#there's a trope page with plenty of examples

[swan2swan]

An underutilized trope in today's shows (unless I've not been paying attention, which is possible, there are only so many hours in a day and so many shows I can watch), is the classic arc of "Characters we never see but whose lives are constantly updated via the on-screen characters".

I'm not talking "occasionally we learn about our characters and their relatinoships with unseen acquaintances via dialogue", I mean "One character has an increasingly bizarre series of updates about someone else who is leading a very exciting life that we are not directly privy to." Sometimes they can connect in a dramatic upswing, sometimes it's just a complex series of dots that become more and more difficult to connect the more we hear.

Two prominent examples being Dr. Kelso's son (?) from Scrubs, and Jason's offscreen, never-seen family (singular?) from Home Movies.

[themadwomen]

So, uh, why is the Holiday family like that?

One thing that's been nagging at us since the latest chapter is their obsession over specifically Christmas. Santa decorations around their house, each of their names is a Christmas reference, even Noelle's laugh is a reference to Jingle Bells (fahahahaha, ha ha ha ha). This is pretty obvious to most people at this point, to the point where you'd have to live under a rock or just completely lack knowledge of American holidays to not catch that. But there's something... Off, about it.

So we know Rudy and Noelle go to church. Makes sense, if they devote their family's aesthetics to Christmas it should follow that they're Religious. However, you may notice the immediate problem that Christianity as a concept doesn't seem to exist in Deltarune. It's a whole different faith surrounding the Delta Rune and the prophecy. Which leads us to ask...

Why are the Holidays based around Christmas if it shouldn't exist?

Now, there are plenty of winter holidays not related to Christianity. In fact, Christmas itself is an amalgamation of various pagan holidays as well as Saint Nicholas Day. Yuletide and Saturnalia are the two biggest ones that come to mind. However, the holiday the Holidays seem to celebrate is SPECIFICALLY akin to Christmas. The only thing keeping it from being LITERALLY Christmas is that we don't know the name of it and that Santa is a literal reindeer. But those Santas are literally called Santa...

Noelle references the Nutcracker...

And there's also this detail from her room in Queen's mansion.

Noelle's room in that game is based off her search history, the implication being that she's constantly searching December Holiday. A sad character moment to be sure, but it also confirms that whatever holiday this is it shares a date with Christmas, it has a figure named Santa, and there's a piece of media from the Nutcracker involving mice and a hero.

If it's not Christmas, it's a 1:1 recreation of it.

Why does this matter? Well, religion seems to be a running theme in chapter 4, the Holidays are based off the specifically religious holiday of Christmas, but the religion in Deltarune is fictional.

This feels like it'll be important.

After all, Toby Fox looooooooooves to subvert tropes. He has an emphasis on video game tropes in particular, but other general fantasy tropes are probably not out of the question. One trope that you often see, usually in kids shows but often in general fantasy or sci-fi, is that they won't have Christmas per say, but they do have a winter holiday with some similarities, at least on the surface. Often enough there are enough differences in their origins or traditions that it still has a distinct identity from Christmas (say, Hearth's Warming from MLP), but just as if not more often you'll see a holiday that's just an expy of it (see Animal Crossing's Toy Day). If you want to see more examples, take a look through the TV Tropes page for "You Mean 'Xmas'."

So, what if the Holiday family's key trait is meant to be something seemingly innocuous before we learn about what the holiday itself actually entails? What it is, why it exists, what its traditions are? And what if it were to reveal something about the motivations of, say, Carol? What if the answers have been hiding in plain sight all this time, but we just can't make sense of them yet? An incomplete puzzle concerning the holidays... See edit.

We don't know. This theory is admittedly half-baked, but it's something we just couldn't get our mind off of. We just have a sight for how certain Christian concepts have become so normalized they even show up in fantasy settings with no actual Christianity whatsoever. We just have to wonder if Toby just didn't realize the story he's spent over a decade writing has this huge gingerbread-man-shaped plothole in it regarding its setting and world... Or if something more is going on.

EDIT 1: Turns out, Lancer literally talks about Christmas by name as well as Santa in chapter one. We just didn't clock it because we weren't checking there. Still, it's weird that in this monster-dominated environment where the entirety of history has changed to have human-monster relations Christmas seems to have survived. Not sure what that says about the world of Deltarune. It has to mean something... Right?

[clevercatchphrase]

Ghost Switch's 7th Birthday.

