RoboRenee
Trans of gender
- Location
- FFXIV, probably
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*Sarcastically Applauds*
Truly a wonderful way to lodge complaints about moderator behavior.
The Best Damn Fics You've Ever Read.
- Thread starter Phearo
- Start date
- Discussion
Truly a wonderful way to lodge complaints about moderator behavior.
Stop: Stop
Turing Decidable
𝕘𝕒𝕣𝕗
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He/Him
stop
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tgojeff
(Verified Pinwheel)
- Location
- Los Angeles
Has there already been discussions about Shadenight123's completed fics? Because the Familiar of Zero fic, the Fate fic and, surprisingly, the Dark Souls/DanMachi fic are all pretty good.
Noblesse Oblige [Znt/SI]
The SI, henceforth to be referred to as Shade, is not summoned. Rather he is born the older brother to Louise as a normal mage. The thrust of the story is mostly slice-of-life as him as a mage, with the occasional bits of action and adventure. Like a lot of slice of life it's a bit hard to describe what precisely makes it good. But the characters seem mostly on point and it is well written enough to be engaging.
Fate - Stay - Write - Go! [Fate/Stay Night AU/SI]
Shade is the inserted older brother to Shiroe Emyia (Who is a girl in this dimension). Watch as he fights through the Grail War in different routes with varying backstories. All the while strange instances in the Throne of Heros causes multiverse shenanigans.
I added this fic for a few reasons. It is if not the strangest fic I've ever read, it's up there. It really feels like a Fate Visual Novel, including different routes for the same war, each revealing different pieces of backstory and lore.
All and all it makes for a unique read. Perhaps not for everyone, but it is a memorable one nonetheless.
Crossover - Is it wrong to try to avoid girls in dark dungeons? [Dark Souls/DanMachi/SI]
Shade finds himself cursed with the Darksign in the world of DanMachi. This gives him the ability to improve his power through the absorption of souls for the low low price of making every Adventure feel like his existence is nails-on-chalkboard horrible (and thus usually try to kill him). The story starts with him finding the curiously immune harem protagonist and assorted harem crew and treating them like an indulgent older brother. Plenty of action and adventuring for the intrepid (and functionally immortal) undead as well. As he must truly get gud to defeat the Dungeon monster.
Should probably take this one off the list if I'm being honest, but it's a good popcorn fic.
NOTE: It should be noted that all these SI's are effectively the same character in different situations, so if if you liked one, the rest are probably worth a try. And conversely if you find him intolerable in one, you probably won't like the rest.
Noblesse Oblige [Znt/SI]
The SI, henceforth to be referred to as Shade, is not summoned. Rather he is born the older brother to Louise as a normal mage. The thrust of the story is mostly slice-of-life as him as a mage, with the occasional bits of action and adventure. Like a lot of slice of life it's a bit hard to describe what precisely makes it good. But the characters seem mostly on point and it is well written enough to be engaging.
Fate - Stay - Write - Go! [Fate/Stay Night AU/SI]
Shade is the inserted older brother to Shiroe Emyia (Who is a girl in this dimension). Watch as he fights through the Grail War in different routes with varying backstories. All the while strange instances in the Throne of Heros causes multiverse shenanigans.
I added this fic for a few reasons. It is if not the strangest fic I've ever read, it's up there. It really feels like a Fate Visual Novel, including different routes for the same war, each revealing different pieces of backstory and lore.
All and all it makes for a unique read. Perhaps not for everyone, but it is a memorable one nonetheless.
Crossover - Is it wrong to try to avoid girls in dark dungeons? [Dark Souls/DanMachi/SI]
Shade finds himself cursed with the Darksign in the world of DanMachi. This gives him the ability to improve his power through the absorption of souls for the low low price of making every Adventure feel like his existence is nails-on-chalkboard horrible (and thus usually try to kill him). The story starts with him finding the curiously immune harem protagonist and assorted harem crew and treating them like an indulgent older brother. Plenty of action and adventuring for the intrepid (and functionally immortal) undead as well. As he must truly get gud to defeat the Dungeon monster.
Should probably take this one off the list if I'm being honest, but it's a good popcorn fic.
NOTE: It should be noted that all these SI's are effectively the same character in different situations, so if if you liked one, the rest are probably worth a try. And conversely if you find him intolerable in one, you probably won't like the rest.
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RoboRenee
Trans of gender
- Location
- FFXIV, probably
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Semi-standard questionnaire:
What are these stories about? What drew you to them, why did you enjoy them, what makes them 'the best damn fics you've ever read'? Presumably they're doing something fantastically - what? Etc, etc.
