Proof that the remaining 10% is worth taking the blue pill for here.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for The Matrix fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.
You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
Authors and Websites
- Recommended by Ethan Miller
- Pairings: None, this author writes general stories.
- The author has written a few parody oneshots featuring Smith and Trinity. This editor thinks they are worth a look.
- Recommended by Tropers/Sikon
- A shared Fan Verse mostly devoted to looking at the Matrix "from the other side", that is, from the programs' POV. It has some interesting additions to canon, such as Agents who are digitized former humans. They focus mostly on original characters and locations outside the movies' Mega City, mostly Russia, since most of the authors are Russian.
Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.
Awakenings
by Lovelace
- Recommended by Ectoplasm
- Status: Complete
- Pairing(s): Smith/OC
- Synopsis: The plot is a bit too complicated to fit in a synopsis, but it's a Semi-AU, kind of a retelling of the Matrix trilogy, but from a different perspective (and then some). Much, MUCH better than it sounds.
- Comments: Probably the best fanfiction this troper has ever come across. This fic features a believable original character, a rather romantic undertone (without it ever feeling forced and cheeseball), a story as mysterious and epic as the matrix itself while keeping all the characters' (especially Smith's) personality firmly implanted in canon. Can you ask for anything more?
- Seconded: Without a doubt the best Matrix fanfiction there is; it could be novelized and called canon. This troper still finds herself going back to read parts of it, like she would with her favorite novels. It takes a brain to read and comprehend, unlike some of the very dull-witted fics out there today, and turns the story into both an action-packed, mind-boggling adventure as well as a beautiful, humanizing tale of redemption. Five stars, highly recommended.
- Definitely worth a look. The plot is creative, something rare in this fandom.
- Caveat: the plot requires a lot of patience to unpick from the massively over-engineered prose. Everyone is curiously opaque in their motivations, the fic starts In Medias Res and there's some Revolutions-level navel gazing. A perfect Matrix fic. - Ack Sed
Kindergarten by Trinchardin
- Recommended by: The Otaku Ninja
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: What if the characters of the Matrix went to kindergarten together? [Concluding Chapter!]
- Comments: A nice little fic that manages to fit in various characters from the second movie while keeping aspects of their characters. Be warned, though, the end is very mind-screwy.
The Matrix Return, by Peter Chimaera
- Recommended by: Ethan Miller
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: A hilariously bad story by the author that brought us DOOM: Repercussions of Evil.
- Comments: Read it, it's funny.
Pointless Agent Insanity by benignmilitancy
- Recommended by: Prince Kaen
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: Agent Smith, Agent Jones, and Agent Brown go on insane adventures in an attempt to cure their boredom.
- Comments: This is hands down the funniest fan fiction I've ever read, for anything. Nothing I could say here can do it justice. It must be read to be believed.
A Splinter in Your Mind by open_sketch
- Recommended by: Omeganian
- Status: Ongoing
- Synopsis: Decades have passed since Revolutions. Except... the whole of humanity leaving the Matrix turned out to be impossible. Ultimately, Neo's victory had defeated itself. Now, a nobody programmer guy is recruited by the people outside the computer. A man who always felt he doesn't fit in the world around him. Well, soon, he finds out one of the reasons for that. His real body... isn't a guy.
- Comments: A nice quest. Some NSFW, but spoilered if you want to skip. Also, averts that old "humans as batteries" nonsense.
Shipping fics
What If and The Return of What If by Meridian1.
- Recommended by: Marcus S Lazarus
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: One change to the original movie changes everything.
- Pairing: Neo/Trinity
- Comments: In an alternate take on the events of the original film, 'Thalia Reagan' learns the truth of the world she lives in all over again, restoring the identity of Trinity as Neo realises the truth of his status as the One and pits himself against the Machines' forces within the Matrix, culminating in a very dramatic final stand.
- Now has its own Tropes page.