2017 was 8 years ago. I don't like that math. 2018 was 7 years ago, which is slightly more acceptable to me because 8+5=13, and 6.5 is half of 13, and if you round 6.5 up you get 7, but 7+5=12, and 8 is 2/3s of 12 which is more than half of 12 and that is gross because 12x12 is literally gross. (The 5 came from the end of 2025, if you were wondering)

You still with me? Good, because I have some thoughts about the last seven years I've been working on Ghost Switch under the cut.

Ive always had a weird way of contextualizing the passage of time, keeping track of significant or personal events in my life, be they places, or memorable occasions, tying them together in a mental spider web mad of thumbtacks of monumental dates and connected with the red string of my special interests at the time. It's always so insidious, how fast time passes, even though you're there for each moment. It's always so shocking how fast the days and weeks and months add up and suddenly a decade or two have passed.

Ghost switch turns 7 years old in 2 days. 8, that ugly number, if I count the full year of preproduction I spent planning and scripting the outlining and drafting. It's not quite a decade yet, but when it comes to webcomic longevity, it's damn impressive. Homestuck ran for 7 years, from 2009 to 2016. I was reading active updates for 5 of them. My webcomic will never reach the page length or word count of homestuck (thank god), but ghost switch will have actively been updating longer than homestuck has when it finally finishes. In three more years, i'll be able to add Ghost Switch to the list of "webcomic longrunners" on Tv tropes. (Special shout out to the dedicated soul(s) who update Ghost Switch's Tv tropes page, 'cause lord knows I haven't touched the thing after I made it.)

I cant help but compare myself to other Undertale fan comics that I've read and loved and followed. Not as competition or as a standard to live up to, but merely for curiosity's sake. The UnderlineAU by Dustyart and ifellforundertale, Caretaker of the Ruins by eruto, minty and ellipsis, flavor-text-chara by stemmmm, Unexpected Guests by undertalethingems, zombietale (zombie-frisk) by spooks, unofficial-underfell by comicpixel01, and that-one-underfell-comic by blueberryjamsart just to name a few.

And not just the other undertale comics as well. From time to time I find myself revisiting some discontinued deviantart comics from the early 00's like Wurr by Paperiapina, Off-White by Akreon and tanathe/vesner, Over The Mountains And Far Away by Skailla, and The Blackblood Alliance by KayFedewa. All of these stories from other people also doing it for fun and for free the melancholy I feel when they quietly tapper off or go in indefinite hiatus. It's strange to revisit their pages some times, snapshots of the past, perfectly preserved, same as they were when I last saw them update live, like the next page link could update any second.

Granted, not every webcomic started by starry-eyed teens inevitably ends up as unfinished. There are plenty of webcomics that I've followed for years that are also still going to this day. Africa by Arven92, Golden Shrike by Doeprince, Up And Ahead/No North (also by Skailla!), Oren's Forge by Teagan Gavet, and Tofauti Sawa by ThCynicalHound are some notable examples.

It's equal parts empowering and sad to see how many comics i've outlasted, outlived. It's just as humbling to be reminded how many are still going. I've been doing this for 7 years now. If my freakish estimation skills prove true, I'll be doing this for another 5. At time of writing, I am 32 years old. When I finish, I could very well be 38. Even if I decided to quit the comic today, this is by far the longest time I've dedicated to any one art project, one story, one single piece of fan art. Ive spent close to a fifth of my life (20 percent!) working on this comic, always thinking about it at the back of my mind. If it does take me 12 years to finish, that will be almost a whole third. I cant wait to finish. I cant wait to never draw another comic page as long as I live. I cant wait to get back to writing fan fiction and learning other artsy things like crocheting and quilting plush making, woodworking, metal working, stained glass making, all the hands on creating I can think of. Am I finally tired of undertale? No, as I've just said, i've still got a shit ton of fan fiction I gotta finish before I can say "I'm done with you." The hyper fixation has slowly released its grip, though. Enough so that I was able to start exploring other media to get unhealthily obsessed with this year (mostly in the form of anime.)

Undertale turns 10 years old this year, and can you fucking believe the birthday lands on a monday this year? I don't know if I'm going to do anything special for the anniversary like I have in years past. I'll probably just upload a page like normal and not much else.

