#my least favorite trope

[literali1110]

Putting things in perspective:

Tim and Lucy did not break up because it was revealed that Tim had a baby mama.

So that's a win in my book 😂

[penworthy]

Where's the "episode where they all shrink down and go into a character's body" option

[pineapple-frenzy]

I love love love your zutara book two au. That's all. Thank you for sharing it with us!

Aaahhh thank you!!! It's honestly such a self indulgent au I'm glad people are enjoying it as much as I am :'>>

Here's a few more silly doodles of them!!

[lesbianscxlly]

how i feel about season eight of the x files

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Why do you think they don't show Marinette comforting other characters? It's always been a weird writing decision to me, and I sometimes wondered if I was legit just erasing all the times it happened out of my memory or smth. Like the first character trait established for her is she struggles to say no to people, she is a people-pleaser. And there isn't a better way to make ur mc lovable than showing how they effect the people around them. AND it would make her breakdowns genuinely heartbreaking, because she keeps giving and giving and it's a genuine flaw. Like, she rushed off to comfort Ivan in Origins, right? We should have had more of that. I'm reminded of that one Lady Wifi (i think?) scene where Ladybug is smiling at her adoring fans and the camera while Chat Noir is in the background actually comforting a child lmao. It just feels so weird, because I think Marinette IS actually supposed to be someone who does that, who provides that comfort to her loved ones all the time (even at the cost of her own mental health, boom, an actual thing she can work towards). But we just keep getting the reverse instead. She just kinda feels like a shit friend? Showing that emotional labor would also make her exhaustion work because like, what does the guardian even DO? Tell not show, but they ain't telling shit.

One of the things that drew me to Miraculous is the fact that the show tends to write the characters in non-standard gender roles, so I actually like the fact that Marinette tends to be more of a fixer than a comforter. She drives people to action and wants to solve problems and is very good at taking the weight of the world on her shoulders, but she kind of sucks at emotional vulnerability and comforting people. It's genuinely a good flaw for her character and a lovely thing to see in a show aimed at girls. No, we don't all need to be stereotypically maternal figures. Women can be just as bad as men stereotypically are when it comes to emotions!

The problem is that the show is obsessed with Marinette holding every important role in the story, meaning that we don't get a more emotionally aware character or characters to balance her out. Nor do we get to see her learn that this is a flaw of hers and either improve or just own that she's bad at this and learn to trust someone else with these types of issues. (This is one of the many things I think Adrien should have been allowed to do, btw. Ladybug is the brains, Chat Noir should be the heart.) We also don't get a true sense of Marinette's struggles because the show's formulaic nature rarely allows for those types of problems.

The Lila thing is a good example. Lila says that she's going to destroy Marinette's friendships, but she literally can't do that because that would mean changing the way the characters relate on a massive scale and formula shows can't do that. So instead of seeing Marinette struggle as Lila lies and manipulates everyone into hating Marinette, we get extremely annoying episodes where Lila lies and everyone believes her, but no one gets all that upset at Marinette's constant accusations. They just treat it as a minor quibble which is actually more aggravating than Lila changing the status quo in my opinion.

There's also the issue that you brought up: we don't see Marinette truly struggling to be the guardian, so her new role doesn't feel like a big deal. Not much changes for her save for the kwamis being around now. We don't even know what her relationship with Master Fu was really like because he was barely ever on screen so we really don't feel her loss.

All of this is just another problem to lay at the feat of our ever-present issue: Miraculous does not have the right conflicts and characters for a formula show. Formula shows thrive off of things being lighthearted and the heroes lacking major flaws. Miraculous chose to make things somewhat serious and give everyone flaws that are just begging to be address, but that can't be because this is the wrong format for that type of thing.

In a team show where character arcs were a thing or even just one where character dynamics were a thing and Marinette was allowed to share the screen in a more balanced manner, then everything about her would work fine. She's set up perfectly for that kind of show. She is not set up for a formula show where she's basically the only character that matters outside of the villains. If that's what they wanted to write, then Marinette needed to be limited to minor flaws that never last more than an episode or at least limited to flaws that are purely situational such as being stubborn or the classic sudo-flaw of being clumsy that the show already embraces.

