Fanfiction Review TODO List

Last Updated: 2024-01-11 (Added “Inheritance”)

Since I find my ideas for fanfiction review posts multiplying faster than my time to re-read and review things, I thought it only fair to make my TODO list public so that, if you don’t need a full review, you can still find the stories I wanted to introduce you to.

Note that…

• Some of these may not be as good as I remember or may even be misfiled… that’s why they are TODO list entries. Proper reviews involve me re-reading the fics to weed out things that seemed much better when I was young and stupid.
• In the interest of consistency, I’ve chosen to use western naming order for all mentions of character names.
• If I haven’t confirmed that my memory of an entry is accurate enough to place it in the category I assigned it to, I’ll end it with a question mark.
• A “…?” in a list means that I get a vague sense there are more fics that should be on the list which I’ve read but can’t remember. (Feel free to try to jog my memory)
• There are a few cases where the version in my private bin has an unfinished review hanging off it because I didn’t feel confident enough that I was remembering the right fic and not combining elements from multiple stories.

That said, enjoy a preview of what I eventually want to blog about, a slightly cleaned up version of what my notes look like before I sit down to re-read things, and a peek into how big a bottleneck the process of re-reading and reviewing things in detail is. 🙂

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• Finish clearing out the fragmentary drafts and “also check this faves list” notes that remain too unprepared to be migrated from my private list as-is.
• Update my Anime Addventure links to point to http://addventure.cf/ [2]
• Once I’ve migrated off WordPress to something where the data is easier to consume locally, write a cross-comparison tool which lists all fics I rated highly in my private database but haven’t blogged about.
• Decide how to surface the list of examples in Another Tangent: Degrees of Connectedness more formally.
• Decide how best to preserve the original form of posts like 50+ Naruto Authors Who Did Something Well but still allow updates once I’ve migrated off WordPress.
• Maybe mention on my Harry Potter and the Curse’s Cure review that my mind lumps it together with Harry Potter and the Price of Being Noble and vice-versa? Also, I think Curse’s Cure and Effects and Side Effects have some elements in common which I might want to draw attention to. (I think I’m going to need to redesign my blog to focus as much on cross-referencing commonalities as writing reviews.)
• Unify the various fragmentary notes I took since the mid 2000s and use the result as a source to build out this list further. (including checking for things I faved on Fanfiction.net but didn’t log anywhere else)

Completely Ungrouped Review TODOs

• Curious George by Catrlgirl (Hellsing story centering on a great OC. I actually managed to avert a Timless Child-style shark-jump with some advice I gave while this fic was being written.)
• Dungeon Keeper Ami by Pusakuronu (Sailor Moon crossover where Ami winds up alone in the Dungeon Keeper setting, tricked into being a Dungeon Keeper, and has to fight to “do good using evil power” while trying to win her soul back. Highly recommended. Defined by two running themes:)
  • Ami managing to survive by using out-of-the-box thinking or extra-planar knowledge (i.e. modern science) to keep one step ahead of superior foes
  • A running theme of people misconstruing things Ami does as being more indecent than they really are and building a legend of her as a sexual deviant. (Including people coming to the conclusion that Jadeite, handsome and lacking glowing red eyes, is a hero who’s being mind-controlled by Keeper Mercury)
  • …and an example of a fic with interesting original characters. In fact, the main cast is mostly made up of OCs.
    
    There’s even a point in the story when the Light Gods grant Ami the title of Empress Mercury with the intent that the attention drawn by the title will keep her too busy to find her way home and potentially draw the attention of the Dark Gods there… like with everyone else, Ami exceeds their expectations.
    
    There’s also an amusing comic subplot when the most successful Dungeon Keeper of all time is resurrected and turns out to be much less imposing when he’s alone in hiding, having holes poked in his plans by his imp butler.

• Fission by PrincessColumbia (Ranma Saotome and Usagi Tsukino collide mid-transformation and their transformations get muddled up.)
• Morality Chain by Pureauthor (An Avatar: The Last Airbender “What if…?” built around Zuko and Azula having a more normal, caring relationship.)
• New Day, New Life by Alexandercctv (Cross-gender self-insert into HP-Dresden fusion setting with some “goes above and beyond” authoring decisions.)
• Maybe a run-down of stories like Core Threads that I can remember, which embrace making a stupidly overpowered main character but resist having it get boring? (What was that one where Harry winds up with Zelretch and does it fit the criteria? Was it Fate’s Gamble?)
• Consider re-reviewing stuff I reviewed in the first years of this blog, like newRanma, Ill Met By Starlight, and Elegy for a Golden Youth. I’m much more perceptive now.
• Should I do a list for Harry Potter – Addams Family crossovers? (Raising Harry and the Harveste Addams series are the ones that come to mind)
• See if I can think of enough western-anime crossovers that actually work to make a list of them. (There’s “The Girl Who Loved” by Darth Drafter, and maybe some The Virus spin-offs, and I’ll need to re-read that HP-Eva crossover… but what else?)
• Maybe have a “well-implemented examples of bad author cliches” post which covers things like “Harry Potter and the Price of Being Noble”

Fandoms to Re-survey to Build Out This List

(A list of fandoms where I know there are things I’ve read and forgotten which deserve mentions.)

• Earth: Final Conflict
• Harry Potter
• Naruto (Both from my list and things I’ve read since then)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion
• Oh My Goddess
• Ranma ½ (I’ll need to dig through Rakhal’s list, among other things)
• Sailor Moon
• Tenchi Muyo
• Urusei Yatsura

Additions for Existing List Posts

• Emperor of Zero by Nietzchian (I’ve been meaning to add this to Worthwhile Familiars of Zero for over half a decade but it got stuck in “finish reading it fiesr” limbo after my interest shifted away from Zero no Tsukaima fics.)
• Godchild by Ikarus Onesun (Shinji has to be recovered from 400% sync by cloning a hybrid body like Rei’s. Recommended “More-Than-Human Shinji” Evangelion fics as a runner-up, since the “more” is so subdued.)
• Recommended Battlestar Galactica “Earth-contact” fics
  • A Chance Meeting by dunuelos (BSG-Babylon 5 crossover. If Contact at Kobol deserves a place despite its need for proofreading, then this deserves a place because, when it is good, it’s good in unique ways.)
  • Faoi Dheireadh by batsojopo (Not good enough for the recommended list, but maybe a cross-reference once I have time to clean up and post my review draft with a 3.7 out of 5 rating.)
  • The Aftermath: The End by fmfan1980 (Starts with an exposition dump, but that does mean it’s possible to read it without reading the previous story in the series first.)
  • Who Are You by David Falkayn (Empty cylon body in a stasis tube is found by a Terran Empire patrol and raised as a human with total amnesia. Has flaws that make it a runner-up at best… or maybe just a cross-reference once I review it.)
• Recommended “Politics in Harry Potter” fics
  • A Boon for Bill by canoncansodoff (I think. Need to re-read it.)
  • Check if A Marauder’s Plan by CatsAreCool is one of these.
  • Harry Potter and the Deus Ex Machina by Karmic Acumen (While not having that “politics are central for most of the span of the story” feeling I’m going for in this list, the story still might deserve a mention for a very satisfying courtroom scene with Sirius before jumping back in time to show the politicking, and I like the author’s skill overall… especially that knack for the satisfying powerful yet impromptu-feeling speeches that turn up in places like the courtroom and Black family confrontations.)
  • The Accidental Animagus by White Squirrel (Wizengamot and trial scenes aren’t the prime focus but, once they start happening, they’re good when they come up and it also goes into more detail than usual on how Lucius Malfoy engages in his political scheming (for example, pointing out oddities in what’s known about Harry Potter’s past to Rita Skeeter and providing her financial support to pursue them), so this deserves to be an honourable mention.)
• Sekirei Fics Which Fight/Fix Canon
  • In Flight Gaiden: Playing with Tropes by Satire Swift (A spin-off of In Flight that began its life as a series of omake. Shirou meets an alternate version of himself who, instead of having Sword-oriented powers, has Trope-oriented powers. Very silly at times but, at the same time, the first story I’ve read which, during its serious moments, touches on the idea of less ethical magi discovering the Sekirei and and forcing Shirou into revealing magic to Takami. Definitely worth a read.)
  • Re-identify that Harry Potter-Sekirei fic where the original Sekirei ships are the distant ancestors of Veela and check if it belongs on my list.
• Strained Harmony by Sunshine Temple may be a runner-up candidate for Recommended “Voluntary Fukufics”. I’ll need to re-read it to check.
• While it’s not a perfect match by any means, being contemporary and differently focused, Cold Blood by DerLaCroix reminds me of my Recommended “Sci-Fi Discovers Harry Potter” fics list. It’s slow to start and very flawed, but once Hermione’s godmother finally gets introduced as a character, I remember some satisfying scientific exploration of Harry turning into a half-dragon, including world-building about how it’s actually occurring from a biological standpoint. (Though, given how much of a mixed bag it is, I should probably write a full review and then link to it from the list as a minimal note at the bottom.)
  • CAUTION: This is one of those “haven’t read it in years” things, so the “it gets better” part may just be rose-coloured glasses.

