Have a fic list
Aug. 28th, 2011 02:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
farlaSo, the Shiplympics. We're onto round two and I did write all this up, so here you go. With round one, I was looking at this in three ways.Overall goodness was one factor, but also characterization, which I think ends up penalizing the picture side of things. And then there was how well it sold the pairing itself.
COMIC: Super sugoi comicu of love (Nepeta♥Terezi)
This one was cute and does great as far as the prompt goes, since it's practically a layer cake of cliches. But the characters seemed too generic to me. It's not exactly that you could fit anyone into the same roles, but you could fit a reasonable number, and it was relying on broad strokes of characterization and visuals to get across who they were. That's definitely a format thing - it's a good length for a comic, but it's hard to fit in much in that space. The ending was gold, though.
FIC: The Devil's Own (Rose♥Kanaya)
This was great with the characters, Rose especially. Kanaya's characterization was moved a bit off canon, but that felt natural under the circumstances, circumstances being Kanaya is a vampire who drinks the blood of the living. Another one that's a great fit with the prompt.
FIC: K1SM3SS1TUD3 FOR DUMM13S (Vriska♠Terezi)
This is good, but it's got some weird issues - for some reason John's name is only capitalized half the time, and the whole thing seemed way more ♥ than ♠. Vriska also seems a bit low key, but not OOC exactly. John is a major supporting character of the fic and she's really mellow around him, but I have to admit that's why I'm never interested in seeing John and Vriska together in the first place. This one fit the prompt well enough.
FIC/ART: In Shitty Sidequests Veritas (Dave♥Terezi)
Very strong characterization, somewhat confusing plot. Also, hilarious.
The main weak thing to this is the dialogue thing didn't quite work for me. I'm not sure if the problem is on my end. It was a pretty ambitious thing - Dave's dialogue is being altered by the quest, but I couldn't quite figure out where aside from the obvious when they blurted out something.
This one didn't seem too in line with the prompt. That is, you can sort of see a cliché, but it was mostly its own thing. On the other hand, it means the fic reads as something new instead.
FIC: And Under the Aurora We Shine (Jade♥Rose)
Again with the great characterization. The biggest problem with this one was the resolution seemed rushed, and I know people were running into major problems with word count. I'd have liked it better without John explaining she was being less facetious than she thought, but without that it might read more as shipteasing than shipping, and that is the point of this.
Another ones that did well with the prompt.
ART: Little Blue Hood (John♥Vriska)
This seemed really blah to me. I'm not sure if this is an issue of me not giving proper dues to art or if it really is somewhat generic. And I don't really feel just doing a fairy tale picture counts as a cliché.
GIF: Break the curse (Aradia♥Sollux)
Animecensorshipclouds!Aradia is very funny, but I found it lacking. This one is almost certainly a lack of art due giving. I'm sure much technical skill was involved on a short clip, but the story was too simple. The storyline was another fairy tale, but the visuals managed cliché well.
COMIC: Cherry Finomenon (Alchemiter)
Liked the drawing style here, but the storyline didn't quite click. It's just not quite clear why Karkat would freak out after realizing he can breathe water. It's not impossible to see, but I would have liked the story to explain why. I'm not sure if that's a space issue or if the artist just couldn't think of a good way to do it. (Also, they don't look like they're underwater...the tears are especially noticeable.)
Don't think this was especially in line with the prompt, though it fit.
ART: Untitled (Summoner♥Mindfang)
Cool colors, but it's just two characters drawn as zombies, without really any clues as to their relationship (the only connection at all is that Mindfang's hand is marked with his blood, and that doesn't even fit right given he's supposed to kill her).
FIC: things you want (Dave♥John)
Quality writing that didn't seem to have much connection to the characters. Basically, no one's really OOC, but you could put this in practically any fandom. Even the voices aren't especially distinctive except for the pesterlog chunk.
This isn't much of a cliché fic. It's a cliché sort of slash fic, but that part is done straight.
