#Peter meta tag

[foursaints]

trying to put words to how exactly my peter pettigrew deviates from fanon and i think ultimately, as most things, it has to do with james. because peter meta is at its best when you (correctly, i think) understand james potter as a villain in the story. james potter is interesting precisely because he is seen as an infallible hero by one half of canon AND irredeemable villain by the other, but both groups technically have an accurate understanding of him. and his behavior (and your perception of him) wholly depends on what side of the gulf you're standing on.

like, james is an amazing friend and gallant war hero but he still sexually harasses snape in public with impunity. he became a good husband to lily but the way he treated her for years was exploitative and gross. these are facts. and it tracks that the people who have only been exposed to james's ugly side would (accurately) see him as an entitled scion who wields societal power and chooses to abuse the powerless. to "dark wizards", james is as much an example of privileged pureblood cruelty as canon draco is to canon harry.

and peter pettigrew is interesting because he is someone who, for unclear reasons, was lucky enough to be picked as a "good guy" and thus be treated well by "good james". except unlike everyone else who has encountered or been won over by "good james", peter still sees him as a villain and is incapable of forgiving him— for valid reason!! peter is still a gryffindor at his core and he has gryffindorish motivation. like, his murdering james isn't a judas escariot story. from peter's perspective it's far more like Claudia killing Lestat.

[spiderpussinc]

official artbook quotes that drive me insane. you are gay

[dandelionjack]

the main mistake that people who dislike s8 and put it low in their series rankings make is the belief that, like any other series (apart from s9), it’s a collection of standalone stories tied together by some vague throughline i.e. missy’s ‘heaven’. “oh, this episode’s mid, that episode’s bad” meanwhile it’s not about individual episodes at all. i firmly believe that it should be viewed as a singular long serial.

so grateful that i was extremely late to the party and binged it all in a week instead of watching every episode as they were airing, because sometimes the plots barely matter at all. do you remember what the skovox blitzer actually looks like or what it wanted with coal hill in the first place? hardly. i had to google its name. but what you do remember from the caretaker is twelve acting like an antagonistic prick towards danny, and that’s what matters. almost every villainous entity is some kind of soldier, the contempt twelve shows to everybody but clara becomes the source of their toxicity… in the forest of the night is pretty obviously rubbish scifi, but it demonstrates danny’s fundamental incompatibility with clara, as well as the scene in which clara is ready to sacrifice herself and her students for the doctor’s sake, foreshadowing their reckless, almost suicidal codependency.

point is, but it really does work best as a tightly woven tapestry. sure, some episodes succeed individually, but most of the individual plots are mildly exciting only in a ‘this is fun to watch for kids’ way… UNLESS you approach them from the overarching perspective. i.e. mummy on the orient express has wonderful style, a thrilling mystery, creative concepts and interesting side characters, but its story appeal hinges on the twelveclara failed breakup. listen is frightening enough, but its entire story appeal hinges on just how much clara affects the doctor’s values past and present, and whether or not she has a future with danny (she doesn’t).

what i’m saying is, the narrative in s8 is a non-negotiable package deal. buy one, get them all. and it has no skips. i hate the idiotic pro-life message in kill the moon as much as the next sensible person, but what the episode does well is really hammer home how much of a sanctimonious asshole twelve initially is, which is crucial to his future character evolution.

tldr; the correct way to watch series 8 is all in one go. series 8 is great. more love for series 8

[atlasshrugd]

when the sinned loves the sinner it is a transformative act. the love does not erase the sin but it cleanses the sinner of all that they have been. love is redemption and it can exist without logic or reason. whether or not the sinner deserves to be loved is no consequence. the love has fundamentally altered them, the fact that it is there. the sinned gains nothing from loving the sinner except for the peace of owning their destiny. for it is one’s destiny to strive to be complete. one cannot be complete when it only exists in a half. so the pieces must be collected and the sinned must love the sinner without the expectation that their love will change them, because it already has. when love exists without reason it is because the love is not a human love. it is now part of the creative and destructive forces of all that has lived, that has made life what it is. and at the moment of loving, the sinner is changed. the pieces are collected. both have returned home.