It's strange to think that a baby was undoubtedly born the day i started this comic, and now they're probably old enough to read and comprehend it if they found it this very day. I don't look forward to the day when I finish, and a grown-ass adult comments on the last page saying; "Loved your story! Ive been reading since middle school and yesterday I graduated with my masters degree!"

Time needs to stop. And not, like, freeze. Just like… Stop. Doing that thing… Passing and changing us subtly and irreversibly without our consent or awareness until years have passed and we suddenly realize we've become different people, all tangentially tied together through this shared connection that is this webcomic I've become unhealthily dedicated to. This comic could very well see 4 different presidents in office across 5 election cycles before it's done. 5 more years… Half a decade more. "You have a true red soul of determination if you kept up the comic for this long!" Maybe. The sunk cost fallacy, the fear of death before finishing, fear of disappointing readers, and an all around general attitude of spite and stubbornness are strong incentives to finish though.

I wish I could say I'm over the hill at this point, but technically I'm not. Yes, I'm half way through but there's no gravity assistance to help roll me down the rest of the way. Comic making is more like mountain climbing. Yeah, I'm half way up, but there's still quite a lot of "up" left to go. The air is getting thinner, and I'm starting to tire, but it's shorter to the summit than to the base at this point. Might as well keep going. I still want to see the view from the top, and marvel at how far I've gone~

[molinaskies]

hey, i'm a new sonic fan (really digging your writings btw!!!) would you mind explaining a bit of this tag of yours? i get the feeling youve been in the fandom for a while haha X)

hello, I am SO sorry for the late response. I am terrible with my asks and kind of disappeared for much of the winter. Some might say this particular hedgehog was hibernating! That said, welcome to the fandom!

You are right! I've been here since 2012, but I've done many blasts to the past to learn about the things before my time lol.

This is gonna be an off-the-cuff answer, so bear with me, but this ask was in reference to this post where I mentioned some "questionable Amy Rose characterization." In short, it's only within maybe the last eight or so years that North American Sonic has been in decent sync with Japanese Sonic, as a franchise. While there are still plenty of localization differences between these two realms (from characterization to plot/lore implications), they are largely on the same page, now. This wasn't always the case.

When Sonic first appeared in the 90s, there was essentially a version of him for every "video game region" (North America, Japan, and Europe). Sonic was characterized very differently depending on where he was. Again, super off the cuff, but American Sonic was a super cocky, sassy speed demon who made fun of his enemies and had no fucks to give. Japanese Sonic was still arrogant and sassy, but a lot less flashy about it. European Sonic, I am the least familiar with, but I know him to be somewhere in the middle of NA and JP. NA and EU also have their own cast of characters on top of the official characters we know.

To the core of your question about Amy, Amy chasing Sonic is a trope in JP media between young lovers and was largely meant to be shown as a game between the two. Amy also reads as a lot more "cute and endearing" in Japanese iterations of her in the 2000s.

However, NA Sonic, as a franchise, played up her romantic feelings for Sonic to an absolute extreme for laughs, but it ended up with some really dubious results. Amy's NA characterization makes her out to be more of an active aggressor. Words you might see floating around about this include "stalker," "fangirl," and "obsessed." These things led a lot--like, A LOT a lot--of people to dislike or vehemently hate Amy Rose.

Some iterations of this aren't so bad, but the ones people really point at are Sonic Battle (she mistakenly believes that Sonic intends for a robot named Emerel to be their son), Sonic Heroes (Amy's reason for hunting Sonic down is to "get him to marry her"), and Sonic Adventure 2 (Amy says that she will only free sonic from his prison cell if he agrees to marry her; she is unsuccessful and frees him anyway).

To be clear, I FIRMLY believe that the latter two examples I gave were meant to be understood as jokes and that IS how Sonic takes them. People also point to a moment in Sonic 06 where she says she would choose Sonic over the fate of the world, but I also firmly believe that people misinterpret her meaning (more on that here). However, the fact this is a hill I need to die on shows that it wasn't made clear enough by the American writers. And anyway, this really starts to simmer down around 2008 with Sonic Unleashed.

The general consensus in the fandom, to my knowledge, is that this happened for two reasons. 1) Amy's crush combined with Sonic's (at the time) purposefully ambiguous feelings for her made for the type of gag humour that was big in the 2000s, and 2) Sonic already had a highly popular love interest in Sally Acorn, a NA-exclusive character from the 90s cartoon (Sonic the Hedgehog/SatAM) and the Archie comics that largely acted as a continuation of that cartoon's story.

