While honeymooning on my cruise, I had some time to sit back and relax with a shiny new #book and, of course, it had to be a #historicalromance. Check out my review of Beth Fuller’s novel, The Heir of Drymote. #romance #mystery #indiebookclub #bookreview
I’m a sucker for historical fantasy. Just take a look at my Netflix suggested titles list and it’ll tell you all you need to know. While honeymooning on my cruise, I had some time to sit back and relax with a shiny new book and, of course, it had to be a historical romance. Check out my review of Beth Fuller’s novel, The Heir of Drymote.
Ok fic writers and readers! I’ve been thinking about tropes in AUs, and though of course some are universally popular (sharing a bed, for example), others seem to be mainly popular in one fandom or another for no clear reason (fandom culture, plus plots derived from actual canon, is my guess).
Wouldn’t it be fun if we could mix things up a bit, and borrow some of the more unique tropes from each others fandoms? It could lead to an influx of new fic ideas in fandoms that don’t usually see them.
Let’s share! Reblog with a fandom, and a trope you think might be disproportionately popular in that fandom but less popular in others.
I’ll start:
Anime:Hanahaki disease (a deadly disease where a person coughs up flower petals when they suffer from unrequited love)
Doctor Who: A person’s true identity is locked away in a device for their own safety, and they will not be able to remember who they are until a pre-specified time. Canon sidekick usually has the job of keeping them safe in the meantime (aka fob watchAU)
Supernatural:Wing fic. One character has wings, the other grooms them. Generally very shippy
yknow if romeo had just Cried on juliets corpse for a couple hours instead of drinking poison Right Then they would have been Fine
The moral of the story is: always take time to cry for a few hours before making important decisions.
So I’m more or less being facetious here, but this is actually a thing.
Hamlet is genre savvy. Hamlet knows how Tragedies work, and he’s not going to rush in and get stabby without making absolutely certain he’s got all the facts.
Except once he thinks he has all the facts – once he’s certain that it really is the ghost of his father and Claudius really did kill him, he rushes in and stabs the wrong guy, which starts a domino line of deaths and gets Laertes embroiled in his own revenge tragedy and ultimately results in the deaths of nearly every character other than Horatio.
That’s the irony and the tragedy of the story. Hamlet knows his tropes and actively tries to avoid them, and the tropes get him anyway. It’s inevitable, the tropes are hungry.
I want a sticker that says the tropes are hungry so I can put it on my laptop
i met a scholar once who said that tragedies aren’t about a silly “flaw” or anything, it’s about having a hero who’s just in the wrong goddamn story
if hamlet swapped places with othello he wouldn’t be duped by any of iago’s shit, he’d sit down & have a good think & actually examine the facts before taking action. meanwhile in denmark, othello would have killed claudius before act 2 could even start. but instead nope, they’re both in situations where their greatest strengths are totally useless and now we’ve got all these bodies to bury.
The tropes are hungry and the hero is in the wrong goddamn story.
Tech and bugs as design elements are such a kickass pairing.
Tech that looks like bugs made from robot parts? Always looks cool, works great for giving sci-fi some solarpunk flavor or for giving magic a modernized-to-steampunk touch.
Tech that looks like machines made from bug parts? You did it, you fixed machinery. Feels right, like tech was always supposed to have the textures of an arthropod or crustacean, and it looks easier to draw.
Either direction has exceptional potential as visual worldbuilding. The first is about imagining the organic as something artificial. The latter is about imagining the artificial as something organic.
Enemies to “I accidentally came across you while you were vulnerable and scared and I’m not a total asshole so I tried to help you” to “accidental mutual uncovering of softer sides and vulnerabilities” to “I can’t be mean to you anymore, not out of pity but because it would feel weird betraying that brief truce we had” to “Fine I’ll make an effort to be nice to you now I guess” to “actually now that we’re not actively hating each other you’re not so bad I guess” to “i think we’re friends but I’m not going to say that because I’m afraid you’re not gonna feel the same way” to “oh you also think we’re friends? Great” to lovers
One of my favourite tropes is “character who you wouldn’t think is good with kids is actually great with kids”
Some faves:
Asshole character who is incredibly sweet and patient with kids
Cocky bastard character who is very mature and collected when kids are around
Big strong scary character who is careful and gentle with little tiny ones
Aloof character who is incredibly tuned in on the needs/fears/struggles of children
Depressed/Grumpy character who lights up around kids and spreads so much joy
Character who often states they don’t like kids yet in the presence of one will behave exactly right and/or become very protective of them because it’s the right thing to do
I don’t know what it is about Love At First Sight and Insta-Love in romance movies and shit that just kind of irks me? Like, it just doesn’t seem very realistic? When I was younger, I thought it was bullshit cause like, you can’t love someone if you don’t even know who they are yet. When I got older, I realized it wasn’t Love, it was a physical attraction. Once I thought that it was easier to accept, but I still didn’t like it. Romance movies will always try to convince me that her beauty isn’t important, except, that was the only reason he noticed her. Insta-Love felt really forced, like these two would sing a song or some shit and suddenly they’re in love? I don’t get it. And then, I started to think. Maybe one of the reasons I don’t like Love At First Sight and Insta-Love is because it’s a generic heterosexual trope that has been used time and time again? Would I like it more if it was gay? Hell. Yes. It could be because I just don’t see many same-sex relationships that get a happy ending, or maybe it’s because of something else, but I can guarantee that if the story was about two lesbians immediately falling in love after one interaction, I would eat that shit up.