[hurtspideyparker]

Underrated MCU pairings

Happy Hogan and Peter Parker: THIS is the grumpy & sunshine trope you need. This is the MCU's Eleven & Hopper. The Ellie and Joel. While everyone was mooning over irondad Happy Hogan was putting in the WORK. Let's have some appreciation for this man and the way he took care of Peter in FFH and NWH. Also the scene where May dies and you can see Happy's heart break not for himself but for PETER. It was breathtaking, thank you Jon Favreau

Tony Stark and Natasha Romanoff: They give big "my ex is gay so now we're just besties" energy. And the fun thing is you can choose which one is gay! They will most definitely be gossiping in the back of the room. Yes they are judging you. Yes they are hotter than you. Yes they say "I hate you" constantly and yes, that actually means "I love you" for them. People forget that other than Clint and Nat these two have been friends the longest in the Avengers. They hurt each other badly because they know each other, and they forgive because they care

Clint Barton and Wanda Maximoff: Clint being a dad in MCU is surprisingly fitting and the way he recognized that Wanda was just a hurt kid being used as a pawn and helped guide her was fantastic. The "you're an Avenger if you step out those doors" speech in AOU? Glorious. And in Civil War when he comes to rescue her from the compound and holds her hand like AH I don't even have daddy issues and I'm looking at Clint like "papa 🥺". Plus the respect and love shared for Pietro was really moving: "Nathaniel Pietro Barton"

T'Challa and Steve Rogers: Both born leaders, they have an incredible understanding of the duty and responsibility they each shoulder. Such a natural respect and trust between people who may not have much personal history, but share the same lionheart. T'Challa trusting Steve with Wakanda's secrets was special, and showing up time and time again for him. Plus the "someone get this man a shield!" before the Infinity War battle was the cherry on top

Anyone to add?

[his-lost-one]

felix strikes me as the kind of character who just NEEDS to have someone to devote himself to. if it’s not pan, it’ll be someone else.

his self worth is tied to his usefulness and how can you be useful if you have no one who uses you?

i feel like a part of him knows that this will eventually lead to his demise, but even that small part doesn’t care. and overall, he needs it - it gives him a purpose, makes him feel like he’s doing something with himself.

why it’s pan that he idolises, we’ll never canonically know, but i don’t think it matters too much. i feel like felix could’ve latched onto anyone who treated him somewhat kindly at the start and who made him feel like he could be useful - it just happened to be pan.

i do also like the theory that pan saved felix at some point and felix feels like he owes him or like he has to repay that debt or whatever. i feel like that’s a good jumpstart for his devotion, but i don’t think i like to view it as the only reason. it all seems a lot more tragic to think that he’s a bit predisposed to that type of loyalty that ultimately caused his death. like it was inevitable, the only variable was at whose hands he’d have died

[sofoulandfairaday]

I actually do tend to put most of the Order we see in the photos around the same years, but my headcanon is that there were other older members but they all died by the time that photo was taken because they were trying to protect the younger kids. I like to imagine that Moody is the only surviving older Order member and he had to watch his peers die one by one and then had to watch as so many of those kids they died trying to protect were killed themselves

Soooo. I can see this working if well justified. There is a line that does justify it in canon, actually- "[...] look, I can’t promise no one’s going to get hurt, nobody can promise that, but we’re much better off than we were last time, you weren’t in the Order then, you don’t understand, last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one...”

Voldemort would most likely send his Death Eaters after the best and strongest Order members first, even though they were more likely to take down many of his followers- it's not like he didn't have the numbers. BUT I'm afraid it's a little unrealistic. The weakest fighters in a fight to the death are those who get killed first even with protection.

Just for funsies, though, I'll give you my personal headcanon of the Order members' rough ages. I'm usually flexible if they're changed by a couple of years, but the generations should be kept.

This is the list of confirmed Order of the Phoenix members in the First Wizarding War:

Albus Dumbledore

Aberforth Dumbledore

Alastor Moody

Arabella Figg

Dedalus Diggle

Elphias Doge

Emmeline Vance

Mundungus Fletcher

Rubeus Hagrid

Sturgis Podmore

Severus Snape

Sirius Black

Remus Lupin

Peter Pettigrew (who turns spy for the Death Eaters in 1980)

All these people survive the war. Then we also have:

James Potter

Lily Evans Potter

Fabian Prewett

Gideon Prewett

Frank Longbottom

Alice Longbottom

Edgar Bones

Benji Fenwick

Caradoc Dearborn

Dorcas Meadowes

Marlene McKinnon

Now. The only girl confirmed to be one of Lily's classmates is Mary McDonald and she's not part of the Order (and I choose to believe that she wasn't; she sympathised, maybe, but I like the headcanon that she's so scarred by Mulciber and Avery's bullying - and that the event that Lily references to Severus is not the only time they use Dark Magic on her - that she wants nothing to do with the fight). I am maybe one of the two (2) people with a mild appreciation for BlackKinnon, and I don't mind Marlene as someone in the same age bracket as them (but I can also see her being older). She is murdered along her entire family, though, and it's unclear whether she was a mother, a sister, or a daughter. I will say that some of their Hogwarts years overlapped.

