Fictional Villains: My Motivation Involves A Complex Backstory Around Lost Love And A Deep Yearning To

heard someone say archive of our own should install a "dislike" button and I thought I should say this: no, there's absolutely no need for archive of our own to install a "dislike" button.

why? because archive of our own isn't tiktok or youtube or twitter/x where users can monetize their content. archive of our own is a nonprofit site run by fans for fans, which means every content — every fanfic — you see on archive of our own was made out of pure love and passion from the artists/authors.

ao3 authors write because writing about these characters is their happiness and passion. they write for themselves, but they were generous enough to share with you their creations.

they're not "content creators" the way tiktokers or youtubers or instagram models are. they don't "make content" for views and engagements that can be monetized.

so no, you don't get to "grade their works" unless they specifically and directly ask you to.

you don't get to "say what you dislike about their works" unless they specifically and directly ask you to.

you don't get to "dislike" works that are not made specifically to please you in the first place. you're just a guest in someone's house, a house in which they let you in because they were kind, you don't get to roam around their house and say what you dislike about their furniture. you don't get to roam around their house and say you "dislike their house".

of course, you can have your opinion about the house its host invites you in. but if it's a negative one and you find yourself not liking the house, the polite things for you to do is excuse yourself and leave without telling them you dislike their house.

and just because you personally dislike the house doesn't mean the house is "ugly" either. the house you dislike could be a favorite, most luxurious place to many others.

my point is, don't be entitled by wanting the rights to voice your disapproval of things that you get to enjoy for free. don't be entitled by wanting the rights to voice your disapproval of things that were made out of love and passion — things the artists made for themselves for fun.

it makes you look like an entitled jerk with main character syndrome. the universe does not revolve around you.

now repeat after me: don't like don't read. no one forces you to continue reading a fic you don't like. quietly leave instead of being rude to authors who write for free because writing is their source of comfort.

people are so used to contents that were made because it's a trend / contents like tiktok that were made with the main purpose of reaching high engagement and making profits that they forget sometimes things can be made out of love and be made just for fun. sometimes things are supposed to just be for people to enjoy, and if some people don't enjoy them, then they can simply leave without being unnecessary unkind.

Please don’t let fandom ruin something you love. Walk away and unfollow the fans and enjoy the thing by yourself, or find a limited circle of people who ignore the discourse, or get your irl friends into the thing and collectively ignore the Internet community, or blacklist from here to the moon if you need to and only ever scroll through your rarepair ship’s tag on AO3. But don’t let fandom distort a show or a movie or a book or a comic you used to love so badly that you can’t enjoy the original anymore. Please. It isn’t worth it.

It’s Stan’s 2nd time in prison and he is bored.

The food is edible, his cellmates are quiet and polite and even the guards treat him with the bare minimum of respect.

Needless to say, Stan hates it. 

Boredom means Stan has time to think about what could’ve been if he had been smarter, better and more like Ford.

If Stan had just known how to fix Ford’s project, maybe he’d still be someone worth keeping around.

With nothing better to do, Stan one day decides to visit the prison library and finds a few boxes full of engineering textbooks abandoned in a corner.

What if Stan could’ve fixed Ford’s project. Could it even have been possible?

Stan swallows hard and picks up the first book.

Meanwhile on the other side of the continent.

“Oh no no no.”

“What is it Fiddleford?”

“I donated the wrong books! All my notes and corrections were in there…”

Stan snorts as he keeps on reading. This McGucket fellow was hilarious.

The book by itself would’ve never kept Stan’s attention, but the notes, snarky remarks, blueprints for villainous contraptions and death rays? Now that’s the stuff!

Over the next months Stan devours one book after the other and when he finally gets released he’s allowed to take the boxes with him as a thank you for fixing and improving the prison’s new experimental computer system.

***

A couple of years later Fiddleford opens the door to a little robot stomping around on the front porch. Mechanical legs on a toaster body with googly eyes that Fiddleford suspects can see more meets the eye.

