TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Following

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

Go To

Wispy Since: Feb, 2017
#6126: Jan 5th 2020 at 11:53:52 PM

[up]I can agree that this can be quite frustrating to see. I have seen it pop up a lot in fandoms with a heavy preference for Slash Ships and it can be quite frustrating when it feels like fanfic writers are trying to force a romantic ship when they don't need one.

I have seen plenty of fanfics do friendships really well, I wish more would stick to that. I can only count a small few fanfics on one hand that did romantic ships really well were you can feel the chemistry between the characters and usually those fanfics are slow burns which sadly risks them not being finished way more often than not.

C105 Too old for this from France Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Too old for this
#6127: Jan 6th 2020 at 12:53:11 AM

This is my main complaint about shipping, actually. I really hate it when Heterosexual Life-Partners or Not Love Interest are shipped, because it seems to imply that friendship and platonic love are always repressed lust or love waiting to blossom.

And don't get me started on Frozen, where I have been rather invested...

Whatever your favourite work is, there is a Vocal Minority that considers it the Worst. Whatever. Ever!.
Dhiruxide Since: Dec, 2016
#6128: Jan 6th 2020 at 7:31:23 AM

What's wrong when you do friendshipping...that isn't friends turn to lovers or Friends with Benefits?

I just like it when you see a big Friendship Moment or when the entire fic is one big friendship moment, for lack of better words.

I like it when I see how characters get along, their trust, activities they do, talk about things, etc.

Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6129: Jan 6th 2020 at 8:08:55 AM

Another pet peeve of mine when it comes to shipping is using the Soulmate AU, which I will not read even if it features a pairing I like.

Look, I don't mind non-canon shipping (in fact, most of my OTPs are non-canon) but not when the writers are so lazy that they can't think of any grounds for the characters to fall in love other than "they are literally destined to be together and will fall in love regardless".

Wispy Since: Feb, 2017
#6130: Jan 6th 2020 at 2:54:41 PM

Soulmate A Us can be ultimately harmless if used as just fantasies but yeah I despise the whole concept in general is that it can lend to a very bad expectation that real people put on others.

There is also even creepier versions of that like those flower disease A Us. Forgot the name of them but the whole concept is even worse than soulmate as the characters in question are forced together otherwise they'd die.

Dhiruxide Since: Dec, 2016
#6131: Jan 6th 2020 at 2:59:01 PM

I complained loudly months ago, pages ago but again I dislike poorly thought out crossovers.

Or crossovers where someone from universe x is a badass in universe y. I still remember that RWBY x System Shock crossover fanfic where Jaune was some badass cyborg.

I really dislike such line of thinking for crossovers, especially when you want crossovers between works that aren't as well known. It's like replacing a protag of a work with another?

Edited by Dhiruxide on Jan 6th 2020 at 12:01:55 PM

SapphireBlue Since: Jan, 2001
#6132: Jan 6th 2020 at 3:08:12 PM

[up][up] The flower one’s been brought up in this thread a few times before, and yeah, there are a lot of screwed-up implications there.

Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6133: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:02:22 PM

[up][up][up]Is that the one where people cough flowers from unrequited love or something?

G2BattleConvoy The Hope, The Hero from Installation 07 Since: Mar, 2017 Relationship Status: What is this thing you call love?
The Hope, The Hero
#6134: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:04:16 PM

Yeah, apparently those stories involve the soulmates in question possibly risking death through suffocation of flowers if they don't confess or reciprocate each other's feelings.

"We all fail. We all make mistakes. That is what makes us human."
CybranGeneralSturm Since: Aug, 2013 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#6135: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:10:17 PM

Yeah, Hanahaki Disease (which has no real-life counterpart) is a red flag for me especially since it seems to operate on Nonsensium.