[ratbugs]

Ava being over 900 explains so much that is literally a grumpy old man in a hot blonde woman body

[luceafarul-de-dimineata]

Expanding on my previous post, I think having to take care of child of the enemy would be such a wonderful deconstruction of Leviathan's character.

Leviathan's main motivation for everything he does is to protect the future of Hell, to protect the children and avange the ones that were lost in the experiments. He eliminates anything that might be dangerous for Hell because if there's even a 1% chance of someone suffering he would blame himself for it. He wants to go find the seed of the fruir of knowledge even though he knows it's a dangerous journey, just because it might save his subjects.

Also, Leviathan (as far as we know) has the most personal reason to hate angels. He's seen them at their cruelest and they've always been a traumatic force in his life. While the other kings got to have more peaceful childhoods (again, we don't know if they were abused, I'm just going off what we know) Leviathan never had that priveledge. Even before the war he was abused by them, and now, in his adulthood, he still can't move on because he sees his subjects being killed and tortured by the same people that abused him.

I think that out of all the characters, Leviathan would be the most... interesting father. Don't get me wrong, he won't be bad, but the sort of abuse that Leviathan had to go through changes you in ways you might never expect. He loves kids, the main reason he fights this war is to make sure the children in Hell get a childhood that isn't characterised primarly by war and death. But if he had to deal with a child 1 on 1 for long stretches of time...

He'll probably be extremely overprotective of them, going by the same rule of 1% change of danger = death. The way most parenting works, especially from people that were abused in their childhoods, is that of trying to protect the child from the trauma they experienced. I doupt Leviathan would even let angels look at his kid, or anyone that he percieves as dangerous for that matter.

We also see in the Orias event that Leviathan can be very nice to the people he likes, and I think that it would be the same for his kid. It would be something like

Leviathan strangling MC: I need to kill you, MC, for your life is bringing certain doom amoungst my people

Levi's kid: Dad, can you help me with my algebra?

Leviathan dropping MC to the ground: Yes, sweetheart, what is it? Do you want us to repeat your multiplications table?

Tl;dr of this post is - stop saying Leviathan would be a shit dad. He'll be overprotective of his kid, but he'll never in a million years hurt a child

[fantasticgothicpeachsludge]

Blorbo Bleebi…

[greenleaf4stuff]

Of Convenience 10.2

Of Convenience 10.2

(all previous parts of "Of Convenience")

Adar x Celebrimbor (silverscars) political marriage AU, 10th snippet, part 2. The elves’ and Adar’s protective antics towards their friend and husband are less than welcome, but Celebrimbor wouldn't be Celebrimbor if he just let others decide his fate for him.

Warnings for the mention/very rudimentary description of dead bodies and character injuries on a minor character.

This elf has escaped from Sauron himself, what did the elves and Adar think was going to happen?! Of course our favorite elven smith is not going to let the others have all the fun (danger) of fighting the fallen maia by themselves! Also, Gurlak for the win, because I love her.

To say that Celebrimbor was incensed would have been an understatement. Granted, he already had a plan, and he was fairly certain Gurlak and her troop wouldn’t attempt to talk him out of it, but the fact that his friends had decided that he was better kept behind the frontlines without giving him a say in the matter still stung.

Gurlak was throwing him sidelong glances as they marched back towards the encampment. Though, ‘towards’ was a very lose way to describe it. Celebrimbor had begun to drift off of the path that would lead them back directly some time ago, and neither Gurlak nor her companions had commented on it yet, though they had to be aware.

Cursing under his breath, the elf finally turned to the uruk woman. Finding out that she was both a smith and a fighter had been not exactly been a surprise, and Celebrimbor felt lighter knowing he had a friend by his side. Especially with what he would attempt.