He kneels down to inspect the cute little fellow when it suddenly notices him, vibrates and starts to talk.

“THANK. YOU. FOR. THE. BOOKS. NERD.”

Fiddleford has no time to figure out what that means before a book shoots out from the slot and hits him right in the head.

“HA. HA. HA.”

The little bot laughs and explodes into fireworks.

Fiddleford watches the show in amazement and inspects his present.

Beginners Guide to Mechanical Engineering

But not any guide. His guide. The one he carried with him throughout college and kept improving upon whenever he could. 

Only now there are more notes added. Corrections to his corrections, complaints about his design choices and disagreements with his theories.

Oh, it’s on!

***

It takes a few days to find the person behind the little prank, an anonymous entrepreneur who is said to be self taught and on the verge of reinventing the world of computers and robotics as they know it. 

Things that people have also been saying about Fiddleford himself.

Fiddleford laughs in delight. He always liked a friendly competition!

So he sends his new rival a little killer robot of his own as a greeting.

***

If Stanford had known what asking his old college buddy to help him out with the portal would entail he would’ve thought twice about inviting him.

It’s not like he isn’t happy for Fiddleford. He clearly found a like minded individual with the same passion for destruction as himself but would it kill them to keep it quiet for once? Stanford is doing important work here!

[Besides if Stanford wanted to he could totally build robots as well. Better ones even. Fiddleford shouldn’t spend so much of his free time fighting with his rival when his best friend was right here!]

Stanford sighs as yet another explosion causes the ground to shake and feels something push against his leg. 

It’s a little possum-like robot bringing him a bottle of water courtesy of Fiddleford’s rival.

Apparently this mystery person felt bad about destroying Stanford’s house one time too many and gifted him this little helper as an apology.

Try as he might, Stanford is unable to hate the thing and lets it climb onto his lap.

“At least you want to keep me company, hm?”

He strokes the fake fur carefully and the robot rumbles in contentment. It feels nostalgic and he knows Stanley would’ve loved it.

Maybe Ford should call him.

goth agent stone is something i've been spinning in my head for the past couple weeks... i've been into goth for, oh my god around a decade now (albeit on and off) so i hope you don't mind if i ramble some thoughts at you as a jumping off point? it's a bit of a niche headcanon so i'm delighted to share it with someone ;; this is a bit of a long one sorry so feel free to ignore it lol i won't be offended

i can imagine stone as having quite a corp goth lean: pinstripe pencil skirts, black trench coat over a suit, cat eye sunglasses, eyeliner!! that sort of thing. not all that different to what he usually wears, just... spookier! i can imagine him in a lot of black leather too, given the whole motorcyclist thing. robotnik might be similar but with more DRAMA. he's a supervillain he's got style he's got flair he's got ribcage patterns sewn into his jacket.

and since stone's someone who sews (and is clearly quite good at it) he'd have so much freedom!! can't find the perfect ruffly blouse? make one! in the '80s especially goth fashion was about hand me downs and DIY he'd be so at home

as for music!! that's the real heart of it. i can imagine them both enjoying the classic, 80s goth roots type of music but i've always pictured robotnik as having an industrial/metal/rock lean. stone feels like he'd be happy listening to whatever robotnik wants to listen to, honestly, as well as some of the dreamier stuff like cocteau twins. music to sway and yearn to.

but uhh anyway if you want a peek into goth culture i'd recommend watching or reading interviews with bands like specimen and fans at the bat cave or just on the street, there were a lot of news outlets that interviewed goths back when it was this really crazy new thing. i'm especially fascinated by the ones from the '80s but there's some excellent modern bands too :-3 and for a look into '90s and 2000s goth there's of herbs and altars' storytimes, please mind the content warnings on them because they're quite heavy but i credit dorian with getting me back into goth after i'd basically abandoned it in my teens.

i did a little happy dance when i saw you were thinking of looking into this stuff, i'm very passionate and this is really just scratching the surface. i could go on and on as all my friends are very aware ;; but i'll stop now. thank you so much if you read all this

Rambling is a love language and I would never ignore someone rambling at me. Feel free to ramble more, even! My DMs are open if you'd prefer!

