Fanfic / Dante's Stars

Dante's Stars by Pretani is a novel-length A Series of Unfortunate Events fanfic published between 2007 and 2015. It is primarily based on the 2004 film, with some elements from the books incorporated in.

It's half Incest Yay Shipping story, half weighty plot that's more that a bit Dark Fic.

It can be found here (FanFiction.Net) or here (Archive of Our Own).

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Tropes

• Affectionate Nickname: Klaus calls Violet "Vi."
• Brother–Sister Incest: After years of raising their little sister together and generally functioning as a couple, Violet and Klaus get together.
• The Dragon: Gerard is this to Olaf, who he's working for.
• Defiled Forever: Olaf tries to Invoke this trope. When Klaus stops touching Violet after the attack, Violet fears it's true. It's not: Klaus is afraid that such an experience left her with a Paralyzing Fear of Sexuality, and that any touch would be unwelcome now. They avoid talking about it for quite a while before then, fearing it's too painful of a subject—but they eventually set each other straight on the matter and have sex again. She is, however, left infertile by the attack.
  Olaf: You've been compromised. Tainted. Despoiled. [...] Who else would have you now?
• Early-Bird Cameo: Gerard
  Sunny: That's him! The man on the trolley! I know it is! It's him! It's him!
• Epigraph: Each chapter begins with one—Bob Dylan, T. S. Eliot, Niccolò Machiavelli, Rob Thomas, Goo Goo Dolls, U2, Victor Hugo, Jane Austen, to name only a few.
• Foil: The villain also had feelings for his sister—but they were not reciprocated, and he didn't accept that. Moral for the story: Having a crush? Ok. Being a sexual predator? Bad.
• Foreshadowing: Very early in the story, Klaus and Violet discuss how—while they don't really agree with "the ends justify the means"—they would do virtually anything to protect each other and Sunny. In particular they discuss if they'd kill if they had to, to which Klaus concludes "yes" and Violet concludes "I don't want to think about it, but probably." This gets put to the test near the end of the story.
• If I Can't Have You…:
  Violet: I don't think it was about love, Klaus. I think it was about power. When people only think of themselves…when they want power more than anything, it destroys them. It turns them into monsters, and they can't…they can't feel anymore. He was selfish, and he wanted her. But if he couldn't…couldn't have her, then no one would. He had to make sure of it.
• Insecure Love Interest: Klaus. It's one part generalized insecurity, and one part based on the belief that a non-brother could give Violet a more stable, normal future than he could.
  Klaus: You know, a family…a home… You want those things, don't you?
  Violet: Well...yes. You know I do.
  Klaus: Won't you regret giving that up, because of me?
  Violet: Oh Klaus. You and Sunny are my family.
• Matricide: Gerald kills Ethie.
• The Peeping Tom: Behind the bathroom mirror.
• Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: It takes the undertones of Olaf trying to marry Violet from canon, and plays it dead straight.
• Relative Error: Ziggagged trope. Klaus argues that the Occam's Razor assumption to make about a trio consisting of a young man, a young woman, and a small child is to assume they're a nuclear family. When they aren't mistaken as such, Klaus finds this suspicious, even though it's correct.
  Klaus: He called Sunny our little sister.
  Violet: He could've guessed that. What else would she be?
  Klaus: Our daughter. People who don't know better might think—
  Violet: Klaus!
  Klaus: What I meant is, the engineer knew that Sunny is our sister. He was looking for us.
• Shout-Out: Klaus reads a lot of books.
  • The title of the fic refers to The Divine Comedy, as relayed to Violet by Klaus in chapter 12.
    Klaus: Dante is the author and the…the hero, I guess. He lost the girl he loved, when she died. Her name was Beatrice. He's left wandering in a dark forest, but no matter how bad things are, he can look up and see the stars. Then he meets the ghost of Virgil, the old Roman poet, who brings him a message from Beatrice. She wants him to make a…a journey into the land of the dead. So he goes. He goes through Hell and a wall of flames to get to her. […] I think the stars are supposed to be faith, hope and love. They're what we still have, when nothing else is left. It means there's always a little light in darkness.
  • Klaus reads Violet and Sunny a version of The Valkyrie in chapter 16, though he add-libs an Adaptational Alternate Ending to make it happier for Sunny.
  • Gerald's lair makes Klaus think of The Pit and the Pendulum.
  • Sunny reads a version of Donkeyskin and Violet uses it a springboard to have a discussion about consent, reiterating the fic's central theme of incest is ok, coercion is horrible.
    Sunny: Isn't it bad?
    Violet: Yes, Sunny. It's bad.
    Sunny: But why is it bad?
    Violet: It's bad because she doesn't want him, Sunny. A father should protect his daughter, not try to…do something like that. But even if he wasn't her father, it would still be wrong.
    Sunny: Why?
    Violet: He wants to marry her against her will. No one should ever force another person to…into… [flinches, closing her eyes for a second] It would still be wrong.
• Their First Time: While Violet has never actually been molested, the threat has been very present. Klaus is very aware of this and is worried about not triggering anything or pushing Violet too fast. Violet, for her part, has a moment of unwanted flashback once—but mostly is just thirsty. They have two first times that are treated as "a thing" by the narrative: the first time they do anything (hand stuff) and first time they have old-school sex.
• Villainous Crush: Gereld for Emma.
  Violet: Ethie told me something once…that she complained about him. Emma, I mean. Her daughter. He would follow her around all the time, when she didn't want him to… It was a running joke in town. People said that he was like her shadow. They thought he was just looking after her, but I think they were wrong, Klaus. I think he had an obsession.
• Wrong-Name Outburst: Gerald calls Violet "Emma"—his sister's name—at one point.
  Gerald: You'll never leave me, Emma. You'll never leave me again.