#Tropes

[prokopetz]

Less "you need to have this specific NPC in your party to initiate this quest because it's intimately tied to their very complicated backstory", more "you need to have this specific NPC in your party to initiate this quest because they caused the problem in question just now while you weren't looking".

[vancouvery]

This seems nifty now, where media seems to be stuck on more archetypal one-sided characterizations (comic book movies doing this, I suspect), but in the 1970s this sort of thing was typical signaling of Feminism: “This is a Woman and she is a Tough Cookie and fooled you! she’s a self-rescuing princess!” This of course deteriorated somewhat in the Reagan years, where there was still a lot of female agency (love ‘em and leave ‘em tropes) but there was a backslide into They’re Going To Pay For That.

leia organa truly has one of the best bait-and-switch character introductions of all time because when you meet her she's this brave, stoic picture of elegance and justice and always knows just what to say to vader and tarkin and is clad in white like an angel and is this perfect two-dimensional archetype of pureness of heart. and then approximately half an hour later into the film she meets luke and han and she IMMEDIATELY shows her true colors as a sarcastic, bitchy control freak with a massive impulsive streak and a deep mine of hyperspecific insults. 10/10 character design i'm obsessed with her

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

write what you want to read

[prokopetz]

Literary Boss Baby Syndrome is especially annoying when the one book they've ever read is, like, Dune or Lord of the Rings or something, because while they're still usually wrong about stuff being a direct reference, they'll be right just often enough that you can't dismiss them out of hand.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Ideas: Evil Plan

This trope is the reason "villains act, heroes react"; the villain needs to be doing something evil or the hero has no evil to thwart.

Some popular examples of Evil Plans:

Take Over the World: This is the most popular villainous scheme of all. The scale of conquest can vary depending on the setting and (or) the villain—some warlords are content to settle with conquering a city, a kingdom or nation, while Science Fiction or Fantasy overlords will go for nothing less than galactic, universal or even multidimensional domination.

The Evils of Free Will: A popular means to this end: by robbing everyone of their free will, they will have no choice but to serve their rightful ruler.

Assimilation Plot: Let's turn everyone into a single entity, whether they wish it or not.

Earth-Shattering Kaboom: Why take over the world when you can blow it up? Like Take Over the World, the scale of destruction also varies depending on the setting — some villains are content with merely destroying a city or kingdom (particularly if they feel the city or kingdom has somehow wronged them — i.e., revenge), while Omnicidal Maniacs may well wish nothing less than to destroy the entire universe or multiverse.

Kill All Humans. Related tropes: Feeling Oppressed by Their Existence: A character wants to get rid of a particular person or group of people just for existing. Absolute Xenophobe: Wants to destroy all other sentient life (human or otherwise). Omnicidal Maniac: Wants to destroy absolutely all life, sentient or not. Final Solution: The intentional extermination of a species/demographic is the answer to fix a perceived issue. Humanity's Wake: The outcome of this trope should the opposing species succeed in eradicating us.

In Their Own Image: Not happy with the world the way it is? Try tearing it down, and building it back up as something even greater.

The End of the World as We Know It: Not so much destroying the world or humanity as really screwing up civilization; though the former two may be involved in the bargain.

A God Am I: Forcing everyone to acknowledge their godhood (actual godlike powers optional).

Godhood Seeker: Make your character an actual deity.

Immortality Seeker: Pursue the quest for eternal life, no matter what foul deeds are needed to make it happen.

A Plot in Deed: Steal the deed to a plot of land and you'll own it, so why not steal the deed to somewhere good?

MacGuffin: Steal an ancient artifact with untold powers. This is usually done in the pursuit of one of the other Evil Plans.

Sealed Evil in a Can: Release the source of all Evil from its prison. This rarely goes well for the villain attempting it.

Revenge: You know that guy that wronged you in the past? It doesn't matter how petty or misplaced your grievance is, it's payback time. Time to kill him, or make his life a living hell.

Get-Rich-Quick Scheme: If you're already rich, get richer. Any scheme is fair game in the pursuit of the profit margin, be it theft, blackmail, or auctioning the world off to hungry demons. Unfortunately, this lust for wealth falls prey to poor planning.

