tier list of my fanfiction

[queenlua]

I made this mostly for my own benefit / out of curiosity, because I was basically asking myself the question "okay, if someone's first exposure to my work were piece [x], am I happy with that or am I doing a yikes emoji." Very vibes-based and obv reflects my own biases, and I haven't reread all of these recently so maybe some are better/worse than I remember! But here we go:

S-tier
* The Water at the Edge of All Things (Naesala, Reyson, & Leanne, in various toxic arrangements)
* Bird in the Hand (Leanne/Naesala)
* Stag Night (Makalov & Naesala)
* Shrike, No Chaser (Klavier/Apollo)
* The Signet of His Lords (Claude von Riegan)
* ETA (can't believe I forgot this one earlier!): Silent World (Naesala/Micaiah, Micaiah/Sothe)

A-tier
* Territory (Zihark/Naesala)
* Asleep on the Subway (Simon Blackquill/Apollo Justice)
* summer is miles and miles away (Claude/Lorenz)
* Sore Loser (Simon Blackquill/Apollo Justice)

B-plus-tier
* Kingdom of Earth (Naesala & OC)
* Mountains Made of Steam (Reyson & Rafiel)

B-tier
* Solstice (Reyson & Lillia)
* Man of Letters (Pelleas & Naesala)
* a way in the wilderness (Leanne/Naesala)
* Deer Among Cattle (Claude & Judith)
* Wolves (Simon Blackquill/Apollo Justice/Athena Cykes)
* How to Rule the World (Claude & Rhea)
* Dog in the Vineyard (Leonardo & Volug)
* To Take, To Hold (Claude/Lorenz)
* Diplomacy (Golden Deer ensemble)

B-minus-tier
* Where the River Meets the Sea (Claude/Hilda)
* Sounds and Silences (Vivi & Eiko)
* Move the Chains (Dorian Pavus & OC)
* the scarlet halls of night (Naesala/Sanaki)
* Pyre (Zihark & OC)
* Fourth Sunrise (Mahit/Three Seagrass)

C-plus-tier
* Delicately, Madly (Reyson)
* Wings Dancing in the Darkness (Naesala & Rafiel)

C-tier
* Lights of Endangered Species (Tess TLoU)
* Be Free (Klavier/Simon Blackquill)
* White Like Bone (Volug & Nailah)
* Sink (Yuna)
Notes: "Lights of Endangered Species" suffers from some cringe and melodrama + I don't think I rendered Tess's childhood quite as realistically as one might've hoped; "Be Free" suffers from a very rushed ending; I am personally fond of "Sink" but mostly for nostalgia reasons and I'm not sure how much "there" is there

D-tier
* Crush (Almedha/Ashnard)
* Remnants of Restoration (Zihark, Soren)
* lust like remembrance (Shinon/Zihark)
Notes: "lust like remembrance" is a lot of FUN in some ways but it would've been way more interesting if there were, like, more of a "shape" to the plot yankow

"Blah" tier
* Hotbloods (Claude/Lorenz)
Notes: wrote this for a charity auction thing; learned that i absolutely cannot Write To Spec whatsoever lmao

Too Short To Properly Evaluate But: I Really Liked It
* the night of the hammer (Larsa & Vayne)
* Shared History (Red XIII & Aerith)
* "aesthetics" promptfill (Sanaki/Naesala)
* "breaking the spirit pact" promptfill (Micaiah/Sothe/Pelleas)
* first a little, then all at once (Franziska von Karma & Miles Edgeworth)

Too Short To Properly Evaluate But: I Liked It
* diplomacy at its finest is a seductive game (Al-Cid/Ashe)
* the weight of experience (Lightning/Sazh)
* "outliving beorc friends" promptfill (Micaiah/Vika)
* Asymptotic (one-sided Hope/Lightning)
* Silver Tongue (Al-Cid/Balthier)

Too Short To Properly Evaluate But: Hrmmm
* "manipulative birds" promptfill (Naesala & Sephiran)
* letting off steam (Ignis/Gladio)

Too Short To Properly Evaluate But: Meh
* Every Little Thing (Zihark)
* unspoken (Ignis/Noctis)
* "what the fuck are we even doing" promptfill (Phoenix/Kristoph)

Comments

[scytale]

I love this concept so much. XD

[queenlua]

hahahaa glad you enjoyed~

[kradeelav]

the only one i would severely protest at is Remnants being so low but admittedly that's with a major dollop of nostalgia of how I found you XD (I *do* think it's also notable for having the bones of a really meaty long characterization-oriented plot and meandering into some interesting territory especially at the state of fandom back then since the archives were a lil' less filled out). I also distinctly remember loving your take on Ike and Soren ... they felt like a unit.

hardcore agree with Stag Night; that was just, so much fun. Sometimes it's the almost-crack premise that is so rewarding x)

Man of Letters was also a blast with a unique premise that showed so many new facets of Pelleas and Naesala that one feels like /should/ exist but simply didn't get alluded to in the plot.

fun idea! :D

[queenlua]

yeah, i mean, if it were a tier list of "how GLAD i am i wrote it" or, like, "how important/significant it was to me at the time i wrote it," Remnants would be FOR SURE way up there. kinda wild to think how it launched... basically all the rest of this, lmao. and it's fun to see how a lot of the themes i am Obviously Preoccupied With were already present there. BUT. old work, clunky prose, some cringey moments of characterization, i can do better now :P (so glad you're still fond of it tho. i am too <3)

[tre.praze.net]

I think if I tried doing this it would just end up as "longer = better"; probably untrue but I always feel like there's more room to produce something impressive in a longer piece (and maybe easier to ignore all the less successful material around it) … I'm impressed that you were able to form opinions that presumably weren't guided by this as the only criterion is what I guess I'm saying, haha.

Also I definitely would have put Sink higher but that's probably mostly because anything featuring Braska is automatically at least A-tier to me 😅

[queenlua]

haha, yeah, i see what you mean re: longevity bias... it's easy to forget a section that dragged if you're really pleased with the climax, and all that.

i do think writing a really memorable, good shorter story that doesn't just feel like a gimmick/punchline/cheap trick is harder in a lot of ways than stuff that's ~10k words or more... like, "Solstice" is a totally solid story, i have no idea how i'd make it better per se, but its whole schtick is "what if Shirley-Jackson-The-Lottery-but-Fire-Emblem," which feels kinda derivative/cheesy enough that it belongs in B tier. it's good at what it does but it's not doing that much. whereas "Bird in the Hand" is in a lot of ways just a fun romcom, but it's 12k worth of romcom so i had a ton of room to make it unique & special & its Own Thing. the shorter fics i have in S-tier benefit from just... being short, concise concepts that i was able to very vividly portray with a pretty unique-to-me kinda voice. writing both of them felt a bit like being struck by lightning lol.

(also ahhh i'm so glad you liked "Sink"!!! as i said, i personally am very fond of it, so i'm always SO CHUFFED when anyone else likes my goofy lil West Virginia AU hahaha)

[helicoprion]

God. Stag Night is so fun.

[queenlua]

i should really figure out how to write more Big Drunken Shenanigans it's just SO damn fun!!!