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Let's talk about id!fic
So I was bored at work and combing back through old ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
metafandom entries, and I stumbled across this jewel. You should read it because it's short and kind of hilarious.
The premise is a celebration of those fics you should be ashamed of enjoying and you know they’re kinda bad but you can’t help it, you love them anyways: id!fic.
[As an aside, this topic always reminds me of OH JOHN RINGO NO, which is one of my favorite posts to ever happen to the internet. Except that his id freaks me out. Unlike my id, which I’m quite comfortable with. GO READ THE POST.]
Of course, not all id!fics are fics to be ashamed of, and I won’t call them guilty pleasure fics, because not all of them are bad. Harbingers of Beatrice by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hollydb, for instance, is definitely an id!fic for me: Spike has a BFF! Spike and Cordy are friends! It’s h/c with Buffy being the one who gets hurt and comforted! Buffy and Spike pretty much ride off into the sunset! All of Angel's friends end up liking Spike better! [I know, I know! I'm a horrible person!] The parts of it I enjoy most appeal to the pettiest parts of me or are the parts that are least likely to happen in canon. That's what makes it (for me) an id!fic, which it might not be for another person.
Then there’sbotias's awesome Persephone, which she says is just an excuse to have virginal!S2!Buffy and evil!S2!Spike get it on...but it’s really, really good (and, unfortunately, unfinished). I’m pretty sure Season Noir just started out as Anna S.’s idfic. nautibitz has made an entire fandom career out of writing id!fic.
So while the fics/authors I listed aren't all pure id!fic (though some of Nauti's certainly are), they all have varying levels of id-appeal. I, unfortunately, don't have any id!fic loves quite as extreme as the ones mentioned in the linked post. The closest I can come to an id!fic that I enjoy because of its iddiness are those big epic fics by a certain Spuffy writer in which (invariably) A) Spike is horribly, horribly hurt and/or tortured and/or enslaved, B) Buffy saves him and loves on him, C) Buffy betrays her promise to never let him get hurt again by either allowing him to be in a situation where his torturer can hurt him or where she herself hurts him, D) Dawn is OUT FOR REVENGE (I don't even know why, but Dawn is usually the one to be OUT FOR REVENGE in these fics and it makes me lol forever), and E) Buffy apologizes to Spike (sometimes this strays too far into Buffy That Bitch! territory and makes me mad) and they live happily ever after.
And look. It's ridiculous, okay? (That's not a slam at the writing, which is quite good, just an observation on the premises.) But it's way, way fun. I enjoy the hell out of it. I love h/c just so much, and sometimes I really love woobies.
[Another aside: I would love, love, love to read more fics where Buffy is the woobie. Someone should write more of those. I wanna see Spike loving on Buffy like in “Touched.” But I want this without Buffy being reduced to the stereotypical damsel role. I want her to still be Buffy...just with h/c. Y’all get on that.]
Now, at this point, you may be asking yourself what the difference is between an id!fic and a fic that contains your narrative kinks (I asked myself this myself). In my mind there are two main differences between something appealing to your id and something being a narrative kink.
1) Id-appeal is more situationally specific than narrative kinks. For instance, one of my kinks is babyfic. I don't want to see it with every pairing I like, but I certainly would in more than one pairing. Whereas the fics I describe below are very character or situationally specific. They're revenge fics or fics that rub in everyone's face how awesome a particular character is or just flat-out would never happen in canon. Ever.
and/or
2) You realize it's ridiculous. Whether that's because it doesn't fit the characters or it's insane troll logic or it's just plain silly, id-appeal tends towards the ridiculous. Sometimes a really talented writer can pull that ridiculous off (see the fics I talked about above). But if you strip away the great writing the idea itself is really ridiculous. [Note: I realize almost every single plot could be construed as being ridiculous. There's a TV Trope about descriptions of stories that sound stupid. Id-appeal, though, takes it further.]
So, as I said, sometimes id!fic can become something really, really great. But most of my personal id!fic is of the kind I’m never gonna write because either A) no one else would want to read it or B) it would ruin my reputation in fandom (HAHAHAHA! Fandom reputation! *dies laughing*). But I’m gonna come clean and tell you all about them.
Here's the one that sticks with me: Post-"Empty Places," Spike comes back from his Mission Mission (oh, Andrew!) and Buffy's all depressed and everything, and he's furious at her friends for what they did to her, and the two of them say, "Screw it!" and they run far away and live happily ever after in some place awesome (Vienna, probably, just so I can write about Vienna and picture the look on Buffy's face when Spike takes her shopping on Mariahilferstrasse for the first time and the two of them eating massive amounts of gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni and go to the Wiehnachtsmarkt and generally just be awesome together in Vienna).
