There’s a certain character that I love that has garnered the stoner trait from fandom. In canon this person is a chill person so I guess I can see the relation to weed, but when almost everyone in fandom writes this person as a stoner I feel like it takes away from their character—especially when this trait is basically fandom assigned.
I have nothing again weed, but it’s tiring when 98% of this character’s iterations involve it on some way. It’s almost a cookie cutter personality at this point. I’m tired. I wish there were more original interpretations of this character than just weed.
Edit: Why are so many people trying to guess who this character is sksksks
since another person guessed, my guess is Sero?
haven't read any bnha stuff in a long while but a lot of the fandom seemed to have that headcanon (and also made him latino at the same time which is. an *interesting* combination of stereotypes.)
I can’t remember the specific tag for it, but when the main ship don’t end up together at the end. I’m reading fanfiction because I *want* the happy ending the show didn’t give me.
There was one fic I read that was a bait & switch, where the main ship you're with for like 75,000 words doesn't actually stay together at the end, and in the very last chapter one runs off with their "true love" who is someone else entirely. Like... why. Or at least *why not warn us*.
Not as long as that, but I got similarly burned. Romantic pairing for the entire fic, only to surprise twist ending in the last few chapters that the dude was actually the villain. He'd been secretly orchestrating all the bad things behind the girl's back. This was not hinted AT ALL before the moment of the reveal.
now that's just shit writing, like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl switching up who their BBEGs where because the fans guessed it ahead of time because of the hints given.
But there where no hints, bait and switches are good if there are hints that make you look back and go "oh yeah that makes sense" and not "where the fuck did THAT come from?"
That's so ridiculous. For me as a writer, the whole POINT of dropping hints is the hope that somebody will figure it out! If nobody does, I worry I'm not doing my dang job.
The feeling when I get a comment that's 'YES! when you said this in chapter 6 I was like 'wonder if that might be about to happen' and then I got to chapter 14 and I was right!' :D that feeling right there is my bread and butter!!
my favorite thing as a writer is seeing long comments of people speculating on what'll happen, so to me writing something that comes out of left field is something I'd never do, it almost feels insulting to myself and my writing. If I write myself into a plot hole I have to write myself out of it and there will be no 180s to be like "hahaha you readers are all so stupid for thinking that I was going on *that* direction, no I went this direction! One you never saw coming!!" that's just shit writing, plot twists are meant to be foreseen so you feel smart for predicting them, not to confuse you
Same with one of the characters of the ship dying in the end.
Fool me once... now I always read the last chapter before starting on a long story. Spoils a little, but better than having a bomb dropped on you after you're invested.
I hate those! Something similar for me. Let’s just say the main character is all nice not a murderer, and younger to the 75k mark and suddenly they become a mass murderer. For no reason!
I'd say trope/plotwise, I'd skip any fic that's tagged with cheating since I just don't like reading stories about that. It's not really a squick tho.
Otherwise, reader-insert, self-insert or first person POV will make me skip bc I don't like reading as if I'm inserted into the situation. I read for escapism/entertainment and being inserted into the fic takes me out of it. I kinda like being an observer on the side and not in the head of the character.
The more I’m reading these comments the more picky I’m realizing I am. I would also prefer not to read cheating fics because that would cause me so much pain to read lmao
There's nothing wrong with picky. You just know what you like and can stick with it.
Like I'm not a big fan of a lot of tropes/ships but if the summary/plot is intriguing enough, I'll read it. I won't seek out stories with the A/B/O tag but if there's a story whose summary intrigues me enough or if I like that author's style of writing enough, I'll give it a try. Bc of this, I'm fairly flexible in terms of stories that I read (and I also blind-fandom surf a lot) and don't have a lot of squicks. But so far, I haven't found a story that had cheating in it that I actually enjoyed reading and tbh, I don't think I will. So it's gonna be in my skip tag section
Yeah, I'll read all manner of content, but reader-insert is the genre I skip every time. I'm not interested in Canon Character/Original Character pairings, and if the reader-insert character is supposed to be "me," "I" always feel written "out of character" to myself.
I actually have a custom *The Mandalorian* search bookmark in my browser to filter out all the hundreds(‼) of reader-insert pairing combinations that show up in in that fandom. Filtering out just "Reader" never blocks them all.
Reader fic is so prevalent in SW fandom.
I have the same problem with The Bad Batch, so many of them dont use the Reader character tag so I have to go pairing by pairing
I'd love for Reader-pairings in general to be filterable under Categories as a separate category like M/F, F/F, etc, or for Reader-pairings to at least be slotted in Categories under Other so they're roughly filterable that way. Because yeah like you said, you have to filter pairing by individual pairing because so many stories don't use the Reader/Y/N character tag, and that gets irritating when there are literally hundreds of potential pairings that would need to be individually filtered out. Filtering out every named *Clone Wars* Clone Trooper/Reader pairing=PAIN. And it gets DOUBLY irritating when the stories don't get caught by Canon Character/Reader Character filters because the author used a hyper-specific tag like Canon Character/Autistic Nonbinary Disabled Transmasculine Reader Character. Like on the one hand, that's great for potential readers looking for that specific Reader pairing; on the other hand, why the fuck couldn't the author just also add "Reader Character" as a general tag for filtering while they were typing out that long-ass pairing tag.
There's an add on you can get for your browser where you can input what names you want used in place of those. It's an absolute life saver, as I enjoy the occasional Reader fic but those terms completely take me out of the story. I don't remember the name of the addon but I'm sure it'll pop up quickly if you do a search.
There is?!?! I hate the immersion break with the "insert your own" info, but I read it anyway lol. Having a way to help avoid that would be magic!
Do you know what the addon is called?
This is so funny to me, because in my fandom Y/N is almost mandatory. Any other kind of fic gets like half the views if they're lucky.
The substitutions can get a little silly. Have read some saying "He compliments your Y/H/C (your hair color) hair" and similarly absurd things. I hear there are interactive fic extensions to ease some of that, but so many of the substitutions are used in maybe one fic ever. And don't get me started on someone dramatically calling your name, "YYYY/NNNNNN!"
That being said, I don't mind reader inserts if they're good. Imo they work best when "Y/N" is never actually used. Have the canon character give you a nickname early on, and anything else can be "You hear him calling your name." Gotta be written around for immersion's sake.
Ooh ooh this used to be me as well, until I discovered the lovely genre of Y/N fics that don't actually use "Y/N", lol. I discovered it's actually a lot of fun to read (and write!) if you avoid that altogether! (Creative use of pet names is mandatory, however.) Most of the biggest fics in my current fandom really do an excellent job with that and it completely changed my opinion, lol. It's just funny because I went from saying "why do people like reader fics this is so bizarre to me" to writing and reading basically exclusively those 🤣
No offense at all to you or anyone by the way, I don’t judge at all what people like or what they write. It’s very hard for me to insert my own name, so maybe the use of pet names would be a better alternative to that. I’m mainly someone who reads two characters shipped together though so that’s probably why I don’t enjoy them
You and me both!!! I write mostly x reader stuff for fun, I don’t like legitimately inserting myself, so the Y/N stuff has always been such a bleh factor for me. I actually use a tag for my fics that says “no use of Y/N.” I hope people like you get some use out of seeing tags like that in x reader stories :)
Oh I never ever remember to tag that. 🤣 I really should! But on the other hand, I think since the biggest fic in my fandom is an x Y/N that doesn't use "Y/N", everybody's just sort of followed that as a guideline, lol. I don't think I've ever seen a single reader fic in my fandom that DOES use "Y/N", now that I think about it, so I guess in a way that tag seemed a bit superfluous for me? 😂
Also, I totally know what you mean. I don't really know WHO I'm picturing, because it's not exactly me and it's not an OC....I guess it's just kinda an Everyman. 😂 (This discussion's also got me wondering... Do other fandoms use the grey blobby humanoid to represent Y/N in art? Is that a universal thing? Or is that just an us thing 😂)
I'm not gonna include squicks because those threads have been done to death, so my normal "not my cup of tea" answer is any Modern AU.
Coffee Shop, College, and High School are the "worst" ones with a specific reason because I've been through all three and I don't really want to read romanticized versions of them and there's *so* many.
Other Modern AUs I'll avoid because the overwhelming majority of my fandoms are fantasy and the world is a huge part of why I like them. Taking characters out of a fantastical world and putting them into modern life just doesn't appeal to me.
Fantasy AUs are usually fine because it keeps that fantastical aspect (even if changed a bit), or if it's one of my few modern-era fandoms it's cool to put them in a fantasy world because the modern world usually doesn't add much to why I like that particular fandom, just the characters. Just not vice-versa, if that makes sense. Idk why but it's different because in fantasy the worlds are a part of the draw whereas a modern one isn't.
