Fandom-Specific Plot/Western Animation

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    Examples of Fandom-Specific Plots based on Western Animation include:

    Avatar: The Last Airbender

    • Among the regular flavors of Zutara: Katara being kidnapped by Zuko, Katara's season three hatred for Zuko revealing itself to be sexual attraction, Zuko siding with Team Avatar in the Crystal Catacombs, Mai dying in childbirth and Katara comforting Zuko, and Mai and/or Aang turning evil. Katara usually ends up as Zuko's queen in these stories (the flipside of this, Zuko renouncing his title and living at the South Pole with Katara, is rare).
    • Azula escaping from her mental institution to cause trouble. Alternatively, Azula recovering, and either relapsing or slowly becoming part of the Gaang.
    • The Dangerous Ladies, or just Azula herself, kidnapping or capturing Sokka, or they're stranded alone together in the wilderness, and they come to bond romantically.
    • If a fic set after the war isn't based around the gargantuan amount of reconstruction and peacekeeping required throughout the world, then it will casually mention it as if the reader should already know. Indeed, despite the series as a whole ultimately falling on the idealistic side of the sliding scale nearly every fan reaches the conclusion that no, it isn't going to be that easy.

    Invader Zim

    • The Tallest tell Zim his mission was a fake (and he believes them for some reason). Zim will usually get angsty, and either a.) kill himself or b.) be comforted by Dib (resulting in either friendship or sex).
    • Dib realizes humanity stinks and decides to help Zim conquer/destroy the planet. Usually results in sex.
    • Tak returns to Earth and she and Dib get together, or else crashes back to Earth and decides to team up with Zim.
    • A new girl winds up in Ms. Bitters' class. She will either a.) turn out to be an Irken and fall for Zim or Dib (despite the fact there's already an episode where that happens!), or b.) be human, believe Dib about Zim and then fall in love with him.
    • Dib kills Zim, or Zim destroys the world, and then angsts about it.
    • Fics based on the unfinished episodes, particularly "Invader Dib" in an attempt to "finish" the series, are common. That the creators were fairly open about what they had planned for future episodes means quite a bit of available material for these.
    • Many stories have an explanation for why Irken babies are created in test tubes: the Tallest don't let Irkens have kids, the Tallest only let the strongest Irkens have kids, the Irkens have evolved all wrong and now they're no longer able to reproduce, etc. Notably this, and the problems it creates, is the basis for In Short Supply.

    My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic

    • Before season 2, stories about the mane six having to face the "Elements of Discord", Evil Counterparts to their Elements of Harmony, were quite common.
    • Crossover fics dealing with other characters getting transported to Equestria, almost always getting inexplicably "ponified" in the process. Doctor Who is the most common victim of this, thanks to a background character who looks like a pony version of the Tenth Doctor.
    • And of course, humans in Equestria stories.
    • The standard plot for getting the ponies themselves into another universe is famously "Twilight Sparkle tests out a new teleport spell, and it goes wrong". It's gotten to where Equestria Daily explicitly points it out when a fic doesn't do this.
      • It's not just "teleport turns into dimensional travel"; when Twilight tries out any new spell in fanfic, things will go south. One fanfic involving Twilight visiting a darker parallel universe had Equestria Daily note that the universe's existence isn't her fault: "Is that even allowed?"
    • It's popular to pit the gang from Friendship is Magic against updated versions of G1 villains, such as Tirac from "Rescue at Midnight Castle".
    • Princess Celestia turning out to be a horrible tyrant, or Equestria being a Crap Saccharine World. Often this will involve the characters being unaware of this, and scolded by some OC for how naive they were.
    • Rainbow Dash having an accident and, irreparably or not, injuring her wings, requring another charcter to care for her (may or may not involve shipping). At one point these were so ubiquitous that Equestria Daily outright banned them. Then there was the actual episode where Rainbow broke her wings and was confined to a hospital...
    • Fluttershy nursing a hurt character back to health (which has some basis, given that she's the Element of Kindness), often overlapping with the above. Even Trixie is in one of these.
    • A popular theme has Twilight Sparkle (and possibly the other members of the mane six as well) turning into alicorns and taking over the rule of Equestria from Celestia and Luna, who have grown tired of immortality.
    • In Derpy fics where she's the mother of Dinky, it'll often center around the hardships of being a single mother and/or Derpy's ditziness.
    • Many a Bonbon and Lyra fics are about Lyra being unable to get a job, as she's a musician in Fanon.
    • "Luna reintegrates into Equestrian society" stories became (and remain) incredibly popular almost since day one, with Progress only being the most well known. Almost all contain some form of The Atoner mixed with Adorkable, No Social Skills and Fish Out of Temporal Water, and most draw some sort of parallel to Twilight's situation, if not outright having Twilight help her adjust. "Luna Eclipsed" confirmed all of these and further strengthened their prevalence, although later ones drop the fan-made meek, submissive portrayal and adopt the official Large Ham portrayal.
    • Any fanfic that is centered on Scootaloo is usually going to make her an object of pity, either it will be about her inability to fly or her lack of any known family. She often ends up being comforted or adopted by Rainbow Dash as a result.

    Phineas and Ferb

    • Phineas and Ferb has a lot of stories where Perry somehow becomes a human, and oh, it also turns out he and Dr. Doofenshmirtz are both gay. Often Dr. D is the one who transforms him in the first place, though usually for ostensibly different reasons.
    • It's common to speculate about the boys' respective missing biological parents. This contains a whole subgenre where Doofenshmirtz turns out to be Phineas's father, with various back stories trying to fit this into canon.
    • A lot of fanfics put the kids in school. Since the creators have stated that the series will only cover time off from school, there seems to be a general fandom curiosity as to what school is like for the characters.
    • At the end of Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension Isabella kisses Phineas on the lips just before they're hit with an amnesia ray. This has become a convenient plot device for a lot of ship fic writers. The most common variation is that Phineas or/and Isabella remembers the kiss somehow (very often, the memory returns to them in a dream), and decides to act on it. Another variation is that Phineas gets Carl to stop long enough for him or Isabella to write down a message to themselves.

