Thinky Thoughts about Fic Brackets – Part 2
In today’s episode we are playing the Fic Bracket Game, in which well loved fanfiction tropes battle it out against each other and we see who is left standing at the end of the day, as the ultimate fanfic we want to read!
This is part 2 of 2. We hope you’ve made your way through the last list, which can be found here, and are ready for more!
You can find the second recs list here on our website!
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30th November 2018 @ 12:32 pm
First Time
Canon AU 😛 (not cheating though: canon)
Hurt/Comfort
Minor character 1000%
Fluff? (more fluff with angst than angst with fluff type girl… I think in a ‘things can go wrong but the trajectory must be upwards’. Then again, I might just be messed up and not counting serious angst as all that bad because I KNOW things are improving and will improve further. I read a lot of Bucky recovery in MCU and, naturally, they’re heavy on the angst but part of me is ‘that doesn’t count; things are getting better, the darkest period is in the past and, ofc, he’ll have bad days and back steps but the real angst would be reading the when he was Hydra’s captive, not reading flashbacks of those times.’ So yeah, possibly I’m just not counting most angst because it’s not as angsty as the angst I avoid XD.)
Body swap – neither are really my jam tbh, but definitely more inclined to reading body swap
Arranged marriage – I think this one will do well when we get to the later brackets; I often go looking for it 😀
Amnesia – I adore plots that have established relationships, but generally not so keen on the fics that are just about the established relationship. Not because I’m only interested when it’s new but because they tend towards the ‘our relationship is on the rocks and misery and gloom and are we actually going to stay together, maybe we should divorce, do you even love me any more’ and I’m just… wrong type of angst for me. Plotty fics where our established relationship is very much THERE are brilliant though. Maybe they argue, maybe they’re rock solid for the duration, but there is no question: there are no break ups here. But amnesia still wins over them I think.
(Also: Wolfstar YUCK 😛 0XD)
Forced bedsharing
Sex in public
… Fuck or Die (same reason)
Voyerism/Masturbation – If I’m reading sex, it’s an OTP and: get that person away from my OTP! >:(
(God, I hate it when the pairings are changed like that! Write whatever the hell you want but TAG YOUR FIC people!)
Angry sex – but never hate sex; I’m very picky about that. Also I think it has to be within an established relationship to really work for me.
HEA – a shock given everything else, I know XD
MUTUAL PINING!!! – I love it; and I avoid unrequited feeling beyond things like outsider POV on OTP where outsider has a crush on one of them, sees them together and gets over the crush fairly quickly – because it was just a crush. (Generally like Outsider POV anyway, but I wouldn’t read one where they were genuinely in love with one of the OTP since… OUCH (and not in a fun way)). Plus it goes hand in hand with things like arranged marriage XD
… neither? … moving to somewhere new I guess…
First Time vs Canon: Canon (I like first time within a fic, but I don’t really go for fic that is just first time)
HC vs Minor Character: Minor Character
Fluff vs Body swap: Fluff
Arranged Marriage vs Amnesia: Arranged marriage
Forced bedsharing vs sex in public: sex in public
Fuck or Die vs Voyerism/Masturbation: Voyerism/Masturbation
Angry Sex vs HEA: HEA
Mutual pining vs moving to somewhere new: Mutual pining.
Canon vs Minor Character: … Canon
Fluff vs Arranged Marriage: Arranged Marriage
Sex in public vs Voyerism/Masturbation: Sex in public (this quarter really didn’t have anything for me it seems)
HEA vs Mutual Pining: difficult because HEA is basically a pre-requisite, while mutual pining is optional but something I like. I think because HEA is so generic, for this comparison I’ll say it means ‘fic that is 100% about the otp getting together and stops the moment they do’ in which case: Mutual Pining. I don’t know if that’s cheating or not?
Canon vs Arranged Marriage: Arranged Marriage
Sex in public vs Mutual Pining: Mutual Pining
Arranged marriage vs Mutual Pining: Arranged marriage
Semi finals is Time Travel, Historical, Mutual Pining, Arranged Marriage. So Person A travels to the past and ends up in an arranged marriage to Person B (for protection I’m guessing) leading to mutual pining (and an eventual HEA ofc). Which means either Person A never leaves the past and returns to the people they love or Person B does and leaves the people they love, and either way is massive angst and HC potential… (Plus there’s the potential fun to be had with historical values conflicting with modern day ones.)
30th November 2018 @ 1:11 pm
I know that I said gender swap wasn’t my jam and immediately seconded a gender swap rec, which brought with it the “oh yeah, I’ve sought out all the alwaysAGirl!Steve Canon AU Stucky fic and that’s the very best of them” realisation. In fairness to earlier!me, generally gender swap isn’t for me: it is specifically MCU, Canon AU, AlwaysAGirl!Steve I go for. If by the end Steve must have the serum and be an Avenger in the 21st century, then just making him alwaysAGirl really does change things and it is in no way about making Stucky a straight ship. (Or trying to pretend that your female Mary-Sue OC is really a canon main character, which is what happens in some fandoms.)
5th December 2018 @ 12:10 pm
I kind of get what you are saying about angst that doesn’t count. I think flashback and psychological trauma from the past hugely depend on how they are written about, on whether I experience them as ANGST or not.
