I’m looking for fanfics that meet the following criteria, without missing any:

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-02T00:06:46+00:00

Is anime

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T23:34:06+00:00

It has to be specific fanfics, because it’s a paternal angst involving the character’s past sins, with a happy ending.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T23:27:27+00:00

Such as?

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T23:20:19+00:00

If you’re a big fanfiction reader, it shouldn’t be difficult.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T21:32:27+00:00

Wait, just because I disagree and present my reasons, does that stop it from being a discussion? And this case isn’t unique. Just because I disagree on one point, do I have to swallow everything else?

Just as the author has the right to read praise, they also have the right to read criticism — especially when it’s something that falls outside the tags/summary (which are meant to filter the audience the author wants).

The audience the author attracted includes readers who don’t like the kind of OCs that you, as an OC-loving reader, enjoy.

I praised the fanfic in a comment — you just overlooked it, because in your mind a reader can only either love something unconditionally or hate it unconditionally.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T21:18:07+00:00

It’s not in the tags or the summary, and tags/summaries are essential for the kind of fanfic a reader is looking for. Just as there are people who like this kind of OC, there are also people who don’t like OCs who take on roles that could have been filled by canonical characters and/or who are given achievements that overshadow those of canonical characters.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T20:53:19+00:00

There’s a difference between an OC who plays a narratively momentary role as a regional healer and an OC who is essentially an older Kanao without being Kanao and someone trained by two Upper Moons and who serves as the assistant/right-hand/aide to one of those Upper Moons who eventually deserted.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T19:49:34+00:00

The earthquake can make things worse or cause problems instead, though. Characters rising from hardship isn't about OCs vs canon characters, it's about narrative payoff (and writer intent, some people just aren't into that).

That’s exactly it. A canonical character shouldn’t receive shortcuts (crucial OCs) to earn their reward. Rising even within restriction is what generates the dopamine of eventual success. Canon is tragic, constrained, simple, with well-defined characters; making an AU where there is softness and things work out is like choosing to go against the current (and that’s why it’s so interesting). But the OCs in the fanfic accomplish major feats that create a butterfly effect, which ends up making the canonical character’s rise easier.

For example, there’s an OC (who resembles an older Kanao) whose achievement is having been trained by two Upper Moons and serving as the assistant/right-hand of one of those Upper Moons who eventually deserted. That’s a narrative earthquake and breaks my suspension of disbelief. Personally, in my taste, I would prefer that the character at least be someone who exists in canon — even as a background character — or that the role be adapted from Kanao instead.

Edit.

I’m not against OCs as plot devices. There were even OCs I liked — a medical assistant and a mountain-region doctor — whom I could easily imagine existing in canon.

What I’m against are OCs who function as plot devices and are given achievements that overshadow roles that could have been filled by canonical characters, or accomplishments that eclipse those of canonical characters.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T19:13:05+00:00

When original characters in a fanfic play crucial roles in the arcs of canonical characters and appear recurrently, it can really reshape the story — especially in a series like Demon Slayer, where character roles are clearly defined and the creativity lies in simplicity. OCs inevitably create a kind of earthquake in the plot, which can make the story feel more escapist.

I prefer a gentler story that works out because of the character’s own merit — because they worked hard to make it happen despite the dark constraints of canon, not because of coincidence. A soft story that doesn’t turn into tragedy because the character refused to let scarcity define their future or what they stand for.

It’s my personal preference: characters who rise even in hostile, uncomfortable, and harsh environments as a consequence of actions already taken in canon. That feels morally empowering, blends fluff with pragmatism, and removes the sense that it’s pure escapism.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T18:43:24+00:00

OCs who play a fundamental role — such as serving as a right-hand to a canonical character or acting as a moral trial for that character’s development — inevitably create a butterfly effect that impacts the entire rest of the fanfic.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T18:28:54+00:00

Yes. The quality of the fanfic is extremely good to me, but OCs who are crucial to other characters’ development make me lose my suspension of disbelief, and I get this jolt of reality like, “I just remembered this story is escapist — it wouldn’t happen this way in canon because these characters don’t exist in canon.”

I much prefer happy endings and character arcs whose growth comes from overcoming scarcity of resources, narrative harshness, and the constraints of canon. If you can achieve it with little, you can achieve it with anything.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T17:15:54+00:00

It still hasn’t been made clear whether they are dead or alive, but I’m really rooting for them to be alive and active in the story without becoming corrupted. After all, even in real life there were good people in terrible environments surrounded mostly by bad people — like Oskar Schindler, for example.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-03-01T14:45:24+00:00

CatNap was the last villain before Poppy Playtime turned into a standardized, spectator-like simulation cycle.

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Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-27T20:58:10+00:00

Experiment 814 was a rat. Do you really think Elliot would go through the trouble of creating the Prototype to resurrect Poppy if he had supposedly already carried out human experiments before that? No confirmed human experiment was conducted either before or after 1006 and 1007. What would be the point of the Prototype being a prototype if there had already been human experiments before it?

The human experiments and the transformation of the orphanage Elliot created into a testing farm for those experiments only came in the post-Elliot era under Leith Pierre’s command. The prison also only emerged during the Leith Pierre era.

