Reviewing the wave of Anon stories · 3:28pm Aug 17th, 2023
Well, it seems that nothing is stopping the flood of Anon in the Featured box, so I might as well do something with those stories. I've decided to review them, which gives me an outlet for some of my feelings about these kinds of stories, and maybe an opportunity to correct any misunderstandings I have.
I don't like Anon, conceptually. This is largely because I don't like 4chan, and have no interest in supporting any part of its culture. "Anon", as I understand it, derives from "Anonymous", which is the default name for an unnamed poster on 4chan - thus, "Anon" is kind of a surrogate for a 4chan denizen.
Depictions of Anon usually show him as a bald, green-skinned male with a question mark in place of his face. This is presumably to reinforce the idea that he is anonymous and can be anyone (as long as they're male, I guess).
The idea of a character who exists solely to be a replaceable blank slate isn't a bad one - indeed, it works pretty well for me in video games when the protagonist is something generic, as that makes it easier for me to project myself onto the character. Thus, if you need a character for a second-person story, someone to be a proxy for the reader, why not a character who is specifically coded to be anonymous? An everyperson?
Sadly, Anon just doesn't fill that role for me.
First of all, Anon is a character, one designed by the consensus of the 4chan community. I think this is actually part of the joke - the irony of having a character named Anonymous who actually has a well-developed identity and appearance. In any case, since I can't ignore the 4chan baggage, I cannot project myself onto the character, which makes them unfitting for a second-person role. Not to mention that Anon's faceless, question-marked appearance just immediately shatters any suspension of disbelief. It's like trying to roleplay an internet meme.
This is why having the Featured box filled up with Anon stories is somewhat frustrating for me, since they're just meaningless non-fics as far as I'm concerned. But clearly these fics do have an audience - they aren't constantly ending up in the Featured box by chance - so I wanted to see if, even with my bias, I could get something out of them. Thus, I reviewed 6 recent Anon fics:
* It's There Forever by RunicTreetops
* Anon forgets his anniversary by ImNew2023
* Boop Eternal by HK-FortySeven
* Well, Off to Visit Your Mother! by RunicTreetops
* Pizza Pie, Something Something, Amore by Uh-hmmm
* At My Worst by Erynaster
This one was in the Featured box for quite a while, and the comments show that a lot of people enjoyed it. It does, to be sure, have a great title - a reference to the adage that "Once you put something on the internet, it's there forever". This is a warning to always be careful what you say online, because nothing on the internet is guaranteed to be ephemeral, and once you've said it you can't take it back. Even if you don't know the reference, the title is still evocative and tantalizing on its own. Sadly, the story doesn't live up to it.
It's also a second-person story, which means that Anon is supposed to be me. To give this a chance, I've tried to take 4chan out of the equation by pretending that "Anon" really is an accepted, neutral term for a character whose identity is replacable. My theory is that by stripping Anon of their cultural baggage, I should be able to enjoy the story for what it is.
In the story, Starlight's experiments with magic lead her to discover a distant connection which turns out to be the human internet. I don't like to put on my nitpicking hat for something that's clearly supposed to be a magical plot device, but the internet simply doesn't work the way this fic describes it. The internet is not like a radio signal that you can passively pick up - it's a client-server model that responds to requests. And that's not just an idle nitpick - part of the premise of the story is that Anon believes he is completely and irrevocably cut off from Earth, but if they're browsing the internet, then they must have two-way communication with Earth.
But, it's magic, so we'll ignore that. Anon explains to Starlight that the internet is a repository of pretty much all human knowledge, which Starlight says is impossible. I don't know why she thinks this or what she thinks should be possible in this situation, considering she is a talking magical unicorn, but there you go.
Starlight asks Anon to search for humans, since she's never seen any beside Anon, and she thinks they're beautiful for some reason. She also affirms that she thinks Anon - and by proxy, myself - is beautiful. I don't really know why, but I'll go with it.
Starlight gets the great idea to search for Anon's name, which brings up Anon's social media profile. This worries Anon, for reasons that aren't explained. I mean, I know why *I* would be worried - I'd be concerned about Starlight seeing something embarrassing, or something that doesn't reflect who I am any more, or even just her seeing a side of myself that I haven't expressed to her. But, the story never hints at these possibilities.
