So...as part of the countdown for this rant, watch me rant about a topic that honestly feels so cringe that I'm surprised that I'm even doing it. At least it can't get any stupider than doing a rant on ship names. (also that McGonagall gif has been sitting in my phone since forever so why the hell not)
Well, we're here. I've mentioned in a few rants that I've read these fics from various fandoms, and that it's been an on/off guilty pleasure for me over the years.
My readers as I speak:
Me:
Yeah, yeah, I know, stop judging me.
But I'll be real with you: this on/off guilty pleasure started off as intense curiosity. I'm pretty sure at least one person took a good look at a series of books or movies and thought to themselves: what would the characters' reaction be if they actually saw the events in their lives happening from a different perspective and/or lens?
It's not a unique thought, and I assure you, at least one person in every fandom has had this running through their heads at some point. Hell, there are TikToks about Falcon and the Winter Solider with Tony, Steve and Natasha reacting to the events in the series from heaven, it's kinda hilarious.
...Okay so it's not an exact example but you know what I'm getting at. The only thing is, only a few people actually act on that idea and write them out.
(I also couldn't stop laughing for ten minutes straight after I found them again and to the people who actually know the context behind the series, IM SO SORRY 😂)
Although, now that I think about it, the focus these days has gone from "what would their reactions be" to "what would happen if certain characters knew what the fuck was going on?" Or even better: what if the people involved in the plot, both big and small, had a chance to fix things (that is, barring time travel)?
Oh don't get me wrong, there are some really bad ones out there, but the focus of what starts these fics out have shifted a bit over the years.
I remember my first time reading one of these. It was a "Watching the Anime" one for Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood on FanFiction.Net. I don't remember much of it, and the author got all the way up to the "The Promised Day" episode. It was a shame they couldn't finish it, and I think it got taken down, which is fair, but what I remember of it, spiked my interest in reading other fics using the format with my other favorite series. Needless to say, while I did find some decent ones, I was massively let down by the large majority of what I found.
Edit (1-8-2022): Unfortunately, that FMAB fic was taken down, and by the fic author, no less. However, I found an archive link of it when I was on the TVTropes page for "Let's Watch our Show" Plot. Go figure, cause I wasn't even looking for it. The link on the page led me to a Wayback Machine link where it let me download a pdf version of the fic, and reading it again was a nostalgic mindtrip. It's called "Truth Revealed" by Fallen Crest.
And the thing is, there's a few problems I have with these fics:
1) the fics themselves tend to lean towards more the crack side of things. Let me start off by saying this: that's inherently not a bad thing, per say, especially if that's the overall tone you're aiming for. There are some crack Reading/Watching the Series fics that I've read and found them fucking hilarious despite how OOC they were at times, but this point actually is weaved along with my other problems with the fics that aim for a more serious tone or fics that want to be taken seriously as such (and fail to do so on both accounts.)
2) the reactions are so over the top, generic or just plain OOC for a lot of them. Again, it's fine you're actually aiming for a more crack feel of the idea in general and especially the characters' reactions to what they're being read or shown. And listen, I've said before that I don't mind characters that are OOC (nowadays, that is, and with a certain dose of tentative curiosity) but having the characters be OOC is a double-edged sword. I've mentioned this in one of my rants about being OOC and how that there's a fine line for it. And with these fics that want to be taken seriously, yeah, they just plain don't work for me. The Miraculous Ladybug ones are the worst offenders of this, even as crack fic (again, just intense curiosity, and it often comes up in the tag. Don't judge me, I don't even watch the show anymore cause what the actual fuck is going on now—)
3) a lot of the fics are honestly kinda uninspired. It's part of the reason why reading these fics are an on/off obsession, There's barely any variety and more often than not, I end up rolling my eyes at what I'm reading. Every time I open up a new fic in a particular fandom (say, ML or even HTTYD) it feels like I'm getting the same material with a different name, and I can't see any differences between some of them. The Mary-Sue author inserts are no different, especially for the fics whose series take place in the modern era. Some fics have a deux-ex machina type plot device that force the characters into a situation where they have to watch or read the series, and in comparison to the Mary-Sue inserts, the deux-ex machina devices are far better and are at the very least, believable enough...that is, depending on how the author incorporates it into the lore of the series.
4) Most of them are literally just script dumped with very few reactions or characters thinking about what they just saw or read. Like idk how the fuck the authors of these fics are able to get the entire script of a movie or show or even the entire chapter of a book with almost none of the characters reacting to what's being read or shown, and it's mind boggling to me. I've seen so many Reading the Books for the Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson series in the past do this...like H O W (and don't even get me started on the HTTYD movies, half of the fics on here, you're literally just scrolling through blocks of bold italicized text to get to the reactions.)
Most of the fics that do this eventually get reported and taken down for copyright infringement and/or plagiarism and honestly, even if there's a good amount of excellent characterization and believable reactions, I'm not even gonna complain about them being taken down. That shit's kinda on the author. When I said I understood why the author of "Truth Revealed" took down her story, this was the reason that she stated on her profile and yeah, I agree.
