Fanfic / The Hot Topic Krew

The Original Six HTK Members

"WHO RUINED HOT TOPIC?!"

— Dark Pit, Lucas, Wolf, Shadow, Mewtwo and Cia in Chaptar 1: The New Hot Topic

Overview:

The Hot Topic Krew is a Super Smash Bros. fanfic created by an anonymous tumblr user, otherwise dubbed as Original HTK Author by the moderator of SSBFanfiction and MerchantAnna on FanFiction.Net​ and Archive of Our Own. It was first submitted on the tumblr blog SuperSmashBrothersFanfiction on December 24, 2014 followed by a Christmas special the next day. The story was originally intended to be done in a form of playing popcorn, allowing various anonymous users to contribute to each chapter, or "chaptar" as they're called. However, by January 5, 2015, the anon decided just to take the liberty of writing it out completely (or so they claim).

During the same month, Anna's partner in crime, GeneralDarkPit came into play, porting the story on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own with Anna's permission. Later on, they started contributing to the plot as well, thus making them an co-author of the story.

During the middle of January, the HTK boomed in sudden popularity, leading to other The Hot Topic Krew spin-offs and other fan-related works to rise. The HTK also obtained a seal of approval◊ from PrincessAmerica, the famed author known for Supper Smash Bros: Mishonh From God.

While one would think The Hot Topic Krew is the My Immortal of Super Smash Brothers, it's really not. Contrary to popular belief, despite both fanfics centering around Goths, both are completely different in terms of their premise.

In September 2017, MerchantAnna recently confirmed this fic to be a parody of almost every Troll Fic trope imaginable. In October they posted the first chapter of a sequel titled ''In the Eye of the Storm''. Since it hasn’t been updated in years, it may be discontinued.

Synopsis

The story focuses on the aforementioned Hot Topic Krew, a club of goths formed by Dark Pit and Lucas (who happen to be lovers) because the local Hot Topic has been stocked with fandom shirts, boy band merchandise, and stuff that just all-around isn't edgy anymore. And also using the word 'an' instead of 'a' even when the next word begins with a consonant. However, the story gets a lot weirder than its premise.

Soon, Yoshi, a villain who despises Dark Pit and Lucas, turns out to have been the one that remodeled their beautiful Hot Topic, and wants to make sure that he can't be stopped. He forms a new team to battle the Krew, known as the Cute Toot House. The Krew is able to beat the House at first, but Yoshi still has a lot under his sleeve, and may not be the source of it at all...

And everything just gets wilder from there.

Storyline

Arc 1

Consists of chapters 1-18 to include the first HTK Christmas, Valentine's and Presidents' Day Special along with HTK mini specials 1-5.

Arc 2

Consists of chapters 19-28 along with mini specials 6-9.

Arc 3

Consists of chapters 29-35 along with two HTK bonus chapters.

Arc 4

Consists of the remaining chapters (36-40) and starts off with another HTK Christmas special that is considered canon to the HTK universe.

