#pair the spares

[besttropeveershowdown]

The Most Annoying Trope Showdown: Quarterfinals, Poll 4

Found Family Breakup

When you have the found family, but then at the end of the story they all just leave and go start nuclear families with random love interests and live in different places and rarely talk to each other, or otherwise seem to completely lose the found family closeness they had during the story

Propaganda:

It’s literally getting rid of the found family, taking away the best trope ever

Pair the Spares

Every or nearly every character who did not get together with someone during the story is paired off in the epilogue or very end. The characters are often shown having kids together as well

Propaganda:

This may just be my aromanticism talking, but it's annoying seeing everyone getting shoved into a relationship at the last minute. It doesn't even make sense most of the time. Let! People! Be! Happy! Single!

I am aroace and I hate this. just let them be happy on their own, don't just pair up characters for the sake of pairing them up, even if they have zero chemistry. this happens so often in all kinds of media, and fandom is also guilty of this. not everyone needs a partner! leave them alone!

I love romantic subplots but this is just amatonormative bullshit. It has all of the "romantic partner=happy ending" bullshit that fucks people up in real life, with none of the fluttery crush feelings or the angsty decisions. It doesn't add anything to the character arcs and is only detrimental to the themes of a work as a whole. It can cast a shadow over other romantic subplots in the series I might have enjoyed up until this point, because I start to wonder if those romances were really about the character/themes/plot, or if the writers simply think "leading lady goes with leading man, sidekick with sidekick, etc. etc."

It's fucking stupid. A lot of the characters that end up together either barely interact, make no sense or both. It also implies the only happy ending requires love and marriage. It makes no sense for some of the characters to want to settle down and have kids even if they are with someone they love.

[whatsupwalnut]

Pair the spares, an Archie comics®️ staple that hilariously Riverdale found a way around it

you can always tell when a ship exists solely because they were the only two remaining characters left and the ship always sucks

[personalprin]

I think pair the spares is funny when it's literally just the two characters left alive at the end of a story. Otherwise the trope sucks

[th3e-m4ng0]

flicks them on the forehead

[methoughtsphantom]

Jason “my family doesn’t know im alive” Todd and Danny “my family doesn’t know I’m dead” Fenton going alongside each of their plans my beloved. like Danny will absolutely go head-to-head with all of Gotham to support his new best friend on all his crime lord endeavors while he drags Jason to also attend collage with him. They are roommates and there never seems to a mention of family from either side. It’s an unspoken understanding they have. They met because Crime alley as a ghost lair thrummed with so much loneliness, it was at first the perfect place for Danny to hide his ecto signature in. But then he saw the dumbass whose lair it was lean his motorcycle just a tad too much when making a sharp turn to an alley, he sweeped the floor through a lifted chain link that passed his body but not his helmet. Yep that’s right the red thing got stuck. Danny who at the moment happened to be watching through his window snorted. Much to his horror because if not a ghost that dude could’ve gotten his head flung off.

Still, the scene was ridiculous.

On a whim he irrationally sees the police closing in on the guy and panicked at the thought of the guy using intangibility to free himself so Danny phased them both through his apartment wall and left the guy sprawled in his couch. Jason didn’t freak out but that’s normal when one’s got a concussion, one the guy immediately denied having as Danny laid out the medical supplies. The idiot proceeded to almost flatten four steps to the door with his stubbornness. He also said “I’m asexual” in the most deadpan voice as Danny dropped him back in the couch.

Danny sighed. Clearly though, he’d done so too early in the night because the guy kept trying to go, kept trying to knock Danny out, kept trying to slash him with knifes Danny didn’t know he had stashed. He’d only disarmed the guy from his guns. The visible ones apparently, cause at one point the guy did take out a gun and shoot until the ammo ran out and then teetered the thing like it was an art prop and hit his moon lamp.

Danny "yeah you aren’t officially my friend until you’ve tried to kill me" fenton my guys.

Anyways both keep having the same argument over if Danny technically kidnapped Jason or not. Danny holds the fact that the police at least didn’t see the guy make the ridicule. Jason argued that happened cause he was sporting a concussion. Danny argued he got that after.