Alternative Do-Over Protagonists

• Maybe A Game of Chess by Kirinin (Ron Weasley)
  • I think I’m hazy on this because most of it is still unread new chapter notification in my inbox from when my interest in fanfiction temporarily crashed.
• Amalgum – Lockhart’s Folly by tkepner (Harry Potter merged into Gilderoy Lockhart)
  • Also mention Magical Me by Publicola (a Gilderoy Lockhart self-insert)
• Maybe A Switched Chance by LunaStorm (Harry Potter and Hermione Granger in each other’s bodies)
• Maybe Second Chance by Newbie1104 (Not exactly a do-over, being Shirou Emiya in Harry Potter’s body, but close enough in feel to possibly be an honorable mention.)
• The Red Knight by Demon Eyes Laharl (Ron Weasley)
• Time Braid by ShaperV (Sakura Haruno in a Groundhog Day scenario that gets very complex with multiple people looping independently.)
• Yesterday is Tomorrow (Everything is Connected) by Kneazle (Hermione Granger as Lily and Petunia Evans’s sister. She winds up becoming the target of James Potter’s crush and befriending Barty Crouch Junior and Regulus Black before they can join Voldemort. A very memorable fic with a very un-memorable name.)
• While A Krogan misplaced by Baron Steakpuncher isn’t a do-over so much as an alternate history focused on Urdnot Wrex crash-landing on Earth and uplifting humanity, it feels more like a do-over (aside from Wrex not remembering the canon timeline) than it does a first contact fic. (I think it’s because it’s Wrex personally uplifting humans, rather than two political entities embodied by the characters.)
• …?

Good Author Idea Bins

Collections of oneshots (and sometimes more) that good authors wrote to get the ideas they didn’t have time for to leave them alone.

• Odd Ideas by Rorschach’s Blot
• Fragments and sequels [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] by dogbertcarroll
• What a Bunch of Nonjon by nonjon
• …? (I know there are others I’m forgetting.)

Stories With Cabbits (from Tenchi Muyo)

• A Horse And His Cabbit by borg rabbit (Ranma ½ crossover. Complete. Maybe a 3.7 rating if I remember correctly, so definitely something to mention more as something that stuck in my memory than as something to recommend.)
  
  The “Ranma found a cabbit egg at the bottom of Nyannichuan” concept is good, but the “Amazons lock Ranma’s curse and erase ‘her’ memory to control the ‘dragon’ spoken of in a prophecy before realizing the Nekoken will break the memory erasure and try to make amends” plot device is crude, lazy, and unnecessary. It’d have worked much better to judge tweak the Joketsuzoku meeting to get Ranma as a friend/ally without messing up the tone and then fudge the timeline so Ranma could piss off Herb and get locked in canon style while still in China. It also has other flaws. )
• Kyuubi no Cabbit by Jonakhensu (Naruto crossover. I remember this being a flawed implementation of an idea with enormous potential back in 2007 when I was helping Jonakhensu brainstorm ways to continue it. Maybe I should ask for permission to distill it back into an outline and rewrite it once I’ve got a couple of my more fleshed-out ideas written.)
• Ranma Saotome Doesn’t Miyah by Tigee86 (Ranma ½ crossover. It’s got that 90s fanfic “people often didn’t see it being quite as important to strive to be true to canon phrasing and vocabulary” feel, but it does capture that “things have gone pear-shaped in a never-before-seen way? Sounds like Thursday for Ranma Saotome” feel. Maybe a 4.0 out of 5.)
• Zero’s Cabbit by Kytranis (Saito gets caught in the events of Ranma Saotome Doesn’t Miyah as he’s being summoned by Louise. Not a bad fic.)
• …? (I’ll want to look through a Fanfiction.net crossover search to see if I can find any more to add some variety… ideally I want one decent “X gets a cabbit” and one “X becomes a cabbit” fic for each fandom.)

Time-Travel Comedy

Note that this section listing is more provisional than usual. I don’t remember much about the fics I’ve listed… just that they’re connected in my mind for some reason. The intent of this section is stories that don’t forget to be comedy. Cracky oneshots are ideal, but stuff in the style of A Black Comedy also works.

• Time MixUp by Lucillia (Naruto)
• Tipsy Time Travel Tale by Yunaine? (Harry Potter)
• Whiskey Time Travel by Sapper One? (Harry Potter)
• …? (Wasn’t there at least one Ranma ½ oneshot that belongs on this list?)

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Dresden Files: Interesting Crossovers

• Not Following Harry
  • Awaken Sleeper by Water Mage (Harry Potter wakes up in the body of his counterpart in the Dresden Files universe. Interesting for how well I remember it being executed, even if the concept is ordinary.)
  • Deal with a Devil by by Silently Watches (Lash is given a chance to earn redemption by mentoring Harry Potter.)
  • Of Citadels And Castles, Book One: Culture Shocks by C. Mage (Mass Effect crossover, Follows Machias Castle, not Harry Dresden.)
  • …? (Were there other ones not following Harry Dresden that I’m forgetting?)
• Endless Pantheon: God’s Eye by todeswind (First in a Stargate: SG-1 crossover series where the Goa’uld are actual gods and, with typical Harry Dresden luck and willpower, Harry manages to accidentally usurp the mantle of the Goa’uld who tries to make him a host. The series does a good job of mimicking the Dresden Files feel.)
• Fate: Hard Knocks by Fell The Tempest (Fate/Unlimited Blade Works crossover that’s written as a Dresden Files fic where Fate elements start to impinge after Harry comes into possession of Avalon and he eventually summons Saber, resulting in some very satisfying character moments.)
• Was it Soul’s Light by Chengar Qordath, Harry Dresden: Agent of NERV by Yuffiek666, or both that I I’m remembering as meriting a place on this list? (Evangelion crossovers)
• Was Soul’s Wings by KnightEstoc (Sekirei crossover) good enough for this list and, if it was, how is the continuation by keithallen?
• The Dresden Fillies: Strange Friends by psychicscubadiver (Series of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic crossovers where Equestria exists within the greater Dresden Files setting, kept hidden from everything else the Nevernever connects to by enchantments woven by Princess Luna that had started to wear thin during her absence. The first volume is a bit formulaic, being mostly a rehash of the MLP pilot, but it touches off the series.)
  • See also My Little Denarians by Chengar Qordath (Was it MLD or one of the sequels to TDF that I’m remembering as being most suited to this list?)
• The Senshi Files: Silver Warden (old version) by Irritus185 (Sailor Moon crossover where Harry Dresden adopted Makoto Kino and, when Sailor Moon canon comes knocking, dad’s aware and not willing to just step aside.)
• …? (Am I forgetting any Harry-centric once I wanted to share?)