And everyone back in Sunnydale dies fighting the First. And then Angel has to come riding in and stops the First and has to wear the tacky amulet to do it and closes the Hellmouth burns up doing it and Lindsey or whoever doesn't bring him back.
And Spike and Buffy are off being happy and NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-BOO-BOO.
Probably also in this fic, Riley and his wife will show up in Vienna and Buffy’ll be all, “I could be all mad at you for being a horrible, passive-aggressive, victim-blaming, patronizing jerk the last two times I saw you, but I’m too happy with Spike to even care about you. Go away.” And Riley feels like the douche he is for giving Buffy ultimatums and telling her it was her fault that he went and got suckjobs from vamps and then came back to town as was patronizing as hell (can you tell I recently rewatched "Into the Woods"? Any softness I felt towards him while rewatching S4 gets thrown out the window when I watch ItW or AYW). And Sam is revealed to be a robot. Made by Warren. Idek why. Just because it’s funny.
And this is like the least realistic thing in the universe, and it shouldn’t ever, ever happen in canon because it just doesn’t make sense. I also wouldn’t love Buffy nearly as much if she wasn’t the kind of person to just straight-up forgive people when most others probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t love Spike as much if he didn’t love the way Buffy tries and didn’t give her the strength to go back and if he wasn’t willing to die to save the whole freakin’ world. I definitely wouldn’t love either of them as much if they were fine with leaving people they loved to die. They wouldn’t be heroes then. I fully acknowledge that.
But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. And the truth is that I really don't want everyone else to die (I love Dawn! And Anya! And Andrew! And...some other people sometimes!). But when I'm watching that episode, I do. Because when I watch “Empty Places,” I become so angry that I shake and I can’t watch the whole episode and I want EVERYONE TO DIE DIE DIE except for Buffy and Spike (and Andrew, but he isn’t invited to Vienna. Sorry, bro) and I want them to be deliriously and blissfully happy.
I’d also love to write/read fic in which Riley walks in on Buffy and Spike in “As You Were” and Spike does the whole speech about the word delicious and Buffy goes, “You know what? This is kind of hilariously awesome” and tells Riley to go away and never come back and then she and Spike live happily ever after.
And I know that wouldn’t be realistic. That wouldn’t be Buffy—she’s struggling with depression and isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at the moment. And it wouldn’t be good for Spike—he’s manipulative and horrible in a lot of ways in S6 (because he doesn’t have any sort of moral compass) and also isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at that moment.
But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. You know?
I have a few id!fic cravings in other fandoms as well. And even though you didn’t ask, I’m gonna tell you about them.
* Veronica Mars: I really, really want a fic where Kendall and Cassidy Casablancas take over the world and snark at each other (and secretly are very fond of each other but would never admit it) while they RULE THE WORLD. Like, Cassidy owns every major company in the world and is like Donald Trump and Bill Gates combined and Kendall is his partner in crime, and there's much snarking and plotting and general awesomeness.
* Battlestar Galactica: I want fic where Felix and Dee are laughing and partying it up in heaven (I blame this onineffort. Also, fic wherein Sam finds a nice girl who appreciates him and Kara feels bad. [Gah! And I hate those kinds of fics in Buffy fandom! It makes me furious when I read a fic where someone "finally appreciates" Spike and Buffy feels bad. But for some reason, I want it for Sam Anders. I do not know why.]
* Dollhouse: While the show was airing, I posted my plans to make it awesome. And it's pure id, y'all.
*Supernatural: I want fic where all of the dead women—women killed off to give men something to angst over—haunt the Winchester brothers to death.
* Doctor Who: I want fic where Billy Shipton comes back from the dead (and being old) and he comes to visit Sally Sparrow and she’s all, “What was I thinking with stupid Larry Nightingale? Billy’s the guy for me!” [That part is vital to it being id!fic and not just wish!fulfillment!fic] And then they run off and become Companions and run around the universe in the Tardis.
* Being Erica: I want lots and lots of AU fic where (highlight for possible spoilers, yo) Erica falls into 2019 (sans annoying wig) and she meets bad-boy!rock-star!Kai and cures him of his bad-boy!rock-star ways by the POWER OF THEIR LOVE.
