#subverting the trope

[dramatictrajectory]

Chae Yong-joo's core strength.

[stars-obsession-pit]

Sorry I’m magically married to your brother

Jason gets ritually “sacrificed” by a cult to the Ghost King, which it turns out ends up forcibly marrying him to Danny.

So now Danny is forced to interact with him and the rest of Gotham’s vigilantes while they work to break that.

During that process, Danny starts to fall for… Tim.

(or could be any of them really, just specifically not the one he’s bound to)

Which means Danny now has two goals: get a divorce from his magically-assigned spouse, and seduce that spouse’s sibling.

…he’s never gonna live this down.

[rosy-crow]

I’m sorry, it’s been on my Twitter today and I still can’t believe this is fucking real LMAO

Of all the characters Square could have chosen (AND THEY HAD MANY OPTIONS), they chose their villain that people like to take seriously 90% of the time and they chose him over the game’s three main girls that could have easily fit with the “cute giggling fox” vibe for an udon ramen commercial….

…and then they opted to just have him wear fluffy ears and a tale IN ENTIRELY RE-ANIMATED SCENES FROM REMAKE and he harasses Cloud into trying the noodles and now we have fox Sephiroth in one of the new Rebirth Ultimanias.

A whole page for him.

WHAT TIMELINE IS THIS SQUARE HE KILLED SO MANY PEOPLE AKDHDHD

[carlyraejepsans]

light cannot exist without darkness yadda yadda anyway kinda sucks that in order to have clever, subversive social commentary in storytelling you also need to have possible decades of an established cultural canon of Trope That Sucks Ass

[shesnake]

Succession season 2 episode 10 "This Is Not for Tears" (2019) dir. Mark Mylod // Hacks season 3 episode 9 "Bulletproof" (2024) dir. Lucia Aniello

[writingwithcolor]

Diversity Win: Is "Crazy Rich" POC Representation Necessarily Empowering?

sodapopsculptor asked:

I’m writing a story with two sets of protagonists: A trio with a Black girl, a Latino, and a Vietnamese-American boy who all come from middle-upper class to ridiculously rich families, and a pair of white working-middle class sisters. They’re all heroes of this story. I’ve seen way too many rich white people and poor poc people in fiction, and I’m kinda getting sick of it, but I’m worried that by having the poc kids be rich and the white girls not so much, I’ll be reinforcing the idea that poc somehow rule the world. The only time the rich kids use their status as leverage is when the Asian threatens to sic his cop dad on a bully (race unstated but I imagined him as white) picking on a freshman, and during the Black girl’s birthday party, when she pays the biggest jock there fifty bucks (And later says offhandedly that it was just what she had in her pocket) to chase off a creep hitting on her.

OP, have you ever seen the “diversity win!” meme before?

I understand that your motivation for these narrative choices is to give POC a chance, if you will, to be the rich characters. But it is evident from this ask that you have not asked yourself what this entails. I want to ask you to critically examine the race and class intersections you’re creating here, as well as these kids’ roles in oppressive systems.

You explain that these rich POC are heroes and only have righteous reasons for leveraging their power.

But is your Black girl character aware of the potential disciplinary and/or legal consequences her jock accomplice might face while she has the resources to keep her hands clean? Are you?

Is your Asian character aware of how much of an abuse of power it is to “sic” a cop on someone, and the sheer amount of harm a criminal record or incarceration does to a juvenile with behavior issues? Are you?

So you want to put POC in positions of power for #representation.

Does it resonate with the group you’re representing?

Do you research and portray the unique ways race, ethnicity, class, and majority vs. minority status come together?

Or are you putting these characters in oppressive hegemonic roles for the sake of a power fantasy, on behalf of a group you're not even in?

To your question, you're not reinforcing the idea that "POC rule the world" because such a generalized belief does not exist. Instead, you're reinforcing:

The idea that society has “winners” and “losers.”

The idea that the problem with disproportionately powerful people is the lack of “equal opportunity” as opposed to the power imbalance to begin with.

The idea that those in oppressive positions of power need only have the right intentions to justify their use of it.

To be clear: that is not to say that you can't have jerk aristocrat billionaire millionaire crazy rich POC. Evil or mean rich characters are fun! I have some myself! You can even have rich characters who are gentle-hearted and well-intentioned, but you have to know the ways in which they’re privileged and decide how aware of that your characters are. That’s no problem.

But if you think that wealthy and powerful POC would have the same values and priorities as their poorer counterparts, you’re deluding yourself. There’s a reason why the quote “power corrupts” exists. There’s a reason why no matter where you look on the globe, there are historical dictators and tyrants.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

~ Rina

I fully agree with Rina, and truly want to emphasize the last paragraph.

If you want bratty rich POC who lack regard for the consequences of their actions, because you want bratty rich characters, great! If you want them because it would be uplifting or empowering representation? You’re doing it for the wrong reason.

I don't think you need to aim to subvert or purposely make all the BIPOC rich and powerful and the white people poor and suffering. Add diversity and include upper class rich and class privileged BIPOC, sure thing! And you can avoid your fears of intentional subversion message by including rich and powerful white characters as well, even if they're not the focus of your story. Just their existence helps. You could also include middle-class characters of Color as well.

More reading: Black in upper-class society

~Mod Colette

[la-pheacienne]

I wish asoiaf fandom could tell the difference between subverting a trope and subverting expectations because it is not the same thing. While subverting a trope is a valid and very interesting approach, subverting expectations most of the time results in bad, incoherent and actually pretty conventional storytelling because it primarily aims at eliciting emotions of shock/horror/pain instead of constructing a meaningful, original narrative with solid and thought provoking themes. You don't actually need to subvert the readers' expectations in order to subvert a trope. You don't even need plot twists to subvert a trope. These are really not the same thing at all.

