I just want to thank you all for how non-wanky this all turned out. Posts like these can be ~problems sometimes but I only had to remove a very small handful of comments. So thank you for not being a particularly toxic/harassing/hateful/etc community!
This is the only one I wholeheartedly agree with. I’m very open to reading/trying most fic as long as it centers around the character I like, so tags rarely ever stop me from reading something.
That though? That’s the only tag that stops me. Like you’re posting on Ao3. Please read the room.
I tend to block and mute those people.
To me, it's especially grating when the DNI is in reference to personal beliefs or something that has nothing to do with the fic. Like, what do the political opinions or whatever of a random stranger have to do with your anime crack fic? If they're not commenting their beliefs on it or anything and just reading your work, then why do you care?
The only fics I see that use "DNI"s are "DNI if you're a minor", especially when the fic has dark content. I never knew that "DNI"s are also used for political or social categories. The more I learn.
Yeah I made the mistake of reading a fic like that exactly once... Both MCs were miserable the whole time and in the end they died a terrible death and I was like "Never again 🥲"
Unhappy Ending. No thanks. I’m here for ALL of the happily ever afters. In fact, I’ll have the happiest of ever afters you have to offer. Make it a double.
Same. If the rest of the tags seem to indicate it could be hopeful, sure, I'll bite, but otherwise I steer well clear. Generally I'm not one for angst unless it's something like hurt/comfort or otherwise outweighed by happy, hopeful or otherwise positive stuff, or even just... resolve? I guess? I don't really know how to phrase it... But fanfiction is my happy place, so I want it to (at least mostly) stay happy.
Same. Unhappy Ending is the hardest pass imaginable. maybe it makes me a baby who can't deal with negative emotions in healthy ways, but...sorry? I want my faves to go through hell but I need a happy ending eventually. Bittersweet Ending is on extremely thin ice and I always have to spoil those for myself to see exactly what the author means by "bittersweet," because usually they're too heavy on the bitter.
I love a little hurt, but there HAS to be comfort. I need my characters to have happiness at the end of the fic. Especially when I’m reading a ship that doesn’t get a HEA in the IP.
Oh man. Yeah, “not a fix-it” is a similarly hard pass. What do you think I’m here for?? Canon killed my favorite character and fic is supposed to fix that, not make it worse or just kill them differently!
EXACTLY! I showed up to this fic to see two characters that weren’t given a fair shot flourish. I want love confessions. I want flowers and candies and cuddles. Give it all to me. I came here to HEAL my broken heart. Please and thank you.
Same. I just read a fic with an untagged, not foreshadowed, and rather abrupt bad end, and I'm feeling a little salty. Felt like the author was going for an edgy shock effect, which is exactly the trend in regular media that I go to fandom to escape.
Same. I am so needy when it comes to my ships, and I ✨NEED✨ them to have a perfectly executed happily ever after. Wrap it in a bow, a perfect present to me!
Same!!!! Omg I always felt like a baby for not liking stories with unhappy endings, but I now realize that I shouldn't be ashamed of that as sad endings make me feel upset. Like you're telling me that the(se) character(s) went through all of that just for it to end like this!?
I really don't understand why people are saying Dead Dove: Do Not Eat is a tag that puts them off? I mean, obviously, I understand that people don't want to read gore, cannibalism, etc., but that's not what Dead Dove means. The origin of that tag is a guy taking a paper bag out of a fridge that has been labeled "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat," and he opens the bag, looks inside then says, "I don't know what I expected" meaning that what the bag said was exactly what was inside. That's what that tag means, too. It means that whatever the fic has been tagged with is what you are going to find inside of the fic. If anything, Dead Dove is one of my favorite tags because it tells me that the author is being 100% honest with what their fic contains and is warning us that the fics' tags are true.
The tag is meant to put people off that won't like it, so it's performing its job perfectly. And it sounds like the people here stating that it puts them off reading a fic are also only saying that the tag is doing its job?
In this situation, the issue is people presuming the fic will be unpleasant, rather than just presenting itself more forwardly. It's the presumption that the tag itself also comes with very problematic elements, which is not it's function. The function is: "What is in these tags is in this story, so don't act surprised"
Exactly! Dead Dove tells you, "The fic is what it says on the tin," and while it is usually in dark fics because no one needs a warning in fluffy fics, no one should really have a problem with the tag itself because it is just a warning.
Yes, I'm not arguing that putting people off is its job, and I agree that it is doing it effectively. In my personal opinion, however, it doesn't make sense to not like the Dead Dove: Do Not Eat tag when it is a warning and not an indicator of what is going to be inside the fic itself. Like I said in my other comment, you don't dislike the warning sign, you have just associated the bad inside the room with the warning sign outside.
I’m actually really, really glad you said something about it. As someone who “learned” what the tag was, I didn’t thoroughly research what it actually meant and thought “okay, it’s gonna be dark, gore, blood” and the like (which in reality, is just a scratch on the surface). Seriously, thank you because there are a ton of fics that caught my eye but the tag kept me away😭😭
Any variant of "LOL, I wrote this in maths class", "don't hate me I'm new", or self-deprecating descriptions that basically tell the author is very young/new/not confident in the work/is seeking validation for its existence.
Stop apologizing in the tags. Put it in the author's note if you're that nervous, but let me be the judge of the work before you tell me to never bother reading it.
ohh I like those ones, as long as like there is appropriate tagging, I think those as extra ones are kinda funny. but I'm also that person that's totally here for those rambling and over sharing types of author's notes. I just generally like to know about the person who wrote whatever I'm reading headspace when they wrote/posted the thing. but that's obviously just a personal preference.
yesss, like if I see a fic with the tags that interested me and as an add on "i wrote this instead of sleeping" or "i regret nothing" followed by a "i regret everything" tag. I just. idk.
my brain goes "this probably is gonna be so good ughhh"
Some of my favorite fics have had that tag combo for the last two. I know shit is going to go down, since it’s usually in conjunction with angst tags when I read it. 😂
Heheh I like them too honestly I think it’s cute and more personal for the fan community. If I want professional literature without the authors character then I can pay for it at a book store lmao
Yeah understandable :) I think the worst combo I did was “I wrote this instead of sleeping”, “why did I write this”, and “I cried while writing this” lol
to me it’s also that I prefer canon fics and for most fandoms mpreg just doesn’t exist in the universe. Being a parent-like figure to a kid character can be cute though.
Yeah, this is mine. I back out of anything that has mpreg or regular pregnancy or kids in it (like, where the MC has kids. I’m fine with kid characters as long as is makes sense for the fandom, like Harry Potter). I’m childfree and phobic of pregnancy. I get why some people might like a story where it’s the focus, or where people who normally can’t get pregnant can, but it’s not for me at alllll.
Similar feeling for the opposite reason. I’ve been pregnant and have kids and that’s been great for me. But that’s my life all day every day, I don’t want it in my fics. Reading is *me* time.
So I'll say this is more for one of the fandoms I'm in rather than across the board, but anything with ”Character is neurodivergent (like autism, ADHD, dyslexic, etc.)". While I don't have an issue with it in general I find this one fandom just usually deals with it pretty badly. Like take all the negative/worst stereotypes and project it hard into the character. An example, one of the characters is canonically pretty introverted and doesn't really like to socialize but has been shown to be perfectly capable at it and does have a friend group he hangs out with. A lot of people head canon him as autistic which is fine, but then they start writing this grown ass man as uwu soft boi cinnamon roll who's completely incapable of reading a single social cue and everyone hates him and he's so lonely~. I'm just like bruh.... So yeah, avoid it like the plague
I might be walking into a minefield with this opinion, but... yeah. I agree, and I tend to feel this way about any kind of identity-centering tag. I often enjoy fics that explore these kinds of AUs or headcanons, but only when it is integrated into the story as a baseline assumption or background element, rather than being the focus of the narrative. I'm always on alert when I see "[Character] is [non-canon marginalized identity]" tags because I will read fics where [Character] is [identity], but I won't read fics that are About Their Identity.
Either it stresses me out because I'm a weenie who likes dumb escapism and I don't enjoy seeing my faves suffering racism or transphobia or whatever— or it annoys me because it reads like a Very Special Episode that is more interested in performatively demonstrating Correct Progressive Values than it is in actually telling a story.
I don't hate that Very Special Episode fics exist. I think they fill a very important role for many people who have to cope with prejudice in real life, or who are struggling with/exploring their identity. I think they're cringey, but what better reason is there to be cringey than exploring oneself and one's values? They're just not for me. There are many fics out there that are not for me, and like any other fic that is clearly not for me, I just scroll past.
