#oddly specific tropes

[just-1other-nerd]

One trope that always gets me is the "blind seer". The poetry, the symbolism of having a character that physically can't see but instead can see the future or past or their surroundings as if they had their eyesight or even different or better than people who see with their eyes.

You can do this with someone who's been blind but not really blind since birth or someone who was born blind but found a way to adapt (an example for this is Toph from ATLA) or a character that has had a tragic accident that caused them to lose their eyesight which leads to them adapting or gaining a new way to see the world (like Daredevil from Marvel) or bonus points from me to you if you have a character that lost their eyesight because someone violently took it from them and now they have to adapt or it unlocks a special power in them, a different way to see things, to see beyond what's happening now, or they had that power before but were to lazy to train it and now they have to in order to navigate their life (and maybe to survive more attacs or to avenge themselves)...

They could hide their powers which causes lots of angst and loneliness and lots of "how did you do that" moments and in general be a part of one of my other favourite tropes, the secret badass, or they could be open about their powers which can lead to great character dynamics: the others could constantly forget that the blind seer can't see normally or they could be freaked out by that ability or they could simply not believe the blind seer can see anything or rather deny their powers and declare them crazy or the people don't believe that the blind seer is blind because they're just so good at navigating their way in the world (and people try to uncover this "conspiracy") or the others are not sure about how much of the stuff the seer tells them is true because the blind one has a thing for mischief or only one single person found out about their ability and tries to uncover the truth about them without ever succeeding.

The seer can either be a great threat, a trusty advisor, a graceful entity, an eccentric mentor, the town weirdo, or a traumatised chosen one.

The trope is also great for character design, like you can have someone with a blindfold fight multiple people or they can just sit in a temple looking like those statues of Justitia (Roman godess of Justice, famously wearing a blindfold) while giving you a glimpse at the future. You could have helmets that cover the eyes, or the eyes could be white, either in a scarry or in a devine way.

The whole thing is filled with possibilities and but all variations can be so good and creative.

[just-1other-nerd]

The one about the teachers who are rivals is basically half of the plot of Assassination Classroom...

REVERSE TROPE WRITING PROMPTS

Too many beds

Accidentally kidnapping a mafia boss

Really nice guy who hates only you

Academic rivals except it’s two teachers who compete to have the best class

Divorce of convenience

Too much communication

True hate’s kiss (only kissing your enemy can break a curse)

Dating your enemy’s sibling

Lovers to enemies

Hate at first sight

Love triangle where the two love interests get together instead

Fake amnesia

Soulmates who are fated to kill each other

Strangers to enemies

Instead of fake dating, everyone is convinced that you aren’t actually dating

Too hot to cuddle

Love interest CEO is a himbo/bimbo who runs their company into the ground

Nursing home au

[aesthetic-basicspam]

i love that trope where there’s a rich man and his personal assistant who works for him is his best friend and she knows every thing about him and she’s secretly in love with him.

and every year he forgets her birthday and she buys something for herself with his credit card.

and he’s secretly in love with her too.

[ghostlakan]

finished the silmarillion

very very good book i loved it, honestly not as scary as people say 100% recommend

gonna read children of húrin now,, beleg is my favorite ever i hope he shows up a lot in here,,

[rumeysawrites]

Are there any weirdly specific tropes you don't like?

One I can think of is "USA as the default setting" in about 90% of stories that take place in a modern setting / contempary genre. It's not that I have anything against it or the USA for that matter. Just you know, some variety would be nice in "default" modern settings too.

So, uh, what oddly specific tropes you don't like?

[just-1other-nerd]

Has OP recently had contact with Spy x Family?

More random tropes that I fucking love: Becoming the mask you wore.

Like oh shit, this character who was sent to spy somewhere under a false identity suddenly realises they've started to genuinely become the person they claimed to be? Someone who's been telling the same lies about who they are for so long that they're actually forgetting that the story isn't true? Finding themselves genuinely doing the things they pretend to do in front of people, when they're alone and nobody's watching? Answering to a name that wasn't supposed to be theirs without thinking?

