all the AO3 "no beta we die like..." tags; yay, SNOW!

[verushka70]

So a while back I was discussing the due South-related "no beta we die like caribou" tag with Ride-4ever. When she first explained it, I'd never heard of it (and was highly amused) because...



Yes, I do live under a rock... Otherwise known as, I haven't got a dedicated PC, or the time, or the unrestricted Internet access, to be logged in to fanspaces my entire work shift, and we aren't allowed to bring our phones in to work - it is a jail hospital, after all - plus then there's the tendinitis/epicondylitis (I refuse to call it "tennis elbow" since I haven't played tennis since high school gym class and it is from decades of computer use only, which began in tech support and continue with computers in healthcare))...


Yesterday I saw another "no beta we die like..." tag (no beta we die like clone troopers) on a fic (a years-old Longmire fic), and I mused to Ride, "I wonder how many different 'no beta we die like...' tags there are on AO3? I'd like to find out..." and she said something like, "You should post it on DW or as fandom meta on AO3, if you do..."

And, well, here we are. I learned that the parent tag is Not Beta Read, and I had NO IDEA how many child "no beta we die like..." tags there were.

There are ~274 (we could quibble about some quite similar versions) unique-ish "we die like" tags under the "not beta read" parent tag!

ETA: And there are SPOILERS for major and minor character death, obvs!🙂




no beta - we die like Hu Tao's wallet
no beta - we die like men
no beta for the Wicked
no beta I die by my own badly thrown senbon
no beta I have no friends
no beta I just die
no beta read we die like men
no beta reader
no beta reader we die like men
no beta this is war
no beta we die
no beta We Die as Men
no beta we die by Pooh
no beta we die in three years
no beta we die like
no beta we die like [redacted]
no beta we die like [SPOILERS]
no beta we die like abuelo pedro
no beta we die like abyss mages
no beta we die like ace
no beta we die like actor mark
no beta we die like Adam
no beta We Die Like Alex's Wife
no beta we die like Alexei
no beta we die like Anne
no beta we die like archival assistants
no beta we die like arthur
no beta We Die Like Ascians
no beta We Die Like August
no beta We Die Like Aunt May
no beta We die like Badmintons
no beta we die like baji
no beta we die like Barb
no beta we die like belos
no beta we die like berdly
no beta we die like bertie
no beta we die like Bertrand
no beta we die like bertrand bell
no beta we die like billy
no beta we die like bob
no beta we die like Boromir
no beta we die like c!ranboo
no beta we die like c!wilbur
no beta We Die Like Caleb
no beta we die like canon
no beta we die like cas
no beta we die like Casita
no beta we die like cavs
no beta we die like cedric
no beta we die like Chrissy
no beta we die like claude
no beta we die like cliffjumper
no beta We Die Like Clones
no beta we die like Crepus
no beta we die like daichi
no beta we die like Daiya
no beta we die like danny
no beta we die like dean
no beta we die like deimos
no beta we die like diluc's dad
no beta we die like dilucs dad
no beta We Die Like Dobby
no beta we die like dream
no beta we die like dumbasses
no beta we die like dumbledore
no beta we die like eddie
no beta We Die Like Eddie Munson
no beta we die like Edmund
no beta we die like elizabeth and sebastian
no beta we die like emilie
no beta we die like Emilie Agreste
no beta We Die Like Endermen
no beta we die like Erik
no beta we die like erwin
no beta we die like Ethan
no beta we die like everyone
no beta we die like everyone in this fic
no beta we die like flapjack
no beta we die like fred
no beta we die like friend
no beta we die like george in manhunt
no beta we die like george in manhunts
no beta we die like ghostbur
no beta We Die Like Gilear
no beta we die like gold saints
no beta We Die Like GongYi Xiao
no beta we die like goose
no beta we die like gram gram
no beta we die like Grisha
no beta we die like guizhong
no beta We Die Like Henry
no beta WE DIE LIKE HEROES
no beta We Die Like Hilichurls
no beta we die like hillichurls
no beta We Die Like Himeko
no beta we die like hiroshi
no beta we die like hob doesn't
no beta we die like hua cheng
no beta we die like ice pick joe
no beta we die like idiots
no beta we die like illiterates
no beta we die like immortals
no beta we die like Injang
no beta we die like jaskier doesn't
no beta we die like jason
no beta we die like jason grace
no beta we die like jason todd
no beta we die like Jedi
no beta we die like Jem'Hadar
no beta we die like jenkins
no beta we die like Jessamy
no beta we die like jet
no beta we die like jimmy
no beta we die like jschlatt
no beta we die like junpei
no beta we die like karl
no beta we die like kazuha's friend
no beta we die like kazuhas friend
no beta we die like kdj
no beta we die like Kenny
no beta we die like Kenric
