Really Isn’t Your Fault
is a fanfic based on The Loud House by cornholio4 that’s a Deconstruction Fic of the infamous webcomic It's (Not) Your Fault. It has a similar premise of the framing story with Lincoln and Sam at a sleepover for the Moon Goats; having a picture taken and edited by Rusty to make them look like they were kissing out of jealousy for Lincoln and Stella’s relationship. However, it takes the story in a much different direction.
This fanfic contains examples of:
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul:
- Inverted with Luna and Sam. In the comic, they had a dysfunctional relationship that eventually ended with them breaking up. Here, their relationship is more stable, remaining strong even during the scandal.
- Lincoln and Sam didn’t interact much in canon, but they have a sibling-like relationship in the fanfic.
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Implied. It seems that Sam lacks her Dark and Troubled Past from the comic, meaning that she is more emotionally stable. Downplayed, however, since she's still affected by the harrassment from her peers during the scandal despite having Luna's support.
- Adaptational Intelligence: The characters lack the Idiot Ball from the webcomic.
- Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed but the brief hesitance that Rusty had in sabotaging Lincoln and Stella’s relationship is left out.
- Adaptational Karma: Rusty is punished for nearly sabotaging Lincoln & Stella out of petty revenge, with his friendship ending with Lincoln's group, being grounded indefinitely and becoming a pariah at school.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Luna’s Adaptational Jerkass is removed. She is shown to be supportive of both Lincoln and Sam and refuses to end her relationship with them, such as helping Sam during her mental distress.
- Adapted Out:
- Justified. Due to everyone using their brains, Lina Loud will never exist in this continuity.
- The Dark and Troubled Past of Sam’s father walking out on his family is omitted; with him still with his family and the family having been stable before the photo incident.
- All for Nothing: Rusty tried to sabotage the relationship between Lincoln and Stella to win her over and in retaliation for Lincoln allegedly breaking the promise of not pursuing Stella, not knowing that both of them have fallen in love with each other. Not only is his attempt disproven by Lisa and a lot of people believe the photo is faked, but he loses his friendship with the group, his reputation and is grounded by his father.
- Armed with Canon: Different from how Luna is portrayed in the comic, she isn't really an inconsiderate and jerkish teenager who treats Sam and Lincoln like crap, the fanfic reminds everyone that despite her flaws, she's still a Cool Big Sis and supportive girlfriend to Sam, making her close to her canon self.
- Continuity Nod:
- The fic starts at the one year anniversary of Lincoln talking to Stella on the bus from White Hare, the rabbits that get together in the episode even shows up in the next chapter to encourage Lincoln to talk to Stella.
- Deconstruction Fic: To the webcomic. Rusty's attempt at sabotaging Lincoln and Stella's relationship fails due to the involved ones seeing how fake it is, and while some people initially believed it, they heard the victims' side of the story and calmed down, with Lisa finally proving it is faked. There are students who still believe it, but a lot just act like mocking jerks.
- Fix Fic: The fanfic is this to It's (Not) Your Fault by removing the Idiot Ball from the characters since the fake photo's scandal was solved quickly, thus the relationship between Luna & Sam, and Lincoln & Stella, is never ruined, with Rusty getting Laser-Guided Karma on the end.
- Idiot Ball: Defied. The main premise of the fanfic is that everyone has the common sense that they lacked on the comic, with everything ending happily for Lincoln and Sam.
- In Spite of a Nail: Heavily Downplayed and played with. Sam still suffers a Sanity Slippage due to the scandal, but thanks to Luna, she snaps out of it before she can do anything that she might regret. However, the breakdown is less about the scandal and more about a nightmare she has of that scene from the comic.
- Irony: Lori reminds Lincoln of the anniversary of him first speaking to Stella and has him thinking that him forgetting could be a crack in their relationship. However it turns out Stella didn’t realise it either and upon getting a flower from Lincoln as a gift, feels like a bad girlfriend for forgetting.
- Knight Templar Big Sister: Lynn Jr’s reaction to seeing the photo is to try and beat Sam up with a bat, believing at first that Sam put the moves on Lincoln and played with him and Luna.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Sam describing the nightmare that she had — heavily implied to be the infamous scene of Lincoln and Sam at the school — as something from "a messed up dark webcomic" reflects how the bleakness from the original comic and the opinion from the detractors.
- Lighter and Softer: Contrasting the tone from the comic, the fanfic is more hopeful and idealistic due to everyone being more smart during the scandal, ending things peacefully and the culprit being punished on the end.
- Like Brother and Sister: Lincoln and Sam’s relationship since she acts like his surrogate older sister.
- Recursive Fanfiction: To It's (Not) Your Fault, but with the events happening different.
- Shipper on Deck: Rosa Casagrande isn’t subtle in bringing up how she wished that Lincoln was dating Ronnie Anne and not Stella.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To It's (Not) Your Fault.
- Both stories involve Rusty framing Lincoln and Sam with a fake photo of the two kissing, causing Sam to undergo a Sanity Slippage due to the harassment she endured from her peers, but that's the similarities. Sam in the comic didn't have any support and had a dysfunctional family, eventually raping Lincoln, but Sam in the fanfic has support from Luna and has a stable family, thus managing to not commit any action she may regret.
- While in the former, everyone grabbed the Idiot Ball and jumped at conclusions, in the latter, everyone uses their brains and solve the drama in a rational way. Stella didn't listen to Lincoln and broke up with him in the comic, but she listens to him and helps him discover the culprit in this fanfic.
- The future in It's (Not) Your Fault is bleak due to how the lives of Lincoln, Luna and Sam were ruined and Rusty (possibly) got away with that. By contrast, the future in Really Isn't Your Fault is happy since everyone has a good life and are on good terms, due to Rusty being caught and punished.
- Take That!: Several at the comic. Chapter 5 especially has Sam mentioning a nightmare that's heavily implied to be the events of the comic leading up to the infamous scene, with her calling it something from a "messed up dark webcomic".
- What If?: Rather than blindly believing the fake photo of Lincoln and Sam kissing, the characters listened to the victims and tried to find the culprit?