Dorcas I find way less likely. She was killed by Voldemort himself - the man wouldn't have bothered if she wasn't an Amelia Bones-level witch at least, which means she was mighty, which means she most likely wasn't twenty-one. I like to think that she was an Auror, or a Ministry high-ranking employee with sound principles that just would not bend to the infiltration of the DEs in the Ministry or to Barty Crouch Snr's ruthlessness.

Frank and Alice Longbottom are the same, to me. They're older than the Marauders, I would make them (just like Dorcas) around Bellatrix's age, maybe even older. That makes them around 30yrs old in 1981. Which means they would have had a full decade or more to become the most respected Aurors in the Wizarding World, so well known that what happened to them sparked major outrage, the kind that led to a manhunt for their torturers, and the sentencing of a pleading nineteen-year-old boy. (Of course, Barty jr was guilty, but they didn't know that, didn't know just how loyal to Voldemort he truly was. The Lestranges sentencing - an old wizarding family, a Lestrange had even been Minister for Magic - was clearly one sparked by public outrage. People were crying out for their blood.)

The Prewetts were Molly's older brothers, so they were way older than the Marauders. They were also killed by a group of Death Eaters led by Antonin Dolohov after what appears to have been a truly brutal fight, so nope. They weren't the Fred and George types of the Marauders Era (also. the Marauders were that!)

Edgar Bones had a wife and children and was considered to be one of the best of the era, so I doubt he was as young as the Fantastic Four. We really don't know enough about Caradoc Dearborn or Benji Fenwick to say, but I somehow doubt it.

Of those who survived.

We know that Albus, Aberforth, Moody, Elphias Doge, Mundungus, and Arabella Figg are all way older than the Marauders, and I've always pictured Dedalus Diggle as a middle aged man (but we only know he's tiny and excitable, so it could go either way). Sturgis Podmore's description fits someone that could have been in the Marauder's year or maybe slightly older, but still one of their peers.

So, really, the green-faced youths that fought with the Order were: the four Marauders, Lily, maybe Marlene and Emmeline Vance (who isn't even listed as fighting with them in the First War, only the second), and maybe Sturgis Podmore. On the side of the Death Eaters: Avery, Mulciber, Barty Crouch jr (who was two/three years younger than the Marauders!!!), Regulus Black and of course Severus Snape.

And, no. Evan Rosier's age is never disclosed, and since he brutally maims fucking Alastor Moody - possibly the greatest Auror ever - I'm inclined to believe that he was at least Bellatrix's age (so 8-9 years older than the Marauders). In my personal headcanon he's even a tad older - but no less cuntier for it. My boy serves as much cunt at 27 as he did at 17 (<3).

[spider-xan]

Thinking again about how I really liked the moments Harry and Curt had with each other in the game - their interactions in the EMF scene above, the mission to try and save him at the abandoned zoo, etc. - but that I also wish that relationship had gotten more development onscreen, especially before everything goes wrong with the symbiote.

[massiveharmonytiger]

So I was rewatching Power of the Dog, and may I offer something for your collective consideration.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[fandom-fae]

i just realized something-

my current most favorite characters are pan from ouat and misa amane and like. they fit so well actually bc misa is actually very similarly loyal to light as felix is to pan, but the difference between pan and light is that pan actually appreciated and valued felix’s loyalty and like yeah felix’s loyalty to pan was his downfall directly, and misa’s loyalty to light was only indirectly her downfall but still.

like i’ve often thought that misa and pan would get along well but this realization opened a whole new can of worms tbh

and another thing- we don’t canonically know the reason why felix is so loyal to pan, but i’ve often seen the reason being headcanoned as pan having “saved” felix from a worse fate/life he had before neverland and this is such a good parallel as well to misa and light bc misa also views light as her savior because he killed her family’s killer

and then there’s the aspect of self-sacrifice from both misa and felix. misa’s is definitely giving up part of her lifespan in making the eye deal for light and felix’s is getting captured and then quite literally losing his heart to pan.

like felix and misa have so many similarities. it makes so so so much sense that i always ahd that feeling that she’d get along well with pan bc she is so similar to the literal person pan loves most in the world.

however, now that i’m thinking about it- misa could *not* fill felix’s role in pan’s story. she is very loyal and could be equally devoted to pan, and she would want to be useful- but where felix does exactly as told and never disagrees and doesn’t seem to expect anything in return, misa very much does demand things in return- for her it’s always been pretty transactional with light, like she will be loyal to him and let him use her as a pawn, but only if he pretends to be the boyfriend she wants. and then even outside of that, misa is a much more active person- even if she was shelved in some parts of the story, there were quite a few times when she took initiative and acted on her own to influence the plot. felix’s actions are not that independent; there are a few things that could be argued to be his choices, but i doubt that they weren’t influenced by pan at all. everything felix does always directly ties in to pan’s plans, he doesn’t disrupt them like misa disrupts light’s plans when she feels like it.