Ooohh-hoh-hoh, you lost track of yourself in pretending to be someone else? You were only supposed to impersonate somebody, a plausible background and a name you came up with on the spot, and now that the people you were supposed to infiltrate have become your true companions? You lost yourself in the game you played, and no you no longer know who you truly are, and where your true loyalties lie? And both sides would mark you a traitor if you came out with the truth. On a scale of one to ten, how bad did you fuck up.

Fuck that is a good trope. Never seen it done badly. Pour that shit on a table and I'll chop it into lines and snort it.

[space-writes]

wip tropes tag

tagged by @viscerawrites, thank you! i’m gonna do Obedience because it has so many of my favourite tropes~

Rules: make a poll with tropes from your WIPs and let people choose their favourite!

[ID - a purple decorative divider]

[ID - a purple decorative divider]

no-pressure tagging @jmhwritesstuff @sarandipitywrites @winterandwords and @memento-morri-writes

Obedience taglist: @foxboyclit @belovedviolence @thegreatobsesso (ask to be +/-)

[amee-racle-ofmyown]

one thing I love about iswm is that even though the Captain hardly talks, engineer Mark always seems to understand them

I'd like to think that in the monster captain au, the two of them would still find their own ways of communicating, despite being very different

[just-1other-nerd]

I noticed something about myself and I thought some of you might relate.

I hate liar reveal stories cause you know from the narrative that something bad is going to happen and they're gonna get exposed, that's why I'm never gonna watch Dear Evan Hanson. Like Aladdin (spoilers I guess, also I like Aladdin a lot in geneal but just not a fan of the trope), you just have to watch how he is making all those wrong decisions and you can't do anything about it and just want to shake him and tell him he should be honest. You just don't want this generally good person be corrupted by their lie or see them disappoint their loved ones. I simply don't like the consequenses of the lie and how it can butcher a character because it was avoidable. Even worse if the character was outed by the villain and thus had no chance to come clean by themselves just before they were going to or if they had all those chances in important moments and didn't take them.

But in contrast to that I love it when a character is secretly badass but has to hide it for ✨️reasons✨️ like being executed for having magic. It creates hilarious situations where they have to cover their actions up or everytime someone treats them like shit I think "you bitch wait until the reveal then you're gonna be really sorry for what you just said".

Merlin does this quite well and the few times it was revealed were super satisfying. Six Crimson Cranes (and the fairy tale "Die sechs Schwäne" on which it's based on) did it even if in part 1 the reveal was limited to a few people (not finished the 2nd part yet so don't know how much is coming there).

Mulan does it a rare combination of both because she is openly a badass but has to hide something for good ✨️reasons✨️ and this creates hilarious situations. And there is the reveal (because she tries to save everyone) with it's consequenses but the ✨️reasons✨️ justify having to live through them (like no-one thinks "that was so avoidable"). But I think she should have been more like "yeah well you know what I'm better than everyone of you and I just saved your asses so how about a thank you"

Alchemy of Souls does the combination too (spoilers) where the ✨️reasons✨️ the characters have are "good"/relatable, the situations are hilarious and the reveal at the end of season 1 was so satisfying because the information was suddenly out there but also the consequenses were just horrible like even worse than expected and while the lie was justified towards the viewer the mere existence of the reveal was so unsatisfactory and felt so bad because it was initiated through the bad guy and not because the main character was trying to do something good or save themself or someone else.

Yeah so I guess that's another oddly specific trope I'm into.

EDIT: and I don't mean that protagonists can't be flawed, mess up, lie or make mistakes (even those that could have been avoided or which's consequenses they should have seen coming) like Anne from Anne with an E constantly messes up but she is one of the best protagonist I've ever seen. She always puts the work in to make it up and she doesn't mean to harm people.

[just-1other-nerd]

Facts

You could also do that with a wizard/manservant and it would just work fine.

[fallen-angel-adam-frankenstein]

If I had a nickel for every time a ginger-haired Imperial officer was a spy for the rebels and helped them escape from an Imperial base, asking them to hurt him to make it seem like he tried to stop them and failed, I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it's happened twice.

