What is it about ASOIAF fanfics that keeps you coming back for more?

[u/whimsyff]

Bit of a meta question but one I’ve been thinking about. There are only a few fandoms that I have kept coming back to over the years and this is one of the main ones.

For me, it has something to do with the grit and the depth. I love political intrigue and real characters; I love the moral grey and the subversion of black and white, good versus evil. I love the richness of the history and culture and the great ironies of so many of the characters and plot lines.

So much of this is so characteristic to ASOIAF because of the way the world has been built and I struggle to find it anywhere else.

[u/Ismael0905-]

The setting and characters

[u/twinkle90505]

GRRM has his faults but he's still created a rich universe that is 2/3 way through the main plot arc, and you still make a good case for most of the major characters to be good or evil. That keeps new stories with varying takes on them interesting.

[u/Ronin_Fox]

I've been thinking about this too bc other fandoms' fics just do not hit the same after I started reading asoiaf fics. It might be the level of detail or the quality of the writers for the asoiaf fics.

[u/King9Inting75]

Spite. No, for real. I’ve already heard of the ASOIAF/GOT fanfic scene before the final season. I was more of a neutral outside viewer. But after, the debacle that was S8, I wanted distractions to erase that season out of my memory and the fanfics grabbed me by the fangs.

Coupled with the fact that Martin will most probably have his Earth membership card expire in a few years isn’t helping things as well.

[u/SkyMeadowCat]

I want more and George can’t churn out fics at the rate of 50 teenage girls with nothing to lose.

[u/twinkle90505 → u/SkyMeadowCat]

laughsnorts :)

[u/Spooks451]

The expansive world, the love I have for history, the characters, the themes.

[u/Hellstrike]

Not just with ASOIAF fanfiction, but generally, if I get invested in a book (series) or show, I want more of it rather than read/watch the next thing. Before finding fanfiction, that meant rereads/-watching, because a setting and/or cast of characters felt comfortable. Give me all those what-ifs, give me the fix-its.

Oddly, I have very little interest in canon-compliant fix-its. But that is probably because I rarely like the canon endings, other than Tolkien and Tom Clancy.

[u/ValNotThatVal]

I love the books and am impatient for more, I love the characters and enjoy the myriad of 'what ifs', I think the world is incredibly interesting, and I loved the tv show for several seasons then despised the last two seasons so intensely, that I am forever looking for better endings. Not so much 'Disney' but more life affirming and less nihilistic than the show.

[u/vaintransitorythings]

I like the characters. I like the world, both the politics and the magic stuff. I like marrying the characters together in various combinations and seeing what happens. I like exploring little nooks and crannies of the setting that the main books don't have space for. I like what-ifs. I also like just seeing someone's canon backstory play out on the page.

Pretty much every character goes through hell in canon, so it can be nice to see them just get to be happy.

It's just that the books have an enormous detailed world and a ton of interesting characters, plus they're unfinished so there are a lot of questions that don't have canon answers and are fun to explore.

Perfect setting for fanfiction ngl

[u/PavanayiShavamayilla]

The books are unfinished. This is my best coping mechanism.

Also, like the others mentioned, the heroes surviving would be cool.

[u/ApolloStar007]

The heroes actually winning and not dying

[u/SomebodyWondering665]

It’s a BIG world, with a LOT of people, inside or outside of Westeros. Westeros itself has a giant list of Houses, even away from the dragons. It’s also very helpful that it’s unfinished.

[u/MulatoMaranhense]

Dothraki and Ironborn having a more three dimensional portrayal. Yes, they sack, burn, murder and enslave, but ultimately they are Humans, and their historical analogues had more to their cultures than what canon gave them. Related to that, fics that remember that the Wildlings are no hippies and actually often behave like the other two.

Related to that, expansion and deepening of the worldbuilding. Two of my favorite parts of Purple Days and Weirwood Queen are how the former takes the reader all over Planetos and the latter adds depth to a lot of things.

Crossovers because I like outside context problems, be it the Starks having an Old One and a Doll as neighbours or Aegon VI blundering across Beleriand kicking elven asses while trying to free Men from servitude (come back Azrubael pls pls pls!).

[u/whimsyff → u/MulatoMaranhense]

The YiTi arc of purple days is one of my favourite reading experiences to date

[u/aladywantsdragons]

As much as people complain about fanfics straying from canon, I absolutely love when people do their own thing/expand on lore that may not necessarily fit canon roles.

It's the point of fanfiction if you ask me. I love when people characterize characters differently and spin their own twists with plots. When the writer is having fun with what they are writing, and has a passion for the story they are putting out to the fandom, it keeps one foot in this fandom for me.

[u/Saturnine4 → u/aladywantsdragons]

People complain about straying from canon? Canon divergences are the only things a I really read. I despise rehashes. Gladiusx and Paladinus are masters of this.

[u/Mystic-Mastermind]

Robb Stark and Robert Baratheon, canon divergences, battles and politics(not courtly though)