Your favourite fanfics

[Leftovers]

I would say fanfiction has been a significant part of my life, to a degree that certain fanfics are not just personal favourites, but works that I hold dear as one would a book or a film that can be endlessly revisited as well as held as a source of inspiration. I would also like to believe that this is a normal thing that other people do and would love to hear about those fanfics that have blown your mind with new possibilities, inspired your own writing with their artistry, or just plain entertained you again and again. And if it isn't, feel free to share your favourite fanfics anyway.

I would do so in this post, but I first need to farm interaction in order to muster up the motivation, tehepero.

(Only Type-Moon fics? I guess not, but try to include some.)

[RoydGolden]

I really liked Moczo's Chaos Theory, although a bunch of stuff came up and I never got around to finishing it near the end.

[WhiteFrenzy]

Holee, fanfics are a part of my life circa... I dunno, maybe the very first day I had internet in my life.

My formative stories - the ones which stood by me and that still unconsciously shape me to this day - are long gone now it's the downside of having been born before this interwebz funky fella. I mean, I've seen My Immortal born and die. But I still hold some very dearly in my heart. Fragments of Chaldea and Fate/Twisted Elysium are the only typemoon stuff I remember now tho. I suppose I'm just not big into the "reading TM fanfic" part of the whole experience.

Oh... But I know we have a treasure trove of good fanfics too, I just don't spend much time on this part of this forum. BUT I've been trying to get into Random's Fate\Last Call and I did read some of Wyvern's amazing crossover What was Created by God too. These ones I guarantee are top tier.

[Bloble]

Postnuptial Disagreements is the best Fate crossover ever written.

I don't actually read that much fanfic.

[Mattias]

Let's see...

TM fics: Manhattan Project 2 by Five_X, Tomb of the Sun God by Bloble, Fight/Knight by Toby, and anything Arashi wrote.

Classics I always come back to:

Uninvited Guests by Moczo: Bleach Crack fic about breaking the straight man.
Trust Me I'm an Alchemist: Small five chapter crossover between Full Metal Alchemist and Yuri on Ice.
Constellations: a Worm/Okmi crossover about getting yourself an emotional support pet.
God's Eye: Stargate/Dresden Files about accidently making yourself a god.
Pedestal: A Gen 4 Pokemon fic about...depression and domestic terrorism?
Reload: A Naruto fanfic where a time looping Naruto and Sauske go on a drunken cruise. *Unfinished*
To Inherit the Future: Mass Effect/Nier Automata, During the Krogan Rebellions the Citadel stumbles upon post-game Yorha. *Unfinished*

Currently updating fics:

Demon of Fodlan: FGO/FE 3 Houses, After the temple of Time Goetia bumbles around the 3 Houses plot trying to find out why humanity wanted to live
Maria Campbell of the Astral Clocktower: Bakarina/Bloodbourne, Lady Maria is isekai'd into Fortune Lover, which is now also a From game.
Serenity Malfoy and the Hogwarts Education: Sailor Moon/Harry Potter, nothing much to say, just fun.
A Young Girls Guerrilla War: Youjo Senki/Code Geass, Tanya's third life starts in Shinjuku five years before the conquest of Japan.
Morality Chain: Avatar story about Azula deciding Zuko means more to her than Ozai and she joins him when he defects.
My Heresy Academia: The Horus Heresy with genderbent Primarchs and set up as a harem comedy.
My False Love Academia: Hero Aca through the lens of Nisekoi.
Actually Satan: Fate/Black Butler, Emiya shows up instead of Sebastian.

[Ratman]

I'll be real with you, Latent Heat of Sublimation still lives in my head rent free.

