Sincronos.net Forums

I've had this idea brewing in my brain for a few days. A thread dedicated to fanfiction stories that we've read over the years that have inspired us for their creativity, faithfulness to canon, superb characterisation or what have you. In short, just really entertaining reads.

In recent times I've been reading a bit more Mass Effect fanfiction, and I stumbled across one story called "When There Was a Tomorrow." It's a Mass Effect/Halo crossover that, unlike most other attempts, succeeds in its goal in highlighting the best of both worlds, and everyone is mostly in character (I can forgive that occasional Southern twang that seems to pop up with Shepard or Garrus). There are a few spelling errors in it too, but that does little to detract from the story where Shepard and his crew (post ME2) travel through a wormhole in time to help defend Reach against the seemingly unstoppable Covenant, who in turn have mysteriously begun to acquire Mass Effect tech to make them even more dangerous.
What's more, the author has begun work on the sequel "Guilty Sparks" where the Normandy crew makes it to Halo, while back in the Mass Effect universe Liara has to contend with the Covenant, who largely remain a mystery to her and her ragtag team that she's assembled to take them down.

In both cases it's a bit of a rewrite of Halo: Reach and Combat Evolved, but there is an original story and plot by the antagonists in between the lines. And every character gets a chance to shine.

This is a really good idea for a thread. I'll have to revisit some of my old personal favorites to share, and hopefully I'll manage to glean some fresh inspiration while I'm at it...

If you're looking for a good Teen Titans fanfic, I'd recommend Avatar and its sequel Adaptation. I'd rate them as PG-16 works myself, a bit mature, but they are damn well crafted. The first asks the question: What if Robin gained superpowers? How would that change the team? The second story is even more mature (especially nearing the climax) and deals with the aftermath of the first and how the Titans adapts to the changes.

The author shows a deep understanding of what makes each character tick, and comes up with creative reimaginings of several characters including Bushido and Brother Blood. The Titans themselves change and evolve almost naturally throughout the storyline. What's more, the author makes a serious effort at character creation with Tek, an insecure amnesiac with an unexplained knowledge of every metahuman, and the "Streetbeat" kids, a group of misfits with superpowers more in touch with the impoverished and needy than the Titans who mainly operate out of their tower.

I find the second story to be better than the first. I also identified with its introductory line: "Life is change. Do you have what it takes to change with it?" I also find that a very armour-piercing, thought provoking question, considering my current circumstances.

Found a story just now that shows promise. Vita ex Machina stars everyone's favourite synthetic Legion as it acclimates to being part of Shepard's crew on the Normandy. There are only five chapters so far, but as I said, the characterisation of Legion, which I find unique among fanfic writers, shows much promise. The latest chapter, though... ...well, it's a good thing I wasn't eating anything when I was reading it. Have a look yourself. You will be greatly amused.

Here's a personal favourite Halo fanfic called The Enemy of my Enemy, where a crashed Elite war party and a small Human outpost must (grudgingly) work together to fight off a full-scale Brute invasion force. It takes place during the final stages of the Human-Covenant War on a non-canon world called Crassus, but the writing quality, imagination and believable character development put into this work nearly fooled me into thinking that it was. Hell, I reckon this should be canon! A fair warning though, this story is pretty damn gritty and pulls no punches in showing the horrors of war.

Finally read the first chapter of this and am quite impressed by its originality and attention to detail. Following.

Phiend, take a look at this one.

Haven't visited this thread in a long time, so I figured I'd fix that. This is a Youtube clip, but it's still fanfiction because it stars fictional characters written and portrayed by fans. This one's called Deathstroke: Arkham Assassin and is set prior to the events of Arkham Origins. In it, Black Mask want to see if Deathstroke's legendary reputation isn't all hot air, so he challenges him to beat all of his men... unarmed. Let me know what you think, Corey.


I daresay the writers of Son of Batman would have benefitted from watching this

I somehow forgot about this for the past week; sorry about that.

Anyway, pretty impressive for something that isn't an official tie-in production. The exploding heads are kind of unintentionally hilarious, though. But yeah, pretty cool.