and then on top of that, felix and light would not mesh well at all. light is too cold for felix to project such savior thoughts onto him and light probably would not want another person to be so heavily devoted to him (he already didn’t want misa). however, light might’ve liked felix more than misa- felix didn’t ask for anything in return for his loyalty and he didn’t go out and do things he wasn’t “supposed to” ever. in that regard, felix reminds me more of mikami- but mikami wasn’t really loyal to light, he was loyal to kira (who just so happened to be light. if you know what i mean-) and also mikami still didn’t do everything as light wanted. felix never so much as even questioned pan, never had a shred of doubt. mikami did doubt kira and that’s (imo) a big part of why they failed (ofc i’m not trying to discredit near here, if it hadn’t been for him and mello, light couldn’t have been stopped)

anyway. another difference between light and pan: light was after his idealistic goals, pan was after immortality and power; yet it was light who had a god complex, not pan, even though pan’s goals are frankly much more like trying to become a god- especially since gods in ouat are exactly that: basically immortal and very powerful.

and then light was always so cynical and critical of everything and everyone around him (with very few exceptions like sayu), meanwhile pan was mostly just having fun and messing with people both just bc he can and to literally move his own plan forward.

they both strategized a lot and imo seeing a mind game between light and pan would’ve been incredibly interesting- even if light would’ve lost very quickly for many reasons (like obviously, pan has an advantage because he has magical powers and pan is very good at taunting people and pushing their buttons and light tends to make more mistakes when he's angry or getting cocky when someone challenges him).

also another aspect actually- light is at the start of death note just a high schooler, he's 17 and yet he always feels like he's above everyone around him and like he's smarter and more wise and stuff- meanwhile pan is hundreds of years old and used to be very well into adulthood before he came to neverland and became pan and embraced youth- he actually was older and did actually have more experience than most of the people he was up against- technically all of them since he’s obviously also older than rumple, but rumple and neal and hook were at least in a similar age range, but pan never actually showed any feelings of superiority because of that. he did get cocky and overconfident sometimes, just like light, but it was never about his age. isn’t that such an interesting parallel? the teen who feels more wise than everyone around him and the centuries old trickster who doesn’t even really acknowledge that his experience could be an advantage

and one last thing. their downfalls: light’s makes sense and it was because he was outsmarted in combination with one of his pawns making a mistake - pan’s was out of character because he was previously shown as much more capable than he suddenly acted whenever the heroes got the upper hand. (i’ll write a post on that soon, maybe on my sideblog but i’ll link it here when/if i do)

anyway i don’t know why i’m comparing characters from completely different franchises and genres with each other but yeah i’m done for now

[phoenixcatch7]

Looking at spider info for Spidey and the wiki says he has super jumping. Not just as a result of super strength/speed/agility, but as its own thing. Understandable since apparently jumping spiders make up the largest percentage of spider species!

Apparently they can jump up to 50x their own length. For Spidey that's 100 metres!! But the hilarious part is they manage to do that at such speeds by literally SHOVING THEIR BLOOD INTO THEIR LEGS for maximum thrust. And in humans that kind of rapid change causes momentary sight loss and dizziness.

Forget web slinging and aggressive reflexes, whenever someone startles Peter he blacks out and wakes up five streets over.

[spiderpussinc]

this is the only thing that matters to me. Guy who gets stranded in the past and just wishes he was kissing peter parker with tongue madly all the time

[dandelionjack]

sometimes certain songs are a scarily accurate description of a fictional relationship. spanning centuries and incarnations — every me, every you — blue borrowed boxes, heaven-sent love, ‘all alone in space and time’… it’s almost eerily perfect. spent an hour on this and i don’t regret it in the slightest. placebo wrote this song in 1999 and accidentally channelled the spirit of not-yet-invented nuwho thoschei, incredible

[aelaer]

Alright, let’s take that follow up ask 😂

18. What are some tropes that others love, but you just tend to avoid?

Or something along those lines. Things you like/dislike. What marks the difference between a “good” and a “great” fic for you?

Whelp I lost my draft as I started this. I figured that's as good a sign as any to save this as a draft and review it a few times to make sure I'm critical of the *genre and trope* and not the individual writing it. And yes I think they're two *very* distinct things. And I'd like to piss off as few people (who aren't blocked) as possible while still remaining true to myself. We'll see how successful it is.