"I cannot believe they expect me to just sit back and watch them walk into danger," he grumbled at her.

Gurlak’s face pulled into a grimace in response. It was clear she was feeling discontented with the way things had gone as well, even if she hadn’t openly protested her leader in that moment. Celebrimbor didn’t fault her for it – the uruk practically revered Adar. The Lord Father likely would have just scolded her and sent her right along the elf.

"It’s a shortsighted idea," she hissed through her teeth, and the elf quickly turned his head fully towards her and raised his eyebrows at her words. "Careless. They’ll need everyone there to defeat him. Adar’s protectiveness towards you blinds him. As it did the elves, but I had less faith in those than I had in him – no offense."

She quirked her lips up at the last part, and the elf snorted and shook his head fondly before he looked at her again. "None taken."

After a brief moment, he spoke up again. His tone was cautious. "What if there was another way for me to get into the city, without Adar knowing or having a say in it?"

Gurlak stopped abruptly as he said this, as did the rest of her group. There were about a dozen uruk she had been allowed to take with her to ensure Celebrimbor’s safety. All of them were looking at the uruk smith as she stared wide-eyed at the elf in their midst.

"I’d ask you why only you know of that option – and why you haven’t told the others," the uruk crossed her arms as she narrowed her eyes at him.

But Celebrimbor had seen the hesitation that came before the suspicion, and let his hope guide him into answering her.

"It’s just a pathway, little more than a sewer. Far too small to lead an army through. And so secret only a few know of its existance – the elven leaders do, but even they wouldn’t have used it. The plan was to openly reclaim the city to avoid any confusion or chance for manipulation in the aftermath," he explained.

A pause. "So that is the idea you were talking about," the uruk finally replied. She still looked as if she was fighting herself, and the orders Adar had given her, but the smirk on her face was back already. "I had feared you would attempt a mutiny."

Celebrimbor pretended to gasp in offense and placed a hand on his chest. "I would never do that," then he briefly thought on it. "Except, one might perhaps consider this sort of a mutiny as well? Though on a much smaller scale."

He stepped closer to Gurlak, and faced her directly. "That is, depending on your reaction to my plan, of course."

She was looking at him with an unreadable expression for a moment. "If I let you go – promise me, like with that sword you forged, you will use this chance to help Adar." She voiced it like a demand, but the look in her eyes was almost pleading.

Celebrimbor smiled warmly at her, and grabbed her hand to squeeze it. He had picked up on the fact that most of the uruk were less prone to touch than elves were, but she grasped his hand in turn and did not flinch from him. "I am doing this to help my friends and him," he held up his free hand when she made to speak again. "But I have to admit that ever since I have gotten to know Adar, I have grown quite fond of him."

He implored her to understand with his eyes. "I care about him. I tried to tell him as much, yesterday, but my words deserted me before I could. I cannot bear thought that he might…I just cannot lose him. Not now. Not to Sauron."

"So yes, I promise you Gurlak – I will use this chance to help and protect him. Not just for the good of middle earth, but because I want, no, need him to live."

Gurlak’s face turned from confusion, to awe, and then finally, to a sort of fond, almost motherly understanding that Celebrimbor hadn’t seen directed towards himself in a long time. Unexpectedly, she cupped his face.

"Hmpf. If he isn’t aware at this point that you care about him, he is a fool."

The elf blinked. "Wha-?" But she did not let him finish.

"Go and save him," she simply said. "Time is scarce. We’ll talk when you return. With him."

She turned towards her companions, and pointed in the opposite direction than the one Celebrimbor had tried to lead them to. With a completely flat tone, she exclaimed. "I think I saw something suspicious in those bushes over there. We should investigate."

Celebrimbor was gaping at her, and then felt his eyes widen as, one by one, the other uruk nodded or smirked at Celebrimbor before they also turned in the direction that Gurlak had pointed to, deliberately casual. "Oh yes, I think I saw it too," another said, equally deadpan. "We should take a look at that."