Jason at first thinks the guy's a meta, but no. Danny introduces himself, sheepily now that he recognizes this is who the lair he invaded is from. He bandages him and tries to cook for him. If Danny didn’t have ice powers he most certainly would’ve burned the apartment. Jason then proceeds to kick him out of his own kitchen and make them both enchiladas. It’s the most normal both had in a while with another person and the air seems oddly settled. From then on, Jason constantly invited himself over, under the pretense that this was his territory and therefore he could drop in unannounced. Danny who has actual powers says he only allows this because Jason cooks very well.

Danny stays away from the crime fighting business unless his buddy is in deep shit he can’t get himself out. Also it’s Danny’s turn to cover for his vigilante friend which Sam and Tucker give him so much shit for. (but also advice)

And they were roommates. (omg) Danny effectively derails Jason’s big comeback plans by casually dropping ghost lore every two days. Like,

Jason, talking about how he doesn’t want Bats snooping on his territory:

Danny: Just don’t let them in

Jason: ??

Danny: yeah!! Hasn’t Batman died and got revived??? You can totally kick out death touched people you don’t want entering on your lair.

Jason: …I can?

Danny: Yep dude, your lair’s supposed to feel safe.

Jason: wait does that mean I can kick you out?

Danny: First this is my apartment. Second, im dead, not dead touched. Third, it’s too late to get rid of me. bitch.

Anyways Jason is super excited. You mean to tell him he can actually deny people over to his territory haunt?? (Yes it’s only to people who have died and came back but still!! The sample size is exactly the type of people he doesn’t want to see—!)

Joker my beloathed can’t step foot in Crime Alley.

(Jason’d feel a lot safer if the clown was dead but the possibility of his murderer turning into a ghost and their little loophole not applying on the clown is too scary to contemplate.)

Anyways, Jason loves experimenting with the power. It can go from simply making people shudder and not want to enter crime Alley to straight up not letting them enter like there’s an invisible wall blocking the way.

Jason because he’s hurt that Bruce never even patrols Crime Alley and also because he’s petty put B under the category of “invisible wall” blacklist. His reasoning is that the man doesn’t even attempt to enter Crime Alley. To him it’s surely just a place shadowed in tragedy. (anyways that’s it’s the place he met Jason)

Ironically, Jason totally forgets that Batman does venture into Crime Alley one day in the whole year. The day he met Jason.

Okay. He didn’t forget at first. The first year Jason remembers cause it was only a few months till then but then the next— Jason forgets that today’s the anniversary of the day’s Bruce’s parents died. He forgets to allow B in when he feels a slight tug and dismiss the feeling that prompts Bruce to investigate because he literally can’t enter Crime Alley. He starts the trialsTM, he scouts on the very edge and sees people the whole day enter and get out and cross with no problem but Bruce can’t.

It’s literally just Bruce.

Time to call Constantine, i guess.

[al-luviec]

I really like this scene.

[respectthepetty]

My favorite characters are men who are always down to fuck even in the worst situations.

And the men who are so irritated that they love them.

[baoxie]

🥀 sylvain + ingrid 🌼

[commander-diomika]

Whilst I'm more about polyships myself, if you do go in for monogamy I think the funniest trio of Origin ships is Gale/Astarion, Shadowheart/Lae'zel and Wyll/Karlach coz like

Gale and Astarion have their toxic old man yaoi thing going on and can't stop preening and puffing themselves up real big like angry cats as soon as the other one comes near.

Shadowheart and Lae'zel are literally trying to kill each other.

And Wyll and Karlach are like, braiding each other's hair and talking about how much they love saving endangered children

[hermesmoly]

The utter comedy of Zeus and Hera being the scapegoat for incest jokes when they weren’t even raised together

[whetstonefires]

yk i've seen a fair amount done with Liu Qingge and Jiang Cheng as parallel characters, because like there's this angry sword guy who's very bad at communicating and very attached to the protagonist and wishes he wasn't, and ends the story in the 'not chosen' position. no argument here. that's fine.

kind of want to see though what you could do with Jiang Cheng and Luo Binghe as parallels.

guys who fulfill the narrative-structural role of 'antagonist' for a big chunk of the story, who are also the guy the protagonist would die for, and kind of literally does.

and in both cases the book makes space to convey both why each of them kind of deserves that, as much as anyone can, and also absolutely doesn't deserve it (derogatory), and also doesn't deserve it (sympathetic (that's such an awful thing to do to someone who loves you, holy shit; don't self-destruct for people and expect them not to take massive damage)).