Though honestly, I’m the same with torture. I’ve read stuff that’s drawn out and in depth torture and I just tend to get bored of it and skip multiple paragraphs because if the writing isn’t giving me an actual sense of peril, then you’re just writing about torture for the sake of hurting your character, but not actually any risk of actually hurting your character.. and that’s just boring, rather than actually angsty.
Did that make any sense? lol
I totally get what you are saying about established relationships. It’s interesting isnt it, that a lot of the time, we are using the setting of an established relationship to discuss no longer being in an established relationship :facepalm: and yeah, too much of it can be super heavy and depressing.
—Voyerism/Masturbation – If I’m reading sex, it’s an OTP and: get that person away from my OTP! >:(—-
hahahahahahaha
— TAG YOUR FIC people!–
I know!! and of course those fics would have been tagged Kurt/Blaine, Blaine/Sebastian but I just always assumed that Blaine was with Sebastian at the beginning, and then they’d break up, and then he’d get together with Kurt. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!!!! lol
—Angry sex – but never hate sex; I’m very picky about that. Also I think it has to be within an established relationship to really work for me.—
intersting point. totally agree with the distinction and yeah, it’s entirely different! And yes, I can see your point on the established relationship, but man, that Maia/Jace fic was good!!! and wrong! and good!
— in which case: Mutual Pining. I don’t know if that’s cheating or not?—
We cheated for half of our brackets so I think you’re good!! hahaha
Seriously, I know I said this last time, but you have just described the entire plot of OUTLANDER! Right there! hahahahaha
5th December 2018 @ 8:19 pm
Personally, I think that Reconstruction is good enough that you don’t really need knowledge of canon, but I admit to being 100% biased. If you DO want to know the canon before you read it, the fic’s set in the movie verse so all you’d have to do is watch Captain America: The First Avenger (and maaaaaybe The Avengers and Captain America: Winter Soldier if the story gets that far) to understand the context; no knowledge of comics canon required. I could also try to give a basic summary of the movies if that works better?
As added incentive: being forced to forget yourself/everyone you ever cared about is a BIG part of the plot of CA: The Winter Soldier, so EVERYTHING set after the second movie is amnesia fic.
You shouldn’t have any issues with the Winter Soldier AU! The fic uses the basic premise of how the Winter Soldier was created, but makes it fit into the Shadowhunters universe, and none of the plot is taken from the movie.
30th November 2018 @ 6:34 am
I’m going to sound like a broken record, but if you’re looking for genderswap fics, rageprufrock has some AMAZING stories. The Least of All Possible Mistakes is a Sherlock AU where DI George Lestrade is DI Georgiana Lestrade, and it’s a really great look at how Lestrade being a woman (and in love with Mycroft) would affect the story. There’s also a podfic if you’re interested in that!
I’d also recommend Reconstruction, which is a Captain America AU where Steve Rogers is Stephanie Rogers. Even though this is a WIP, I’d still recommend it because it’s one of my top five favourite fics across ANY fandom. It is an excellent retelling of the first movie, where rageprufrock came up with a plausible way for how a woman could’ve become Captain America (Lady Liberty, in this universe), and goes into details/gives more depth to relationships that were glossed over in the movie. On top of that, in each chapter she includes several snippets from a variety of sources (mostly textbooks, but there’s at least one excerpt from a TRULY horrendous romance novel) written in present day about Lady Liberty, the Howling Commandos, etc. This story is wickedly funny, genuinely one of the most romantic stories I’ve ever read, and REALLY tragic, considering we know how the movie ends.
Related to my last rec, if you’re in the mood for a SUPER smutty fic, there are a few stories set in the Reconstruction universe that are SMOKING hot.
Last rec, but if you like amnesia fics, there’s a Shadowhunters one that’s a Winter Soldier AU called oh lover, hold on by fireblazie. Alec was kidnapped by Valentine/Jonathan and was magicked into being their assassin. When the rest of the group gets him back, Alec’s able to regain his memories of everyone – except for Magnus. It is SO GOOD.
Hope you enjoy some of these!
30th November 2018 @ 12:35 pm
Seconding Reconstruction!
And I must read that that Winter Soldier malec AU.
Thank you XD
5th December 2018 @ 11:58 am
absolutely nothing against broken record-ness because this has finally made me get my arse in gear and actually find rageprufrock on AO3 (I was reading their stuff in the merlin fandom, which was 95% livejournal based) and I’ve finally subscribed to their account. YAY!!!!
hah! I got excited about being able to say “I’ve totally read that, we can actually discuss is!!” when you said Reconstruction and then realised you didn’t mean the Shadowhunters one :facepalm:
I am really not a Marvel/DC so while I am aware who Captain America is, that’s pretty much where my knowledge stops… So I think the nuance of a gender swap fic in that fandom would be utterly lost on me 🙁 because you make it sound amazing!! even though I only understood about a third of what you wrote haha sorry, I suck!! I have however opened the Winter Soldier AU, mainly because that’s been recced SO MANY TIMES and it seems like I should be able to wing my way through it, without any knowledge..? I think?