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Evangelion (Miscellaneous/Unsorted)

• NGE: Nobody Dies by Gregg Landsman
• The Gift by Mercaba
• I vaguely remember an Oh, My Goddess! crossover with a female OC pilot who I believe was at least half divine. Was it any good?

Evangelion: Angels Other Than Kaworu Nagisa As Characters

• Too Human by Archdruid-Sephiroth
• …? (I know there were more of these, but it’s been a decade and I forget what they were.)

Evangelion: Decent Self-Inserts

To paraphrase George Carlin, “Hey! Time for a few fart jokes self-inserts! Yes, where would fanfic be without a few self-inserts.”

• I Was A Teenage Dummy Plug by Foxboy
• New Perspective Evangelion by Dartz-IRL
• …?

Evangelion: Good Do-Over Fics

• Once More With Feeling by Crazy-88
• What was that fic where Rei was the one getting a do-over?
• Was Second Time Around one of these?

Evangelion: Unabashed Crackfics

• I Do by Innortal?
• Neon Genesis Evanjellydonut by Shizumaru
• Neon Sign Evangelion by A-kun
• The “Statue of Miao Nyan Mew” Addventure thread
• …?

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Futaba-Kun Change Fics (All Of Them?)

• Golden Linings by Cloud-Dreamer
• Ranma Compo by Chriina (Wayback Archive)
• Final Approach Ranma by Trimatter
• The vault: FKC Fic by Weebee
• Misaki-Chan Change by JonaBee
  …?

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Harry Potter (Unsorted/Ungrouped)

• A MODern Man by dogbertcarroll
• Being Harry Potter by Kirinin (It’s by Kirinin, so it’d be a surprise if it hadn’t turned out to be excellent. This is the one where Draco wakes up as Harry Potter but there are some huge plot twists.)
• Holly Evans and the Spiral Path by wordhammer (A little… something at times, but I remember it being worth at least a consideration for a review. Unfortunately, it has that lopsided pacing problem where the ending winds down much more quickly than what comes before leads you to expect. I also remember it being effective at setting up the expectation of proper gravitas for a “heroine vs. society” element that, sadly, was cut short by the sequel going dormant.)
• Larceny, Lechery, and Luna Lovegood by Rorschach’s Blot
• Oswald the Ottoman by lunakatrina (Crackfic which starts with Harry defeating Voldemort by turning him into an animated ottoman.)
• Luna Lovegood and the Dark Lord’s Diary by The madness in me (A slightly cracky humor fic that becomes a light-toned Tom Riddle redemption story with a favourable view of Snape. It plays a little loose with the characterization in an “inexperienced author with talent” sort of way, but it doesn’t keep the story from being enjoyable and it’s hard to find a story that feels quite like it… plus, I always love a good character comedy. So far, I’m on chapter 85 of 101 and I’ve been grinning all the way through this at things like the back-and-forth between Snape and redeemed Tom.)
• The Girl Who Loved by Darth Drafter (If you can ignore the comically bad choice of events to touch it all off, this and its sequel are a surprisingly good, and complete, Harry Potter – Sailor Moon crossover with a Jusenkyo curse thrown in to boot… and it works despite being a western-anime crossover.)
  • I know Shampoo and Ranma wind up as Hogwarts teachers in the sequel… but I see mto remember another fic where Ranma, Herb, and another male character (Ryoga?) wind up at Hogwarts for some reason. Which fic was that?
• The Reclamation of Black Magic by ShayaLonnie? (I wrote a review draft of this a while ago but didn’t explain to myself why I thought it “wasn’t considered suitable for my blog at the time”. I need to re-read it to figure that out.)
• The Sum of Their Parts by holdmybeer (4.5 out of 5. Quite possibly the best motivation and philosophy for a “Dark Lord Potter” fic I’ve ever seen… and it’s complete.)
• Victoria Potter by Taure (All in all, I’d give it a tentative 5 out of 5 that might drop, depending on how future chapters unfold. While I still think the Pureblood Pretense series takes top spot among Harry Potter fanfiction, this takes second place so far for how the sense of detail, nuance, realism, and tactful originality in both the characters and the setting remind me of professionally published writing.)
• I haven’t finished reading Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus by Carnivorous Muffin yet, and I’m probably going to need to start over because I got side-tracked for so long, but I remember it being excellent. (It’s the one where femHarry interacts with the fragment of Voldemort in her head, who she calls Wizard Lenin, and I think it’s also the one where she has a pet who is possibly a cosmic horror in small and fuzzy form.)
• Was An Aunt’s Love by Emma Lipardi as noteworthy as my younger self thought? (And am I correct in vaguely remembering that there’s another memorable fic that I get confused with this that has “Petunia trains Harry to not be a pawn” as a concept?)
• was Harri Potter and the Lost Shepard by Sun-Tsu Toriden the one where a female Commander Shepard from Mass Effect lands in a Harry Potter universe that has a female Harry Potter and winds up starring in a story that somehow works for me despite how “bad teenage author gone wild” the concept is?
• Find that other story I read with the same basic concept as Exclusion by Maethoriel Raina and make a blog post comparing and contrasting the two.
• Write an off-the-cuff synopsis blog post about the elements of the Pureblood Pretense series which appear after part 1 (ie. the part I’ve already blogged about) that are my reason for loving it so much overall. (Because it’s so long that trying to take notes to write a proper review of the whole series burned me out and I still need to go back and examine those notes.)
• Look through nonjon‘s profile to see if there’s anything else I want to promote.
• Decide what else by Rorschach’s Blot I want to promote.

Harry Potter: Assorted Unusually Special Concepts

• Birth of a Name by nonjon (A comedy oneshot about some of the other, funnier anagrams you can make from Tom Marvolo Riddle. Also has a French translation with adapted anagrams that I need to work my way through with a dictionary some day.)
• Pet Project by Caeria (A non-romantic story about Hermione and Snape)
• The Family Clock by Jan. McNeville (A story about a clockmaker OC which I found particularly interesting and memorable)
• The Lie I’ve Lived by jbern (The Marauder’s Map starts to show “Harry James Potter”… it wasn’t made to show middle names. Also has The Sorting Hat as a very memorable character.)
• The Little Veela that Could by Darth Drafter (Harry dies saving Gabrielle Delacour and, in doing so, accidentally rediscovers the light-aligned magic the horcrux ritual bastardized. This sets off a chain of events that develop a creative and memorable backstory for what veela are.)
  • Also mention that The Girl Who Loved does the same “romance with a ghost who eventually gets resurrected” plot in reverse.
• Rise of the Dark Lady Hermione by Clell65619 and Dunuelos (That story that starts out as silly over-the-top comedy where You Know Who gets summoned and executed by the worldwide council of Dark Lords out of fear of making an enemy of the British Dental Association and then overheard snippets and conclusion-jumping lead his former followers to conclude that they’re Hermione’s minions… and it turns out that evil has been formalized into a profession to comic book/Dr. Horrible/Despicable Me-esque levels.)
  • I remember there being another one with a similar “Hermione the Dark Lady” plot, except that it was more “Hermione touches things off (whether as a joke or to exploit a loophole, I can’t remember) to help protect Harry”. If I can find it, split them out into their own list post.
  • Maybe mention that it reminds me of Make A Wish in how it approaches some of its humour.
• Maybe also cross-reference my Pureblood Pretense review if this becomes a list post instead of individual reviews?