[besttropeveershowdown]

The Most Annoying Trope Showdown: Semifinals, Poll 2

Out-of-Context Eavesdropping

Someone overhears a conversation and, lacking the full context, misinterprets it as something more serious.

Propaganda:

I hate all miscommunication tropes but this is the one that makes me want to strangle people the most. "we need to fabricate a reason for A and B to hate each other, but not one based on their actual personalities or situation. Instead, Person A talks about something personal and important, but they decide to word it in the dumbest way possible. Person B decides to listen in on a private conversation and then gets so mad at this stuff they weren't supposed to hear that they don't even listen to the final sentence that completely recontextualises the whole conversation. also 90% of the time A would never express feelings this way AND B would never snoop this way. just poor writing to inspire the world's most insipid conflict between morons.

Pair the Spares

Every or nearly every character who did not get together with someone during the story is paired off in the epilogue or very end. The characters are often shown having kids together as well

Propaganda:

This may just be my aromanticism talking, but it's annoying seeing everyone getting shoved into a relationship at the last minute. It doesn't even make sense most of the time. Let! People! Be! Happy! Single!

I am aroace and I hate this. just let them be happy on their own, don't just pair up characters for the sake of pairing them up, even if they have zero chemistry. this happens so often in all kinds of media, and fandom is also guilty of this. not everyone needs a partner! leave them alone!

I love romantic subplots but this is just amatonormative bullshit. It has all of the "romantic partner=happy ending" bullshit that fucks people up in real life, with none of the fluttery crush feelings or the angsty decisions. It doesn't add anything to the character arcs and is only detrimental to the themes of a work as a whole. It can cast a shadow over other romantic subplots in the series I might have enjoyed up until this point, because I start to wonder if those romances were really about the character/themes/plot, or if the writers simply think "leading lady goes with leading man, sidekick with sidekick, etc. etc."

It's fucking stupid. A lot of the characters that end up together either barely interact, make no sense or both. It also implies the only happy ending requires love and marriage. It makes no sense for some of the characters to want to settle down and have kids even if they are with someone they love.

[cobra-wives]

ngl i dont like complaining but i’m a bit upset about how quickly we jumped over from tory’s mom dying to… keenry relationship drama. im seriously peeved about how many people are boiling tory and robby’s characters down to being romantic partners, and i don’t think the writers understand how leaning so heavily on keenry weakens both the individual journeys robby and tory go on — robby with his father/role as miyagi do’s captain/brotherhood with miguel/running in 2nd place, and tory with her mother/role as ck’s captain/relationship with kreese/betrayal of her friends. they CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT be each other’s personal saviors; they HAVE TO SAVE THEMSELVES.

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Look people can discourse about how problematic a ship is and how terrible people are for shipping it all they want, but the reasons they try and assign for shipping something are usually pretty ridiculous. The only actual point of discrimination on whether or not I’m gonna ship a pairing is just how narratively compelling the character dynamic is. Do they play off each in an interesting way? Is there some good narrative symbolism involved?? I’m there.

Yes that does mean I’m often a basic bitch and end up enjoying whichever slash and femslash ships are popular BUT there’s usually a reason why a bunch of writers have gotten into something! Tbh! Shit being popular doesn’t mean it’s bad, stuff usually pops off for A reason, regardless of it’s a reason you personally agree with.

[themintman]

ok so after a depressing amount of procrastination I have discovered that I DONT HAVE AS MUCH BROWN CLOTHES STASHED AWAY AS I THOUGHT I DID so I'm gonna have to buy and dye before the con. Anyways, figured I should show y'all how Nurm is looking so far! The shirt and jeans will be different, DW lol

You get this frame cause my cat was making me laugh so hard like GIRL WHAT ARE YOU DOING

Also I have a parrot. Perfect for Archie if I want to take him to the con

Solstice jumpscare

[dracocheesecake]

Someone please tell me I'm not alone here:

Is anyone else just maybe perhaps a lliiitttle teensy weensy bit thirsty for Besteel? Or am I alone here?