Tropes used in The Hot Topic Krew

• Anti-Villain: Icarus's ultimate goal is to rid the entire world of its "sinners" and start anew. Towards the beginning of Arc 4, it is revealed the sinners are actually bullies, due to his own experiences of being bullied and observing countless acts of it, ranging from the belittlement of retail workers to even people abusing stray animals for no legitimate reason.
• Archnemesis Dad: The Big Bad of the story turns out to be the father of Pit and Dark Pit.
• Artistic License – Geography: The continent in the story is literally called Amerijapanadaropesiafrica.
  • Hyrule is apparently located in the state of Florida.
• Artistic License – History: The story takes place in the year 2015 yet it heavily contradicts itself in "Chaptar" 6 when the SSB4 tournament took place and in "Chaptar" 12 when Palutena, Kynthia, Viridi and co. attended high school together in the 1990s.
  • The Valentine's Day Special tells the story about how Mervyn's went out of business in 2015 despite the department store chain actually being defunct since 2008.
  Pit rushed over in his pink, fuzzy sweater and pushed dork Pit, causing the Capri-sun to fly out of his hands, landing into the store called Mervyns as it exploded, killing everyone inside. That's the story of how Mervyns went out of business.
  • In the eighth mini special, Kynthia is reading The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings in the 80s. The book wasn't published until 1995.
  • Charles Barkley apparently created a children's game called "Boob da Boob."
  • The cartoon Ducktales was said to be created after Captain Falcon punched the Aflac duck to the moon.
  • The hit 80s song "West End Girls" was apparently done by actors Chris Evans and David Tennant. Note that one of the them was born in 1981 and the first version of the hit single was released in 1984.
• Author Filibuster: Shows up in some chapters where the author will either comment on how much they hate Mewtwo, Wizzro, or even go on about social justice issues.
• Background Music: Despite being a work of writing, it utilizes music. However instead of incorporating music via soundtrack notes, they are inserted in between hyphens, which gives a piece of music to play. Both the author and the porter recommend opening up extended versions of said music on Youtube to help capture the mood of the scene while reading.
• Berserk Button: Never mess with Abraham Lincoln or the Founding Fathers in front of Pit.
  • Pit gets extremely angry when anyone harms Dark Pit.
  • Cia throws a temper tantrum every time her Starbucks order has skim milk instead of whole milk.
  • Dark Pit gets made every time someone calls him "Pittoo." Done for comedic affect, Dark Pit's legal name in the story is in fact, Pittoo.
  • Pit dislikes it when anyone insults Palutena.
  • Mario dislikes clone characters, especially Dr. Mario.
  • Chrom loses it every time he encounters Grima.
• Big "NO!": Used many times throughout the story, including every time Pit reminds Dark Pit that Capri-sun is illegal.
• Butt-Monkey: Wolf is one, who usually ends up being chased out of the mall for just running around.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Is illegal in the HTK universe, yet is still done relatively often.
• Call-Back: The sequel’s Halloween special references the Aflac duck being punched to the moon by Captain Falcon, which happened in an early chapter of the original story.
• The Cameo: Daisy makes one in chapter 3, before flying through a ceiling and presumably never being seen again.
  • Green de la Bean makes an appearance in the final chapter, having a threesome with Palutena and Icarus.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Just like My Immortal, the "preps" are hated for no reason. Such prep groups consist of the Big Bads, the Cute Toot House, and The MemeMemeMeme Brigade.
• Cast Full of Gay: A large number of characters are gay or bisexual, a few of whom being Dark Pit, Lucas, Shadow, Robin, Cia, Pit, Mega Man, Shulk, Marth, Ike, Soren, Shrek, Midna, Tharja, Henry, and Charizard.
• Cerebus Syndrome: The story starts out as a light-hearted parody, but eventually starts to have some legitimately dark and serious moments.
  • The story gets even darker in Arc 4.
• Christmas Episode: The story features two Christmas specials: one non-canon, crack styled one early in the story, and a more serious, canon one in the last arc.
• Create Your Own Villain: The only reason that Yoshi turned evil was because Dark Pit and Lucas tried to kill him for no reason, throwing him into a pit of acid and scarring him. Therefore, Hot Topic being "ruined" was entirely the duo's fault.
• Creator's Culture Carryover: Despite the HTK taking place in an alternative universe, American pop culture is everywhere.
• Crossover: Despite it being an Super Smash Bros. fanfic, characters such as Cia from Hyrule Warriors, Ryuko and Satsuki from Kill la Kill, to even famous people such as Shia Labeouf and Arnold Schwarzenegger show up.
• A Day in the Limelight: Certain mini specials focus on specific characters.
  • HTK Mini Specials 2 and 3 focus on the Lancia Family.
  • HTK Mini Special 6 tells the story of how Grima fell in love with Kynthia.
  • HTK Mini Special 7 focuses on how Shrek and Shadow met one another.
  • HTK Mini Special 8 focuses on how Palutena, Viridi, Phosphora and Rosalina met Kynthia.
  • HTK Secret Mini Special 2 focuses on Icarus and Palutena.