Harry Potter: Author/Harry Makes A Mockery Of The Triwizard Tournament

• Harry’s Loophole by ThinkingSpeck (Harry realizes that he only needs to make a token effort.)
• Harry Potter and the Champion’s Champion by DriftWood1965 (Link to my review of it.)
• Inspected by No. 13 by Clell65619 (Harry survives the tournament and brings the readers some entertainment by becoming a bureaucrat. Comedy through the amount of respect everyone pays to the bureaucracy with elements of The Santa Clause for his getting the job and some The Man Who Knew Too Little for interactions with the goblins.)
• One Wizard Too Many by KUCrow1997 (Can’t remember how good this is. That’s part of the reason this list is a TODO list rather than a recommendations list.)
• Triwizard Tales by Clell65619 (This is the one that starts with Harry striking a deal with the dragon to throw the challenge, and then has a feathered serpent interview the dragon once she’s back home, revealing in the process that, aside from the Quibbler, Xeno Lovegood owns a big network of more serious publications for non-human sapients. Said publications lead to Harry then being approached to do it again. This is also one of those fics which caricatures Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley… though not as much as in Harry Potter and the Champion’s Champion though they do remind me of each other in that respect.)
• The First Task by Grant Larceny (A fun little runner-up. A somewhat irreverant humorous oneshot. So many Triwizard stories are about Harry succeding by acting more mature than in canon somehow… what about one where Harry acts less mature for comic effect? This includes Harry kicking Snape in the shin and punching Gryffindors in the guy for refusing to accept that he didn’t enter himself. He also has a knack for “using accidental magic on purpose” in specific forms.)
• While it’s not a Triwizard Tournament Mockery fic, The Power of the Press by Bobmin356 would probably do well as a post-script mention since it’s got the same sort of humour.
• Runners up (ie. More “make a mockery of” as a side-effect of empowering Harry to take control of the situation)
  • If you want a “Harry gets so pissed off, fed up, and openly defiant that he’s scheming to lose his magic before sitting his OWLs without getting obliviated of knowledge of the magical world” Tournament fic, Banking on Her by RobSt will do the trick.
    As the title suggests, the Harry-Hermione dynamic is central to the story. It also does a nice job of portraying Dumbledore as blindsided by the discovery that he’s misjudged the situation so badly, even as he continues to believe in the importance of manipulating Harry. It’s rare to see a story where Dumbledore as an antagonist is portrayed as being so because he’s fallible and too manipulative. Authors tend to use one or the other.
    I’d probably give it a 4.0 out of 5. It’s not comedy, it’s not great literature, and I think it went a little too far with a decision that wound up not needing to be followed through on, but I don’t really have anything particularly bad to say about it and I did enjoy reading it.
    (For those playing along at home, 4.0 out of 5 is +1 on the scale from -2 to +2 that I hope to eventually switch all my reviews over to.)
• …? (I know there are more of these I’m forgetting)
  • Note to self: Judging by the first two chapters, Can’t Have It Both Ways by RobSt is too simply written. Also, it feels like RobSt is interpreting “make a mockery of” as nothing more than “give Harry the power to be a normal fix-fic protagonist”. (“simply written” as in the characters all talk like I assume RobSt does and act like cardboard cut-outs. The characters aren’t exactly out of character, so 2.5 on that front, and I’m still mildly curious to see how it unfolds, so 3.5… which average out to 3.0 out of 5.)

Harry Potter: “Chasing Harry Around The World” Fics

• A Boon For Bill by canoncansodoff (That one where Snape apparates over a sewage treatment plant’s holding tank while trying to follow a tracking charm. This also had me literally LOLing until my throat hurt.)
• Escapologist Harry by Racke (The international chasing is more a side-effect of certain phases of this crackfic, but it should at least be a runner-up.)
• Harry Potter and the Power of Paranoia by arekay (Harry mistakes Mundungus Fletcher for a Death Eater and, with Dobby’s help, runs off to hide in the muggle world. The chase wanes about a third of the way in after Harry uses the Fidelius on his status as the boy-who-lived, but it still counts feel-wise once the story switches to a “for want of a nail” comedy… note that I LOLed out loud at the punchline to Sirius’s prank-trap on the prophecy.)
• Make A Wish by Rorchach’s Blot (To me, this seems to be the most famous of the genre. Also mention the spin-offs.)
• Mastermind Hunting by Louis IX (Link to my review as a noteworthy mention at the bottom of the list.)
• Where in the World is Harry Potter by nonjon (Plus two completed sequels)
• …? (I know there are more of these that I’m forgetting. It’s been so long.)
• …consider mentioning “Dear Order” because of their similar “over the top cheek/prank” feel

Harry Potter: Hermione Granger as a Parselmouth

• The Parselmouth of Gryffindor by Achille Talon (Delightfully over the top)
  • Also mention Parselbrat by Leikiz (which inspired it) even though it’s a female Harry Potter that’s embraces being a parselmouth early on.
• Hermione Granger and the Serpent’s Renaissance by epsi10n (Haven’t read it yet, so this whole category is more of a tentative thing, but it was listed as an inspiration for The Parselmouth of Gryffindor. The concept is that Salazar Slytherin ensured he’d keep his memories when he reincarnated… and it bodes well for the author’s skill that chapter 1 draws a parallel between Salazar Slytherin and what happened to Shakespeare’s Hermione.)

Harry Potter: Stories Where Norbert Becomes A Character

• Harry Is A Dragon, And That’s Okay by Saphroneth (Nora, and she’s adorable. Also, I love how much ongoing creativity has gone into this story beyond just the concept. For example, Ron, who gets bitten by the space bug and dedicates himself to becoming the first wizard astronaut.)
  • Also mention chapter 1 of Enter the Dragon by Doghead Thirteen. The “Shadowrun is dark, so let’s darken this setting too” doesn’t set in until chapter 2, and chapter 1 has all the same delightful “young Harry as a dragon” stuff as Harry Is A Dragon, And That’s Okay.
• Harry Potter and the Hermetic Arts by HaikenEdge (Liv. She shows up near the end, but the sequel is also complete and she’s a lovely character too. Caution: Takes a less innocent look at the world, with tropes like “Lockhart turns out to be a rapist” in the sequel.)
• On The Implications of Parallel Worlds by computerneek (Not really developed yet and I’m not sure it will be, but I wanted it on file so I remembered which one it was.)
• Chapters 4 and 5 of Triwizard Tales by Clell65619 have scenes focusing on some adorable young dragons who imprinted on Harry as their uncle.
• …maybe as part of a more general list for stories with interesting non-human characters with a similar feel, like The Parselmouth of Gryffindor, where it turns out pretty much everything including Rita’s Quick Quotes Quill is sapient. (Was that the same one where the boggart copies a human too well and becomes sapient and a student?)
  • …also, maybe that fic where Harry manages to befriend the Mirror of Erised and turn it into a human form that plays his guardian? Was it The Price is Right by High Pot In Noose?
  • …and maybe mention The Lie I’ve Lived by jbern for the Sorting Hat?

Harry Potter: Supporting Cast Are Interesting In Their Own Right

• Harry & the Mysterious Curse of the Girl Who Lived by Lord Jeram
• Harry Is A Dragon, And That’s Okay by Saphroneth
• The Pureblood Pretense by murkybluematter (the whole series)
• …? (It’s been so long and I’ve read so many fics that I’m sure I’m forgetting some here.)

