#but a reader will usually go for the option with more texture even if they're less likable. because they feel realer

[greenerteacups]

I was just talking with a friend about possible great HP-world tv-shows and we ended up at "Pride and Prejudice in the HP wizarding world" (not the plot of P&P but the vibes; with Slytherin!Mr.Darcy and Gryffindor!Elizabeth (or OR! better yet vice versa)) and I thought you would be such a perfect fit to write it 😍

aw, thanks, that's a fun idea! I feel like Hogwarts AUs for other fandoms used to be more of a thing back in the age of peak Pottermania, and I wonder if they won't end up coming back when the TV show drops.

Darcy is totally a Hufflepuff, though.

[kassymalone]

Kassy rants about what she's reading - Isekais

So isekais are pretty popular right now, and I've picked up a few to read here and there. I've by no means explored the entire genre, but I've read enough that two particular issues keep popping up over and over again, and now I feel the need to rant about them. I'm going to call these issues 'Why the fuck are you here?' and 'What the fuck are you wearing?'

Why the fuck are you here?

By this, I don't mean 'why are you in this magical world suddenly', because that's just part of the genre - you may get an explanation to that, you may not, it's usually not important. The issue is - why is this story an isekai in the first place? I've run into so many stories where the modern young woman (its usually a woman) finds herself in a different world, often as the villain in the last story she read, and resolves to change her fate by acting differently from the villainous.

And then five chapters later it's irrelevant. The protagonist being from another world, knowing how the story should go, having a completely different personality from the person whose life they've taken over, means absolutely nothing. Because we the reader don't know what the 'original' story was, we have no idea if any of the characters are changed by their presence, and it might as well be a straight forward story. I've read a few from start to finish where the character being from another world is just completely forgotten after a while.

A thirty-year-old woman find herself stuck in the body of a baby at the start of the story? Sure, she'll be dating teenagers when the story gets to that point without even blinking. Literally a doctor in the real world? Now she's wearing pretty dresses and fawning over some dumbass who can't even read. What education?

It doesn't help that I'm reading one right now that really nails the concept - Surviving Romance - where the fact that the main character knows she's in a story is central to the plot. To say more would be spoilers, and it's really so good I recommend reading it for yourself if you can.

I feel like if you just want you characters to know certain things without earning the knowledge themselves, then just have them be psychic, or just have a prophetic vision or visit a soothsayer early in the story. Is that lazy? Yes, but no more than setting up an isekai premise that's going to stop mattering before the first arc is even over.

What the fuck are you wearing?

A bit of a petty one here, but it bugs me every time I see it.

Whether or not the art in what I'm reading is good (now there's a loaded sentence), I have yet to come across any that I would consider lazy. I'm talking background with good perspective, screen tones, colours and textures, you name it. In those based in 'Nebulous European Regency' times (magic optional), a lot of effort goes in to the costumes and their details.

Except for the main characters.

Now I'm sure an actual costumer/historical fashion enthusiast could look at these nameless background characters and pick out a hundred different ways they're wrong, but to me, a European with a casual knowledge of historical clothes, they look more or less correct.

Then the main character turns up to the fancy party in a dress with no shoulders or sleeves and a 3/4 length skirt. Sure, by modern standards she looks demure and cute, but by the standards suggested by the other characters costumes, she looks like a fucking prostitute. You can see her ankles, sir!

Its just so jarring. She's supposed to be the 'innocent/pure main girl' (and again, by modern standards she looks just fine), but compared to the other characters it looks like she's walking around in her underwear, and no-one says a word about it? And don't give me that 'showing she's a modern woman in another world' BS when pretty dresses are literally the only place it occurs.

I'm sure I'll find more annoying things as I read more, we'll see. I don't go looking for problems, but these two keep happening over and over again to the point that I couldn't ignore them any more.