[Rafflesiac]

It's been a long time since I've actively sought out and read fanfics, so I don't remember the details of much of them. Off the top of my head, though:

A Stolen Heart, by Aladar: An immediately engrossing noir take on Fate/Stay Night. I like how the characters stick to their characters despite the vastly changed setting.
Fate/Retrace, by Aladar: An original Grail War chock full of OCs. I like its dedicated world-building and ambition. The willingness to go off the beaten path is something I respect and would like to use myself.
Fate/Mythologie, by You: Another original Grail War, with a much-appreciated willingness to fold in all sorts of canon odds and ends for its own purposes. The two aspects I find myself appreciating the most are the unorthodox perspective of ex-overseer Chris and a remarkably novel take on Herakles. I've never thought of Herk as burdened, but I'll never forget it after reading this. You's depiction recontextualized Narita's Alkeides, and helped me appreciate him as well. You has the ambition to write a novel series - and a reader.
Shattered Heaven & Shatteraxia, by Tesculpture: Hilarious stuff, simple as. All of the inverted characters are a riot, like megalomaniacal Villain of Evil Shirou. Embrace the crack. Let it flow through you. Write the memes.
Left's Tomato Doujin, by uh, someone: Good shit, homie. I read DDD1 afterward. Good Dr. Roman too. Lots of humanity in it that helped the characters shine despite my utter unfamiliarity with them. Also a great handcuff economics joke. I should read the rest of DDD someday.

[Leftovers]

First off, thanks for the replies everyone, keep them coming. I want to prompt people to dust off their memories, dig up the ancient scrolls, and remember the things that were once important parts of their fandom consciousness.

On that note, there are many fanfics I look back on fondly and the TM writing scene certainly lends itself to nostalgia, but I'll start by mentioning a trio that I feel most shaped my outlook on TM fanfics in terms of what Nasu things I would like to write about and the way I imagine them.

Fletching was by no means perfect even when it was written, but it was the synthetic approach to writing within the setting - which utilised the tenuous, offhand connections between characters from stories distant to each other, the scraps of information that constituted obscure elements of the setting, and the leeway afforded by Nasu's propensity for dangling loose threads of potential narratives - that afforded the writer the fullest freedom to imagine what a corner of the fictional world or a missing story from the corpus of lore might look like, and then to write it in such a way that the loose threads, the scraps of information, and the tenuous connections constitute a picture that fills in that gap in the fictional world so snugly it feels like it belongs there. This is the kind of TM fanfic writing and the kinds of topics that I have been interested in ever since. If I had started reading TM fics some years later this story could have been Lunatique or Moon's Corral instead, in the same capacity.

Kleio and Demimondaine are two sides of a hefty coin, that being the fundamental texture, tenor, essence, je ne sais quoi and what-have-you of the most important parts of the settings of Fate and Tsukihime, Servants Magi and the Church Dead Apostle Ancestors. They may seem like strange choices as most influential if not favourite, being a deliberately inconclusive bait of a single (albeit long) chapter of an unwritten story and an incomplete story where nothing much actually happens, but I can confidently identify reading them as the turning point in the way I imagine the structures, the culture, the ontology, philosophy, aesthetics, and the individual members of those groups. Any conception of the magus or the vampire as a creature that I had before, or any depiction I had come across, felt like a simplistic reduction, a failure in conceptualisation, a discharge of anime brainrot — a skill issue.

To think through the implications of what Nasu has laid out is to develop core concepts of the setting to degrees beyond what he intended or cared to depict. The magus is a creature of extremes, and perhaps Nasu understood through KnK that the characters meant to represent those ideas could only embody them in increments - the ideal magus is an aberration, which his methods and institutions must reflect - to the inevitable point of degeneration to 'quirky dude with magic gimmick'. A Dead Apostle Ancestor meanwhile is largely a veneer of implications, sporadic flashes of pure novelty that hint at great depth, existing in ideal vagueness conjured up by dictionary entries, idle references, lists of names and the detritus of unwritten stories Nasu seemed to have discarded for good. Coming up with the window dressing of abilities and such is easy enough, but in order to characterise these immense presences in respect to their in-universe mythology, convey the weight of their existence and match the hazy aesthetic profile in a way that feels authentic to what little is already there, one has to imagine first of all what a Dead Apostle Ancestor fundamentally is, what social structures they create, what codes and principles they follow — 'spooky anime dude' just doesn't cut it.