Harry Potter: Trolling Umbridge

• Rebellion by TatraMegami (I started my only read-through of this before it was finished, and it finished seven years ago. Take my sense that it’s good enough to fit here with a grain of salt.)
• The Power of the Press by Bobmin356
• Trolling the Toad by Akela Victoire
• I forget. Was Harry and Luna Against the High Inquisitor by Arpad Hrunta a viable candidate for this list?
• While not Umbridge, Dear Order should probably be mentioned in passing at the end since I tend to think of it as being the same sort of crazy fun when I remember the Umbridge ones.
• …? (I know there are some of these I’m forgetting.)

Harry Potter: “Works For Me”

This category requires a little explanation because I’m still trying to pin it down myself. It’s more about a shared feel that seems to emerge when you conbine a certain kind of not-quite-genre-savviness with the culture of pen-and-paper RPG gaming. The placeholder title is a reference to that.

So far, the stories which satisfy it involve a character whose magical abilities operate around pen-and-paper RPG rules, because there are quite a few “Harry develops his own magic system” stories which lack that feeling. (eg. “pre-Hogwarts Harry teaches himself Naruto-style jutsu” stories, or stories like Prodigal Delinquent… was Fantastic Elves and Where to Find Them also one of those?)

• Harry Potter and the Natural 20 by Sir Poley (The Death Eaters accidentally summon a character from a world that operates on D&D rules… he continues to function by those rules and he’s quite a munchkin. It’s also got some nice metafictional humour including a “Shame on you. Look what your skepticism got the hero into!”-style lampshade of the main character being an 11-year-old D&D wizard.)
• Harry Potter and the Hermetic Arts by HaikenEdge (Caution: Takes a less innocent look at the world, with tropes like “Lockhart turns out to be a rapist in the sequel”.)
• …? (I think I remember encountering at least one more that qualifies.)
  • Does dogbertcarroll’s Storybook Hero do anything in this direction? I forget.

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Mass Effect (Miscellaneous/Unsorted)

• 49,993 by Lanilen (The only “next cycle” Mass Effect fic that felt memorably good… despite having a fair bit of on-the-ground combat stuff and following Shepard, both things which tend to correlate to stories written by boring authors.)
• An Elegant Solution by James Golen (End of ME3 fic. Shepard isn’t a soldier, he’s an engineer… so he makes his own option.)
• Are We Alone by JMB Fictional Writing (A Bleach crossover where the galaxy at large becomes aware of the shinigami, if not who they are, when Ichigo can’t just stand aside during a batarian raid.)
• Distress Calls Can Go A Long Way by mp3.1415player (A Worm crossover that has Tali on Earth and a feel that reminds me of some of my favourite Sci-Fi discovers Harry Potter stories.)
• How to Invade an Alien Planet by roman566 (Comedy fic built around using the batarians to demonstrate how not to follow the TVTropes How To Invade an Alien Planet article while trying to invade modern-day Earth. The TVTropes article is in the same vein as The Evil Overlord List.)
• On the Shoulders of Scions by Karmic Acumen (Very rare and engaging style.)
• The Shepard Code by quondam (That post-ME3 fic where Garrus’s grandson discovers a derelict reaper containing a digital upload of Commander Shepard.)
• To Inherit the Future by Kronecker Delta (ME-Nier crossover that’s quite good… though I get the impression it’s a Nier fic first and an ME fic second, so keep that in mind.)
  • I especially like the subplot with Jackass’s discovery of a backdoor built into their OS. That alone could be enough to guarantee the story a 4.5 out of 5 rating if more than the current 23 chapters are written… but the way X5 is starting to be developed would ensure it.
• I’ll also want to sort through the highly-faved ME fics that aren’t on this list to see if any of them should be but just got overlooked. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Mass Effect: “Character Stories” About The Geth

• Harvest by Norwest (Beautiful oneshot about “Was that the first time a geth asked if it had a soul?”)
• Streaming Consensus by Detective-Mason (Nice oneshot involving Legion watching human movies about A.I.)
• What was that one I read about the quarian OC and the geth OC? (I think I remember them meeting while captured by batarians.)
  • Also mention Mass Effect: Freelancers by Fatal Intestinal Maelstrom as having similarities, despite being more like a knock-off of Firefly which just happens to have the crew headed by a couple of Geth platforms following in Legion’s footsteps.

Mass Effect: Do-Over Stories Featuring Jack Harper

• Living an Indoctrinated Dream by Aberron (Harper is the main character)
• Stones Thrown Before the Tide by MizDirected (Harper is one of several)

Mass Effect: Fics Where First Contact Is A Satisfyingly Large Focus

• A Krogan misplaced by Baron Steakpuncher (Feels more like a do-over fic than a first contact to me, but it is technically a first contact without any do-over element nonetheless. Alternate history where Urdnot Wrex crash-lands on around the turn of the millennium.)
• Contact by KE12 (Very first contact oriented.)
• Mass Effect: The Terran Gambit by informedterran
• Transcendant Humanity by Solaris242 (This is the one where the Geth are overwhelmed by the experience of eating toast after borrowing a “home body”)
• …? (Need to go back through my other notes and identify which ones are also satisfying as “contact fics”, both ones I’ve already listed and ones that aren’t anywhere on this list)

Mass Effect: Good Self-Inserts with Engaging Supporting Casts

NOTE: I’m not sure if I want this to be a general “good self-inserts with novel characters” list or a “two self-inserts that seem to have evolved convergently” list with an “also mention this…”.

• Beacon’s Effect (and sequels) by Tusken1602
• Hero, I am Not (and sequels) by Soleneus
• Also mention The Pinnacle of Evolution by swrWriter
• I forget. Did Asari Effect by CheshireTwilight fit on this list?
• While not SI-oriented, mention Mass Effect: Freelancers by Fatal Intestinal Maelstrom as having the same feel and engaging supporting cast.

Mass Effect: “Humanity Stays in the Shadows” fics

• A Dark Dawn by Ave Imperium (The contact war goes so badly that the Turian commander throws an asteroid at Earth. The council covers it up, but humanity survives and plots revenge.)
  • Also mention Children of Nemesis by Solaris242. It’s not a “Humanity Stays in the Shadows” fic as I remember, but it has the “trashed homeword” scenario in common. (A much altered humanity having found a way to survive on an Earth now orbiting a black hole.)
  • Was Humanity’s Rebirth by TallYapflip another one of these?
• Psi Effect by Cap’n Chryssalid (X-COM crossover where humanity founds Eclipse as a front so they can infiltrate Citadel space as fake Asari. Great story though the last arc before it went dormant is too unsatisfyingly different from what drew me in.)
• Red Cobra by Billybobjoe47s (Halo crossover)
• Stargates and Relays by stevebond1990 (While it doesn’t go very far into its story arc, being only 18,669 words long, I felt I should mention this fic purely based on how rare “Humanity stays in the shadows” crossovers are.)
• The Terran Intervention by AmeliusTheAlteran (Cross-universal SG-1 explorers stumble upon the battle of Shanxi and decide to stealthily help.)

Mass-Effect: Human-Quarian First Contacts

• Envirosuits and Doobies by SympathyForTheQuarians (The Quarians make contact with humans in 1968. Also has a really interesting idea involving the Geth making contact with an organic hive-minded species who survived a previous cycle by fleeing to a nearby dwarf galaxy.)
• Mass Effect: The First War by ProfFartBurger (Also a “Mars had no eezo and humans developed their own kind of FTL” story.)
• …? (I know I’ve read more of these… including some I think I’ve reviewed already for other categories which should go on the list.)
• …or maybe make this list “non-Turian first contacts”, so I can also include the Geth ones?