* Buffyverse: I want fic post-“You’re Welcome” where Cordy isn’t dead and she and Spike are BFFs, dammit! And Buffy and Spike must be together and Buffy must have chosen Spike over Angel and Cordy must think this is all hilarious and Cordy and Spike must snark together constantly. Mostly about Angel. (To be slightly nicer to Angel, he can be with Cordy, even though he totally isn't good enough for her. ;D) [I know, I know! I ask about this all the time! Sooner or later, though, I'm gonna wear one of you down and you're gonna write it.]
* Crossover time! I want fic where Veronica joins the FBI and Dana Scully is her mentor and while she’s investigating a case she meets this woman named Buffy Summers…. [Actually...this isn't id!fic. It's just an awesome idea and one of you should write it. I'm just sneaking it in in hopes it will latch onto someone's brain.]
* nu!Trek: I want fic where adorable little nu!Chekhov has a crush on some girl and doesn’t know how to talk to her so Uhura plays big sister and gives him advice while her BFF Jim (like this fic, which is an id!fic all on its own) snarks and banters and generally makes fun of everything.
* That 70s Show: I want fic where it’s revealed that everyone was smoking crack in the last few seasons and HYDE AND JACKIE GET BACK TOGETHER OKAY? What makes this id!fic is that I also want to see Fez fall off the planet and Hyde's wife-whatever-what-is-going-on-here? get sent packing by Jackie's awesomeness. Basically, I want it to be a Jackie!lovefest where Jackie gets the guy. The guy being Hyde. Yes.
I realize a lot of other people’s id!fic might be, like, porn, right? 'Cause that's kind of a thing in fandom? It isn’t my thing, but to each their own. Regardless of what rating your idfic would be, I want to hear about it.
Tell me about:
1. The fics you absolutely flat-out love, despite the fact that they're kind of ridiculous or are just horribly bad or appeal to the worst parts of you but you love them anyway.
and
2. The fic you’ll never, ever write because you know it doesn’t make sense or because your reputation would be shot to hell or because you’re embarrassed. Or the fic that would hit the less reasonable of your narrative kinks but that you crave despite knowing how ridiculous/unpopular/just-plain-silly it would be.
Anyone want to play?
Tell me, please!
metafandom entries, and I stumbled across this jewel. You should read it because it's short and kind of hilarious.The premise is a celebration of those fics you should be ashamed of enjoying and you know they’re kinda bad but you can’t help it, you love them anyways: id!fic.
[As an aside, this topic always reminds me of OH JOHN RINGO NO, which is one of my favorite posts to ever happen to the internet. Except that his id freaks me out. Unlike my id, which I’m quite comfortable with. GO READ THE POST.]
Of course, not all id!fics are fics to be ashamed of, and I won’t call them guilty pleasure fics, because not all of them are bad. Harbingers of Beatrice by
hollydb, for instance, is definitely an id!fic for me: Spike has a BFF! Spike and Cordy are friends! It’s h/c with Buffy being the one who gets hurt and comforted! Buffy and Spike pretty much ride off into the sunset! All of Angel's friends end up liking Spike better! [I know, I know! I'm a horrible person!] The parts of it I enjoy most appeal to the pettiest parts of me or are the parts that are least likely to happen in canon. That's what makes it (for me) an id!fic, which it might not be for another person.Then there’s
botias's awesome Persephone, which she says is just an excuse to have virginal!S2!Buffy and evil!S2!Spike get it on...but it’s really, really good (and, unfortunately, unfinished). I’m pretty sure Season Noir just started out as Anna S.’s idfic. nautibitz has made an entire fandom career out of writing id!fic.So while the fics/authors I listed aren't all pure id!fic (though some of Nauti's certainly are), they all have varying levels of id-appeal. I, unfortunately, don't have any id!fic loves quite as extreme as the ones mentioned in the linked post. The closest I can come to an id!fic that I enjoy because of its iddiness are those big epic fics by a certain Spuffy writer in which (invariably) A) Spike is horribly, horribly hurt and/or tortured and/or enslaved, B) Buffy saves him and loves on him, C) Buffy betrays her promise to never let him get hurt again by either allowing him to be in a situation where his torturer can hurt him or where she herself hurts him, D) Dawn is OUT FOR REVENGE (I don't even know why, but Dawn is usually the one to be OUT FOR REVENGE in these fics and it makes me lol forever), and E) Buffy apologizes to Spike (sometimes this strays too far into Buffy That Bitch! territory and makes me mad) and they live happily ever after.