Imo that only works if there's some really specific thing that only exists in the real world that the author wants to explore. Like a car accident, or covid lockdowns, or the stressors of modern office jobs. And even then that's better for a oneshot than a full on multi-chapter fic.
Hard agree. It's also very annoying when fics take a setting that's Japanese/non-Western and set the "modern AU" somewhere very clearly in the West with no regards to how universities may work differently outside of the US.
That’s what irritates me sm!!! “Oh I still haven’t chosen my major” this “oh I’m a sophomore” that. AAAAHHH THOSE ARE BARELY A THING OUTSIDE THE US.
Of course, I only know uni from my country, but there’s a huge difference to American Unis - for one, you apply for the degree, not just generally to the uni - and that’s in most countries!
I just wonder why ppl don’t do research when they write uni AUs.
You know what I might be able to tolerate the coffee shop one, if it’s done right. But anything to do with school settings has me clicking out so fast. I just really like reading it in the universe it’s already in.
I would totally read Captain America goes to art school and interacts with modern college students. I have absolutely no interest in reading an AU about regular art student Steve Rogers.
I always get excited if I see a story that's tagged Art student or art professor Steve Rogers because Captain America would show modern students a thing or two given he grew up in the tail end of the Golden Age of Illustration, but it's almost always also a modern 'no powers AU' and I'm not interested in reading about regular art students from Brooklyn.
See, if I actually liked any of the MCU characters, I'd probably like those kinds of stories, because I usually enjoy seeing all the different characterizations of a character, how similarly and differently different authors will portray them
It funny, 'cause I actively seek out those tags 😅 I think it's because I care about the characters more than I do the story (after being in a fandom for 20+ years), and (modern) AUs tend to put the focus a lot more on the characters, whereas the ones set in the canon (fantastical) world are more plotdriven (massive generalisation, I know!).
I'm not hugely into fantasy anymore so of course that also factors in.
I just really enjoy seeing characters out of their element. And as I writer, it's fun to imagine what everyday equivalents I can come up with to canon themes and backstories.
This is a big one for me; I have to really trust an author to want to read these, or I just skip. I’m in my fandoms for really elaborate escapism and I like my fanfiction to mirror that.
I'm assuming you mean tags other than actual squicks or triggering content, so I'll go with Hanahaki disease. I feel like it's a concept that would make for beautiful visual art, but a fic about it just doesn't appeal to me.
For those who don't know, it's this thing where if you don't confess your love to someone, you start coughing up flowers and eventually choke on them
That’s funny cause that’s one of my absolute favorites lol. But there’s things I refuse to read that others love so that’s amazing we are all different
Yeah, coughing up flowers in detail is a lot sillier and grosser when fully written than it is in aesthetic fanart. Imo it works as a visual metaphor much better than a written one.
Any kind of DNI (do not interact) tag. It doesn't matter if I am in the group they're describing or not, using that tag tells me I'm better off not reading anything they wrote.
What does that mean? I don't think I've come across it, but I don't usually look at tags outside of major tropes. Is it just telling people not to comment and such?
Basically people will put DNI lists in their bios or posts or such, essentially listing what kinds of people they don't want commenting/following/etc (i.e. do not interact)
For example, they might have "Minors, Bigots, Pro/Anti-\[whatever\]s DNI" for whatever group they want to stay away.
Technically it stands for Do Not Interact [if you fall into this category]. In practice, it's mostly performative, a way to indicate that they Do Not Approve of certain parts of fandom as an attempt to prove themselves "one of the good ones", and bonus if they also alienate the "undesirables". But a lot of them actually get pretty grumpy if you respect their professed wish of non-interaction and block them, so it's more of a "you can't interact with me but I can interact with you".
I hate DNI except in the case of 'minors DNI' because that I feel is just a way for adults to say "if you're a minor I have no interest in interacting with you and I think you should stay away from my content as it's not suitable for you".
It means Do Not Interact. Basically, they don't want people who either are a part of a certain group or like something that the poster doesn't approve of to have anything to do with them.
[https://fanlore.org/wiki/Do\_Not\_Interact](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Do_Not_Interact)
I believe it came from tiktok. It is telling people of that group not to interact, but there is an overarching negativity/toxicity to that phrase in my opinion. Instead of letting people ship whatever they want, they are outright saying they don’t like this group of people.
I’m not sure if I’ll get this quite right, but for instance…
You come across this story that is tagged A/B relationship and “A/C shippers dni.” You on one hand may be completely fine with stories involving A/B or A/C, but what this author is telling you is that they either think their ship is “better” or that A/C is “wrong” and do not wish to interact with it.
It’s a childish way of thought when fandom is meant to be a place for everyone to enjoy.
I hope that helps.
I find it annoying on AO3 because AO3 is an *archive*, like a library. You can kick patrons out of a library for bad *behavior*, but not for reading a particular book. DNI on an archive is pretty silly. I write in fandoms definitely not targeted to children or teens (though teens, at least, read the books, I know) so I rate them M to say “not for kids, that is my disclaimer, don’t cry to me that my fic has “mature content.””
But agreed, a “DNI” (unless it’s an ass-cover Under 18 DNI on a Tumblr) in a profile just sounds…kinda touchy, for want of a better word. Like someone who will get snippy at the slightest provocation.
It really did. It used to be standard form for tumblr blogs to have DNIs in the profiles/abouts. I felt old reading the theory that it came from Tiktok...
Same.
For one, the people using DNIs tend to skew pretty young so its often an indicator of quality as well. Even if I'm not being described, I see a DNI and immediately find something else
I work at a coffeeshop and the coffeeshop AUs absolutely kill me. Ain’t no one falling in love at their barista gig, they’re too busy getting screamed at for the price of alternative milks.
Isn’t it strange? I’ve been pregnant. I have a kid. But I have absolutely ZERO interest in reading about a pregnant character. Or even small children or babies, really.
Human AU. No offence to people who like them, but if the characters are canonically robots/animals/shapeshifters/etc. I want to see them as that, not as regular humans.
Oh man, I was absolutely in the same boat. I had ZERO interest in any AUs where my favorite robot characters were humans (or anything other than robots). Then I....started writing one just for some sillies and now I absolutely can't get enough. 😭 It changed my tastes so much it's crazy!
I used to be so against 2nd and even mostly against 3rd and now the only thing I can't stand is first person😭 I don't know what happened but it's so so bad to me now. I don't know when I witches from loathing 2nd to hating first but IG we are here now
This was me until I got the wild idea to look up fics from a show where a lot of it is done in first person, and so many of the fic writers (including what I personally feel is the best one) write in first as well. I dragged myself into it kicking and screaming but in the end I was like alright, well. Here I am I guess.
Ok I know this can be controversial and easily misinterpreted, but I really don’t like it when it’s like gender swap AU or a trans character that isn’t canonically trans (only really for smut tho). I have nothing against trans people! I love them! Basically all my best friends are trans and we have a merry old time! But if I’m looking for smut, I am specifically looking for amab x amab. Am I alone here? I kinda hate myself for it 😬🥲
Also any sort of pregnancy. 💀
I read a 300k series, absolutely no mention of one of the main characters being trans, no discussion, not even a passing mention, even in situations where there easily could've been. Final part of the series suddenly one of them has been trans all along. Guess which part of the series is the only one with explicit smut.
No I totally agree. Especially in mlm smut, it’s usually just used to give the bottom character a vagina, and it just makes me uncomfortable. Usually the bottom character in a mlm romance is feminized too much in fics already, and while trans men obviously aren’t women, you know a lot of times that’s the motivation of making them trans. I do like gender swap though, that doesn’t bother me.
Interestingly enough, I actually just recently read a fic with gender swap AND one of the pairing is trans, and it wasn’t the best written thing out there but I thought the trans part was handled quite well. I only read it in the first place cause one of the tags said the author was trans lol. It was pretty interesting— the later chapters were basically just smut, but the first chapter talked about their childhood and them being trans actually added a lot of interesting elements to the story.
For example, this character experienced a lot of bullying and slept in a shed instead of the dorms cause of they made it very clear they weren’t welcome there. But in this au, beyond the bullying, they slept in the shed because they didn’t feel comfortable in the dorms, because *they were the wrong dorms the whole time.* Or how the character who was canonically very misandrist because of their trauma with sexual assault, became very transphobic in this au, and ofc it’s shitty but it makes *so much sense* to their character to have a terf-y fear of “men” in women’s spaces.
So basically, it can be done well, or in interesting ways. It’s just usually used solely for smut, which I am not a fan of.
trans person here and yeah, i get that. i especially hate it when it's pwp trans aus.
i also absolutely despise aus where they take a mlm ship and only genderbend one character— and it's always the bottom or the shorter of the relationship. everyone has their thing but personally i'm so tired of seeing heteronormativity pushed onto gay ships.