Mass Effect: Interesting Crossover Concepts

• A Technological Singularity by 6thfloormadness (Alternative origin story for The Borg)
• Biomass Effect by Beastrider9 (Prototype crossover where Blacklist consumes all life on Earth and then adapts to the point where it reconstitutes humanity before contact is made.)
• Reaper’s Origin by prometheus55 (that SG-1 crossover where the Furlings built the Reapers and then fled interdimensionally)
• The Matrix Effect by unity9 (“The Matrix” crossover where humanity and machines are in a symbiotic relationship by the time Mass Effect canon rolls around.)
• Was there a Fallout crossover worth putting on this list?
• …? (TODO: Audit the list of what I’ve read to make sure I’m not forgetting anything.)

Mass Effect: Non-Standard FTL Technology

• Alcubierre by Whoa Heavy (Very distinctive feel but appears to have been taken down. Need to try to contact author and convince to allow me to put my archived copy on the VFFA.)
• Incompatible System by mp3.1415player (Well written and a surprise Humanx Commonwealth crossover.)
• I think this applies to every single X-COM crossover I want to list
• …? (I think there might have been one or two more.)

Mass Effect: X-COM Crossovers

OK, this list is a bit of a different beast because it’s not so much about the best fics, as it is about the ones I found most satisfying. Sure, Psi Effect is good, but the others are fairly simplistic Humanity, F*** Yeah stories, so there’s a dearth of stories that I’d consider properly “literary”. Also, it’s been a while since I read some of these, and I expect not all of them will make the cut.

• A Battle of Wills by Insinr8 (The one where humanity has become a multi-species alliance, having incorporated the Muton Elites (the purest form of the original species) and the Cyberdisks (essentially naturally evolved AI), developed their own system of wormhole gates out of paranoia about the mass relays, and relocated the Charon relay into dark space. It’s also the one where Chryssalids were engineered from Rachni.)
• Ascension of Earth’s Guardians by Ciroth
• Enemy Returned by Palladius (The one where humanity’s R&D find ways to synthesize new forms of eezo and it turns out that Ethereals are frail because Vrolik’s Syndrome and psionic potential are related in the same was as sickle-cell anemia and malaria resistance.)
• Psi Effect by Cap’n Chryssalid (Fun and well-written story where X-COM infiltrates Citadel space by founding Eclipse)
• The Human War by Generatedname (Noteworthy in being an AU Mass Effect fic that does not start out with a timeline. Instead, it waits until after a prologue where humanity mistakes a Turian patrol fleet for a new Ethereal slave species. Still, probably a runner-up at best for how much time it spends on the Shanxi battles relative to its total length. This is the one where X-COM’s alternative FTL solution is called an elerium sling. Rewrite of When Civilizations Meet and I might be remembering that instead.)
• XCOM: Second Contact by Agayek (This is the one where, after recovering their kidnapped citizens, the humans release a bunch of sterile chryssalids on the world the batarians took them to.)
• …? (Which is the one I remember where the Raloi joined the humans? Is it already on this list or something I need to track down?)

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My Little Pony: Stories About Historical Figures

• Beethoven’s Tenth by CrackedInkWell (A music appreciation course in the form of a fanfic… especially if you read the comments.)
• The Best of All Possible Worlds by McPoodle (Aside from some of the creative elements in it, when don’t you need a fanfic where Voltaire is the main character?)

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Naruto (Unsorted/Ungrouped)

• Reload by Case13 (From what I remember, possibly the most elegantly written Groundhog Day fic I’ve ever read. Starts after Naruto and Sasuke have already been looping long enough to go a little nuts and come out the other side.)
• The Mouse of Konoha by obsidian dreamer

Naruto: Fun With Kage Bunshin

• A Drop of Poison by Angel of Snapdragons (Link to my review.)
• Glaring Problems by dogbertcarroll (Naruto makes a whole bunch of shadow clones to perch on rooftops and glare at the civilians like they glared down at him. dogbertcarroll-style comedy then develops from there… with plenty of eye-searingly orange squirrels.)
• …? (I know there are more of these I’m forgetting. It’s been too many years.)

Naruto: Good “Missing Hokage Challenge” Fics

For those not familiar with it, The Missing Hokage Challenge is something that was put up by Perfect Lionheart, encouraging authors to write fics based on a particular subversion of a bad fanfiction cliché that was doing the rounds at the time.

(Politicking in Konoha overruling Tsunade and getting Naruto kicked out of Konoha. The challenge fics involve Tsunade seeming to go along with it, but then playing the rules, swiping or requisitioning a lot of stuff, appointing Jiraiya as the new hokage, and joining Naruto on the road along with Shizune and Hinata as one big ninja-style “f*** you” to them.)

• The Missing Hokage by Jonque (This one has Naruto’s Henge being revealed to be a uniquely solid transformation jutsu and also has him accidentally learning the shunshin “wrong” so it looks more like has father’s signature technique. This is also the one where Naruto’s female clone starts to develop her own distinct personality and that subplot gets a significant amount of screen time.
  
  Unfortunately, chapters 23 through 26 feel like they’re losing their way, significantly changing the focus, focusing too much on “isn’t that cool” ideas, and ignoring an enticing element that was just recently introduced for far too long. Specifically, the Naruko clone gets dispelled, we see a scene with her in a newly-made solid body trying to un-scramble her memories, and then she’s just forgotten for the entirety of the last few chapters, despite being such a large part of things up until then.
  
  If you ignore the last few chapters, I’d give it a 4.5. Including them, maybe 4.3.)
• Escape From The Hokage’s Hat by anothvortex (This story gets that power grabs in a ninja village are about intrigue but it’s not primarily about that.
  
  It’s mostly about following Tsunade and company, but its most memorable parts are undoubtedly the scenes when it cuts back to Konoha to show the manoeuvring between Jiraiya and the antagonists.
  
  Also, it’s over 400,000 words and starts to wear on me near the end of what got written… I think this is another one of those stories that ran so long that the author started to lose touch with what made it special near the end. It’s also just plain hard to read something this long that hasn’t been properly divided into volumes without burning out.
  
  Maybe a 4.2 before it started to wear on me and a 4.0 when you include reading to the end in the final average.)
• The Missing Hokage by RaiderXV (The characterizations are lacking, but not as horrible as I’ve seen from other Missing Hokage fics, and the amount of time and nuance spent on things feels acceptable. The main flaw is that, especially during the relationship-related scenes with Naruto and Hinata early on, the author has a tendency attempt character writing beyond their skill level.
  
  The most distinctive element in this one is Naruto discovering that Kyuubi managed to interfere with his use of Kage Bunshin back in the wave arc to produce a flesh-and blood twin sister who “shares his soul”. That said, I get a vague sense I’ve seen that done better somewhere else. The story also does a bunch of other fairly original things, such as having Jiraiya cover for Tsunade’s exit using transformed Kage Bunshin to impersonate her, and it glosses over the Shiromari arc rather than rehashing it, which I like.
  
  Still, at times, it did feel like the plot was a little aimless… moving from one focus to another on nothing more concrete than “Well, I guess I should be starting a new arc now”, and like seemingly all of these, the quality drops in the last few chapters.
  