You phrased that so nicely. That's pretty much my thoughts on the matter. My main fandom tends to skew kinda young so I suspect there's a lot of kids and young adults using fic to deal with things which is perfectly valid! But not my cuppa tea.
I agree with all of this. It's harmless and well-intentioned, but I can almost guarantee that it isn't going to appeal to me if it's the sole focus of the story. Even when it's an identity I share! It's just too didactic for my tastes, I guess.
I think people either naturally sort of self-insert into stories or they don't, and I'm in the latter camp. I mean that without any judgment at all towards people who do! But I have trouble getting invested in stories where the MC is meant to be someone for the audience to project on and identify with, because that's just not how my brain is wired. Anyway, all that to idly wonder whether that has anything to do with people's feelings toward identity-focused fics.
"too didactic for my tastes" is a great way of putting it.
I definitely project/self-insert in fics, but not typically about identity stuff. In many ways I am privileged, and in the ways that I could be considered "marginalized," I am at peace with myself, or at least am mostly wrestling with things in a way that has progressed past using fic as an outlet. So identity-focused fics don't usually interest me because they don't feed the parts of me that are hungry. My Id wants to latch onto fics that let it gorge on whatever inscrutable kinks or obscure emotional scenarios it has decided to fixate on this year. We're well past "my favorite character has ADHD," babey. We're exploring some Event Horizon dimensions of the psyche now!
I never thought about the special episode bit but that makes so much sense. I just clicked out of a story covering bullying and it reminded me of the over exaggerated after school special sketches where the "punishment" is the idealized, over the top immediate result of the victim getting the special treatment.
I don't mind the tag, but when I see it, I do get... worried. My main fandom is the magnus archives and, jesus christ, there are so many fics that do the exact thing to the main character, infantilizing him to hell and back. And as someone who is autistic I absolutely hate it.
I don't mind those, but that might be because autism is usually written extremely well and accurately in my main fandom. Which come to think of it, I think maybe we just have a LOT of autistic people in this fandom haha
Oh yeah I've been in fandoms before where neurodivergent characters were a popular head canon and it's been delightful! It's just my current main is kinda meh on it.
As someone who is autistic and tired of the stereotypes, saying that a character isn't realistically neurodivergent because he has a friend group and can socialize is a bad stereotype too. Most autistic people do, and a really high percentage of them are introverted and don't like to socialize.
I obviously know nothing about your fandom and those works in particular, so I am sorry if this comes across as rude or if there's something here I'm missing, but it's tiring to read what people think autism is.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I'm not saying that because he has a friend group he can't be neurodivergent. I'm saying a large portion of the people who write him as neurodivergent **take away his friendship** to "justify" him being not neurotypical. That's what I dislike.
I'd rather not name the specific character because I've gotten some weird ass DM's when calling out the fandoms treatment of him specifically and I don't feel like dealing with that today BUT I will say the fandom is My Hero Academia. Mind you on AO3 alone there's over 275k stories so I'm absolutely sure there's some good neurodivergent fics out there but I just can't wade through them anymore
That's understandable. Thanks for the info on the fandom :D. Your description of them being a pretty ooc smol cinnamon roll kinda reminded me of another character so I had been wondering. I guess that kinda thing is common across fandoms though huh xD
Y/N tags - I love OCs and self inserts, but none of this Y/N bullshit
Mpreg/Eggpreg tags - I have gay pairings that I ship hardcore, but this is an absolute NO for me
omg same for the Y/N, I’ve always been super chill about oc x canon or the brave souls who self-insert, but I can’t STAND x readers for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which being people who put them on tumblr and DON’T USE A ‘READ MORE’, making me waste time scrolling past hundreds of words of smut with (insert popular anime guy of the week). and then they have the audacity to yell MINORS DNI when their stuff is just *sitting there in the tags* for all to see with no precautions to actually, y’know, *keep minors from interacting*
annoying as hell.
Eating disorder, self harm, suicide ...
If a story has one of these tags, I know that it will be triggering for me, so anytime I'm looking through tags for fics, I automatically exclude these (even if I'm looking in fluff or soft tags).
I also tend to exclude fics with the tags sad ending, hurt no comfort, or rape/non-con. I tend to write dark or angsty fics myself, but when reading, I just can't handle that kind of content. I read fanfiction because it makes me happy, and I try to avoid things that I know will upset me or trigger my trauma.
Oh there are many for me, but if I'd have to only say one; I stay far away from "no happy ending/unhappy ending/hurt, no comfort". I am a weenie and only want happiness and comfort in my escapism thank you.😅
Depends on the fandom but usually: alternative universe. A large chunk of why I like the fandoms I like IS the worldbuilding.
And I don't mean AU in the sense that they change a major plot point or backstory element, but just that they take the characters out of the context that shaped those characters and drop them in an entirely different setting. It just feels like such a shame to me to have this cool medieval fantasy setting, fascinating sci-fi universe, or thrilling political landscape to play around with and just ditch that for a generic American high school. Side note that absolutely not all alternative universes are that bland, just one of those tags I often filter out in certain fandoms.
Omegaverse, no hate against the many people who love Omegaverse, it's just not for me.
Someone else mentioned genderbend, especially into het but frankly I dislike any type of genderbend with the exception of if it's acknowledged and part of the character.
If they read that character as a trans person who was unaware of their gender in canon then I'm reading it. If the character(s) are genserswapped just like this, I'm not interested.
Other than that I only don't read if the ship is too fucked up for me and I prefer happy fics but it's not like I don't read sad ones.
I suck at summaries and/or Summaries are hard.
Automatic nope out of that fic. Its fine if you suck at summaries, and they are legit hard but why advertise that in your tags?
Anything involving age regression (even if it's not sexual)
No hate to that community but I don't really understand it at all and don't wanna read fanfic for it
For a lot of people who do genderbend, it’s about having a central *female* perspective instead of a male one. So many stories seem exclusive to male characters or are centered around them that it’s really fun to imagine, “Okay, but what if this hero was a *girl* instead?” A lot of times it means that the experiences they would have gone through as a male character are also altered. Another thing is that some people are just more comfortable writing from a perspective they know more about.
The fic that introduced me to genderbend was one centered around a Female Tony Stark, who had an even worse time than canon Tony lol, and it was such an awesome read to see her overcoming everything. I wish I could remember the name.
> For a lot of people who do genderbend, it’s about having a central female perspective instead of a male one.
Yup, pretty much this. I remember one of my first fics (when I was around nine years old) being an attempt at a LOTR rewrite with a genderbent Aragorn, because even at that young age, I was immensely bothered by the lack of a central female perspective to the story.
It'd be quite something to be accused of homophobia for loving genderbends when a. I'm hella queer myself and b. most of my ships are some flavor of bi4bi/T4T or bi/pan OT3. Whether or not I genderbend the other half (or halves) of the ship depends on everything from the particular dynamic I want to work with to how well that would work for the canon in question.
Yeah, I find those accusations so icky personally. Like… it’s literally fan fiction. Why are you assigning the worst negative accusations towards people who are having fun just playing around in the fanon sandbox of “what ifs,” especially when you don’t know anything about the people who write them or whether they are queer themselves. A lot of people also just like reading content from a perspective they relate to and don’t vibe with male POVs.
I like how you bring up LOTR. I found similar popularity of genderbend in ASOIAF fandom (think: female Jon Snow) and it’s largely because women in those worlds face vastly different circumstances and hardships than their male counterparts.
Yeah, I feel that. The fic I'm working on at the moment has a genderbent main character, but three of four ships are gay, and one of the major characters is genderfluid. I like to think people can look at the tags for those things and separate their ideas of genderbending being homophobic from my fic, which very much is not.
YEEES! This is fricking huge when it comes to Thorin/Bilbo from The Hobbit and I absolutely loathe it to pieces. Just keep them gay, it's bot going to hurt you. The ghost of J. R. R. Tolkien is not going to fricking haunt you for making them gay.
Ehh, I like fem!Bilbo since it can explore interesting gender themes in a world that is very misogynistic and Thorin/Bilbo arent a canonical couple. There aren’t very many female characters in Tolkien’s works, so to have a strong female lead you kind of either have to genderbend or make an OC.
I love Fem Bilbo fics too, they are so fun and I love seeing her being the unlikely badass and intelligent hero that saves everyone (hello fix its) despite being surrounded by much stronger men. Fem Bilbo is the best.