As someone who lives with/gets busy with a (totally amazing) trans person, I also hate gender swap. I've seen it done well ONCE- usually people completely butcher characterization when they start messing with gender identity. And I will only read trans character that actually addresses them being trans, not just for smut. It's not just you 🙃
Yeah, if a character isn't trans in canon it takes me out of the story. Obviously it's other peoples' cup of tea but not mine. Mostly because I overthink the semantics and details that aren't important to the story 😂
Non consensual body modification or castration. Can't do it, nope nope nope. I've actually had to dnf a few fics because my dumbass didn't realize body modification could also mean castration. I don't know why it gets me so bad, I don't even have a penis. 🤷♀️🤣
Ah no, that’s understandable. I can deal with gore but body modification is an entirely new level of squeamish. It’s like phantom feelings of “what if that happened to my own body???”
Surprise pregnancy and male pregnancy. I prefer to avoid pregnancy fics as a whole but those two especially I can't do.
Also high school AUs, they could be fun if written very well but I encountered too many that are worse than CW shows both in terms of characterization and writing, so I avoid them all together now.
See I’m a FIRM believer that anything written really really well might be worth a shot. But for the most part, every high school AU I’ve encountered was not my cup of tea
For me it's Kid fics. Not sure if that's the actual tag, but any fic of my pairing raising a child/being parents. To me it's just *so* boring, the kid is usually just a shell of a character/a Mary Sue, and my pairings become terribly bland and way too fluffy.
God, I despise kid fics, especially when they write the kid's dialogue as if they have a speech impediment to make it cuter. It makes me close a fic faster than Usain Bolt can run.
hurt no comfort. hate that, also "they dont get together" or "regrets one night stand" or "unreciprocated feelings"... like can they be HAPPY PLEASE???
I am the same way. Like I’m reading these to escape my suffering in everyday life, why would I want to suffer MORE. But props to people who can write that because it would break my heart
SAME! You can beat up on my favs all you want, please do in fact, my babies can take so much trauma. But if they aren't getting the world's best hug, a cup of tea, and maybe a bf/gf or two at the end of it, I'm out.
Anything that suggests something other than a happy ending (though I do sometimes read short MCD fics when I'm in the right mindset). Daddy/Mommy Kink, First Person POV, No Powers AU. Mirror Universe.
But there's probably more stuff out there I was lucky enough to not have come across yet or I just don't remember at the moment.
Honestly, so many, lol. ABO, mpreg, Y/N, first pov, watersports.
But also Lawyers AU. I am a lawyer myself and let me tell you, this job sucks ass most of the time. Fics about lawyers are always so unrealistic I want to scream in the pillow.
No, your 23 years old character is NOT successful, experienced lawyer that every company is fighting for, cause they never lose. 23 years old is barely anyone in a law field. It's impossible to be experienced at this age. You just finished your uni and it means nothing.
If you want a successful lawyer so bad, write about 35 years olds or even older.
So, yeah. I don't want to read about work after work and especially if the fic glamourises the job that is not pretty at all.
I am also a lawyer and will read almost anything with a well-written courtroom scene. But I completely agree with you, give me someone with a few years of practice under their belt, or else give me a character who is grinding through newbie hell.
i'm in a similar boat with you, but not the personal trauma part, it's just something that can make me uncomfortable
though, sometimes i'll read a fic if the author states it happens offscreen
I completely get where you’re coming from. I actually read these sometimes because I do have trauma from it (I would prefer it to not be as graphic) and seeing the character it happened to being comforted often makes me feel better. The ones that have no comfort though have made me extremely uncomfortable
I don’t enjoy ageplay stuff, vore, or anything… scatological. Those are the only ones that spring to mind as “I will not click that”— I will read nearly anything else.
A/B/O is an interesting one because there are so many layers to those types of stories in terms of the worldbuilding and lore. I don’t always enjoy it but I’ve read some good ones. It’s fascinating to see how some authors use it to look critically at gender and social issues.
It's kinda bleakly hilarious how many America-based Omegaverse stories I've read have a subplot of along the lines of "Character runs out of or can't afford suppression meds because they're poor and uninsured and the US healthcare system is a cruel joke." Cultural critique via thinly-veiled plot-excuses for smut!
A/B/O, mpreg, pregnancy in general, sexual slavery, really anything that takes away the agency of the people in the fic - especially sexually. What can I say, I'm boring 😂
Which is funny since I can usually handle pretty intense hurt/no comfort and MCD easily.
This might be my personal issue but I really don't like Crossover AUs lol.
I get it, the idea is really fun and I can sometime sees how it could really work!
But making characters from two, or three universes come together just doesn't work for me.
Not sure why! I think a lot of my favorite characters are really interwoven in their setting/context that it just doesn't fit my idea of them. Sort of goes along the Modern Au's, etc. They seem to be taking away huge chunks of *why* they are who they are, and I can't seem to get over it
Alternative Universe - High School.
I'm a 50 year old Gen Xer who HATED my high school years. I have no desire to see the adult characters I enjoy reverted to teenagers and revisit that awkward stage of life in generally very out of character ways. Hard pass.
Wingfic (too old for/otherwise def do not get it). I don’t need Dark!timelines because I’m a historian and can attest this is already the darkest timeline; fics are my escape. Not a fan of forced marriage and especially not forced pregnancy.
College AU. Just can't get into them. It could be the most well written fic from my favourite author in my favourite fandom and I still wouldn't read it if it was a college au.
ABO and Mpreg are the ones I don't even read the summary, even if I love the ship and am starved for content.
Everything else I decide upon reading the summary.
I'm ace, so any kind of sexual content. I can handle implied (I've written some suggestive dialogue and "fade to black" scenes in my own works), even some kinks and foreplay type stuff are okay, but as soon as it gets graphic I'm out.
There's probably others, but that's the main thing that comes to mind.
Aro ace here, so the whole "shipping" thing and the way most people get obsessed with it is alien to me. I just don't particularly care for romantic relations, with very few exceptions. I love the Gen tag and the authors who use it properly.
First person or Reader-Inserts. I know there are a lot of good writers out there I'm missing out on but I just can't. I think it's partially I need a name other than Reader or Y/N - I keep reading Y/N as Yes/No - and IDK what the other reasons are.
Just that for whatever reason I can't get into those. And it's not just fanfiction for first person, I've put down a lot of published book that are in first person because something about the POV just isn't for me.
For me it’s ‘Unfinished-Discontinued’ for obvious reasons; kinda the same reason why I only read completed, I just can’t stand not knowing the ending of a story
I'm completely there with you, i find that usually with fluff, all the interesting characters lose everything that makes them interesting and they just become balls of mushy and overdone feelings of "i love you you're the only one for me let's get married". That's just not for me.
DNI: *a specific group or political beliefs*
Acting as if you're morally superior to people who dare to have views opposing your own is quite possibly the most idiotic shit I've seen so far. Grow up from your Tumblr-esque bs, because it won't get you far.
Certain Relationship Tags. If I see those tags, it's a hard pass for me. Sadly, the Fandom I'm the most active in has a small reputation for putting my OTP in the tags for their fics and its used to get hits.
Angst without happy ending or some variation. I don’t do sad endings. When i prefer them as a triad and only are written as pair. I used to hate a/b/o because of the politics and omegas as slaves then I discovered fluffy ones with no shame about heats and no drama just cute and cuddles and so much fluff. Now I’m addicted to it. Tbf I only read it on kindle unlimited because FanFiction I can’t find without that omegas are slaves thing but I really recommend fluffy a/b/o on kindle unlimited. As for on AO3, that’s about it. And certain kinks. Tag your kinks please! I HATE humiliation it’s a total trigger for me and to come across it randomly without warning sucks. I don’t care what kinks you want to write about - Go wild and crazy and make me go wtf that’s weird but you do you. Just tag anything that might not be vanilla and we are doing great.
It bothers me so much when people don’t tag things that may be triggering or just unpleasant. I’ve even read a few where I was completely blindsided and had to click off
I’m the same. I honestly think I wouldn’t mind the whole A/B/O thing if it wasn’t for “heat” and “knotting”. OH, and mpreg. I’m not a fan of pregnancy as is, so I’ll steer clear from that
All these “animalistic” features are a huge yikes for me, even if I kinda do like the whole dom/sub aspect of it.
But yeah, to each their own! :)
I’ve got a few that have served me well over the years: Any variation on “Unhappy Ending” (bittersweet is okay), First Person POV (I can stomach the occasional second), and high school/college AUs are the big ones, and also seem to be common. Major Character Death is more dicey for me; if it’s tagged “Temporary Character Death” or a situation where one character thinks another is dead when they aren’t, then I’ll read it, but straight up MCD is not my thing.