32ndfreeze Since: Mar, 2012
#6136: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:17:00 PM

I have read a few Harry Potter soulmate/soulbond AU's 5+ years ago. And upon thinking about it a little, while I dislike soulmates/hanahaki/ect stories, I do see the merit in soulbonds (which is a little funny I think because they maybe a worse reputation).

I see a lot more problems with them now, but in my opinion what originally attracted me to the premise wasn't so much the soulmates part of it, but rather the forced interaction/mutual secret. This is influenced by the fact the Harry Potter fandom tended to attach things like thought sharing/magic interactions to the premise.

Forcing two characters into working together to figure something out that eventually leads to a slow romance is a strong hook for me.

One example of this is this fic which deals with a Harry/Ginny soulbond with the twist that they hate each other's guts because having someone else in your head gets really really annoying where you're a teenager.

Another, slightly different premise with the same mutual secret premise is this fic about James and Lily swapping bodies in their 7th Year.

Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6137: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:37:06 PM

Oh yeah. Hanahaki.

Only came across it once while browsing MCU fanfic and I didn't bother reading it because the visuals really don't fit the character and the pairing is not one I like. As a concept, though, I guess it's not that terrible as "dying of broken heart" is something that commonly happens in fairytales and other fiction.

But as ridiculous as it is, I think it's not that bad as those soulmate AU where your soulmate's words will be carved into your skin. Not only is that stupid on so many levels, but what makes it particularly aggravating is when the writer commonly used a line of dialogue from the canon that is originally innocuous.

It's like they're trying to force their Shipping Goggles on the readers... I know I tend to use the flimsiest bits of interactions to justify my support of a particular ship, but when reading a work that's actually dedicated to that pairing, I'd rather read an actual chemistry between the two, instead of having the author point at a specific (probably non-shippy) moment from the work and scream, "OOH SHIP!"

Edited by Adept on Jan 7th 2020 at 2:34:36 AM

SapphireBlue Since: Jan, 2001
#6138: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:47:39 PM

I have less of an issue with soulmate fics if the soulmates in question aren’t necessarily romantic. Like if it’s just someone who’ll be important to you, but they might be a close friend or a parental figure or something. I’ve seen a few of those. I’m still not likely to read them, but at least it means there are options for where the story can go, and if it does go the romantic route, it’s not as much of a foregone conclusion.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Jan 6th 2020 at 4:50:36 AM

Psychedelicate She/Her Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: That's rough, buddy
She/Her
#6139: Jan 6th 2020 at 4:51:41 PM

In general I'd much rather the author take the time to expand upon the two characters and their relationship by really exploring the ship's dynamics than any soulmate/soulbond thing, because to me those premises are often a free pass from writing any organic relationship development - which, to me, is the most interesting part of a shipfic, especially slow burns.

...how does one do a slow burn of a soulmate AU, anyway? There must be a whole lot of nothing happening to pad out the word count...

re: shipping and friendshipping: While I do ship a lot of non-canon pairings, there are some romantic ships I dislike specifically because I feel like the two characters involved are nothing more than two really close friends. There are exceptions to this (hello, Kiribaku,) but even then I'm generally itching for friendship fics of some of my ships as well. Heck, Kuzusouda is not only my OTP, but my favourite BROTP, and I do sometimes write fics on them that focus specifically on friendship. It's actually almost as fun and exciting as writing them as a romantic couple.

With that being said though, yeah, I get how frustrating the lack of pure friendship fics can be. I remember the Kiribaku friendship tag actually having a pretty decent number of fics specifically focusing on Kirishima and Bakugou's friendship, but I don't know about other fandoms.

Edited by Psychedelicate on Jan 6th 2020 at 11:54:43 PM

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#6140: Jan 6th 2020 at 6:32:02 PM

Soulmate fics are a bit of a guilty pleasure for me, because while I would hate the concept in real life, they're cute if done well. My favorite ones are the "first words your soulmate says are on your skin," because the first words are always something stupid and irrelevant, which is great.