Cut cuz it got long and if folks click it thinking they might get mad, and then get mad, well, you can't say I didn't warn you. I don't like quite a few popular tropes in a lot of stories you see Stephen in. And I'll not hide my own opinions on my own blog. 😜 What's the terminology? Don't like, don't read? Yeah, if (general) you don't like strong opinions that might go against yours, don't read on. You've been warned!

Let's start with some of the most popular AO3 tropes, taken from the 2016 Fanfic Survey from Fansplaining. Here's the top 20 tropes across the survey and if I dislike it, I have bolded it and have a comment beside it. Otherwise I'm indifferent to it or I like the trope.

Friends to Lovers

Canon-divergent Alternate Universes

Slow Burn

Rescue Missions/Saving Each Other

Bed Sharing (aka One Hotel Room Left) Honestly I find this trope really stupid in most circumstances. It just makes me roll my eyes. This isn't to say that fics with this trope are badly written, I just... think the situation's really contrived. There's better ways to explore pining.

Teamwork

Fluff

Hurt/Comfort

Huddling for Warmth I only dislike it if it's adding unnecessary sexual tension. Like if you're in a perilous situation you don't need to talk about how omg touching him makes you feel things. It's like - dude you're gonna lose fingers otherwise. Characters, you need to shut the fuck up, this is not the right time. You guys can be romantic later. Hell this even counts for established relationships; characters getting aroused when they're in actual perilous situations is one of my biggest pet peeves in romance. It's dumb. (Note- this doesn't count if they're joking about it, joking is a great coping mechanism. I mean legit horniness as they're half-dead or something. What the fuck. Exception if the author explicitly lists being in legit perilous situations as a fetish in which case, good for author for that creativity.)

Mutual Pining

Established Relationship

Fix-it Fic

Isolated or Trapped (e.g. in a cave, a Canadian shack, etc.)

Missing scenes or fill-in fic

Everyone Knows They're In Love

Unresolved Sexual Tension

Fake Relationship (incl. Married for a Case and Marriage of Convenience)

Pining

Worldbuilding

Only 2 out of the top 20, not bad! Most are "take it or leave it" but some I like so yay.

Okay now for the next part.

On my Doctor Strange AO3 filtered page that I have up in perpetuity on my phone, I have the following filters applied to exclude (which takes off about 20% of all fics in the category from sight). Ordered from least likely to offend to most likely to offend others:

Non-English fics

Peter Parker/Stephen Strange

Stephen Strange/Reader

Not Civil War Team Captain America Friendly & Not Steve Rogers Friendly

An honorable spicy mention that isn't easily filtered so I don't filter it but I get into it below. It involves Peter.

Not English fics: With as picky a reader as I am, auto Google Translate simply doesn't work well for me. Trust me, I've tried and I was very sad when translate proved to be less than great. I wish I could speak/read all languages.

Peter/Stephen: I had to block this one because it was just coming up too much after NWH, but America/Stephen falls here as well (it's just significantly rarer and I can easily skip those fics). No hard feelings to those who write/ship it because they're, you know, fictional, but I'm definitely not a fan of the trope. Underage with two minors already skeeves me out, underage with a middle aged man and a minor is a big no-go unless the adult is framed as a villain in the narrative (and with luck gets justice served to him). But in the shipping sense this isn't usually the case in the story, and while some authors do a great job in showing it's not right/good, this isn't my flavor of Stephen at all. Even villain Stephen.

In the case the minors are aged up to be legal, I still dislike it. I find it incredibly creepy IRL when a person goes for someone who is young enough to be their child, and I can't separate that feeling in the fiction I read for the most part. The exception to this rule is when the person is like over 35 - by that age you know if you want to be with a 55 year old, and you have all that life experience. But there's so much growing done in the 20s and a lot of life experience that nothing but time can provide.

Finally, I find men in their 40s who are looking for someone (especially a girl) 24 or younger incredibly immature and, frankly put, the absolute opposite of dignified and sexy. There are exceptions of course, but my good guy!Stephen doesn't fall into that category. He's interested in brains, personality, and life experience, with looks being like, the 4th factor, haha, so no need for such a large age gap. Again, just skeeves me out.

Stephen Strange/Reader: I wouldn't have blocked it if it wasn't so prevalent, but it's literally Stephen's second-most popular ship. All respect to anyone who enjoys reader-insert fics, but I just... don't. The handful of times I've tried it I couldn't see myself as the supposed character because they were so different from who I am as a person. "Choose your own adventure" books that I read in my youth worked for me because I had choices in steering the story; that's not the case in reader fics so I'm left seeing "myself" doing things that I'd never do in a million years. That contradiction just makes me unable to appreciate them myself.