The two are shocked to see that the last post is an obituary for Anon posted by his parents, and to be fair, it's quite a powerful and emotional moment and I like it. That said, I really can't attach myself to an obituary that has Anon in big bold letters at the top. Anon means someone without a name. You don't print "NO NAME" at the top of an obituary. This contradiction just takes me right out of the story and seems very deliberate.
Anon passes out and wakes up later, and has a heartfelt moment with Starlight. There's a bit where they call back to the title of the fic when Anon reassures Starlight that "the internet isn't going anywhere", justifying this by explaining that once you put something on the internet, it's there forever. This is supposed to justify the fic's title, but it doesn't really make sense from a logical or thematic perspective. Firstly, it's just an adage, not a universal truth - it is entirely possible to lose things from the internet. Secondly, Anon and Starlight have an additional problem - they're reliant on an external connection to the internet, and they could lose that. The title doesn't really tie into the story in any meaningful way.
The story ends with Starlight getting curious about clop, which is a pretty standard "ponies discover the internet" joke.
A lot of people really liked the fic and demanded more, so clearly there's an audience for this, but I personally just found it inoffensive fluff. I can't tell if the second-person perspective added anything. Would the emotional moment have hit as hard if I was experiencing it vicariously through an actual character? I kinda think it would?
This EQG story is by ImNew2023, who has written a handful of other Anon stories in the few months they've been on Fimfiction. This one isn't a second-person fic, and Anon is instead treated as a character. So I guess I'm not supposed to project myself onto this character? I'm not sure.
The story opens with Anon "going about his usual business", which is to plan chaos. Is that a trait of Anon's character? Mischief? I don't know. We're told that the story takes place in "Peopleburg", which is supposed to be a play on "Ponyville", but I think that's a mistake, since I'm pretty sure the human city on the other side of the mirror is called Canterlot. Anon plays a cruel practical joke on a student to establish that he's an asshole, and then Sunset reminds him that it's his and Pinkie's anniversary today. Is it a thing that Anon is always dating a main character? I guess it is.
The remainder of the story is too tedious and awful to recap, but it has a slavery joke, so I hate it. The basic gist of it is that Anon is an awful person, and not even in a funny way. Again, I don't understand why Anon is in this story, unless it's generally understood that his character is meant to be a despicable human being.
I assume the title is a play on DOOM Eternal. It's kinda cute I guess. The story also opens in present tense and manages to keep that up for a whole paragraph before reverting back to past tense.
The fic is a comedic exaggerated power fantasy, playing on the fact that Anon - who, in this story, dubs himself "Sir Boopsalot" - has unstoppable godlike strength and an unflinching, insatiable desire to boop snoots. The juxtaposition between those two things is the joke, and it's not a bad joke for a silly over-the-top fic. Sir Boopsalot eventually overpowers Celestia herself and proceeds to give her cuddles. Also there's a T-pose, which I think is a meme. It's fine, and I'm sure it landed a lot better with people who care about Anon.
I've noticed a thread of wish-fulfilment in these stories, where Anon always ends up getting his way with a pony, whatever that might be. I'm going to assume that's an element of the character.
Since RunicTreetops appears to be the main driver of the recent wave of Anon fics, I decided to look at another of his. Again, this one has a great title and simple but effective cover art.
Unlike the other fic, this one isn't second-person, so Anon is an actual character. I'm starting to wonder if Anon is just a shortcut for a human who has integrated into Equestria, no questions asked. It's a little lazy, but not necessarily a bad thing if your real focus is on what happens to Anon after he's in Equestria.
The story is about Twilight Sparkle discovering that her mom is dating Anon, and there's a flashback that shows how they met. It's wholesome and fluffy, pretty much everything that you'd expect to happen happens, and that's kind of it, really. I liked the part where Twilight surprises her mom by revealing that she's already figured out that Anon is her boyfriend. Anon comes across as genial, respectful, even a little vulnerable.
I have to wonder: why Anon? You could replace him with a guy named Steve and nothing about the story changes, except now he has an actual name rather than a jarring "[INSERT NAME HERE]". According to the Author's Note, RunicTreetops wrote this because there aren't any wholesome Twilight Velvet x Anon stories on the site, so clearly including Anon as a character is intentional - it's just that in this fic, Anon has no character. He's just a guy who I have no attachment to and care nothing about.
Like the last fic, the title is also a reference to a meme, in this case a line spoken by the Spy in Team Fortress 2. I had to look this up, but it seems most of the commenters got it. The title doesn't really fit Anon's character in the fic, since he never actually admits to Twilight who he's dating, but again it's a catchy title and I guess that's what counts.
