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

I mean, yeah, every facet of fandom has those people that tend to go too far.

And besides, I doubt anyone who posts here would be that bad. You kinda have to be self-aware of that stuff, I guess.

I hope I wouldn't be considered a bad shipper lol. I mostly just stick to my OTP and make an effort not to shove said OTP down people's throats.

Nah I have seen the shippers around here tend to be chill.

I can only recall like one or two people here that can get a bit obsessive but are ultimately harmless comparably to some of the nasty shit I have seen in bigger fandom spaces in regards to shipping.

And yeah, every fandom has its awful parts. Even the smaller fandoms from what I have seen will get assholes popping up every now and then.

Edited by Wispy on Mar 12th 2021 at 10:15:47 AM

Rbuk just happens to have gotten the sharp end of the stick for the 'assholes popping up in small fandoms' thing. I've been there.

Same sex ships even if there is a more canon accurate pairing. It can work if done well but it look weird to see stuff like Sora/Riku, Dipper/Bill, I did read a really well written MLP one called The enchanted library with a Rarilight(Rarity/Twilight) but more often than not, especially on archive of our own, it seem to be an excuse for smut.

To be fair, I can 100% see where people are coming from with Sora and Riku, even if I don’t really ship it myself. I have issues with the way it’s written sometimes (none of which are exclusive to that ship), but I’ve seen it done well.

That said, I’m personally more likely to read about non-canon ships if there’s nothing contradicting them. It’s not enough to be a red flag - sometimes I’ll still give it a try if the story looks interesting - but it’s a tendency that’s there.

Ugh, yeah, that kind of shit. When I do read fics for non-canon ships, they’re never the kind that trash the canon love interest every chance they get. I’m fine with “[canon ship] dated for a while and it didn’t work, they’re still friends” as a handwave.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Mar 15th 2021 at 6:29:08 AM

Some fandoms are worse about Ron the Death Eater, though. The Harry Potter fandom, for example, is absolutely horrible about non-canon ships; the fic inevitably spends half its wordcount ranting about how evil the canon love interest is.

Other fandoms are better about it, and non-canon ships are just treated as "these characters got together instead" rather than "THIS is his one true love, not that EVIL WITCH." Those fandoms I am likely to read non-canon ship fics for the novelty. But reading, say, a Draco/Harry or Draco/Hermione fic just involves way too much bashing everyone else.

Isn't Draco a bully in the story? Yeah, leatherpantsing and deatheatering would be red flags if I ever encountered them in the fandoms I I read. Considering the trope names are both Harry Potter characters, I take it that fandom has a lot of that?

Are they actually still at it? Granted, I don't read as much HP fanfic these days, but given that the Franchise is over, one would think the fandom would stop being so possessive with the ships involved.

I don't double-check the publication dates of bad fanfic. For all I know I'm just finding old stuff. But this is mostly on Archive of Our Own, which is relatively new compared to Harry Potter, so... yes, they're still at it?

Surprisingly, I've rarely seen anyone bash Sonia or Peko when it comes to Kazuichi/Fuyuhiko fics and the like. Though it's probably because neither Kazuichi/Sonia nor Peko/Fuyuhiko is explicitly canon to begin with; the former is pretty clearly a one-sided crush, and the latter is very heavily implied at best. (The fact that Kuzusouda isn't even that popular a ship probably helps, too.)

I think the Danganronpa fandom as a whole is usually pretty good at calling out that stuff when it happens, though. A lot of fans are genuinely attached to the female characters and hate to see them bashed over a m/m ship. I've only really seen this kind of behaviour from Kazuichi/Gundham shippers towards Sonia, and even then there are plenty of folks who ship the three of them as an OT3.

I've never liked the Die for Our Ship trope and I've always preferred for canon couples to be broken up without much heartbreak or fanfare in fics about non-canon ships. Amicable Exes is a thing, y'know!

I think as a trend, Die for Our Ship for female characters in favor of m/m relationships has mostly died out. Primarily because there has been enough discourse about misogyny in fandom that even the most fervent Yaoi Fangirls prefer to avoid this trope as to not step on any toes.

Other forms of mischaracterisations are, unfortunately, a fandom fact of life.

I can see why nobody mentions the cartoon fandoms. It's still confusing why though still.

We mention cartoon fandoms all the time. I don't know what specifically you're looking for.

We might not be in the fandoms you are. It’s probably not an intentional thing.

Yeah. This thread is meant to discuss general fanfiction trends, not specific fandoms.

Some trends might be particularly common in certain fandoms and the discussion might go into that direction at times, but if you want to discuss about particular works, you should go to a more specific thread instead.

Or if that thread doesn't exist yet, create it.

I can't really tell if you are. You, uh, don't get specific much. Sorry if I caused some misunderstanding.

Displaced stories, like the human to dragon realms trend that slowly plague the Spyro the dragon section of fanfiction.net....just...no....saw the latest reviews of one that actually seemed great early on and it apparently became a mess of overpower and the main heroes slain and everyone cheering......this is just disgusting and need to stop.

Also, I will look away if there are way too many crossovers

A select few fandoms are victims to that.

A/B/O. It's just a very silly concept to me (based off outdated biology to boot) and doesn't seem to rely much on characterization.

Also, this should be obvious, but I won't read any graphic smut with characters who are canonically kids. I've historically been a bit more lenient with older teens, but the older I get^note I'm 21, the less comfortable I feel about it. I have a lot of Old Shame for when I was like, 14, and read smut starring characters who were barely older than me, now I look at that like, "WTF they're babey." Even if they're aged up, it still feels weird cuz the canon's still in my mind and we know them as kids.

The only exception is psychological horror/angst that involves child abuse, but not if it describes the abuse in graphic detail. And even that gets emotionally draining after a while.

1. It's the internet

2. The majority of a/b/o writers don't give two shits what age ANYONE is, they're getting the D whether they like it or not.

I mean, at least that's what they think. Mixing it with psychological abuse and horror's a level only one or few people with big balls would write.

No-one's actually disputing this, man.

They're called Red Flags for a reason because they have to be wrong on some level in order to be pointed out here.

When I saw people talking about "ABO", I thought they were talking about blood types at first.

To be fair, if Personality Blood Types were a major part of a fic, that would be a red flag for me too.