besides, could someone explain the "characters haunting the narrative" to me? I think I understand but I'm not entirely sure lol
same with "doomed by the narrative", isn't it just (canonical?) unhappy ending or something like that? I'm confused
I couldn't tell with gun-to-your-head certainty, either, but let's try ... :D
I understand "Characters Haunting the Narrative" as a situation where a character has a noticeable impact on the plot despite having little to no screentime in the story itself. For instance, if a character is already dead at the beginning of the story, but their cause of death or legacy plays a vital role in how the actual (written) story goes on. Think of a typical Columbo episode with the murder shown in the first scene, for instance.
"Doomed by the Narrative", on the other hand, would probably be a character whose unhappy ending, usually death, is inevitable, for example, if a character is suffering from a terminal illness, thus will die no matter what happens.
At least these instances are what I would intuitively use the according tags for. I'm ready to stand corrected ...
could someone explain the "characters haunting the narrative" to me?
My understanding: the character doesn't appear in person (maybe but not necessarily because they are literally dead) but is still heavily "present" in that they're affecting the fic characters, who might be discussing them or grieving them or thinking about them or having their actions driven by them, etc.
Basically, if I was an Alice hater and I saw a fic tagged "Alice Haunts the Narrative," I'd want to steer clear, even if her character tag wasn't there.
(Sorry if 500 people already responded, comments are moderated haha)
"Characters Haunting The Narrative" refers to characters who have a lot of importance on the story, but do not necessarily appear for very long and/or are dead. This trope is sometimes known as "Dead Girl Wrapped In Plastic" after Laura Palmer, who is dead by the time Twin Peaks starts, but is the catalyst for the entire plot. The character doesn't have to be dead, though! They can be a past lover who is haunting a new relationship or someone who's gone missing, for example.
"Doomed By The Narrative" refers to characters who are in a narrative situation where something bad must happen and the audience knows it will happen, but they hope it won't anyway. So, for example, in Wicked we know that Elphaba is going to become the Wicked Witch because Wicked is a prequel to Wizard of Oz. She is doomed by the narrative to become the Wicked Witch.
bcs the other commenters explained "haunted by the narrative", i'd say another great example of "doomed by the narrative" are charles xavier (professor x) and eric lehnsherr (magneto) from marvel's x-men! i'm talking about the movies specifically, but if eric hadn't wounded charles and made him paralysed, it wouldn't have kicked off the rest of the story that develops later and (subsequently) we wouldn't know charles as the man in the chair
same with viktor from "arcane". he is doomed by the narrative in proxy to his ascension to godhood. it's just that, in the series, he finds resolve in that one singular timeline from "all timelines in all possibilities" (because c'mon, they weren't gonna end it on a bad note where everyone's puppets, dead etc). if we disregard that tho, he's an entity which fate has been sealed from the beginning and he (not necessarily the audience) knows that explicitly
i see this tag being used (primarily) in canon-compliant fics because it's closely related to what happens in canon itself. the narrative can't be changed and it's a done deal for everybody, or else it'd take away from its essence or those of the characters entirely. yet, attempts could be made or the situation could be explored further once the The Thing That Changed Them Forever has happened
as for non-canon compliant... i suppose it's up to the author to decide what The Thing is. maybe it's a time travel fic where the characters know how the story ends. or the concept of the fic itself makes it so that the characters cannot change the ever-evolving story because they're unable of change themselves
i love both tags very much and i'm glad they've become canonical! they're perfect when you pair them with "character study", "heavy angst" and/or "hurt/no comfort"
Essentially "haunting the narrative" means that another character's past actions and current absence are having a profound effect on one or more characters and so is influencing their choices and the events they're going through. Others already mentioned a character dying before the story starts and the resulting grief affecting the characters as one form of this trope (for example, Batman's 2nd son (and 2nd Robin) Jason Todd's murder at the hands of the Joker when he only 15 profoundly changed the Batfamily, was the direct cause of Tim Drake (Robin 3) even entering the family, and changed all the characters and their interactions with each other. Every family argument, every fearful reaction the family had to Tim taking up the role his predecessor died in, the ways they approached fighting enemies going forward, etc were ALL changed and influenced by the fact that Jason died as a child soldier in his father's war)
Another common example is a past abuse causing long-lasting effects that influence every relationship the MC has going forward. (An example of this is Kate Argent in Teen Wolf. She was an adult woman who groomed a grieving 16 year old Derek Hale and used him to get access to his home so she could kill his entire family. That kind of betrayal, abuse, and grief damaged Derek and emotionally crippled him so she's going to be affecting Derek's future relationships and his ability to trust his partners or his own judgement. Even if she doesn't physically appear "on-screen" she's going to be haunting any narrative that deals with romance or family themes)
Comment on Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags, September 2026
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