  In fact, the fic seems to embody “not as good at the best two, but better than most” as it also has that in-between character to how the village politics unfold. I’d say that, when you take into account the occasional need for more proofreading, it gets a 3.7 out of 5 by balancing ideas that hook my interest with execution that’s not quite there.)
• The Missing Hokage by maverick9871 (Generally, I’d estimate this to be around a 3.4 out of 5 because it has too many moments when the dialogue or character decision-making are too simplistic and amateurish to be true to canon or the original ideas are a little too “I’m cooler than canon”. It also occasionally has moments of stunning laziness, like referring to monetary amounts in dollars rather than ryo and some of its ideas also didn’t age well as canon revealed more information. I think the most memorable idea, good or bad, is revealing the Lightning Lord to be Naruto’s uncle on his mother’s side. More on this list as a reminder of what I don’t need to re-examine.)
• Renegade: The Missing Hokage by TheDogSage (Makes a decent start, with decent pacing and an acceptable portrayal of Konoha council politicking, but introduces a flanderized Naruto-hating portrayal of Kakashi in chapter 2. Aside from that and an element of how Inuzuka Tsume is portrayed that I don’t think benefits the story, the characterization and general writing quality are pretty good. Unfortunately, it stands incomplete at possibly the worst possible place. I’d put it at a 3.8 out of 5.)
• The Missing Hokage by 3screws (Starts out making an accurate first impression… of an author who lacks patience and nuance and has that distinctive “What do you mean it isn’t good writing to pile on ‘cool’ headcanon as quickly as possible?” problem. It also has a problem with throwing in stuff that works in isolation, but doesn’t mesh in aggregate, like an amusing “No Rasengan at the table.” line. Maybe a 3.1 out of 5 rating.)
• Missing Hokages by Chaosthief1 (Another one that’s only on this list to keep track of what I’ve examined. Same problems as 3screws’s story. It lacks patience and nuance from the very start. This includes making Kakashi the bad guy in a shallow, crude way and slapping the reader across the face with “is this not cool and serious?!” by having Naruto sedated, his arm amputated to replace the one Sasuke lost in the battle, and Tsunade gambling on replacing it with an arm from Kimimaro’s recovered corpse. In only 13,830 words, it has all that as well as a shoddy replacement lore for the Kyuubi, Naruto going Super Saiyan in all but name, and Sasuke getting infected by Naruto-ness from the transplanted arm. Also, varying typos in the character names… with “Shinata” as a particularly spectacular example and “Kyubbi” as a more amusing one. I’d give it a 3.5 out of 5 because something about it made it the “want to keep reading” kind of bad for me.)
• Hokage on the Run by Blood Brandy (This is the kind of story I find hardest to read, because it’s not “entertaining bad”, it’s “author’s headcanon told through OCs wearing masks, and they think it’s cool” bad. You’ve probably run into the kind… where the characters just accept things they should be skeptical of because it’s convenient for the author, and the Kyuubi shapeshifts into a female character who has little connection to canon and gives some half-assed pile of excuses for the change? I’ve seen more gratuitous “OCs wearing canon character masks” writing in a Ranma-Oh My Goddess crossover so it’s not a 2.0, but this Naruto is also checking off “everyone immediately loves or hates him” Mary Sue checkboxes, so 2.3 out of 5.)
• I think there was another “Naruko clone” one. I vaguely remember a progression involving the prolonged use of Oiroke no Jutsu on Kage Bunshin that unfolded differently from Jonque’s. (More in the vein of it slowly dawning on Naruto that something is up specifically with that combination… and I think it involved a distinct personality starting to develop across multiple summonings and dispellings.)
• …? (I need to check which of the other ones (list incomplete) I remember that deserve to be promoted and to re-identify the ones I read which aren’t on that list.)

Naruto: More Crackfics

• The Consequences of Drunken Experiments by Lucillia
  • Chickenzilla by Lucillia (A spin-off of The Consequences of Drunken Experiments chapter where Orochimaru gets hopped up on cough syrup and makes a giant fire-breathing chicken… definitely worth it. One of the rare stories that makes me truly LOL.)
• The many puppets of Naruto by Kagaseo

Naruto: Stories Centred Around Gender-Bending

• Between Deception and Truth by Lord Archive (Naruto and Hinata go into hiding from Akatsuki in gender-swapped forms. They come back a couple with a new baby.)
• Ganbatte ne, Oirokechan by yasuhei (Naruto takes Jiraiya’s “if you want me to train you, you have to stay in that form” comment seriously.)
• Spying no Jutsu by daniel-gudman (For lack of a better option, Naruto is given an infiltration mission where he has to stay in his Sexy/Oiroke no Justu form the whole time.)
• Switched! by Minionette (Naruto and Sakura get body-swapped and Orochimaru laughs himself to death. Also contains a funny recurring-joke cameo from The Luggage.)
• The Male Kunoichi by Rickysio (Another “for lack of a better option, Naruto has to infiltrate in female form” fic)
• …? (I know there are more of these I’m forgetting. It’s been too many years.)

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Ranma ½ (Assorted Good Fics)

• Bliss by Lara L. Bartram and Mike W. Loader (That one with the elements from The Colour Out Of Space)
• Comes The Cold Dragon by Don Lee Granberry
• Girl Days by Kenko (and maybe do a compare and contrast with Girl’s School by Miko2?)
• Not a Clue by Ozzallos (Sadly, only part 1 of a two-part fic, but I remember it implementing a novel concept very well.)
• The Dark Lords of Nerima by claymade (Sailor Moon crossover where Ranma and Ryoga accidentally convince both sides that they’re a second independent faction of bad guys.)
• Re-read a bunch of Ozzallos’s fics I haven’t already reviewed like A Kunoichi in Konoha (R½, Naruto), A Time Apart (R½, multi), Half a Legacy (R½, SM, SG-1), Heir to the Empire (R½, SM), Leaf (R½, Naruto), and Tales of the FoxCat (R½, Naruto) and decide which ones to promote.
• Was Aftermath: A Story of Blended Clichés’ by Trimatter the fukufic I remember reading to the end, then coming back to years later (but still years ago) and saying “Oh God, I read this to the end?” to? If so, I might want to note it down just to have a record of what keeps sticking in my memory. (Similar reason to Mastermind Hunting or Trial By Tenderness or the like. Bad fic with memorably creative ideas.)

Ranma ½: “Ranman in Evangelion” Crossovers

• Synesthesia by JonaBee (Jonakhensu and Weebee)
• Teineina Tenshi no Teze by Fire
• The Wild Horse Thesis by Calamity Cordite (I’ve re-read it several times. The Ranma cast left back in Nerima are unashamedly over-the-top fanon junk, but it’s complete and the EVA side is probably the most satisfying “Ranma replaces Shinji” story I’ve ever run across.)
  • I remember running across a Harry Potter fic with the same broad strokes, which I think was Harry Potter and the Blue-Haired Angel by Quatermass. I’ll wait to re-read it to decide whether it’s worth a mention. (I’d probably rate it 4.0 (maybe 3.9), but it’s mostly focused on after Rei uses Third Impact to bring them back to Hogwarts.)
• …? (I’m sure there’s at least one other I’m forgetting which is worth at least a passing mention.)