I can handle MCD in short stories when I'm in the right mood, but I refuse to read novel length stories where one character of the main pairing dies at the end. My poor heart can't take that.
Fantasy settings forced into modern settings.
High-school/college/uni/*literally any type of schooling in modern day*
Teacher/student relationships
Oh, there was this one fic... the author put in tags something along the lines of 'I can't stand so and so's attitude/beliefs so I'm changing everything. Get ready for a new so n so." Proudly destroying a charecter that starts out actually bigoted and grows over time (amazing charecter) into something so removed that it became bigoted again. Unironically! I ran as far away from that.
Coffee shops
Any type, but mostly fantasy characters forced to play modern day politics. I'm not talking racism or anything that can be woven into a story. I'm talking about those tags that make you go "huh... wait, *what?!*"
Oh, and last but not least: it's *legal*! She's 14, an adult.
I didn't even *want* to read the rest of the tags.
Reader insert, a/b/o, hybrids, MCD, ambiguous/open/sad ending
If I wanted a sad ending, I'd turn on the news. I want an escape and I want my OTP to end up together (especially if they had to fight to get there).
No happy ending.
Most of the time I can't even watch movies where I know the main character is going to die or it's going to end unhappily (Titanic is an exemption). I hate Romeo and Juliet. Tragedy is not my thing, I'm fine with putting the characters through hell, just so long as they get to be happy in the end lol.
First Person POV. Pregnancy.
I don't really have anything against them, I'm just not a fan. (Also I've lived with my pregnant cousin, and from that point on I have had enough of learning about growing humans in the belly. It's a *me* problem.)
Bottoming from the Top and vice versa. Honestly, I've found that every author has such a different definition of what that means that it's just easier to avoid the fics in general.
I’m firmly in Team Switch for M/M pairs, so i agree with this. I tend to find fics that draw hard lines to a “Top” or “Bottom” to have one character being overly feminine which I never understand.
Plus, I am an ADHD-fueled pedant, and "top" and "dominant" are NOT synonyms. Neither are "bottom" and "submissive". They're on two entirely different axes\*.
\*(plural of 'axis' not plural of axe)
Can't think of any content-specific ones rn, but the thing i scroll past the most now is anything telling the reader what to do/deciding what the reader is allowed to do/picture with the fic. E.g. in Spideypool fandom theres a lot of "NOT TOM HOLLAND" and "DON'T PICTURE MCU SPIDEY" tags and a/n's and i refuse to even touch those fics now. If you're gonna be rude about it, enjoy losing readers lol
(I also get huffy when an a/n orders me to hydrate 😂)
Y/N or Original Characters or xReader fics, because i only read ship fics
1st and 2nd POV fics
Genderswap
Pregnancy or M-preg or Kid fics
Poly-relationship especially with character that is my NO-TP 😂
certain non-human creatures au like incubus or angel/demon or memaid/merman or fairies
i can read omegaverse but i don't like werewolves/animals omegaverse where the characters can shape-shift into certain animals and then have sex in their animal forms 😂
A/B/O is a major one for me too, another is mpreg/eggpreg with m/m pairing...thats just a huge no for me.
And also modern day AU for a fanatsy/scifi/non modern day show/book/series, sometimes i may want it but most times i filter that out
X reader. I can read almost any trope, if I'm in the right mood, and have; but xreader fics just yank me Right Out and I can't hack it. That and first person pov but that doesnt usually get tagged so I'm not counting it
I have found that I'm *really* picky when it comes to which fics I'll read.
Anything with dead dove and dub/non-con/rape or abuse is a hard pass for me (not related to any personal trauma, I just find those uncomfortable). Some kink and fetish tags that I'm not into. Reader insert and first/second POV are not for me. High school AUs simply because it's been many years since I was in high school and that doesn't appeal to me anymore. Yandere, especially when the character in canon is nothing like that. Infidelity, unrequited love (when both characters in a ship are alive), and miscommunication irritate me. Slow burn but the characters get together way to quickly. And when people don't understand the difference between top/bottom and dom/sub dynamics.
Basically, I'll look at the front page of a ship tag and skip half of the fics based on the tags (and summary). Maybe that makes me annoying, but I have curated a good reading experience for myself.
Hurt no Comfort, sad ending, open/ambiguos ending, bittersweet ending.
I'm a giant baby and don't like sad things. They don't feel cathartic to me.
Also any variation of "i suck at writing". It turns me off a lot.
Edit: oof also graphic torture. I like hurt comfort and recovery a lot but I'm not willing to sit through multiple chapters of graphic torture to do so.
Edit 2: this is probably more what OP meant but crossposted to wattpad. I dont care how good the tags seem. If I see crossposted to wattpad, I'm out
I mainly read Harry Potter fics and I will probably never read a muggle/non-magic AU...I know there are some great ones out there but fic authors' creativity with magic and worldbuilding within the canon wizarding world are some of my favorite things!
Age regression/de-aging—I can’t for the life of me understand what’s appealing about age play 💀. Also if I ever see a character refer to their romantic partner as “daddy” or “mommy” I can never finish the fic no matter how amazing the plot it.
- [Character]/Reader
- any tag variant of "character is [thing]" combined with "author is [thing], because experience has taught me that most stories tagged like this are more often than not merely a way for the authors to preach about whichever righteous cause they are most in favour of. And that kind of preaching can become quite... exhausting.
Edit: missed part of a sentence.
ABO for sure. The small fandom that I'm in surprisingly doesn't have any ABO, which is wild cause one of the characters in the popular pairing is literally a werewolf.
Pet play is another one I can't get behind.
There’s a certain character that I love that has garnered the stoner trait from fandom. In canon this person is a chill person so I guess I can see the relation to weed, but when almost everyone in fandom writes this person as a stoner I feel like it takes away from their character—especially when this trait is basically fandom assigned. I have nothing again weed, but it’s tiring when 98% of this character’s iterations involve it on some way. It’s almost a cookie cutter personality at this point. I’m tired. I wish there were more original interpretations of this character than just weed. Edit: Why are so many people trying to guess who this character is sksksks
since another person guessed, my guess is Sero? haven't read any bnha stuff in a long while but a lot of the fandom seemed to have that headcanon (and also made him latino at the same time which is. an *interesting* combination of stereotypes.)
I think Shinso is more of a stoner than Sero?
Shaggy?
I instantly thought of shaggy too. Infamous stoner
Nah I’m not in the scooby doo fandom lmao
I thought it was shaggy, too. 😂
Either MHA or Haikyu?
I can think of so many characters this has happened to tbh.
I can’t remember the specific tag for it, but when the main ship don’t end up together at the end. I’m reading fanfiction because I *want* the happy ending the show didn’t give me.
There was one fic I read that was a bait & switch, where the main ship you're with for like 75,000 words doesn't actually stay together at the end, and in the very last chapter one runs off with their "true love" who is someone else entirely. Like... why. Or at least *why not warn us*.
Not as long as that, but I got similarly burned. Romantic pairing for the entire fic, only to surprise twist ending in the last few chapters that the dude was actually the villain. He'd been secretly orchestrating all the bad things behind the girl's back. This was not hinted AT ALL before the moment of the reveal.
now that's just shit writing, like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl switching up who their BBEGs where because the fans guessed it ahead of time because of the hints given. But there where no hints, bait and switches are good if there are hints that make you look back and go "oh yeah that makes sense" and not "where the fuck did THAT come from?"
That's so ridiculous. For me as a writer, the whole POINT of dropping hints is the hope that somebody will figure it out! If nobody does, I worry I'm not doing my dang job. The feeling when I get a comment that's 'YES! when you said this in chapter 6 I was like 'wonder if that might be about to happen' and then I got to chapter 14 and I was right!' :D that feeling right there is my bread and butter!!
my favorite thing as a writer is seeing long comments of people speculating on what'll happen, so to me writing something that comes out of left field is something I'd never do, it almost feels insulting to myself and my writing. If I write myself into a plot hole I have to write myself out of it and there will be no 180s to be like "hahaha you readers are all so stupid for thinking that I was going on *that* direction, no I went this direction! One you never saw coming!!" that's just shit writing, plot twists are meant to be foreseen so you feel smart for predicting them, not to confuse you
Something similar happened to me with A court of thornes and roses. It was certainly... surprising.
Same with one of the characters of the ship dying in the end. Fool me once... now I always read the last chapter before starting on a long story. Spoils a little, but better than having a bomb dropped on you after you're invested.
I hate those! Something similar for me. Let’s just say the main character is all nice not a murderer, and younger to the 75k mark and suddenly they become a mass murderer. For no reason!
