Heyas! It's good to see you. And I love big long comments, lol.
I have to agree with the quality of the fanfiction out there. On the whole, it's not nearly as good as stuff in the KoTOR fandom. I think part of that might be because it's a fairly new fandom, but then I think about what was getting written this early after KoTOR was release, and it was still tons better.
You're right about most stories being about Alistair (and a poorly written Alistair at that). It seems that the vast majority are about Alistair/Cousland (human noble female). Most of the time the Grey Warden doesn't have much personality, there's no real plot, and all they do is talk about their true love. There is some good stuff out there, but it's taken me awhile to find it.
Some of the best I've seen are:
Rogue on the Rocks (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5580442/1/) by Tarente11a, which is a post game Zevran story with an honest to god plot.
Trovommi Amor (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5541044/1/) by icey cold, which is, of all things, a completely excellent Loghain/Cousland romance.
Suprises (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5552504/1/) by Kosiah, which is a more realistic and interesting twist on the happy Alistair/Cousland king and queen ending.
Bamftastic has really great one shot (http://community.livejournal.com/swooping_is_bad/273000.html) about Zevran/Cousland/Alistair thirty years after the game.
So far I've written two shorts. One's a Male!Amell/Alistair/Anora endgame fic (Aftershocks) (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5622633/1/Aftershocks) and one is a Morrigan story that features the whole party (Fallen Companion) (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5648227/1/Fallen_Companion).
But I agree about everything you said about the game. Love the characters, voice acting and morally ambiguous choices. I would have loved to see more dialogue options. There were also times when it wasn't clear what you were doing (like the stuff about toughening Alistair up) and it would have been awesome if they'd given you more than one shot and one obscure dialogue option to do that.
The fans... I think the problem is that they're so new. And in the most active communities like swooping_is_bad, everything focus on all Alistair, all the time. There's also a ton of disturbing character bashing when it comes to Anora, Morrigan, Isolde, Eamon or anyone who might in anyway interfere with the romance. I can understand not liking a particular character, but the sheer bile directed at some of them is absolutely boggling, and kind of depressing actually. I am hoping that as the fandom gets a bit older, there will be calmer places that crop up to hang out at. I am hoping that biowarefangirls is one of them. I also know that kotorfanmedia (http://hawk.kotorfanmedia.com/) is going to expand their archive and their forums to include Dragon Age, Mass Effect and the Old Republic MMO shortly, which should be a great place to hang out (especially since it will have a broader focus than just Alistair) once it gets up and going.
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Date: 2010-01-09 05:29 pm (UTC)I have to agree with the quality of the fanfiction out there. On the whole, it's not nearly as good as stuff in the KoTOR fandom. I think part of that might be because it's a fairly new fandom, but then I think about what was getting written this early after KoTOR was release, and it was still tons better.
You're right about most stories being about Alistair (and a poorly written Alistair at that). It seems that the vast majority are about Alistair/Cousland (human noble female). Most of the time the Grey Warden doesn't have much personality, there's no real plot, and all they do is talk about their true love. There is some good stuff out there, but it's taken me awhile to find it.
Some of the best I've seen are:
Rogue on the Rocks (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5580442/1/) by Tarente11a, which is a post game Zevran story with an honest to god plot.
Trovommi Amor (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5541044/1/) by icey cold, which is, of all things, a completely excellent Loghain/Cousland romance.
Suprises (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5552504/1/) by Kosiah, which is a more realistic and interesting twist on the happy Alistair/Cousland king and queen ending.
Bamftastic has really great one shot (http://community.livejournal.com/swooping_is_bad/273000.html) about Zevran/Cousland/Alistair thirty years after the game.
So far I've written two shorts. One's a Male!Amell/Alistair/Anora endgame fic (Aftershocks) (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5622633/1/Aftershocks) and one is a Morrigan story that features the whole party (Fallen Companion) (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5648227/1/Fallen_Companion).
But I agree about everything you said about the game. Love the characters, voice acting and morally ambiguous choices. I would have loved to see more dialogue options. There were also times when it wasn't clear what you were doing (like the stuff about toughening Alistair up) and it would have been awesome if they'd given you more than one shot and one obscure dialogue option to do that.
The fans... I think the problem is that they're so new. And in the most active communities like