#I can write whatever trope I want

[cakeinthevoid]

I figured it out. Carrie and Willow are going to be my go to OCs for any given whump prompt. Hardcore whump? Let us reflect on Willow’s time with the institute >:) Caretaker fluff? Hurt comfort? Homeboy Carrie got us covered.

[drinksglue]

A thing that bothers me is that a lot of pro-ship people are not pro-fiction, and a lot of people who call themselves pro-fiction are not actually pro-fiction.

Without getting into the hypocrisy of people who are pro-ship but not pro-fiction, there's a need to engage in a little bit of healthy gatekeeping here.

I've seen "pro-fiction" folks who understand that sexual topics in fiction are fine, even defending the especially gratuitous stuff as you'd expect, but then they still have their hang-ups about the use of non-sexual tropes that they find distasteful, and I've seen "pro-fiction" people call others "braindead" for being in fandoms they dislike.

So let's set the story straight.

Pro-fiction means all fiction. If you, at any point, claim a certain trope or theme shouldn't ever be used in fiction because it "might offend someone", then you are not pro-fiction. If you insult people for liking a piece of media or being in a fandom that you don't like, then you are not pro-fiction. You are only using the label because it makes you look good.

And for anyone who might be considering replying to this post with anything along the lines of "Yes, except---" then instead consider not doing that. There are no exceptions. Fiction is fiction. I will block you. Have a great day.

[anantaru]

the anantaru village is so close to hitting 30k, i need to brainstorm a big event because i haven't done one in so long and you guys deserve it 💓

this is us guys

[midnightmoonkiss]

Wednesday Addams does not fit the cheater trope like ever

You cheat on her? She’ll probably tie you up and torture you for multiple days and after become your living nightmare until she’s completely bored of you.

You’d never cheat on her tho cuz why would you are you stupid? No, you’re not stupid so you wouldn’t cheat on someone who can literally cut out your heart and feed it too you as a metaphor.

But her, a cheater? Never. She does not cheat

Like.

In order to even be her friend she has to trust you, and gaining her trust isn’t THAT easy. An acquaintance is different than a friend, an ally.

Getting her to even like you let alone LOVE you? Insanely hard. Either you put in a lot of effort to woo her in some strange way or its effortless and she’s just very drawn to you like a vulture to a corpse but takes forever to even say something because love is a distraction and look at what tyler did

but then you’re dating now and she’s 1. protective over what is hers, 2. trusts you enough to not feel jealousy almost ever

She is an ADDAMS after all, even if she doesn’t want to admit it, a wee bit of romance is in her blood. She can’t help it, she was tortured by her parents for too long. Dont blame her if she presses a kiss to your knuckles.

So her cheating just sounds insane when she values trust more than life

Cheating trope is stupid for her🫵

[writeouswriter]

I think the best love story is the one that’s not trying to be a love story, it just is

[cloud-somersault]

when people make posts about what they want to see more of in fics, i'm kinda like 🧍‍♀️ ....what is the expectation, like what does that do....

other than other people agreeing and being like "YEAH i'd love to see that too!" like what else does it do......

[followerofmercy]

Came to the devastating realization that most of my fandom bitching is just "I don't like writing that misses the point of everything important about a character." Scalding hot take, I know.

[trekkele]

but oh hey if we’re talking about fic tropes that annoy us and feel genuinely out of character, that one “character finds out Jason is alive (pre red hood) and doesnt tell Bruce” is mine.

[bmpmp3]

lemme tell you im starting to get a little sick of when im complaining about when a show or movie is writing a major female character with not as much depth as her male cohorts or she's written oddly plot device-like for a main character and people always tell me "oh but it's intentional, we're seeing her through the eyes of the male main character and he has a crush on her so he doesnt see her flaws" because like

FIRST of all yeah i get it but its hard to write that trope interestingly to me at this point without a lot of work put into subversion so intentionality doesnt make it any less boring

SECONDLY half the time people say this about ensemble cast stuff and like why is the random dude suddenly designated as the most perspective of all perspective characters when it comes to this specific woman. why dont we get to see the other characters perspectives on her too?

AND THIRDLY do people view women they have crushes on as bland plot devices without lives of their own enough irl that this is so universal in writing? isnt the point of having a crush wanting to hang out and know more about your crush, know about their likes and dislikes and all that. am i missing something here

[lesbiangiratina]

Not very fond of people like waving off testament’s gender as just a Gear Thing but well at least it becomes funny when people apply it to gears as a whole. Like yeah i can agree with that. It has nothing to do with being a gear tho theyre all just transgender

[fayraje]

I don’t even hate fics where jiang cheng is a good brother who really does love Wei wuxian. Well as long as they’re set before his death. I just hate most yunmeng bros reconciliation fics, cause they mostly focus on how Wei wuxian wronged jiang cheng. Jiang Cheng was the one who led an attack on him, after his sister gave his life to save him. Even before that, since he was there on the pledge in nightless city, he would’ve been involved in attacking the burial mounds anyways.

