#Tropes

[winterstaryu]

"I did it for you" has gotta be my favorite form of betrayal. You gave me a gift I never asked for, and now I have to look around at the world you destroyed with the knowledge that it was gift wrapped and addressed to me.

[uhhsnail]

I love a character raised to be a weapon as much as the next guy. But what really gets me is a character raised to be a shield. Who can’t fathom being needed—or even being wanted— beyond keeping others safe. Who believe they are alive only to insure someone doesn’t die. no matter the cost. Characters who self-sacrifice not because they think they deserve it, but because no one else does deserve it, and it’s their job to protect.

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.

Bonus points if it’s not a legitimate job they’ve been given. Maybe at one point it was, but now that they are free from it, they haven’t given up that mentality. No one is forcing or asking them to do this, but they need to. They need to in order to be deserving.

[jadedanddark]

I died but I came back exactly the same. You though, I came back and you were wrong. Did the fact of my dying really damage you that much? Was bringing me back worth what it cost you? Would it have been better to just leave me?

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

No matter how much you dislike your own writing, I promise you it’s better than AI

[rae-butter]

Honestly, I love it when characters relapse. When someone who’s gotten over their anger issues falls into a situation so out of their depth they fall back on their old habits. When someone who’s learned to open up becomes a recluse again in order to cope with something outside their control.

There’s just something so horrible, so toxic, about watching a character grow and then slip back into their old selves in order to cope, bc you know they still care, that they’re the same inside, but watching them hurt so hard they don’t know what else to do brings a sense of catharsis.

[fireopals]

this one is so real.

[purpledragon42]

I won't lie... I LIVE for this trope. Also, adding my current fav (although it's not a show... to my knowledge.)

[afriendstolovers]

!!!!!!!

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

please please please please reblog if you’re a writer and have at some point felt like your writing is getting worse. I need to know if I’m the only one who’s struggling with these thoughts

[patmax17]

"OOC is serious business", one of my favourite tropes

im a fucking sucker for the “character gets so badly injured that they can’t think clearly and start calling for help in a distressingly vulnerable way.” characters who start using nicknames for their friends they haven’t used since they were kids. characters who start begging for their brother they haven’t seen in years to be there. characters who would usually use their parents’ names or call them mother/father/etc crying out mama when they go down. u understand.

[zhoudadudugongjin]

Look I love unconditional devotion love stories as much as the next person, but there's really something so deliciously raw about conditional devotion.

I have served you and I have loved you for decades, but I will not give up my principles for you. You cut out part of my heart and took it with you down that path that you insist on walking, but you walk it alone. Even when the bleeding, gaping hole you left in my chest kills me, I will not follow you.

[prokopetz]

I approve of powerscaling discourse only in utterly senseless contexts. I don't give a shit about which shōnen protagonists could beat up which other shōnen protagonists, but I will 100% read your five thousand word essay exploring the subtle nuances of establishing a tiered ranking of the Smurfs.

[curiositysavesthecat]

Trigger warning: abuse, power imbalance

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[literaryvein-reblogs]

Any advice for writing a being whose thought process/morality is supposed to be "incomprehensible to humans" but still feels like it acts like a real, if alien, entity might (rather than just arbitrary nonsense)?

It's probably impossible for a human to truly write something incomprehensible to humans, but I'm going for at least "strange enough that the human characters wouldn't think to ask [x] and are shocked when they learn the answer." But I don't want to fall back on cliches like "surprise, when it said 'peace and happiness' it meant 'no free will'" since they ARE smart enough to ask the obvious ones - I want at least a little weirder.

Writing Ideas: Strange/Incomprehensible Beings

some character tropes

Humanoid Abomination - Twisted things from beyond the fringes of humanity's consciousness that look like humans. Though its appearance is sometimes passable as human, it is still clearly… not quite. Despite their appearance, they will very likely also not think in terms human reason can readily grasp, and will often lack anything resembling a recognizable or conventional moral code. They won't conform to the expected laws of nature — or magic, in such settings — so expect Lovecraftian Superpowers and other unspeakable traits.

Scary Dogmatic Aliens - Aliens come from another planet. Their entire culture, history, and even biology could be radically different from that of us. It should not be surprising if they are so different that we can't comprehend them at all. Fortunately, though, it turns out that aliens are really just humans with some bits glued on. Same with their ideology: they're just a thinly veiled stand-in for whomever the public is politically afraid of at the moment, or whomever in Earth history the writers want to anvilize the viewers about. Basically, this is a Planet of Hats where the "hat" is some feared human ideology. Whether or not the target ideology actually deserves the criticism, or is actually bad, can, and often does, vary from viewer to viewer.

Sufficiently Advanced Alien - Alien being that can do anything. They tend to be egotistical and haughty, thinking little of humans and "lesser beings". If these beings are far enough removed from human understanding, they can be considered Eldritch Abominations, in which case they (usually) take on A Form You Are Comfortable With (i.e., when the being appears in the form of something, usually a humanlike form, that the human can wrap their head around, because not doing so might ruin the point of the entity talking to the humans in the first place).

Alien Geometries - Cosmic entities that tend to bend the laws of physics to suit them. They are often depicted as being dangerous to the sanity of normal humans.

Cosmic Entity - Any being so great it can inherently affect entire planets, stars, galaxies, and possibly even the entire universe (or in some cases, entire multiverses.) They tend to not care much about "lesser beings" (anybody who isn't "cosmic") and any harm (or good) they cause is often unintentional. Because of their level of power, when they cause trouble the heroes are often forced to try to reason with them, use a Cosmic Keystone, or ask another Cosmic Entity for help (very rarely can they punch them out.)

Emergent Human - A a character who is new to sentience, sapience, or human existence, and shown to be in the process of adapting to the most basic elements of life as we know it. Their stunning naivety is frequently matched with an insatiable curiosity and lack of inhibitions that puts their lack of experience on full display; however, they are rarely dumb. In fact, examples of this trope are quite frequently possessed of genius-level or superhuman intelligence, though this rarely helps their predicament. Though not commonly evil, in darker works, this character may commit evil acts without full understanding of the ramifications of their actions. This character may be an Alien Among Us when a character's alien experiences are so irrelevant that they're more or less starting from scratch.

Reality Warper - Changes reality based on perception and willpower. Because absolute power corrupts absolutely, characters with this high a level of power are quite likely to go or be bad. It can be very difficult to maintain empathy and humility when reality is essentially an extension of your imagination. Even those who maintain their morals tend to go down the Knight Templar route when they realize how easy it can be to make all of reality conform to their ethical standards. They might even deem themselves to be gods; what's worse, even the only moderately powerful ones are arguably right.

The Soulless - Characters that really are soulless, and often act like monsters because of it. They are active, rational, and still recognizably human in almost every sense — they just lack a soul. They are often motivated by one thing only: getting a soul. Any old soul will do, but frequently they want their own soul back for sentimental reasons. While a soulless character doesn't necessarily become a soulless killing machine, sanity and morality don't fare very well without one. Even if both of these traits are independent of the soul and don't suffer in its absence, most Soulless characters have a change in worldview that does erode their good nature. With any luck, they'll try to get their soul back using mostly moral means.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6 ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Here are some related character tropes for inspiration. Alter these as needed/desired for your story, or you can also combine bits and pieces of them to create the specific character you're going for. You can find more details and examples in literature and other media in the sources linked above. Hope this helps with your writing!