Big reason I don't have that problem with OCs is because they're not me, and so I don't have that weird contradictory feeling while reading the fic. They're another person so I can appreciate them as another character, especially if Stephen manages to stay in character within the story. But as romance isn't a genre I actively look for, I don't tend to look out for OC fics either as they're usually super romance-heavy as opposed to the romance being a side plot (which is how I get through canon char romances - if it's a side plot in the very long story I'll get through it for juicy plot).

Not Civil War Team Captain America Friendly & Not Steve Rogers Friendly: Blocking these two covers the majority of the stories that are not other-character friendly, and it blocks almost all Civil War Team Iron Man fics, so these two tags cover basically the entire gauntlet of that type of MCU fic. Ever since AO3 canonicalized those tags my blood pressure has lowered significantly and it's made browsing AO3 so much less stressful.

I'll say it up front: I don't think a fic can be good writing if it's written to be Not Team Cap Friendly. That's not to say that the writer themselves is incapable of writing quality works because that's usually not the case. But for works with that specific trope, I do not think that work can be good. A significant factor of what I consider good fanfic writing/bad fanfic writing is characterization, and the characterization is usually butchered in this genre of fic.

If an author chooses only to write this trope POV, all the more power to them. However, I think they are limiting their capabilities in choosing to ignore the grey storytelling the MCU brought to the story and are definitely limiting their visions by choosing to view these grey characters and their grey choices as black and white/good and bad with all the nuances erased. And because those choices are made, I don't think that the fic that comes out with those limitations can be considered good writing. And here are the reasons why, largely centering around characterization:

The only way these fics work is by making Steve completely OOC. I've seen writers erase all his leadership capabilities established in the first 3 films he was in, his ability to think fast on his feet, any sign of intelligence that is firmly established in the first three films he was in, and make him callous in a way that he hasn't ever shown in canon. I've seen writers make Steve unaware of email, I've seen them say that he never led men in WW2 (and isn't an actual captain), and most ridiculously, I've seen them say he was trying to kill Tony in Siberia and left him for dead there and completely ignore all his training in that if he wanted to kill Tony, he very well could have. (And ignore that T'Challa was there as well ffs - that's another rant.) But yes - this is all OOC to Steve's character. If someone wants to know why saying Steve trying to kill Tony in Siberia is OOC and thus not Steve friendly, send me a separate ask as I have a write up on Discord that I can bring here if folks want clarification on that front.

If you have to make other characters OOC to make your best boy shine better, I don't trust you to write best boy well. And usually he isn't. Tony is a terribly flawed character which is why he's so so so interesting, but Not Team Cap friendly fics are determined to erase all of Tony's flaws and everything that makes him interesting. For instance, I've seen Tony suddenly become an expert negotiator and politician, ignoring both IM2 and his lack of finesse with Ross in CW (this isn't him delegating the work to lawyers/PR people - this is in fics where he's the figurehead behind this because he's suddenly an expert political negotiator). Then in some fics Tony's suddenly a socialist, ignoring the fact that he's made his fortune and still makes money from his corporation and there's nothing in canon that suggests that he ain't still benefiting from the capitalist institution. He's *generous*, absolutely, and I headcanon he put in hundreds of millions into rebuilding Sokovia - but he's not suddenly a socialist. He's a rich white man with rich white man privileges and while he's doing his best to make good in the world, he has benefits that the rest of the world just doesn't. And Tony's still arrogant and it can still be hard to work with him and erasing all those flaws makes him just... not Tony. He's just this bland vanilla OOC caricature.

In a lot of "not team cap friendly" fics I see a tag along the lines of "actions have consequences". If that's the case, why the hell wasn't Tony prosecuted for making Ultron? Wanda didn't force him to make anything - she amplified his fears, absolutely, but he made the robot. In secret. And that robot killed a city. Tony in CW is rightfully really regretful about it - but if actions actually had consequences and Tony tried to get Team Cap like, jailed or forcefully retired (like he or his friends do in some fics), Nat should strike back and tell everyone that he was behind Ultron. IT'S LIKE EVERY CHARACTER MAKES MISTAKES OR SOMETHING AND THAT NONE OF THEM ARE PERFECT. WHAT A THOUGHT. And that's why that tag is not very well thought out. The tag ignores the stark (hah) fact that all Avengers have made mistakes, some of them major - and Tony's absolutely not exempt from that. And his mistake-making didn't stop after he became Iron Man.