FIC/ART: Shipping Wars (Karkat♥Gamzee)
Really confusing. Too much AU. It's not completely ignoring the characters like some do, but it's mostly pirateAU sort of stuff. The second half works a lot better, but it sort of goes too far in the other direction - it's high!Gamzee suddenly making out with Karkat.
This would probably have worked if it had started with Gamzee angry in a bar getting high and then gotten into the whole pirate AU thing from there.
FIC: If You Hated It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring on It
(Slick♠Snowman)
Not confusing and perfectly, perfectly IC. Fit the prompt well enough but didn't go to any extreme. Though that may be because their relationship is already set at 11. I think this is the only ♠ one that actually seems particularly ♠y, although I do prefer blackrom not have the characters hating the relationship itself.
FIC: The Moral at the End of This Book (John♥Karkat)
I feel like this just didn't quite pull it off. It doesn't quite sell the reversal but still has the IC-divergence from it. It just didn't use the space very well. The bits where they're talking work really well, but there's just little of that and too much time spent inside notquiteKarkat's head, while still not enough time establishing the differences (the bit about him being upset over notquiteJohn being heterosexual as a fetish when he's stuck in a culture that hates homosexuality was great, but it was a short bit of telling surrounded by mounds of unnecessary Kermit) so it ends up too close to the standard slash story of guy in love with a guy who doesn't love him back but then it turns out he does.
This just isn't written that well. There's no particular point of weakness, just a general feel that the author is inexperienced. Also, it isn't really doing much with the cliché, this could be a normal fic in fandom.
FIC/ART: Two Is Company (Karkat♥Sollux)
This seemed really confusing to me, and it didn't sell the relationship either. Did well at fitting the prompt, though. I did find it a bit odd because usually wingfic has more of a personal focus on the wings.
Too AU. Karkat would never be the quiet, sullen delinquent. It also fails to really sell the relationship as ♥. Is there a symbol for lust? It was more Karkat being in lust with how pretty she was and Jade needing someone to talk to right at that moment and being too distraught to notice he was ignoring her to the best of his ability.
I know that's the point but god that was unreadable. Certainly manages cliché well from the chunk I did
try to read, and if you can handle long paragraphs of Tavros' quirk it's probably quite good.
FIC/FST: Monster Hospital (Bro♥Dave)
I'd say the biggest problem here was that there was nothing particularly romantic about it, just Bro thinking of how badwrong it'd be to let that happen. And it was an utterly standard zombie fic - character A escapes with character B and eventually dies with character B surviving to continue on. Matched cliché well but didn't go anywhere with it at all.
Very, very pretty art. Didn't seem to be telling a story or indicating much of their relationship, though.
FIC: Just An Idea (Dave♥Tavros)
I'm not sure the angel/demon AUs work. It seems to always involve making a drastic change to both personality and relationships. And this one doesn't even do much to try. Tavros sounds nothing like himself and Dave is barely any better. Their relationship is definitely there and affectionate, but it doesn't bear any noticeable resemblance to canon. Certainly fit the prompt well.
ART: D--> For You (Aradia♥Equius)
I wonder if the artist was misremembering Aradia as being the one in charge of making Bilious Slick, or perhaps they've just been drawing a lot of frogs with the recent update. It's very cute and one of the only ones that tells a story, but Aradia's thing was archeology, not herpetology. It's also not much of a cliché.
FIC: Human Reproduction Sure Is Weird! (John♥Rose♥Dave♥Jade)
This needed an editor. It opens rather bleakly. The kids have been kidnapped and kept by aliens for a year for various experiments, and currently John and Dave have been stripped naked and ordered to fuck. And so on, and then it ends with sex pollen making them all fuck each other while the trolls are confused because they're not using buckets, haha? If this is supposed to be a silly story, it really needed to have most of it cut out and just be the kids confused about sex followed by the trolls confused about sex. Also, this was specifying what type of relationship, not just the usual nonjudgmental /, and sex pollen making you fuck is not really ♥.
