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

So, what if a fanfic adheres too strongly to canon? Would that be considered a red flag?

Because you would be reading a work that retells the same story as the source material, but with no changes or no deeper insight into character thoughts or motivations like, say, an official novelization would?

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

As long as its well written, deviating from canon or sticking to canon are irrelevant. Sure, they can be red flags but they arent dealbreakers.

Discord: Waido X 255#1372 If you cant contact me on TV Tropes do it here.

Timetravel, it messes too much things up.

Depends on how the time travel is used and how skilled the writer. A bad writer uses time travel as a pathetic Deus Ex Machina. A skilled writer can weave great stories like Days of Future Past.

As someone who has used Time Travel, I made sure to leave the clues about time travel being a thing early so that it didn't come out of nowhere. Though it does help that the universe in question has time magic readily available to a unicorn who is able to cast it, so it's not like I'm breaking precedent.

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.

Not sure if this hasn't been said, but works being far too didactic is a real turn off for me. When the politics become the main character and not the actual protagonist, you have a problem. I once read this weird Pokemon fanfic a friend recommended as somehow "Worse than My Immortal" and I did find it worse. My Immortal has comedic value. This fic was not. It was nothing more than a long winded Author Tract about how evil Donald Trump, I mean, Es Cade is and how great and beneficial bestiality is and give me a break. The protagonist is a mouthpiece for the author's beliefs. It's pathetic.

Edited by Dr.XXX on Aug 1st 2018 at 10:20:22 AM

I...what?

How does that have anything to do with politics?

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Ok. That's enough Internet for one day. See ya guys.

Discord: Waido X 255#1372 If you cant contact me on TV Tropes do it here.

...That would ruin anyone's childhood.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

So, it's a conflict between someone who wants to turn Pokemon into heartless fighting machines and someone who wants to turn them into...yeah, I'm gonna stop right there.

Edited by Berserker88 on Aug 2nd 2018 at 4:12:48 AM

What the actual fuck?

I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.

My reaction when I first read it, too.

How does the story's underlying theme of the human-like intellect of Pokemon and their rights in a society? Does the author weave a complex narrative about citizenship and personhood? Nope, the author focuses solely on reproductive rights and pleasure and how these are viewed as unnatural to the public and how Ash's friends would immediately join Team Flare if it meant killing him for being a "filthy pokephile". Look, that narrative is so dumb I'd rather not look into them more.

Edited by Dr.XXX on Aug 2nd 2018 at 10:40:40 AM

Seems to me that being didactic in tone is the least of that particular fanfic's problems. :V

"If you think like a child, you will do a child's work."

Yeah, that fic seems to tempt fate by letting you think it's about the author's personal politics and "it can't get any worse", and then it hits you with the creepy stuff.

Spelunking through a Halo Ring is something else...

(reads the above)

...What

"Lucian, don’t be afraid, we’ll make it through this."

Nope. Still political. After some time searching on FF.net, I found out that it gets even more creepy. Apparently, the author likens the whole thing, according to the narrative, as some kind metaphor for LGBT rights. I have no words.

Unfortunate Implications doesn’t even begin to cover that comparison.

That person politically just sounds crazy, even to liberal left viewers. Hell to me that sounds like an alt-right's crazy interpretation of what an liberal is like.

Story wise thats just absolutely horrid writing. I really hate obvious author tracts and that is an good example as to why.

Edited by Wispy on Aug 4th 2018 at 2:27:02 AM

Was that fanfic M rated? It sounds like an Excuse Plot for some lemon.

Anyway, I don't like non-fantasy AUs. High school works, coffee shop works, etc. They're just boring and too similar, plus they usually deviate a lot. If I had, say. a Pokémon high school fic I'd prefer to keep it in the Pokéworld, but just in a high school.

On a less gross note, I'm sure all of us hate reading those fics that state "I will post the next chapter when I get 5 reviews". Look, I understand how hard it is to get readers, let alone reviewers, but don't hold stories hostage. It makes you seem needy.

That's a lack of motivation to me, which is why I don't give fic like those a glace.

I genuinely don't get high school fics. They are usually so mundane that they are incredibly boring.

The only exception I will read is either the highschool fics that have unusual high schools (Hogwarts, My Hero Academia, My Little Witch Academia, etc.) or if the original work was incredibly depressing and I wanted to see the characters in that work in a less soul-crushing setting.

I think I have mentioned it before, but the reason I like a work of sci-fi/fantasy/etc, is because of the fantastic elements! I don t want to read about ordinary people who happen to have the same names and vaguely the same personality traits as the main counterparts except with out the speculative fiction adventure.

I'll second that sentiment.