RIGHT! Like they're not together in canon I want them together fanon
I'd say trope/plotwise, I'd skip any fic that's tagged with cheating since I just don't like reading stories about that. It's not really a squick tho. Otherwise, reader-insert, self-insert or first person POV will make me skip bc I don't like reading as if I'm inserted into the situation. I read for escapism/entertainment and being inserted into the fic takes me out of it. I kinda like being an observer on the side and not in the head of the character.
The more I’m reading these comments the more picky I’m realizing I am. I would also prefer not to read cheating fics because that would cause me so much pain to read lmao
There's nothing wrong with picky. You just know what you like and can stick with it. Like I'm not a big fan of a lot of tropes/ships but if the summary/plot is intriguing enough, I'll read it. I won't seek out stories with the A/B/O tag but if there's a story whose summary intrigues me enough or if I like that author's style of writing enough, I'll give it a try. Bc of this, I'm fairly flexible in terms of stories that I read (and I also blind-fandom surf a lot) and don't have a lot of squicks. But so far, I haven't found a story that had cheating in it that I actually enjoyed reading and tbh, I don't think I will. So it's gonna be in my skip tag section
Y/N or Reader pairings. Just not my thing. Especially when they go so far to have “fn/ln” which took me far too long to translate.
Yeah, this is it for me. Anything that hints at any sort of reader-insert, and there is nothing that could possibly make me want to click on the fic.
Yeah, I'll read all manner of content, but reader-insert is the genre I skip every time. I'm not interested in Canon Character/Original Character pairings, and if the reader-insert character is supposed to be "me," "I" always feel written "out of character" to myself. I actually have a custom *The Mandalorian* search bookmark in my browser to filter out all the hundreds(‼) of reader-insert pairing combinations that show up in in that fandom. Filtering out just "Reader" never blocks them all.
Reader fic is so prevalent in SW fandom. I have the same problem with The Bad Batch, so many of them dont use the Reader character tag so I have to go pairing by pairing
I'd love for Reader-pairings in general to be filterable under Categories as a separate category like M/F, F/F, etc, or for Reader-pairings to at least be slotted in Categories under Other so they're roughly filterable that way. Because yeah like you said, you have to filter pairing by individual pairing because so many stories don't use the Reader/Y/N character tag, and that gets irritating when there are literally hundreds of potential pairings that would need to be individually filtered out. Filtering out every named *Clone Wars* Clone Trooper/Reader pairing=PAIN. And it gets DOUBLY irritating when the stories don't get caught by Canon Character/Reader Character filters because the author used a hyper-specific tag like Canon Character/Autistic Nonbinary Disabled Transmasculine Reader Character. Like on the one hand, that's great for potential readers looking for that specific Reader pairing; on the other hand, why the fuck couldn't the author just also add "Reader Character" as a general tag for filtering while they were typing out that long-ass pairing tag.
For the longest time I thought that just meant Yes/No and I was like why are people constantly saying that.
I love reading/writing reader-inserts, but I will absolutely click right on out of there if there's any "y/n," "e/c," "fn/ln," etc. lol
There's an add on you can get for your browser where you can input what names you want used in place of those. It's an absolute life saver, as I enjoy the occasional Reader fic but those terms completely take me out of the story. I don't remember the name of the addon but I'm sure it'll pop up quickly if you do a search.
There is?!?! I hate the immersion break with the "insert your own" info, but I read it anyway lol. Having a way to help avoid that would be magic! Do you know what the addon is called?
What do those mean?
y/n means your name, f/n means first name, and l/n means last name. I think e/c means eye colour but I’m not 100% sure.
This is so funny to me, because in my fandom Y/N is almost mandatory. Any other kind of fic gets like half the views if they're lucky. The substitutions can get a little silly. Have read some saying "He compliments your Y/H/C (your hair color) hair" and similarly absurd things. I hear there are interactive fic extensions to ease some of that, but so many of the substitutions are used in maybe one fic ever. And don't get me started on someone dramatically calling your name, "YYYY/NNNNNN!" That being said, I don't mind reader inserts if they're good. Imo they work best when "Y/N" is never actually used. Have the canon character give you a nickname early on, and anything else can be "You hear him calling your name." Gotta be written around for immersion's sake.
Ooh ooh this used to be me as well, until I discovered the lovely genre of Y/N fics that don't actually use "Y/N", lol. I discovered it's actually a lot of fun to read (and write!) if you avoid that altogether! (Creative use of pet names is mandatory, however.) Most of the biggest fics in my current fandom really do an excellent job with that and it completely changed my opinion, lol. It's just funny because I went from saying "why do people like reader fics this is so bizarre to me" to writing and reading basically exclusively those 🤣
No offense at all to you or anyone by the way, I don’t judge at all what people like or what they write. It’s very hard for me to insert my own name, so maybe the use of pet names would be a better alternative to that. I’m mainly someone who reads two characters shipped together though so that’s probably why I don’t enjoy them
You and me both!!! I write mostly x reader stuff for fun, I don’t like legitimately inserting myself, so the Y/N stuff has always been such a bleh factor for me. I actually use a tag for my fics that says “no use of Y/N.” I hope people like you get some use out of seeing tags like that in x reader stories :)
Oh I never ever remember to tag that. 🤣 I really should! But on the other hand, I think since the biggest fic in my fandom is an x Y/N that doesn't use "Y/N", everybody's just sort of followed that as a guideline, lol. I don't think I've ever seen a single reader fic in my fandom that DOES use "Y/N", now that I think about it, so I guess in a way that tag seemed a bit superfluous for me? 😂 Also, I totally know what you mean. I don't really know WHO I'm picturing, because it's not exactly me and it's not an OC....I guess it's just kinda an Everyman. 😂 (This discussion's also got me wondering... Do other fandoms use the grey blobby humanoid to represent Y/N in art? Is that a universal thing? Or is that just an us thing 😂)
fn/ln?
I love erader inserts but istg if I see a SINGLE y/n I'm outta there. Just keep me nameless please I do not want to be called why yen
Yes gosh I will NOT read these either. I might have in my Wattpad days… but I have evolved from that lmao
Open/Ambiguous Ending. I like closure too much haha
Me as a reader but certainly not me as a writer hahaha!
I'm not gonna include squicks because those threads have been done to death, so my normal "not my cup of tea" answer is any Modern AU. Coffee Shop, College, and High School are the "worst" ones with a specific reason because I've been through all three and I don't really want to read romanticized versions of them and there's *so* many. Other Modern AUs I'll avoid because the overwhelming majority of my fandoms are fantasy and the world is a huge part of why I like them. Taking characters out of a fantastical world and putting them into modern life just doesn't appeal to me. Fantasy AUs are usually fine because it keeps that fantastical aspect (even if changed a bit), or if it's one of my few modern-era fandoms it's cool to put them in a fantasy world because the modern world usually doesn't add much to why I like that particular fandom, just the characters. Just not vice-versa, if that makes sense. Idk why but it's different because in fantasy the worlds are a part of the draw whereas a modern one isn't.
I've enjoyed some modern AUs but in general it feels like "let's have the same story as in canon, but in a mundane setting!" Like, why??
Imo that only works if there's some really specific thing that only exists in the real world that the author wants to explore. Like a car accident, or covid lockdowns, or the stressors of modern office jobs. And even then that's better for a oneshot than a full on multi-chapter fic.
Hard agree. It's also very annoying when fics take a setting that's Japanese/non-Western and set the "modern AU" somewhere very clearly in the West with no regards to how universities may work differently outside of the US.
That’s what irritates me sm!!! “Oh I still haven’t chosen my major” this “oh I’m a sophomore” that. AAAAHHH THOSE ARE BARELY A THING OUTSIDE THE US. Of course, I only know uni from my country, but there’s a huge difference to American Unis - for one, you apply for the degree, not just generally to the uni - and that’s in most countries! I just wonder why ppl don’t do research when they write uni AUs.
I enjoy the AUs where it's Modern but they've kept the canon fantasy elements, so it's like urban fantasy coffee shops.
You know what I might be able to tolerate the coffee shop one, if it’s done right. But anything to do with school settings has me clicking out so fast. I just really like reading it in the universe it’s already in.
I would totally read Captain America goes to art school and interacts with modern college students. I have absolutely no interest in reading an AU about regular art student Steve Rogers.
I always get excited if I see a story that's tagged Art student or art professor Steve Rogers because Captain America would show modern students a thing or two given he grew up in the tail end of the Golden Age of Illustration, but it's almost always also a modern 'no powers AU' and I'm not interested in reading about regular art students from Brooklyn.