This goes to everyone, actually. I am very very shy and socially awkward, but I ADORE IT when people talk to me about stuff they love. Everyone is welcome to! I love listening, as my girlfriend would tell you, and I love learning. No excuse needed, you can pop up like "hey I feel like talking about polar bears" and I'll pay attention.

That being said ohoho, this is great! Taking notes, taking notes, thank you so much! I can tell you've put a lot of thought into it. I do agree Robotnik would be far more dramatic with his clothes kinda like that scene in Megaming where he gets his evil outfit ready and I wouldn't be surprised if Stone is the one designing his outfits!

I can also picture this:

sonic boom au where stone is just a guy with power-armour(trademark eggman industries) but team sonic thinks he's a robot because what sane guy would willingly follow eggman of all people(joke's on them for assuming stone is sane)

thinking/initial designing:

and him and the others in situations (weirdly no TM) (huh havent not done situations TM in a while):

i love sonic boom guys :) (<- totally normal statement of totally normal guy who didnt watch all 104 eps over one weekend(while making notes) because he had one (1) au idea and needed to know the lore of the show infamous for having basically non-existent lore)

edit: now with a silly comic tie in! :)

(previously mentioned au details under the cut :) )

okay so.

lets go chronologically because that way i have smthn to come back to when i eventually have a weird side tangent about like idk the watsonian vs doylist explanation of his gloves.

they first got to know each other i would say around college, if eggman can study evil science to a phd level one would assume there would also be a henchman course.

or maybe a barista course, that sounds like a funny sonic boom bit ("being a barista? really?" "what can i say the school had range!"), in any case the details are irrelevant whats important is that they got to know each other and their dynamic evolved.

then disaster struck! stone disappears/dies in some kind of tragic cliche machine malfunctions way (maybe that's why eggman couldn't finish that phd... even those 2 credits were a little too much atm for him...)

fast forward: the show happens the way it does (and thats why stone had to be presumed dead - if there was any hope of him returning eggman's ass would not act like the lonely loser he is in the show.) and then mysteriously reappears (the same machine that took him away returned him from some kind of shadow dimension? alternate reality stone who burned his world to the ground after his eggman's death(we love a crashout king) found out other worlds exist and, much like morpho, emigrated? secret 3rd scenario i didnt think of yet? who knows! what's important is that he's back!) and joins eggman in being a menace of the week.

of course, he likes to contribute more physically, not just float above in the eggmobile, so eggman builds him an advanced power-armour to protect him (left-over guilt and protectiveness from what took him away in the first place? 😏 you decide) and also to give him these cool claws!!!! and taser gloves!!!!!!!!! because he would look so cool!!!! why not make his love interest favourite henchman (and definitely NO deeper feelings there WHATSOEVER thank you very much) as cool and badass as possible. makes eggman look good too, for making such a suit dont it!

anyway wearing what is only a few bolts short of a mech suit that distorts his voice paired with his cool [shadow dimension survivor/evil warlord/secret 3rd thing] moves makes team sonic think "oh wow, egg-head made an actually competent robot for once."

of course, wearing the aforementioned few-bolts-short-of-a-mech-suit does not, in-fact, stop Stone from being a very loud simp("YOU'RE MAGNIFICENT, DOCTOR!"). which makes team sonic come to some... conclusions.(except for sticks, who can smell the government agent on him and knows he's not a robot the entire time. nobody believes her of course.)(how can he be a government agent if he "died" at henchman college? good question! ......anyway.)

the conclusions eventually culminate in a kidnapping of an egg for an intervention. ("dude, we know you're lonely" "painfully lonely" "painfully lonely, but this is too weird, even for you. we didn't say anything about mom-bot, or steve, but c'mon man...") during which it dawns on eggman that they all think stone is a robot. not a flesh and blood guy.

