I don't know who needs to hear this, and maybe it's just me, but the idea that someone feels like they have any business critiquing or should I say reviewing free- FREE- fucking content like they're some kind of motherfucking Roger Ebert of fanfiction seriously rubs me the wrong way.
I also want to make it clear that I give zero fucks if you think I'm overreacting.
People write fic for a multitude of reasons but mostly for love. Love of the source material, or the characters, or whatever. To share that love with like minded people and be part of a community.
You don't like the pacing or characterization? Click the back button and move on with your life. Nobody, with the possible exception of a teeny, tiny handful of your friends, gives an actual rat's ass that you didn't care for the way the dialogue played out in a certain scene, or the speed at which the romance developed.
Also, if you're going into a story where you describe your expectation of the primary romantic pairing as 'toxic', you shouldn't read that story. Better yet, just run away. Far, far away. Because clearly, your entire "review" is coming from a place of erroneous assumptions and fixed moral attitudes about certain pairings being "unhealthy" or "abusive".
It's bullshit, and renders you fundamentally incapable of grasping why an audience engages with that story, those characters, and that particular pairing. You don't like that pairing, you obviously hated the story.
Thanks for sharing how much you absolutely fucking hated one of the most well regarded fics in the fandom with...*checks notes* other members of that fandom. In the fandom ship tag.
Like, did we fucking ask?
Really, though, I'm not just talking about one specific story, or a specific fandom, but the broader context of engaging with fanworks in general with a level of expectation usually reserved for entertainment that you would rightly be paying for.
And rating fics on some arbitrary scale?
You can take your need to bloviate about how a particular fanwork was maybe a semi enjoyable one time read and pound sand, especially if you aren't actually engaging with these fanworks by way of favoriting, bookmarking or leaving positive comments and kudos.
The only possible reasons to ever, ever level unsolicited criticism of a fic is if you curate your experiences by checking tags and an author completely fails to tag content that is potentially triggering, (tags are a whole ass separate discussion that I won't get into just now) or if the story contains plagiarized material, is racist, antisemitic, homophobic or transphobic - you get the idea.
Otherwise, shut it. Don't like, don't read is a thing.
When we share our fanworks with an audience we're putting ourselves out there and making ourselves vulnerable, but we do it out of love. Many of us exist in demanding or stressful jobs or situations and creating or enjoying fanworks provides us a way to destress, cope, or just simply participate in a community.
One last thing. We're making this shit for free, Karen.
You want to grade fics on how well they measure up in different categories? Do you even understand how entitled that is? Would you seriously leave a two or two three star review on a fanwork, with the understanding that the person who created it may be a fledgling artist or writer who, again, isn't getting paid? A writer who may quit writing altogether because someone told them their characterizations aren't good or their pacing is uneven?
There are ways of becoming a resource for fic recommendations but this ain't it.
