The Great Meta Fic is a RWBY fan fiction series by YukonWolf, based around a tournament called Ship Survivor on /r/RWBY. The second half of every year, (the exact month varies), starting in 2017, people vote to protect and/or eliminate RWBY character ships until only one remains.
As a lot of drama, campaigning, and meta role-play sprung up in the comments of these polls, YukonWolf decided to make a heavily dramatized story based on the tournament, full of war, violence, and political intrigue, with major participating Redditors (or rather their online personas) as characters. The character ships in the tournament make up the various nation states in the Meta Fic.
The first installment
is based on the first Ship Survivor from August 2017, and is complete. The second, based on Ship Survivor II from October and November 2018, is divided into two parts, "Old Thrones" and New Gods, and is complete.
The third and final part, based on Ship Survivor III from December 2019 and January 2020, has no title other than "Meta Fic III" and is in progress.
The concept of this story inspired Meta-Fic Alt: Rising War, based on Ship Wars, a similar tournament.
The Great Meta Fic contains examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: Since the names of characters are based off of Reddit usernames. There are a few normal ones, such as Austin, Melanie, or Jillian, mixed with plausible but odd, (like Coronam or Opifexa), words that aren't usually names, (like Greatness, Inferno, or Maker), and plenty of the truly bizarre. (like Nitesco, Quixotic, or Lewdnep).
- The Alliance: The ROWJ League and the ANGQ league in the first installment, The Badaz League in II, and the Sans coalition in III.
- The Bad Guy Wins: The Church of Thorns defeats the Badaz League at the end of "New Gods." In Meta Fic III, they return as a guerrilla force, fighting on despite having lost the conventional war.
- Big Bad:
- Celtic in the first story, based on Redditor /u/Celtic_Crown. Wants to overthrow the Mod Council and claim dominion over the Subreddit.
- In "Old Thrones", Inferno, based on /u/inferno167, who has a similar goal.
- Zissman and Jannis (/u/MrZissman and /u/JannisT) of the Church of Thorns in "New Gods." Jannis remains as the villain of the first arc in "Meta Fic III."
- Characters Dropping Like Flies: Only 3 major characters survive the first installment. "Old Thrones" averts this, "New Gods" is almost as bloody. "Meta Fic III" kills off several characters just in the first chapter.
- Corrupt Church: The Church of Emberald in the first, the Church of Thorns in II and III.
- Darker and Edgier: While the original Ship Survivor tournaments were fun contests, the Meta Fic is full of violence, bloodlust, murder, and other dark elements.
- Dead Guy Junior: As many Redditors took part in Ship Survivor II despite their characters being killed off, similarly-named relatives of the original characters took their place in the sequel. Ditto for Ship Survivor/Meta Fic III.
- Great Offscreen War: There are several mentions of the "Third Shipping War," mostly in the first installment. It's implied to be a reference to Volume 3 of RWBY. There's also a Yurist Uprising that nearly destroys the Nation of Arkos in the time skip between the first story and the second.
- Heel–Face Turn: Vulpix, one of Celtic's council, although it takes help from Austin and not until the end of the first installment.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: All named characters are based on actual people on Reddit, but heavily dramatized and with their permission.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Vulpix (/u/ChaosVulpix), a former villain from the first installment, returns as "Zealander," (A reference to the Redditor's real-life country), his only disguise being a beard. It has varying levels of success, but eventually fails entirely.
- Permanent Elected Official: The Oligarchs of Arkos.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: The villainous Church of Thorns wins the war in "New Gods," but many of the heroes escape and plan to return to the Subreddit and try again. "Meta Fic III" picks up on this a year later.
- Real-Person Fic: All named characters are based on real people's Reddit personas, with their permission.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Whoever wins Ship Survivor, wins in the story. When a ship is eliminated in the contest, their nation is defeated at that point in the story.
- The Purge:
- In the first chapter of "New Gods," the Church of Thorns executes everyone who refuses to accept their takeover of Inferno's movement after her death.
- In the second arc of "Meta Fic III," Admiral Regis Bluewhale (/u/BlueWhaleKing) works with a secret society to assassinate other members of the Oligarchy of Arkos, who he believes are unfit to lead.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Turns a Reddit competition about shipping into a Game of Thrones-esque thriller.