I don't claim those two fics are the definitive examples of doing all that, but the degree of realisation of their characters served as a paradigm for me to start thinking that writing fanfiction within the purview of the aforementioned setting elements requires conceiving an entire mythology of that part of the world for the story to occupy and the characters to naturally derive from and belong in. As someone - I suspect Umberto Eco - once said, to imagine a story you must first imagine a world to a degree greater than what you will actually depict. Half-measures and slapdash anime conventions will not provide a framework for any fully realised depiction of probably the richest "cultures" Nasu has come up with in his mythos. This makes it supremely hard to actually write anything, but it does provide the righteous indignation to rail at hackjob spinoffs that simply Do Not Get It on any level at all. Can recommend.

[You]

There were two reasons why I started writing fanfiction. One is why I wanted to write fanfiction in the first place and the second was why I believed I could write fanfiction.
The latter was due to Toy Soldiers, a series of snippets of "what if Shirou's Servant was X," written during the DEEN era with "DLCs" for HA.
Before reading Toy Soldiers, I was under the assumption that fiction necessitated complete stories - the more chapters the more "complete," the story. For the budding TM fanfiction writer this mentality often results in "I must write my own Grail War."
Toy Soldiers as an anthology of snippets only provides a tiny snapshot - the epilogue - and the reader is left to rationalize the process. The writing is above average for a fanfiction and the characterization is what you'd except of a Fate fic written in 2006. However, the choice of imagery and settings used in the work provokes the imagination extremely well. Your mind itself moves to fill in the blanks to reach what you're reading.
For me who at the time who did not have the confidence to commit to a large undertaking, it demonstrated that fanfiction only needs to evoke rather than re-create a setting. That one of the greatest assets is your reader's knowledge of canon itself and their ability to extrapolate from that (this has not always been successful).
I would go on to write my first fanfiction, the Fate/into series back in 2011 - 2012 that was my own attempt at Toy Soldiers, an anthology where a single episode in each Servant's life/mythology was recontextualized using TM rules, systems, and set pieces. Ironically, Higashide and Sakurai would do the same in the Chaldea Ace magazines.
Was Fate/into any good? I don't know, I haven't re-read it in a long time; however, I can definitively point to Toy Soldiers as the work that is behind my foray into writing fanfiction.

[Alternative Ice]

Currently updating TM stuff:
Fate Reach out - Shirou as the protagonist of Persona 4, excited for when the investigation team comes to Fuyuki and we can see the characters from both series really start to bounce off each other.

Save scumming? It's on my character sheet - Rezero crossover with Subaru as the protagonist of fgo. I think it does a better job than most fgo fanfics of moving off the rails of canon and taking advantage of Subaru's return by dead to take the story in interesting ways so far.



Currently updating non-TM stuff:
Overlady - brilliant crossover with Familiar of Zero and Overlord, the video games not the isekai series, where louise becomes the master of a bunch of dumb gremlin like creatures. Has a very Konosuba/pratchetesque sense of humor and view of fantasy.

To Aru Mahou Shoujotachi no Monogatari - After a long stint of seemly being dead it seems to have revived! A madoka Index crossover about Homura in Academy city fighting a mysterious organization to rescue Madoka. Really interested in seeing the mystery unvravel of how Homura ended up in the Index universe and what these guys goal is.

TM stuff that hasn't updated in a while:
Fate Extra The Midnight Sea - A sort of novelization of Fate/Extra that I feel really fleshes out the original story and adds a lot of new elements.

Calling Card - A post UBW Shinji gets wrapped up in what seems to be a TM version of the plot of Psyren.


non-TM stuff that hasn't updated in a while:
Heliocentrism - Basically season 3 of AKB0048, introduces some cool new antagonists and a mystery box that I think would have paid off well if the story had ever finished.

Zero Requiem - Lelouch is reincarnated as a noble in pre first book Westeros. Very enjoyable to watch him navigate politics and battle tactics.

