Meta Fic Alt: Rising War is a RWBY fan fiction originally by Blasphe-Me5564, and later taken over by GNRC_usernaym21, based around a tournament called Ship Wars on /r/RWBY. The Great Meta Fic inspired the idea for this story, though they are separate. In Ship Wars, Redditors vote for their favorite ships in a bracket system, rather than a free for all like in Ship Survivor. Another difference is that the fic is based on the 4th annual Ship Wars tournament, rather than starting with the first. The last main difference is that the setting is Sci-Fi with advanced technology, rather than late medieval.
The various character ships in RWBY are dramatized as nation states, and their shippers on Reddit become their representatives, warriors, and leaders. They fight battles in anomaly portals for Braggtonium, aka Bragging Rights, which power their civilization.
Unfortunately, the fic is now dead and has been removed from fanfiction.net, however, the story has a backup here
, which includes the outline for What Could Have Been.
There is also a completed sequel, Survival of the Memes, based on the Meme Ship Survivor tournament and written by /u/BlueWhaleKing.
The Meta Fic Alt: Rising War contains examples of:
- The Alliance: The Arc Appreciation Alliance, consisting of several ship nations.
- Ascended Extra: /u/OutcastMunkee and /u/BlueWhaleKing are background characters in the first and second installments of The Great Meta Fic, respectively, but have major roles here.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: In-Universe. Several Redditors also present in the Great Meta Fic, such as Celtic and Inferno, appear here, but in far different roles. Celtic is kind of a jerk and Inferno gets on people's nerves, but they are certainly not supervillains.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Braggtonium, or Bragg for short, is a red crystalline substance that powers technology. Also has the effect of emboldening and improving the mood of anyone who possesses it, since it's based on the concept of "Bragging Rights."
- Big Bad: Is still mysterious, shown as dark forces working in the shadows to sabotage the tournament.
- Canon Immigrant: Rosa Cossette D'Elise from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is the love interest for Strike.
- Canon Welding: The Great Meta Fic is said to take place when a giant anomaly portal swallows the entire Subreddit every year and changes the timeline to a medieval setting. This way both fics can coexist without contradicting each other.
- Dead Fic: Has not updated since October 13, 2019.
- Great Offscreen War: There are presumably three previous Ship Wars tournaments. There are also several references to Ship Survivor II, which traumatized characters such as Celtic, Strike, and Nitesco to a lesser extent.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold. Celtic. He is rude, bitter and cynical, and rarely gets along with others. However, his main goal is to bring change so that people other than Intra-RWBY ships can have a chance. He has fought in every Ship War and Ship Survivor for this but has always failed, resulting in his current attitude.
- Lighter and Softer: Than The Great Meta Fic that started the trend. The story says multiple times that "No One Ever Dies in Ship Wars," in stark contrast to Yukon's blood-soaked fic. However, some characters such as Strike and Celtic suffer PTSD from Ship Survivor, since there is an in-universe explanation of how Yukon's fic is canon.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Most named characters are based on actual people on Reddit, but heavily dramatized and with their permission.
- Running Gag: In "Survival of the Memes," the characters bash the works of Coeur Al'Aran at every opportunity.
- Sapient Cetaceans: Blue Whale King, Sulfur (/u/Caydethespade6), and Cyan (/u/Vaniellis) are literal Blue Whales, able to take a compressed, semi-humanoid form in order to survive on land.
- Totem Pole Trench: The Collective of Various Rodents (/u/VariousRodents).
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Turns a Reddit competition about shipping into a Star Wars-esque sci-fi story.