When I first read this, I missed that it was an RGRE (Reversed Gender-Role Equestria) fic, and that's pretty important as it explains some of the strange behavior in this fic. As such, I don't know if fic counts as a typical depiction of the Anon character.
What's interesting is that the author links to their primer on the RGRE setting, and this actually explains exactly who and what Anon is:
Something of an everyman from Earth, with traits that vary from story to story. Most of the time the method of dimensional travel is left unspecified, all that matters is he was home, he is in Equestria/EQG, and he can't go back. He probably won't be too broken up about it, unless the story goes out of its way to portray that. How he reacts to RGRE varies, from bucking all the expectations he can, to compromising and/or taking advantage of the options he has as the fairer gender, to becoming a dutiful and affectionate househusband.
Much of this aligns with my observations about Anon in other fics - that he is simply a conveniently codified everyman for writers, and that his origins and personality are whatever the story needs them to be.
This one also comes in two versions, first-person and second-person. I read both, and I preferred the first-person version as it was easier to read and empathize with.
In the story, Anon meets Princess Cadance, who uses her love powers to set Anon up on a date in exchange for some pizza. So Anon ends the story with the perfect human and pony girl partners (one of whom being Moondancer), and they watch anime together. Moondancer requests something called Interspecies Reviewers, which I had to look up - apparently it's a sex comedy anime, but the author forgot to capitalize the title so I didn't know they were talking about a show at first.
There's a nice pun where Cadance uses something called a "Scrype call" to talk to distant people via a crystal ball. The thing is, Anon is human, so you'd think he would acknowledge the joke, but he doesn't.
I'm not familiar with the RGRE setting, but my understanding is that it provides a setting in which to explore sexual fantasies, so I think this fic does its job well enough.
For the final fic I read this one by Erynaster, who also seems to specialize in Anon fics. I chose this one because it's labelled "Second Person", "Anon", and "Self Insert", which is an interesting combination - and it also has best G5 pony Pipp, so I feel like that should give me a positive bias toward it.
The "Self Insert" is interesting as I haven't seen this used by anyone else for Second Person stories - I feel like the fact that it's in second-person usually implies it's a self-insert story? Anyway, this is at least an unambiguous signal from the author that I am supposed to project myself into Anon for this fic. Let's do it!
In the story, Anon has lunch with Pipp at a cafe, which apparently they do often, and since it's raining, Anon takes her back to her apartment, where Pipp pours her heart out over the burden of her royal celebrity life, then reveals she's in love with Anon, and they kiss. It's quite cute and romantic. I think I might be right on the money about Anon being a wish-fulfilment dating fantasy.
The fic is nicely written, with an enclosed, rainy atmosphere that I enjoy, and the emotion comes through clearly. I just... don't really care about it being a self-insert. I'd feel the same way if it wasn't.
Conclusion
I think I can conclude that Anon fics and second-person fics aren't for me. I just never feel any connection to Anon, no matter how much the second-person narrative tries to convince me otherwise.
I think, counter-intuitively, second-person perspective adds an extra barrier that isn't present in first- or third-person. Reading about another person automatically triggers my empathy, and I see through their eyes and feel what they feel despite being a separate person. But in second-person perspective, I am being instructed to empathize with myself, and that doesn't work so well for me.
As for the character of Anon, he strikes me as being a male power fantasy, a walking Mary Sue, and I don't get why that's so popular - especially with 4channers, who I always thought didn't like so-called "cringe". Isn't it rather shallow and cringy for a human to desire company with a fictional magic horse? Or is it an ironic joke, where Anon is supposed to be a lampooning of people who are way too attached to ponies? I don't get it. But as I said, I'm not really versed in the culture, so maybe there's no way I could get it.
Aside from the "Anon forgets his anniversary" story, none of the fics were as terrible or obnoxious as I thought they'd be. I just... I don't know, I just can't get over the immersion-shattering effect of someone being addressed as "Anon". It feels so weird. Like, I understand the convenience of the character for writers, I even think that's a reasonable idea, it's just... why that character? Why a meme of all things? How do you relate to that?
I'm sure that barely anyone knows or makes the connection with Anon as from being from 4chan and and that he's supposed to be only a self insert character. As someone who joined this fandom lately (February last year), I barely heard anyone make Anon as being connected with 4chan except the mere origin, so you can safely assume that those who read or write Anon fics simply use the character as just an "self insert" without any intention for this site.