All of Tony's friends ignore that Tony recruited a 15 year old to Germany and guess what? Pepper and Rhodey aren't Tony boot-lickers. They'd give him the appropriate "What the fuck were you thinking" language because yeah, that was fucked up! Ignoring that happened is another big item in these type of fics.

Stephen's personality is typically bland and he often has no life beyond Tony's in these type of fics. He definitely has no opinions on the Avengers that *differ* from Tony because him having his own opinions, or taking the time to form his own opinions from his own interactions, would be showing more nuance and depth than these fics want to get into.

Stephen's often petty and violent, especially towards Steve - and again completely ignores all of Tony's mistakes because Tony doesn't make horrific mistakes, oh no! I'd argue the petty violence is OOC, but fucking DS2 and fucking Waldron Jossed that. So if you want that petty violence, it's technically seen on screen, but that's a *Waldron* idea so... yeah. I don't know any big Stephen fan who is particularly fond of Waldron and what he brought to Stephen's character. But this whole essay is about OOC characterization so I can't argue that this is OOC anymore. Fucking Waldron.

Like Stephen, Rhodey and Pepper also lose their personalities and ability to argue with Tony because Tony is always right. Rhodey forgets that Tony is a billionaire and can easily go use a lab in Stark Industries buildings across the country, or go to one of his many homes that all billionaires have because they're *billionaires*, if he *has* to avoid Steve for some reason. Rhodey also forgets that Tony could handle this with the best therapist money can by if he can't physically handle being in a room with someone he dislikes. If Steve actually tried to kill him in a fic, please go back to the first bullet point on this list. An IC Steve wouldn't so there wouldn't be that fear of more physical retaliation because Steve wouldn't be trying to stop Tony from killing Bucky, so again, unless Tony tries to kill Bucky once more, the situation won't escalate to violence. But yes, in these fics, Rhodey would prefer that the civil rights breaking Accords that allow indefinite imprisonment with no promise of trial stand. He'd rather the rest of the Avengers remain fugitives with no home because he forgets his friend is a billionaire with virtually unlimited resources to go wherever he wants and to get the help he needs. The growth we see in his stance that came with IW after he saw the Accords' rollout just poofs away.

Pepper tends to be turned into a secretary again just there to help with Tony's emotional needs instead of a powerful CEO whose really fucking busy running a company.

So with an OOC Steve, it usually leads to an OOC Tony, OOC Rhodey, OOC Pepper, and OOC Stephen. And that is why I consider these fics bad.

There may be exceptions to this, but when I was still attempting the tag in 2019, I never found a fic under the tag that was an exception. I stopped trying the last 3 or so years. And unless you're an author who's written in that tag and you want me to read your story and want to try to change my mind (because you're a masochist? why would you want to do this to yourself?), don't send me those fics. 99% I'm going to find them bad.

I'm not gonna subject those authors to the above opinion because they enjoy the black/white world and they have a huge readership who loves that crack. And good for them! That doesn't change my opinion that I think it's lousy writing because characterization is 70% of my opinion of a fic. If you have all this OOC characterization in a non-crack/parody fic, I just won't have a high opinion. And I'll say it in my own space under a cut, but I'm not going to search you out anymore - I haven't since 2019 (early 2020 was the cut off). Writers have the right to write what's popular - and I can dislike that popular content. But it's a lucrative readership and if that black and white world brings you joy, then all the more power to you.

Important: Not character-friendly fics are different from Dark!character fics. Dark character fics acknowledge that in canon, the characters are written as protagonists and heroes, and the author is purposefully changing this. In not character friendly fics, the author is usually inventing something stupid or terrible (and often enough ooc) for the character to have done/not done to strengthen the position of their chosen protagonist, or is ignoring canon traits of the character to, again, strengthen the position of their chosen protagonist. This is especially seen with Steve.

Honorable mention: I dislike the majority of fics (no idea of percentage but very likely over 50%) labeled Supreme Family, *strictly* due to how Peter is treated. Let me explain.

Peter is an incredibly independent teenager living in NYC with his own friends and his own brains and solo superheroing the majority of the time. These fics have a tendency to erase all of this, making him overly reliant on Tony, making him act as if he's aged between 8 to 12 rather than 15 to 18, and erasing his connection to May, Ned, and MJ. His whole life is made secondary to be part of the Tony Stark fanclub and it's *weird*. Peter is so much more than his connection to Tony and fans of this trope sometimes forget this.

I'll give a real world example. There's a large age gap between my sister and myself, so I got to see her in her teenage years while I was an adult. She's smart, fiercely independent, and had good friends and extra curricular activities throughout high school just like Peter did. We had family dinner together on occasion but she wanted to be doing her own thing as much as possible. She'd text my parents for the "Hey I'm alive" check ins but otherwise? She was AWOL as much as she could get away with.