The uruk woman turned towards the smith once more. "I trust that you will find your way back to camp on your own as we take care of this...danger," she said, and then winked at Celebrimbor before she and the others started walking away from the elf. "Good luck."

"Thank you, Gurlak," the elf breathed. "And good luck to you as well."

With a wave of her hand, she went, and took the other uruk with her. Celebrimbor barely watched them for a moment before he turned around and began to sprint in the direction he knew the secret passageway to be.

Gurlak was right – time was of the essence, and he would not waste it, now that he could still make a difference.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for him to find the entrance, and he quickly proceeded to make his way through the narrow passage. As he hurried forward while still trying not to make too much noise, lest Sauron had found this secret path and asked the city guard to patrol it, the elf couldn’t help but think back on the conversation he’d just had with Gurlak.

She’s seemed so awfully unsurprised at his confession. Was it truly so obvious, what he felt for Adar? Even if he still hadn’t dared to put a name the emotion he felt?

Affection, he’d called it. Fondness. But did that really serve to describe his own feelings to their fullest extent? His worry of losing Adar? Of perhaps not seeing him alive again?

This was more than the feelings he held for his own friends. Despite the fact that the uruk and him had only gotten to know each other a few weeks ago. But it had been intense weeks and unusual circumstances that had pushed them together, and subsequently brought them much closer than they ever would have been otherwise.

Could he truly be faulted, for falling in love so quickly; so easily?

For that had to be what he was feeling, Celebrimbor was sure of that now. The way his heart had ached after the previous evening, after he had failed to say what he should have. The way he grew warm at Adar’s touch and when the other smiled at him. How safe he’d felt when Adar protected or reassured him.

The elf briefly stopped to hold onto the wall next to him at the realization. He loved the other. And he’d let it remain unsaid as he let the other walk into a deadly fight with Sauron.

Determined, Celebrimbor quickened his step. The passage seemed near endless, with little light to guide him and no way to gauge how far along he was. The darkness and the turmoil of his own thoughts pressed down on him until, finally, he took another turn and almost ran against a door. Opening it made him stumble into a small, nondescript alley.

He’d made it. He was finally back in Eregion.

The smith let himself enjoy a brief moment of elation, both that his trek had been successful, but also that the city seemed to mostly be the same as he had left it. It had not been turned into a warzone, there were no countless dead elves lining the streets and no screams of terror to be heard from nearby places.

The elf continued to walk at a fast pace as he kept to the side streets and quiet alleyways, unsure whether or not his guards would recognize and try to seize him despite the presence of their king in the city.

He managed to avoid any and all other people, thankfully, and followed what cues he could find to where his friends and husband had chosen to confront Sauron.

Or, more likely, where Sauron had lain in wait; waited for them to come to him.

The smith was not the least bit surprised that Morgoth’s shadow had chosen Celebrimbor’s forge, and the tall tower that housed it, as the place where he would confront the alliance of elves and uruk. It seemed strangely apt, the elf thought sardonically while he hurried over.

An entourage of elves and uruk had followed Gil-Galad, Galadriel, Elrond and Adar to the tower. Where Celebrimbor had feared that he’d had to stage a distraction and sneak past, he now found the area around the tower deserted, and countless bodies strewn about the stairs and on the square at the tower’s base, uruk and elf alike.

He gasped in horror at the sight. Those were his own guards, but also elves from the Lindon army and Adar’s children. It looked as if some great power had thrown them about, while some others had clearly been felled by a sword or another sharp weapon.

Celebrimbor briefly squeezed his eyes shut and clutched the sword he carried, before he took a steadying breath and forced himself onward.

The interior of the tower did not look much better; he found even more bodies, but thankfully, some of the people he found were still alive.

"Glûg," the elf whispered, too cautious to raise his voice. The uruk in question was propped against the wall and holding onto his side from which black blood had seeped into his tunic. An elven woman with long, blonde hair kneeled next to him. Both whipped around at Celebrimbor’s words. The smith felt his breath catch in his throat.

