Metafic

A metafic or metafiction is a work of fiction that explores the nature of fiction itself. Much like any mechanism, fiction can malfunction, creating misleading expectations in the mind of the reader. If one were to read nothing but romance stories that end happily, one might come to think that all romances, no matter how turbulent, will come out well in the end. Daria fanfiction can malfunction, too. Too many Daria/Trent shippers, and a reader might believe they are the perfect couple, blithely ignoring such important issues as Daria being underage or the two having nothing in common.

A metafic (metafanfic?) shows how the reader is being mislead by repeatedly drawing attention to the critical flaws in a certain category of writing. The effect can be jarring on the reader, causing one to wake up and break the flow of the narrative, but this is exactly the point. The reader is thus alerted to unreasonable expectations and illogical consequences. Is Tom Sloane really evil? A metafic might point out that, aside from kissing Daria while still dating Jane, Tom is actually a well-mannered and good-natured character, his flaws being rather minor compared to folks like Tommy Sherman or Angela Li. However, the metafic might also have other characters treat Tom as if he were poisonous, or exaggerate his supposed evil to the point that he is the secret master behind every evil thing in history, from the Inquisition to disco music.

Metafiction can violate the fourth wall by having characters address the reader throughout the tale or in brief asides, or by having fanfic authors appear in the story, manipulating characters and events in ways meant to highlight their particular styles. Not all metafiction is so blunt, however. The jarring that the reader receives can be subtle, too. Consider a story in which Tom berates himself after Is It College Yet? for losing Daria, blaming his impulsive kiss for screwing up any possibility of keeping the relationship in the long term. While he does this, he goes about his daily life doing good works per usual, his real sins being insignificant compared to his achievements. This could challenge the "Tom Is Evil" stereotype that pivots around The Kiss, putting that event in better perspective.

An excellent example of Daria metafic is Scissors MacGillicutty's "Where's Mary Sue When You Need Her?" which skewers Mary Sue stories. More precisely, it skewers the idea that all Mary Sue or self-insert stories are terrible by being excellent, although the author himself has reservations about it. The author did intend to invert the traditional Mary Sue trope of having the self-insert character be omniscient, omnipotent, and physically irresistible, and his Mary Sue persona is weak, clueless, and can't even admit his attraction to Daria to himself.

Another outstanding example of Daria metafic is The Angst Guy's "Deus Jane" which uses continuity errors and non-diegetic elements of Daria the cartoon as objective elements of a world created by a Jane Lane with god-like powers of creation. Thus "Deus Jane" not only calls the reader's attention to that it is a work of fanfiction, but that the original work from which its derived contains numerous technical flaws.