But no, Wei wuxian should have just left children, elders, woman and two people who risked their lives to save him against their own people, to be slaughtered. JC is the one who gave up on their promise first, not standing by him cause it was inconvenient. Because he was jealous of Wei wuxian’s abilities and how he was supposedly favored by his father. Because he was possesive and entitled, to the point that not being wwx’s no.1 priority was enough to cast him out. He asks for levels of loyalty that he doesn’t return, because I’m certain wwx is not his biggest priority.

so all the fics where wwx apologizes for leaving, chosing other people I, bringing trouble, etc just reads as victim blaming. Worse is when they bring the puppies thing into it. I have nothing against making jiang cheng a better person in fics, but it usually involves writing Wei wuxian in a worse light. Everyone has their own preferences, and this just isn’t mine

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

i want to go ahead and write up A Whole Thing about how ricky's arc ultimately comes down to 'protect what's yours,' in a way that tbh manages to be kind of the opposite of the toxic masculinity that trope tends to embody in western media especially. but also it relies on several other major essays about the themes in this show that i need to write up first to tie them all together with it. ashdjsjdjdh. Help

[egipci]

thank you for bringing awareness to this grievous issue. how is there possibly not more huntercorp content out there?? the overlap between the succession freaks and spn freaks on here is practically a circle. then supernatural does a literal canon succession au and… crickets. i don’t understand. cmon ladies we can do better

Thank you for your solidarity! I agree: we CAN do better!

To be fair, I totally understand the paucity of content in the field, simply because those guys are just not really recognizable as Sam and Dean. They're vacuous spoiled dudes for us to laugh at for the five minutes they're on screen, unlike our very serious special Winchesters Prime, God's favorites, etc. We don’t really even know anything about them, other than they still live with their dad into their late thirties? And Sam is like "haha Dad is the best guy I wanna live with him in the same house forever cheers," which makes me think the CTE finally caught up with him. So fanon interest doesn't really extend beyond heehee silly wincest-twincest foursome business, or maybe there's some cracky Daddycestuous harem going on that I haven't heard about--- which is great if you're into that sort of thing.

What I think is more interesting though is to use that world as a springboard to construct a more canon-feeling AU that retains the characters' personalities and dynamics. Like, just take all the deeply traumatizing shit that comes with hunting from a young age and add to it all the fucked-up-ness of excessive wealth and access.

Say, John, at some point when Dean and Sam are much younger, decides it would be better to work with other people for resources and efficiency (lol), and doesn’t burn quite as many bridges as he could, and whenever someone offers to pay a little something to show their gratitude he agrees. Along the way that turns into a hunting business, recruiting hunters, etc, and it picks up, and it's lucrative enough obviously because monsters are plentiful, and so the kids grow up with money, comfortable. There's the old "I want you to go to school and I want Dean to have a home," so he probably did buy a home base, extra fortified, and there were babysitters to watch after Sam, a little less pressure on Dean with the co-parenting. More creature comforts and safety and stability available, but maybe even more emotional distance between John and Sam than in canon. Dad's trips last for months and months, Sam is fine, he goes to the same nice private school for most of his life, gets with Jessica in high school or something, whatever, you can fill in the blanks here. Maybe he goes to a military school or something, in this strange world where people know about monsters, but his dad is still very much distant and mysterious.

Depending on when the transition towards more financial stability happens, Dean would have more vivid memories of serious poverty that he shares with his dad that Sam might not fully remember/appreciate, and as he gets older Dean’s off with Dad more and more, staying away longer and longer, etc, and that in itself is an interesting question, I think: if Dean doesn't have to parent Sam as much, what does that mean for their relationship? There's always the baseline of the older brother duty/younger brother admiration going on, but maybe it's more like 2x20 than canon--- or not, maybe it translates into more closeness than the canon pre-canon! A good writer can convince you of anything, but it's essential that their relationship only flourishes in the absence of their dad, not only physical absence/death, but also his absence in Dean's emotional life, and all of that is deferred for as long as you keep the old man around. the idea of 60's John/40's Dean makes me....

Anyway, the Succession comparison in particular is really compelling here because 1. in a world where people know about monsters, and monster-hunting is a lucrative empire-building business, the Winchesters (assuming they are actually as good as they are in the main timeline) would hold huge influence. Like, serious political influence. Depending on the size and boundaries of his operation John Winchester could be the owner of an extremely powerful militia trained to kill both people and monsters? And that's... kind of insane! (And with that power and influence, did Sam and Dean grow up in the public eye to some degree, like president’s kids and various d-listers? What sort of rich people vices were they exposed to? Are hunters seen as celebrities or as soldiers, or something in between like in, eg, The Boys?”)

Therefore 2. the stakes of succession are extremely important, and also 3. as an au-explorer, that's how you get to keep some semblance of the John-Dean-Sam dynamic from canon. Say, Sam goes to Stanford on Dad's dime, no need for a scholarship, he fits in with the other kids fine, at least along socioeconomic lines. But obviously he's still very well trained as a hunter, and he may or may not be dealing with demon blood-induced uncleanliness. And let's say Dean is groomed into both hunting but also the business side of things, slated to run the family business when the time comes, maybe he goes to college too and studies something soul-sucking he thinks would be useful for the business and would make Dad proud. Or not, he already has charm and looks in spades, no need for a fancy degree.