I've seen a few slowburn soulmate fics, mostly of pairings where the way soulmates work means they can mistakenly miss the signs.

Anyway, yeah, not enough friendshipping fics. And in yet another "misuse of tags cause problems" situation, I've seen plenty of people use tags that are supposed to mean friendshipping (X&Y means non-romantic, X/Y means romantic), so I've stumbled on a lot of stories that I thought were going to be platonic and weren't. Actually stumbled on a lot of incest fics that way, so now I just try to avoid them altogether.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Crossover-Enthusiast from an abaondoned mall (Lucky 7) Relationship Status: Chocolate!
#6141: Jan 6th 2020 at 8:45:12 PM

This entire Soulmate AU conversation is just reminding me of that one Tumblr post that was like "Soulmate AU where the words on your body are 'I can't believe Dumbledore died'".

Actually read a pretty humorous Amedot fic about it that was less about the ship and more about Peridot being really mad there was such a big spoiler on an incredibly visible part of her body.

Jawbreakers on sale for 99¢
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6142: Jan 6th 2020 at 10:38:23 PM

[up][up][up]I guess one way to drag out a soulmate/soulbond-based romance is to have either or both parties actively dislike the other, and continues to deny their growing romantic feelings for the other.

That might be a swell idea actually. Two characters are supposedly soulbonds, but they manage to Screw Destiny and end up with other people? [lol]

Psychedelicate She/Her Since: May, 2016 Relationship Status: That's rough, buddy
She/Her
#6143: Jan 7th 2020 at 12:35:29 AM

[up]I'd read the hell out of that. [lol]

And yeah it seems like some people aren't aware of what the "Alice & Bob" tags are for, probably mistaking them for a variant of the "Alice/Bob" romance tags when they're specifically for platonic relationships, as said.

I've tagged a couple of my fics with both the friendship and romance tag for the same pairing, typically to either signify a "friends to lovers" setup or to indicate that the relationship is open-ended and can be interpreted as either platonic or romantic, all while making my fic visible to those who want a friendship or romance fic of that pairing. That's okay, right? It's not misleading or anything, is it?

Bismuth83 Master of Unpopular Opinions from below the surface of planet Zebes Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: Mu
Master of Unpopular Opinions
#6144: Jan 9th 2020 at 1:25:26 AM

Is it based on Netflix's crappy (at least in my opinion) Aggressive Retsuko adaptation? Then it's right out. I'd get too mad reading it (I actually read two to do a commentary on them, and there's large portions where there's no commentary at all because I was too angry to think of anything to say). I'm also not too fond of Beastars or Zootopia fanfiction (then again, I'm not too fond of the source material; I guess I don't like Funny Animals being used to discuss issues like this unless I do it because I cover a lot more biological groups (invertebrates and fish, for instance) than works like this normally do (I've actually come up with a Zootopia AU in which sapient nonmammals exist but are treated by most mammals as either non-sapient food or as criminals and the nonmammals are thus teaming up with each other and mammals sympathetic to their cause to campaign against this prejudice, but that's literally another story))

Otherwise, overly-emotional stuff (ESPECIALLY that Hanahaki BS that nobody ever questions despite how scientifically ridiculous it is), grimdark, Omegaverse, Critical Research Failure, trying to portray sexual abuse and/or rape as sexy, fanfiction made to push ideologies (For instance, a Star Fox college AU I read turned into a pretty hamfisted anti-abortion tract when Krystal, who wanted to get an abortion, changed her mind because she started receiving telepathic messages from the fetus at the last minute (I know she's psychic in canon, but COME ON!)), and historical A Us are the worst offenders.

As for high school A Us, I had this idea knocking around in my head for a deconstruction (I guess) of the notoriously awful Sonic High School, seen through Wave's eyes (essentially the Daria to the original fic's cast's collective Beavis and Butthead). Also, I feel that an Aggressive Retsuko (non-Netflix, of course) high school story (either an AU or a prequel (possibly explaining how she got into metal music)) would work out fine. After all, the reason I got into it in the first place was because I had annoying classmates and needed to vent about it, much like Retsuko needs to vent about her annoying coworkers.

