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Best fanfic that you've ever read?

Oooh this is a nice thread idea... I'm more of a writer than a reader, but I'll recommend some fics that really resonated with me! They're all on AO3, since this is the place I read 100% of my fics (one is also here on the forums though). They're all perfectly SFW as well, of course.

"Speak Now" by Ember_Keelty (Revolutionary Girl Utena) - To me, this fic may as well be the epilogue to the anime. If you know anything about Utena, you know that its ending is very abstract, much like the rest of the show, which lets people interpet it and write all kinds of continuations... and this one is my favorite! Utena and Anthy mean so much to me as characters...

"raise a suilen go to ikea" by parechiyu (BanG Dream!) - Obviously, this is a crackfic, and I'm not usually one to read that kind of thing... but this one is just plain hilarious. I dunno, there's something about this band of five goobers making their way through an IKEA that just makes me lose it.

"Escape Fantasy" by @terashards (Pokémon Horizons) - This fic has a reputation, and that's for good reason: it absolutely nails Liko and Dot's characters, while also incorporating some touching human qualities to them, making them feel like the lost and suffering teenagers they are. It's one of the fics that made me fall in love with Horizons, so I couldn't not talk about it. (Especially because it'd be wierd not to recommend something Pokémon related on the Pokémon forums, lol)

"It's not like I actually wanted to do it." by shatterdance (BanG Dream! It's MyGO!!!!!) - I spent a lot of time thinking about what serious Bandori fic I should nominate here, and in the end, I went with my friend's. Despite the fact this fic is currently incomplete, it's still a great look into Anon's thoughts in the gap between Episodes 9 and 10 of the anime, when MyGO!!!!! temporarily disbands due to Soyo's betrayal. The colored text to match the characters is the cherry on top, and a regular feature of their fics. I can't recommend checking them out enough if you like Bandori!
 
Some Kaeya one-shot I read one time called Cold/Cool Steel. As someone who writes a lot, I never really read much fanfic myself aside from sometimes giving a peek at people's stuff from here or other forums, sometimes ao3.
 
hard to pick an exact first. maybe this list is ranked. maybe?

The Suicune's Choice by A_Pen is a masterclass in tension, character choice, and background worldbuilding. It's easily one of the best fanfics I've read and honestly beats out a lot of the mainstream publications I've read. Her other work is also excellent but I'd like to shout out specifically a few of her oneshots, including The Last Strike and Harbinger for being particularly eye-opening. Hard rec for fraught character choices, myths/stories, the value of faith, the value of faith when it meets uh really sad cold realities and capitalism and systemic abuse.

Salvage by Negrek is an absolute trip packed with mind-bending fight scenes, loving canon adaptation/grounding, and an incredible cast of characters. It may even finish soon! It's got hands-down the best fights I've read in Pokemon, and some gnarly horror/gritty scenes to boot but it also has some wonderfully fragile emotional moments. Mind the content tags but it's an incredible trip. Rec for if you want shadow Pokemon, Mewtwo styling on people, the best tournament arc I've ever seen, Raticate, and lovable assholes.

Survival Project by diamondpearl876 is haunting tbh. I am due a reread but it was deeply formative to me as a person and a writer. Rich character POVs and lyrical prose, a bunch of characters who are Definitely Fine, and a wonderful trainwreck of little guys who will just not stop shooting themselves in the foot. It's got Furret appreciation, wrestling with mental health, s-tier xenofic, a really bad shopping trip, and a really good found family (eventually).

I think I will cut this off at 3 because otherwise I'd go on all day, but honorable mention to Broken Things, Rara Avis, kid a, and Star Performer for in some way being incredibly influential on me; and also shoutouts to Parts Unknown and Chocolate Scones, The Life and Rogueries of Maquio, the Zorua, and Grey Unova for being personal favorite standouts for 2025; and and also also Evolution in Sync and A Pokemon that meant a lot to me for being personal favorites for 2026 so far.

i should touch grass more!
 
Seconding @kintsugi on The Suicune's Choice and Survival Project.

Striking Back: Memoirs of a Clone is an old favorite of mine. Tackles a lot of fun sci-fi concepts and does a good job of playing around with the pseudo-Frankenstein nature of the story of Mewtwo. A story you know, plus a little more. Excellent prose. Really gripping.

The Envy of Eden is also hard not to recommend. What if the plot of BW was actually thought through and had teeth instead of wussing out in the end.
 
Probably the best fanfic I've ever read was the Breath of Fire 3 Novelization "Of Gods and Dragons", though I forget who wrote it and if it's even still on the internet any more (it's been a few years since I've last read it so I don't know). It basically retells the story of my favorite RPG: Breath of Fire 3, but it helps close up some plot holes the game has and add some greater characterization and depth to the characters. Plus it delves into some of the game's untold lore that is never shown in-game, like how Rei meets Teepo (which is only revealed in supplementary content), so that helps further. It does create a few new wrinkles that disrupt the plot's core narrative a bit but they're not offensive enough to ruin it (frankly, I've seen worse in that regard). But it's a pretty solid retelling of an old RPG that I hold very dear to my heart that helps flesh the story out more and helped inspire my own attempt (keyword: attempt) at doing my own retelling of Breath of Fire 3 (my attempt died because the writing style I was using was a bit too advanced for my skill level at the time).
 
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