Discussion: Favorite HnG tropes

[bridgetmkennitt]

What are your favorite Hikaru no Go tropes for ship or gen fic, either specific tropes to the canon or general tropes applied to said fic?

ETA: Here's the tag set from multifandomtropefest that has a bunch of different tropes towards the bottom for trope ideas.

Comments

[bridgetmkennitt]

I love obsession between Hikaru and Akira and, along those lines, their competitive rivalry. Even if a fic is an AU, I still want those elements between these two characters.

In general, I'm a huge fan of Alpha/Beta/Omega and mpreg, though I haven't read a lot of those tropes in this fandom. I also like fake marriages/relationships and I don't think I've read that much in this fandom either.

[onkoona]

Mmmmm, ABO... Something to think about...

[bridgetmkennitt]

There are so many ways to go with that trope and I love it for either ship or gen. I know there are people who don't like it, but I really do love it in any fandom I'm in.

[onkoona]

I'm a Sai/Hikaru girl all the way (not very surprising, I know ;) )

I'm not sure if these are tropes as such, but at least I think they invite tropes in to existence:
Whether the situation is ship or gen, I feel that a basic character trait for Sai is pacifism (as in no action), and for Hikaru is active (as in action). Also Sai is caught, and Hikaru is free.
I've looked at turning the traits around, but in doing, I found that the characters become unrecognizable, and so I quickly stopped.
And I do find that I like the roles as given (non-active&caught + active&free), they create an interesting dynamic.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Hee. :D

That's interesting. I'm not sure if I've heard of a trope of non-active and active, but I'm looking through the tag to see if there's anything close.

[goodgriefcharlie]

One of my favorite tropes in general is when a character has a secret and there's lovely tension about whether or not anyone will find out what it is. This is already so gloriously present in HnG canon because everything about Sai and his relationship with Hikaru is a Captial-S Secret and I really love fic that play around with it even further: does Hikaru ever tell anyone the truth about Sai? Who would he tell and why? Does anyone believe him when he does? How does it change their relationship? It can also be really fun to read stories from an outsider's POV in which they get glimpses of Hikaru's secret but never quite are able to put the whole thing together.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Ooo, that's a good one. I do wish the canon had gone further than it did because I'd love to know if Hikaru ever told anyone about Sai and how that moment would go down.

[dancing_serpent]

Seconding all of this! Secrets are my jam, especially supernatural stuff like with Hikaru and Sai. I can be very particular about who I want to find out, though. In all of HnG, I believe the most deserving would be Touya Kouyou.

Also, outsider POV can be so amazing!

[bridgetmkennitt]

Ooo, yes. Touya Kouyou should definitely find out. I don't think I've read a fic where he does find out, but there are so many ways it could go.

I do love outside POVs and there's moments of that within the canon that meld into the secrets Hikaru is keeping. It gives me all the feels. :D

[goodgriefcharlie]

I am 100% with you; Touya Kouyou absolutely deserves to know about Sai. It hurts my heart a little that he had this magnificent game with someone who could truly rival him -- but that's it, just the one game, and with no real explanation for all the secrecy. It's good that Kouyou's motivated and inspired to explore Go in different ways afterwards, but I also imagine that it's always a little bittersweet that he never gets the chance to play Sai again.

I'm also a big fan of Akira just quietly observing Hikaru and all his quirks and over the years putting it all together, so that when Hikaru finally is able to talk about it, Akira already knows the shape of his secret.

[godhaunt]

OMG i'm a sucker for people putting 2 + 2 together or just getting glimpses of a secret (or just something a person wants to keep private)! don't know why it makes me so excited, lol.

i'm imagining a fic with a humorous approach to it, going one by one over the characters, showing each of them figuring out or just seeing a different piece of the puzzle, and being even more, well... puzzled than before. except a few, they'd never mention their thoughts to anybody else, in fear of sounding silly, ultimately keeping the secret safe.

