Theories of Conflict
| Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | Theories of Conflict |
| Author(s): | WaitingForMy |
| Date(s): | 15 Oct 2019 - 22 Jan 2021 |
| Length: | 350,226 words, 113 chapters |
| Genre(s): | modern au, highschool au, enemies to lovers |
| Fandom(s): | Newsies |
| Relationship(s): | |
| External Links: | AO3 |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Theories of Conflict is a popular Newsies fic based on a roleplay. It focuses on the Spot/Race ship. ToC has almost 35,000 hits and over a thousand kudos. It is one of the longest works and most commented-on fics in the fandom.
Reactions and Reviews
This fic contains the most realistically written teenagers I have ever read about. Really great, 10/10 would recommend!CrunchyWater17[1]
i dont even like sprace that much, its just that theories of conflict was such an incredibly well written fanfiction that i was compelled to read all 94 chapters (at the time) in 23 hoursclydefrogzz[2]
I just spent like a day and a half reading this entire thing and guysIt’s really fucking long
Like 91 chapters long
But it’s worth it cause it’s really good
Like holy shit y’all need to read this if you ship sprace or even if you just want to see an accurate representation of a modern teenage friendship (Jack, Race, and Albert) when everyone involved in said friendship is batshit insane.violetwolfraven[3]
Thank you so much for this. As a queer Christian girl, seeing religion and sexuality being blended together in a positive way means a lot to me. Thank you and God bless!AddyEZ[4]
Theories of Conflict is a Newsies AU fic and it's written SO well, I dont even read Newsies fanfiction anymore and I'll always go back to it.swoooomp[5]
Thank you thank you thank you for helping me survive quarantine. This fic is a goddamn work of art. I just binged the entire thing and if I’m honest I tend to lose a bit of interest with long fics. But EVERY CHAPTER every single one was perfect and gripping and I couldn’t stop reading. So once again thank you thank you thank you. I can’t wait for what’s next!!megathy_two[6]
Okay. This.This is so good? I honestly don't have enough words to praise you. I felt so many feelings? And I love everyone (not mark) so much?? I am so invested in this story that my mind sometimes does this thing where I zone out and imagine how the next chapter will go on, which resulted in a complete parallel story existing in my head which... yay, you have fanfiction for your fanfiction? Here's an incomplete list of things i love about this fic: your style (how is your pacing so good when you don't have a plan? howwww? this is sorcery), race's interaction with his friends (how he is slightly different with the dance guys, jack and albert and elmer, thats soo realistic), race's parents (perfection, especially since they warmed up to spotty a little), how everyone acts so completely realistic that you sometimes want to punch them (i am albert whenever one of my close friends has a new s/o, i swear. like, the same level of annoying, misplaced, totally over-the-top jealousy-presented-as-overprotectiveness. albert needs to chill. he also needs a hug)— please, i am begging you to give albert and race some quality Bro Time. like, i love spot but his interactions with al always make me a little ??? sad? cause like, he neeeds to chill. obvi. but i also know that it kinda feels shitty to know that all of your friends are in relationships and youre just. like. not? especially with people (spot in this one) saying things like, you don't have a girlfriend so race is your priority? and i'm just sitting here, internally sobbing because whyyyyyy areee romantic relationships always seen as more sigmificant than friendships??????? whyyyyyyyy so yeah. all your characters feel real and cool and do stupid things and have flaws and i feel like they exist. please don't hurt them (i know you will, this is simply a formality)
i am excited where this is going (also terrified (but watch what happens))ifItMakesMeCryILikeIt[7]
Well... I felt a lot of emotions reading this. All over the place. Like, all the feelings. All of them. I was going to say I had fun reading this, but that seems too simple, cause honestly I’ve read real books (by choice, not because I had to for school) that I enjoyed less than this fic. I’ve read real books that were supposed to be sad and didn’t get me as close to tears as this. In short, updates on this fic were something to look forward to in these trying times, so thank you for creating it. Hope you’re having a great day!violetwolfraven[8]
Well to say I'm crying would be an understatement, I honestly wasn't ready for this to end. Even though I only started reading in September prompted by my friends to read it, I feel like it's gotten me through so much that I couldn't even describe how helpful it's been to me. Well, minus the panic attack that Race's panic attack in the car crash triggered, but we ignore that since it was written so fucking well. This school year so far has been honestly one of the worst and having Theories of Conflict just THERE for me to escape the crazy when I was catching up on it, and then once I caught up just having it there as a constant of running in to our group chat screaming at eachother every time there was an update. And I won't say that I'm not sad that that constant is ending, because I am but this ending feels right. I am SO glad that I started reading this when I did because I can wholeheartedly say this is my favorite piece of literature of all time. Because I came for the promise of Sprace and got the best of that plus so many amazing characters that just feel so REAL that I can't imagine them any other way. I'll wrap up this essay but what I'm trying to say is, thank you for writing this masterpiece, thank you for being the best writers I've ever seen, and thank you for literally everything you've done for making my life just a little bit easier this yearNocturnalNewsiestrash[9]
I’ve never been around to see a fic end but I’m so glad I stuck around for this one. I love your interpretation of the characters so much I wish they were real because goddammit we all need a Race or Spot or Al or Jack or literally any of them in our lives. Thank you for this masterpiece, and here’s to hoping it lives at the top of the Newsies kudos/hits section forever. It’s been a wild ride; I’m sad ToC is over, and I’ll miss it, but I’m looking forward to future instalments in this AU and will probably re-read this incredible work a million times over <3ForTheLoveOfPortalChopping[10]
I'm really not ready for this to end. This has been,, a journey. I can't put into words how much I love this fic - I've bonded with people (one person in particular - hi Riley if you're reading this ily:D) over this fanfiction. And a lot of my thoughts cannot be expressed right now because I just love how these characters are written. They are just,, so realistic and loveable. Thank you so much for this book. It's a novel at this point (has been for a while) and it's bittersweet that it's ending. I can't wait to see the conclusion to this. Thank you.Sogoodyoullthinkits_italian[11]
References
- ^ AO3 bookmark (2021)
- ^ Tumblr post (2021)
- ^ Tumblr post (2020)
- ^ AO3 comment (2019)
- ^ Reddit comment (2022)
- ^ AO3 comment (2020)
- ^ AO3 comment (2020)
- ^ AO3 comment (2021)
- ^ AO3 comment (2021)
- ^ AO3 comment (2021)
- ^ AO3 comment (2021)