An Ode To Dead Fics · 7:59am Jul 24th, 2015
Everyone knows one. Everyone has read one. A lot of folks have written one; I've written three or four. Sometimes they die while we're reading and then it screeches to a halt, and like cartoon characters whose car just drove over the cliff, we hover in place waiting forever for something more that doesn't come, until we look back and finally realize what's happened. Or sometimes we find its corpse lying 45 pages into the category, a gem buried in the turds of more active but far less talented authors.
Dead fics.
They take many forms. They may be single chapter, potential left to rot like a foundation dug and then forgotten about by the contractors. They may be multi chapters, climbing ever higher until we reach the peak and find nothing left to climb. They may be novel-length epics that took their toll on their authors from years of struggle and writing until they lost interest in keeping it alive any longer. We call for the author for closure, begging for just 10 minutes worth of reading because we've waited 3 years and just want a little bit more. Sometimes they hear us and come back, oftentimes not. And like an old rose bush in the corner of the backyard, we go about our lives ignoring it, except for those few moments a month where we glance over to see what has become of it, if anything.
The greatest tragedy in this is not the loss of the author - if they had any talent worth getting invested in, they will go on to bigger and better things than fanfiction, and if not then their loss, harsh though it is to say, is one the internet will endure without notice. The tragedy is the loss of the fic. Year after year it sits without update, and each year it slips further into obscurity. No one talks about the great dead fics, and why would they? No one talks about an amazing football game that got called on account of rain at the 4th quarter, or a gorgeous mural with the bottom corner left bare because they ran out of paint. We talk about the completed fics, those that lived out bountiful lives and ascended to the pantheons of classics, that we will talk about forever. We don't talk about the dead fics, lost before their time, thrown into a favorites bin to be buried under newer fics, until we can't even remember what it was about.
This is an open invitation - post your dead fics here and talk about them. Give me ten words, give me a college-level essay. Just talk about them, because if it's worth reading, it's worth letting others know about so that they can.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time by Arxane, a glorious full-length novelization of the game. Ends at Chapter 61, with the Water Temple and the build-up to the revival of the Shadow Beast. Simply a magnificent piece of epic fantasy.
Foundations of NeoGenesis by EmeraldDragon, an Inuyasha fic about a futuristic society where our heroes board a colony pod and are sent to colonize an unknown alien world. A fun adventure that reminded me of a kid's book series I read, Remnants.
For All We Know by LilacRoseWriter, another Inuyasha fic where Kagome wakes up in modern times married to Inuyasha and living with friends Sango and Miroku, and tries to reconcile if the feudal era was all a dream, and which reality she wants to be the real one.
A Clash of Heroes by Mengde, a Dissidia Final Fantasy fanfiction following Sephiroth and Auron as Warriors of Cosmos in a previous cycle, summoned to fight Genesis and Jecht. Intriguing and well-characterized, which is saying a lot for me because I normally hate Sephiroth.
Firsts by Eggz, a Digimon fanfic where an older Rika and Takato are in a relationship, and Renamon struggles to understand this whole "intimacy" thing humans have. To say anymore would spoil a massive plot twist; suffice to say, lots of laugh-your-ass-off moments, for those that are old enough to read about characters having frank sexual discussions. Turns out even in-universe Renamon has "fans" on the internet. 'nuff said.
The Foal in the Basket by PonyBlue, where Chrysalis went a little far in her seduction of Shining Armor. Now Twilight is taking care of their child left on her doorstep and drama ensues.
A Tale of Two Worlds by The King of Gingers, Loki from the Marvel films finds his way into Equestria and variably integrates into a normal life and goes back to scheming, as the Avengers try to pursue him.
A Glint of Light on Broken Glass by Dr_DeDeDe, a retelling of the series premiere with Celestia, Luna, Sombra, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Chrysalis as the Mane 6, Tirek as the ancient returning evil, and the Mane 6 as the alicorn rulers of Equestria. Lots of character defilement, but still fun in places. And it's worth reading just to behold the magnificence of Princess Rainbow Dash; I won't dare spoil her for you here.
Enjoy, and feel free to post your own fav dead fics, ponies or otherwise.
I'm ashamed, as I too have a fic I abandoned years ago when I just lost interest in it when pony took over my life. I gave a cop-out final post, giving a link to the synopsis of what I had planned for the rest of the story. 120K+ of words worth of story that I just can't bring myself to finish.
Here it is in case anyone's curious. It's a Ranma 1/2 alternate universe story that explores what might happen if Shampoo and Ranma didn't meet at the Amazon village.
I'm going to go back to my corner and cry now...