no beta we die like khaenri'ah
no beta we die like kim dokja
no beta we die like Kings
no beta we die like kite
no beta we die like l'manberg
no beta we die like l'manburg
no beta we die like la signora
no beta we die like liberty with thunderous applause
no beta we die like lilith
no beta we die like lillith
no beta we die like lixue
no beta we die like lmanberg
no beta we die like lmanburg
no beta we die like loki
no beta we die like lu ten
no beta we die like Lucien
no beta we die like Lucius
no beta we die like luke
no beta we die like l’manburg
no beta we die like Macaque
no beta we die like makoto
no beta we die like marco
no beta we die like marcy
no beta we die like marcy wu
no beta we die like mari
no beta we die like Maria
no beta we die like Matthias
no beta we die like me
no beta we die like meh
no beta we die like men
no beta we die like men!
no beta we die like Mexican dream
no beta we die like mia
no beta we die like mia fey
no beta we die like midnight
no beta we die like mne
no beta we die like Molly
no beta we die like Mollymauk
no beta we die like morax
no beta we die like my braincells
no beta we die like my dignity
no beta we die like my dreams
no beta we die like my grades
no beta we die like my hopes and dreams
no beta we die like my mental health
no beta we die like my motivation
no beta we die like my sanity
no beta we die like my sleep schedule
no beta we die like my social life
no beta we die like Nana Shimura
no beta we die like Neji
no beta we die like nighteye
no beta we die like nmj
no beta we die like Oda
no beta we die like Odasaku
no beta we die like okumura
no beta we die like papa
no beta we die like pedro
no beta we die like Pedro Madrigal
no beta we die like people
no beta we die like ranboo
no beta we die like REDACTED
no beta we die like redheads in rwby
no beta we die like redshirts
no beta we die like regulus
no beta we die like renfri
no beta we die like rengoku
no beta we die like Rex Lapis
no beta we die like riko
no beta we die like river song
no beta we die like robin
no beta we die like robins
no beta We Die Like Rory
no beta we die like scar
no beta we die like schlatt
no beta we die like Shen Jiu
no beta we die like Shen Yuan
no beta we die like shi wudu
no beta we die like shinichiro
no beta we die like SHUT UP CLAY TERRAN ISN'T DEAD!!!
no beta we die like Signora
no beta we die like Silco
no beta we die like sir night eye
no beta we die like sir nighteye
no beta We Die Like Sirius
no beta we die like Splinter
no beta we die like SQQ
no beta We Die Like Stanley
no beta we die like stormtroopers
no beta we die like stregobor fucking should have
no beta we die like stregobor should have
no beta we die like Sunset Curve
no beta we die like teppei
no beta we die like thanos
no beta we die like the badminton twins
no beta we die like the badmintons
no beta we die like the fab four
no beta we die like the mage
no beta we die like the marauders
no beta we die like the men kirishima wants us to be
no beta we die like the men Kirishima would want us to be
no beta we die like the robins
no beta we die like tim
no beta we die like timmie's pigeons
no beta we die like tommy
no beta we die like tommy in prison
no beta we die like tommyinnit
no beta we die like Tomo
no beta WE DIE LIKE TONY
no beta we die like tony stark
no beta we die like Tsukasa
no beta we die like tubbo
no beta we die like Tubbo at the festival
no beta we die like Uncle Ben
no beta we die like Unus Annus
no beta we die like Vander
no beta We Die Like Venti's Friend
no beta we die like wei wuxian
no beta we die like wei ying
no beta we die like wilbur
no beta We Die Like Wilbur in Skyblockle
no beta we die like wilbur soot
no beta we die like winchesters
no beta we die like witchers
no beta we die like women
no beta we die like writers
no beta we die like Wu Ming
no beta we die like wuming
no beta we die like wwx
no beta we die like younglings
no beta we die like your inting teammates
no beta we die like zagreus
no beta we die like zane
no beta we die like zeppelis
no beta we die like...
no beta we fall like Crowley
no beta we just die
no beta we kayak like Tim
no beta we saunter vaguely downwards like Crowley
no beta we simply die
no beta- we die like men
no beta-we die like men
no beta: we die like yagoo's dream
no betas We Fall Like Crowley
no editing we die like jason todd
no editing we die like robins
no proofreading we die like mne
not beta read we die like crepus
not beta read we die like Daichi
not beta read we die like rex lapis
not beta we die like me
not beta we die like men
not beta'd we die like wwx

ETA:
no beta we die like Joe Dick
no beta we did like mafia soldiers

Yikes! That's a lot! And these are only the English language "no beta we die like" tags; I didn't see any in the languages in which I'm functionally illiterate, so couldn't translate the few non-English child tags I did see. (The overwhelming majority are in English.)

