Proof that the remaining 10% is worth going roadside for here.
These are recommendations made by Tropers for For Better or for Worse fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.
You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.
Authors and Web Sites
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Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.The Unauthorized Liographies of the Patterson Family
by dreadedcandiru2 (Note: Link leads to a journal entry that lists the individual links of each part)
- Recommended by Kazokuhouou
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis:: Biographies of the Patterson family members through their own skewed viewpoints
- Comments: A 'liography' is the term used by FBOFW snarkers to describe the biographies on the For Better or For Worse website. These biographies tend to have a very...slanted and cliched view. Long time Caustic Critic dreadedcandiru2 on the LiveJournal community binky_betsy decided to try writing biographies like these for the Patterson children themselves. These fics do a very good job of showing how screwed up the children were from the beginning, thanks to having Elly and John for parents, and how their parenting helped shaped Michael, Elizabeth, and April into the Marty Stu, Mary Sue, and Only Sane Man respectively. However, the fics also give the children the hope of redemption, with Michael realizing he's become his mother and getting therapy, Liz divorcing Anthony (with Therese's help, ironically) and marrying Warren, and April reconciling with her siblings.
- dreadedcandiru2 had since decided to do liographies for Elly and John as well. Their liographies show just how messed up Elly and John were from the beginning, (Generation Xerox, indeed), partly from their own childhoods, partly from their own narcissism and mental problems (with even a suggestion that John would have been diagnosed with some form of autism were he born today). Unfortunately, there is no redemption for these two, nor it likely they would have taken it were it offered. Their stories end with an epilogue of Michael struggling to write their eulogies, trying to make them sound better in death than they were at life.
- There are also a series of holiday themed sequels written down, where everyone muses on life after Elly and John, how they're finding their own paths in life, and how April was the result of an affair Elly had with Ted.
- Now there's also liographies for Georgia Richards and Connie Poirier (the latter written by her father, who laments the choices she made in life because he knows she could do better).
FOOBARnote by Albanymous/April Patterson (usually posts as Albanymous when posting the strips, and as April Patterson when responding to comments)
- Recommended by Kazokuhouou
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis:: "One moment, the Foobs were in a teal-and-lavender monstrosity of a wedding, and the next they were propelled back into the past. But it was a different version of the past. What happened?"
- Comments: This is what happens when someone as messed up as Elly attempts Fix Fic in real life. Finding a way to go back in time, she goes to when Elizabeth was still a baby to fix up what she thought went wrong in her life, namely avoid gaining weight, having a writing career, and never conceiving April. What she doesn't realize is that everyone that had existed then also went back in time. Some, like Connie, see it as a second chance to get things right, while others, like Michael and Elizabeth are trying to fix it to go back to their lives. Meanwhile, all the children who hadn't been born yet (like April, Francoise, Meredith and Robin) are all stuck in the present trying to cope after all the adults disappeared, with April going back in time to try to stop Elly from changing history as well. It's an interesting read, and a plausible explanation for the new-runs, and suspenseful. What will Elly do now? How are they going to stop her? Will they go back to the present? How will the events of the past affect the present? The final strips answer these questions, namely that now they have two sets of memories in their heads, the 'canon' timeline and what would have happened had Elly's fixfic timeline continued to present day. Both end up influencing the characters. All in all, it is a good read, and popular among the aformentioned binky_betsy community.
The New Retcons:Who Silenced Elly Patterson? by various authors (TV Tropes page here)
- Recommended by Kazokuhouou
- Status: Complete
Foob's Paradise by Insert Moniker Here.
- Recommended by DreadedCandiru2
- Status: Complete
- Synopsis: We start things off with Elly telling an unseen person about Elizabeth's wedding only to have the therapist ask her how she's dealing with what really happened that August. Things proceed from there.
- Comments: The first in the genre of Fix Fics that sought to rewrite the ending of the strip so that it did not end up with the
Unfortunate Implications that sacrificing one's happiness for parental approval that wouldn't be forthcoming anyway is the key to the good life. We start things off with Liz getting a wake-up call as to how she's just plain been drifting through life when April runs off North because she's sick of being dumped on. After cancelling the wedding and taking stock of her life, she admits that she's not really ready to commit to anyone any time soon. While most of the cast are reasonably supportive, Elly goes mildly gaga because she can't cope with it.
What If…? by Steffi
- Recommended by SailorPunkRock
- Status Complete
- Synopsis: After finding out that his fiancée Deanna has different life goals than his own, Michael Patterson has a heart to heart talk with John that results in both his own life and the lives of his family changing forever.
- Comments: This adds realism to the later years, as it shows that people grow and change and staying in your hometown isn’t the only way to live as an adult. It also makes John into a more sympathetic and better father.