Sally was so much "in Amy's place," as it were, that the NA instruction Manual for Sonic CD (Amy's introductory game, mind you) deliberately refers to Amy as Sally.

I'm not super well informed about Archie Sonic, but Amy has kind of a bad rep in those comics too. She has a uncomfortable back story (she uses magic, basically, to make herself older so she can join Sally's freedom fighters and be with sonic), is consistency depicted as overbearing and mean, and I've even seen people complain about the way she's drawn (she always has this unbecoming, large mouth that makes her unpleasant to look at).

However, the Archie comics underwent a total reboot in 2013 (the comics ended in 2017), and my understanding is that Amy's characterization is dramatically improved from there on out.

Again, SUPER off the cuff. There were a lot of micro details I skimmed over. I 100% encourage you to go on the deep dive and draw your own conclusions, but I hope this gives some good background to get started!

In summary, NA Amy Rose (and, to a lesser extent, Amy Rose in general during the early 2000s), is kind of rough to watch. SEGA over-corrected a little bit around 2012 by taking her down the hyper-independent route, but settled on something really solid for her in 2017 starting with Sonic Forces and the IDW comics.

[pastafossa]

hey Pasta! I’m new to posting on AO3 and wanted to ask a veteran - I was inspired a LOT by you and TRT to start posting my own writing, and I noticed there’s an “inspired by” option. authors don’t find it weird when you reference them, right? like I would be flattered, but that’s just me :) is there any etiquette that I should be following or tips you have for new AO3 authors?

feel free to answer privately if you’d prefer! I hope you’re having a good brain day! 💕

HELLO FRIEND!

First I am SO so happy TRT could help inspire, I fucking love that, and it feels like a lovely way of keeping the chain going from the fic authors who help inspire me to start posting my stuff!

So I can only speak for me for the 'inspired by', but I have absolutely NO issue at all and I'm always super, super delighted when I get that AO3 email that says there's a new work inspired by mine! I can't think of any other authors I know who'd be weirded out by it either, if it helps. There's a reason that function exists on AO3. If in doubt you could ask of course, there's no harm in that either. But yeah at least for me I'm always incredibly flattered and happy that my work could inspire someone.

I'm also happy to share some AO3 tips and etiquette things I've learned over the years!

Etiquette Rules TM I've discovered:

Make sure you're only marking a fic as 'complete' when it's actually complete. Some folks are posting WIP and chapters and have it marked as complete because 'each chapter is done'.

Only tag your fic with things that are actually relevant. So even if there's a background ship that gets 1 line referencing it, I wouldn't tag that ship. You'll just upset the people who are (understandably) searching for that ship and read your fic only to find they get a single line.

No posting 'fic coming soon' or idea placeholders. I've seen this pop up more and more lately, and not only will it get your fic taken down, but it's considered a huge no-no in terms of AO3 etiquette.

This one is a little subjective, and you'll find a few debates about it, but generally speaking, the etiquette rule is that it's better to risk spoiling something if it means you're tagging the fic with relevant warnings and tropes, versus leaving an important tag out to keep things surprising. Examples might be pregnancy, main character death, or self harm. Not only are there people who are hunting for that type of fic (meaning you should be tagging it so they can find it) but it's usually considered rude to just let someone walk into that blind. If you really don't want to have any of those tags, use the 'Author Chose Not To Use Warnings' and then add a tag about how you're choosing not to tag things so that it won't spoil anything. Basically warn them that they could find anything inside the fic.

At the same time, don't blow the page up with 50k tags. That'll annoy people in the opposite direction. There's a fine balance. I generally tag: major relationhips and characters, the genre, major tropes (found family, slow burn, etc), any major triggers, and then a few flavor tags ('human disaster Matt Murdock'; 'watch me make up legal shit', etc). For anything smaller, if it's a trigger I just warn about it in the author's notes.

Do not link to anything like a Ko-Fi or Patreon or anything that involves money in the author's notes. Not only is it against the site rules but it's considered very bad etiquette.

Do not do not do not change your story's publication date after the fact to keep 'pushing' it to the front page, holy hell is that a big etiquette no-no.

Tips TM I've Learned:

Slashes between character names are for romance. & between the character names are for platonic relationships

Summaries can be a bitch to write, but try anyway! And whatever you do, do not put 'lol this is bad' or 'i suck at summaries'. I realize the self-deprecation makes it a little less scary, but you'll absolutely get less people reading (in part because if you imply you're bad, plenty of people will believe you and won't bother reading). Give people a brief sense of what's in the fic, or even a snippet from the fic itself!

