Remove ads

The Best Damn Fics You've Ever Read.

Reader mode
I'll add my rec to In Memoriam. I'd never even heard of that fandom before and have no clue about what was going on at the end with the sequel hook, but it was awesome.
 
Seventhing in memoriam. It may well be the best fic I've ever read, and while part of that is admittedly my love for the series itself despite the flaws it also stand up extremelyw ell on its own merits.
 
Yep, just finished 'In Memoriam' and it's as good as everyone says. Very impressive in pushing forward some of the more interesting and controversial aspects of the Raildex universe without flanderizing anyone, and does a great job of depicting the characters from many different POVs to show both their bad and good points.

Gets my recc also.
 
Forget best damn fics of all time, I'd like to nominate End of the Line for an Emmy, Oscar, Presidancy, Qeenhood, Raffle ticket, hug... You name it!

This is probably the only time I'll ever call anything heartwarming in my life or admit I did so.

Just...damn. OrO in this case, the exact opposite.
 
Hykal94 said:
Alright. Has there been a best damn Fallout/ES fic nominated then? It's not in the OP.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Thread search, yo. If that does not work, then sorry for the trouble.

And this is why I try to remember to get on people's cases when they post a rec without explanation or summary. At some point, someone is going to come asking about some fandom, and while this is not a general recommendation thread, the failed recommendations are often pretty good, so making them easier to search the thread for would be pretty nice.
 
Not sure if it's been mentioned since i don't feel like reading through 95 pages atm but.....

The Raid

A very good RWBY story, fights scenes are pretty good and aside from some oddness near the end the plot is great. I'd rank it up there with Four Deadly Secrets
 
Nominating These Gifts That You Have Given Me by arrugantemu. Silmarillion fic, canon compliant. Summary:

"We are not so foolish as to believe that evil is ended forever. But we do not place our hope in secrecy, but in strength. Strength is found in trust, and trust in openness. So be welcome among us, Annatar Aulendil."
The story of the meeting between Celebrimbor and Sauron, of the trust that grew between them and how it was broken.
​
Also nominating In Full Measure I Return To You by the same author. This is an alternative (non canon-compliant) ending, beautiful fix-fic of the above. Summary:

"Think about it. What if you get everything you want? What if this works? What if, in pain and in the fear of pain, I yield to your will? Where you once had a friend, you will now have a cringing slave. Then, Annatar, and only then, will we both be lost beyond recall."​
 
My tastes may run towards being somewhat unrefined, but the best (completed) Rwby fic I've ever read:

Heart of Defiance

Summary from AO3: "Your Semblance, Yang Xiao Long, is not fueled by taking hits or anger. Your Semblance is fueled by pain."

Yang-centric. Bumblebee.
 
Last edited:
BlessedYetDamned said:
My tastes may run towards being somewhat unrefined, but the best (completed) Rwby fic I've ever read:

Heart of Defiance
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I ain't touching the fucking fic until you provide an actual description and explanation.
HamHamJ said:
Not the person being asked but it struck me that the two best time loop fanfics I could think of were both MLP: Friendship is Magic-based and that I think both should be recced because they are awesome.

The Best Night Ever
by Capn_Chryssalid
This is interesting because it is an actual crossover with Groundhog Day which most time loop fanfics really are not, in that it is not about some hero trying to work out the perfect series of movies to overcome some apocalypse, but rather just a story about a jerk growing as a person by having his cynicism ground away by the nihilistic existence of living the same day over and over again until he is rebuilt into someone who can move forward from that day with hope of a better future. Can be very funny but also very sincere as appropriate. Also great use of a minor character.

Hard Reset
by Eakin
This on the other hand is basically the classic time loop. But it really considers the psychological damage of just dying over and over again. Does the whole optimizing over loops idea in a cool way, while staying at a reasonable word count. And the sequels dealing with the aftermath are also really cool.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Best Night Ever is, indeed, the Best Night Ever.

So yeah, I'll rec that one as well.

Hard Reset, on the other hand, is shit. It's fun at first, but it rapidly goes down the grimderp pit and how things are handled and resolved stop making sense.
 
CrescentSickle said:
At this point, it's more of a critique of canon than anything.

If there is something I can offer, then it's that, after looking back, the reaction to the flying psychic baby seems... kinda like they accept it too fast, I guess?

Not going to go for spoilers here because it turns out its canon, but the rough sequence of events are:
Weird flying baby appears
Railgun: Woah, creepy baby, why is it there?
Kuroko: I dunno
Railgun: How do we handle it?
Kuroko: I don't think anyone knows the answer to that question
Psychic baby screams
Railgun: Ouch, how do we fight it?
Kuroko: I think it's a construct made of IPD
Railgun: Let's get Touma!

This goes completely against my expectations, which would be something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but what even the fuck?" "I think it's made of IPD." "Yeah, that sounds like bullshit because nothing I know about IPD makes that make sense, but you know what? Sure, whatever, how do we kill the terrifying psychic monster fetus?"

Maybe Misaka and Kuroko just aren't the best characters to align with what my expectations would be. My impression of Misaka is that she's someone that can roll with the punches, and she keeps her eye on the goal. Kuroko is a professional that only lapses into being non-professional when the situation allows for it. So, from a characterization perspective, it's written well enough, but from my perspective as a reader I'm still left going "but what???"