so he for once has to be the voice of reason(he cant believe it either) and clear the room, even if team sonic is being difficult at first ("he's literally wearing a normal suit underneath my ingenious exoskeleton!" "oh we thought it was like... part of his deal." "like judge bot!" "or like that time orbot had an airhostess outfit on." "yeah exactly, your robots wearing clothes isn't exactly abnormal egg-face." "and we can't forget swifty the shrew." "no, we 100% can and will forget swifty the shrew.")

just as eggman's done clearing the air a murderous and helmetless (he just got back from whatever it is he does when hes not simping(maybe a knitting club! he seems the type) to not find eggman anywhere and orbot and cubot fucking floating around panicking saying he was kidnapped, his ass only had time for the electric gloves and the claw cuffs) and beats team sonic in like 10 seconds flat and eggman has to calm him down (wow twice in one evening being the voice of reason? what has the world come to?!) and explain the sitch to him too.

anyway bada bing bada boom, sticks was right(this does fuck all for her credibility like always), and after several bonding episodes where amy gets to know Stone better she plots to do another intervention for him for having such shit taste in men.

and that's about it yea :)

i have other scenarios and like pieces of funny little dialogues rattling around in my brain but yea thats the gist of it :)

if you managed to read this far i hope you have a nice rest of your day! :)

I've already said that my number one piece of writing advice is to read.

But my number two piece of advice is this: be deliberate.

Honestly this would fix so many pieces of bad writing advice. Don't forbid people from doing something, tell them to be conscious and deliberate about it. This could help stop people from falling into common mistakes without limiting their creativity. Black and white imperatives may stop a few annoying beginner habits, but ultimately they will restrict artistic expression.

Instead of "don't use epithets": "Know the effect epithets have and be deliberate about using them." Because yes, beginners often misuse them, but they can be useful when a character's name isn't known or when you want to reduce them to a particular trait they have.

Instead of "don't use 'said'" or "just use 'said'": "Be deliberate about your use of dialogue tags." Because sometimes you'll want "said" which fades into the background nicely, but sometimes you will need a more descriptive alternative to convey what a character is doing.

Instead of "don't use passive voice": "Be deliberate about when you use passive voice." Because using it when it's not needed can detract from your writing, but sometimes it can be useful to change the emphasis of a sentence or to portray a particular state of mind.

Instead of blindly following or ignorantly neglecting the rules of writing, familiarize yourself with them and their consequences so you can choose when and if breaking them would serve what you're trying to get across.

Your writing is yours. Take control of it.

It probably sounds like I'm preaching to the choir here because most of my mutuals are already great writers. But I'm hoping this will make it to the right people.

do u have any stobotnik fic's you'd recommend? I feel like you would have amazing recs

Ahh, I went to check my bookmarks. Turns out I have 117 stobotnik fics there, so... too many. Here's a selection though!

Obviously Coffee and Mayhem. If this ship has a classic, it's this one! Unlike most fandom classics, though, this one is not sad as hell, so that's great! I read it in three days and I'm constantly waiting for more.

There's also the For Science! series. This one has a lot of smut, so be warned. Three fics, each one taking place during one of the movies. It is very sweet.

Laws of Motion is perfect. I want twenty more just like this one. Stone is kidnapped and Eggman goes detective mode. Cue rescue.

You've got to be kidding me? not gonna lie, mostly Stone whump. But there's comfort so fear not! Walters puts a shock collar on Stone to force him to spy on Robotnik. Stone's solution is to avoid the Dcotor. Yeah.

There's also What's an emerald but a precious stone? in which Robotnik has to save Stone from the wreckage of the giant robot at the end of the second movie!

(I think I'm seeing a pattern here. Huh. Sorry, Stone)

Aaaand A sign that you're important Robotnik is deaf. Goes through pre, during and post canon.

Like I said, I actually have a lot of bookmarked fics, this fandom is full of great stories! These are just some of them!