"Elf," Glûg exclaimed, obviously too hurt to say much more as he coughed and held onto his wound to stem the bloodflow.

The elven woman stared at him with round eyes full of surprise. "Master Celebrimbor-"

"Mirdania." The smith felt relieved, both to see that Glûg and Mirdania were alive, but also that his apprentice appeared to be mostly unharmed. Sure, she had some scratches on her and her dress had seen better days, but nothing worse had happened to her it seemed.

She jumped up from where she sat and hurried over to him, and the smith caught her as she collapsed into his arms with a desperate sob.

He pulled her close for a moment, let the relief and hope he felt wash through him and strengthen his resolve, before he grabbed her shoulders and held her back.

"I am so very glad to see you," he said. They both had moisture in their eyes as they smiled at each other. "I thought he might have hurt you, or worse. I am so sorry I left you behind-"

"You were right to run," she replied, quickly, caught his hands and held them between her own. "Annatar, he- When he found out you were gone, he changed. He- he got so angry," her voice shook. Even if she was unharmed, it was clear the last weeks had taken their toll on her.

He cupped her cheek. "We were all deceived by him. It’s not your fault," the smith tried to reassure her. Celebrimbor wished he had more time, but he could hear fighting from up in the tower, felt the building shake even as he spoke, and knew he could not hesitate now.

"Mirdania, Adar and his uruk have formed an alliance with us. I must hurry and try to help them – take Glûg, bring him out of the city and to his people, I am sure they will be able to help him. Tell them you are with me, they won’t hurt you or turn you away."

His apprentice looked ready to argue, even as she looked at the uruk with worry. Glûg and Celebrimbor exchanged a brief nod – Adar’s lieutenant looked far from surprised to see him. "Come on, elf- you heard him. Don’t you want your city back?" And then he coughed, once again, and Mirdania seemed to make up her mind.

Her nod was jerky, but when she looked at Celebrimbor again, her expression was resolute. "Be careful. He’s stronger than any ordinary elf. Even Galadriel-"

Celebrimbor nodded, and then gently pushed her towards Glûg. "I know. That is why I have to try. I can’t let him kill them," as he made for the stairs, he took off his helmet, throwing it aside as he unsheathed the sword he carried. "Go, Mirdania."

He did not look back to see whether or not she would head his request. Love and desperation was pushing him ever onwards, and he would not falter now.

[d4rkshad0w]

i hate the miscommunication trope so much cuz what do you mean Kit and Ty could have been together the last 3 years if Kit didn’t confess his feeling while Ty was trying to resurrect his dead sister

[lady-raziel]

i know it's probably already been done before in some form but i really want to write a story where a group of background characters/NPCs with 2 lines of dialogue band together to go after the main villain while the protagonist and their allies are still in the middle of the formative rising action

I'd title it The Inconsequentials and the tagline would be "Not mattering has never mattered so much."

[blackkatmagic]

I think one of my favorite things for exploring characterization and making sure plots are character-driven, without people just being puppetted by the plot, is playing out how different characters in the main role would change a story.

Like, if your MC is an asshole who won't admit their feelings, and you want to check that they're driving the plot, plug in a character who's good at being kind and see what changes. If your MC is rebellious and free-spirited, plug in someone who follows the rules. If the plot doesn't change, you have a problem. If it does, it's one of the hallmarks of a good story.

[supernovaa-remnant]

I am absolutely in love with your accidental courtship au, its a delight.

I dont know what species you're planning for Dream, but I'm imagining he tells Techno after all the cards are on the table, hes had time to process and they're both aware and on board with a courtship so Techno can finally follow the correct customs.

That, or, au of an au, Techno accidentally follows Dreams culture and Dream is absolutely gobsmacked. Like its an obscure culture and something Very strange to do unless you know it, even for Techno.

