@Inert or anyone, can you supply a link to The Asking Price? I'm curious.

 

Best Fic Ever

It's a Hunger Games fic, just FYI.

 

Can I get a link to the Comics: Legend

 

Batman centric.

 

I'm surprised Cauterized hasn't been mentioned yet. Granted, there is probably more then a bit of nostalgia mixed in for me. There are a lot of fics over the years that I quite enjoyed and loved. But Cauterized was the first fanfic that truly effected me. It was the first fic that showed me that fanfiction can be more then just cheap entertainment. That it is just as much an art form as anything else.

That the fic itself is a wonderful bit of worldbuilding that slots perfectly into canon is just the cherry on top. It's length and focus on characters also means that it aged much better then it has the right to. Even ten years later it still feels like a breath of fresh air in a fandom that has been circling the same ten tropes for forever.

 

The one with the Dumbledore memories by taure. It is fun; I like seeing magic used by top tier wizards from the viewpoint of a top tier wizard. Especially when it's from a magic system like taure's which is very unique. I don't really want any more chapters from it though. I like victoria potter, as we can see the development of such a witch from scratch.

The only thing I don't like about his fics is his views on what makes an exceptional wizard. The problem is rooted in how he views human intelligence and what makes a genius in general. I think.

 

Definitely this for me. It hurts that it'll most likely never be finished.

 

Cauterize is my pet hate. Not because the fic itself is bad, but because I consider it vastly overrated. It's the perfect example of what I think of as "Livejournal fics" (these days, AO3 fics), which possess the following traits:

- Limited word count.

- Highly stylised prose.

- Introspective focus which does not pay much attention to establishing setting.

- "Snapshot" narrative which dips in and out of scenes over time without fully developing any given scene.

- No plot.

These fics represent fanfic on easy mode. Their limited ambition is what makes them work: you could never tell a complete story in such a manner, which essentially glosses over the hard work of character, world and plot development. But that limited ambition is exactly why I think they are overrated. They are not fully realised stories. They are like trailers for stories. Now, trailers can be very well crafted. Some trailers are actually a lot better than the movies they advertise. But nonetheless it's not a complete work. It doesn't take anywhere near the same level of craft as it takes to tell a complete story.

As for Prince of a Dark Kingdom, I just found it to be a continual disappointment. The titular Prince (Harry) is just a bit weak and pathetic, even compared to his canon self. The story does not live up to its premise of telling the story of Harry as a Prince of wizarding Britain -- unless it is supposed to be a criticism of monarchy. Also the werewolf stuff makes zero sense.

Turning to my own response to OP: historically my answer would have been a contest between Ectomancer and Forging the Sword. However, recently Out of the Night by Raining Ink has supplanted them both as my favourite. I find myself going back to re-read it the most often out of all fics.

 

Everyone can have opinions yada yada. That out of the way, I just want to politely disagree about Harry in PotDK. I've always found him to be a competent and proactive character. He has moments of weakness, as does everybody, but I disagree that he's generally weak or pathetic. He grows into a rather dangerous person throughout the story and he constantly does shit that a normal irl person would nope the fuck out of because it's frankly hazardous to one's health.

 

Choosing favourites is a struggle for me, let alone one above all. The best I can do is choose onr from each of my most read fandoms:

Naruto: Life in Konoha's ANBU by Shezza

Bleach: Hammered Down by Tomas the Betrayer

HP: Harry Potter and Forests of Valbonë by enembee

 

@Taure What are your thoughts on the asking price?

 

My thoughts are that it is not a Harry Potter fic.

 

A Black Comedy by nonjon. Maybe I’m childish, but the punchlines still hold up after all this time.

 

After all this time?

Always.

Eventually I'll stop articulating replies to these threads and just be a tumblr-esque series of infinitely nested comments quoting myself on why Contemplating Clouds remains the greatest album fic of all time. Of all time.

I've largely stopped reading HP stuff the past few years since the books have been finished for over a decade, the movies never really caught my attention, and The Cursed Child should have been aborted.

Still, I've read a lot and nothing floats into my mind as naturally as does Clouds. It's like the literary equivalent of falling in love.

 

In the past I've said the Sacrifices Arc, but while I still think it's an excellent piece of work, I find it less so the more I reread it. As far as Harry Potter goes, I'd probably echo those who've said Prince of the Dark Kingdom these days, even if it isn't finished and probably - presumably - never will be.

In other fandoms, I'd nominate the entire Sorrowful and Immaculate Hearts series, especially Third Wheel, which I think is a brilliant take on the first meeting of Batman and Superman; Something Borrowed, which is a Supergirl character piece; the Laws series, covering the Mass Effect trilogy (I actually need to go back and finish this, and probably reread it, but I remember it being excellent).

 

Probably Circular Reasoning for unfinished fics, but The Denarian series is what really made me sit up and take notice of fanfiction and sign up for DLP, so it it still gets top spot. An Unfound Door, Renegade Cause and its abandoned sequel and The Only One He Feared probably round out the top five.

 

Trying to limit it to a single fic is an exercise in futility but some that I really love and find myself reading again and again are these


Forward by Peptuck

A Long Journey Home by Rakeesh

Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus by The Carnivorous Muffin

The Son of Suns trilogy by blank101

Catharsis by Nuhuh

Awaken Sleeper by Water Mage

Chaos Theory by Moczo

Of the River and the Sea by Aleycat4eva

Written in Reverse by by JMenace

And last but most certainly not least, the criminally underrated and underappreciated The Phoenix and the Serpent by Sanction for which I would gladly sacrifice any number of you in some dark magic ritual if I thought some eldritch abomination from outside reality might take notice and complete it. And that goes double for Awaken Sleeper and triple for Forward.

 

Most of my favourites are crossovers. So, the world they take place in is the category i'll put them in.
HP - Ectomancer by Rusty Red
LotR - The Shadow of Angmar by Steelbadger
Naruto - Uchiha Fukurou by ToBetasered
Bleach - God of Flash by ToBetasered
Dresden - The Endless Pantheon Series by Todeswind

Thought for sure my Naruto category would be something by Inert or Menace, but the heart wants what the heart wants.

 

@AlbusPHolmes The One He Feared is Taure's unfinished memory insert fic, RC sequel is called Criminal Limit