Accusation Fic

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

An Accusation Fic is a Fix Fic or Revenge Fic with a Fandom-Specific Plot of type B -- that is, with a plot unique to the fandom it's written in. It is generally written directly because of Canon events.

Perhaps the actions of the lead characters demonstrate Moral Dissonance. Perhaps there was a What the Hell, Hero? moment in which the canon author sided with the hero but the Fanfic writer didn't. Perhaps it's Values Dissonance between the author of the canon and the fanfic writers.

It doesn't matter where the original wrong lies—whether it's a misguided author or a Misaimed Fandom. The result will be a plot in which the canon events will be deconstructed, or the results of the events turns dark. A careless author will use Diabolus Ex Machina for this; a clever one, using suitably flawed material, will make the consequences seem natural, or plausible if we've hit an Alternate Universe Fic, which it often will if the canon is long-running and the fic is about an event set midway through the run.

There will be negative consequences for the characters who did the perceived wrong. There may or may not be negative consequences for innocent characters, depending on how cruel the author is feeling.

Naturally, this sort of fic will tend to be a Dark Fic.

If the canon events in question are required by the Anthropic Principle, then the fic is a Hate Fic -- but not all Accusation Fics are Hate Fics.

Examples of Accusation Fic include:

Put examples under the medium of the work for which the fanfic is written.

Anime and Manga

  • In the Ranma ½/Neon Genesis Evangelion Folgers Crossover fic The Wild Horse Thesis, Ranma spends quite a lot of time venting to various Evangelion characters (as well as musing privately) about his life in Nerima and the people who surrounded him there, which usually results in denial and/or beatings among the people in Nerima who are watching his life in the Evangelion world thanks to a set of enchanted video tapes.

Live-Action TV

  • From House fandom:
    • At the end of season 4, Wilson asked House to risk his life to save Amber's. House did. Then Wilson broke off his friendship with House because he failed to save Amber, even though House did what was asked and couldn't have done anything more... This event is still being written about, and a high percentage of the fics are going "What the hell, Wilson?" in one capacity or another.
  • From The Charmed fandom:
    • Many Cole fans wrote accusation fics about how that Phoebe had flat out dumped Cole despite all the good he had done after he came back. Also, how that Phoebe never even bother to find out that Cole was possessed by the Source of all evil against his will. There's a fairly good fic called The Cleansing. It showed the direct side effects of what might happen.
  • iCarly: Sam breaking up Carly and Freddie in season 3's iSaved Your Life by getting it into his head that Carly's feelings were not real. When Sam kissed Freddie in the season 4 finale some accusation fics were written about the idea that Sam's actions prior were because she was hiding her feelings but didn't want Freddie with Carly. Naturally when Carly puts two and two together in these fics they get dark.
  • Quite a few fans of Veronica Mars were, to put it mildly, disappointed with the eponymous heroine's actions in season 3 (and, to a lesser extent, season 2, particularly its first half), thus fics where Veronica gets called on her attitude, especially concerning Logan, are pretty common. Still, it rather rarely goes dark, especially in Shipping cases.

Video Games

  • Pick any Mass Effect fan fic that deals with the aftermath of Horizon, particularly if Shepard romanced either Ashley or Kaidan. Chances are, 4 times out of 5, it will be a thinly-veiled accusation fic against the first game love interest (though it is worth noting that Kaidan gets the brunt of this more than Ashley does).

Western Animation