Nottheunmaker
Altman be praised
- Location
- USG Ishimura
Can't say anything about the others, but this gets a derec from me. I was 3 chapters in before I got bored, and it didn't look like it was going to get more interesting. The writing itself is okay, but there's nothing special going on either.
tgojeff
(Verified Pinwheel)
- Location
- Los Angeles
Sure, sure. The question was more aimed if this was already talked about, and then rejected. (As I don't see them in the compilation post)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Searching shadenight123 got me no relevant results, nor did searching any of the fic names. I may have botched the search in some way, so other people are free to repeat it, but I wasn't able to find anything.
So if you'd like, you can try and sell them to us? I'd be somewhat interested in checking out the Fate fic, for instance, if you can provide some good reason for me to check it out.
tgojeff
(Verified Pinwheel)
- Location
- Los Angeles
Added some descriptions, not very good ones if I'm being honest.
Also Shadenight123 is a mod on SV. So I'm guessing your search was wierd.
Firedon
Lazy Sleepy Cat
- Location
- Germany
Not at all. Shadenight123 did not post in this thread at all and your post was the first to mention them in this thread. Setting the search to "in this thread" to see if there's been discussion about their fics just means that there hasn't been any.
tgojeff
(Verified Pinwheel)
- Location
- Los Angeles
Oh! Thats what they mean. Sorry! I misunderstood the answer, I was thinking of a site wide search.
Grue
滅亡迅雷
- Location
- -
Having actually read its first route, I can also launch a specific derec at Stay Write Go. Let's set aside the fact that those who know the Nasuverse will be going 'That's not how it works', I know some people don't appreciate nitpicking on mechanics.
Setting that aside, it literally takes the final boss of the route to actually harm the SI. Most characters are OOC enough that mesovore jokes were rampant in my read-through. To give a blatant example, while Rin Tohsaka initially claimed she'd never forgive the SI for murdering her sister, a couple of chapters later she's happily working with the SI with no issues at all. Doesn't help that the SI is enough of an asshole that I ended up cheering more for the villians than him.
Does have some memeworthy lines though. Such as the LIE TO TRUTH ITSELF I've heard about and the Gorgon Medusa yelling "LOOK INTO MY EYES".
Setting that aside, it literally takes the final boss of the route to actually harm the SI. Most characters are OOC enough that mesovore jokes were rampant in my read-through. To give a blatant example, while Rin Tohsaka initially claimed she'd never forgive the SI for murdering her sister, a couple of chapters later she's happily working with the SI with no issues at all. Doesn't help that the SI is enough of an asshole that I ended up cheering more for the villians than him.
Does have some memeworthy lines though. Such as the LIE TO TRUTH ITSELF I've heard about and the Gorgon Medusa yelling "LOOK INTO MY EYES".
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
Seconding Noblesse Oblige.
I somehow missed the Picking up Girls thread.
I somehow missed the Picking up Girls thread.
Dark Abstraction
Infrequent Participant
- Location
- United States
I'm gonna have to derec those Shadenight fics. I am a huge fan of Shadenight's writing and I find them an absolute pleasure to read; they are not, however, some of the best stories I've ever read; the SI's tends to be very samey across different fics, and the prose can sometimes bounce between being too purple or not purple enough. The stories are good, nearly all of Shade's stories are quite good. Just not quite on the level of the best I've ever read. (Not the complete ones, anyway. He has a few incomplete works that I'd like to rec if they finish.)
- Location
- Tennessee
I'm also going to have to derec shadenight's fics, but it's not because I didn't enjoy them. I did, very much.
Shadenight writes in a way that emphasizes his status as an author on SB/SV. It's like a character being genre-savvy in a story, except his SI is almost always audience-savvy. This is difficult to articulate, but I guess the best way to put it is that he doesn't write self-contained stories for the sake of writing stories, he writes feel good/guilty pleasure stories to keep his audience fed.
For example, I personally think Noblesse Oblige is his best shadenight fic, and it's exceptional for what it is: a shadenight fic. As a stand-alone ZnT/FoZ fic, it's actually not all that great. I believe it's because it wasn't written to be a great ZnT/FoZ fic, but to be a great shadenight fic set in ZnT/FoZ.
If any of that makes sense.
I do, in general, recommend people try out some of his fics to see if they like them so they can get access to a lot more enjoyable reading material (he has quite the number of fics to his name), but nothing he has is "Best Damn Fics" territory IMO.
Shadenight writes in a way that emphasizes his status as an author on SB/SV. It's like a character being genre-savvy in a story, except his SI is almost always audience-savvy. This is difficult to articulate, but I guess the best way to put it is that he doesn't write self-contained stories for the sake of writing stories, he writes feel good/guilty pleasure stories to keep his audience fed.
