Things that are Serious Business in Fan Works.
Crossovers
- Subverted in Harry Potter and the Ice Princess in terms of the characters' opinions on Quidditch, as Ron is the only one of Harry's friends who's a true 'fanatic' for the sport; Harry enjoys the game without being obsessive about it and Hermione, Neville and Elsa just go along to show support for their friend, Elsa abstaining from showing support to either side in the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw matches. While Oliver Wood is still keen on the game, he is 'rational' enough to accept Harry's assurances that letting Elsa watch them practice isn't a risk as she doesn't play the game herself and Harry trusts her not to give the Ravenclaw team any 'tips'.
- Hunters of Justice: In a non-canon Hunters of Justice Chibi chapter, Aphrodite's shipping is everything to her on Valentine's Day. And if she finds what she thinks is the golden standard, she'll stand by it. While having an epiphany about all the possible ships between the Remnantians, Diana noticed she hasn't paired Ren or Nora with anyone but each other. Aphrodite looks scandalized by the statement and claims the Renora ship is "sacred".
- Mischief:
- Izuku takes his pranks very seriously, carefully planning out each and every one. He regards Momo as his Sitcom Arch-Nemesis simply because she keeps interfering with his plans.
- Hirona takes a lot of pride in her knowledge of movies. After getting into an argument with Mustard over the ending of Citizen Kane, she heads to the mall to pick up a physical copy of the movie just so there's no doubt over its authenticity.
- Izuku and Ren get into a fierce, but friendly rivalry over pancakes in My Huntsman Academia, with Izuku constantly trying to push his pancake-making skills to match Ren's, who sets the bar higher and higher. This gets so serious that Ren ends up spying on Izuku and recording everything from what time he gets up in the morning to what underwear he puts on any given day.
- A New World, A New Way sidestory '"Swarm'' has Emperor Carapace treat his private garden as such. He almost started a war against the Griffins because an ambassador accidentally stepped on his favorite flowers.
- In Ninja Wizard Book 1
a riot starts in Hogsmeade when a rumor spreads that Mr. Weasley's Muggle Protection Act is going to indirectly outlaw Quidditch. - In The Secret Keeper, the Cullen children all swiftly become fans of Quidditch, with Emmett becoming the new Hogwarts commentator and Edward observing that Alice is particularly fanatical about the game. Upon meeting the Cullens and Bella prior to the Battle of Hogwarts, Oliver Wood considers it an insult that Bella didn't make it her priority to tell the Cullens about Quidditch, even as she points out that she only just told them anything about the wizarding world in the last hour and was obviously focused on explaining the current crisis to them first.
- In The Universiad, a Spacebattler story, the Forum once got into a civil war over paper. How serious? It lasted 15 years and the Originals still pay remembrance by having annual 15-day long live-fire "reenactments".
- Voyages of the Wild Sea Horse: Having a Jolly Roger and crew name is what separates a true pirate from cowardly thugs. A pirate captain defeated by the Nerimans manages to win a moral victory because at least he fought like a proud pirate.
- In Weiss Reacts, antics, shipping, and gaming. For the former two, Yang fights actual wars against her rivals to try to push her as the best shipper and prankster, and for the latter, people actually strategize as if it was a real war and act like they're killed when defeated in-game.
- In Yu-Gi-Oh! The Thousand Year Door Redux, Adrian makes a rather bold accusation towards the Shadow Spawn during his "The Reason You Suck" Speech, and it also applies to their mother and all villains in general in the canon source franchise, claiming that the only reason any of them consider the card game Serious Business is so that they can pretend they have a sense of honor and fairness by using a system with rules, to prove they are better than common thugs. He also calls this attitude "blatant lies", obviously referring to how such people tend to manipulate and outright break those rules on a regular basis.
- This is driven home in a much later chapter, during Andy's duel with Sir Grodus when Andy asks where he got his cards:Grodus: Custom made by evil sorcerers working for Graz'zt. Same as guys like Dartz, Saiou, and that whole crowd. What? You really think folks like me get them from hobby shops?