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Sailor Moon (Assorted Fics)

• A Terrible Power by Fire
• Bauxite’s Hour by Fire
• Fission by PrincessColumbia (Ranma Saotome and Usagi Tsukino intersect mid-transformation and their forms get a bit muddled up.)
  • See if I can scrape together enough memories to build a list of worthwhile Sailor Moon gender-bender stories.
• Hidden in Darkness by Space Pirate Hamster
• Mercury’s World by Fire (Matrix crossover with a brilliant concept.)
• Sailor Hellblazer [1] [2] by RpM1 and David Tai (A cracky story with a “sometimes, things are meant to be” ending that I remember being satisfying. Sentai tropes collide with John Constantine and you get to hear him say “In the name of love…. fuck off.”)
• …? (Look through my archives for more Sailor Moon fics deserving mention)

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Slayers: Memorable Fics I Should Review

• Kitsune Lina (series) by Thrythlind (I don’t remember how well it’s written but I remember this being the second-most distinctive Slayers fic I ever read after Demiurge. My old review is from 2005, so it’s probably best for me to re-review it.)
• Mixed Doubles by Irony-chan (That one where Lina botches repairing the Shadow Reflector and she and Gourry wind up with ender-swapped clones. I also remember there being a sequel… I think it was called “Me, Myself, and My Reflection”. Did Irony-chan take that down? If so, can I convince her to repost it or allow me to share the copy I archived while reading it on the Vanished FanFic Archive? I remember it not being short even if it was unfinished, and I remember enjoying it.)
• Slayers Demiurge by Stefan “Twoflower” Gagne (I remember this being the most original and impressive concept that I’ve ever seen in a Slayers fic. My old review is from 2005, so it’s probably best for me to re-review it.)
• Slayers Trilogy by Stefan “Twoflower” Gagne
• …? (It’s been so long since I read Slayers fanfics. I need to go check what else I’m forgetting that I might want to introduce a new cadre of readers to.)

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Stargate: Interesting Crossover Concepts

• Jack? by Teri (Angus MacGyver and Jack O’Neill are two halves of the double life the same person is living… and the secret won’t hold forever.)
• Mistaken Identity by Evenmoor (Highlander crossover. Methos recognizes Daniel Jackson as someone he saw 5000 years ago. Daniel mistakes him for a Goa’uld.)
• The Dragon King’s Temple by Kryal (Avatar: The Last Airbender)
• The Husband of Sha’uri by Jedi Buttercup (The Mummy crossover where Daniel Jackson is the mummy who wakes up)
• …?

Stargate: Interesting Goa’uld Characters

• Andromeda Unchained by Speaker-to-Customers (A “What if…?” that has Hathor becoming Tok’ra, Complete)
• Empress in the shadows (original and reworked)
• Warrior Peoples by drakensis
• …? (Wasn’t there one more somewhere?)

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Star Wars (Assorted Stories)

• A Village Hidden in Hope by Marz1 (Naruto botches his first attempt to summon Gamabunta and gets found on Tattoine by a young Anakin Skywalker.)
• Truths Revealed Lies Exposed by VFSNAKE (Leia knew that Darth Vader was her father all along and, when she’s captured in A New Hope, she sets events in motion that result in him conspiring against Palpatine.)
• I’ve read so few Star Wars fics that I should just go back through the list to see if there’s anything else I’m forgetting that’s worth promoting. (eg. I don’t remember reading Legacy of the Red Sun, but that doesn’t automatically mean it’s not enjoyable to read.)

Worm (Assorted Stories)

• Cape for Hire by jacobk (A short but entertaining story that’s memorable for Coil’s cracky response to having his interactions with Taylor not go as expected. His scenes kind of remind me of the Naruto fic, The Consequences of Drunken Experiments)
• Daughter, Dragon by 6thfloormadness (A sweet little oneshot exploring an AU where Andrew Richther created Dragon to be his daughter and, instead of founding the Dragonslayers, Geoffrey Pellick winds up raising her.)
• Ex Synthetica by willyolioleo (Instead of insects, Taylor gets the power to build and control robots… swarms of robots. Robots that can then build smaller and more numerous robots and so on.)
• Hardlight by Temporal Knight (Taylor is gay. Purity is going through divorce, and Danny is dating again. A satisfyingly well-written story about a girl building a relationship while also having to deal with having triggered in Brockton Bay and a woman trying to overcome her past and the traumas that led her into it.)
• Inheritance by Pendragoon (Taylor accidentally kills the Butcher and Queen Administrator allows Taylor to mute the peanut gallery as needed… even if they do still bleed into her sense of morals for dealing with other criminals. Won first place for Favourite Version of Taylor in a Fic in the 2022 Cauldron Awards.)
• Nemesis by Beacon Hill (Taylor gets her powers when Emma makes use of a PR training wheels program offered by Cauldron where a new cape gets to sponsor a villain who’s obligated to be their nemesis and to take part in certain events. However, Emma’s arrogance and Taylor’s intelligence result in things not going as intended.)
• Silence Falls by Lord Claw (Taylor Hebert triggered with the power of Sailor Saturn. The story begins with her sacrificing herself to end Leviathan.)
• Thaumaturgic Awakening (SB) by Xylix (A Fate/Stay Night crossover where post-canon Rin and Shirou form one of three teams sent via Kaleidoscope to investigate a predicted threat to their world, and the Worm setting and mechanics are a subset of Fate cosmology.)
• Magical Girl Escalation Taylor (Runner-up. Has good ideas, like turning the Simurgh into a fairy on their team, but not as concentratedly noteworthy as the others on the list.)
• Magical Girl Lyrical Taylor by P.H. Wise (Feels like it has more depth of character than Magical Girl Escalation Taylor, but it also has a dramatic shift that kills off significant characters and then uses the aftermath for character development. It’s good writing and I think I enjoyed it more than the analogous point in Death Note, but it’s not for everyone and I never fully got over my mixed opinions on it… Emotionally, I generally see properly-used character death as an opportunity to embrace the shattering of suspension of disbelief and fault the author for not finding an alternative which preserved the character(s) I like. And, of course, improperly-used character death is all that plus tasteless and tacky.)
• Paper and Sand by FifteenBadgers (An AU that’s satisfyingly good at its world-building, where the timeline got reset, there’s a fourth Endbringer named Khepri, Annette Hebert is alive and a cape, and their first encounter starts to jog Khepri’s memory.)
• Starry Eyes by helnae (Taylor’s trigger turns everything below her skin into a walking hole in space, a pocket dimension occupied by a couple of kind amnesiac but very inhuman girls who will be her new friend… one of them particularly shoggoth-y.)
• There’s No Way My New Little Sister Can Be The Simurgh! by ensou (An entertaining story that reminds me of some of the anime I’ve watched… and given the choice of title, I get the impression that was the goal.)
• What If Emma’s Mom Found Out About The Bullying? by TheVampireStrahd (One of the most satisfying “justice is done” fics I’ve read in a while. Sort of reminds me of things like the Harry Potter fic, Long Live The Queen)
• Worm:Merrie Melodies by Zero-metallix (A single chapter of cracky goodness where Taylor’s power is being a living Warner Brothers cartoon character.)

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Wreck-It Ralph (Assorted Stories)

• Ghost Boy by turbomun (Wreck-It Ralph post-canon story following Turbo, the titular “ghost boy” in more than one sense as he struggles to come to terms with his game being gone, 30 years of missing time, and a growing sense that something is being kept from him. Complete with sequel.)
  • Another “Turbo as the protagonist” fic I’ve read but can’t remember if it’s any good is The Path Not Taken by Dixie Darlin. I’ll want to re-read it to see if it deserves a review.
• …? (I found all my previous Wreck-It Ralph fics just by trawling a search on Fanfiction.net sorted by faves, but it’s been years since I did that. I should see what else I can turn up.)

Wreck-It Ralph (Good Oneshots)

• Benefactor by Dixie Darlin (A satisfyingly elegant and creative exploration of how Turbo might have gotten that napkin with the Konami code on it.)
• Bricks by Cadavatar (A perfect example of classic “depiction of a moment” short story form built around the phrase “I can juggle, you know.”)
• Local Man Find His Arcade ‘Turbotastic’ by Cadavatar (A touching “Mr. Litwak knows” story. Narratively a oneshot but technically not because of an added bonus chapter.)
• Never Looked Down by Rachel-Eyes (A satisfying “cast a new light on canon” character oneshot about Fix-It Felix.)
• Where Do Babies Come From? by hochmodel (Maybe as an honorable mention. It lacks that special something I look for in oneshots.)