#reading can be even harder

[ariainstars]

The Big List of Fanfic Clichés 😉

„Idiots in Love”

They dislike one another / are rivals / are friends but not aware of being in love. How do we bring these two together? 1 Jealousy. 2 One of them gets sick or hurt.

„Idiots in Love”, II

They’re roommates or childhood friends for at least a decade until it finally dawns on them that they love each other. They’re rivals for years or decades until they realize that they love each other. They’re neighbours / roommates for years… etc. They’re classmates / fellow students for years… etc.

„Idiots in Love”, III

They must be brought together by their friends because they’re too dumb to realize it or to make a move on their own. Added bonus: betting pools. Wolf whistles. Innuendos. (For the record, that’s not funny, just crude. Even worse considering that these are supposed to be „friends”.)

The Knowing Best Friend

They’ve done their utmost to hide their feelings, but there is always some friend or sibling who Just Saw Right Through Them. And won’t hold back making fun of their feelings. Nice friend, really.

The poor / rich person cliché

Poor person can hardly get by, rich person has so much luxury that poor person is dazzled, but 1 Rich person is terribly lonely and misunderstood 2 Poor person loves rich person because they have a heart of gold, not because of their money. The money doesn’t hurt, of course. Bonus if the fic keeps emphasizing how wonderful expensive stuff and rich life are.

Fifty Shades of Something

He’s rich and kinky, that’s all. (Or maybe he has some other terrible characteristics.) But she Loves Him, because She Sees Something in Him That Others Don’t. She’s not in it for the money of course. Neither is she incredibly naïve. It’s Love.

Anyone Straight Here?

The situation is desperate! Our gay heroes can’t be together because 1 society is against it 2 their families are against it 3 they are already married / engaged heterosexually

* sprinkling of fairy dust *

Lo and behold, villain is a closeted homosexual themselves. Or: the inconvenient girl comes out as lesbian.

Who would have thought.

Down With Rainbow Flags

They’re queer. Their siblings are queer. Their mates are queer. One or both or all of their parents are open or closeted queers. Their adopted children, when they grow up, are queer too. How likely.

There was only one bed / hotel room / dorm room

Bonus if one of them forgot their sleepshirt and needs to borrow it from the only other person in the room.

High School Sweethearts

That’s it. That’s the entire plot.

Global Coincidences

Love interests live 1 in the same city (for the record: a metropole) or 2 on the opposite sides of the globe and meet online, or one of them loves to read the other’s books, or they are pen pals, etc. And then - bang! - they meet. A 1 in a billion possibility but hey, It’s Fate.

The Coffee Shop AU

There must be millions of coffee shop fanfics. It doesn’t get better if it’s a bar or restaurant. (Or a laundromat.)

The Hot Dad Take, I

A child is introduced to the story who has absolutely no agenda of its own. Its only purpose is to bring the protagonists together by being cute. Would be acceptable if at least if they had characteristics of their own, instead of just being a commodity to drive the plot. (Most of them don’t.)

The Hot Dad Take, II

Child decides that dad needs a mate and goes for it. Never happens (or works) in real life. In fiction, always.

Fake It till You Make It

For Some Reason they have to pretend that they’re dating, or married, or their marriage is arranged. Everything turns out all right in the end.

Those? That?

Smut ensues, and every over sentence describes „those fingers”, „that cock”, „those lips” etc.

Nobody uses the word „those”. Ever. Except for smut scenes.

Friends With Benefits

One of them (or both) wants to explore their sexuality or a specific kink. 1 They leave it at that and it’s hot. 2 True Love ensues.

True Love Doesn’t Wait

Protagonist has copious amounts of casual sex in order to: - make their love interest jealous - „exercise” for when they will be with their love interest - „get their love interest out of their system” because they’re not reciprocated. At least, apparently not. (They just don’t know yet.)

But of course: their heart always belongs only to The One.

Praise Kink

They’re having sex. Like, hot sex. And one is calling the other a „good boy”. What is he, a dog?

Love Hurts

If you love someone: stalk them. Offend them. Humiliate them. Invade their personal space for no reason. Make them dependent on you. At worst, kidnap and or rape them.