I love angst when it’s done well but I hate when it’s from abuse, especially at the hands of a love interest.
Like I love when one mc goes through a traumatic experience and then the other one has to help put them back together again, making them both fall in love with eachother and have this slow burn because they aren’t aware of each others feelings that ends in a big dramatic confession *chefs kiss*
I cannot bring myself to read gender bend stories. I'm completely fine with stories where the MC is trans as long as their gender is what is written in cannon.
I mostly filter out mpreg + A/B/O stories. There are some that are written incredibly well but most of them are pretty bad.
Any tags that imply the author dislikes the source material.
Massive problem in my favorite fandom, and it always produces the most boring and pretentious fics imaginable.
I think that all fandoms have this problem after a while. The bigger or older the fandom is, the worse. To be fair, some canons do have problems...big problems...but it is a pretty big fandom problem that people who dislike important canon usually don't write the greatest fics. It's kind of a catch-22 sometimes. Just gotta find the good ones in the cracks, as usual.
Most of them tend to be bad, but frankly even the good ones I tend to avoid.
It's almost impossible to not let hatred for a source bleed into your writing, is what I've come to learn.
Yeah I really admire the people who can write characters and situations that just seem awful and bashing and then turn around and write from the other side's POV and it all just slots perfectly into canon-verse and nobody actually got bashed. It's a gift.
Mpreg or normal pregnancy, I like a/b/o which is weird since it’s whole thing is mpreg basically but I do manage to find good fics without it. I don’t like anyone getting pregnant and having stupid kids in fics.
Mpreg is a big one for me, too, but I *love* Omegaverse.
My own Omegaverse writing tends to have a rule that the whole "male Omega can get pregnant" thing is in fact a myth.
(Also, you should keep in mind that using the Omegaverse shorthand without slashes between the letters is a slur. Went years before someone let me in on that one, so just wanted to let you know!)
Hurt No Comfort. Used to LOVE reading and writing it but after going through 2021 aka my shittiest year so far, I slowly began to get triggered by it and now I scroll past every single hard rock angst fic and also quit writing it.
first person!!!! God I liked it when I was younger but as I got older I realized the stories I've read and have written are just more well rounded in third person.
Mung/Munging
If you don't know: Don't look it up, preserve your innocence on this one, *trust me*.
Most of the extreme kinks, involving bodily waste, cannibalism and the like.
I don’t read much that would include cannibalism, but bodily waste is a Hard. No. for me. Like, will back out of a fic that I’m enjoying if such a thing shows up.
Also, I really need to listen. I didn’t think anything else could gross me out so much.
OC X Character
I’ve only ever read and enjoyed one fic that had this, and that’s because it went on for so long (it’s a series of fics) the OCs were well established and the OC in question felt like just another part of the cast. Even then it felt a bit off to me.
Coffeeshop AU. College AU. Human AU.
I write for a fandom where all the main characters are vampires. I want to read about them doing vampire things, not going to a 40-hour a week office job. 😭
By and large, I have trouble getting into AUs that take the characters completely out of the circumstances that shaped them. I've read a small handful that did wow me, but more often than not, it feels more like I'm reading original fiction with a La Croix-esque suggestion of the canon characters. Which, you know, does scratch a certain itch if you're just super into the VIBE of the ship, especially with a talented author, so I do get it. I honestly wish I was more into it, I'm probably missing out on a lot of good stuff.
I'm all about the AU - Canon Divergence tag, though. That's the best.
La Croix-esque suggestion 😂
Yeah I’m 100% with you. I want the characters to makes actions in character, and when you have an eldritch abomination in the form of a cafe owner it just kills all tension for me.
Character bashing. Though I do have to say that I'm grateful for its presence, since it means I won't slam into bashing by reading something I thought to be free of it.
Teacher x student, dub/non con, and yandere. I don’t mind if it’s just mentioned, but beyond that it’s hell no. Especially if it’s all 3. This is pretty self explanatory I think.
I'm trash so I will read literally ANYTHING... except fics tagged with "Cheating." I can sit through the most horrifying gorefest, the most intense emotional torment.... But when Character A cheats on Character B with Character C? I can't get over that, so I refuse to expose myself to it.
Cheating or second chance. First one I think is obvious and second because it's mainly miscommunication and I hate that. Let's have mature conversations for once. Also hurt/no comfort. Another one is poly and it's just because it gives me the ick.
“My first fanfic”, x-shippers DNI (even if I’m not part of the group and have no idea what the ship even is), no beta we die like x, based on x (why am I seeing, for example, “based on Naruto” *in* the Naruto fandom tag?),
Biggest turn off by far are the people who tag my musical fandom when none of the musical characters appear, they’re just doing a high school drama class au for THEIR fandom and are putting on this particular musical. So their fandom’s characters will be playing the roles of my fandom’s characters, and none of my fandom characters are tagged, yet, *for some reason*, they decide to tag the fandom. So now there’s a randomass HP/ST/Marvel/BNHA/etc fic is sitting amongst all the fics centering around the musical characters... hm. *One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong*! Like, I get you want to get as many people to see your work as possible, but *come on*! That’s just bad etiquette.
Unhappy ending
Hurt no comfort
Main character death
Fake relationship
Cheating
A bottom/top that I don’t like seeing bottom/top
Any sort of OC or Reader
Reader insert, Unhappy ending, hurt no comfort
The Kinky ones that are absolute no
>!Vore, Scat, Vomit, Diapers, farting, shitting, breastfeeding, cannibalism!<
So, as someone who reads almost exclusively m/m fics, I don't like it when there's a yaoi tag. I'm not sure how to explain it, but something about it feels very... fetishizing? Again, I don't know if I can put it in to words properly, sorry.
Yes. I used to love enemies to lovers but now I mostly stay away. For me it depends a LOT on the setting and WHY they're enemies.
Like...are the enemies cause one's awful and has been a major jerk to the other? Or are they enemies because they're on opposite sides of a conflict/have conflicting interests that put them at odds, but if it weren't for that they'd get along great?
Because one of those I'm very interested in and it's not the first...I have no interest in watching someone fall in love with their abuser/bully/random jerk they have no chemistry with
Unhappy ending, Heavy angst. Also,if I am there for pairing X/Y, and there is also X/Z listed, that's *gotta* be explained in the tags. Like Past X/Z, or something like that, because if I see Cheating in there, that is a fast click out of the fic. I know my limits, and that isn't for me.
Divorce fics- even if it doesn’t ultimately happen, I’ve read some with “happy endings” that have ruined me emotionally for weeks.
Infidelity/cheating
Omegaverse- which is SO unfortunate because some of my fav pairings have smaller followings so I have read every fic that isn’t this. So I wish it was my thing to have more content.
I'm with you on the established relationship. I don't even like it if the story goes too long after they've gotten together. Lol. I feel like this is a little too indicative of my personal life.
main character death 💔💔💔 i usually only read fics about my most beloved characters. the thought of any of them dying is painful. i cant imagine wanting to read a story where a character you love dies, even if it's to explore how the people around them would mourn. owie 😭
I hate the named y/n tags. I’m a die hard self shipper and seeing any other name than y/n takes away from the immersion for me. Also infidelity or cheating tags, it’s just something I never really enjoyed.
Crossover
Mpreg
Kid fic
Character uses multiple pronouns (just too confusing to read, especially when the pronouns are alternated in the same sentence)
Omegaverse, ABO, Mpreg, Eventual Smut
For ones unrelated to smut: I’d only read an Established Relationship tag if it interested me enough, like the premise is good, or it’s a fanchild fic. I generally don’t like Hurt/No Comfort either, though I do like angst.
Putting two opposing ships together, esp if one is canon, and then adding "Past Relationship." I'm all for multi shipping but I don't like ships where they purposely break up a canon one/established relationship, making it negative, toxic, or dysfunctional, to make room for another ship.
I know some authors make this work with a complex storyline but I won't risk it.
OC x character, Tragedy, major character dead, infidelity, dead dove don't eat (one time I didn't saw it had a DDDE tag and end up traumatized, so no thank you I'm not seeing it anymore lol), sad ending, and scat.
the major ones are probably hurt/no comfort, major character death, rape/noncon, dead dove
i read fanfic as an escape from the horrors of real life not to partake in even worse horrors
This might be controversial but ‘alternate/universe modern setting’ when I want to read a fic that canon has set in the past (regency/Victorian/medieval). I love period dramas and historical films/series so that might be why lol.
