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!!!

[ellerean]

This is a really interesting idea, and I'm very glad Stag Night is so high on the list.

We definitely do this with published authors, too. "Oh, that was his first book you read? I'm sorry." We all like to think everything we publish is S-tier, but there are definitely some things months/years after the fact that are "oh no, please don't read that."

[queenlua]

every day i am so glad some editor bought tana french's in the woods so she could eventually write faithful place. because i personally would've put in the woods in the garbage. and would continue to do so