For the record, it’s called „trauma bonding”. It doesn’t feel romantic or erotic.

It Smells of April and May

They meet at a wedding. Or they broke up and meet again at a wedding. No more plausible setting to (re)kindle feelings.

Quotations or references to Jane Austen

They’re so overused. I roll my eyes as soon as I stumble upon them. (Alternatively: Romeo and Juliet. Argh.)

Just Kiss Already

They’re sitting or standing underneath a mistletoe. What are they waiting for? Funny how branches of a parasite plant are supposed to mean good luck. Funnier how they are always conveniently at hand when They Just Have to Kiss Already.

This is Not Martyrdom, I’m a Victim!

Protagonist is convinced that „everyone they love leaves them or dies”. Yes, abandonment issues are real and they can be a bitch. But this trope has been around for as long as Rapunzel’s braid.

In real life: if someone says everybody leaves them, don’t take pity too quickly. There might be a reason for that. Just saying.

Forbidden Love

One of them is married. Engaged. In a relationship with the other’s best friend. Or both of them are. They’re on opposite sides of a war, of a business, a social class. They’re stepparent and stepchild. Adopted siblings. First cousins. One of them is underage. One of them is a priest or a nun. Even better, some of these elements are mixed together.

The more desperately they cling to one another, the more you can rest assured: Their Love is True.

They Hate Each Other; it Must Be Love

When two people constantly clash, it must be a proof of True Love. Or isn’t it?

For the record, sometimes people genuinely dislike each other. And if someone likes the other but instead of confessing it is constantly rude to them in order to „win their attention”, it’s not a proof of love, only of immaturity.

Parlor Games

Truth or Dare. Spin the Bottle. Never Have I Ever. You name it. Nothing better to win the heart of your One True Love than by embarrassing the s*** out of them in front of everyone they know and care about.

Bonus if they make fun of someone’s love life. In public.

People Will Say We’re in Love

Someone starts a rumour that A and B are a couple. Of course they aren’t. Until they are. Someone just had to give them a hint.

Anything But Love

They’ve been through everything together. Everything. Known one another for years. Lived together, worked together, travelled together. Talked about the most difficult topics. Been there for one another for better or worse. Had sex countless times and explored all kind of crazy kinks. But the moment one of them - or both - realize that this could actually be Love, they go into panic modus.

(Not So) Blind Date

They go on a blind date. The person they meet is The One they’ve lusted after desperately, never daring to do anything about it, for the last months. In a metropole with millions of inhabitants.

Let Me Entertain You

They live together. Understand and love one another. Have been through thick and thin. Been in a romantic relationship for some time. One of them has to spend a huge amount of money to wine and dine the other, otherwise they might not realize that This Is Love. (In particular, if they can’t afford it.)

Why Do We Keep Meeting

They’re in a big city, but they keep running across each other. Their bags / suitcases / parcels get mixed up because they collide against one another.

Days later, they meet at a supermarket. A restaurant. A beach. A kindergarten. A subway. At a party because they have friends in common which they didn’t know yet. Or they find out that they happen to work for the same company.

There is no escape. It’s not far-fetched, it’s Fate.

Drunk Confessions

Nothing more appealing than someone confessing their love ranting, stumbling and vomiting all over the other’s shirt.

Let Me Be Your Valentine

For Valentine’s Day, protagonist urgently needs a date - either because they feel lonely, or because they promised a friend / sibling / parent that they would bring a partner to a date, or because they lied about their dating life. No worries, they will find someone who takes pity on them in time. It’s also The One.

The Holiday Hookup

They live on opposite ends of the planet and meet at a vacation site. They start an affair, but of course it’s not only for the holiday. This time, it’s Love.

They’re So Hot

Sometimes called PWP, but happens in other fics as well.

They’re hot and they’re having hot sex. That’s all. We hardly get to know their characteristics, quirks, life situations. There hardly is a conflict, a problem.

No matter how hot the sex scenes are: such fics are boring as hell.

Love and War

They have an enemy in common. They must fight him. They fall in love on the way.