ART: The End of Us (Condesce♠Sufferer)
Pretty enough drawing, and a nice line, but kind of a jumble otherwise. Probably another space issue with drawing vs storytelling. Not much of a cliché, either.
COMIC/MUSIC: Years in the Future (Kanaya♦Karkat)
This one is both adorable and tells a story well. It just doesn't seem to be ♦. I think people have taken to use it to mean friendship fic, which irks me in both directions - it's not technically right, and in the other direction, we're lacking any option for when people do want to write that.
This seems to be a sideways tangent to canon. Sollux's psychic powers are expanded to mind reading and various flavors of mind control. And while the setup works okay, it's one of the most standard, where a character starts using the other to do small things then upgrades to sex, and never addresses the problem of Sollux not being interested in him in canon. It's executed quite well, though, and it's the only one of the troll fics that seems to be blackrommy at all.
ART: Tentacle Fun (Feferi♥Sollux)
Cute art, not so much with a story.
COMIC: All the Spoils (Eridan♠Vriska)
I really like both the art and the conversation, it's just not a particularly ♠ one. The summary/explanation is that a matesprit would pity and a kismesis would antagonize, but it's still far too friendly and it's clear he's trying to cheer her up. This kind of thing seems more a situation where different people handle it differently, not different relationships - that is, it works fine as how Eridan might try to cheer someone up and certainly how Vriska would want to be encouraged. Not much of a cliché.
ART: Let me sing you the song of my people (Eridan♥Karkat)
Good art, especially the expressions. It doesn't seem an especially reciprocated ♥, but Eridan/Anyone has a firm if one-sided canonical basis.
Rather scribbly art. It does better than a lot of these at conveying a relationship between them, but not particularly ♦.
It's just the two of them looking at each other with Nepeta dressed as a princess. Crack ships are probably not the best ones to sell in art, but at the same time it's probably inevitable because a lot of crack ships are mainly popular within the art community on the basis the characters look aesthetically pleasing.
Also Homestuck please stop with the ship names. I know you think it's funny and clever but this is like opening the necronominon for a quick peak and then two months later you have a five page list of the different names for every ship and elder gods are nomming on your brain.
FIC/ART: Until the Latter Fire Shall Heat the Deep (Dave♥Rose)
Ambitious. It opens with an interesting idea and does a pretty good job selling a relationship between them, but the tentacles do seem rather random. I'd have also liked a bit more on why she was getting closer and closer to waking (did it have to do with Dave and how much?) mostly because it's not something we ever got explained in canon.
Why are there so many Eridan arts? In a strange reversal of how things have been going, this seems more ♠ than is appropriate for a ♥ relationship.
FIC/ART: Trainwreck (Dave♦Terezi)
IC but it just lacked any real kick to me. Definitely ambitious, though. And this seems like another one using ♦ to mean buddies.
ART: Sleeping Sickness (Dave♥Karkat)
Another one that doesn't quite explain the relationship. The anatomy is very good, and the ending lines are gold.
FIC: Adventures in Grubsitting (Eridan♥Feferi)
...there's just something about this that puts my teeth on edge. I mean, it does seem a good idea to address the issue of Feferi's existing relationship with Sollux, but this came off more like it was bashing him or the ship, as well as OOC - the one thing we know about their relationship is she finds his violent mood swings -EXCITING. And it's not her fault he spent weeks alone, he was the one who sulked in his land while insisting on murdering angels so no one else dared spend any time there.
FIC: Inversion (Ectobiology)
Gamzee♠Karkat
This is one of the more ♠ entries, but still not all the way ♠. Also, making trolls humans who are confused by ♠ relationships is a weird, weird decision and I'm not sure it quite worked. I'm pretty unsure of the characterization as well.
FIC: Parsley in the Tower (Jade♥Kanaya)
This is a great Jade fic. It's just not much of a Jade♥Kanaya fic. Kanaya shows up near the end to get an offer to stay with Jade. If it was character olympics rather than ship olympics, this would work a lot better. It does a good job with the cliché, and I say this despite usually feeling fairy tales aren't a good choice.