I'm fond of the variants "no beta we die like meh" and "no beta we die like me" (as well as "no beta we die like my dreams"/"...my grades"/"...my braincells"/"...my social life" and meta-y ones like "no beta we die like [REDACTED]" and "no beta we die like [SPOILERS]").

The reasons why ~247ish is the total is because not all have "we die like" in the phrase, and some are variants of "no beta we die like men" (e.g. "no beta- we die like men," "no beta-we die like men," "not beta- we die like men," "not beta - we die like men," and the typo versions, "no beta we die like mne" and "not beta we die like mne"... plus "men"/"men!"). I didn't condense those into one "no beta we die like men," though of course you could... as you could others (such as all the variants of l'manburg/l'manberg/lmanburg/lmanberg, george in manhunt/manhunts, etc).

Some don't include "we die like", but preserve the spirit of the tag -- for example, "no beta we fall like Crowley" and "no beta we saunter vaguely downwards like Crowley." So I did count those, although one could argue that both Crowley versions should be counted as the same child tag, or even eliminated since he didn't die, he fell/sauntered.

However, AO3 considers all those variants unique. (Well, they are -- a hyphen with/without a space, an extra space, a missing space -- such tags are not exactly the same even if they contain the same words. Hey, it's a computer -- that's why it thinks that way!)

For those who would like the nitty gritty of how this was done... it actually went rather fast (once I figured out Google Sheets on my phone was going to be useless for it, after trying for about 10 minutes). Like, this DW post took way longer to write than the actual work of figuring out all the "no beta we die" tags.
1) I went to the AO3 "Not Beta Read" parent tag page,
2) copied and pasted all the child tags into a text doc,
3) chopped that up with Search/Replace and commas to get a comma-delimited text file,
4) "special paste"d that into Libre Office Calc (you could use Excel or Sheets, just not on your phone), then
5) copied and "special paste"d that again into a new spreadsheet with the "transpose" option (because the initial comma delimiting created 280-some columns when pasted, but I wanted it in rows that I could sort.
6) Then I deleted all the "not beta" or "no beta" tags without "we," leaving behind only "not beta we die" and "no beta we die" tags.

Sadly, I did not see a feed button for the Not Beta Read parent and child tags page, which eliminates the ability to keep the list real-time updated. (Along with my attention flitting away from this, as unmedicated ADD/VAST is wont to do.)

I'm also a little surprised and sad that there isn't a "no beta we die like Joe Dick" tag. *sniff*



So, yeah: 247(ish) unique "no/not beta we die like" tags! That's hilarious, kooky, and fun... all things I love about fandom. And thank you, Ride-4ever, for suggesting I post this. It cracked me up and distracted me from some looming stresses. (Yes. Change is stressful. Even good changes!)

But I'm looking forward to the WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY because SNOW! Hopefully it won't be like the last much-ballyhooed Winter Weather Advisory in October, which teased us with promises of 6-12" snow... which turned out to be 2-3".



Because if there is enough snow, I will be sledding after midnight on xmas with someone who loves snow more than anyone else I have ever met, who I've known since high school, because WDGAF that we're over 50 - it's just fun. And good exercise!

There's a BIG HILL (that you must climb up again and again, if you want to sled down it again and again -- that's the exercise!) in a park north of Roosevelt Road (or south of the Eisenhower, lol!), not far from my last and favorite stop on xmas, intended for sledding! and several of us have left the xmas party and sledded together down that hill on many xmases over the decades. Yay! And when it snows a lot, it could be 2-3am, and people - adults and children! - are out there sledding. Probably because it's so infrequent these days. Yes: I am dreaming of a white Christmas. I know if I go sledding and fall off the sled on the way down -- plus all that stair climbing! -- my fibromyalgia-ridden, arthritic body will be sore and unhappy the next day. But it will be worth it for the simple joy of flying down that hill.

