Spies
| Tropes and genres | |
|---|---|
| Synonym(s) | Secret Agents |
| Related tropes/genres | Assassins, Hitmen, Crime AU, Mr & Mrs Smith AU, Thriller |
| See also | spy fiction, spy-fi |
| Related articles on Fanlore. | |
Spies, Secret Agents, Assassins, and Hitmen are fairly popular as canon elements for spy fiction books, television series, films, etc., and they are a quite popular trope, especially for AUs, in fanfiction and other fanworks.
Many fans have remarked on the fact that canon that revolves around spies seems less likely to generate an active fandom than science fiction or crime dramas, even though many crime dramas do feature what amounts to intelligence work. (See NCIS: LA for example.) Nonetheless, many individual works about spies, particularly spy tv shows, have had active fandoms.
Spy canons range from Spy-Fi (campy 1960s spy fiction with science fiction elements) to extremely dark, gritty attempts at a realistic portrayal of intelligence work such as Spooks, with other examples like I Spy somewhere in the middle.
Many fanworks focused on espionage, include assassins or hitmen, either as a main character or a threat to the protagonist. Assassin AU works often focus on assassins working for or against governments. One example of these works are Mr & Mrs Smith AUs. There are also assassin centric works that focus on hitmen in the criminal world and overlap with Crime AUs.
Canon Examples
Some spy shows and other media that have had active fandoms include:
- Alias
- Burn Notice
- Chuck
- Covert Affairs
- La Femme Nikita (in its various incarnations)
- I Spy
- James Bond
- Kingsman: The Secret Service
- The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
- The Nightrunner Series
- Spooks (a.k.a. MI-5 outside the U.K.)
- Spy (2015)
- Spy School
- Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
- Killing Eve
Spy and Assassin AU Fanwork Examples
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
- Set Fire to This Card House by zarah5. Steve/Danny spyfic AU.
- The Universe Is Not Enough by trinityofone. Crackfic in which Rodney is a secret agent.
- Judas Doesn't Answer by Auburn. SG-1 comes to Atlantis to hunt a spy.
- Someone You Might Have Been by fleshflutter. J2 spyfic AU. See [[Supernatural RPF.
- make sure that we're watertight by deeppainpizza. Battle Tendency (part 2 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure) focused, following Joseph and Caesar as spy partners through various missions.
Resources
- Espionage tag at Archive of Our Own
- Assassins & Hitmen tag at Archive of Our Own
- Recs tagged Spies & Assassins at Fancake