Makes you wonder what they’re going to do with their lives once the enemy is defeated.

Irresistible and I Know it

A meets B and is struck by their good looks like they have never seen a good-looking person in their lives. They can hardly utter a word from embarrassment and keep staring instead of doing something useful for the next 10 chapters or so. Bonus if B keeps showing up shoving their muscles, curves, dimples or whatever into their face, preferably in tight, sweaty clothes.

I’ve read to many fanfics. Sue me. 😊

Feel free to reblog and add.

[ria-starstruck]

and also "putting everyone in a simulation will make it all ok 👍" and also "let's park next to this random system's sun" and also "we can't live on our own planet because of our own folly" and so on

[fictionadventurer]

The way that Coryo makes my stomach heave so many times in the first chapter alone.

The way that his Reaping Day experience involves his cousin working herself to the bone for him while Katniss spent hers providing for her family and sacrificing for her sister.

The way he thinks of his ill grandmother mostly as an embarrassment and spends more time worrying about how she affects their image than about her well-being.

The way he's literally starving and still obsesses over image and prestige and social position so that living in a crumbling penthouse is seen as preferable to a (gasp) lower-class existence.

The way every single social interaction is transactional and is calculated to maintain or improve his status.

The way he hears that Sejanus has to mentor a former friend and his only response is to sneer that Sejanus still thinks of himself as District.

The way that the first chapter of The Hunger Games ends with the announcement of Prim's name and the first chapter here ends with, "The District 12 girl belongs to Coriolanus Snow."

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

releasing this from the hj discord dungeon because the public populace was in agreement also i'm chronically offline on tumblr and need to fix that for my chronically online ahh

[grimmweepers]

˚˖𓍢ִ໋🦢˚ 𝓻𝔂𝓾𝓱𝓪𝓲𝓽𝓱𝓪𝓶

there was an ache in my heart when i awoke in a strange, beautiful world that wasn’t my own. even as months turned to years, i still missed the familiar skies, the voice of loved ones and the home i had left behind. i wrote letters that went nowhere and whispered silent prayers that reached no one. it was like i was plucked from my own reality and placed in a world where i didn’t quite belong.

yet, as much as i longed for home, i was determined to learn in this new life. sumeru became my sanctuary and the akademiya, my solace. i learned their languages, customs, and secrets while sharing stories of the stars, landmarks, and beauty of my own world. the scholars listened, fascinated by the similarities and differences, but none more than al-haitham—a student assigned to guide me through this foreign land. he was a quiet presence. thoughtful and curious. he did not pity me.

and over time, he went from guide to peer to something more. over time, i wasn’t just seeking knowledge but also him. but what was the point? what was the point of falling for him if one day, i could just disappear—vanish back to my world, leaving him and teyvat behind? this could slip away at any moment. this might be as fleeting as a dream.

despite all reason, i still found myself loving him deeply. in a world that wasn’t my own, he had become my home.

𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐬: very slow burn, mutual pining, friends to lovers

𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐔𝐒: 22.10.22 | playlist | genshinverse ryu | home for christmas (fic) | moodboards

𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐌𝐒: modern au | akademiya days | season of love | minecraft |

[skrunksthatwunk]

actually i'm still thinking about the moral orel finale.

he has a cross on his wall. do you know how much i think about that bc it's a lot.

a lot of stories ((auto)biographical or fictional) centering escape from abusive/fundamentalist christianity result in the lead characters leaving behind christianity entirely. and that makes complete sense! people often grow disillusioned with the associated systems and beliefs, and when it was something used to hurt them or something so inseparable from their abuse that they can't engage with it without hurting, it makes total sense that they would disengage entirely. and sometimes they just figure out that they don't really believe in god/a christian god/etc. a healthy deconstruction process can sometimes look like becoming an atheist or converting to another religion. it's all case by case. (note: i'm sure this happens with other religions as well, i'm just most familiar with christian versions of this phenomenon).

