The Fanfic Awards
Inspired by the Oscars. I wish I had shiny figures (a la the ones in "The Golden Lagoon") to hand out, but this will have to do.
Best humor :
My favorite funny TF fics keep the setting realistic and everyone in character, and then allow the different personalities to bounce off each other throughout the story. The humor that results can be slapstick or subtle, but it's always entertaining. The nominees are :
Blue 42, by The Starhorse
Fan Base, by Vivienne Grainger.
Why the Ark has no doors, by PrincessArtemis
And the winner is... Blue 42! Prowl orders a football game - Autobots vs. Dinobots - while Dead End ruminates morosely in the background and Ravage tries to carry out a mission. Even though I didn't know much about football or Transformers when I read this, I loved it.
Best style :
The nominees are :
Surface Deep, by Lady Dementia
On the Courtship of Seekers, by Oni-Gil
The Beating of Leaden Feathered Wings, by Koi Lungfish
These are all brilliant in their own ways. Oni-Gil's fic is told from an elegant, humorous omniscient narrator's perspective. Koi Lungfish's story is almost all imagery, thick with alliteration and assonance, yet intensely evocative. But the winner has one of the most lovely, lustrous descriptions I've ever read, and the winner is Surface Deep.
Best depiction of a canon character :
Everyone has their own take on canon characters, so I picked fics that explored said characters in depth, even if they went against canon or fanon in doing so. And the nominees are :
The Left Leg, by Taipan Kiryu
Noblesse Oblige, by rageai
Collision, by The Feesh
Not an easy choice, but the winner is Noblesse Oblige! Mirage leads a calm, ordered life in the Towers until he gets a new personal attendant - someone who's the opposite of him in every way. I've read this three times now, and it's still immense fun.
Saddest fic :
The nominees are...
The Last Decepticon, by Warlord Fil
Regrets, by Shadaloo
After Atlantis, by anon decepticon
Very difficult choice. All these fics are great in their own way, using different scenarios and different ways to evoke as much grief in the reader as the characters feel. In the end, I picked the one which seems the most overlooked, and which describes - in vivid, clear prose - the death of an empire.
"Once there had been a thousand. Ten thousand. A hundred thousand. An army-multiple armies. And more: cultures, lifestyles, beliefs.. A people. A species. A philosophy.
They called themselves Decepticons."
The winner is The Last Decepticon.
Fluffiest fic :
For a change of pace, something unabashedly cute and light-sparked. The nominees are...
Chocolatl, by Rebecca Hb
Trading Places, by hatashikitty
Snowmechs, by Melora Maxwell
And the winner is Chocolatl! It starts with a fun idea - Scavenger going shopping for sweets, or what Cybertronians would consider sweets - and spirals into a delicious feast for the senses. Perfect cotton candy for the mind.
Best smut :
I may prefer G1 fics, but when it comes to smut, everything is fair game (as long as it's well-written and hot, anyway). The nominees are :
five million years, by razordragonfly
Smoke and Mirrors, by anon decepticon
Domestication, by kookaburra1701
I tried to think which of these I'd take to a desert island with me, if I could only have one. Razordragonfly's fic is the longest - and probably has the most smut - but isn't complete. Neither is kookaburra's, though that features wrenching non-con scenes and is likely to have a far less happy ending.
Anon Decepticon's story, on the other hand, is wrapped up, but leaves room for a sequel. And although it doesn't end nicely for either participant - Inferno and Breakdown, on opposite sides of a war, so perhaps Breakdown could be forgiven for thinking that things could only go uphill from there - it's realistic on the whole. Plus, the smut is smoking hot. So the winner is Smoke and Mirrors!
Fic I most want to see complete :
The nominees are :
These Games We Play, by peacewish
Renegades, by Lizard
Postscript, by razordragonfly
There are several more fics that could be nominated here, but I have no idea how these three are going to end, and I'm intensely curious as a result. But the one I most want to see finished is the origin story of the Combaticons, because I first read that before I'd even gotten interested in Transformers. I didn't know who all the characters were, but I was fascinated by these mechs who were strangers to each other yet forced to work together... and who did that a little too well.
The story ends just as they're starting to put their newfound group above the interests of the Decepticon Empire. I always wanted to see what happened next, although I know I never will. And so the winner is Renegades.
Best fic :
No nominees specifically mentioned here, because everything I've read and enjoyed was eligible. Which made it very difficult to choose just one fic.
But then I thought, the best fic can't just be one where everyone's in character and there's an original, gripping plot. It needs to have a have a lasting effect on me as a reader as well, to leave me longing for more. It needs to be complete and self-contained. Most of all, I'd like to be able to recommend it to people who are new to the fandom - as I was a few years ago. I'd like to be able to say, "Even if you have no idea who these characters are, you'll be caught up in this story."
And so the award for Best Fic goes to Lost in Transmission, by Koi Lungfish.