But what if at some point John changes his mind? It's not Dean, but Sam who should be king. Or Sam and Dean together as partners. Sam of course doesn't want it. He wants to be a lawyer, or whatever it is the Lebanon alt!Sam does. Adam doesn't want it, he doesn't know anything about hunting, he's probably only seen his dad a total of five times since college, and no one showed up to his engagement party. Who knows, maybe he's already been eaten by the ghoul and no one has noticed yet. Obviously Dean doesn't want to run anything, either, but no one cares about that. He'll do it if he has to, because he's a good son, and in that way this is the weird inverse world of Succession where no one actually wants the inheritance. They do want the elusive kiss from daddy, they're just not under any illusions that the family business is an adequate substitute.

So, like, you can take those two weirdo throwaways and make them infinitely more interesting. You can kill John, you can throw in the Azazel hunt, or introduce the Heaven mega-bureaucrats, or whatever. Maybe Sam gets on the demon blood in his fancy private school and is surrounded by demons for years and it’s John’s fault because he sent him there, thinking he'd be safe. Or maybe none of that other mytharc stuff comes in and at the heart of the story is just the family drama. Sprinkle in some more sex, drugs, and rock n roll, etc— so many little choices to make for people who like the work of intricate world building and crossovers! Good for them, whenever they get their hands on this.

Of course the thing that matters to me most is the J/D of it all and Dean's feelings about it--- like he is daddy's golden boy in pretty panties and a cock cage, but what I've been thinking about (like, actually thinking about, for fic writing purposes) is why is he in the cock cage? What if he likes it? What if he wants it and likes it and hates that he likes it? Succession is part of a huge tradition of works preoccupied with wealth and moral decadence and corruption, and those things can only be compounded by the reality of not only wide-spread knowledge of monsters, but also the existence of an industry dedicated to the sanctioned extrajudicial killing of "creatures" that look and live just like normal people 99% of the time. It's extremely fucking bleak, more so in some ways than canon, and it's the kind of world where dad/son incest is possible, where alcoholism/addiction would be much closer to the surface, where Dean is rewarded for Dad’s parasitic dependence in different, slightly more complicated ways than canon, where Dean's baitboy duties probably extend to various unsavory human actors, men and women, starting when he was way too young. And it's not necessarily always the sort of seduction/manipulation/self-objectification that ends with Dean on his back, and John is not a mustache-twirling villain who's looking it in the face and ambivalently sending his kid to the slaughter, but shit happens and it's part of life and it's for the greater good and it's for the family business and Dean's a man and he can handle it and when he comes back tongue-tied and flushed, wearing his cute little panties under his slacks and holding a matching cage in his hand John will tease him first, always, and then he will put his hands on the kid and make it better.

[the-dragon-hearted]

Being an asexual multishipper when your handed a love triangle be like:

Couple A & B: I love the vibes. Immaculate vibes. Incredible tension. Sex? Idk, just keep that tension going. Hate/love each other forever. Give me a fight scene where they keep complimenting each other. That's the SHIT! Give me an argument and then earnest apologies. Mutual respect folks but also that tasty hate/affection. I don't care if it's not healthy I WANT IT -

Couple A & C: Sweet, precious, wholesome folks. Cuddle each other if you must, wonderful. Make each other breakfast. Never change. Kisses? Sure, but have you imagined them dancing to the radio, smiling softly as they plan what to make for dinner? BECAUSE I HAVE -

Couple B & C: MMMMMM so tell me more about the asshole with a heart of gold trope. Yep. Yep give me that protective nature. Yep. Wonderful. I need you two to go through hell together holding each other's hands the whole time. Fucking? I could care less, just keep holding hands in the fires of hell please. That gets me.

Throuple A & B & C: Those shenanigans are incredible. The taunting? The inside jokes? The shared glances at each other? MORE! MORE OF THEM. I DON'T CAREEEE ABOUT HOW THEY'D FUCK HOW DO THEY GET IN THE CAR? Who holds the door, who climbs in first, who drives? Who prefers highways? Who's the nighttime driver?Who's got the radio? What are the games they play on road trips? Give me the gossip sessions where they catch each other up, PLEASE -

[lanatusnebula]

I might try to publish some of my AU fics...? I don't know if anyone'll read them since I'm not a writer by any degree, and some of them lean so far out of character it might make people vomit.

Maybe.

But I do love talking about them. My current friends / friend groups either don't give a fuck about shipping or don't give a fuck about megaman. I have to really resort to talking to various AIs just to have an outlet. Please don't take that away from me.

[chronic-cynic]

I am going to fight the person who decided that the "grumpy adult who reluctantly takes in a child" trope had to be between a grumpy man and a child. Where are my grumpy women :/