Peter may be less so, especially if May insists on dinner together at least a couple times a week with his form of extracurricular activities, but I cannot emphasize enough how Peter having his own life is so important to his character and him being around Tony most of his free time outside of school and Spider-Man is *weird*. Even if he likes him!

This is just one teenager in my example, but a staple of teenagers is finding their independence as they grow into adulthood. Clinging to other adult figures does not tend to be the trend with those who have a big independence streak.

Peter in canon is all about establishing his independence - and you could see this especially throughout all of Homecoming. His independence is integral to his character. And if Tony was his adopted dad in the fic, I'd say him always hanging out with him is doubly weird because, again, independence. It's a major part of most teenagers and it's very well established in Peter's personality.

So yeah. Fic writers please stop writing him like a 10 year old unless he's actually 10 in the fic. Let him live his own life in the Supreme Family trope. Let him go out with friends and do after school clubs and not go to Tony's lab after school every day of the week because it's just not him and his movies established that very well. Let him get annoyed at the tracking and let him yell at his parental figures because conflict is normal. Let him be a teenager.

(And as someone who loves Found Family, I can't emphasize enough how much that theme falls short if the characters within the family forget their independence and lives outside of the family. It's just no fun.)

So yeah. Have all these spicy hot takes!

[crowswarm]

i said i wasnt gonna go off in ops tags but im still gonna go off

im seeing a lot of discourse about miguel and how he treats miles and im not gonna write him off cause he was outta pocket but like i consider peter b to way worse than him in that regard

cause for all the shit miguel puts miles through, its (arguably) impersonal. miguel presents himself as an obstacle for miles to overcome from the very beginning. peter b on the other hand, just failed so dramatically to come through when miles needed him and i cant respect that at all

like maybe he trusts miguel and believes what they're doing is necessary for the safety of the universe but he makes the barest minimum attempt to protect miles in any capacity. like miles cannot consider him an ally until its too late and thats so fucked up cause miles looks up to him and respects and loves him so much and what does he do. he lets miguel choke slam miles into a train

and like i know its lampshaded that hes a bad mentor but like shouldnt that weigh on him. hes so nonchalant about it. shouldnt the fact that this kid (honestly these kids plural, counting gwen) trusted him to look out for them and he failed make him question himself

like yeah miguel was too grown to be doing all that but its so much more frustrating watching peter b just fail to be in miles corner.

as i said when i get my hands on peter b parker torn asunder that man will be

[his-lost-one]

i have to rant abt ouat wendy again bc her life makes me SO SAD

like she is the antithesis to that whole message in ouat of “good always wins” or like “the heroes get happy endings” and stuff like

and like yes you can argue that she got a happy end at the end when she got out of neverland and reunited with her brothers but idk. her fate is so horrifying to me anyway

because like she always did her fucking best, like she took in baelfire just out of the kindness of her heart and she ended up captured by pan JUST because she wanted to save bae. she did the right things and yet she got punished so horribly for it.

like just what she went through in neverland is already bad enough- i mean, being in a cage for 200 years??? that’s doing irreparable damage no matter how you put it- and maybe she was let out sometimes, i don’t know, but it doesn’t seem like she was bc when pan let her out that one time in the show she immediately asked if she’s free now- that implies (imo) that it’s very unusual for him to let her out at all in canon.

that’s horrifying tbh. like i can’t imagine how she could live a normal life again after that- i mean ig it’d be possible with a lot of therapy and support and stuff but holy shit.

also this reminds me of this thing called ‘white room torture’- obviously she was not locked in a white room, but the effect of longterm sensory deprivation would probably still be a big problem- i mean, it can already impact people’s mental health if they just don’t deviate from their day to day routine for too long, compare that to being locked in the same tiny cage where she could barely even move and it gets depressing. literally.

but even if we ignore all that- the time she spent in neverland is just cruel too. i mean, she got taken out of her life that she did seem to like actually and she never got to go back. everyone she’s ever known before neverland (other than bae and her brothers) died without ever knowing what happened to her/why she disappeared. and since she was in neverland all that time, she didn’t even know when that happened. like time on neverland in relation to other realms is very confusing and since there seemingly isnt even a clear day and night cycle, she wouldn’t really have had any way to consistently keep track of time. i imagine eventually she just couldn’t have known if anyone she used to know is still alive. has she been there for a few years? a few decades? who knows. probably not her.

i doubt pan would’ve told her hskdbdkcndk

anyway

horrifying fate. horrible. she deserves SO MUCH better. she literally never did anything wrong at all other than lying like 2 times because she was intimidated by pan 😭🫶