I truly think kids these days are deprived. No snow forts, no snowball wars, no ice skating in someone's backyard when their dad floods it with the hose and it freezes, no sledding, no snow to sled on (it has to be fairly deep or you're just scraping icy wet grass, which is no fun, and difficult). All stuff we routinely did as kids in this same town, largely unheard of for today's kids, which is just wrong.

No wonder I slept so much better as a kid: I was exhausting myself playing tackle Runchief in the snow, building snow forts, having snowball fights, tunneling through snow (plus shoveling it for pocket money, since I didn't get an allowance unlike all. my. friends.). Plus I was out of the house and away from the misery and dysfunction there. At least for a little while. And then when you're tired of playing in the snow, and cold, and red-cheeked, and your fingers are a little numb... you go inside and have some cocoa or hot cider. Back when it used to actually snow when cider was still in season (which, yes, it actually did).

So I'll enjoy the winter weather when it comes. If it comes... and it's not just another much-ado-about-nothing inaccurate weather prediction. *still not convinced*

Comments

[wickedlittletown]

I knew that most fandoms have one of these tags but now and then I only use " no beta we die like men".

Nice to see that my main fandom has one of these tags as well. It probably shows that I never dived deep into it on AO3, otherwise I might have seen it before.

[verushka70]

Well, there's obvs a plethora of "no beta we die like"s to choose from on AO3, should you ever feel so inclined!

[juniperberry]

My favorite variation of that tag is "no beta we die like Sakura-chan in Infinity" which is an incredibly niche and spoiler-ific tag for one of my fandoms. It also doesn't appear to be it's own thing anymore. :( I'm pretty sure I used it on one of my fics but it got converted to Not Beta Read.

(I also liked the tag I saw that said "no beta we die like redshirts." That one's great.)

I hope you get to sled! I have never been sledding, I've lived in snow-less places my whole life. The one time my hometown got an inch or two of snow the whole city ground to a halt because no one knew how to drive in it. (My mother grew up with snow, so she went in to work. She came home at 2pm, which was unheard of, because no one else was there!) We still call that Snowmageddon '99. I remember it being a lot of fun, though, for literally a one-day event. :)

[verushka70]

Yeah, I realize now I probably should've maybe mentioned SPOILERS!! because if you haven't finished an entire TV/movie/book/comic/etc series and don't know the outcome of character(s) who die, just reading the list would spoiler you. Whoops!

Well as it looms closer, different predictions for the coming winter storm are being reported... The latest I saw said the total amount would be 2-3". Not really enough to sled.

It seems the below zero wind chills and strong gusty winds causing blowing and drifting snow, are now the bigger concerns, rather than total snowfall... But we'll see!

[juniperberry]

I mean, if it helps it's not exactly permanent character death, and the fandom is old and tiny (it concluded in 2009, I think). I don't mind spoilers, though, and I know that's not everyone's cup of tea.

Boo, I'm sorry for the no sledding. But wrap up warm, I hear the wind chill factor and the absolute plummeting temperature are big concerns.

[verushka70]

Still though... I should add a tag to my post... And probably add a warning.

Which fandom was it? she asked curiously. 🙂 I'm kind of a OTF person, myself - and most (not all) of my fandoms are older... But then again, I didn't recognize many (if not most) of the "we die like"s because there are just way too many fandoms now! Which is very Yay! 🙂

[juniperberry]

Eh, the fandom is a) old, b) niche, and c) honestly I think only the die-hards are still around? The ending was pretty contentious among the English fanbase. And it was really confusing. It makes sense! But it helps if you have a flow-chart for the last twenty-forty chapters-ish.

The fandom is Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. My icon is Sakura "buy me a pony!" which is a joke, she wouldn't demand that, and her pseudo-dad Kurogane. And actually, the tag itself is kind of a double-joke, firstly because it's gallows' humor, and second because, technically--Spoiler alert!--Sakura doesn't die in Infinity. (Look, I meant it when I said the ending of TRC makes sense but it also absolutely helps to have a flow chart. Which people in this fandom have made.)

[feroxargentea]

Yay for AO3 tag nerdery! I sometimes can't resist falling down that rabbithole too. It's fun finding a hundred existing variations on a tag and picking one, even when you thought you had the version you wanted.

Apologies for failing to use a "no beta we die like Joe Dick" tag ever. I generally use a beta, so...