• Demonization: Everyone who is either Republican or displays any form of conservative viewpoints is a villain in the story.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Tons of them, mainly in the first two arcs.
  * Wolf was doing wolf things as he took a shit in the middle of the food court, causing people to scream and cry as it was not just any shit, but explosive shit. Of course wolf couldn't help his instincts because he is in fact, a wolf and wolves don't do much besides eat, shit, eat, shit and howl at full moons.
  * But then, goddesses can't get arrested because goddesses have the right to decide who lives and who dies because they're godly like and have god like powers and therefore goddesses are gods.
  • Even the first sentence is this.
  * One day at the mall, Lucas and his lover Dark Pit were hanging out at the mall.
• Disproportionate Retribution: In the first HTK Mini Special, Dark Pit and the other members set Bowser on fire, all because he took their lunch money.
• Doorstopper: The entire story is over double the length of the longest Harry Potter book.
• Dysfunctional Family: The entire Lancia family.
  While this was happening, Grima happened to pull out the good ol' newspaper from the magazine rack, reading it. As much as he loved his family, sometimes he realized it was an complete trainwreck.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Lana and Rosalina both make appearances in the first chapter, despite Lana not appearing with a real role for a few more chapters and Rosalina not even appearing at all again until Kynthia is introduced.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: The early chapters were a lot more humorous, had few serious conflicts, and were more like something you would see in a typical Crack Fic. This all changed when Cerebus Syndrome kicked in.
• Evil Knock Off: In Chaptar 10, Lana recreates the summoning circle from Full Metal Alchemist to revive Cia. This however, backfires and releases her evil clone, Anal.
• Fan Art: There are several pieces of artwork done for the HTK. Some artists even took the liberty of redesigning the recolor OCs and gave them a more original appearance while keeping the joke in mind.
• Fan Verse: Surprisingly enough, this fanfic spawned multiple spin-offs by different authors.
• Fantastic Racism: Mario strongly dislikes clone characters.
• Flanderization: Cia's infatuation for Link was amplified to the extreme. This was confirmed to be done on purpose by the author as a means to mock the Zelda fandom who think Cia's entire character revolves around her crush on Link.
• Freudian Slip: Master Hand is sometimes referred to as Master Handjob.
  • Wolf calls the Terminator a "cybernetic orgasm" instead of a cybernetic organism.
• Fun with Acronyms: The League of Super Evil, also known as LoSE.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Pit does not swear in the story at all.
  Pit: "DANG IT PITTOO!"
• Happily Married: Robin and Cia at the end of Chapter 39.
• Heel–Face Turn: Surprisingly, Yoshi in Chapter 37, after he learns he was being used the entire time.
  • Icarus in Chapter 39, after he snaps free from Erebus's influence as a means to redeem himself.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: Abraham Lincoln is the co-founder of S.T.E.A.M., an organization created to thwart Yoshi's plans at all costs.
• Hulking Out: Chrom in chapter 9 when Robin mentions that he had sexual intercourse with Grima's daughter.
  Chrom "GRIMA'S ALIVE?! AND HAS OFFSPRING!? GODS, HOW?? I MUST KILL HIM AGAIN! CHROM MAD, CHROM ANGRY, CHROM RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!"
• Insane Troll Logic: Tons of it which are done purposely for comedic effect.
  • In chapter thirteen, Marc manages to create a gigantic bomb with an oven and launch it at the police force.
• Jack of All Trades: Dry Bowser, who is also a Master of All.
• Kick the Dog: A lot of Dark Pit's actions early on in the story show how cruel he was, such as treating his brother like shit and even trying to murder Yoshi for no reason.
• Knight of Cerebus: Icarus serves this purpose. Although the story did have some dark moments already, it got a lot darker after his introduction.
• Legion of Doom: The League of Super Evil and the Big Bads.
• The Man Behind the Man: Icarus is this to Yoshi.
  • Erebus is this to Icarus.
• Manipulative Bastard: Erebus is this to Icarus and his other victims. He isolates his victim, strains their relationships, turns them against their friends and family, making his victim completely dependent on him until their use has ceased.
• Mister Seahorse: Somehow, Soren gave birth to Lucas, Ike being the father.
• My Nayme Is: Done purposely for comedic affect. Some characters are renamed, examples being Ghirahim as Ghiraham, Zant as Zoont, Snake as Snape, etc.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Averted. Arnold gets his far share of abuse from the HTK, even killed twice before being reserrected.
• Oh, My Gods!: "Satan Judas" is used a number of times by the Hot Topic Krew themselves.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Pit rarely curses, but when he does, you know he's extremely pissed.
• Overly Long Name: In chapter 3, Zelda's full name is revealed to be Zelda Harkinian Nohassen Frida Kalo.
  • In Chapter 6, Marth's full name is Marth Mars Aritia Altea Lowell.
• Parents Walk In at the Worst Time: In chapter 7 while Robin and Cia are cuddling after having no s-support sex, Cia's parents barge in as Kynthia steps inside while Grima removes the roof.