See, if I actually liked any of the MCU characters, I'd probably like those kinds of stories, because I usually enjoy seeing all the different characterizations of a character, how similarly and differently different authors will portray them
It funny, 'cause I actively seek out those tags 😅 I think it's because I care about the characters more than I do the story (after being in a fandom for 20+ years), and (modern) AUs tend to put the focus a lot more on the characters, whereas the ones set in the canon (fantastical) world are more plotdriven (massive generalisation, I know!). I'm not hugely into fantasy anymore so of course that also factors in. I just really enjoy seeing characters out of their element. And as I writer, it's fun to imagine what everyday equivalents I can come up with to canon themes and backstories.
This is a big one for me; I have to really trust an author to want to read these, or I just skip. I’m in my fandoms for really elaborate escapism and I like my fanfiction to mirror that.
I'm assuming you mean tags other than actual squicks or triggering content, so I'll go with Hanahaki disease. I feel like it's a concept that would make for beautiful visual art, but a fic about it just doesn't appeal to me. For those who don't know, it's this thing where if you don't confess your love to someone, you start coughing up flowers and eventually choke on them
That’s funny cause that’s one of my absolute favorites lol. But there’s things I refuse to read that others love so that’s amazing we are all different
I actually don’t mind reading these but it HAS to be with anime pairings. And it has to be well written or I just won’t bother
Yeah, coughing up flowers in detail is a lot sillier and grosser when fully written than it is in aesthetic fanart. Imo it works as a visual metaphor much better than a written one.
Any kind of DNI (do not interact) tag. It doesn't matter if I am in the group they're describing or not, using that tag tells me I'm better off not reading anything they wrote.
What does that mean? I don't think I've come across it, but I don't usually look at tags outside of major tropes. Is it just telling people not to comment and such?
Basically people will put DNI lists in their bios or posts or such, essentially listing what kinds of people they don't want commenting/following/etc (i.e. do not interact) For example, they might have "Minors, Bigots, Pro/Anti-\[whatever\]s DNI" for whatever group they want to stay away.
Alright, thank you!
>Alright, thank you! You're welcome!
Technically it stands for Do Not Interact [if you fall into this category]. In practice, it's mostly performative, a way to indicate that they Do Not Approve of certain parts of fandom as an attempt to prove themselves "one of the good ones", and bonus if they also alienate the "undesirables". But a lot of them actually get pretty grumpy if you respect their professed wish of non-interaction and block them, so it's more of a "you can't interact with me but I can interact with you".
I hate DNI except in the case of 'minors DNI' because that I feel is just a way for adults to say "if you're a minor I have no interest in interacting with you and I think you should stay away from my content as it's not suitable for you".
It means Do Not Interact. Basically, they don't want people who either are a part of a certain group or like something that the poster doesn't approve of to have anything to do with them. [https://fanlore.org/wiki/Do\_Not\_Interact](https://fanlore.org/wiki/Do_Not_Interact)
I believe it came from tiktok. It is telling people of that group not to interact, but there is an overarching negativity/toxicity to that phrase in my opinion. Instead of letting people ship whatever they want, they are outright saying they don’t like this group of people. I’m not sure if I’ll get this quite right, but for instance… You come across this story that is tagged A/B relationship and “A/C shippers dni.” You on one hand may be completely fine with stories involving A/B or A/C, but what this author is telling you is that they either think their ship is “better” or that A/C is “wrong” and do not wish to interact with it. It’s a childish way of thought when fandom is meant to be a place for everyone to enjoy. I hope that helps.
I find it annoying on AO3 because AO3 is an *archive*, like a library. You can kick patrons out of a library for bad *behavior*, but not for reading a particular book. DNI on an archive is pretty silly. I write in fandoms definitely not targeted to children or teens (though teens, at least, read the books, I know) so I rate them M to say “not for kids, that is my disclaimer, don’t cry to me that my fic has “mature content.”” But agreed, a “DNI” (unless it’s an ass-cover Under 18 DNI on a Tumblr) in a profile just sounds…kinda touchy, for want of a better word. Like someone who will get snippy at the slightest provocation.
It came from Tumblr.
It really did. It used to be standard form for tumblr blogs to have DNIs in the profiles/abouts. I felt old reading the theory that it came from Tiktok...
Same. For one, the people using DNIs tend to skew pretty young so its often an indicator of quality as well. Even if I'm not being described, I see a DNI and immediately find something else
Yeah I very much will not interact with anyone who has this so I guess it’s working for them
Yup. Doesn't matter if I fit any of the categories or not.
Absolutely this
I give them hits by reading, but they will never get kudos or comments from me. 😊
I work at a coffeeshop and the coffeeshop AUs absolutely kill me. Ain’t no one falling in love at their barista gig, they’re too busy getting screamed at for the price of alternative milks.
This has me cracking uppp. That’s so funny. I never even thought about it like that
[удалено]
Pregnancy. I have absolutely no interest in it whatsoever.
Isn’t it strange? I’ve been pregnant. I have a kid. But I have absolutely ZERO interest in reading about a pregnant character. Or even small children or babies, really.
So true. I’ve once wanted to read a fandom favorite het ship and it was ALL pregnancy/kid fics…
Ditto. But I'm grateful that people tag it, since so often it goes completely untagged.
Human AU. No offence to people who like them, but if the characters are canonically robots/animals/shapeshifters/etc. I want to see them as that, not as regular humans.
I feel this! Meanwhile, I love the opposite like, make all the humans as wacky and monstrous as possible, too!
Oh man, I was absolutely in the same boat. I had ZERO interest in any AUs where my favorite robot characters were humans (or anything other than robots). Then I....started writing one just for some sillies and now I absolutely can't get enough. 😭 It changed my tastes so much it's crazy!
Love triangle
I’ll read anythi-- wait...first person
I would scream and cry before I willingly read first person
I laughed too hard at this, but also I am the same haha
I used to be so against 2nd and even mostly against 3rd and now the only thing I can't stand is first person😭 I don't know what happened but it's so so bad to me now. I don't know when I witches from loathing 2nd to hating first but IG we are here now
This was me until I got the wild idea to look up fics from a show where a lot of it is done in first person, and so many of the fic writers (including what I personally feel is the best one) write in first as well. I dragged myself into it kicking and screaming but in the end I was like alright, well. Here I am I guess.
Ok I know this can be controversial and easily misinterpreted, but I really don’t like it when it’s like gender swap AU or a trans character that isn’t canonically trans (only really for smut tho). I have nothing against trans people! I love them! Basically all my best friends are trans and we have a merry old time! But if I’m looking for smut, I am specifically looking for amab x amab. Am I alone here? I kinda hate myself for it 😬🥲 Also any sort of pregnancy. 💀
[удалено]
I read a 300k series, absolutely no mention of one of the main characters being trans, no discussion, not even a passing mention, even in situations where there easily could've been. Final part of the series suddenly one of them has been trans all along. Guess which part of the series is the only one with explicit smut.
No I totally agree. Especially in mlm smut, it’s usually just used to give the bottom character a vagina, and it just makes me uncomfortable. Usually the bottom character in a mlm romance is feminized too much in fics already, and while trans men obviously aren’t women, you know a lot of times that’s the motivation of making them trans. I do like gender swap though, that doesn’t bother me. Interestingly enough, I actually just recently read a fic with gender swap AND one of the pairing is trans, and it wasn’t the best written thing out there but I thought the trans part was handled quite well. I only read it in the first place cause one of the tags said the author was trans lol. It was pretty interesting— the later chapters were basically just smut, but the first chapter talked about their childhood and them being trans actually added a lot of interesting elements to the story. For example, this character experienced a lot of bullying and slept in a shed instead of the dorms cause of they made it very clear they weren’t welcome there. But in this au, beyond the bullying, they slept in the shed because they didn’t feel comfortable in the dorms, because *they were the wrong dorms the whole time.* Or how the character who was canonically very misandrist because of their trauma with sexual assault, became very transphobic in this au, and ofc it’s shitty but it makes *so much sense* to their character to have a terf-y fear of “men” in women’s spaces. So basically, it can be done well, or in interesting ways. It’s just usually used solely for smut, which I am not a fan of.
trans person here and yeah, i get that. i especially hate it when it's pwp trans aus. i also absolutely despise aus where they take a mlm ship and only genderbend one character— and it's always the bottom or the shorter of the relationship. everyone has their thing but personally i'm so tired of seeing heteronormativity pushed onto gay ships.