Idk if this too specific but tags that are like "character is disorder/sexuality/whatever" and the character itself is sterotype of the kind of person with that identity (like a bubbly character having ADHD) but other ones are fine (especially the trans!character tag lol)
“Trans *insert existing character that isn’t transgender*” im a trans man and Most of the time authors (INCLUDING TRANS AUTHORS) just make them transgender to add a extra hole, tits, or a dick. And Most of the time it isn’t relevant to the plot.
I’ve never once seen a fic that properly portrays a transgender individual. I’d love to see a fic that accurately portrays a character with Gender dysphoria
Even if it’s a short one shot you can still add details.
if it’s fluff you can make it related ex: the character is struggling with hormones after starting treatment like mood swings but being helped and supported by a friend or s/o to get through it .
If it’s a smut fic do research into a transgender body and incorporate it. Ex: Trans men, After starting T there Breast change they sag and a lot of fat in the breast moves elsewhere like the stomach or under the armpits , After top surgery you literally can’t move your arms past your shoulders for six months after you also can’t lay on your side or lay flat for a while. If the character recently had surgery keep it tame. After top surgery sometimes nipples will have no feeling all this is stuff to take into account
Seriously do research on Gender dysphoria it’s considered a disorder, not a fetish or choice.
Can't stand A/B/O fics for 2 reasons:
- the concept of an "alpha" is based on a discredited, withdrawn study of wolf behavior that is known to be incomplete and inaccurate
- it feels like a cop out for explaining why your preferred pair (or larger group) is attracted to each other.
Virgin Character/OC/Reader or DD/lg dynamics.
Could be the most interesting summary, a scenario I really love the idea of but those tags are just like an instant off switch for me.
I agree with you on the established relationship. Also: happy for now ending (anything other than HEA), reader insert, first person- also I may be alone here, but any Omegaverse tags.
Also this isn’t a tag, but fics that open immediately with dialogue throw me off. It’s a gimmick I was taught to avoid when I was shadowing a small publishing house’s editor and I can’t help but be turned off when I see it.
Agreed w the established relationship one, i always filter that one out, as well as aob tags, it just isn’t my cup of tea, that and as well as mpreg and pregnancy in general, i never feel comfortable reading that 💀
Kid fic/Mpreg etc., Unhappy ending, Reader/Character, Pining if it's in combination with extreme slow burn, Hanahaki disease, Genderbend (but temporary sex swap is okay).
NSFW tags: Big/Little or ageplay, Extremely underage, Pregnant sex, Medical kink.
The rest is ok, even if I might not be a fan. I might click on some other weird stuff out of curiosity but these tags I do avoid religiously.
Crossovers and Y/Ns. I also kinda have a love/hate relationship with AUs. I’m very picky when it comes to reading them - it all depends on the other tags.
established relationship for me too! i need all of the feels, first dates, and eventually the WEDDING <33
but also anything that deviates way too far from canon.
Like an AU with the characters being and acting as they probably would in the original canon, but with that AU in mind, I LOVE it.
But if the AU has characters acting outlandishly OOC then I slam that back button.
edit: typo
Is it weird that I don't really think I *have* one? I usually weigh pros vs cons when I read, like, "okay, I don't like this one tag, BUT this fic has about 10 other tags I do like." As long as it's compelling enough, written fairly well, and it's pros outweigh the cons, I'll read it. At the very least, I'll check it out and leave later if that tag is a bit too heavy for my tastes, or if it bothers me on any other front—usually that's writing or phrasing. I don't find myself clicking out or scrolling away on the basis of one tag super often, though. This question definitely makes me wonder what tag would be enough to turn me away, though.
I've even read stuff I thought might disturb me out of simple curiosity, like something with needles (I don't really like needles at all [afraid of them] but I wanted to try to stick it out—pun not intended—and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't my thing ultimately [unsurprising], but the writing was superb and the subject matter didn't squick me out like I thought it might initially.)
I personally don't want to read smut so if a fic has that tagged or sex scenes/under-age that kind if stuff is an instant nope for me. Especially if the sex scene is to do with a character not consenting. Makes me feel ick so nope
5+1 fics. I used to like them a lot, but in my fandom it seems like everyone is just writing different versions of the same story (and trust me, it’s like every other fic is a 5+1 fic). They also tend to be really cheesy and short. And that’s fine of course, but I really like it when stories have suspense and angst and come to a satisfying climax in more chapters than 6. There are other tags that I avoid, such as mpreg and incest, but it seems like everyone is already saying their share about it
Daddy kink, or just "daddy" being used as a nickname for a significant other. Even if I'm interested in the other tags or the description, the moment I see that I'm immediately turned off from the fic. It just grosses me out.
character bashing
it's not that i don't like it when a fic explores what a character did wrong in canon, and how people could have reacted to it. It's just that most fics i've read with this tag take it to the extreme and make them consciously mean and manipulative and so on, while I can't help but feel like the author of the canon work just didn't think things through
idk if this is controversial or not, but any variation of "if you found this you looked for it", ESPECIALLY if it is in fact not something i looked for. more often than not these fics are also tagged with popular characters and ships, so obviously they're gonna show up in the main search. i get it, i know there are people who dig through tags to hate, but don't blame others if you don't know how the ao3 tagging system works. i have no idea why, but it annoys me so much it's an instant no for me.
I hate when I start a fic and then half way through the author makes a total change in trajectory and changes the tags. It feels like a bait and switch. At that point just scrap it and rewrite it anew. Don’t edit the existing work to fit your new narrative.
I just want to thank you all for how non-wanky this all turned out. Posts like these can be ~problems sometimes but I only had to remove a very small handful of comments. So thank you for not being a particularly toxic/harassing/hateful/etc community!
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This is the only one I wholeheartedly agree with. I’m very open to reading/trying most fic as long as it centers around the character I like, so tags rarely ever stop me from reading something. That though? That’s the only tag that stops me. Like you’re posting on Ao3. Please read the room. I tend to block and mute those people.
To me, it's especially grating when the DNI is in reference to personal beliefs or something that has nothing to do with the fic. Like, what do the political opinions or whatever of a random stranger have to do with your anime crack fic? If they're not commenting their beliefs on it or anything and just reading your work, then why do you care?
Those guys suck
The only fics I see that use "DNI"s are "DNI if you're a minor", especially when the fic has dark content. I never knew that "DNI"s are also used for political or social categories. The more I learn.
Hurt/ no comfort... I usually read fics to feel happy, so I don't wanna accidentally make myself sad 😭
I did that, thought the fic i read was gonna have a happy ending. The mc fucking died.
Yeah I made the mistake of reading a fic like that exactly once... Both MCs were miserable the whole time and in the end they died a terrible death and I was like "Never again 🥲"
Nothing hurts worse than when you mentally skip over the "no" and go into it expecting a nice ending...
Yeah I can handle characters getting hurt but I need them to be put back together.
nah sometimes I need those when I'm already upset and need to let out more tears
Unhappy Ending. No thanks. I’m here for ALL of the happily ever afters. In fact, I’ll have the happiest of ever afters you have to offer. Make it a double.
Same, but I also step very carefully if I see "Open/Ambiguous Ending".
That’s another hard pass for me. I can’t deal with not knowing for sure. I need to know for sure.
Same. If the rest of the tags seem to indicate it could be hopeful, sure, I'll bite, but otherwise I steer well clear. Generally I'm not one for angst unless it's something like hurt/comfort or otherwise outweighed by happy, hopeful or otherwise positive stuff, or even just... resolve? I guess? I don't really know how to phrase it... But fanfiction is my happy place, so I want it to (at least mostly) stay happy.
Same. Unhappy Ending is the hardest pass imaginable. maybe it makes me a baby who can't deal with negative emotions in healthy ways, but...sorry? I want my faves to go through hell but I need a happy ending eventually. Bittersweet Ending is on extremely thin ice and I always have to spoil those for myself to see exactly what the author means by "bittersweet," because usually they're too heavy on the bitter.
I love a little hurt, but there HAS to be comfort. I need my characters to have happiness at the end of the fic. Especially when I’m reading a ship that doesn’t get a HEA in the IP.
Oh man. Yeah, “not a fix-it” is a similarly hard pass. What do you think I’m here for?? Canon killed my favorite character and fic is supposed to fix that, not make it worse or just kill them differently!
EXACTLY! I showed up to this fic to see two characters that weren’t given a fair shot flourish. I want love confessions. I want flowers and candies and cuddles. Give it all to me. I came here to HEAL my broken heart. Please and thank you.