Utopia Justifies the Means: You know how people keep hurting themselves and each other? Make them stop, by whatever means are necessary. No ill will required! Just like in Take Over the World, The Evils of Free Will often gets put into play here.

Dystopia Justifies the Means: People hurting each other? That's exactly what your society needs. Use all the means at your disposal to create a nightmarish dystopia where the forces of evil run rampant and people live in constant terror and corruption, just the way the villains like it.

Poke the Poodle: Their idea of evil is harmless behavior like cheating at Solitaire, jaywalking on an empty road, chewing gum in Singapore, pulling the "do not remove" tag off of your mattress, hiding your toothpaste, drinking the milk directly from the carton...

Source ⚜ More: References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[katklicken]

@cherrytraveller Your son

Love love love characters that present themselves as emotionally open social butterflies but the more you see of them the more obvious it is that they’re the most closed off fuckers in the story. Sure, they want to help you with your personal problems and messy emotions, but if you turn that shit back on them, they’ll shut down or deflect every time. Why are you sticking your nose in their business anyway? It’s not like it matters. They’re not a person, they’re just a role being played. They’re the guy who fixes things and saves people. Please ignore the man behind the mask, he’s fine. Everything’s fine.

[fourraccoonsinacoat]

I take zero responsibility for their behavior. I just set them loose and hope they don't break too many things.

[soarrenbluejay]

Tales from the Union of Supervillains’ kids

The avid community of variously traumatized kiddos that have unionized against their parents mostly for the purpose of bitching about them to each other, the perks of crashing at each others places and building unholy fusions of various mad science fields aside, are becoming… concerned with two of their more shut in members. Danny has been pretty cagey the last few months, and Jazz soon started joining in only sighting ‘a lot of stress’ and ‘big changes happening’. As one of their more isolated members out in corn land, the Union is naturally concerned for their only members so exposed to such a proven volitile substance as ectoplasm and is eager to send a spying slash rescue group.

Luckily, Danny mentions being dragged to a much more accessible place by his parents for a convention; Gotham. They even have a contact there! So now it’s up to Cassandra Wayne (NOT Cayne) to make contact, with a backup team of a mad alchemist’s son that’s more interested in sociology than circuitry something their heavily autistic parent majorly struggles with understanding and connecting with them over, a half demon daughter of a chemist that did a summoning to prove it was bullshit and very much leaned in when proven wrong and became the weirdest breed of necromancer, and whatever the fuck else the author wants. Things only get a little awkward when she immediately pegs Danny as undead and very recently so. A collective vote is had in the wake of the whole Dani revelation, in which Vlad is named an unofficial but like definitely mad scientist tm, and Dani gets many teenaged aunts and uncles.

Bonus points if Danny/Jazz are found to be the clone or long lost son or whatever of a different villain, and they are subsequently presented with upmost solemnity a second membership card. With a lil bow. :)

[rae-butter]

I’ve been kinda obsessed with the idea of misogyny and fame lately, and I just wanted to throw this out there for everyone writing it—don’t use it to make men look bad. Show how detrimental it is to women.

There’s always a lot of focus on men, how evil they are and the theme of most stories is how women don’t need men, but that still puts a lot of focus on men—when I want to see women being misogynistic to each other, how the abuse shapes her worldview, and how she copes with it, then her breaking free from it in her own time, and finally seeing her own worth.

A woman doesn’t have to break free from a man to prove her worth, but if doing that is the only way to reclaim her identity, then go for it.

[angstandhappiness]

Interesting

@takeher2themoon i mean, characters of no relation with a parent/child kind of bond usually only include the positive elements of those roles because their connection isn’t obligatory. your parent can assert control and invade your privacy because children aren’t allowed to end a relationship. it’s impractical to expect that from fiction outside of very specific circumstances that probably resemble a normal family dynamic anyway

i wish we could expand the definition of characters having a "parent/child relationship" (platonic connotation) to the nastier parts of parenting: the projection, the control, the invasions of privacy, the entitlement, the codependency that sours into mutual bitterness because the relationship is unbreakable and fragile at once. I want to see two unrelated characters have the kind of perversely needy animosity generally reserved for a lonely, angry mother and her kids... i want to see two characters who never once knew each other as kids play out the dynamics of an inheritance of misfortune otherwise reserved by fathers for their children

[biv-ii]

Merlin with a child (aka Aithusa) is my favorite underrated trope.