Andy: In other words, Adrian had a point. The whole idea of you guys using Duel Monsters to fight people is to make them think you have a sense of fair play, just so you can look honorable and be a dirty cheater at the same time.
Grodus: Everyone does in this business. I’m just being honest about it. note
- This is driven home in a much later chapter, during Andy's duel with Sir Grodus when Andy asks where he got his cards:
- In Death Note: The Abridged Series (Team Dattebayo) going out for fast food is Serious Business — Souichiro wants to go to McDonald's. When Light and Misa say they'd prefer Taco Bell Souichiro decides to shoot them both:Souichiro: Pray that there's a Taco Bell in Hell! (BANG)
- In Those Who Stand for Nothing Fall for Anything Light and L almost come to blows over how Light wants his steak cooked. (Though it turns out they have ulterior motives for doing so.) Light's suits are also Serious Business:"Where are my clothes?"
"They're in the sink," he says with a pharmaceutical smile.
"What? No," I gasp. 100% rare breed wool from the Shetland Islands. Woven by nuns. "They're dry clean only, you bastard!"
"Oh. That explains the strange colour of the water. I rinsed them through with boiling water and now they're soaking in cold water. Is that ok? I put ice in it. It's like suit mojito in the kitchen."
"You cunt."
"Light, I'm sure that he just overlooked the washing guidelines," L sighs, putting his trousers on under the sheets. "You have other suits."
"Other suits? Other? Suits?"
- In Vegetarianism, the entire Fairy Tail guild freaks out when they learn that Meredy is a vegetariannote , trying to make her eat meat and thinking that her vegetarianism is either Ultear brainwashing her or having a contagious allergy to meat. It turns out that Laxus spiked their punch with stimulants, which made all of them, including fellow vegetarian Lisanna, react to Merudy's food choice with over-the-top shock.
- Got Balls?: Ron is outraged that Harry insists on redoing the Keeper tryouts until he learns that someone rigged them. Then he (and everyone else present) is furious that someone would dare interfere with Quidditch.
- Harry Is a Dragon, and That's OK: After the Divination exam, Dean remarks that what he mostly learned from the tea leaf reading was that the examiner puts the milk in first.Neville hissed. "And to think I talked to him like he was a normal person."
- In Just An Errant Thought, Umbridge is kicked out of the castle because one of the "student-run organizations" she disbands is the coffee shop that grew out of Hermione ordering an espresso machine for her own use.
- Practicing Liars: Wizards take their Quidditch very seriously indeed, to the point of life and death.In the end, they went out to the Quidditch pitch and flew. Well, Ron and Harry flew, while Hermione hovered nervously a few inches off the ground and tried to lecture them on the time that the Headmaster of Hogwarts banned Quidditch because it was too dangerous. This turned out to be the one part of Hogwarts, a History Ron had actually read, and he and Hermione bickered comfortably about whether it was a stupid idea, Hermione maintaining that it wasn't because it was a matter of principle, and Ron maintaining that it was because of how messily that Headmaster's students had killed him.
- In The Price is Right, Harry is chased by an irate mob of village kids after stating that Quodpot is easier to understand than Quidditch.
- In Cultstuck, the titular cult treat everything related to Karkat as this, because they believe him to be their messiah reborn. This is the source of much comedy (and guilt on Karkat's part, because he's just a teenage boy and can't be worthy of their Undying Loyalty).What was it they were truly after when they threw away their old lives and burrowed underground, sewing you a jewel-studded robe while living in monastic poverty? More than ever before you feel like a sham, a fake, a con-troll taking advantage of these people's desperate yearning for innocence.
- For the Glory of Irk:
- The Membrane family are shown to take board games way too seriously. Stepmother Moira gleefully lords over Gaz when winning at Monopoly, and fights almost break out between all four members over Scrabble.
- Captain Rose takes her cover story of being a teacher seriously, to the point that she gets offended at the thought of doing anything to endanger getting tenure.
- Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends:
- When Membrane tells Gaz that she wouldn't enjoy herself if she came along on his trip to Europe because her Game Slave's charger wouldn't be compatible with European electrical sockets, she twitches disturbingly and goes worryingly stiff at the thought of not being able to play her games.
- Zim has come to obsessively see the Ceramic Clown Puppy he stole from Dib as a trophy of his perceived victory at the end of Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, with Dib becoming just as obsessed with retrieving it in order to spite Zim.
- Slab Rankle takes so much offense to Aldrich Coathanger's plans to renovate his mall that he engages him in an epic life-or-death brawl.
- In the Love Live! Sunshine!! fic Shipping Wars, Dia, established in canon as a massive fan of the idol group µ's, is also a massive Shipper on Deck for NozoEli(Nozomi x Eli) and gets enraged at Kanan just because she finds the ship EliUmi cute. She even brings out a presentation of why NozoEli is the best ship.
- Arguing the Adiaphora involves Marinette finding Kagami and Adrien in a dispute over something, and helping them determine that it was trivial and shouldn't affect their relationship. At the end of the story, they reveal that they were arguing whether Marinette with beret or hair buns is the second or third cutest thing in the world since they already agree that her with her hair down is the cutest thing.
- CONSEQUENCES: In BULLYING, Lila's classmates consider her failing to recognize what being called Florent means to be a crime on par with her attempting to manipulate them all into bullying Marinette:Ivan: She doesn't know Game of Thrones. Why did we befriend her in the first place?
Nathaniel: So uncivilised. - Feralnette AU: Instructor Serbrus takes ballet very seriously, being a gatekeeping Control Freak who firmly believes that only certain types of people should be permitted to practice. She is also hellbent upon driving her fellow instructor Dante out of business...mainly because her niece Erin chose to join his troupe instead of hers.
- In Les pommes de terre et la Buguinette, Ladybug gets upset that Chat Noir doesn't like potatoes that much. She takes it so badly that she disregards their rules for Secret Identities to take him home and cook him a feast of potato-based dishes to change his mind.
- Scarlet Lady plays with this in its take on "The Gamer":
- According to Alya, the upcoming Ultimate Mecha Strike III tournament is incredibly important, and she accuses Marinette of only entering so she can "flirt with Adrien". Marinette points out that Alya hadn't even known about the tryouts until they stumbled across them, and that Alya is just assuming she's not that interested in the game despite it being one of her favorites. She also notes that if she does earn a position at the tournament, it will be because she's proven she's one of the best players at their school.
- Max also takes the tournament incredibly seriously, to the point where he secretly programmed his own code for the game so he could use special, exclusive moves he invented. When Adrien and Marinette beat him anyway, he obsesses over being beaten by a girl, completely ignoring Adrien's involvement. Even Hawk Moth finds this absurd.Hawk Moth: You do know you were beaten by two people, right?
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
- The Contest: The Quiet Game. It's a game about being quiet... with world championships, extensive rules and regulations, and a panel of judges including Princess Celestia herself.
- In the parody Dark Demon King Ravenblood Nightblade and the Library with Bad Feng Shui, Twilight's library is desecrated. Her reaction is to cause a small earthquake and ascend to alicornhood through sheer rage.
- A Mighty Demon Slayer Grooms Some Ponies is about ponies deciding to make First Contact with humanity by participating in a horse show, and for that, they need to be well-groomed. Grooming is treated with varying levels of mock-seriousness throughout the story, including one character stating that "the future of two worlds depends on you having a well-brushed coat".
- The Princess's Bit has a few:
- To thestrals, names. One goes their whole life with the name they're given at birth unless they earn a new name, with a few being reserved for the matrons guarding the dreams of the Ponies during Luna's exile. Thus when major Gleaming Shield (AKA Twilight Sparkle after taking a new name to honor her late brother) finds that a thestral in her regiment has the same name as her father and declares she'll refer to him as Bob to avoid mental confusion, she earns his Undying Loyalty for gifting him an "honor name".
