Amazing AO3 Tags

A collection of the weird and wonderful tags created for the weird and wonderful fics hosted on Archive of Our Own.

[amazingao3tags]

___ and Taxes

In celebration(?) of tax season, I decided to see if I could find the weirdest tags to go ALONG with “Taxes.” Readers, there are some GEMS. (And like... a somewhat surprising variety of smut...)

[favberrys]

The haunting of bly manor + @amazingao3tags

[amazingao3tags]

Yesssssssssss, fully on board

[amazingao3tags]

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

!Reader: And on the day I find a self-insert fic where I get to be a badass vampire archangel scientist bounty hunter Jedi Norse Goddess who is also a Cybertronian who turns into a motorcycle, I shall reach my final form and ascend, never to be seen or heard from again

[amazingao3tags]

Don’t tell my wip I’m here: Me every time I post a one-shot while all my serial fics are out putting my face on milk cartons.

Don’t neglect your WIPs, kids. They have feelings, too.

[amazingao3tags]

Continuity is dead. Long live continuity.

Another tag compilation, as a Christmas present to everyone. I started seeing the tag “Continuity What Continuity” around, and wondered if there were some similar opinions out there. Indeed there are. Especially for anything comic book related or anything with an extended universe. I find the last one especially poignant.

[amazingao3tags]

Platonic Bonus Round: Some of the more choice and bizarre tags involving “platonic.”

Side note: “Platonic” no longer looks like a real word to me. Send help.

Also, a note to the last author: Anything can be a tag if you believe it in your beautiful heart.

[amazingao3tags]

Platonic: You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.

Ultimately, they should all also include this masterpiece:

[amazingao3tags]

Dammit, Jim!

Dammit, Jim, I’m a *, not a *!: Another tag collection, this time of spinoffs of our favorite Doctor McCoy quote. Honestly, I thought there would be more of this tag, but it looks like it’s more popular as a title than a tag. Alas.

[amazingao3tags]

Accept My Challenge

Challenge: I was flipping through fics the other day and saw the tag “Triple Penetration,” and I thought to myself, “How far down does this rabbit hole go?” Quintuple was the highest I found, but if anyone finds higher, do let me know.

[amazingao3tags]

mentions of men: I mean, it’s not scandalous or anything, but I love the fact that this author was so into all her female characters and lesbian relationships and girl-centric plotlines that she felt the need to warn her audience that, BTW, just as a heads up, potential trigger warning, a few men might be mentioned. God, that is my kind of fic.

[amazingao3tags]

Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane: Everyone has their kinks, and as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, more power to them, but it’s probably for the best if you admit upfront that your sexytimes need a legal waiver of liability.

[amazingao3tags]

Infinity War Feels

Post-Infinity War tags: I thought there might be some choice IW tags out there from emotionally compromised Marvel fans. I was right. Oh, how I was right.

[amazingao3tags]

I Made Myself Cry: A little example of tagging-as-a-form-of-therapy. That’s how you know you’re dealing with a real angst author. If they angst so hard that they’re typing fic through the tears, then you know that’s some quality angst.

[amazingao3tags]

Past Necrophilia: I've been on the Wild West of the internet long enough to not be shocked that there are fics about necrophilia. On its own, it’s a “common tag.” But something about the idea of “past necrophilia” just struck me as ludicrous. Like somewhere in that fic, there might be some character waxing nostalgic, like: “You know, back in my old corpse-porking days...”

[amazingao3tags]

Better Than Canon: God, I admire the balls on these guys. It’s the other side of the bell curve from the “DON’T READ THIS” “I REGRET EVERYTHING” “SORRY GOD” tags. If only we all had their confidence.

[amazingao3tags]

I Blame Tumblr: That’s right folks, a surprising number of authors blame us personally for their writing. I don’t know whether to be flattered or indignant.

But for serious, I do totally understand what they mean. I’ve been browsing through my favorite tags and caught a prompt or a gif or a rant that birthed a plot bunny in my head. I just wouldn’t have thought to tag the fic with that afterwards.

[amazingao3tags]

AO3 classifies this as a “common” tag, BTW.

This is another one where the phrasing of it gets me more than anything. Like, not just finding a baby on your doorstep or experiencing some kind of adoption mishap. No, apparently there are SO MANY ways to accidentally acquire (ACQUIRE!) babies that they couldn’t get any more specific.