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I just saw an author comment that s/he/it was hoping that their fic would go down in Fanon as "the most Depressing fix fic".

So, I'll ask: Is there any other examples of Downer Fix Fic? Not anti-fix fic, a played straight fix fic that's just plain depressing.

Thanks
Luc "Stupid Questions" French
... Why would you do that? For that matter, how? The premise of a fix-fic is to make things better, by definition then it must have a positive outcome compared to the source material.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
In reverse order.
You need characters with some nuances, but mostly it seems to be a change of perspective that makes this possible.
Imagine a Harry Potter fix-fic, but from, oh, Draco Malfoy's perspective instead of Harry's. Now Draco is a bigot and an asshole, so it's hard to sympathize with him, but if you have opposing but sympathetic characters in canon? Fix for one character, and look through another one's eyes.

As for the fic in question? It's a Worm one. There's a lot of space between 'better' and 'happy' there and it's not always a smooth gradient.

Back to the original question. I haven't seen one yet. I also haven't been looking for that in particular.
The hell of it is, I was enjoying that fic right up until he said that.

And now it's ashes.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
So which fic is this, anyway?
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
Amelia, over on SpaceBattles sounds like the story under discussion. And I'm with Valles on this one, there's a lot in the story that I kinda dug but the author's endnotes constantly sabotage any good feeling I have. Oh well.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
That was the kind of thing that soured me on Halkegenia Online. The "Hey, you know all those sequences you thought were great? I will now make it so those can't happen anymore!" plot development didn't *help*, but it was some of the comments that made me say the hell with it, wake me up if something interesting happens again.

-Morgan.
Quote:Morganite wrote:
That was the kind of thing that soured me on Halkegenia Online. The "Hey, you know all those sequences you thought were great? I will now make it so those can't happen anymore!" plot development didn't *help*, but it was some of the comments that made me say the hell with it, wake me up if something interesting happens again.

-Morgan.
Can you clarify what you mean? Apart from Sinon being stuck in a bad position in a world where GGO will never exist, which is pretty much unavoidable, it's been a generally positive story.
Quote:Jinx999 wrote:
Quote:Morganite wrote:
That was the kind of thing that soured me on Halkegenia Online. The "Hey, you know all those sequences you thought were great? I will now make it so those can't happen anymore!" plot development didn't *help*, but it was some of the comments that made me say the hell with it, wake me up if something interesting happens again.

-Morgan.
Can you clarify what you mean? Apart from Sinon being stuck in a bad position in a world where GGO will never exist, which is pretty much unavoidable, it's been a generally positive story.
Mmm, dunno what this is referring to, but have you been following the series of Sinon omakes that've gone up recently? Chilling stuff.
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Jinx999 Wrote:
Quote:Morganite wrote:That was the kind of thing that soured me on Halkegenia Online. The "Hey, you know all those sequences you thought were great? I will now make it so those can't happen anymore!" plot development didn't *help*, but it was some of the comments that made me say the hell with it, wake me up if something interesting happens again.

-Morgan.
Can you clarify what you mean?

What I liked: The interactions between FoZ cast members that I liked and the SAO cast. (How startling!)
What wouldn't have been quite enough to run me off on it's own: Louise buggering off to join the circus with characters from her own canon that I could read about in a non-crossover fic if I gave a damn about any of them.
What made me say Screw This, I'm Out of Here: The author chortling about how much angst they were going to pile on, peaking with (paraphrased) "Louise will never smile again."
What added insult to injury: Certain major moments felt really OOC too.

-Morgan.
"Louise will never smile again."

And THAT was the moment I walked away. She starts out a brat in most fics, but I like Louise dammit.
Quote:"Louise will never smile again."

Well. The author never explicitly used those words. Just that Louise was going to do something big to drive the plot, and it was

Louise -has- made some rather large mistakes. On the other hand, she's made them by trusting people she had every good reason to trust, and it may well turn out to be a better choice in the long run. And she's in a position she would have ended up in later in canon, anyway.

She's with someone who recognizes her as a Void mage.
She has her Familiar.
And she's out from under the threat of excommunication or being burned as a heretic - mostly.