I don't know if maybe some dialogue about IPD or a theorized resonance or something else between other characters earlier in the story would have prepped me as a reader better, so when this moment comes I'm like "Oh shit, that makes sense as a thing that can happen in this universe." Maybe that was there and I missed it because I thought it was unimportant worldbuilding, not sure.

I don't know how canon handled setting up readers' expectations (or if it even handles it at all). A lot of this is on me for not knowing the source material, but there might be improvements to be made by doing a better job of setting expectations for people who aren't familiar with the stations of canon.

Then again I may not be a member of the target audience, I may have missed something, and/or I'm just some shmuck on the Internet and there's no reason to cater to my issues when everyone else seems to love it just fine (I love it, too, but that last section is just so bizarre for me, even if it's canon).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
IIRC, part of Academy City's curriculum is that they give their students brain damage so that they can delude themselves into believing that they can teleport or shoot lightning from their hands even though logic and common sense would say it's not possible. That's kind of how Esper powers work, at least in canon. So from Mikoto's and Kuroko's perspectives, the ICP baby might be weird but it wouldn't be that big a leap from what they might consider possible in Academy City. So they probably wouldn't be the best characters to compare your reactions to.

Anyway, I also add my recommend to In Memoriam.
 
CrescentSickle said:
The Arithmancer
By: White Squirrel
Hermione grows up as a maths whiz instead of a bookworm and tests into Arithmancy in her first year. With the help of her friends and Professor Vector, she puts her superhuman spellcrafting skills to good use in the fight against Voldemort. Years 1-4. Sequel posted.
Rated: Fiction T - English - Harry P., Ron W., Hermione G., S. Vector - Chapters: 84 - Words: 529,129 - Reviews: 3,869 - Favs: 3,750 - Follows: 3,195 - Updated: Aug 22, 2015 - Published: Jan 31, 2014 - Status: Complete - id: 10070079

Yup, pretty much that. Hermione, as precocious as she is, fell in love more with mathematics rather than with books in general. So, she just had to learn everything there possibly was about it like the information sponge she is. After receiving her Hogwarts letter, she finds that math is actually super useful when it comes to understanding what magic actually is in the form of Arithmancy. What happens when you figure out the underlying rules of the universe and the methods by which to enact your will upon it? Well, lots of things change. Goodness, do things change. There's an unfinished sequel that's still being updated.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
De-reccing for this thread. It's a good fic but there were enough issues that it's not "awesome", IMO.
Thoughts:
  • First handful of chapters were kinda off. I don't know what, but they just weren't all that interesting initially (Though it really picked up when Hermoine got to Hogwarts and around 1st Year Halloween.)
  • Got fix-ficy vibes at times, with how a certain teacher would show up and fix things, and Hermoine then having an epiphany that fixes the rest. This does not happen too much though and pretty much not at all in the sequel.
  • Author got it right with the 3rd Year Arc, and it was all around the most enjoyable Arc of the fic.
  • 4th Year Arc had some really great ideas but the pacing was way too fast, with barely a word on Hermoine's life between the Trials. There's only like. . . 3? named characters there and we got very little fleshing out on them. They get little more than mentions to remind the reader they exist.
  • The division between this and the sequel are kinda arbitrary. No real ending/closer, the sequel might as well be the next chapter in the same fic.
Sequel has some similar issues overall, better in some areas, worse in others (Liked the 5th Year Arc a lot, but it might actually be longer than the 5th book itself!). Overall I think it gets the tone that most Harry Potter fiction do not: that sense of whimsy and wonder that shows up even in the darkest of corners of HP.

So I'd definitely recommend this for someone looking for a (really) long Harry Potter fic with logical divergences, but it's not one of the best damn fics I ever read.
 
Last edited:
BlessedYetDamned said:
My tastes may run towards being somewhat unrefined, but the best (completed) Rwby fic I've ever read:

Heart of Defiance
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Being the best RWBY fic you have read is an insufficient argument. I have said this before, and presumably will again, but you think this is the best thing that you have read. Show some enthusiasm, give us a plot summary, impress us with your investment in the subject, show that you care. Give something more than the obvious "best (completed*) Rwby fic", which is a bit of a 'no shit' statement given the title of the thread.

*never a good sign that this addendum is provided
 
MooGoesCow21 said:
Well with how defensive your getting im just gonna assume it's crap
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Feel free. Not sure how expecting basic etiquette makes me "defensive".
Tallamee said:
*never a good sign that this addendum is provided
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The best RWBY fic I can remember reading is (or was as of when I read it) incomplete, hence the emphasis.
Tallamee said:
Being the best RWBY fic you have read is an insufficient argument. I have said this before, and presumably will again, but you think this is the best thing that you have read. Show some enthusiasm, give us a plot summary, impress us with your investment in the subject, show that you care. Give something more than the obvious "best (completed*) Rwby fic", which is a bit of a 'no shit' statement given the title of the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Rules of the Thread:
Ronan O'Brien said:
Look, we already have lots of threads about specific subjects, but why not one for the best ones we've come across? It just really has to follow a few (tentative) rules, that is:

NUMBER ONE: It has to be awesome.
NUMERO DOS: It has to be complete.

Simple, right? You can suggest it, and if guys agree with your choice it'll be put in the index, right below this line.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If someone seconds it, that's cool. Nowhere does it say that I'm compelled to spend time convincing others who have - quite frankly - been rude as fuck thus far.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top