Don't bother tracking Kudos-to-Hits too closely, especially as time goes on. Each reader can only leave a kudos once but every time they re-read, they add another hit to the counter.

Sometimes what does well and what doesn't isn't really logical. Over my years on AO3, I've seen fics that logically should do well (massive active fandom, popular ship, well written) have terrible numbers where fics that logically should do terribly (inactive small fandom, less popular ship, writing banged out in 30 seconds at 5 am) do amazing. So as you go forward, be prepared for occasional ???s in either direction.

The Tagging System is your friend, learn the tagging system, love the tagging system! The tagging system is both how the people who DO want to find your work will find it, AND how the people who do not want to read your fic can avoid it. As above, I've found that generally you want to tag the major characters, relationships, tropes, and triggers, because they are what people are either looking for (hooray! your target readership!) or avoiding (why would you want them to open your fic, see it's not what they want, and immediately back out?).

If you're writing your draft in AO3's text editor and saving it as a draft, PLEASE KNOW IT WILL EVENTUALLY DELETE AUTOMATICALLY, IT DOES NOT STAY THERE FOR MONTHS OR YEARS. Safer to write using something like ellipsus (what I use) or docs, or even your phone's note taking system.

Formatting is occasionally wonky when being transferred from one location (say, docs), to AO3's posting system. Always make sure to preview it before posting, to make sure all your italics and paragraph breaks haven't been fucked up. This is an issue that's been here for ages, we just deal with it at this point.

Those are the things I can think of off the top of my head, I hope they help! There's definitely a little bit of a learning curve when it comes to AO3 but it is SO worth it, there's nothing quite like it and it's been amazing as a writer to grow with it!

[lurkingshan]

I saw this great post by @respectthepetty this morning related to Unknown and other Taiwanese dramas that depict pseudo-incest romances, and it reminded me that I've been meaning to write up some thoughts about why this trope is so interesting to a lot of us.

Let me just set some boundaries first, because it's a big potential topic. Depictions of incest or pseudo-incest are plentiful and occur in media from all corners of the globe, and there are lots of different forms it can take. I'm most interested in the version of it currently being depicted in Unknown, which is a relationship change narrative about two people who are not blood related but grew up considering each other family only for those feelings to morph into something different over time. This trope can be hard for some people to stomach because the lines we maintain in our heads about what types of feelings we are supposed to have for the various people in our lives are firm, and it's uncomfortable when they're challenged. But that's what makes the story so interesting. And it's not the only romance trope that wrestles with this kind of change.

Two of the most popular romance tropes of all time are also rooted in a relationship change narrative: enemies to lovers and friends to lovers. When these tropes are executed well, the thrill in the story is watching the characters come to a realization of their changing feelings (never at the same time), wrestle with the angst and uncertainty and external strife that causes, and finally decide to fight for the relationship they want despite the risks. Changing the way you think about someone, and changing the way they think about you, is hard and scary and can feel like a huge threat to the relationships you already have. Sound familiar? It should, because these are the same core beats of a pseudo-incest romance.

But this trope adds an even more intriguing layer on top of all those already juicy dynamics, which is the cultural taboo. Pseudo-incest is seen as wrong and considered by most cultures to be a violation of family norms. To put it bluntly, you're not supposed to want to fuck your brother. And so these romances have a whole added challenge on top of all the internal conflict, because the couple not only has to come to terms with their own feelings and struggle through the pain to get on the same page with each other, they also have to deal with the judgment of everyone around them who feels their relationship is morally wrong. The cultural taboo means that everyone else in their lives has to change the way they think about their relationship, too.

So why do we love these stories? Because the character dynamics and relationship development at the core of them are fascinating. When done right, these are the kind of romances you really firmly believe in, because the feelings are so deep they can't be ignored and by the end you've watched the characters fight like hell to be together. A drama that takes this trope seriously will depict the whole journey with the respect the characters deserve and tend to all the relevant relationships surrounding the couple. Unknown is not finished airing yet, but so far it has been a stellar example of this kind of narrative and that's why so many of us are singing its praises.

