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My 2023 AO3 Summary

So I didn't track most of my AO3 history this year due to me mostly reading outside of my account for whatever reason, so I did my best to manually calculate how much I read based on what I remember reading.

But I only remember reading RDR2 fanfiction, so I just scrolled through those tags and found as many of the fics I know I read as I could.

In 2023, I read approximately

4,807,569 words

of Red Dead Redemption 2 fanfiction.

**Note: it's probably closer to 5 million due to (1) fics I never finished but don't remember where I stopped, and (2) one-shots below 10,000 words.

For reference, 5 million words is the equivalent of reading:

the entire Harry Potter series ~4.5 times

War and Peace ~9 times

the entire LOTR series ~9 times

the entire GOT series ~3 times

the KJV Bible ~6.5 times

The thing is, I didn't even spend most of the year reading fanfiction. I haven't read any in like, months. The biggest contributors to this number (>100k) were fics I read within two days, but more often within just one.

The main tags I went to were Arthur Morgan/Charles Smith, but as the year progressed and my standards lowered in my desperation for more content, I got into some Arthur Morgan/Original Character fics that were honestly pretty damn good. Here are some of my highlights (with links), specifically the ones I don't think get enough love!

(SERIES) what stranger miracles by anderfels (Charthur, 481k)

Seaweed in Indiana Sawgrass by thickskeleton (Charthur, Young Modern AU, 86k)

One-Two Combo by lumbeam (Charthur, '20s Boxing AU, 40k)

(SERIES) The Journey Itself is Home (Charthur, 115k)

And my personal favorite, Crumbling is Not an Instant's Act by Petricharis (Arthur Morgan/Trans Male OC, 186k)

Here's to another year of escapism through fanfiction! 🤠

#seaweed in Indiana sawgrass mention!!!! #ty for including my fic :)

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good luck, babe! by chappell roan

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sunrise, parabellum 🌅

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your honer they're in love

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Is this anything.

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"Ruby.... But that's a woman's name.

- Women like women too, officer. "

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I want to talk more about Harry’s face…I want to talk more about Harry’s mortification over his disfigurement, that he can get so brutally shot down by someone he trusts over the way he looks, that he can’t control his facial expressions well, that he receives no catharsis, no growth, no reassurance. that he is horrified of looking at himself in the mirror. that he has struggled his whole life to hide it by imitating a dashing disco idol, that he refuses to change the photo on his new badge

as repulsive as he tries to make himself he still deeply hurts over this

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he said don’t worry girl you’re slaying a little bit you’ll be fine

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More meme redraws plus a doodle of Kim taking a well-deserved nap in a bubble bath <3

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I think there's no greater indication that disco elysium is sympathetic towards communism when it literally says "communism is failure" and then the literal gameplay itself rewards trying and failing. The most obvious one being the Shivers check at the FELD mural, which is an Impossible 20 check BUT opens itself up again and again the longer you spend in the world doing things, but even just looking at sheer probabilities, for any given white check, rolling first and THEN putting a point into that skill upon failure is more likely to grant you success than putting a point first and then rolling, but that would require failing first.

Other things too: Precarious world saying you'll 100% fail red checks no matter what (not necessarily a bad thing, btw!! throwing the boule into the sea is a success but like. in some other ways one would want a perfect petanque throw instead. but people wouldn't typically assume that failure is desirable sometimes from the start) persuading you to accept that you'll fail some things that is irrevocable, for a world where everything is just a tiny bit easier.

The faux game over screen when you faint after reading Dora's letter— emulating a sense of failure on the scale of the entire game. When it rolls up most people go "What?? Game over?? No way, what did I do wrong!!" and waking up after that, with no huge or lasting impact on Harry's health or morale really tells the player, "Sometimes things will seem so bad that it all seems like it's coming to an end, but it's not the end, it's really not the end, go drink so water, you can still go on despite this failure"

I'm sure there are other things as well that are eluding me but like. The literal gameplay rewards failing and succeeding far more so than simply succeeding every single time, and I think you get a fuller experience of Elysium that way too

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just jerked off and killed myself but im feeling better now can we still go on a walk tonight

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istg i thought i was high when i played through this part

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beer chugging intensifies

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something i think about a lot is the folie a deux trope lottienat had going on throughout season two. there's a constant underlying element of mutual corruption. all while lottie had nat's best interests at heart and while nat wasn't intentionally trying to cause lottie's sanity slippage. something infinitely tragic in the way they found solace in each other but at the same time they ended up being each other's undoing.

it started with lottie.

it's lottie who pulled nat in first.

but as we first see adult lottie in season two, she was at a point where she was actively trying to reject it, to deny it. and this time around, it started with nat. this time around, it's nat who pulled lottie in first.

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people who say "oh kim wouldnt like harry romantically bc Harry is complete mess" dont understand Kim's character