[SpoonyViking]

Geez. I don't even know if the old fanfics I used to read are still on the net, and I'm half-afraid of looking them up and confirming they're gone. Makes me wish I had saved them in some form back then.

That said, fics that stood out to me for their artistry, or have somehow inspired me... Hmmm... Well, most of those are in the Questverse server archive, but of the ones posted here, I'd make special mention of Daneel's Lost Singularity - Fimbulwinter quest (technically not a fanfic, but quests count in spirit, I'd argue), Seika's "Colour" (also available on AO3, if one prefers to read it over there), and TwilightsCall's "Alter".

As for fics that I generally enjoyed a lot, these days I only really engage with the ones written by the Questverse server folks, and the only other ones I know are posted here already, so my suggestions are going to be rather insular, but what can you do? In no particular order, and sticking only to my favourites:

Prix's "Strings" (still ongoing) (another one also available on AO3) and "Here He Will Always Stumble; Here He Will Always Break".

IRUn's "Devil/Angel's Food Cake" and "Even a Caged Falcon May Have Fun" are both well-written erotica - but they also hit my specific interests, so your mileage may vary and all that.

You's "Paradox Eclipse".

Tobias's "Fight/Knight".

Arashi's "The Hearts of Suffering".

And for a non-TM fic, Seika's "Valfather" is short, but sweet.

I guess that's it?

[Dullahan]

fanfics that have blown your mind with new possibilities, inspired your own writing with their artistry, or just plain entertained you again and again.

An ongoing process. Therefore difficult to answer.

If I think back, however, there are a few that have stuck in my mind over ~10 years or more. They have proven, in various ways, "memorable." Which is not, strictly speaking, what you're asking for. It is the closest thing I'm going to give you.

- Lancer Gets Serious [FSN]
By Bloble. Needless to say. For "new possibilities" I would say that "the possibility that it might be an alright idea to try writing fanfiction at all" counts. This is where it comes from.

- Tainted Ideals [FSN]
By Stormedge. What can I say? We are all, all of us, edgelords at heart.

- Solenoid Flux [Fate Zero/Evangelion]
By fallacies. It was a cleverly integrated crossover. It understood how to make distinct sets of world elements recohere.

- Tomb of the Sun God [Fate (general)]
By Bloble. This is a mildly self-serving choice because I helped a little with reading Bloble's drafts. But it was a lot of fun to work on so I remember it.

[Rafflesiac]

Tainted Ideals was an early fic I read; I enjoyed it. It was the first time I heard of Fate Jack, so I was surprised when she was a kid instead of a teenager lol.

- - - Updated - - -

Also Bloble stuff good, you are strong for finishing what you started.

[Five_X]

It's been an age, but there are a few that have yet to recede into the shadow of lost memory.

1. Moon's Corral, by You. This is the first fanfic I remember reading where I was really taken aback. Humbled, definitely. Short fiction tends to be underappreciated in fandom culture, but it's here that you find some works of true quality. It's also a bit nostalgic, reminding me of the old fanfic contests here - and their eternal judging processes and everdistant prizes. The good with the bad.

2. Tomb of the Sun God, by Bloble. It's an extremely fun story, and from briefly looking over it again in 2023, it holds up despite being written a decade ago.

3. The Great Beauty, by Snow. Another fanfic contest entry, and another of the great short story fanfics that takes an idea - in this case both a concept and a historical period - and uses it for great, precise introspection. I'm biased: short, introspective character fics are my favourite to write now, too.

4. The Jeweller's Hands, by Leftovers. Maybe this is recency bias, but I don't think you can discuss fanfic-on-BL without mentioning this story. It's a masterwork of technical skill, and more than just its contents - which are excellent - it's kind of a love letter to the fanfiction forum. Not in a self-indulgent or nostalgic way, but in the fact that you couldn't really post this anywhere else. It is a work of forum art.

I miss reading and writing fiction. A year of hunkering down and focusing on a thesis did a number on me.