[sailorblossoms-rankane]

Hello! I love your analysis on Ranma and attraction, but I'm a new anime fan, so when I was checking ranma's tvtropes page, there's someone arguing that he IS attracted to Shampoo under "foreign culture fetish"

I don't know enough about the manga to point out examples that say otherwise, could someone who knows more about the topic revise it? I couldn't think of anyone else to ask, I'm more of a lurker... ty for your time!

first of all, I recommend simply not relying on tv tropes. Any serious media analysis vastly improves when you leave it behind

The subject of horniness and how it's portrayed in the manga is something I have touched in this thread... it has too many images to just upload here, but I can upload it in parts (i have so many threads i keep saying i'll share here but i just can't find the time yet lol but much of what you want to know it's probably here)

The subject of Shampoo and "tropes" is very complex. Many can apply, but I personally find "foreign culture fetish" a very gross way to put it.

In general: what the work frames for the audience and what the character feels doesn’t always align… the reader’s fantasies don't equal the feelings of a character who isn’t a self-insert... (also, if what they meant is Ranma "has the fetish".... lmfao)

When someone is attached to the idea of Ranma being into Shampoo, they are likely attracted to her themselves and are treating him as a self-insert. Ranma becomes a prize, his precious ~male attention~ the thing that validates the Best Girl. It's a nasty way to think about the female characters (wanting to validate any of them through Ranma is unserious as hell, you can just like the character) but you waste your time trying to argue with people who think that way.

Here's the thing about Shampoo: her advances are portrayed with childish mischief. When she jumps Ranma in her birth suit, there is not a single thought behind those eyes. This is on purpose: the scene itself might be raunchy, but the characters themselves are not being horny. Ranma is jumpscared, but a panel later and his first instinct is to look away. The visual language in his reactions are not very different from what we see when Happosai jumps him: he's being harassed, and he's reacting to that, like any person with a pulse would. Shampoo doesn't look at him. She never leers. We see every single girls' fantasies, and the only person who ever gets sexually suggestive in them is good ol' Akane, bless her (this happens in the chapter where she inhales the sleep incense and starts sleep fighting)

This frankly deserves a more detailed reply, but if you can check the thread I linked, well... there is much there with plenty of pages and panels.

Also, I can't comment too much on the old show as I haven't watched much of it. But seeing movies like Nihao My Concubine is very... illuminating. The manga has nudity, but it never gets as nasty as that fucking movie in the framing of the female characters. You can see how shit like this might warp someone's perception of the characters

[homestuckreplay]

You’ve Played Your Last Game Of Musical Hats, Pal

(page 1173-1195)

A lot is going on in this intermission – the vibe I’m personally getting is that a lot of it is over the top fun and nonsense, with the occasional detail that will be very important to Homestuck overall. For example, ‘You made this town what it is after all. Wasn't nothin' but a bunch of dust and rocks before you got here’ (p.1189) is big information if we take it as literally true. It would help to figure out exactly where we are first, but, still big. And if we’re somewhere in the Incipisphere, it would mean that NPCs have memories of building the world, it didn’t just come together fully formed.

Clubs Deuce is a really fun character. The one-dimensional tropes do make a nice break from fighting through the many mental walls that the beta kids have put up against their various traumas, and ‘villain by circumstances who’s actually a sweet if dopey guy’ is a classic. He wants to be part of the group (and they need a fourth member to make the bit work) but they have a difference of opinion when it comes to clocks. This could tear the group apart. Deuce also mentions bombs, so perhaps despite his seeming nicer than Slick, he could be something of a ‘ticking time bomb’?

Slick would kill and die for his two licorice scotty dogs, which are like children to him, and Deuce is the same with his emotional support licorice gummy bears. I LOVE Homestuck’s philosophy of character creation where basically every character, no matter how minor, gets an unexpected interest or object. There’s plenty of media out there where assistants and henchmen don’t have distinct personalities and could be easily exchanged, but things like these scotty dogs are memorable, every time, even if this never becomes important.

I feel similar about the musical hats, and the implication that the Midnight Crew all need backup hats because the Felt are constantly playing this game. On page 1184 where Itchy disappears for a split second but has managed to go find both Droog and Slick, steal their hats, and bring them back to exchange with Doze and Deuce? Hilarious, no notes. Hell even if this goes nowhere, this intermission is filled with banger moments and lines - ‘it’s driving him nuts. Just very slowly.’ (p.1181) in relation to Doze’s hat is also very good.