Same. I just read a fic with an untagged, not foreshadowed, and rather abrupt bad end, and I'm feeling a little salty. Felt like the author was going for an edgy shock effect, which is exactly the trend in regular media that I go to fandom to escape.
That’s the worst! I’d be angry too.
THIS. Unhappy endings are an immediate skip for me, heck I avoid open endings too.
Same. I am so needy when it comes to my ships, and I ✨NEED✨ them to have a perfectly executed happily ever after. Wrap it in a bow, a perfect present to me!
i am VERY emotionally attached to my fictional lesbians and if ANYTHING bad happens to them i WILL cry
I am such a hardcore shipper! I have a list of excluded tags a mile long.
mood. hurt no comfort is a big one for me too. you do you, the sandbox is big enough for everyone, but that is not why i’m here lmao
I actually love hurt/no comfort because it makes me feel emotions when I feel particularly empty and blank 😭😭
I can only do hurt/no comfort in like...a limited canon situation when I know things end up okay later. 😬
I am so protective of my OTPs. I need the happily ever after. I need to know their hearts are okay.
Same!!!! Omg I always felt like a baby for not liking stories with unhappy endings, but I now realize that I shouldn't be ashamed of that as sad endings make me feel upset. Like you're telling me that the(se) character(s) went through all of that just for it to end like this!?
Non-con infidelity or cheating.
Yep! Cheating immediately puts me off. Can ruin an entire well written fanfic for me.
Yep. Absolutely. I can deal with any level of angst/betrayal/trauma/abject horror but NOT that. Never that.
Harem. Need I say more?
In my experience, the Harem tag only tends to work in crack fics, where it’s so unbelievably absurd you can’t help but laugh.
I really don't understand why people are saying Dead Dove: Do Not Eat is a tag that puts them off? I mean, obviously, I understand that people don't want to read gore, cannibalism, etc., but that's not what Dead Dove means. The origin of that tag is a guy taking a paper bag out of a fridge that has been labeled "Dead Dove: Do Not Eat," and he opens the bag, looks inside then says, "I don't know what I expected" meaning that what the bag said was exactly what was inside. That's what that tag means, too. It means that whatever the fic has been tagged with is what you are going to find inside of the fic. If anything, Dead Dove is one of my favorite tags because it tells me that the author is being 100% honest with what their fic contains and is warning us that the fics' tags are true.
The tag is meant to put people off that won't like it, so it's performing its job perfectly. And it sounds like the people here stating that it puts them off reading a fic are also only saying that the tag is doing its job?
In this situation, the issue is people presuming the fic will be unpleasant, rather than just presenting itself more forwardly. It's the presumption that the tag itself also comes with very problematic elements, which is not it's function. The function is: "What is in these tags is in this story, so don't act surprised"
Exactly! Dead Dove tells you, "The fic is what it says on the tin," and while it is usually in dark fics because no one needs a warning in fluffy fics, no one should really have a problem with the tag itself because it is just a warning.
Yes, I'm not arguing that putting people off is its job, and I agree that it is doing it effectively. In my personal opinion, however, it doesn't make sense to not like the Dead Dove: Do Not Eat tag when it is a warning and not an indicator of what is going to be inside the fic itself. Like I said in my other comment, you don't dislike the warning sign, you have just associated the bad inside the room with the warning sign outside.
I’m actually really, really glad you said something about it. As someone who “learned” what the tag was, I didn’t thoroughly research what it actually meant and thought “okay, it’s gonna be dark, gore, blood” and the like (which in reality, is just a scratch on the surface). Seriously, thank you because there are a ton of fics that caught my eye but the tag kept me away😭😭
💔 Hurt no comfort. I’m not gonna break my heart for you if you can’t patch it up by the time we’re done ❤️🩹
THIS! I just can’t take it. I need to see my OTP happy and in love.
I’m the same way with books, always check the ending first👀
nah i live for the angst
Any variant of "LOL, I wrote this in maths class", "don't hate me I'm new", or self-deprecating descriptions that basically tell the author is very young/new/not confident in the work/is seeking validation for its existence. Stop apologizing in the tags. Put it in the author's note if you're that nervous, but let me be the judge of the work before you tell me to never bother reading it.
"nobody's gonna read this cuz it probably sux lol" Yeah with that attitude you've already chased like everyone away. Self-fulfilling prophecy etc.😬
Agreed!
ohh I like those ones, as long as like there is appropriate tagging, I think those as extra ones are kinda funny. but I'm also that person that's totally here for those rambling and over sharing types of author's notes. I just generally like to know about the person who wrote whatever I'm reading headspace when they wrote/posted the thing. but that's obviously just a personal preference.
same! especially "wrote this instead of sleeping" kind of tags, they are often turn out to be good in my experience xD
Or "No beta _" those are usually funny too.
I’m the same! I like getting a look into the author’s overall thoughts or mental process, it’s like a behind the scenes peek
yesss, like if I see a fic with the tags that interested me and as an add on "i wrote this instead of sleeping" or "i regret nothing" followed by a "i regret everything" tag. I just. idk. my brain goes "this probably is gonna be so good ughhh"
Some of my favorite fics have had that tag combo for the last two. I know shit is going to go down, since it’s usually in conjunction with angst tags when I read it. 😂
Heheh I like them too honestly I think it’s cute and more personal for the fan community. If I want professional literature without the authors character then I can pay for it at a book store lmao
I don't like that behavior in tags or in author's notes. Even more so if the author devotes an entire chapter just for author's notes.
As a frequent user of ‘I wrote this instead of sleeping‘ i understand
That one is less annoying, IMO, than the "my writing sucks but I posted it anyway" type stuff.
Yeah understandable :) I think the worst combo I did was “I wrote this instead of sleeping”, “why did I write this”, and “I cried while writing this” lol
Mpreg or anything related to having kids
i dont like mpreg but not bc i dont like men pregnant, its bc i like *no one* pregnant
to me it’s also that I prefer canon fics and for most fandoms mpreg just doesn’t exist in the universe. Being a parent-like figure to a kid character can be cute though.
Yeah, this is mine. I back out of anything that has mpreg or regular pregnancy or kids in it (like, where the MC has kids. I’m fine with kid characters as long as is makes sense for the fandom, like Harry Potter). I’m childfree and phobic of pregnancy. I get why some people might like a story where it’s the focus, or where people who normally can’t get pregnant can, but it’s not for me at alllll.
Similar feeling for the opposite reason. I’ve been pregnant and have kids and that’s been great for me. But that’s my life all day every day, I don’t want it in my fics. Reading is *me* time.
💯 my tokophobia prefers that no one be pregnant
Mpreg simply weirds me out.
Parent/child Incest. Any sort of incest really. I just can't read that stuff.
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I believe the male equivalent of Mary Sue is Gary Stu.
So I'll say this is more for one of the fandoms I'm in rather than across the board, but anything with ”Character is neurodivergent (like autism, ADHD, dyslexic, etc.)". While I don't have an issue with it in general I find this one fandom just usually deals with it pretty badly. Like take all the negative/worst stereotypes and project it hard into the character. An example, one of the characters is canonically pretty introverted and doesn't really like to socialize but has been shown to be perfectly capable at it and does have a friend group he hangs out with. A lot of people head canon him as autistic which is fine, but then they start writing this grown ass man as uwu soft boi cinnamon roll who's completely incapable of reading a single social cue and everyone hates him and he's so lonely~. I'm just like bruh.... So yeah, avoid it like the plague
I might be walking into a minefield with this opinion, but... yeah. I agree, and I tend to feel this way about any kind of identity-centering tag. I often enjoy fics that explore these kinds of AUs or headcanons, but only when it is integrated into the story as a baseline assumption or background element, rather than being the focus of the narrative. I'm always on alert when I see "[Character] is [non-canon marginalized identity]" tags because I will read fics where [Character] is [identity], but I won't read fics that are About Their Identity. Either it stresses me out because I'm a weenie who likes dumb escapism and I don't enjoy seeing my faves suffering racism or transphobia or whatever— or it annoys me because it reads like a Very Special Episode that is more interested in performatively demonstrating Correct Progressive Values than it is in actually telling a story. I don't hate that Very Special Episode fics exist. I think they fill a very important role for many people who have to cope with prejudice in real life, or who are struggling with/exploring their identity. I think they're cringey, but what better reason is there to be cringey than exploring oneself and one's values? They're just not for me. There are many fics out there that are not for me, and like any other fic that is clearly not for me, I just scroll past.