[TomPen94]

Do non-ero Doujins count?

If so, my pick would be T-MOON Complex X by CCC. Has all the schlock of a crossover event that I like to see. Followed that one for years between waiting for scans and then translations of it.

If we're restricting it to prose fanfics released here, or ff.net, or AO3, can't say I've delved too much into fics for TM stuff. But I remember one that got recommended in this here forum, set post-UBW True, where Shinji mans the fuck up and confesses his shithousery to Rin, and it naturally involves Sakura. Been a gooood while since I last read it, but I remember liking the narration a lot and the way magic stuff was described from Shirou's POV. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of it, and I think​ SeiKeo was the one who talked about it, but my memory is vague on that one too. Been the better part of a decade since.

[Mattias]

Been a while, but I just found and devoured a 50+ chapter Jujustu Kaisen/Kara no Kyoukai fic and thought I'd throw it out here.

Zenith of Stars calls itself a JJK OC story but the OC in question is just Shiki for all intents and purposes. Starting at around the time of the Gojo flashback arc, child Shiki gets MEoDP unlocked during a suspicious building collapse that kills her family, and is afterwards adopted into a branch of the Gojo because her suddenly now blue eyes.

It goes really deep on the clan politics aspect of JJK for the majority of it's currently released chapters, which is fitting given how MEoDP is really cracked. It does have a little bit of the Naruto problem in some places where a 8 year old is treated as an active combatant, but it's only a handful of times before the story progresses to the lead up of the Zero movie. Oh, and about halfway through Araya shows up (and maybe some hits of Touko in the wings?). There is a ton of OCs though, since mostly only the Zenin got any kind of in depth look in the actual story.

[tsugumi]

Favourite TM fic is Desperado, both to echo what Leftovers said, and because you never forget your first Dullahan fic. It left a remarkable impression on me, and in such a way I had to like... chase it down, you know? Interrogate and dissect every element that made me sit up straight until I could identify why exactly it set my brain on fire. But yeah, it was the story/author that started changing the way I understood magi and the nasuverse at large completely and forever.

Favourite overall fic is Obito-Sensei, because it expanded my mind as to what someone can do with fic, way back when. The growing suspicion of what the author was doing, culminating in chapter 16 when I realised oh! I wasn't projecting! he actually is interacting with the world of Naruto through a materialist lens! you... can do that? you can do that?????? with fanfiction?????????????? fanfiction???????????????? It gave me confidence instead of mild shame for the very first time that I wasn't necessarily Being Weird/Inappropriate whenever I brushed up against Ideology in my own personal secret fanfictión. That maybe people wouldn't necessarily be put off - maybe they'd even want to read it, if I could finish anything.

Probably because of the internet space I spent my formative years in, the idea that it's gauche in general to have something as juvenile as fanfiction interact with the world at large unless it's, idk, the fallout from someone getting raped, must have seeped into me at some point, hence the feelings of shame for even wondering things like "you know, the immortal so-and-so and her equal long-lived friends will be living through WWII within the next thirty years. I wonder what, given her unique circumstances, her feelings on that might be and her experience of it might look like". And it's not like that community impression came out of nowhere - everything I'd read up to that point, particularly anything self-described as Dark and Serious, it all either dealt with the world:

1. Competently, but on a very minor, personal scale
2. On a bigger scale that asked questions of the world at large, but childishly and ineptly.

The possibility that anyone could do anything on a large scale tastefully and cleverly had left my mind. It was such a shock to encounter it when I wasn't even looking for it; I just happened to be really into "what if naruto was better. good, even." fanfic at the time.

Moving on, the plot and intrigue is also excellently realised, the action is simply stellar, all the characters interact with each other in realistic and enjoyable ways, and when you go back over the author's older work, you can see this has a lot of ideas in it he's been refining and polishing for the better part of a decade, so that's always interesting.

The true sign of quality though is that it made me stop seeking out fanfiction. No one was doing it like him, there was no point looking elsewhere. Best to just read more books.