For example, I personally think Noblesse Oblige is his best shadenight fic, and it's exceptional for what it is: a shadenight fic. As a stand-alone ZnT/FoZ fic, it's actually not all that great. I believe it's because it wasn't written to be a great ZnT/FoZ fic, but to be a great shadenight fic set in ZnT/FoZ.
If any of that makes sense.
I do, in general, recommend people try out some of his fics to see if they like them so they can get access to a lot more enjoyable reading material (he has quite the number of fics to his name), but nothing he has is "Best Damn Fics" territory IMO.
- Location
- Somewhere
Dereccing Shade's fics. Entertaining in his particular way, some worth recommending elsewhere, but not appropriate for this thread.
- Location
- Massholistan
I'd also derec Nobless Oblige (can't comment on the other two because I haven't looked at them), it's competently written but at about 1/4th of the way through it was just like "I don't want to read this anymore" though for me that's mostly from my personal taste regarding plot developments and the like.
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- Location
- US of A
That's the only one I know was recced, besides Fallout: Equestria. Someone did rec you an Elder Scrolls fic a while ago…
Hykal94
Orange Estus Kitteh
- Location
- Firelink Shrine
Yeah, I'm sure it's a fine fic and all but I don't really care for xovers.
elenchus
leftism is quantifiable
- Location
- Texas ;_;
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Also, it got removed.
Shinji117
Endless Troller
- Location
- Rokkenjima (Sydney)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My favourite fanfic ever would probably be either Witches and Woodlands or Redaction Of The Golden Witch (link to Part 1). Both are fanfics of Umineko, but are otherwise pretty different. Both require a pretty solid grounding in Umineko to understand (W&W up to EP7, while Redaction spoils all 8 EPS). If I had to pick one, W&W would win purely because it isn't 35 hours long and can actually be semi-easily reread rather than taking a whole week of free time to reread.
Both are also raised above other fanfics through good sprite work and managing to integrate the utterly amazing Umineko score, which is something most fanfics can't do.
=
W&W is a (mostly) comedic story of what if George, Jessica, Maria, Battler, Dlanor, Erika and Beatrice sat down to play a game of what passes for Dungeons and Dragons in their world. George is a Monk, Jessica a Thief, Battler a Fighter, Maria aSorcerer Witch, Dlanor a rulebound Cleric, Erika a metagaming Paladin and Beato is the GM. Together, they must enter the magic fortress Kuwadorian, overcome the trials of the Seven Stakes and capture Beatrice for King Kinzo.
Despite the seemingly-cracky premise, it treats the whole matter with incredible sincerity and, fitting for a fanfic of a work that explored the mystery genre in great detail, discusses the role of the DM, how important story and character/player involvement is and puzzles. On specifics, The Gold Puzzle is a work of art, and the climactic final battle is worthy of comparison to Umineko's EP5 Cathedral Duel which is a high compliment from me. No-one is out of character, there are many seriously funny moments and some incredibly dramatic and intense scenes and while the ending is inevitably tragic, with the various people pledging to get together next year and continue (which is never going to happen), for the duration of the story the cast gets to have fun without crazy murders, parents tearing each other apart over inheritance or evil grandfathers.
=
Redaction, OTOH, is very much a more serious work. W&W, despite it's intense moments of drama, is at it's heart a comedy. Redaction isn't. And it's also really long, at around 35 hours. So it's an investment.
Redaction is also only tangentially related to the Ushiromiya family or the 1986 massacre, and is instead focused on the Witch Hunters of 1996. It goes into just what kind of people would look at what should have been a massive tragedy and start playing with it like a logic puzzle, or to try and argue that the family was actually killed by magic, or try and "solve" it by arguing over which family members likely murdered the others in cold blood all with no real evidence or purpose besides a morbid glee and curiosity. They throw out dumb theories, spend large amounts of money on going to Japan purely to "investigate" and interrogate those who saw the family last (the boatman esp) and in general act terribly.
And then a group of them go to the island one day and end up murdered, and a new "forgery" Umineko Episode is found which seems less about the Ushiromiays and far more about Witch Hunters and guilt. And now it becomes a question of whether this forgery is a joke in bad taste, a confession or something else?
For a comparison to W&W, one of the most "comedic" bit of Redaction is a bit where Sorcerer Battler is taken to a Witch Hunter convention and is complimented on his "cosplay", but criticised for getting details wrong. Of course the comedy is swiftly murdered when Battler begins reflecting just how creepy and disrespectful the whole event is from his PoV, given how these are people playing dress up with what amounts to his family's corpses a decade after their deaths.
