Game of Dogs is an original fanfic written by an anonymous Asian author under his penname "The Terror Terrier", taking inspirations from Survivor Dogs and Battle Royale, as well as Dogs of the Drowned City, but more particularly the Battle Royale part.
The Elsewhere Fic stars the notorious, murderous Golden Retriever Villain Protagonist named Randell, and depicting the dogs' battle royale from a realistic point-of-view (as opposed to the Western view of "friendly and heroic dogs"). Here, dogs are sociopathic, sadistic, ferocious and Always Chaotic Evil animals run rampant through the streets murdering various animals who attempt to run off the city, while also trying to beat each other to death.
The story takes a twisted formula on the dogs' mentality, removing or altering the positive traits depicted in many media and cranking up the negative traits up to eleven, some of which even are Truth in Television. And turn all of the dogs into villains, including one Villain Protagonist. Basically, Survivor Dogs meets Battle Royale for inspiration, but all the dogs in the story are villains.
The fanfic can be read here
, but the chapters are uploaded sporadically.
Tropes present in this work:
- Absolute Xenophobe: Most dogs, if not all, believe that the dogs are the superior species, and other animals such as cats, birds and rodents must be annihilated. Chapter 15 "Genocide" shows how Randell and his collaborators organize their Final Solution throughout the city.
- Affably Evil: Some few dogs are this if they're of Gentle Giant breeds. Especially Grenade and even Randell.
- A God Am I: Randell had developed his god complex even when he was a Jack the Ripoff.
- Animal Espionage: The Spy Dogs who exchange intel from suspicious resources. They are not less evil than them, however.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Chong. Being a Chow Chow fits this trope more.
- Author Appeal: The writer's phobia and negative perception of dogs, both feral and domesticated, in real-life perfectly translates into the story, showing how dogs can be ruthless predators and sociopaths towards other animals, even humans.
- Ax-Crazy: Dogs can, and will, murder other dogs as well as non-dog animals in the streets from mice to birds to cats, even eating their flesh For the Evulz. Most notable ones goes to Satchel, a Dachshund.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Even when the Battle Royale event is about Evil Versus Evil, Satchel killed more dog contestants during the event than others, won the battle, and still gets off scot-free.
- Canines Gambling in a Card Game: There is an Illegal Gambling Den where dogs gamble with various activities such as card games and slot machines. The third chapter had many dogs playing poker with Bruno (a Fox Terrier) being one of the players. Satchel enters the casino only to ruin the whole course during a night and attack some players.
- Cats Are Mean: Inverted, relatively speaking. While some cats do have an aggressive stance, many of them who appear in the story are otherwise sweet animals trying to escape from dogs' brutality.
- City with No Name: The city where the evil dogs fight hasn't been named yet. The Battle Royale chapters reveals its name as Westell City, set somewhere in the Western World.
- Crapsack World: The "unnamed" city is notorious for vices and brutal Blood Sports, all thanks to the dogs.
- Creepy Hairless Animal: Jun, a Chinese Crested Dog with Yellow Peril tendencies. Bonus points for leading The Triads and the Tongs.
- Cute Kitten: Many adorable kittens appear in the series, just like in the source Battle Royale material. Many ended up as the victims in the series.
- Eaten Alive: Many non-dog victims (and even murdered dogs) were killed this way. Especially kittens.
- Evil Versus Evil: All the dogs in the story are Always Chaotic Evil, and since it's focused on dogs, this trope is in play. This doesn't apply to other animals though.
- From Camouflage to Criminal: Samniel left the firehouse department because of a trauma. Then she turns Into the life of murder.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Played with; the off-screen deaths are only written to provide some character-related Plot Twists, such as Rasputinian Death.
- Mister Muffykins: And how, they are even more gruesome than most other portrayals.
- Nice Mice: There are some swarms of them too. And they're also trying to escape from dogs' brutality.
- Old Dog: Implied for Samniel.
- Police Are Useless: The law enforcement do nothing to stop the dogs from rampaging, given the city's (and perhaps humanity's) skewed sympathies on dogs. Charles at one point mentions he bribed the police dogs to get away from his crimes.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Any dog who is discriminatory towards Chinese-breed dogs can be considered this, complete with their "Foreign Dogs" slur.
- The Proud Elite: Spaniels definitely fit this trope often. Especially James and Charles.
- Psycho Lesbian: Les. Though her "lesbian" was implied.
- Rule of Scary: Satchel, full stop. He takes his murdered opponents for food.
- Some dogs give this vibe when they start to eat their non-dog victims, Depending on the Writer.
- Scavengers Are Scum: Dogs actually do this all the time, and a puppy showcases this by stealing a kitten carcass from Randell and Terrace. Averted with other animals, whose their scavenging habits are not shown, or thrown out of the window.
- Conversed in a chapter where Charles pointing at Randell and Mitch for scavenging a dead cat. Doesn't go well for Charles as Mitch backfires at him for his arrogance.
- Shown Their Work: In addition to Author Appeal, the writer has studied some of the dogs' traits. For example, smaller dogs such as Jack Russell Terriers and Dachshunds are outright aggressive dogs, and as such, the writer preferred them to be Faux Affably Evil or The Sociopath characters, while many larger dogs like Golden Retrievers and German Shepherds are usually affable dogs, which made the writer a slightly harder time to adapt into Affably Evil Con Man versions.
- Also, dogs catching mice are often Truth in Television, although this was barely shown in media.
- The Stinger: Satchel continues to be a menace, looming around the streets like a serial killer. Even many henchdogs of both Guardian and Dadao Tong were unceremoniously murdered by him.
- Tournament Arc: The Battle Royale event.
- The Triads and the Tongs: The Dadao Tong.
- Villain Protagonist: Randell.
- Wild Card: A few unaffiliated dogs tend to be this. Funnily enough, most dogs have no problem cooperating with each other.