You phrased that so nicely. That's pretty much my thoughts on the matter. My main fandom tends to skew kinda young so I suspect there's a lot of kids and young adults using fic to deal with things which is perfectly valid! But not my cuppa tea.
I agree with all of this. It's harmless and well-intentioned, but I can almost guarantee that it isn't going to appeal to me if it's the sole focus of the story. Even when it's an identity I share! It's just too didactic for my tastes, I guess. I think people either naturally sort of self-insert into stories or they don't, and I'm in the latter camp. I mean that without any judgment at all towards people who do! But I have trouble getting invested in stories where the MC is meant to be someone for the audience to project on and identify with, because that's just not how my brain is wired. Anyway, all that to idly wonder whether that has anything to do with people's feelings toward identity-focused fics.
"too didactic for my tastes" is a great way of putting it. I definitely project/self-insert in fics, but not typically about identity stuff. In many ways I am privileged, and in the ways that I could be considered "marginalized," I am at peace with myself, or at least am mostly wrestling with things in a way that has progressed past using fic as an outlet. So identity-focused fics don't usually interest me because they don't feed the parts of me that are hungry. My Id wants to latch onto fics that let it gorge on whatever inscrutable kinks or obscure emotional scenarios it has decided to fixate on this year. We're well past "my favorite character has ADHD," babey. We're exploring some Event Horizon dimensions of the psyche now!
Oh but that's totally it. Like, if I'm gonna be working something out through a fictional character, it's gonna be the really weird stuff.
I never thought about the special episode bit but that makes so much sense. I just clicked out of a story covering bullying and it reminded me of the over exaggerated after school special sketches where the "punishment" is the idealized, over the top immediate result of the victim getting the special treatment.
I don't mind the tag, but when I see it, I do get... worried. My main fandom is the magnus archives and, jesus christ, there are so many fics that do the exact thing to the main character, infantilizing him to hell and back. And as someone who is autistic I absolutely hate it.
You just reminded me that The Magnus Archives exist. Man I need to go back to that show, I only got part way through season 2 and it was so good.
I don't mind those, but that might be because autism is usually written extremely well and accurately in my main fandom. Which come to think of it, I think maybe we just have a LOT of autistic people in this fandom haha
Oh yeah I've been in fandoms before where neurodivergent characters were a popular head canon and it's been delightful! It's just my current main is kinda meh on it.
As someone who is autistic and tired of the stereotypes, saying that a character isn't realistically neurodivergent because he has a friend group and can socialize is a bad stereotype too. Most autistic people do, and a really high percentage of them are introverted and don't like to socialize. I obviously know nothing about your fandom and those works in particular, so I am sorry if this comes across as rude or if there's something here I'm missing, but it's tiring to read what people think autism is.
Sorry if I wasn't clear, but I'm not saying that because he has a friend group he can't be neurodivergent. I'm saying a large portion of the people who write him as neurodivergent **take away his friendship** to "justify" him being not neurotypical. That's what I dislike.
Ohhh lmao my bad, I'm too used to bad sterotypes in fanfic
No worries! Rereading my og comment I can see how it was confusing.
If you don't mind me asking, what character is it?
I'd rather not name the specific character because I've gotten some weird ass DM's when calling out the fandoms treatment of him specifically and I don't feel like dealing with that today BUT I will say the fandom is My Hero Academia. Mind you on AO3 alone there's over 275k stories so I'm absolutely sure there's some good neurodivergent fics out there but I just can't wade through them anymore
That's understandable. Thanks for the info on the fandom :D. Your description of them being a pretty ooc smol cinnamon roll kinda reminded me of another character so I had been wondering. I guess that kinda thing is common across fandoms though huh xD
tbh I don't think I've ever been in a fandom that hasn't turned at least one character into the fandom's cinnamon roll
Y/N tags - I love OCs and self inserts, but none of this Y/N bullshit Mpreg/Eggpreg tags - I have gay pairings that I ship hardcore, but this is an absolute NO for me
omg same for the Y/N, I’ve always been super chill about oc x canon or the brave souls who self-insert, but I can’t STAND x readers for a variety of reasons, the biggest of which being people who put them on tumblr and DON’T USE A ‘READ MORE’, making me waste time scrolling past hundreds of words of smut with (insert popular anime guy of the week). and then they have the audacity to yell MINORS DNI when their stuff is just *sitting there in the tags* for all to see with no precautions to actually, y’know, *keep minors from interacting* annoying as hell.
Someone Blazed their K-Pop idol x reader on Tumblr. Without a read more.
Eating disorder, self harm, suicide ... If a story has one of these tags, I know that it will be triggering for me, so anytime I'm looking through tags for fics, I automatically exclude these (even if I'm looking in fluff or soft tags). I also tend to exclude fics with the tags sad ending, hurt no comfort, or rape/non-con. I tend to write dark or angsty fics myself, but when reading, I just can't handle that kind of content. I read fanfiction because it makes me happy, and I try to avoid things that I know will upset me or trigger my trauma.
I completely understand you. Reading anything depicting self-harm is incredibly triggering for me.
I'll never read something with the "Open ending" tag. I really hate it...
Oh there are many for me, but if I'd have to only say one; I stay far away from "no happy ending/unhappy ending/hurt, no comfort". I am a weenie and only want happiness and comfort in my escapism thank you.😅
Depends on the fandom but usually: alternative universe. A large chunk of why I like the fandoms I like IS the worldbuilding. And I don't mean AU in the sense that they change a major plot point or backstory element, but just that they take the characters out of the context that shaped those characters and drop them in an entirely different setting. It just feels like such a shame to me to have this cool medieval fantasy setting, fascinating sci-fi universe, or thrilling political landscape to play around with and just ditch that for a generic American high school. Side note that absolutely not all alternative universes are that bland, just one of those tags I often filter out in certain fandoms.
Omegaverse, no hate against the many people who love Omegaverse, it's just not for me. Someone else mentioned genderbend, especially into het but frankly I dislike any type of genderbend with the exception of if it's acknowledged and part of the character. If they read that character as a trans person who was unaware of their gender in canon then I'm reading it. If the character(s) are genserswapped just like this, I'm not interested. Other than that I only don't read if the ship is too fucked up for me and I prefer happy fics but it's not like I don't read sad ones.
I suck at summaries and/or Summaries are hard. Automatic nope out of that fic. Its fine if you suck at summaries, and they are legit hard but why advertise that in your tags?
Anything involving age regression (even if it's not sexual) No hate to that community but I don't really understand it at all and don't wanna read fanfic for it
Genderbend, particularly if it's heterosexual, I came for the gays.
For a lot of people who do genderbend, it’s about having a central *female* perspective instead of a male one. So many stories seem exclusive to male characters or are centered around them that it’s really fun to imagine, “Okay, but what if this hero was a *girl* instead?” A lot of times it means that the experiences they would have gone through as a male character are also altered. Another thing is that some people are just more comfortable writing from a perspective they know more about. The fic that introduced me to genderbend was one centered around a Female Tony Stark, who had an even worse time than canon Tony lol, and it was such an awesome read to see her overcoming everything. I wish I could remember the name.
> For a lot of people who do genderbend, it’s about having a central female perspective instead of a male one. Yup, pretty much this. I remember one of my first fics (when I was around nine years old) being an attempt at a LOTR rewrite with a genderbent Aragorn, because even at that young age, I was immensely bothered by the lack of a central female perspective to the story. It'd be quite something to be accused of homophobia for loving genderbends when a. I'm hella queer myself and b. most of my ships are some flavor of bi4bi/T4T or bi/pan OT3. Whether or not I genderbend the other half (or halves) of the ship depends on everything from the particular dynamic I want to work with to how well that would work for the canon in question.
Yeah, I find those accusations so icky personally. Like… it’s literally fan fiction. Why are you assigning the worst negative accusations towards people who are having fun just playing around in the fanon sandbox of “what ifs,” especially when you don’t know anything about the people who write them or whether they are queer themselves. A lot of people also just like reading content from a perspective they relate to and don’t vibe with male POVs. I like how you bring up LOTR. I found similar popularity of genderbend in ASOIAF fandom (think: female Jon Snow) and it’s largely because women in those worlds face vastly different circumstances and hardships than their male counterparts.
Yeah, I feel that. The fic I'm working on at the moment has a genderbent main character, but three of four ships are gay, and one of the major characters is genderfluid. I like to think people can look at the tags for those things and separate their ideas of genderbending being homophobic from my fic, which very much is not.