Dream doesnt, like, really realize Techno is courting him, hes way too busy mad pin board solving How The Hell Techno a) found out what Dream is and b) found the customs, like hes an ender dragon or something who no outsider know jack shit about

Eventually it'll kick him in the head that oh god, Techno is flirting with me. Eventually.

okay, so, here's the thing: dream doesn't know what he is. like, he doesn't remember his very early childhood. he figures he had someone taking care of him at some point, but he doesn't remember anything about them. he was on his own a lot when he was younger, until he befriended sapnap who eventually dragged him to bad, and he'd been with them ever since.

so, he doesn't know what he is. bad's from a very old, practically dead culture; demons just... aren't around anymore. just like how phil comes from the elytrians which also aren't around anymore. sapnap is blazeborn, so bad tried very hard to be mindful and respectful of that and teach him blazeborn culture. but none of them know what dream is. so, dream isn't sure what culture he's from. he (and sapnap, honestly) identifies a lot with demon culture, and he lives according to a lot of their customs because bad had shared his culture with him. but he still doesn't feel that it is wholly his culture, y'know?

he has some customs that he still follows from when he was really little. he doesn't remember who taught it to him, but it feels right.

to be clear: techno did try demon courtship rituals. and blazeborn courting rituals. and human courting rituals. all of which dream does know about, but it just never clicked in his mind that that's what techno was doing. dream just figured techno was misinterpreting the cultures in his attempts to find new ways to expand their rivalry to include cultures dream connects to. a touching gesture, even if it's a bit off (you'll find this is a common thought they have about each other).

as for what dream is... I think he's probably from the end in some way. he's very very humanoid, but his night vision is beyond that of a normal human's, and he's faster and more agile than a normal human, too. he doesn't mention it often, but he also has more of an affinity to magic and enchanting.

bad doesn't know what he is, but bad's also from the nether, and, whatever dream is, it's something that even bad wouldn't know.

but phil. well, phil's elytrian. he's from the end. of course he'd know what dream is. he figures it out around doomsday. he then, of course, tells techno, and techno tries those courtship rituals. how unfortunate that courtship rituals are not one of the things dream remembers about that culture lmao.

(there are some things, though, that kinda trigger memories within dream, and, like you said, he's absolutely baffled at how techno knows these things. except dream doesn't know that these things are a courting ritual, he just recognizes pieces of it. and then he's too preoccupied figuring out how techno knows).

[mleemwyvern]

do you like team rancher? would you like to fill out a tierlist of 64 different flavours and tropes for them? well, i love ranchers, and i made a tier list template of (some of) the many different ways to ranch.

have fun!

[jesse-pinko]

Blue the Raptor’s characterization in the movies and the tv show is honestly very funny to me at this point… there’s only so many times you can chase the human protagonists around and then do an about face and let them go or literally save their lives before I stop viewing you as a dangerous maneater and start viewing you as a cranky old woman harmlessly waving her cane at the neighborhood kids

[wander-wren]

presumed death literally the trope of all time. you’re telling me i can have the grief and horror of character death AND have the happy ending too??

not to mention the possibilities after “dead” character turns up again.

maybe they have no idea their loved one thinks they died, and they show up all nonchalant only to realize things have gone horribly wrong. maybe their loved one thinks they’re a ghost/hallucination/trick and won’t accept them.

maybe they do know their loved one thinks they’re dead and they’re choosing to keep up the facade for their safety. watching from afar, unable to comfort them.

maybe they faked their death and believe their loved one is in on the scheme when actually that message was never received.

maybe, in the process of whatever almost killed them, they forgot about their loved one/old life/etc, and aren’t aware they have anything to return to.

maybe they “died” thinking no one would notice their absence, leaving their loved one full of regret for things unsaid. perhaps their loved one heals and moves on, only for “dead” character to return.

and just, augh, the aftermath. waking up to find “dead” character gone and assuming it was all a dream/they really did die. the codependency. the anger, even, that they didn’t come back/let themself get hurt/lied. maybe guilt if their body was abandoned by their comrades, only to learn that they were alive all along.

name me a trope that does more i’ll WAIT.