Thank you all for writing these wonderful stories!
Best humor :
My favorite funny TF fics keep the setting realistic and everyone in character, and then allow the different personalities to bounce off each other throughout the story. The humor that results can be slapstick or subtle, but it's always entertaining. The nominees are :
Blue 42, by The Starhorse
Fan Base, by Vivienne Grainger.
Why the Ark has no doors, by PrincessArtemis
And the winner is... Blue 42! Prowl orders a football game - Autobots vs. Dinobots - while Dead End ruminates morosely in the background and Ravage tries to carry out a mission. Even though I didn't know much about football or Transformers when I read this, I loved it.
Best style :
The nominees are :
Surface Deep, by Lady Dementia
On the Courtship of Seekers, by Oni-Gil
The Beating of Leaden Feathered Wings, by Koi Lungfish
These are all brilliant in their own ways. Oni-Gil's fic is told from an elegant, humorous omniscient narrator's perspective. Koi Lungfish's story is almost all imagery, thick with alliteration and assonance, yet intensely evocative. But the winner has one of the most lovely, lustrous descriptions I've ever read, and the winner is Surface Deep.
Best depiction of a canon character :
Everyone has their own take on canon characters, so I picked fics that explored said characters in depth, even if they went against canon or fanon in doing so. And the nominees are :
The Left Leg, by Taipan Kiryu
Noblesse Oblige, by rageai
Collision, by The Feesh
Not an easy choice, but the winner is Noblesse Oblige! Mirage leads a calm, ordered life in the Towers until he gets a new personal attendant - someone who's the opposite of him in every way. I've read this three times now, and it's still immense fun.
Saddest fic :
The nominees are...
The Last Decepticon, by Warlord Fil
Regrets, by Shadaloo
After Atlantis, by anon decepticon
Very difficult choice. All these fics are great in their own way, using different scenarios and different ways to evoke as much grief in the reader as the characters feel. In the end, I picked the one which seems the most overlooked, and which describes - in vivid, clear prose - the death of an empire.
"Once there had been a thousand. Ten thousand. A hundred thousand. An army-multiple armies. And more: cultures, lifestyles, beliefs.. A people. A species. A philosophy.
They called themselves Decepticons."
The winner is The Last Decepticon.
Fluffiest fic :
For a change of pace, something unabashedly cute and light-sparked. The nominees are...
Chocolatl, by Rebecca Hb
Trading Places, by hatashikitty
Snowmechs, by Melora Maxwell
And the winner is Chocolatl! It starts with a fun idea - Scavenger going shopping for sweets, or what Cybertronians would consider sweets - and spirals into a delicious feast for the senses. Perfect cotton candy for the mind.
Best smut :
I may prefer G1 fics, but when it comes to smut, everything is fair game (as long as it's well-written and hot, anyway). The nominees are :
five million years, by razordragonfly
Smoke and Mirrors, by anon decepticon
Domestication, by kookaburra1701
I tried to think which of these I'd take to a desert island with me, if I could only have one. Razordragonfly's fic is the longest - and probably has the most smut - but isn't complete. Neither is kookaburra's, though that features wrenching non-con scenes and is likely to have a far less happy ending.
Anon Decepticon's story, on the other hand, is wrapped up, but leaves room for a sequel. And although it doesn't end nicely for either participant - Inferno and Breakdown, on opposite sides of a war, so perhaps Breakdown could be forgiven for thinking that things could only go uphill from there - it's realistic on the whole. Plus, the smut is smoking hot. So the winner is Smoke and Mirrors!
Fic I most want to see complete :
The nominees are :
These Games We Play, by peacewish
Renegades, by Lizard
Postscript, by razordragonfly
There are several more fics that could be nominated here, but I have no idea how these three are going to end, and I'm intensely curious as a result. But the one I most want to see finished is the origin story of the Combaticons, because I first read that before I'd even gotten interested in Transformers. I didn't know who all the characters were, but I was fascinated by these mechs who were strangers to each other yet forced to work together... and who did that a little too well.
The story ends just as they're starting to put their newfound group above the interests of the Decepticon Empire. I always wanted to see what happened next, although I know I never will. And so the winner is Renegades.
Best fic :
No nominees specifically mentioned here, because everything I've read and enjoyed was eligible. Which made it very difficult to choose just one fic.
But then I thought, the best fic can't just be one where everyone's in character and there's an original, gripping plot. It needs to have a have a lasting effect on me as a reader as well, to leave me longing for more. It needs to be complete and self-contained. Most of all, I'd like to be able to recommend it to people who are new to the fandom - as I was a few years ago. I'd like to be able to say, "Even if you have no idea who these characters are, you'll be caught up in this story."
And so the award for Best Fic goes to Lost in Transmission, by Koi Lungfish.
Thank you all for writing these wonderful stories!