I love sledging too! I also know from experience that middle-aged bodies don't heal that fast, and broken ribs are super painful for weeks if you hit a rock. But still -- it's worth it :)

[verushka70]

omg, don't apologize for not using a "no beta" tag due to always having a beta! I'm old, and old school, enough to really appreciate that! (In the early 90s when I first discovered fandom -via the vampire series, Forever
Knight, which led me to due South by way of CKR's guest appearance in S3, and wanting to see EVERYTHING he did after and before that, yay! - no one would have DREAMT of ficcing without a beta. It was so frowned on, it just wasn't done. Upholding good standards is never a bad thing!)

I have been "lucky" (?) in that, of my multiple medical diagnoses and history, fractures have been rare. A couple hairline fractures, that's it, over the decades. Having hypermobile joints all over, I'm far more likely to sprain something than break it. Yay?

I typically DO hit a rock - or rather, the "jump" the snowboarders always create at the bottom of the hill! No matter how many times I try to avoid it, it's like the sled WANTS to go to it (and I'm not as good at steering sleds as I should be)! So I have occasionally hit the jump and gone airborne -- and landed HARD on my ass (or back, or side)... Just without breaking anything, fortunately!
*knocks wood*

[feroxargentea]

Oh gosh, touch wood. The safest thing to do is probably to throw yourself off and roll before you hit the jump! (The stupidest thing is to slide headfirst and facedown on a plastic sack instead of a sledge. It's so much fun, though.)

[verushka70]

That IS fun, right!?

When we were kids/younger, if you didn't have any money, you could (and did!) sled down hills on the plastic lids of garbage bins. They're perfectly child sized!

Which, as an adult, I was like "Eeewwwww, disgusting!" But as a kid/young person, it totally made sense. Plus, freezing weather does tend to greatly limit bacterial activity, lol!

[writedragon]

The "we die like" list is hilarious; thanks for sharing it. Some of my favorites include "we die like Boromir," "We die like Redshirts," and I have to wonder if "we die like Danny" is a reference to Stargate's Daniel Jackson or another Danny. Because I might just have to create a "we die like Daniel Jackson" tag for my next fic. Hee. Have fun with your snow if you get some.

[verushka70]

That's the cool thing about that list - some "no beta we die like" tags are obscure, very specific, &/or ambiguous. But others are classic - even tropey! 🙂

Sadly, the latest weather prediction I read talked about only 2-3" of snow... Not really enough to sled in.

You should totally create your own fandom-specific "we die like" tag!

[ride_4ever]

I think the "no beta we die like men," the "no beta we die like meh," and the "no beta we die like me" are particularly hilarious because the original saying from which all these sprang did contain the line "we die like men".

And now I've got to find an excuse to use "no beta we die like Joe Dick"...if I get to it fast I might even be the one to originate it....

[verushka70]

It would be awesome if you originated "no beta we die like Joe Dick"! It should be either you or me who does so, lol!

[ride_4ever]

Most likely I will save that idea for the next time I write HCL fic....

[ride_4ever]

Remember to add "no beta we die like Joe Dick" and "no beta we die like mafia soldiers".

[verushka70]

Oh, I will! The AO3 tag wranglers, I suspect, have not wrangled those under the "Not beta read" parent tag yet.

So, in fact, at any given time, I'm sure there are actually more "no beta we die like" tags than can be measured by checking the parent tag page, or by searching AO3 for "no beta we die like" because new ones are being invented all the time, and tag wrangling doesn't happen as quickly.

They should write a "no beta we die like" tag wrangling algorithm to do it for them!

[ride_4ever]

...and are you where you can see the snowflakes falling now? Pretty!

I am currently sober and feeling the after-effects of what we in the FWF comm call "The Drunkening". I don't feel actually sick, but I do feel a bit shakey and not ready to go out and do grocery-shopping just yet.

---

[verushka70]

Monster. You need a Monster. Closest thing to a banana bag - what we used to give the drunks in the ER - that I've found. They have low carb versions, if you like.

Alternatively, a B-vitamin complex or multivitamin (make sure it's got B12, thiamine, & folic acid, at the minimum) and copious amounts of fluids (water, if nothing else l will help. Peppermint tea, too, if there's nausea... So you keep all the previous stuff down!

V

[ride_4ever]

I wasn't feeling sick, just shakey...and the shakey was just as much from not having gotten enough sleep and enough solid food as it was from anything else. I hydrated with ordinary water, drank a couple ginger tisanes, had a meal, and now I feel fine and am ready to go grocery-shopping.