[cass-foxx]

Call me crazy but my favourite ship dynamic is

Dilf that is madly in love with his wife but she dies and after her death, he grows miserable, cold and depressed or a piece of shit and he also have a past that explains why he is so rutheless and how he acts but I swear he has a good heart X a younger man that is a ray of sushine and brings out the best in him

[just-1other-nerd]

the son also is older than the daughter

Spoilers for The Dragon Prince/ATLA below

So I just finished The Dragon Prince and I love it, but between that and ATLA I think we have to acknowledge that one of the creators of both shows has a fondness for the oddly specific trope of “father who seeks world domination and has killed dragons who usurps the throne and has two teenaged children, a son and a daughter, both seeking their father’s approval because he emotionally manipulates them but the son disgraces himself and ends up fighting with the heroes against his father while the daughter, more skilled in the world’s magic than her brother (who’s better at sword fighting) stays on her father’s side and uses her magic to aid his cause, all this while a mother is not in the picture”

[jin-zixun]

you know i've seen this idea (mdzs/cql) of like the juniors going back in time and fixing everything because they're like idk well adjusted and competent and like I'm sorry but how? What would they do? What would they do that the older generation couldn't? like I guess if it's a crack fic idea then whatever, but seriously the juniors would be just as fucked as everyone else from that time period.

...and yes i have only been thinking about this because of trying to plan out what would happen so i can write a fanfic where lan sizhui goes back in time and falls in love with su she. i think that's actually a much more realistic possibility than him stopping the war actually.

even if he is a wen himself like 1. who would know? and 2. the wen that were around couldn't stop anything either 🤷‍♀️

tbh I don't think the lan would even believe he's a lan. why would they? like maybe they'd accept him being a secret illegitimate child seeing as how he has the headband and knows some lan music, but lsz saying like, “i'm lwj's kid from the future” would just hurt his chances of even being accepted in the sect. no one would believe him. and lwj would definitely not believe him. or in fact want anything to do with him! teen lwj isn't exactly friendly!

(which for the record are all things that serve as the perfect set up for lsz to fall for su she)

[cosmoknightchaos]

Grabs you

Hiii I’m here to ask the silly questions for the oc ask thingy.

11. 20. 2.

The urge to ask half the super silly questions

It's okay!! We love silly questions!!

2. Your newest OC

I believe that would go to Tristen Kannaroe! The bitch himself. My most recent art of him is from October, though I think his concept was coined a bit earlier than that.

11. Would you consider yourself nice to your OCs?

Nervously glances at the Wtss cast

It depends! Certain characters I treat nicely while others I want to see burn alive. Entropy and Sky are probably the nicest I am to any of my OCs, with Paisley not far behind them. However, we also have characters like William Sonemeir (A scientist who developed advanced war technology and unbeknownst to him turned his dead son into a sentient war machine), Creator/Evan Sonemeir (Will's kid, died and reborn as a war machine), Kannaroe (Tortured for all eternity for simply following orders, though to be fair he does deserve it), and Flower.

I'd say for the most part I'm not nice to OCs, as the best characters are formed by putting them through hell and seeing how they survive. But for the most part I try to give happy endings and help characters move past the trauma I give them.

Except for Kannaroe and Flower. They don't get happy endings because I fucking hate them.

20. An OC regret

Not many! As mentioned on a previous ask, if I don't like anything about a character I'll rework them pretty quickly, so I tend to work out all regrets until I go back to liking the character again. I'd say my biggest regret right now is underutilizing Entropy and Kannaroe. Kannaroe moreso, since Ets has Rtth and a definite appearance in both side stories I plan to release as part of the Wtss Director's Cut, while Kannaroe got completely annexed and exists solely within my sketchbook and that one bit of Rtth. But they both have very good reasons for being underused, so I don't regret it that much.

[asongoftearsandfandoms]

What are some of your favorite tropes? I'm compiling a list of tropes I like, and I'm sure online lists aren't comprehensive, so I'll do like any undergraduate-level researcher and survey you all here on the Tumblr campus lawn.