5) they really have close to no sense of tone or plot. Very few do, and it's hard to find ones that can actually have a plot alongside the reactions. Adding to the lack of consistency in both tone and the general lore of the series that are being watched and reacted to (unless it's crack fic, then this point is kinda....pointless. Hehe.), the grammar and formatting makes me wanna cry. Even if these fics have a serious tone and a plot with good reactions, the grammar and formatting makes it hard for me to take it any more seriously than a crack fic. Sometimes, I grit my teeth and read through some of the cringe if I really like that author's characterizations, but at a point it becomes too much for me to handle and I end up abandoning the fic.
6) most of these fics have an unusually large cast, and they're often hit or miss depending on the character interactions. The problem with this is that it makes it harder for the characters to have more breathing room for their own reactions. Having a smaller set of characters to start with also allows for the readers to empathize with the characters' reactions. The Percy Jackson ones are the biggest offenders of this, but in hindsight, I can see why the PJO ones have a large cast and even if they start small, they eventually end up expanding the cast of reactors anyway. The Seven are a given, as well as Thalia, Grover and Nico. The Olympian Council are the main reason why people even do these fics to begin with, so adding them is also a given. But the rest, you could honestly do without.
Regardless of my personal opinion, it's better than including a large number of people at the start. But there also needs to be a limit because having too many characters can overshadow the actual characters that the audience want to see the reactions from.
If I were to do fic like this, I would honestly just keep it to the main cast, maybe a few from the supporting cast. Some from the minor cast as well, but that's kinda pushing it. My point is: there has to be a balance of the number of characters that are there reacting, and adding too many will also overwhelm you as the writer as well as the audience. If you really want an ensemble of characters (like say, MDZS, for example), pick out the characters you want to write the dialogue and character development for and let the rest fade in the background as background reactors. Sidenote, this probably won't completely work for the major characters, so bear that in mind, because people will eventually ask about why one of the major players hasn't said or reacted to anything.
7) fics that have their characters' both past and present selves in the same room reacting to what's being shown or read are often convoluted and contrite. Honestly, this one is more of a personal nitpick. And while you can say "you must be fun at parties" or whatever, I do get it. It's fun having the characters's past self utterly roast their future selves and their subsequent decision making (and vice versa). Hell, this is not even new, official canon material has multiple plots about characters meeting their past or future selves and just putting them on blast for as long as fandoms have existed. The problem comes when you have multiple versions of that same character in the same room and some fics that do this, really don't know how to balance those reactions.
There's a difference between different characters from different points in time being in the same room (like say, Praetor Reyna Ramirez-Arellano meeting a 12 yr old Percy Jackson) and characters being in the same room as their future and/or past selves (like 12 yr old Percy Jackson meeting his 17 yr old counterpart) and authors that do both in a enjoyable manner are so far in between. It's kind of a shame, because those interactions should honestly be the most interesting ones out of the bunch but people somehow manage to fuck up even that by adding too many versions of the characters. Even with that, it can be done well, I have read fics that do this well, but there's that balancing act the authors need to follow, even in crack fic.
Boy, that was long.
.... Then again, maybe Teen Project to Change the World by animeloverhomura on AO3 passed the already low standards for a fic of this format and also made my standards ridiculously high in the process. The author made a wise decision in having just the main families of the five sects reacting to their future. There's:
-- Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli and their parents from the Jiang sect (and arguably these idiots need it the most),
-- Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren from the Lan side,
-- Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingue from the Nie side,
-- Jin Zixuan and his parents from the Jin side,
-- and finally, Wen Ruohan, his sons, and Wen Qing, from the Wen side.
If you do the math, that's 16 people in total, and considering how most of these fics have the entire cultivation world reacting to Wei Wuxian's life, sixteen people is a small amount in comparison.
Oh well, looks like all the horrid ones are the ones that have to be sacrificed for a small good ones. (I'm kidding....mostly 😂)
I talk more about how that fic works in context in my MDZS rant, so if haven't read it, check it out lmaooooo.
Oh, and speaking of other good fic, there's a good Harry Potter one on FanFiction.Net called Truth and Lies by silvers45. The great thing about this fic? None of the novel text is there, not even as small excerpts, which is what you would expect from most fic doing this format these days. Although to be fair, I would love to put the entire text on there just to piss off JKR, but I also don't wanna annoy my readers in doing so.
Anyway. the characters' subtle (and honestly relatable) reactions more than enough clue you into what scene they're reading about, and not only are some of them fucking hilarious and/or heartbreaking, depending on what they're reading about, they also make fucking sense. Also: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT beyond just the reactions. Even the initial motivation behind reading the books also makes sense. What on earth do you think Dolores Umbridge will do if she found a set of books that were in Harry's point of view? Humiliate and 'expose' Harry in the worst way possible by having his life and most intimate thoughts read out to the entire damn school, of course!