but in orel's case, his faith was one of the few things that actually brought him comfort and joy. he loved god, y'know? genuinely. and he felt loved by god and supported by him when he had no one else. and the abuses he faced were in how the people in his life twisted religion to control others, to run away from themselves, to shield them from others, etc. and often, orel's conflicts with how they acted out christianity come as a direct result of his purer understanding of god/jesus/whatever ("aren't we supposed to be like this/do that?" met with an adult's excuse for their own behavior or the fastest way they could think of to get orel to leave them alone (i.e. orel saying i thought we weren't supposed to lie? and clay saying uhhh it doesn't count if you're lying to yourself)). the little guy played catch with god instead of his dad, like.. his faith was real, and his love was real. and i think it's a good choice to have orel maintain something that was so important to him and such a grounding, comforting force in the midst of. All That Stuff Moralton Was Up To/Put Him Through. being all about jesus was not the problem, in orel's case.

and i know i'm mostly assuming that orel ended up in a healthier, less rigid version of christianity, but i feel like that's something that was hinted at a lot through the series, that that's the direction he'd go. when he meditates during the prayer bee and accepts stephanie's different way to communicate, incorporating elements of buddhism into his faith; when he has his I AM A CHURCH breakdown (removing himself from the institution and realizing he can be like,, the center of his own faith? taking a more individualistic approach? but Truly Going Through It at the same time), his acceptance (...sometimes) of those who are different from him and condemned by the adults of moralton (stephanie (lesbian icon stephanie my beloved), christina (who's like. just a slightly different form of fundie protestant from him), dr chosenberg (the jewish doctor from otherton in holy visage)). his track record on this isn't perfect, but it gets better as orel starts maturing and picking up on what an absolute shitfest moralton is. it's all ways of questioning the things he's been taught, and it makes sense that it would lead to a bigger questioning as he puts those pieces together more. anyway i think part of his growth is weeding out all the lost commandments of his upbringing and focusing on what faith means to him, and what he thinks it should mean. how he wants to see the world and how he wants to treat people and what he thinks is okay and right, and looking to religion for guidance in that, not as like. a way to justify hurting those he's afraid or resentful of, as his role models did.

he's coming to his own conclusions rather than obediently, unquestioningly taking in what others say. but he's still listening to pick out the parts that make sense to him. (edit/note: and it's his compassion and his faith that are the primary motivations for this questioning and revisal process, both of individual cases and, eventually, the final boss that is christianity.) it makes perfect sense as the conclusion to his character arc and it fits the overall approach of the show far better. it's good is what i'm saying.

and i think it's important to show that kind of ending, because that's a pretty common and equally valid result of deconstruction. and i think it cements the show's treatment of christianity as something that's often (and maybe even easily) exploited, but not something inherently bad. something that can be very positive, even. guys he even has a dog he's not afraid of loving anymore. he's not afraid of loving anyone more than jesus and i don't think it's because he loves this dog less than bartholomew (though he was probably far more desperate for healthy affection and companionship when he was younger). i think it's because he figures god would want him to love that dog. he's choosing to believe that god would want him to love and to be happy and to be kind. he's not afraid of loving in the wrong way do you know how cool that is he's taking back control he's taking back something he loves from his abusers im so normal

[jerrythebug]

Serving beasig nation 🫡

[lunarharp]

fwee top 5 things i had fun with this year :-)

[front-facing-pokemon]

[bayetea]

Thoughts on Luke? just curious, i love all your pjo stuff and i saw that you like thaluke so 👀

(resisting the urge to say "no one gets him like I do") to be completely honest barring that one thing luke is probably the best written original character in the entire percy jackson franchise

[ganondoodle]