Example: Dany being TPTWP instead of Rhaegar is a subverted trope. The fact that the knights actually suck and the only one who actually thinks and behaves like an ideal knight cannot be one and will never be accepted as one is also a subverted trope. fAegon, the Prince Who Surived, being a scam is also a subverted trope. The element of subverting expectations is weak in most of these, nonexistent in some of these.

Dany becoming mad, Rhaegar being revealed as a machiavellian pedophile, Jon becoming one of the Others and being killed by Arya, the prophecy being just a scam of the universe and/or Rhaegar's wet dream instead of, ahm, the only solution in the war for the dawn, all these are not subversions of any trope. These are plot twists. These subvert the reader's very valid expectations and not in a good way. They go directly against themes, characterization and narrative that has been established for the past 30 years.

[daylighteclipsed]

[prettyboykatsuki]

sunshine x grumpy is a good trope but it's at it's best when these characters have unexpected mutual understanding. when the sunshine is actually unexpectedly pessimistic while still maintaining a good attitude and cheerful way of acting and the grumpy character has a naivety and innocence to them because they move through life without any expectations even though they tend to be antisocial and easily bothered.... sunshine characters who are sincerely fun while also using their own personality as a shield and guarding their more unsavory feelings and grumpy characters who are honest with other people to the point it's always been off-putting but feels very refreshing to their sunshine in particular...... you know.....

[pianokantzart]

I’m going to level with you chat I don’t know which I’d prefer

[mamawasatesttube]

another addition to the list of fics i would love to see but dont really want to write: timkon "one of them has a crush on the other's secret civilian id without knowing it's them" but it's tim hopelessly pining for conner kent. he has no idea the supers have secret identities at all, let alone who they might be. conner kent is just a normal farmboy (who he happened to meet via convenient circumstances). just a normal kid who lives on a farm with his sweet old country (grand)parents and his rambunctious dog. just a normal guy! ...right?

[midnightdemonhunter]

don't have to guess which one of us is getting punished here.

[whump-in-the-closet]

Top 5 whump tropes to subvert?

oh

oh

anon you read literature critically and are a blessing on this good earth

i’m rubbing my hands together like an excited cricket

cinnamon roll whumpee. i just think having a whumpee who’s flawed and has messed up in the past adds some nuance to the story. yes, they’re still being hurt but they’re a person and not just a victim who’s never harmed a fly in their life. it’s less about having pity for a character and more about sympathizing or relating to them.

caretaker as a lover or significant other. the caretaker is almost always someone who has skin in the game, but why does romantic love have to be the deepest affiliation with whumpee? you’re telling me that a decent person wouldn’t help out another fellow person but walk by them? strangers as caretakers adds so much to the story, or even antagonists/villains to caretakers. there’s just more depth.

hero is actually evil. Or superhero is evil. it’s a fun trope, but if you read almost any hero/villain story, hero will end up being the one to capture the villain. I rather the conflict not be as black and white but more intrapersonal— between hero and sidekick or villain and supervillain, where neither are in the right and both are caught up with blackmailing/backstabbing the other.

solitary confinement. this one i just like to twist a little by having a one way glass and having it on public display. or by making it a white room. solitary confinement doesn’t exactly do wonders on the human mind but white room torture fucks them up so much worse

whumpee kidnapped because they’re important. cool. but what if they’re kidnapped because their friend is important. There’s more emotional weight with this. How much does their friend care for them and what if they don’t? what will wjumper do to get their attention? it’s just. a lot of suffering and guilt.

[madfoxx]

“In japanese culture they have a myth where they believe, that all soulmates are connected by an invisible red string, and those strings are attached to each of their little fingers.”

[charmac]

[jacarandaaaas]

Mirabel Madrigal & Creativity:

So something I’ve realized after watching the movie a couple of times now is how mirabels story can easily correlate with the experience of someone creative when you’re only considered of use if you’re academically smart.

Not only do they refer to the magic as “gifts” and “gifted” very common terms associated with people who are considered academically smart but also the fact mirabel is shown as an artist. Our first introduction to her you see her room is plastered in artwork as a 5 year old and even after the prologue you still see she’s kept her artistic side. the thing is mirabel is incredibly talented she draws, she sews, she embroiders, paints, plays the accordion too! These are all incredible talents to possess and yet do we ever see her getting praised for them in the movie? not really. because mirabel doesn’t have a “gift” a literal magic gift yes but also could be interpreted for a creative as academic smarts. Creative thinking is something mirabel possesses and its quite literally the answer in the end but because she’s not smart in the expected way i.e academics she feels she’s not worth as much as others in her family.

I like to think making her an artist was an intentional choice as I know a lot of fellow artists have had people tell us it’s not a “useful” skill to have in the real world. It’s not worth taking the time doing when you could be pursuing medicine or law or something that uses your brain. Even in the ending of the movie mirabel tells them they’re “more than just your gift” which I feel can relate a lot to people who heavily rely on their academic achievements they can forget it’s ok to not do 100% every time and these ridiculous standards are just wearing you down.

So in conclusion I believe mirabels story resonates a lot with the experience of being a creative person but your skills not being seen as valuable. I just love that they made mirabel an artist to show how talented she actually is! she shows that creatives are valued and appreciated and needed and deserve to be encouraged not shot down! so thank you mirabel valentina rojas madrigal for being my favorite artist <3