Edited by Bismuth83 on Jan 9th 2020 at 5:02:24 AM

Spottedleaf Fit check for my napalm era! (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
Fit check for my napalm era!
#6145: Jan 9th 2020 at 1:04:14 PM

I typically can't stand no-power/non-magic AU fics. Why would I want to read a Harry Potter fanfiction where wizards don't exist? Basically, for that to work, I feel like you'd have to replace the magic or superpowers with something else that's out of the ordinary. For example, a Harry Potter western, or a medieval version of Batman where he goes up against crazy wizards instead of crazy people with superpowers.

I dislike hanahaki disease being used in fanfiction; however, I'm bizarrely okay with it in fanart, as it can create a disturbing but aesthetically pleasing image to see Eponine or Ashfur coughing up flowers.

Edited by Spottedleaf on Jan 9th 2020 at 3:05:24 AM

>^owo^<
Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6146: Jan 9th 2020 at 8:40:00 PM

[up]Yeah, I do have some Double Standard with visual vs. prose. The "hanahaki disease" can paint a really nice picture if you ignore the context behind it. Likewise, there are a lot of pairings I don't mind seeing a fanart / fanvid about, but would probably not read the pertaining fanfic (usually Theme Pairing and/or Crossover Ship).

Edited by Adept on Jan 10th 2020 at 2:12:19 AM

Discar Since: Jun, 2009
#6147: Jan 9th 2020 at 9:04:19 PM

[up][up] Same. I have seen a handful of decent "no power" fics, but by default I avoid them. In a good character-driven series, seeing them outside the weird world can be interesting. Usually it's not, though.

[up] I think in some cases, that's how it starts. Dunno about that specifically, but sometimes an artist will draw something, and authors will write a fic about it. Bowsette, for example.

Writing a post-post apocalypse LitRPG on RR. Also fanfic stuff.
Wispy Since: Feb, 2017
#6148: Jan 9th 2020 at 9:19:37 PM

I mentioned way earlier in this thread but the only no-power/High School A Us I ever liked was either in a fandom where the source material was quite depressing and dark (Attack On Titan for example which has gotten even more depressing and dark since I read a couple decent high school A Us of it) or if they do an unusual high school/no-power setting like this one fanfic I saw in the MLP fandom out of all things that had a high school in a dystopia setting that measured the characters academic performance and standing far differently than anything I have seen since.

Adept (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#6149: Jan 9th 2020 at 11:44:35 PM

Highschool AUs are great for comedic Omakes, methinks, but that's about it.

Bismuth83 Master of Unpopular Opinions from below the surface of planet Zebes Since: Oct, 2016 Relationship Status: Mu
Master of Unpopular Opinions
#6150: Jan 10th 2020 at 7:51:23 AM

Come to think of it, Hanahaki disease would be a great setup for some kind of sci-fi horror story in which the flowers are caused by some sort of parasitic plant (possibly attracted to negative emotions, explaining why it's associated with unrequited love). In fact, I think I have the perfect summary for it:

It happens every time. Some poor schmuck comes in coughing out flower petals and has plants growing in their lungs. Everyone at Tropeopolis University Hospital knows it's hanahaki, the disease caused by unrequited love... Everyone except for Dr. Alice Troperson, that is. She believes that that explanation is bullshit of the highest caliber and that there must be some explanation for it that makes scientific sense. Determined to get to the bottom of things, Dr. Troperson forms HERBICIDE, a team of medical experts skeptical about the "unrequited love" explanation, and she's ready to do anything to end this botanical nightmare once and for all... even if she has to break a few hearts to do so.

What do you think?


Total posts: 6,759
Top