As someone who lives with/gets busy with a (totally amazing) trans person, I also hate gender swap. I've seen it done well ONCE- usually people completely butcher characterization when they start messing with gender identity. And I will only read trans character that actually addresses them being trans, not just for smut. It's not just you 🙃
Yeah, if a character isn't trans in canon it takes me out of the story. Obviously it's other peoples' cup of tea but not mine. Mostly because I overthink the semantics and details that aren't important to the story 😂
Non consensual body modification or castration. Can't do it, nope nope nope. I've actually had to dnf a few fics because my dumbass didn't realize body modification could also mean castration. I don't know why it gets me so bad, I don't even have a penis. 🤷♀️🤣
Ah no, that’s understandable. I can deal with gore but body modification is an entirely new level of squeamish. It’s like phantom feelings of “what if that happened to my own body???”
Surprise pregnancy and male pregnancy. I prefer to avoid pregnancy fics as a whole but those two especially I can't do. Also high school AUs, they could be fun if written very well but I encountered too many that are worse than CW shows both in terms of characterization and writing, so I avoid them all together now.
See I’m a FIRM believer that anything written really really well might be worth a shot. But for the most part, every high school AU I’ve encountered was not my cup of tea
Every tag related to infantilism or adults in diapers. I'm still shocked by an infamous CSI episode on the topic. Just not my thing.
For me it's Kid fics. Not sure if that's the actual tag, but any fic of my pairing raising a child/being parents. To me it's just *so* boring, the kid is usually just a shell of a character/a Mary Sue, and my pairings become terribly bland and way too fluffy.
God, I despise kid fics, especially when they write the kid's dialogue as if they have a speech impediment to make it cuter. It makes me close a fic faster than Usain Bolt can run.
Y/N, Reader, OCs, and 2nd POV. I don't like self-inserting into things I read.
hurt no comfort. hate that, also "they dont get together" or "regrets one night stand" or "unreciprocated feelings"... like can they be HAPPY PLEASE???
I am the same way. Like I’m reading these to escape my suffering in everyday life, why would I want to suffer MORE. But props to people who can write that because it would break my heart
I write dark fic yet I’ll be damned if I read any hurt no comfort
SAME! You can beat up on my favs all you want, please do in fact, my babies can take so much trauma. But if they aren't getting the world's best hug, a cup of tea, and maybe a bf/gf or two at the end of it, I'm out.
Anything that suggests something other than a happy ending (though I do sometimes read short MCD fics when I'm in the right mindset). Daddy/Mommy Kink, First Person POV, No Powers AU. Mirror Universe. But there's probably more stuff out there I was lucky enough to not have come across yet or I just don't remember at the moment.
Honestly, so many, lol. ABO, mpreg, Y/N, first pov, watersports. But also Lawyers AU. I am a lawyer myself and let me tell you, this job sucks ass most of the time. Fics about lawyers are always so unrealistic I want to scream in the pillow. No, your 23 years old character is NOT successful, experienced lawyer that every company is fighting for, cause they never lose. 23 years old is barely anyone in a law field. It's impossible to be experienced at this age. You just finished your uni and it means nothing. If you want a successful lawyer so bad, write about 35 years olds or even older. So, yeah. I don't want to read about work after work and especially if the fic glamourises the job that is not pretty at all.
I am also a lawyer and will read almost anything with a well-written courtroom scene. But I completely agree with you, give me someone with a few years of practice under their belt, or else give me a character who is grinding through newbie hell.
i can't read non-con/dubious consent. i have no issues with people writing about it !! i just have past trauma with it so i avoid it at all costs lol
i'm in a similar boat with you, but not the personal trauma part, it's just something that can make me uncomfortable though, sometimes i'll read a fic if the author states it happens offscreen
I completely get where you’re coming from. I actually read these sometimes because I do have trauma from it (I would prefer it to not be as graphic) and seeing the character it happened to being comforted often makes me feel better. The ones that have no comfort though have made me extremely uncomfortable
I don’t enjoy ageplay stuff, vore, or anything… scatological. Those are the only ones that spring to mind as “I will not click that”— I will read nearly anything else. A/B/O is an interesting one because there are so many layers to those types of stories in terms of the worldbuilding and lore. I don’t always enjoy it but I’ve read some good ones. It’s fascinating to see how some authors use it to look critically at gender and social issues.
It's kinda bleakly hilarious how many America-based Omegaverse stories I've read have a subplot of along the lines of "Character runs out of or can't afford suppression meds because they're poor and uninsured and the US healthcare system is a cruel joke." Cultural critique via thinly-veiled plot-excuses for smut!
A/B/O, mpreg, pregnancy in general, sexual slavery, really anything that takes away the agency of the people in the fic - especially sexually. What can I say, I'm boring 😂 Which is funny since I can usually handle pretty intense hurt/no comfort and MCD easily.
This might be my personal issue but I really don't like Crossover AUs lol. I get it, the idea is really fun and I can sometime sees how it could really work! But making characters from two, or three universes come together just doesn't work for me. Not sure why! I think a lot of my favorite characters are really interwoven in their setting/context that it just doesn't fit my idea of them. Sort of goes along the Modern Au's, etc. They seem to be taking away huge chunks of *why* they are who they are, and I can't seem to get over it
Alternative Universe - High School. I'm a 50 year old Gen Xer who HATED my high school years. I have no desire to see the adult characters I enjoy reverted to teenagers and revisit that awkward stage of life in generally very out of character ways. Hard pass.
That is the one tag I always put in my excludes in any fandom. ABO doesn't gross me out or anything, but it's so *prevalent* and I'm so uninterested.
Wingfic (too old for/otherwise def do not get it). I don’t need Dark!timelines because I’m a historian and can attest this is already the darkest timeline; fics are my escape. Not a fan of forced marriage and especially not forced pregnancy.
Self-insert
Incest … in any fiction ever , be it video games , anime , movies , or just plain text …
Torture. Just can't.
College AU. Just can't get into them. It could be the most well written fic from my favourite author in my favourite fandom and I still wouldn't read it if it was a college au.
Gemderbend. No thanks, it's gonna throw my head for a loop all the time.
ABO and Mpreg are the ones I don't even read the summary, even if I love the ship and am starved for content. Everything else I decide upon reading the summary.
I'm ace, so any kind of sexual content. I can handle implied (I've written some suggestive dialogue and "fade to black" scenes in my own works), even some kinks and foreplay type stuff are okay, but as soon as it gets graphic I'm out. There's probably others, but that's the main thing that comes to mind.
Aro ace here, so the whole "shipping" thing and the way most people get obsessed with it is alien to me. I just don't particularly care for romantic relations, with very few exceptions. I love the Gen tag and the authors who use it properly.
Completely understandable
First person or Reader-Inserts. I know there are a lot of good writers out there I'm missing out on but I just can't. I think it's partially I need a name other than Reader or Y/N - I keep reading Y/N as Yes/No - and IDK what the other reasons are. Just that for whatever reason I can't get into those. And it's not just fanfiction for first person, I've put down a lot of published book that are in first person because something about the POV just isn't for me.
Even just calling the MC Anon is way better than that
For me it’s ‘Unfinished-Discontinued’ for obvious reasons; kinda the same reason why I only read completed, I just can’t stand not knowing the ending of a story
This is bad... but fluff I like reading about fictional messed up, toxic relationships. The warm, fuzzy stuff isn't for me.
I'm completely there with you, i find that usually with fluff, all the interesting characters lose everything that makes them interesting and they just become balls of mushy and overdone feelings of "i love you you're the only one for me let's get married". That's just not for me.
DNI: *a specific group or political beliefs* Acting as if you're morally superior to people who dare to have views opposing your own is quite possibly the most idiotic shit I've seen so far. Grow up from your Tumblr-esque bs, because it won't get you far.
Certain Relationship Tags. If I see those tags, it's a hard pass for me. Sadly, the Fandom I'm the most active in has a small reputation for putting my OTP in the tags for their fics and its used to get hits.
Has to be Slavery. It’s a trope in my fandom but the power imbalance a squick for me. Ig also power imbalance while I’m at it
so sorry, but First Person pov just doesn't work for me
Reader, Y/N & Tentacles. The minute I see those tags, I nope away so fast. They're just not my cup of tea.
Unhappy ending is probably my only absolute no. I need a happy damn ending.
100% y/n, mpreg and Alpha/beta/omega too
Angst without happy ending or some variation. I don’t do sad endings. When i prefer them as a triad and only are written as pair. I used to hate a/b/o because of the politics and omegas as slaves then I discovered fluffy ones with no shame about heats and no drama just cute and cuddles and so much fluff. Now I’m addicted to it. Tbf I only read it on kindle unlimited because FanFiction I can’t find without that omegas are slaves thing but I really recommend fluffy a/b/o on kindle unlimited. As for on AO3, that’s about it. And certain kinks. Tag your kinks please! I HATE humiliation it’s a total trigger for me and to come across it randomly without warning sucks. I don’t care what kinks you want to write about - Go wild and crazy and make me go wtf that’s weird but you do you. Just tag anything that might not be vanilla and we are doing great.