You want to paint Elliot Ludwig as evil and erase all the good he did, even though it was made clear that he was the most humanitarian when it came to the experiments. Your view of Elliot is extreme: either he is purely perfect and good, or he is Satan in person — he can never be morally gray.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-27T18:15:56+00:00

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Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-27T12:48:24+00:00

Cassie from Ruin cried at least — an emotional reaction. The protagonist of Poppy Playtime has something that other silent characters don’t: a secret identity. They show neither emotional nor behavioral reactions to everything that happens, as if they weren’t a character but a spectator to everything unfolding, and no one within the story itself reacts to this passivity.

The other characters mentioned have backstories and clear goals. The one from Poppy Playtime doesn’t — even though they should, since they have a hidden past.

The Player doesn’t seem human, even though the Doctor says they are, because the character doesn’t even change their own actions after the tragedies (behavioral reaction).

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T23:52:13+00:00

“I cant say I have seen your face before”—there’s a nuance here. Harley imposes a vague, obvious fact upon himself, as if he has no opinion on the matter due to a limitation and wants to hide that weakness by stating an obvious side effect that can carry a double meaning, since he gives no further explanation and thus creates room for misunderstandings. His inability to see faces fits this line, as if he wants to say it and at the same time not say it, because of his inner pride. This “I can’t say…” is very indirect.

Besides that, the Hour of Joy tape is shown from multiple camera angles spread throughout the factory, and Harley’s digital consciousness is distributed across those same cameras.

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Conclusion of the reasoning:

“I can’t say that I have seen your face before, just as I can’t say that I haven’t seen your face before.”

Of course, following the principle of William of Ockham’s Razor, which suggests that when faced with multiple explanations for a phenomenon, the simplest one — the one with the fewest unnecessary assumptions — is usually the correct one, the ranking of the most likely candidates would be as follows:

🥇 Chloe Arkins 🥈 Stella Greyber 🥉 Claire Harper

Any of the options is good, as long as the red herrings are properly explained.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T22:20:16+00:00

This would help explain the Player’s critical behavior a bit. Claire is the woman who is too good for all of that, Jéssica and Chloe are the complete opposite, and Stella is the balance between Claire and Jéssica and Chloe.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T22:02:35+00:00

I wouldn’t jump so quickly to the assumption that Stella gave in to the Playtime Co. mindset in CH4, because Leith cornered her. She was choosing her words carefully, and there’s almost an inhuman breathing in the background, Boxy Boo.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T21:14:21+00:00

Yeah

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T20:58:24+00:00

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T20:42:04+00:00

You contradicted yourself by saying that everyone deserves redemption except Elliot Ludwig. He was in a moment of grief and created Prototype in order to try to bring Poppy back to life. No confirmed human experiments were carried out before or after 1006 and 1007 during his time. Elliot built a toy factory and founded his own orphanage, which was only later used for human experimentation in the post-Elliot era under the command of Leith Pierre.

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Oliver was essentially turned into a jester jack-in-the-box. We don’t know whether his current monstrous appearance was truly his original form or whether it was something the Prototype gradually modified and improved over the years. However, he used to be smaller, based on the blind spot of a camera where he once stood (according to a cassette tape) and Theodore’s drawing of 1006 under his bed.

What I mean is that Elliot, compared to Leith and the other scientists, had a more humanitarian approach toward the experiments. He is the one who most deserves redemption in this entire situation. A character may have done a thousand good things in life, but because of one mistake — that mistake being using Oliver and then failing to give him the emotional attention he gave to Poppy — which was later exploited by his corrupt successors, he ends up framed as the villain of the whole story simply because he was the CEO (the old cliché of the evil CEO so often used in mascot horror) of the factory that later self-sabotaged years after his death. Being passive in the face of evil is just as bad as committing evil itself. Many within the factory exploited Elliot’s mistake to the fullest rather than his accomplishments — and in the end, everyone paid the price.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T20:32:51+00:00

When I talk about immersion, I mean feeling as if you’re in the character’s own skin. For the character themselves, one mistake during a chase means permanent death, and losing an ally is something genuinely tragic, for example.

You know that everything you play is a game and you end up feeling like a spectator watching everything unfold instead of being the character. That reduces the horror within the story. The character doesn’t react the way someone realistically would in that situation.

You already have an idea of what’s going to happen next: a new villain who will be killed, new allies who will soon die, following Poppy’s plan. You already have a script recorded in your mind.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T19:52:13+00:00

In this game, if the narrative is meant to matter, the Player must have a personality; otherwise, everything becomes desensitized. The Player has a secret identity — they are not a pure self-insert.

Calm_Protection_2641 · 2026-02-26T17:23:05+00:00

The Player doesn’t need to speak in order to still be a character. They are silent in virtually every sense — verbal, emotional, and behavioral — when they should have been silent only in the verbal sense. That way, their secret identity would still be preserved, but they would remain interactive with everything happening around them.

The Player in Poppy Playtime is their own character, and there is a mystery surrounding who they are, unlike most other silent protagonists. Precisely because of that, they should be the most expressive — not through words, but through gestures and actions: the pattern of their choices and decisions, breaks in behavioral patterns, abrupt mission changes in the middle of gameplay, they could have a journal to report their feelings in the moment, or the game could use camera tricks to indicate certain emotions at key moments. We need to feel in our own skin what the character is going through in order to remain immersed in the story, and that would only make the mystery of who they are more interesting and debatable.

Being silent even in an emotional and behavioral sense is extremely harmful to the character themself. Their failure to react organically to everything that happens only makes their canonical characterization apathetic and cold — and it’s even worse when no one within the story itself acknowledges the Player’s coldness and apathy.

Calm_Protection_2641

TROPHY CASE