Hannah committed suicide not long after Lilly died. He's not bothered by it.
- The Ending Changes Everything: Matthew takes it upon himself to tell us exactly how he got away with deliberately killing Lilly for doxxing him by tricking Richy, who was the MWAF.
- Face–Heel Turn: Matthew pulls one and becomes the Big Bad himself.
- Karma Houdini: Matthew manages to get away with intentionally killing Lilly and Richy while making himself out to be a victim...until the sequel, at least.
- The Man Behind the Man: Matthew was behind the actions of the kidnapper in the final chapters.
- Shout-Out: Funnily enough, it has two references related to SpongeBob SquarePants:
- One of the chapters has the popular meme "He's just standing there...menacingly!" verbatim.
- In the final chapter, Matthew drops this line on us:
- Walking Spoiler: It's impossible to discuss Matthew without revealing that he took control of the events halfway through the plot to plan Lilly's demise and dispose of Richy to shut him up.
- Wham Line: In the penultimate chapter, Matthew finishes talking with Jessy on the phone, revealing to us that Lilly died and Hannah was driven to suicide as result. Then comes another big reveal in the final chapter...Matthew: I had figured out that Richy was the Man Without a Face for a while.
- Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Matthew continued to play up the act of the stranger who wanted to help find Hannah until the end, but in reality he was cruelly taking advantage of everyone to fulfill his goal of Revenge on Lilly.