Instead of Merlin and Freya running to some far land, they instead chose to get married and Freya managed to have their baby before yk.

Alas this forces Merlin to be very suspicious and of course Arthur’s like ‘what’s wrong with him?’.

This causes Arthur’s Jealousy to spark and leads to a chasing arc 🤭🤭.

[sleepyssnail]

oh! oh! for the ask game, 8 and 12?

Oh these are GOOD ONES!!! :D

8. If you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for… I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS QUESTION!!! It's a tossup between Is This a Memory or a Nightmare? where the System glitches and Shen Qingqiu's appearance briefly flickers to reveal Shen Yuan instead.

I've also been playing with the idea of a sequel to the sequel What Happens in the Alternate Dimension because I think Liu Qingge, Shen Qingqiu, and Shang Qinghua could get their freak on a bit more.

12. A trope you’re really into right now? The trope where the pair is dating but only one of them knows it and the other is hopelessly pining away, but make it so the one who's usually aware of the relationship is actually the dumb one who's hopelessly pining and unaware they're dating. Example: Mobei Jun doesn't know they're dating but Shang Qinghua does. (yes I'm working on a fic for that)

[theres-whump-in-that-nebula]

Whump where the character is poisoned or drugged

Caretaker talking Whumpee through their distorted perceptions and making them comfortable to keep them from panicking.

Or alternatively, Whumper keeping Whumpee in a stark white room with nothing in it at all while messing with them psychologically.

Whumpee trying to survive on a desert island or on the open water manages to catch a fish. They’re so hungry that they just tear right into it; little did they know the fish was poisonous due to environmental factors and now they’re violently ill while already dehydrated.

Whumpee who has just enough of an idea of how to forage for mushrooms picks a correctly-identified “safe” mushroom a week or two out of season and gets sick.

Residents of an alien planet have prepared a feast in honor of their human guests. Little did they know that one of the dishes (which is completely normal to the aliens) has psychotropic properties when consumed by a human. One by one their guests get loopy and drop over, then wake up five minutes later screaming and begging for mercy. The aliens have no idea what’s happening and just try their best to help.

Whumpee feels their face going numb so they bite the insides of their cheeks to ground themselves. But since they can’t really feel the inside of their mouth, they don’t realize how hard they’re biting and end up with a completely raw and peeling mouth when they wake up. (Bonus points if said character compulsively picks and bites their mouth and this triggers the worst episode they’ve ever had.)

Caretaker strips Whumpee and puts a fan on them because they’re burning up. To Whumpee, the air blowing from the fan is making it feel like a solid substance is hitting them in the face and going up their nose and mouth, and they panic because it feels like they’re being smothered or drowning.

Whumpee absolutely being DRENCHED head to toe in their own sweat.

Seeing glimpses of Caretaker through tunnel vision and going “Hey I know that guy!” before passing out again.

Whumpee realizes they’ve been poisoned at a dinner party. Because they can’t trust anyone there, they force themselves to act normal until they‘re outside the venue, where they frantically knock at the nearest house’s door and pass out.

[gryffindorloser]

enemies to found family is a trope i need to see more often

Was scrolling through AO3 and found this gem

Enemy to parent is a trope we have to popularise lmao

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

You've heard of 'Guard Dog Whumpee' you've heard of Living Weapon Whumpee'

Get ready for 'Euthanized Dog Whumpee' (names a work in progress)

Take your Whumpee, make defy Whumper in some unforgivable way (failing a mission, retreating from battle, whatever). And then kill Whumpee. Except DON'T tell whumpee where they're going and DONT tell whumpee's teammates where they went.

Oh, while you're at it make the teammate's find the fresh ( if not very dead) body.

OOOOOH NICE