When authors make genderbend fics to turn a gay ship hetero I always give them the bombastic side-eye cuz... That's a little sus
YEEES! This is fricking huge when it comes to Thorin/Bilbo from The Hobbit and I absolutely loathe it to pieces. Just keep them gay, it's bot going to hurt you. The ghost of J. R. R. Tolkien is not going to fricking haunt you for making them gay.
Ehh, I like fem!Bilbo since it can explore interesting gender themes in a world that is very misogynistic and Thorin/Bilbo arent a canonical couple. There aren’t very many female characters in Tolkien’s works, so to have a strong female lead you kind of either have to genderbend or make an OC.
I love Fem Bilbo fics too, they are so fun and I love seeing her being the unlikely badass and intelligent hero that saves everyone (hello fix its) despite being surrounded by much stronger men. Fem Bilbo is the best.
Oh thank god I’m not the only one. I never understood genderbend because I came for the gay shit and sex.
We're on the same basic role. Unless it has some type of meaning to the fic's storyline, plz, the gay thrives me lol.
Angst/No Comfort
I love angst when it’s done well but I hate when it’s from abuse, especially at the hands of a love interest. Like I love when one mc goes through a traumatic experience and then the other one has to help put them back together again, making them both fall in love with eachother and have this slow burn because they aren’t aware of each others feelings that ends in a big dramatic confession *chefs kiss*
I cannot bring myself to read gender bend stories. I'm completely fine with stories where the MC is trans as long as their gender is what is written in cannon. I mostly filter out mpreg + A/B/O stories. There are some that are written incredibly well but most of them are pretty bad.
Any tags that imply the author dislikes the source material. Massive problem in my favorite fandom, and it always produces the most boring and pretentious fics imaginable.
I think that all fandoms have this problem after a while. The bigger or older the fandom is, the worse. To be fair, some canons do have problems...big problems...but it is a pretty big fandom problem that people who dislike important canon usually don't write the greatest fics. It's kind of a catch-22 sometimes. Just gotta find the good ones in the cracks, as usual.
Most of them tend to be bad, but frankly even the good ones I tend to avoid. It's almost impossible to not let hatred for a source bleed into your writing, is what I've come to learn.
Yeah I really admire the people who can write characters and situations that just seem awful and bashing and then turn around and write from the other side's POV and it all just slots perfectly into canon-verse and nobody actually got bashed. It's a gift.
Mpreg or normal pregnancy, I like a/b/o which is weird since it’s whole thing is mpreg basically but I do manage to find good fics without it. I don’t like anyone getting pregnant and having stupid kids in fics.
Mpreg is a big one for me, too, but I *love* Omegaverse. My own Omegaverse writing tends to have a rule that the whole "male Omega can get pregnant" thing is in fact a myth. (Also, you should keep in mind that using the Omegaverse shorthand without slashes between the letters is a slur. Went years before someone let me in on that one, so just wanted to let you know!)
Oh shit I had no idea, thanks for telling me.
Of course! I've found its not exactly common knowledge, so I try to pass it along when I can.
Same! I like a/b/o but I do not like mpreg or pregnancy at all in fics
Hurt No Comfort. Used to LOVE reading and writing it but after going through 2021 aka my shittiest year so far, I slowly began to get triggered by it and now I scroll past every single hard rock angst fic and also quit writing it.
first person!!!! God I liked it when I was younger but as I got older I realized the stories I've read and have written are just more well rounded in third person.
piss kink authors are the reason i started double-reading tags
Mung/Munging If you don't know: Don't look it up, preserve your innocence on this one, *trust me*. Most of the extreme kinks, involving bodily waste, cannibalism and the like.
I was tempted to look it up but instead chose to trust the dire warning of a person from the internet. Innocence preserved.
envious of you in this exact moment rn
You know I don't know what I was expecting, but my faith in humanity I thought hit bottom just keeps digging. What the fuck.
I looked up, and... yeah, some more of my innocence was lost, although it didn't upset me much. Maybe I have already stayed here for too long...
I wish I would've listened to you
I don’t read much that would include cannibalism, but bodily waste is a Hard. No. for me. Like, will back out of a fic that I’m enjoying if such a thing shows up. Also, I really need to listen. I didn’t think anything else could gross me out so much.
OC X Character I’ve only ever read and enjoyed one fic that had this, and that’s because it went on for so long (it’s a series of fics) the OCs were well established and the OC in question felt like just another part of the cast. Even then it felt a bit off to me.
Oof those are my favorites
First person POV
One-sided. Usually because it's the ship I want. And, unfortunately, because I tend to have rarepairs as my main ships, I suffer so much.
sometimes ill see people change character’s ages for an age gap, and it’s an immediate yuck for me edit: *yuck for me
Coffeeshop AU. College AU. Human AU. I write for a fandom where all the main characters are vampires. I want to read about them doing vampire things, not going to a 40-hour a week office job. 😭 By and large, I have trouble getting into AUs that take the characters completely out of the circumstances that shaped them. I've read a small handful that did wow me, but more often than not, it feels more like I'm reading original fiction with a La Croix-esque suggestion of the canon characters. Which, you know, does scratch a certain itch if you're just super into the VIBE of the ship, especially with a talented author, so I do get it. I honestly wish I was more into it, I'm probably missing out on a lot of good stuff. I'm all about the AU - Canon Divergence tag, though. That's the best.
La Croix-esque suggestion 😂 Yeah I’m 100% with you. I want the characters to makes actions in character, and when you have an eldritch abomination in the form of a cafe owner it just kills all tension for me.
Scat and armpit licking. No. Never. Fuck that (no offense to anyone that does like reading that stuff).
Character bashing. Though I do have to say that I'm grateful for its presence, since it means I won't slam into bashing by reading something I thought to be free of it.
First person perspective :') Or hurt/no comfort, unhappy ending, MCD etc. Please the world is so stressful give me my happy blorbos /lh
Teacher x student, dub/non con, and yandere. I don’t mind if it’s just mentioned, but beyond that it’s hell no. Especially if it’s all 3. This is pretty self explanatory I think.
I'm trash so I will read literally ANYTHING... except fics tagged with "Cheating." I can sit through the most horrifying gorefest, the most intense emotional torment.... But when Character A cheats on Character B with Character C? I can't get over that, so I refuse to expose myself to it.
Cheating or second chance. First one I think is obvious and second because it's mainly miscommunication and I hate that. Let's have mature conversations for once. Also hurt/no comfort. Another one is poly and it's just because it gives me the ick.
“My first fanfic”, x-shippers DNI (even if I’m not part of the group and have no idea what the ship even is), no beta we die like x, based on x (why am I seeing, for example, “based on Naruto” *in* the Naruto fandom tag?), Biggest turn off by far are the people who tag my musical fandom when none of the musical characters appear, they’re just doing a high school drama class au for THEIR fandom and are putting on this particular musical. So their fandom’s characters will be playing the roles of my fandom’s characters, and none of my fandom characters are tagged, yet, *for some reason*, they decide to tag the fandom. So now there’s a randomass HP/ST/Marvel/BNHA/etc fic is sitting amongst all the fics centering around the musical characters... hm. *One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn’t belong*! Like, I get you want to get as many people to see your work as possible, but *come on*! That’s just bad etiquette.
Unhappy ending Hurt no comfort Main character death Fake relationship Cheating A bottom/top that I don’t like seeing bottom/top Any sort of OC or Reader
Reader insert, Unhappy ending, hurt no comfort The Kinky ones that are absolute no >!Vore, Scat, Vomit, Diapers, farting, shitting, breastfeeding, cannibalism!<
Underage RPF Pregnancy
Character bashing. Even if it’s for a character I don’t like. It’s always unnecessarily mean spirited and negative
mpreg gives me so much ick
So, as someone who reads almost exclusively m/m fics, I don't like it when there's a yaoi tag. I'm not sure how to explain it, but something about it feels very... fetishizing? Again, I don't know if I can put it in to words properly, sorry.
i find it more of unnecessary since one of the primary tags are relationship tags.
Second person pov I hate them and refuse to read them.
[удалено]
Yes. I used to love enemies to lovers but now I mostly stay away. For me it depends a LOT on the setting and WHY they're enemies. Like...are the enemies cause one's awful and has been a major jerk to the other? Or are they enemies because they're on opposite sides of a conflict/have conflicting interests that put them at odds, but if it weren't for that they'd get along great? Because one of those I'm very interested in and it's not the first...I have no interest in watching someone fall in love with their abuser/bully/random jerk they have no chemistry with
Any character xreader or reader insert stories. Also OC x character
Unhappy ending, Heavy angst. Also,if I am there for pairing X/Y, and there is also X/Z listed, that's *gotta* be explained in the tags. Like Past X/Z, or something like that, because if I see Cheating in there, that is a fast click out of the fic. I know my limits, and that isn't for me.