Knowing this is an intermission planned for just a couple weeks, I don’t have a real drive to learn the rules of the inventory system. The sylladex was introduced so gradually, Act 1 taking a lot of time to explore mechanics and fetch modi beyond the array introduced one at a time with enough space for the reader to get to grips with them – it’s not always intuitive but it’s been carefully deployed. Slick and Deuce’s inventory have been thrown at us so fast that it’s either assuming familiarity with Problem Sleuth, which might explain it better, or it needs to be rolled with more than fully understood.

One meta layer further, even the character transitions are different here. Spades Slick is commanded to ‘Be Hearts Boxcars’ (p.1177) and ‘Be Diamonds Droog’ (p.1192) and each time ignores the command, and becomes Clubs Deuce instead. Each time it’s not a refusal, just a matter of fact. The command ‘Stop being Hearts Boxcars’ (p.1186) works to become Slick again, despite never being Boxcars in the first place. It’s a kind of blatant disregard for the distinctions between characters that we’ve never seen before, and it highlights both the general confusion of the situation, and the fact that the Midnight Crew work as a unit, sharing a theme and physical space in a way that the beta kids never have.

Time continues to be questionable - ‘Smooth as clockwork, and every bit as logical’ (p.1174) describes Slick’s highly illogical inventory system, and the next page lays it out even clearer with ‘You can never take tense for granted with these goons.’ And killing Itchy on page 1188 felt almost too easy. Almost like someone here might have powers to turn time back and resurrect someone. @tenaciouschronicler has done great work breaking down the puns in the Felt’s names in this post, but it seems their names also relate to their powers! Which is cool because it’ll make these 14-16 similar looking green guys easier to remember, and means it might be possible to predict some of their powers before we see them. Here’s some thoughts based on the information we have so far – most of them are very vague guesses for now, but hopefully this will come together over the next few days!

Itchy – [confirmed] goes very fast. Someone who has itchy feet wants to leave a place and gets bored easily, and Itchy is leaving places all the time and quickly.

Doze – [confirmed] can slow time down for himself (p.1179). Someone who is in a doze has either fallen asleep, spaced out or lost track of time, and Doze moves sluggishly, as though he’s very sleepy.

Trace – can see people’s traces through time, perhaps meets someone and is able to intuit their whole history

Clover – four-leaf clovers are typically lucky, so could have some luck powers, and they’re also difficult to find, so he could be difficult to locate in the timeline somehow

Fin – knows when things are going to finish, is aware of everyone’s time and date of death

Die – (I take issue with this name because to me the standard die is 20 sided, but ok) has an effigy with pins stuck into it (p.1191), perhaps teleports to the locations of deaths automatically? But probably has more death and time related powers too, as Slick is very concerned about him causing a ‘temporal mess’

Crowbar – can pry time apart, maybe create a gap in the timeline which can then be filled with things that couldn’t otherwise happen

Snowman – presumably something to do with freezing time, possibly for their enemies as a contrast to Doze

Stitch – can put stitches in time, sewing the timeline back together if a timeloop is broken or a paradox is caused

Sawbuck – a tool for holding wood so that it can be sawed. Perhaps he can hold the timeline and keep it stable while other people mess around with it, allowing for more flexibility regarding paradoxes

Matchsticks – can see two parallel/alternate timelines at once, maybe? And then choose between them by setting fire to the one he doesn’t like?

Eggs – lays them on an extremely regular schedule (I got nothing for this one)

Biscuits – knows exactly when the biscuits are perfectly cooked without having to open the oven and check; Dad Egbert’s new best friend (see above)

Quarters – could be like the coins, or dividing something into four, or like living quarters. Could be something to do with flipping a coin to determine someone’s fate?

Cans – perhaps knowledge of possibility/probability, to know what ‘can’ happen? Cans is also slang for headphones, so something to do with recording and replaying time?

Lord English – rewinds time specifically to a British feudalist era, I GUESS. If that’s the case then I’m on Spades Slick’s side about taking this guy down.

[iniziare]

🔥 let the salt fly

We're gonna start big, because I don't censor myself when I reblog this meme. Sorry, ladies— but female characters aren't struggling because of some internalized and deep-rooted sense of misogyny (except maybe I harbor some of that by now because my god, do the 'support women' posts and 'it's so difficult, guys' defenses getting really tiring), they're struggling because of your own sense of entitlement. Fine, okay, do people flock to male characters a little faster? Certainly, but that's not because people hate women (again, maybe me in 2025...), but maybe it's because most of us seem to be or identify as women, and so we may enjoy writing and writing with something and someone vastly detached from ourselves. I know I definitely do.