And look. It's ridiculous, okay? (That's not a slam at the writing, which is quite good, just an observation on the premises.) But it's way, way fun. I enjoy the hell out of it. I love h/c just so much, and sometimes I really love woobies.
[Another aside: I would love, love, love to read more fics where Buffy is the woobie. Someone should write more of those. I wanna see Spike loving on Buffy like in “Touched.” But I want this without Buffy being reduced to the stereotypical damsel role. I want her to still be Buffy...just with h/c. Y’all get on that.]
Now, at this point, you may be asking yourself what the difference is between an id!fic and a fic that contains your narrative kinks (I asked myself this myself). In my mind there are two main differences between something appealing to your id and something being a narrative kink.
1) Id-appeal is more situationally specific than narrative kinks. For instance, one of my kinks is babyfic. I don't want to see it with every pairing I like, but I certainly would in more than one pairing. Whereas the fics I describe below are very character or situationally specific. They're revenge fics or fics that rub in everyone's face how awesome a particular character is or just flat-out would never happen in canon. Ever.
and/or
2) You realize it's ridiculous. Whether that's because it doesn't fit the characters or it's insane troll logic or it's just plain silly, id-appeal tends towards the ridiculous. Sometimes a really talented writer can pull that ridiculous off (see the fics I talked about above). But if you strip away the great writing the idea itself is really ridiculous. [Note: I realize almost every single plot could be construed as being ridiculous. There's a TV Trope about descriptions of stories that sound stupid. Id-appeal, though, takes it further.]
So, as I said, sometimes id!fic can become something really, really great. But most of my personal id!fic is of the kind I’m never gonna write because either A) no one else would want to read it or B) it would ruin my reputation in fandom (HAHAHAHA! Fandom reputation! *dies laughing*). But I’m gonna come clean and tell you all about them.
Here's the one that sticks with me: Post-"Empty Places," Spike comes back from his Mission Mission (oh, Andrew!) and Buffy's all depressed and everything, and he's furious at her friends for what they did to her, and the two of them say, "Screw it!" and they run far away and live happily ever after in some place awesome (Vienna, probably, just so I can write about Vienna and picture the look on Buffy's face when Spike takes her shopping on Mariahilferstrasse for the first time and the two of them eating massive amounts of gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni and go to the Wiehnachtsmarkt and generally just be awesome together in Vienna).
And everyone back in Sunnydale dies fighting the First. And then Angel has to come riding in and stops the First and has to wear the tacky amulet to do it and closes the Hellmouth burns up doing it and Lindsey or whoever doesn't bring him back.
And Spike and Buffy are off being happy and NAH-NAH-NAH-NAH-BOO-BOO.
Probably also in this fic, Riley and his wife will show up in Vienna and Buffy’ll be all, “I could be all mad at you for being a horrible, passive-aggressive, victim-blaming, patronizing jerk the last two times I saw you, but I’m too happy with Spike to even care about you. Go away.” And Riley feels like the douche he is for giving Buffy ultimatums and telling her it was her fault that he went and got suckjobs from vamps and then came back to town as was patronizing as hell (can you tell I recently rewatched "Into the Woods"? Any softness I felt towards him while rewatching S4 gets thrown out the window when I watch ItW or AYW). And Sam is revealed to be a robot. Made by Warren. Idek why. Just because it’s funny.
And this is like the least realistic thing in the universe, and it shouldn’t ever, ever happen in canon because it just doesn’t make sense. I also wouldn’t love Buffy nearly as much if she wasn’t the kind of person to just straight-up forgive people when most others probably wouldn’t. I wouldn’t love Spike as much if he didn’t love the way Buffy tries and didn’t give her the strength to go back and if he wasn’t willing to die to save the whole freakin’ world. I definitely wouldn’t love either of them as much if they were fine with leaving people they loved to die. They wouldn’t be heroes then. I fully acknowledge that.
But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. And the truth is that I really don't want everyone else to die (I love Dawn! And Anya! And Andrew! And...some other people sometimes!). But when I'm watching that episode, I do. Because when I watch “Empty Places,” I become so angry that I shake and I can’t watch the whole episode and I want EVERYONE TO DIE DIE DIE except for Buffy and Spike (and Andrew, but he isn’t invited to Vienna. Sorry, bro) and I want them to be deliriously and blissfully happy.