(idk if anyone wants to keep hearing my opinions on totk book stuff but-)

apparently it says that rauru DID have kids, multiple even, which yeah... is kinda necessary for zelda to even be connected to them so much so that sonia can SENSE a blood connection (which, even with all the excuses with magic, is just a little too far for me to suspend my disbelief bc its over, OVER, ten thousand years worth of generations that seperate her from them that one lil touch of the hand can sense that (feels more like an attempt to make you care about them or .. see them as zeldas "better" parents just bc they exchange a few nice words, i never got the feeling they were 'better' parents and its also kinda disrespectful to her actual parents, like sure rhoam wasnt the best but i wouldnt call rauru better just bc he was polite)- i could see maybe the light power of hylia or sth but since its the coolest dude that ever lived rauru now that had it which still doesnt make sense and makes me unreasonably annoyed and she can sense BOTH of their powers in her? nah) the fact theres NOTHING about them in the game itself is just so ... no way they planned any of this

i dont think theres anything they can do or say that wont make be believe they either

are making it up alla 'fix it in post' mentality trying to hastily explain stuff the game never bothers to do to try and appease fans or let it appear as if they thought about it at all

something went really REALLY wrong during development, which kinda seems likely given how the game turned out (im sorry i cannot let go, its not just the writing, the game design too and how little was changed in the map while being so damn expensive, i dont know how people dont feel scammed q_q)

given that they (allegedly) spent the last entire year of development on polish (where??? where????? huh??? like it would make it more understandable (EXCEPT for the price) if there was alot of trouble, which was also bc it got delayed and ... turned out like this, but they dont want to say it, especially given their reputation, with that quote i have heard way too many times 'a delayed game blah blah') i just??

are they just gonna go and do it like they did with kashiwa (kass)? "they uuuh where flying around the whole time ony cool sonau tech maschines, you just dont see or hear from them ooooorrr they were uuuuh out of the country at the time" (sending invitations to other continents to join their glorious kingdom ;) )

(bet they are also gonna say they did all the stuff like ... moving the shrines around (lol?) and lifting the islands up into the sky- which is still weird bc ... didnt they also say they were living in the sky before coming to the surface?? so where?? did they park all their islands on the surface and the mystery kids had the keys so they had to repark them back into the sky after they returned off camera?? xD also why are the islands so different as an environment if they where from the surface? like even the STONE up there is different- and if they were first in the sky then on the surface and the nback in the sky .. why is there not a single yellow tree or grass in the past- you cant really argue that it changed bc they were up there so long bc .. nothing else changed, the suddendly and totally always there sonau buildings are largely in prime condition, only some slightly moldy, and what we see of the glorious past looks barely any different from the present, aside from like ... some standard trees shuffled, no castle yet and that glowy uwu filter DESPITE that stupidly long time frame between it)

[somewhereincairparavel]

im so emotionally attached to jason grace it's not even funny atp. i literally think about him all day, I'm not exaggerating pls someone tell me they feel this way too 😮‍💨

[sirenemale]

everything abt the httyd remake feels like such a deep insult to the first film. Insulting animation as an artform, insulting the texture and lighting work that still holds up so so well. Insulting everything they put in to make it such a tightly written and skillful film. Like what could you improve with this scene, the amount of character you get from toothless here and seeing his thought process, fhe mix of accepting his fate, weariness and curiosity, you're just sucking the life and intention out of it for what. To see the dirt in between toothless's scales? Guess what you can already see that in the first movie. To flatten the lighting, remove all mood so you can see how good they modeled his new scales? Show you how real the mulch looks. Whatever. They do this all the time but this is personal (autism) you're being shown up by a film from 2010. She is eating you ALIVE. Even the other httyd films couldn't quite re-capture what they did with toothless in this first one, they remodeled him ever so slightly and he lost that edge of intelligent Animal, and became a Slightly more condensed version of himself now that his personality was established.

[chara-55]

This was like 2 weeks after watching the movie

-Soup rambles in tags-

[i-am-agony]

Hahaha just finished Return of the King (book) (no I haven’t seen the movie yet) (I’ve been watching them as I finish the books) and By God. By God Can I Cry.

Yeah sure Sam realizing that Frodo was leaving started the water works, but what REALLY got me was Merry and Pippin riding out to meet him on the shore with a “you almost pulled this trick on us once, but this time it was Gandalf who told us your scheme!” Was just.

THE PARALLEL to the beginning of the series where they were like “we’re your friends, you won’t let you go through this alone” to “we won’t let you leave without saying goodbye.” Like. Book Merry and Pippin mean so much to me, it’s INSANE.