What are your personal "red flags" before reading any fanfic?

Especially because in some of the games (most noticeably Skyward Sword), Link DOES talk in-universe. You just don't get to see it.

Link does have some impressive voiced battle cries, though - especially in Ocarina Of Time.

One (more) for Mass Effect fics.

Citadel Council "crapping their pants" and otherwise just rolling over for the whatever Outside-Context Problem the author is introducing or whatever übertech the "new improved Alliance" has.

Let me remind you authors there, that Citadel Alliance faced against rachni, who almost wiped them out, and they didn't give up. They fought until rachni were exterminated.

They fought against krogans, who almost won, but still fought back, all the way to Tuchanka.

They faced off against Reapers, a faction with greater resources, better technology and overwhelming sueriority in just about everything compared to the Citadel. They fought a war they knew, from the start, they would lose.

But they fought never the less. Citadel does not paralyze in fear when it encounters an overwhelming force, it fights back to last tooth and nail. You awaken that slumbering giant, and it will not stop until you are utterly broken, or they are. They do not just "surrender" just because you happen to slightly better tech.

So I've been reading a lot of Glee fic again, and the Nick/Jeff fanfics are mostly boring Angst-With-No-Plot. And they get resolved in a single chapter.

Sure, most of the fics actually span longer than a day, but the fact still remains that I hate when something is resolved in a oneshot. That's not enough time for me to process backstory, care about otherwise-well-written sex, or truly get the sense that this is my favorite fanon-couple/bromance instead of Yaoi Guys pairing #438. Being minor characters is no excuse not to flesh them out properly.

That goes for my other fandoms. If I can swap the names out and it doesn't change the fic, you lost me.

edited 1st Sep '14 10:47:24 AM by Sharysa

In response to The Stations of the Canon-bashing from a few pages ago: In a Harry Potter fic set in Harry's first year, having the Sorting happen offscreen is not TSOTC — it's a deliberately defied trope. TSOTC requires the events to be depicted.

Nowhere in the trope description is says that The Stations of the Canon need to be showed. Just that they happen. You can gloss over them, if you feel like, but they still happen.

Tyop on the Cover. Or, more likely, summary. Big sign that the main story will have even less care.

Depends to me how big it is. If it's a single letter wrong in the entire Tittle+Summary, not a big deal. They happen.

But if the entire summary is full of them? Oooh boy...

Aren't summaries like one or two sentences? How many typos can they possibly have?

Oh, never mind. Just remembered some of my old fandoms.

Now I'd like to hear more.

Anyway, Trapped in TV Land for me. Or, more specifically, someone from the real world being pulled into a story that they're a fan of. I just...it's the sort thing that usually produces self-inserts, and while I try not to throw around Sue accusations with wild abandon...yeah, you can see where I'm going with this. I'm willing to bet that there are a few good ones, of course.

And let's face it, unless they do something truly morally reprehensible, they really aren't worth the lashing that a lot of people give them.

edited 8th Sep '14 9:20:57 PM by KarkatTheDalek

There's absolutely no excuse for typos being in the title or summary, because someone should've pointed it out. And if they didn't, well, shame on your fans for not pointing it out.

Plus, there's the always "fun" and generally grammatically incorrect "what happens when."

edited 8th Sep '14 9:37:26 PM by KnownUnknown

Seconding the "character gets sucked into the thing" fics. They're generally not very good, and the premise doesn't interest me enough to sort through and find the ones that are.

Although it'd be interesting to see one where the person in question wasn't a fan of what they got thrown into, and only had a passing knowledge of it. I don't think I've seen that done before.

That's what just about any rationalist fic is.

Karkat: My old fandoms were generally the "thirteen-year-old Yaoi Fangirl" type. That is all.

That reminds me - I don't touch anything where the summary admits to bashing a certain character. Even if it's not one I like, it still means the author is spending deliberate effort on trashing someone they don't like. Effort that could go towards, you know, making the rest of the story better.