Both are also raised above other fanfics through good sprite work and managing to integrate the utterly amazing Umineko score, which is something most fanfics can't do.
=
W&W is a (mostly) comedic story of what if George, Jessica, Maria, Battler, Dlanor, Erika and Beatrice sat down to play a game of what passes for Dungeons and Dragons in their world. George is a Monk, Jessica a Thief, Battler a Fighter, Maria a
Despite the seemingly-cracky premise, it treats the whole matter with incredible sincerity and, fitting for a fanfic of a work that explored the mystery genre in great detail, discusses the role of the DM, how important story and character/player involvement is and puzzles. On specifics, The Gold Puzzle is a work of art, and the climactic final battle is worthy of comparison to Umineko's EP5 Cathedral Duel which is a high compliment from me. No-one is out of character, there are many seriously funny moments and some incredibly dramatic and intense scenes and while the ending is inevitably tragic, with the various people pledging to get together next year and continue (which is never going to happen), for the duration of the story the cast gets to have fun without crazy murders, parents tearing each other apart over inheritance or evil grandfathers.
=
Redaction, OTOH, is very much a more serious work. W&W, despite it's intense moments of drama, is at it's heart a comedy. Redaction isn't. And it's also really long, at around 35 hours. So it's an investment.
Redaction is also only tangentially related to the Ushiromiya family or the 1986 massacre, and is instead focused on the Witch Hunters of 1996. It goes into just what kind of people would look at what should have been a massive tragedy and start playing with it like a logic puzzle, or to try and argue that the family was actually killed by magic, or try and "solve" it by arguing over which family members likely murdered the others in cold blood all with no real evidence or purpose besides a morbid glee and curiosity. They throw out dumb theories, spend large amounts of money on going to Japan purely to "investigate" and interrogate those who saw the family last (the boatman esp) and in general act terribly.
And then a group of them go to the island one day and end up murdered, and a new "forgery" Umineko Episode is found which seems less about the Ushiromiays and far more about Witch Hunters and guilt. And now it becomes a question of whether this forgery is a joke in bad taste, a confession or something else?
For a comparison to W&W, one of the most "comedic" bit of Redaction is a bit where Sorcerer Battler is taken to a Witch Hunter convention and is complimented on his "cosplay", but criticised for getting details wrong. Of course the comedy is swiftly murdered when Battler begins reflecting just how creepy and disrespectful the whole event is from his PoV, given how these are people playing dress up with what amounts to his family's corpses a decade after their deaths.
Quadhelix
Professional Windmill Hunter
Wait, is this still the rule? Because the only reason that I haven't recommended Elfen Liner Notes : The One Good Day (an Elfen Lied fanfic) is because I'm not sure I can really warrant its technical quality -- for starters, I haven't watched the underlying show or read the underlying manga. However, if we're accepting things based on subjective reaction, then I have to give it a strong recommendation because:
a) it's a fairly short read at less than 5k words, so it's not much of a waste of time even if it doesn't work for you
and
b) whatever its technical quality may be, it is 100% effective at reducing me to a sobbing mess.
and
b) whatever its technical quality may be, it is 100% effective at reducing me to a sobbing mess.
So, I can't really explain why it's capable of provoking such a strong emotional response from me -- maybe I'm just a sucker for cheap schmaltz and nobody else will react the same way. On the other hand, if my reaction is based in something more universal, then this fic definitely deserves a place on this list.
- Location
- Tennessee
It is still the case, but be prepared for people to discount the content of your recommendation because any technical flaw exists.
"It has at least one flaw, therefore it can't be the best."
You know, a self-defeating argument because nothing is perfect and would therefore remove the entire point of this thread.
I haven't read your rec (not familiar with the source material and don't particularly care), so it's possible that the technical issues are so bad they prevent the average reader from connecting with the content. In that case, the criticism might be completely justified.
In any case, like I said, be prepared.
"It has at least one flaw, therefore it can't be the best."
You know, a self-defeating argument because nothing is perfect and would therefore remove the entire point of this thread.
I haven't read your rec (not familiar with the source material and don't particularly care), so it's possible that the technical issues are so bad they prevent the average reader from connecting with the content. In that case, the criticism might be completely justified.
In any case, like I said, be prepared.
Wobulator
Within 1 AU of you!
- Location
- Mars
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This sort of attitude is fundamentally unhelpful. For some people, technical mistakes mean that the story is just unreadable(I'm one of these people).
For others, it just doesn't bother them very much. Both attitudes are perfectly valid, just different.