    Teen Titans

    • Batman or Batgirl comes from Gotham to entrust or request something from Robin
    • Beast Boy turns back into his form from "The Beast Within"
    • Raven's long-lost demonic sibling appears
    • Any and all variations of the High School AU (at least their ages don't need to be changed)

    Total Drama Island

    • An awful lot of Total Drama Island fics crop up that depict a second season at Camp Wawanakwa using Original Characters for the new cast of campers. Sometimes some mixture of OCs and originals are used.
    • Crossovers are fairly common, pulling in characters from other works as contestants.
    • A common theme of Whole-Plot References developed, the majority of which involve Twilight (usually using Gwen and Trent or Courtney and Duncan as Bella and Edward, respectively, then later with Gwen and Duncan filling the roll).
    • A lot of fanfics are about a season where reviewers can apply for a spot on the show.

    Other works

    • Hey Arnold! fic-writers tend to be fond of the "character leaves town for years, only to return much later to the neighborhood and reintroduce their newly mature selves to their old friends". Despite Arnold actually having a ground semi-speculatory semi-canon reason for doing this, this kind of thing usually stars Helga, who always comes back more attractive and more mature, so as to sweep Arnold off his feet.
      • The Jungle Movie, an abandoned Big Damn Movie project where Arnold sets out to find his lost parents in Central America. Not only would this movie result in him finding his parents, but he was also supposed to get a Relationship Upgrade with Helga. Naturally, a lot of fans were anxious to see this project come into realisation, and have made their own versions.
    • Treasure Planet fanfics seem inordinately fond of direct retellings of the movie, except this time there's a plucky female recruit/stowaway/cabin girl who's a Kindred Spirit to Jim and thus can fall in love with him over the course of the story, if she isn't his sister instead. If not a direct retelling, there are also fics where Jim goes on a voyage that is essentially the same as the voyage to treasure planet, accompanied by a female stowaway who is either essentially Jim's personality from the movie (while Jim can play Older and Wiser) or your average Tsundere so she and Jim can have a Slap Slap Kiss romance.
    • The Land Before Time fandom seems to love the plot of dragging a kid from the present and befriending Littlefoot and the gang. In fact, any plot that falls anywhere on the Speculative Fiction spectrum, with the fate of the world in Littlefoot and the gang's hands, is common.
    • Kick Buttowski shipping fics tend to start with Kick and Kendall agreeing to spend a whole day (or even a whole week) together because of a bet or a dare. Naturally, after some initial bickering, they realize they've fallen in love with each other.
    • Young Justice fics enjoy getting a lot of drama over Robin taking his sunglasses/mask off to whoever he's being shipped with.
    • The Fairly OddParents has a few fanfics about Norm the Genie falling in love with a female genie master Original Character who treats him right. Each of these have their own unique, slightly weird twist. One of them is a Deconstruction of Genie in a Bottle and perhaps several other tropes. Another has an OC that might be an Expy of Megara. Yet another is a Chobits Fusion Fic (with Product Placement). One is a limerick written by Norm the Genie about a Mary Sue named Rebekah Masters, who is Aladdin's sister, owns a keyblade, has many boyfriends (whatever fictional guys the author finds hot) and lives in the Kingdom Hearts world.
      • A lot of stories reflect on Cosmo and Wanda's failing relationship, as well as how they met and how their Anti-Fairy counterparts met. There are many fanfics about Anti-Poof's birth.
    • Kim Possible: Pretty much every Drakken/Shego writer has done a piece dealing with the fallout from "Emotion Sickness" (in which emotion-setting "Moodulators" become attached to Kim and Shego, and for most of the episode they're crazy with love for Ron and Drakken, respectively). So have a lot of Kim/Ron fans, of course, but to a lesser extent because they have considerably more canon to work with.
    • Two common plotlines in Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers fandom are "Eliza's rescue" (at least 4 versions are floating around), and ones where the other three find out about the full extent of the dirty politics and hellish conditions at Wolf Den—usually in the form of some threat to Shane. Queue the Series 5 team making the guilty parties wish they were dealing with Supertroopers.
    • Jem fanfic will create Mockumentaries based on VH-1's Behind The Music, recapping the team's adventures. These range from playing it mostly straight to Deconstructive Parody.
    • Fans of the Mega Man cartoon show often have Protoman leave Wily, usually by him creating Bass as a replacement. And then Bass isn't seen from again.
    • Fanfiction for The Penguins of Madagascar often includes some method of 'fixing' Marlene's lapsing into a feral state whenever she leaves the zoo. This tends to go hand-in-hand with her finally learning that the penguins' adventures are real and joining the team, since her ability to participate in adventures would be severely limited otherwise.
    • My Life as a Teenage Robot has a whole genre of stories about Jenny becoming human somehow, usually to facilitate a relationship with Brad. (Fans never seem to do this if they pair her with Sheldon, for some reason.)
    • Gargoyles fandom: What if Elisa Maza (or any other character) was definitely turned into a Gargoyle?
    • A great many Danny Phantom fics involve the return of Dark Danny. This is largely due to his immense popularity, the fact that he only appeared in the series once, and that supposedly he was going to return if the series wasn't Screwed by the Network. What he does when he returns varies from story to story: sometimes he gets shipped, other times he gets "redeemed," but he usually goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
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