That goes double for the ones where they deliberately make the character as uncharacteristically unpleasant as possible just so the rest of the cast has a reason to hate them. If you're going to point out a character's flaws, make sure you're addressing their actual flaws.

Ron the Death Eater? Yeah, that totally sucks.

That, and just character bashing in general.

(Insert character here)xHarem stories in fanfiction summaries. I usually steer clear of those stories.

That's because they're usually written by 13-17 year olds trying to live a Power Fantasy. They usually alter said character who gets said harem to be more like them. And by that point you might as well be writing a self insert. Speaking of which...

Bad self-inserts. Even though I said I liked self inserts and I'm writing one, let me explain. When self-inserts are good, they are really good. But when they're bad, they're FUCKING HORRIBLE.

edited 20th Sep '14 1:18:59 PM by HeirophantsFool

The thing about For Want of a Nail fics is that it's kinda a balancing act. Depending on the change, the snowball effect may happen gradually rather than instantaneously. For example, Riku getting the Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts would cause changes, but it wouldn't automatically change what's happening in, say, Disney Castle, or with the Disney Villains prior to Destiny Islands' destruction. But I do think that once the characters interact with the rest of the setting/cast, the changes will begin accumulating. This is especially important in roleswap style fics, because putting a character in another character's position should not change their personality to match the character they're replacing. That's one thing I tried to keep in mind with my work, since it's a concept that's been done poorly so many times before.

I think the best what-if fics take that into account rather than changing things simply for the sake of change. So like, a fic where Harry ends up being cared for by Sirius and the Dursleys would have major changes because it's so early in the timeline that the rest of the events would be dramatically altered, but such a major change would require a lot of careful planning and understanding of the world and its inhabitants, otherwise you could end up with Dumbledore bashing, like someone else said.

As for red flags? If an OC is mentioned in the summary, I tend to side eye it because a lot of the time, those OC fics are self-insert or overpowered characters that steal the spotlight from the characters I'm actually interested in reading about. See: "Organization's X Vth member" type KH stories or Riku and/or Sora finding a mysteriosu girl who holds a great importance to the fic's narrative. I also outright avoid fics that seem to be based on typical high school/romantic comedy tropes because they tend to be very generic and disregard characterization.

I also abhor character bashing and using poor fanon as canon characterization. The biggest example I can think of? People writing Riku as a Sora-obsessed jackass who refuses to let Sora spend time with anyone else, never laughs, smiles, or jokes... I see that characterization, and I think, "did we play the same game?"

edited 20th Sep '14 3:59:29 PM by Dorked

Wait, Riku as a Yandere? Towards Sora?

... Yeah, they're definitely playing a different game. I mean, it's Kairi he's willing to Yandere for, and even then, that was because he was getting his mind screwed up by both Maleficent and Ansem.

Absolutely. If you're going to do that style fic, you either put the change point far enough in the past to allow for the massive changes, or you have to show the Butterfly Effect as you're writing.

I also dislike writers who follow the stations of canon/fanon to the utmost degree. I'm not saying that following said stations are wrong but a little variety won't hurt anyone.

Again, most people who write those kind of fics are probably 13-17 year olds who have no idea on how to write characters.

Yeah, that's kinda one thing I lament a lot with ships. I think utilizing canon is good, especially with characterization, but I don't think it should limit creativity either. In KH in particular, almost every multichaptered story has the same three pairings, and while there's nothing wrong with that, I'd kill to see some variety outside of oneshots.

I do think the age comment's important to remember, though. You're right that those fics might be their first stories and they're doing it for fun. It's why I'm not too keen on sporking, even if the fic isn't that great.

So, other red flags... I'd say multichapter stories that have very, very short chapters. Like 200 words, but the story is meant to be some grand adventure. It suggests to me that the story will have very little description or a lot of summary. Oneshots and drabbles are another story, though. Misspelling character names also tends to be pretty telling.