Granted, it's more or less complete by the time they finish the fourth book bc in the fic, too much has changed for them to keep reading the books beyond that, and honestly that's fair, because knowing when to have a stopping point is also a good thing if you want to have an actual plot in your fic. It's also been mostly abandoned (hasn't been updated since 2014) but what is currently there as of now, is a complete joy to read imo and is a pretty good example of doing a "Reading The Books" fic while letting your fic be its own thing. Because of this, it's still enjoyable to read despite it not being finished.
I mentioned Percy Jackson earlier and there's one on both AO3 and Wattpad called "Character is Destiny". I kinda abandoned it midway because the characterizations were getting too much for me and there were far too many characters in the room. It starts off small as it could've, with just the Olympians, The Seven, Reyna, Thalia, Nico, Grover, Chiron and some of the Greeks from Camp Half Blood (namely Kaite Gardner and the Stoll brothers) but by the time the third book hits, the past heroes are there as well (i.e, the original Perseus, Hercules, Theseus), Bianca, the minor gods and the Kane Siblings from the Kane chronicles, and even then, I think I'm forgetting a few. That's a lot of overload in terms of characters to begin with and I feel like we could've just stopped with the past greek heroes. It would've been kinda neat to have the og Perseus' reactions to his junior's adventures 😂
But I might as well recommend another PJO fic to counteract the other fic, which is called Hope Is A Delicate Thing by BandKid247 and oh__peachy. As of the time writing this, they've gotten through all five books of the OG series, and just finished The Lost Hero, so unlike most PJO fics of this format/trope, you have a plethora of character development, as well as realistic conversations about their lives and pasts. They are about to start Son of Neptune soon, so there's that to look forward too.
And while I was editing this rant, I suddenly remembered doing something like this related to Mystic Messenger on tumblr. It's not a Reading the Books thing, but a "RFA play Mystic Messenger" thing 😂. I might just put it on here or AO3 for pure nostalgia sake, if I can find them all. It was basically all of the main characters playing the routes with the MC in tow. I don't think I ever did Saeran's route though, I haven't logged onto tumblr in forever and it's just been sitting in my drafts, hmm...lemme check.
Found it! Here's the link: https://analytical-dork.tumblr.com/post/155592424759/rfa-playing-mystic-messenger-part-1-yoosung
Idk if you can copy it but I added it as an external link, so if you're on the mobile web browser, you can just click on that. Or you can literally just look up the tag "rfa play mystic messenger" on tumblr. If you ever manage to get onto that post, each part linked on the post is separated by the RFA members, so check those out as well, if you want.
Looking back on it, some of it is a bit cringe, but all the same, I remember them being fun as hell to do. I meant for them to be mostly crack but then I realized that tone wouldn't mesh with them also playing the other routes and the secret after ends and those posts ended up as what you see there currently. Maybe I should pick it up again and post it on AO3 (or here) this time around. I can try expanding on some of the reactions or redo them and do it in the same vein as Truth and Lies. And because the RFA hasn't played V's and Ray's route (save for V playing his own route), I might actually do it in a more fleshed out manner—
My audience, presumably:
KEERTHANA, GET THE FUCK BACK ON TRACK—
I'm getting ahead of myself.
In any case, as much as I complain about the issues in this rant, there is something about this fic type that keeps bringing me back despite the lack of variety. And as much as I rant about the script-dumping/text dumping in the fics, I've read some more fic recently that add small excerpts rather than the entire damn text, and a lot of fics trying this format for at least the books having been doing something similar, so small things about the general trope is changing for the better.
I wanna bring up something I noticed about the Reading/Watching Mo Dao Zu Shi fics: the unique thing about the fics is that it doesn't feel like it's script dumping throughout the entire fic, no matter what adaptation. The nice thing about that, especially when it comes to MDZS, is that doesn't feel like you're a scrolling through a wall of bold text to get to the actual reactions. The novel itself doesn't exactly lend itself to be script dumped tbh (and what a godsend that is), and the fact that both CQL and the animated donghua are in another language means that the author has to actually describe the events by themselves. Granted, the translations for the audio drama are out there somewhere but the author's still gonna have to do the bulk work of **dun dun** the transitions from one scene to another. And someday, some idiot will find a way to script dump the novel eventually, I'm not completely discounting that unfortunate possibility. But from what I've seen so far, that hasn't been the case.
I think I should end this rant here. Idk why I didn't create a rant for this far earlier. But honestly, deep down, I know I wouldn't have been this articulate about my issues with these fics if I had done this rant like say, in 2019. I may update/edit this with more if I end up getting back onto my bullshit obsession after dropping it for a year or so again.
Until then, what are you guys' experience with these fics? Did they or do they still make you cringe or do you see the potential in them? Comment below and/or vote and sayonara till then! ❤️