[dancing_serpent]

Some of my favourite tropes ever are time travel, secrets & secret identies and the reveal of those. HnG is pretty much tailor made to appeal to me. *g*

[bridgetmkennitt]

Hee, I can see that! I wish HnG lasted longer than it did because there was SO MUCH the canon had left to play with in regards to secrets and secret identifies. It ended way too soon. I'm reading Haikyuu!! right now and it's 332 chapters and the main two characters are still first years in high school. :/

[goodgriefcharlie]

Time travel is the BEST, especially time travel fix-it fic. I don't know why; it's such a comfort to me.

[type_wild]

Girl!Hikaru.

I've absolutely no idea why, and it can be either complete genderswap or just Hikaru. There's a surprising number of fanfic like this on FFN, and I wonder if it's because canon tends to come across as vageuly harem-y? In either case, there also is a tendency for these stories to have my super ignored OTP (Hikaru/Waya) in them. Usually either one-sided from Waya because Hikaru ends up with Akira anyhow, but I'll take what I get.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Girl!Hikaru is a lovely trope. I've read some in this fandom and there can always be more of it.

[goodgriefcharlie]

Do you have a favorite one? I'm intrigued by the trope but haven't encountered many myself.

[qem_chibati]

I love Waya bring confused, and last sane man. XD

internet identity shenanigans and cross cultural relationships are lovely. Oh and doppelgängers! One of the reasons why I really enjoy Le Ping , with the possibilities of fun with Waya!

Oh and other supernatural things happening!

Less so in Hikaru no go, but I absolutely adore time travel as a trope as well.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Waya is such a hoot, I love it. There are so many stories that are possible because he's there.

Ghosts exist because of Sai, but it would have been great if there were more supernatural things happening in the canon. I don't think I've read much of that in fics, so that'd be nifty to see.

I think time travel could work in HnG, like maybe Hikaru one day ends up in Sai's original timeline and inside Sai's head. :D

[catlarks]

Incredibly late to the party, but:

I love stories that explore mentorship in any and every way and that's definitely something I adore with hikago, because Sai teaching Hikaru is kind of the platonic ideal of mentorship. But I also especially love anything with Hikaru paying it forward and learning to teach other people, especially since his character growth from an impatient and immature kid to a very thoughtful and talented professional Go player is super satisfying and it just feels like a natural offshoot of that.

I also love anything mentor related with Touya Kouyou and Ogata, and I love Yun-sensei! (the advisor for Akira's middle school Go club who I'm not sure many people besides me even remember)

Besides that: healthy rivalries that help both rivals grow and learn as people are so good and hikago has always fed my heart so well on that count.

And for fic more than canon, I love domesticity and future!fic where akihika are basically an old bickering married couple, lmao. Characters cohabiting and taking care of each other is my jam.

[bridgetmkennitt]

Never too late to the party! :D

All these tropes are awesome. I hadn't thought about mentorship, but it's a good one since there's plenty to choose from in the canon.

[phnx]

I love AUs in any fandom, especially loose fusions (...which is why I write so many, I guess >>;;; ). Even though this isn't something I really write a lot, my favourite hikago AUs are actually of the canon-divergent variety, in the style of Aishuu's Brightly Burning. I also like Hikaru as an accidental history expert. :D

[bridgetmkennitt]

Fusions are so much fun. I know there are some canon-divergent AUs in the fandom, but definitely not enough.

[enimori]

*shows up a year late with a starbucks*

outsider pov fics all the way! my favorite are bad impressions are for free and a kid like that? and i still hope to find some others in the same vein
in general, i love hikaru Shocking people - it's already a strong theme in canon, but i need More
also younger pros/insei looking up to hikaru in the future (oka and shouji or ocs or whomever)
and yeah, teacher! or mentor!hikaru

also confused waya being confused and domestic akihika bickering like an old married couple is my jam
AND hikaru telling akira about sai. it's considered such a cliché but honestly most fics just gloss over it >

[bridgetmkennitt]

Hehe, nothing wrong with showing up late!

Outsider pov fics are awesome and those are fun tropes to read. There definitely should be way more of them everywhere.