I’d also love to write/read fic in which Riley walks in on Buffy and Spike in “As You Were” and Spike does the whole speech about the word delicious and Buffy goes, “You know what? This is kind of hilariously awesome” and tells Riley to go away and never come back and then she and Spike live happily ever after.
And I know that wouldn’t be realistic. That wouldn’t be Buffy—she’s struggling with depression and isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at the moment. And it wouldn’t be good for Spike—he’s manipulative and horrible in a lot of ways in S6 (because he doesn’t have any sort of moral compass) and also isn’t capable of being in a healthy relationship at that moment.
But my id doesn’t care. My id wants that fic. You know?
I have a few id!fic cravings in other fandoms as well. And even though you didn’t ask, I’m gonna tell you about them.
* Veronica Mars: I really, really want a fic where Kendall and Cassidy Casablancas take over the world and snark at each other (and secretly are very fond of each other but would never admit it) while they RULE THE WORLD. Like, Cassidy owns every major company in the world and is like Donald Trump and Bill Gates combined and Kendall is his partner in crime, and there's much snarking and plotting and general awesomeness.
* Battlestar Galactica: I want fic where Felix and Dee are laughing and partying it up in heaven (I blame this on
ineffort. Also, fic wherein Sam finds a nice girl who appreciates him and Kara feels bad. [Gah! And I hate those kinds of fics in Buffy fandom! It makes me furious when I read a fic where someone "finally appreciates" Spike and Buffy feels bad. But for some reason, I want it for Sam Anders. I do not know why.]* Dollhouse: While the show was airing, I posted my plans to make it awesome. And it's pure id, y'all.
*Supernatural: I want fic where all of the dead women—women killed off to give men something to angst over—haunt the Winchester brothers to death.
* Doctor Who: I want fic where Billy Shipton comes back from the dead (and being old) and he comes to visit Sally Sparrow and she’s all, “What was I thinking with stupid Larry Nightingale? Billy’s the guy for me!” [That part is vital to it being id!fic and not just wish!fulfillment!fic] And then they run off and become Companions and run around the universe in the Tardis.
* Being Erica: I want lots and lots of AU fic where (highlight for possible spoilers, yo) Erica falls into 2019 (sans annoying wig) and she meets bad-boy!rock-star!Kai and cures him of his bad-boy!rock-star ways by the POWER OF THEIR LOVE.
* Buffyverse: I want fic post-“You’re Welcome” where Cordy isn’t dead and she and Spike are BFFs, dammit! And Buffy and Spike must be together and Buffy must have chosen Spike over Angel and Cordy must think this is all hilarious and Cordy and Spike must snark together constantly. Mostly about Angel. (To be slightly nicer to Angel, he can be with Cordy, even though he totally isn't good enough for her. ;D) [I know, I know! I ask about this all the time! Sooner or later, though, I'm gonna wear one of you down and you're gonna write it.]
* Crossover time! I want fic where Veronica joins the FBI and Dana Scully is her mentor and while she’s investigating a case she meets this woman named Buffy Summers…. [Actually...this isn't id!fic. It's just an awesome idea and one of you should write it. I'm just sneaking it in in hopes it will latch onto someone's brain.]
* nu!Trek: I want fic where adorable little nu!Chekhov has a crush on some girl and doesn’t know how to talk to her so Uhura plays big sister and gives him advice while her BFF Jim (like this fic, which is an id!fic all on its own) snarks and banters and generally makes fun of everything.
* That 70s Show: I want fic where it’s revealed that everyone was smoking crack in the last few seasons and HYDE AND JACKIE GET BACK TOGETHER OKAY? What makes this id!fic is that I also want to see Fez fall off the planet and Hyde's wife-whatever-what-is-going-on-here? get sent packing by Jackie's awesomeness. Basically, I want it to be a Jackie!lovefest where Jackie gets the guy. The guy being Hyde. Yes.
I realize a lot of other people’s id!fic might be, like, porn, right? 'Cause that's kind of a thing in fandom? It isn’t my thing, but to each their own. Regardless of what rating your idfic would be, I want to hear about it.
Tell me about:
1. The fics you absolutely flat-out love, despite the fact that they're kind of ridiculous or are just horribly bad or appeal to the worst parts of you but you love them anyway.
and
2. The fic you’ll never, ever write because you know it doesn’t make sense or because your reputation would be shot to hell or because you’re embarrassed. Or the fic that would hit the less reasonable of your narrative kinks but that you crave despite knowing how ridiculous/unpopular/just-plain-silly it would be.
Anyone want to play?
Tell me, please!