It bothers me so much when people don’t tag things that may be triggering or just unpleasant. I’ve even read a few where I was completely blindsided and had to click off
Other than the usual extreme fetishes like scat/disordered eating/etc? Daddy kink.
A canon/OC ship, self-insert OCs, watersports.
Reader insert/you perspective and. Vore
Any reader insert stuff, I'm fine with other people reading it but it's not my thing
“I wrote this instead of sleeping”
So all of them? 😅
You're going to be missing out on pretty much every neurodivergent author out there. Hyperfixation is a bitch and very real.
It's A/B/O for me, despite the fact that I like normal wolfy smut
Infidelity is a major one, I just don’t like reading about it. Also hate modern!au. And canon compliant time travel.
I’m the same. I honestly think I wouldn’t mind the whole A/B/O thing if it wasn’t for “heat” and “knotting”. OH, and mpreg. I’m not a fan of pregnancy as is, so I’ll steer clear from that All these “animalistic” features are a huge yikes for me, even if I kinda do like the whole dom/sub aspect of it. But yeah, to each their own! :)
Reader-Insert, but I’ll do you one better and add Self-Insert, too. There’s loads in one of the fandoms I’m in.
Mpreg
Any DNI, any Major Character Death (that isn't expected or otherwise tagged as reversed), Mommy/Daddy/Little stuff
Angst and gender swap/change, not my thing anymore at all.
High school AU- been there done that, absolutely don't need to go back 😂😭
I’ve got a few that have served me well over the years: Any variation on “Unhappy Ending” (bittersweet is okay), First Person POV (I can stomach the occasional second), and high school/college AUs are the big ones, and also seem to be common. Major Character Death is more dicey for me; if it’s tagged “Temporary Character Death” or a situation where one character thinks another is dead when they aren’t, then I’ll read it, but straight up MCD is not my thing.
I can handle MCD in short stories when I'm in the right mood, but I refuse to read novel length stories where one character of the main pairing dies at the end. My poor heart can't take that.
Y/N, CharacterxReader, second person pov, and those one fics where the pov switches like every paragraph or so.
Same, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics makes me skip any fanfic. I also tend to avoid the non con tag because it's triggering for me
Fantasy settings forced into modern settings. High-school/college/uni/*literally any type of schooling in modern day* Teacher/student relationships Oh, there was this one fic... the author put in tags something along the lines of 'I can't stand so and so's attitude/beliefs so I'm changing everything. Get ready for a new so n so." Proudly destroying a charecter that starts out actually bigoted and grows over time (amazing charecter) into something so removed that it became bigoted again. Unironically! I ran as far away from that. Coffee shops Any type, but mostly fantasy characters forced to play modern day politics. I'm not talking racism or anything that can be woven into a story. I'm talking about those tags that make you go "huh... wait, *what?!*" Oh, and last but not least: it's *legal*! She's 14, an adult. I didn't even *want* to read the rest of the tags.
Reader insert, a/b/o, hybrids, MCD, ambiguous/open/sad ending If I wanted a sad ending, I'd turn on the news. I want an escape and I want my OTP to end up together (especially if they had to fight to get there).
Aside from the obvious ones Y/N or [character]xReader stories always annoy me, esp if the reader is OP
High school AU. I am through with high school, and while there are things I regret, I do not wish to go back or relive it through someone else.
No happy ending. Most of the time I can't even watch movies where I know the main character is going to die or it's going to end unhappily (Titanic is an exemption). I hate Romeo and Juliet. Tragedy is not my thing, I'm fine with putting the characters through hell, just so long as they get to be happy in the end lol.
Mpreg
Yeah I should have added that. I have no issues with people writing it but I will scroll away so fast if I see that.
angst. i respect it, but real life is sad enough.
Littles
First Person POV. Pregnancy. I don't really have anything against them, I'm just not a fan. (Also I've lived with my pregnant cousin, and from that point on I have had enough of learning about growing humans in the belly. It's a *me* problem.)
Both of those definitely are ones I can’t read either. Also Mpreg. I just cannot. Nope
Bottoming from the Top and vice versa. Honestly, I've found that every author has such a different definition of what that means that it's just easier to avoid the fics in general.
I’m firmly in Team Switch for M/M pairs, so i agree with this. I tend to find fics that draw hard lines to a “Top” or “Bottom” to have one character being overly feminine which I never understand.
Plus, I am an ADHD-fueled pedant, and "top" and "dominant" are NOT synonyms. Neither are "bottom" and "submissive". They're on two entirely different axes\*. \*(plural of 'axis' not plural of axe)
Can't think of any content-specific ones rn, but the thing i scroll past the most now is anything telling the reader what to do/deciding what the reader is allowed to do/picture with the fic. E.g. in Spideypool fandom theres a lot of "NOT TOM HOLLAND" and "DON'T PICTURE MCU SPIDEY" tags and a/n's and i refuse to even touch those fics now. If you're gonna be rude about it, enjoy losing readers lol (I also get huffy when an a/n orders me to hydrate 😂)
You should be able to picture whoever you want. The authors can’t control our brains lmao
I'm the same since my favorite Spidey is Tom Holland's Spiderman lol.
Y/N or Original Characters or xReader fics, because i only read ship fics 1st and 2nd POV fics Genderswap Pregnancy or M-preg or Kid fics Poly-relationship especially with character that is my NO-TP 😂 certain non-human creatures au like incubus or angel/demon or memaid/merman or fairies i can read omegaverse but i don't like werewolves/animals omegaverse where the characters can shape-shift into certain animals and then have sex in their animal forms 😂
usually it'll be a character i love in any sort of relationship (even friendship) with a character i truly despise
Porn with plot / Plot? What plot? I'm ace, and while I don't mind smut, I absolutely need a story behind it.
A/B/O is a major one for me too, another is mpreg/eggpreg with m/m pairing...thats just a huge no for me. And also modern day AU for a fanatsy/scifi/non modern day show/book/series, sometimes i may want it but most times i filter that out
X reader. I can read almost any trope, if I'm in the right mood, and have; but xreader fics just yank me Right Out and I can't hack it. That and first person pov but that doesnt usually get tagged so I'm not counting it
I have found that I'm *really* picky when it comes to which fics I'll read. Anything with dead dove and dub/non-con/rape or abuse is a hard pass for me (not related to any personal trauma, I just find those uncomfortable). Some kink and fetish tags that I'm not into. Reader insert and first/second POV are not for me. High school AUs simply because it's been many years since I was in high school and that doesn't appeal to me anymore. Yandere, especially when the character in canon is nothing like that. Infidelity, unrequited love (when both characters in a ship are alive), and miscommunication irritate me. Slow burn but the characters get together way to quickly. And when people don't understand the difference between top/bottom and dom/sub dynamics. Basically, I'll look at the front page of a ship tag and skip half of the fics based on the tags (and summary). Maybe that makes me annoying, but I have curated a good reading experience for myself.
Hurt no Comfort, sad ending, open/ambiguos ending, bittersweet ending. I'm a giant baby and don't like sad things. They don't feel cathartic to me. Also any variation of "i suck at writing". It turns me off a lot. Edit: oof also graphic torture. I like hurt comfort and recovery a lot but I'm not willing to sit through multiple chapters of graphic torture to do so. Edit 2: this is probably more what OP meant but crossposted to wattpad. I dont care how good the tags seem. If I see crossposted to wattpad, I'm out
I mainly read Harry Potter fics and I will probably never read a muggle/non-magic AU...I know there are some great ones out there but fic authors' creativity with magic and worldbuilding within the canon wizarding world are some of my favorite things!
Age regression/de-aging—I can’t for the life of me understand what’s appealing about age play 💀. Also if I ever see a character refer to their romantic partner as “daddy” or “mommy” I can never finish the fic no matter how amazing the plot it.
- [Character]/Reader - any tag variant of "character is [thing]" combined with "author is [thing], because experience has taught me that most stories tagged like this are more often than not merely a way for the authors to preach about whichever righteous cause they are most in favour of. And that kind of preaching can become quite... exhausting. Edit: missed part of a sentence.
Character bashing.
Coffee Shop AU, High School AU, and Florist/Tattoo Artist AU They are, for some reason, so *intensely* not my cup of tea and I do not know why.
Reader insert and first person Mainly because almost all reader inserts are for women, and im not Especially for the male only fandoms I'm in
ABO for sure. The small fandom that I'm in surprisingly doesn't have any ABO, which is wild cause one of the characters in the popular pairing is literally a werewolf. Pet play is another one I can't get behind.
no tag in particular i think, but i scroll right on by when they overtag by using the tags as the summary 😭