• Parody: The story was confirmed to be parodying almost every Troll Fic trope imaginable alongside common fandom misconceptions done in the format of crack fiction. It can even count as a Stealth Parody due to the fact many people believed otherwise.
• Parody Sue: Detsniy Off Skiword's Cloud Angle from Kid Icarus Uprising 2: Hades revenge is parodied as Cloud Angelos.
  • The sequel introduces the author's own spin on Sara Osborne from Supper Smash Bros: Mishonh From God.
• Precision F-Strike: Surprisingly, Pit, in Chaptar 7.
  Pit: "And nobody, I dare say, nobody FUCKS WITH ABRAHAM LINCOLN!"
• Primal Scene: Dark Pit encounters this twice in the HTK Presidents' Day special where he stumbles upon on Pit and Mega Man having sex on the Abraham Lincoln memorial statue and again in the sixth HTK mini special when he walks in on both Cia's parents along with Virion and Libra having sex in the hallway.
  Dark Pit: "GAH MY FUCKING EYES! FOR THE LOVE OF SATAN FUCKING JUDAS, DO IT SOMEWHERE ELSE PLEASE! THE LAST THING I NEED TO SEE IS COCK AND GIANT ORANGUTAN TITS!"
  • This seems to be a Running Gag for Dark Pit, happening to him twice in the final chaptar. He walks in on Palutena and Icarus having sex and later on them having a threesome with Green de la Bean.
• Product Placement: Tons of them. Some examples include Hot Topic, Forever 21, McDonald's, Starbucks, Spencer's, Nike and EB Games to name a few.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: More common in the first two arcs, occasionally words such as angel would be misspelled as angle and even anleg. The author had confirmed they were done entirely on purpose.
• Running Gag: There are several of them throughout the story.
  • Wolf acting on his animal instincts.
  • Pit's obsession with American history, the Founding Fathers and his love for Abraham Lincoln.
  • Chrom's obsession with "fishsticks."
  • Doing it without no S-Support.
  • Grima's love for the newspaper.
    Kynthia: "I'm sorry hun but you have an newspaper addiction and it needs to stop! Heck, you even read it to our babies when they were growing up. They have no absolute fuck about fairy tales and all of those children's books because of it," she replied, sighing.
    Grima "But what use are children's books? They're full of morals while the newspaper gives reality, the newspaper doesn't sugarcoat life dear!"
    Kynthia: "You know there's Liberal newspapers and Republican newspapers right? And then there's The Onion!"
  • All the baristas at Starbucks are female lords from Fire Emblem.
  • Dark Pit constantly walking in on people having sex.
  • Rosalina being killed and coming back from the dead.
• Self-Deprecation: The author does this occasionally, referring to their own story as a trainwreck and a giant clusterfuck.
• Sequel Hook: The final chaptar helps set up the sequel to the story by having Pit and Dark Pit start high school, as well as introducing new characters.
• Shout-Out: Plenty of them to go around.
  • In chapter two, Pit dubs Lana as his pretty rave girl.
  • In the second chapter, Zelda and Cia's fathers were working on a cure to stop the chicken papers from printing out of nowhere.
  • MAKEOVER MAKEOVER MAKEOVER MAKEOVER
  • In chapter thirteen, Marc sings a song about how baking is so fun.
  • In the third mini special, the bonus chapter refers to Robin as Cia's TRUE and HONEST friend.
• Stalker Shrine: The Temple of Souls which is heavily decorated with Link memorabilia. Some characters even remark how creepy it is.
  • Robin had his own of Cia.
• Take That!:
  • One at DeviantArt when Morshu and pals compare Cia's poem to it.
    "It is DeviantART," Morshu added, "And we all know how bad DeviantART is!"
  • And many toward Donald Trump and conservatives in general.
  • One towards Reddit being referred to as the internet's armpit.
  • Cloud Angelos is one to Cloud Angle from Kid Icarus Uprising 2: Hades Revenge.
• Textual Celebrity Resemblance: Lucas is described as looking like Niall from One Direction.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Rosalina is killed off multiple times, and is quickly revived, due to being a goddess. This is lampshaded, the Trope Namer being referenced.
• Third-Person Person: Captain Falcon constantly refers to himself in the third person.
• Three-Way Sex: In the final chapter, Pittoo walks in on Palutena, Icarus, and Green de la Bean having a threesome.
• Trademark Favorite Food:
  • Chrom and his love of fish sticks.
  • Cia and Kynthia's love of Samoas.
  • The Krew and their love of Capri-sun, an drink intended for elementary school children.
  • As the Krew has Capri-Sun, the CTH has their trademark drink being bubblegum and grape soda.
  • The Lancia family and their love for Starbucks coffee.
  • Fried chicken for Ike.
• Uncanny Family Resemblance: Played for Laughs, the entire Lancia family look exactly alike.
  • In the final chapter, Palutena tells Pit and Dark Pit the reason why she was late picking up groceries was because she came across a stork who delivered two baby angels. Oddly, the two newborns exactly mirror Pit and Dark Pit in terms of appearance.
• Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Most of the HTK members are huge assholes. Luckily, they do go through Character Development.
• Valentine's Day Episode: The story features a Valentine's Day special.
• Walking Spoiler: Icarus and Erebus reveal a lot about the story's plot.