The popularity for Anon is basically recognisability, I would say. There are (apparently) many readers who want an self insert with getting along with a pony, and since those who offer it choose Anon, the connection that Anon=self insert is then made and any other self insertion is ignored.
It seems that cover art plays a large role. The fic without one is only rated 9:4 and that sad Pipp is so adorable that I almost want to read it; though then, I could probably find some better pics for pizza Cadance meme, like this one:
derpicdn.net/img/2020/1/9/2242380/medium.png
This author often does that. I'm not sure he's aware of the featured box giving a length bonus, but if he is, then he may be gaming this.
Especially when the protagonist does something I'd never do. Ironically, 2nd person is most often used for things it doesn't seem too suitable for, porn and fluff (one exception I recall is a fic about Anon and Wallflower doing a school shooting). It could probably work in a mind control fic, but then it'd be 1.5 person, I guess.
I barely know anything more about Anon than yourself, but I had no idea of the trend's 4chan origins. I have to agree with gapty – the cheap, low-quality, wish fulfilment nature of them leads me to be believe very few of them know about said origin, and even fewer would care. I honestly do think it boils down to the self insert shortcut preventing more work on the reader or writer's part being required, and the large subset of readers (often teenagers) here purely for quick escapism. That, I've seen in just about every fandom I've dabbled in for fanfic.
I also think the greater proximity of said fics is to do with the greater distance from the show – the further into a fandom you go without new content (at least, new content that most people care about
), the more fics start to get more and more divorced from the root source material. That, and more of the writers of normal, quality-aspiring fics leaving with time… yeah. It's the same reason we see more and more M-rated fics of the saucy kind.
In any case, the one or two times I've looked at an Anon fics, I've been turned off by the factors you mention; low rent "plots" and the Anon gimmick preventing me from putting any investment in it. Second-person fics can be done well, but you need a talented author like Cold in Gardez for that. I too find it far easier to invest in a character telling me their story, either first or third-person.
Well, the Anon crowd are clearly happy, and plugging away blissfully ignorant of what the rest of us think. Best to do is just carry on as we have been, and ignore them unless one comes heavily recommended from a reputable source. I haven't read any such one, but I recall TCC56 recommended one once… oh wait, that was just a HiE fic. Which is similar, but at least lacks the second-person self-insert gimmick, being just a "normal" self insert.
Never mind!
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Hmm, I hadn't considered that the connection with 4chan may have waned over the years :) That does make some sense considering that most of the incarnations of Anon I read just seem to be "a guy". If I had to identify any of the fics I read as seeming particularly 4channish it would be Boop Eternal, which depicts the question-mark-face Anon and has a casual irreverence to it.
It's just the way "Anon" is used as a proper name that gets me. Like, surely if you really wanted to write a proper self-insert, you'd find ways to just avoid saying the character's name, but these fics seem to go out of their way to call out Anon.
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I mean, I thought it was the best of the six that I read, so go for it if you want :)
I'm down for a fractal-dimensional mind control fic!
This right here summarizes my thoughts about the Anon character. Personally, I find him to be a a great example of male degeneracy, (considering he’s ALWAYS male, so how good of an “every person” stand in is he really?) and we see this degeneracy in a lot of the stories that are written about him specifically. He’s often terrorizing the ponies, raping them, forcing them into situations like “snoot boops” against their will, or creating a harem out of the main characters—which is cringe in of itself. Harems are always cringe.
Small tangent, but a very cold, icy, fuck you to the writers of RGRE stories considering the world we live in is already this reality for millions of women across the globe. Not to mention the multiple franchises of men sexually terrorizing women en mass like wild chimps—franchises that I’m sure are seeking a fanfic or two rather than soiling Equestria. But of course, it’s more fun to break a female utopia and turn the mares into sex slaves of ugly manbeasts, or caribou, or even the stallions in their lives because it isn’t like they weren’t already useless to begin with. Ha!
It also doesn’t slip my mind that some viewers see the terror that is Anon as a power fantasy, wish fulfillment for their sexual desires, yet it’s hardly surprising. Concerning? Yes, but par for the course of a certain male psyche—I’ll leave that train of thought there since, I’ll admit, I’m using the blog as an excuse to wax poetic about feminism and yada, yada.
All in all, I loved this post, and I’m sorry you had to suffer through all that Anon trash to write the reviews.