- The name of a ship, no matter if it's a normal ship or an airship, cannot be changed, or the crew will revolt in fear of bad luck. The only exceptions are if said ship receives a new keel, is completely rebuilt, or is taken by force... Thus Gleaming Shield, to be able to rename the airship Daddy Longlegs — that she owns — to Princess' Bit, has it "assaulted" and "captured" by her regiment. And then it turns out there's a goddess that demands it and had to be convinced to allow those three exceptions, who has to be talked out of cursing the ship for Gleaming Shield's stunt in exchange for a compensation.
- Princess Celestia Hates Tea has the titular beverage taken extremely seriously. So much so that when Celestia admits that she doesn't actually like it, the kingdom nearly falls apart and she's accused of being an imposter. Or under some evil spell.
- Pinkie and Uma's harmlessly poking each other with a stick contest in Shadow Snark.Pinkie Pie: TO THE DEATH!
- Ultra Fast Pony uses this a bunch.
- Princess Celestia's all-consuming love of tea parties is a recurring plot point. She banishes Twilight to Ponyville for the crime of missing her tea party (never mind that Twilight was busy saving the world at the time). She's been to "ten... hundred... thousand... million!" tea parties in her life, and she remembers them all in excruciating detail. She refuses to cut a visit to Ponyville short to deal with a major fire in Manehattan—but she immediately cuts the visit short upon learning that Luna is hosting a tea party without her.
- In "Ponynet Fight!" Twilight is dead serious about correcting others' bad science on the internet. Which just makes it so much fun to mess with her.
- The organized crime families take their badminton very seriously. The entire Manehattan branch of the Apple family is devoted to fielding a team.
- Blackkat's Reverse: Kurama feels this way about gifts, due to having received so few of them throughout his long life. In his perspective, this includes his body/physical form, which was effectively the last gift he received from the original Naruto before being shunted back into the past.
- Naru-Hina Chronicles: Neji and Tenten find Lee and Gai glaring at each other, as if they are about to have an epic fight. However, it turns out what they were treating so seriously was a game of Rock–Paper–Scissors, much to Neji and Tenten's annoyance.
- Team 8: The Hyuuga clan are so strict about maintaining their "proper" image that Hiashi attempts to separate Hinata from a distraught, grieving Naruto during Kurenai's funeral just because he thinks letting her stay will make him look bad.
- What You Knead has a Running Gag to this effect: Team Seven simply can't agree on whether kunai, shuriken, or senbon are the most useful ninja tool. Kakashi gets the debate rolling during the Wave Mission as a way to not-so-subtly remind Tazuna that he's dealing with young shinobi, and the trio repeatedly circle back to arguing over it time and again throughout the story.
- Guys Being Dudes: Arlo apparently cares enough about edgelording that he thinks it should have a regulating bureau.
- Pokémon Reset Bloodlines:
- Whitney is the top-rated softball player in Goldenrod City. She doesn't like it when people insult the sport.
- Sinnoh Elite Four member Flint tries every year to cheer his friend Volkner with the Three Christmas Ghosts to snap him out of his holiday funk. So when the roles are inverted and Volkner tries to do it on him, Flint is outraged because Volkner is doing the act all wrong and his reaction is to drag him to show him how it's done.
- In A Monster's Marriage, Glynda and Neo argue first over who gets to be godmother of Jaune's children, then over terms of sharing godmotherhood such as holidays and gifts.
- Service with a Smile: Discussed. Jaune is shocked that Cafe Prime is going to so much trouble over coffee. Roman points out that it's about the money. It doesn't really matter what he's selling, as long as it can make money, livelihoods and lives are on the line. That being said, even by that standard it's noted that Sterling is way too obsessed with crushing Jaune. He hires thugs to bust up Jaune's store and beat Jaune half to death, spending the same amount of money that would normally be used for a political assassination.
- According to Palpatine is Arrested for Fashion Crimes, at least some Naboo can be arrested and serve jail time (or at least community service) for what amounts to wearing the same clothes more than once. It's rarely applied nowadays, but when the Jedi discover Palpatine is a Sith but can't prove it that's how Padme nails him.