Is this a good place to be?

Maybe. Maybe not. We've yet to see. But it's not that Louise will never smile again. It's just that she felt that way for a while, because she realized that, yes, she really -is- responsible for, well, -everything- that's happened.
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
ECSNorway Wrote:
Quote:"Louise will never smile again."

Well. The author never explicitly used those words.

Like I said, it's paraphrased, but I pretty clearly remember something equivalent to that being said in the discussion thread well before things really went to hell. And the word used was definitely "never". I didn't stop reading at that exact point, because I had accumulated trust in the author to be better than that, but that has it's limits and they were exceeded.

-Morgan.
Quote: I didn't stop reading at that exact point, because I had accumulated trust in the author to be better than that, but that has it's limits and they were exceeded.

-Morgan.

While I'd had some problems with the story prior to that point, I was only really reading it when I bumped into it and remembered it, as opposed to stalking for updates, as it were. So, it wasn't so much a 'How dare you, I'm leaving in a huff' moment, more just rolling my eyes and deciding not to bother picking it up the next time I saw it.

I admit, it's a pet peeve of mine, but I've found that stories about characters being beaten down, beaten down some more, and then beaten down again for good measure, tend to annoy the hell out of me. Going 'Oh, but in the end they'll be mostly alright!' doesn't really help, especially since this is often debatable. Louise wasn't the core of HO, but it was still frustrating to read, and the reason I moved on.

It's the same problem I'm having with Desperately Seeking Ranma, actually. We've seen enough chapters of the Senshi being humiliated and beaten, let them climb back up, dammit!

Also, Legend of Korra. It's not just fanfic that does it! Smile
Quote:I admit, it's a pet peeve of mine, but I've found that stories about characters being beaten down, beaten down some more, and then beaten down again for good measure, tend to annoy the hell out of me. Going 'Oh, but in the end they'll be mostly alright!' doesn't really help, especially since this is often debatable. Louise wasn't the core of HO, but it was still frustrating to read, and the reason I moved on.

And, honestly, it ... isn't really happening, in HalkO.

Yes, Louise spends a chapter or two banging her head against a wall and chewing herself out. Then she finds another way. We have yet to see what's happening after that, but what the author has revealed so far actually looks interesting. I'm eagerly awaiting more.

Louise doesn't -need- to be beaten down more, she had already reached bottom. It's time for her to start climbing.
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
Matrix Dragon Wrote:I admit, it's a pet peeve of mine, but I've found that stories about characters being beaten down, beaten down some more, and then beaten down again for good measure, tend to annoy the hell out of me. Going 'Oh, but in the end they'll be mostly alright!' doesn't really help, especially since this is often debatable.

For me, it depends on the author's attitude. It's pretty subjective, but when it starts really feeling like they're looking forward to how much shit they can pile onto a character, I start not wanting to hang around for it, even if I have a reasonable expectation that they'll do something else later.

It's something I remember seeing a lot in late 90s self-insert fics. There seemed to be a certain perception that if they piled it on enough, their SIs wouldn't be hated for being SIs. But for me, who approaches SI characters the same way I approach crossover characters from fandoms I don't know, it was just tiresome.

As for Halkegenia Online in particular... wake me up when Louise is regularly interacting with multiple SAO cast members again.

-Morgan.
Well, she hasn't had much if any screen time in vol3 so far, so I can't say who she's interacting with right now. There's been a lot of drama with Morgiana and Eugene, Kirito and Asuna, and bits about the way the Alfheim backstory is being integrated into Halkeginian reality.

Oh, and there's the Shiori playing James Bond with Matilda and Tiffania... that's been fun. Smile
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Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.
... I've got to admit that keeping Matilda is enough to get me to forgive a lot.

-Morgan.
Well, Alicia Rue most definitely did not order anyone to go infiltrate Albion, investigate the whole zombie-fae thing, identify Cromwell's necromancer, and if possible shank the zombie-raising SOB somewhere painful. Shiori will swear to that, she was there when it didn't happen, after all.
As far as Shiori's concerned, Tiffania and Matilda are just a bonus.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.