POETRY: Obsession (Dave♠Karkat)
I think I'm also unfair toward poetry. This just didn't grab me.
FIC/ART: Shoot the Lights Out (Equius♥Gamzee)
A very well done zombie apocalypse. My only real complaint is I wish it'd gone more into detail about the Alternian surroundings, or perhaps less vivid detail and more putting the pieces of it together. The way it's written is full of lovely terrifying references, but it's hard to get a complete picture of a lot, though I think that's intentional. And I think it could have used even more of those just to distinguish it further from the typical zombie apocalypse. Both seem terribly IC, and there's both the cliché and the twist on it. Really, the main problem is that it's relatively predictable, but it's a pretty atmospheric fic.
FLASH: Dave: Troll your girlfriend (Dave♥Jade)
This is a weird one. I think part of the problem is that Dave is the sort of person to just randomly claim he's gay, so it's hard to tell if we're supposed to read this as a sign of how strong their relationship is, or what. The characterization seems okay, but sort of muted. And it seems more interested in avoiding the prompt than wallowing in it properly.
This has a problem a bit like Vriska/Kanaya one, in that the writing is just somewhat lackluster at points, although it's okay. Dave is quite amusing and the characterization works for him and Gamzee, though Aradia seems to just be there for deus ex machina duty.
FIC: Schoolgirlstuck (John♥Rose)
Adorable. There were some minor problems - a few typos and some of the art is a little too scratchy, but it's very near perfect. The is the only one of these where the other characters and relationships are a major component, which I think makes it one of the strongest ones as fanfic in general.
My usual problem with these two is the way there's often the sense that John automatically gets Rose, and here it's the more typical setup where the character doesn't believe they'll have a chance, so it's a lot easier to root for it.
And like the first one, this is a beautiful layer cake of cliché.
FIC: From the Bondage of Witchcraft (Terezi♥Vriska)
One of the better trolls-as-humans fic I've seen. Still didn't convince me that the trolls-as-humans thing really works, but it certainly sells the relationship and keeps everyone IC.
FIC: High Tea with the Duke of Pastries (Bro♥Mom)
This, oddly, felt more like it was about the three guardians than Bro/Mom in particular. Also, for some reason I just had trouble following it - I initially thought she was more like around ten because the fic introduces him as twenty and the two the same age, then makes a big deal about her being younger, and then the plot point is that he never knew her when she was the age she's changed to... But then apparently she's just nineteen? Also, it wasn't clear she'd lost her memories until the story was almost over. The cliché is definitely a major feature of this one, it's just hard to make out.
One of the better sort of the two-characters-together-in-the-same-pic, and since it's an established relationship already, there's less need to sell ♦ here. The cliché doesn't really add anything one way or the other.
FIC: Untitled (Mindfang♠Redglare)
I'd say the main weakness of this one is that it ignores their canonical first meeting in favor of a completely different one that better fits the writer's preexisting script. I'm also not sure missing scene really counts as a cliché.
Anyway, some interesting factoids:
About half of the ships were het, over one third were slash and just under one sixth were femslash. Of the winners, the top four were all het, but in total half were het, one fourth were slash and one fourth femslash. (And that's counting John/Rose as het despite being all female in the AU.) It'll be interesting to see how things shake out next round.
Thirty three were ♥, 8 were ♠, and 4 were ♦. Almost of the winners were ♥, as you'd expect ...with the exceptions being two ♦ which placed third and fourth respectively. Weird. One was the same pairing as the first place entry. So, blackrom is not making a good showing here. That might just be coincidence, since as I mentioned people aren't writing it all that differently.
Of the het, all but two were written from the boy's POV, and in so much as the comic entries could be said
to have a POV they trended similarly. I'm curious to see if that continues in the next round.
Apologies for formatting, rich text is the devil but I didn't want to have to code the links myself.
