Fanfiction

[Yityat]

You know, it's pretty crazy just how many fics in Japan are about Nanoha compared to other anime. There's a whole wiki for Nanoha fics! The self-insert isekai thing happened so much that there's fics from 2013 about self-inserts duking it out with other self-inserts. Infinite Stratos or the Familiar of Zero probably come second in this regard.

Two guys in particular keep popping up in these kinds of fics: a guy with silver hair and heterochromia and a guy with blonde hair, red eyes, and the Gate of Babylon from the Fate series. They're stock characters known as 踏み台転生 or stepping stone reincarnations, made to mock the trope by trying to form a harem or steal the show from the original main characters but are subsequently humiliated.

I made this thread because this was too big to fit in a status post but I wanted to share this weird happening anyway.
So for the sake of discussion: Do you read Nanoha fanfiction, or fanfiction at all? What tropes pop up often? Any tropes that annoy you in particular?

 

[Kokoro]

Yup, I occasionally read fanfiction, but I don't really pay all that close attention to tropes. I love a good story though. I have read a couple Nanoha fics, but I've read way more Ah My Goddess and Tenchi fics.

 

[Senkusha]

I've read some Nanoha Fan Fiction on FanFiction.net, mostly I watch for the Fate-centric fictions...I mean, she is my favorite character after all! I didn't realize there was a whole sub-category of self-inserts within Fan Fiction though. Perhaps that's why fan fiction get such a bad reputation? Now, I have written quite a bit of fan fiction (again, as Fate as my heroine), and I enjoy writing from the first person perspective. I feel that I get to know the characters so much better than when I write in the Third Person perspective.

 

[Scorpion]

That's fascinating. The fact that there are literally stock "stepping stone" characters designed to mock bad self-inserts shows how meta Japanese fanfiction gets. I love that they created entire archetypes just to dunk on overused tropes.


I do read fanfiction occasionally, and the "overpowered protagonist fixes everything" trope gets old fast. Also hate when characters act completely out of character just to drive the plot. What really bugs me though are those fics where the author clearly hasn't watched past episode 3 but writes anyway.

 

[SuperNerdBro]

I read fanfiction myself for some time now.