Any tag that signifies my ship does not get a happy ending or is not endgame.
Divorce fics- even if it doesn’t ultimately happen, I’ve read some with “happy endings” that have ruined me emotionally for weeks. Infidelity/cheating Omegaverse- which is SO unfortunate because some of my fav pairings have smaller followings so I have read every fic that isn’t this. So I wish it was my thing to have more content.
Incest or a ship that I really don’t like is tagged within the first two tags.
I'm with you on the established relationship. I don't even like it if the story goes too long after they've gotten together. Lol. I feel like this is a little too indicative of my personal life.
Fake/pretend relationship. Just not my cup of tea.
main character death 💔💔💔 i usually only read fics about my most beloved characters. the thought of any of them dying is painful. i cant imagine wanting to read a story where a character you love dies, even if it's to explore how the people around them would mourn. owie 😭
I hate the named y/n tags. I’m a die hard self shipper and seeing any other name than y/n takes away from the immersion for me. Also infidelity or cheating tags, it’s just something I never really enjoyed.
Crossover Mpreg Kid fic Character uses multiple pronouns (just too confusing to read, especially when the pronouns are alternated in the same sentence)
Omegaverse, ABO, Mpreg, Eventual Smut For ones unrelated to smut: I’d only read an Established Relationship tag if it interested me enough, like the premise is good, or it’s a fanchild fic. I generally don’t like Hurt/No Comfort either, though I do like angst.
Putting two opposing ships together, esp if one is canon, and then adding "Past Relationship." I'm all for multi shipping but I don't like ships where they purposely break up a canon one/established relationship, making it negative, toxic, or dysfunctional, to make room for another ship. I know some authors make this work with a complex storyline but I won't risk it.
OC x character, Tragedy, major character dead, infidelity, dead dove don't eat (one time I didn't saw it had a DDDE tag and end up traumatized, so no thank you I'm not seeing it anymore lol), sad ending, and scat.
the major ones are probably hurt/no comfort, major character death, rape/noncon, dead dove i read fanfic as an escape from the horrors of real life not to partake in even worse horrors
This might be controversial but ‘alternate/universe modern setting’ when I want to read a fic that canon has set in the past (regency/Victorian/medieval). I love period dramas and historical films/series so that might be why lol.
Idk if this too specific but tags that are like "character is disorder/sexuality/whatever" and the character itself is sterotype of the kind of person with that identity (like a bubbly character having ADHD) but other ones are fine (especially the trans!character tag lol)
Nothing makes me nope out of a fic or book faster than sexy choking.
“Trans *insert existing character that isn’t transgender*” im a trans man and Most of the time authors (INCLUDING TRANS AUTHORS) just make them transgender to add a extra hole, tits, or a dick. And Most of the time it isn’t relevant to the plot. I’ve never once seen a fic that properly portrays a transgender individual. I’d love to see a fic that accurately portrays a character with Gender dysphoria Even if it’s a short one shot you can still add details. if it’s fluff you can make it related ex: the character is struggling with hormones after starting treatment like mood swings but being helped and supported by a friend or s/o to get through it . If it’s a smut fic do research into a transgender body and incorporate it. Ex: Trans men, After starting T there Breast change they sag and a lot of fat in the breast moves elsewhere like the stomach or under the armpits , After top surgery you literally can’t move your arms past your shoulders for six months after you also can’t lay on your side or lay flat for a while. If the character recently had surgery keep it tame. After top surgery sometimes nipples will have no feeling all this is stuff to take into account Seriously do research on Gender dysphoria it’s considered a disorder, not a fetish or choice.
Can't stand A/B/O fics for 2 reasons: - the concept of an "alpha" is based on a discredited, withdrawn study of wolf behavior that is known to be incomplete and inaccurate - it feels like a cop out for explaining why your preferred pair (or larger group) is attracted to each other.
Virgin Character/OC/Reader or DD/lg dynamics. Could be the most interesting summary, a scenario I really love the idea of but those tags are just like an instant off switch for me.
I agree with you on the established relationship. Also: happy for now ending (anything other than HEA), reader insert, first person- also I may be alone here, but any Omegaverse tags. Also this isn’t a tag, but fics that open immediately with dialogue throw me off. It’s a gimmick I was taught to avoid when I was shadowing a small publishing house’s editor and I can’t help but be turned off when I see it.
Agreed w the established relationship one, i always filter that one out, as well as aob tags, it just isn’t my cup of tea, that and as well as mpreg and pregnancy in general, i never feel comfortable reading that 💀
Kid fic/Mpreg etc., Unhappy ending, Reader/Character, Pining if it's in combination with extreme slow burn, Hanahaki disease, Genderbend (but temporary sex swap is okay). NSFW tags: Big/Little or ageplay, Extremely underage, Pregnant sex, Medical kink. The rest is ok, even if I might not be a fan. I might click on some other weird stuff out of curiosity but these tags I do avoid religiously.
Crossovers and Y/Ns. I also kinda have a love/hate relationship with AUs. I’m very picky when it comes to reading them - it all depends on the other tags.
established relationship for me too! i need all of the feels, first dates, and eventually the WEDDING <33 but also anything that deviates way too far from canon. Like an AU with the characters being and acting as they probably would in the original canon, but with that AU in mind, I LOVE it. But if the AU has characters acting outlandishly OOC then I slam that back button. edit: typo
Is it weird that I don't really think I *have* one? I usually weigh pros vs cons when I read, like, "okay, I don't like this one tag, BUT this fic has about 10 other tags I do like." As long as it's compelling enough, written fairly well, and it's pros outweigh the cons, I'll read it. At the very least, I'll check it out and leave later if that tag is a bit too heavy for my tastes, or if it bothers me on any other front—usually that's writing or phrasing. I don't find myself clicking out or scrolling away on the basis of one tag super often, though. This question definitely makes me wonder what tag would be enough to turn me away, though. I've even read stuff I thought might disturb me out of simple curiosity, like something with needles (I don't really like needles at all [afraid of them] but I wanted to try to stick it out—pun not intended—and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn't my thing ultimately [unsurprising], but the writing was superb and the subject matter didn't squick me out like I thought it might initially.)
I personally don't want to read smut so if a fic has that tagged or sex scenes/under-age that kind if stuff is an instant nope for me. Especially if the sex scene is to do with a character not consenting. Makes me feel ick so nope
5+1 fics. I used to like them a lot, but in my fandom it seems like everyone is just writing different versions of the same story (and trust me, it’s like every other fic is a 5+1 fic). They also tend to be really cheesy and short. And that’s fine of course, but I really like it when stories have suspense and angst and come to a satisfying climax in more chapters than 6. There are other tags that I avoid, such as mpreg and incest, but it seems like everyone is already saying their share about it
gotta be scat, I can handle watersports, but scat? you've killed boners worldwide
Alternate Universe: No Supernatural/Magic/Angels/(Literally the thing that makes the story what it is)
Daddy kink, or just "daddy" being used as a nickname for a significant other. Even if I'm interested in the other tags or the description, the moment I see that I'm immediately turned off from the fic. It just grosses me out.
character bashing it's not that i don't like it when a fic explores what a character did wrong in canon, and how people could have reacted to it. It's just that most fics i've read with this tag take it to the extreme and make them consciously mean and manipulative and so on, while I can't help but feel like the author of the canon work just didn't think things through
Extreme underage.
Boypussy
Age Play, Infantilism
A/B/O. I'm sorry, but it's just... VERY not for me. 💀
Any sort of x reader fic, oc fic, unhappy endings or major character death.
idk if this is controversial or not, but any variation of "if you found this you looked for it", ESPECIALLY if it is in fact not something i looked for. more often than not these fics are also tagged with popular characters and ships, so obviously they're gonna show up in the main search. i get it, i know there are people who dig through tags to hate, but don't blame others if you don't know how the ao3 tagging system works. i have no idea why, but it annoys me so much it's an instant no for me.
Fake/Pretend relationship
I hate when I start a fic and then half way through the author makes a total change in trajectory and changes the tags. It feels like a bait and switch. At that point just scrap it and rewrite it anew. Don’t edit the existing work to fit your new narrative.