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Fan(fic) Service 21h
hot take: “major character death” and similar archive warnings are SPOILERS and actively ruin narrative tension
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Fan(fic) Service 2d
This "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is starting to feel a lot like an impending "Major Character Death" yall
100 upvotes, 2 comments. Sidechat image post by Anonymous in Fan(fic) Service. "This "Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is starting to feel a lot like an impending "Major Character Death" yall"
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13
upvote 21 downvote
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Anonymous 18h

Yes, I feel the same. I have a 200k fic where the main character is going to make a choice knowing they’ll die and I’m still debating whether to tag major character death or not. I think I’m going to put in a note that the “chose not to use archive warnings” is taken seriously. If I tag major character death it just gets boiled down to that point and it’s frustrating because the character development won’t be meaningful if readers know what’s going to happen from the beginning.

upvote 33 downvote
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Anonymous 17h

Bc some of us don’t want to read where people die

upvote 28 downvote
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Anonymous 20h

This is true, but I feel like in fanfiction spaces the concept of “spoilers” is different. In fanfic we seek out hyper specific tropes and scenarios and we care less about narrative tension than we would if we were reading a novel or watching a movie.

upvote 25 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 19h

That

upvote 3 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 18h

… do y’all’s fandoms not write novels? Like, this is mostly coming from the fact I’ve encountered a LOT of novel-quality fics that, if they had been hosted on AO3, would have been RUINED by warning tags. Do y’all not look for those?

upvote 9 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #1 18h

Also - why are we caring less about narrative when fanfiction is the One Medium Of Creative Writing where a publisher can’t tell you something is too long to print? Where you can ACTUALLY take advantage of long wordcounts as opposed to being locked into the 70k-130k publishing range?

upvote 7 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> OP 18h

You can avoid reading the tags if they bother you

upvote 19 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #2 18h

Not at my reading speed

upvote 0 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> OP 15h

Consciously read slower and swipe. I get it I read against my will but there are things you can do to prevent that using a website especially on your phone

upvote 12 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #2 15h

Also apparently there are site skins that hide them! Very awesome stuff!

upvote 10 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #2 11h

see THAT i didn’t know and i think i’m gonna use em

upvote 1 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #3 1h

adding a note may be the way to go, but if you as an author feel that it takes away from the story to let that be known from the beginning, then don’t let it be known. choosing not to use archive warnings (especially with an added reminder for readers that you chose not to for a reason) is more than a valid choice to make for your story

upvote 1 downvote
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Anonymous replying to -> #5 1h

bc yes ppl are totally reasonable to not want to read stories with certain content, but “author chose not to use archive warnings” is a warning in itself

upvote 1 downvote