Matrix fics over 50k

[doranwen]

My fic database is full of mainly tiny fandoms so far (which I'll get to in another post for the tiny fandoms theme), but The Matrix is not exactly tiny, even if it's eligible for Yuletide (that's only due to Fanfiction.net's late addition of the complete/in progress option, which many of the early writers never went back to change their fics to "complete"). And, coincidentally, it's the only fandom with fics over 50k in there so far. I would love to link to the many, many other wonderful long fics I've read over the years (in so many different fandoms) but to find all the links would be a tremendous effort right now, so I'll stick with these four.

Same rating system as I explained in the post last week; all of these are either ff.n fics (which were given ratings from G to R) or from a site that didn't have a rating, in which case it's marked Unrated.

These I can talk a bit more about. :)

Lady Rheena - Rescue Run
R, 68054 words
This is a most unusual Matrix fic as it actually features no scenes in the Matrix itself, instead focusing on an OC who comes from outside of Earth itself. (What if humans had colonized other planets before losing Earth to the machines?) A much more sci-fi/space style fic than one might expect for Matrix fic! Sparks/OC ship.

Phoenix (The Woman in Red) - Rising from the Ashes
Unrated, 287098 words
You'll need to use the Wayback Machine to read this one, but it's the longest Matrix fic I've seen yet and is quite entertaining. Full of interesting worldbuilding, it ignores the 2nd and 3rd films entirely and posits a very different (yet somewhat plausible) approach to the Matrix world. To put in the ships would spoil you majorly, so all I can say is, give it a try? (As far as warnings go, there's plenty of language and marijuana use, though the sex is generally glossed over and there's virtually no violence. There's some original character death but canonical characters are all good.) I spent some time one week creating an epub of the entire thing so I could re-read it more easily (which is the only reason I know the wordcount). :D

Zion Angel - Death and Rebirth
PG-13, 87603 words
An well-written backstory for Trinity, ending a little before the movie starts.

Zion Angel - Knowing and Walking
PG-13, 100463 words
The sequel to Death and Rebirth, this fic fills around the movie and a little beyond, showing Trinity's struggle to deal with her love for Neo and grief at the loss of her friends (all canonical).

I hope someone enjoys these! :D

Comments

[kore]

I loved the Matrix, and I had never thought about looking for fic of it! Thank you!

[doranwen]

Oh, you're in for a treat! :D Be sure to click on the tag for it here and see the previous posts I've done which had recs of Matrix fic - some of those fics are simply outstandingly well-written. Green Rain (on the re-read favorites post), in particular, is my "if you only read one fic for this fandom…" choice.

[kore]

NICE, I will definitely check the tag!

[doranwen]

And I decided that The Matrix might not be tiny but it is Yuletide-eligible due to loopholes, which is my "tiny fandom" benchmark, so I went ahead and included Matrix fic in my latest post - and there is quite a bit of it. That should give you plenty of Matrix fic to read for a long while. :D

[kore]

Aww that's great! Thank you! (OMG, is it really Yuletide-eligible....)

[doranwen]

You're welcome. :D

And yup! It really, really shouldn't be (and I say this despite actually asking for it in Yuletide last year, lol). AO3 only has 235 after filters, which makes sense given how old the fandom is. But on ff.n it's 3.2k without filters which is not a good sign - generally the filters tend to shrink by half at most - except it shrinks to 427 only (not counting the crossovers, but those don't usually make any real difference to numbers unless it's close to the benchmark). I poked at it and figured out why though - one of the Yuletide filters is completeness, see. Ff.n didn't add that option in till like 2005ish? I poked through the Wayback Machine to confirm that last year, but I've forgotten the actual year now. And Revolutions came out in 2003, so the vast majority of the fics were posted well before there was an option to mark fics as complete, and few authors went back to their previously-posted fics to do so. Anyway, if you turn that part of the filter off, it jumps to 2.1k which is a lot closer to the real numbers on ff.n (which would probably be somewhere around 1.5k - at the very least, it would definitely be over). There's a LOT of Matrix fic there, lol. So yeah, it's one of the few fandoms that found a loophole in the rules - but given how few fandoms actually are affected by that (most are either over in numbers despite that bringing the ff.n numbers down, or they're so tiny it wouldn't make a difference), the mods are not inclined to be more nitpicky.

[kore]

Wow, that is wild. I bet that doesn't happen with many other fandoms, but I've vented plenty about not including crossovers and how many people mark works "complete" when they aren't and similar Yuletide "If I Ran the World" problems, lol.