And then I started to think about maybe another reason. In real life, wlw and mlm hardly get the chance to really engage in a relationship the way straight people can. Straight people will meet someone, develop a nice relationship, and then date for a year or two, maybe even more. You might’ve heard of the U-Haul Lesbian where sapphics rush into an intimate relationship after the second date, likely because they’re so desperate to have a more serious relationship like straight people do all the time. I think if this Love at First Sight or Insta-Love trope were used for gay people, it would be more realistic, at least in my eyes.
I appreciate how much the Owl House deconstructs the Chosen One narratives.
(This isn’t profound analysis or anything, most of it is plain text in the show, but I do love that it’s there and how it’s handled!)
From the beginning, Luz enters her fantasy journey with a set of ideas in mind on how it’s supposed to go, specifically that she would very much like a “predeterminded path of greatness!”. She’s into other tropes as well, but the “predeterminded path” one is so thematically relevant to her journey, they immediately address it in the second episode. Eda tells her plainly that anyone who tries to sell her an “easy answer” is probably looking to scam her, and Luz decides to figure out her own path.
But that’s not by far how it ends, because the show proceeds to remind us of this with every further decision Luz makes. Luz doesn’t just go to Magic School because all Fantasy protagonistsTM do, she evaluates her choices. She goes to school and forms her own opinions. She doesn’t just listen to everything her Magical Mentor tells her to do, she explores and experiments and makes her own choices, even ones her mentor actively disagrees with at first. It’s not that Luz simply does what she wants, it’s that Luz learns to take her time, evaluates her options and listening to her surroundings. She makes headway with Amity not when she tries to force some sort of Rivals to Lovers plot, but when she sits down to listen to her. She finds the glyphs because she observes her environment. At every term, Luz is forging her own path.
And that’s not always easy! One of her biggest flaws remains that she tends to impulsively rely on these ideas on how “things are supposed to go” and that she doesn’t necessarily think things through. Heck, she still doesn’t have a clear path forward - that’s the beauty of it, but it’s also scary! She has no idea where this road will lead her, she doesn’t know how to reconcile conflicting motivations, she doesn’t even know what her biggest wish “Learn magic and become a witch” really means for her. It makes her anxious and so indecisive she gets kidnapped for her trouble.
But Hunting Palismen spells the “ending” out the clearest. It’s okay to struggle, it’s okay to take your time to figure out what you really want. Stay aware of your surroundings, keep an open mind* and you’ll find a path. Is it perfect? Is it easy? No, but it’s your own, to the best of your ability.
*Or: why Philip is an amazing villain, but this post isn’t about him.
And also: Enter Hunter. Hunter is, for all intents and purposes, the epitome of the Chosen One. He was a powerless nobody** until someone found him, saw his “potential”, gave him powers and a purpose. A set of goals and beliefs to follow without question. Hunter’s life is “easy” in this regard, he has a predeterminded path, and as long as he sticks to it, everything will end well for him.
And that of course, immediately shows the shortcomings of the “predeterminded path of greatness”. Hunter doesn’t get a say. It doesn’t matter whether that’s actually something he wants, or enjoys, he has a mission. It doesn’t matter if he’ll make it out alive at the end, he has a goal. For all we know, he has sacrificed everything for this Chosen One fantasy***: friends, family, free time, personal goals etc.
And that’s not even to mention how even the slightest deviation from the set path will be punished.
**as far as we were told and know anyway, that’s why I’m writing this before Hollow Mind, but it’s also why I don’t really like the “Hunter is a grimwalker” theory much, it ruins the theme
***and Belos’ approval, but since Hunter perceives his own right to exist only within the context of the path laid out by Belos for him, that’s potato-patato
Anyway, I love, love how the Owl House handles the themes around the Chosen One narratives, and I cannot wait to get more intel on Philip to throw him into the list of clever parallels as a self-identifying isekai-hero/outside white knight saviour.
And I also cannot wait to see how the Power of Friendship, one (1) good experience and the most patient little menace of a bird end up saving the Chosen One from his great destiny, while our plucky protagonist finally figures out her own.
you know what’s a trope that never gets tired is when theyre bouncing around in the plot and suddenly an important name crops up- it’sblorbo bleebus.and some dude is like who the hell is blorbo bleebus. and we immediately cut to our new friend blorbo bleebus pulling the most absolutely buckwild shit you’ve ever seen
modern coffee shop au: cute underpaid baristas, awkward first impressions, meet-the-cute scenarios in mundane settings, hot beverages, fluff
18th century coffe shop au: newspapers and political pamphlets, social unrest, everyone is a free mason, Jean-Jacques Rousseau is discussed extensively