Outside of that, you don't have to hire yourself a bulldozer to break through the big walls of oppression and misogyny, you're able to get interaction just fine. You know how? Just put your bloody mind to it. Getting interaction doesn't come from following a large amount of people, posting a starter call, and expecting them to mass-like it on day one, people aren't going to automatically flock to you like that. Newsflash: that happens only to the most select few blogs by some stroke of sheer luck. Finding interaction means engaging with your own muse first and foremost, and also with other people's. If I go on your new blog for this new female character whether she's canon or an OC, and I find only some fancy graphics, a page of information, a starter call, and nothing else, I'm not very tempted to follow you, or to engage with the blog. Does that sound cruel to your potentially sensitive, and oppressed ears? Listen, setting up a blog takes some effort, certainly, but that on its own doesn't do enough— because guess what, it's even easier to abandon a blog. I want to see you engage with your own muse, I want to see that you are interested in the muse that you write, because if I see none of that, then why would you be interested in interacting with mine, from said muse? I consider that chance to be quite low, and the chance to see you disappear within a week incredibly high. People who actively talk about their muses, the people who actively engage left, right, and center, those will find interaction time, and time again. And wallowing on your blog, or people's notes, about how 'others don't understand how much harder it is', give me a break.

If you're struggling? I would dare to bet that you're not putting in the effort, and instead you're claiming victim mentality, and hoping that the world comes to lay itself down at your feet in pity. That, or you're playing into one of two popular 'stereotypes' (for lack of a better word): with which I mean that your blog has plenty of 'ship with me' undertones (don't worry, male muse blogs have that plenty as well), or it's obvious that you're seeking that— or, you're playing into the all-powerful 'step on you' female character trope that we all love to hate in !@#$%^ abundance. But I'll reserve a salt post for that one. On the shipping topic though? Let me give you guys an example: when I first made Guizhong's single muse blog, I made it because I loved her character first and foremost, and did I come to enjoy the ship of Guizhong/Zhongli as I spent time researching? Yes. But guess what I wasn't here for, that ship. It came second, it has always come second— but the amount of Guizhong blogs that I came across that were obviously looking around for a Zhongli were insane. But in the same way, I also see Zhongli blogs made just to seek out and write the popular ship with Childe, I also see Wriothesley blogs who seem to be around only to find their Neuvillette to ship with, and nothing else (my god, don't get me started on how much you can do with either of those characters outside of these ships— AAAAA, god, I swear, I am not your strongest soldier).

But do you now see why I harp, and harp, and harp, on people needing to actually show investment and engagement with their own muses? It is the best, and quite frankly, the only way to dodge the allegations. And before you go 'but those are unfair, Sae', guess what, muffin pie fruitcake, stereotypes exist for a reason, and reputations exist for a reason— we didn't just go and make all of that up just because we hate women, don't worry. Just, take it from a woman who has written plenty of women, and still is, you can do it. You just need to tear up your little victim and entitlement cards, and put in the work. Oh, and maybe wait to try and ship with popular male characters until... you know.

Prompt: 🔥for an unpopular opinion. // @intcritus // Selectively accepting

[alexissara]

The Marble Queen Review

The Marble Queen is a an amazingly drawn book, Gabrielle Kari is one of the greatest artists out there and her brilliant craftsmanship truly captures a unique voice in comics. I am impressed her illustrative style was captured on so many pages of the books really showing the level of heart that went into this work. The amazing use of paneling and page layout allowed for very dynamic use of the medium of comics breaking conventions from each other while feeling like bold artist moves on the page.

The book is hampered some what by being a YA book, it feels like at times there are areas that maybe would have been better served with more details but it does really edge what most YAs feel their able to do in a first novel. With lots of death, some blood and some implied sex. The pacing was a bit fast, there were moments that felt like they could have lingered longer and taken more time and perhaps the beginning starts a little slow but the romance does feel satisfying.

I think there are feelings I'd like to see explored more, the ending appears to set up a potential follow up book but it's ending is satisfying enough to simply imply potential conflict that is not needed. Anna does do a great job capturing Amelia's anxiety and the ways it manifests, the ways she tries to treat it, and how it affects her life. It is a great deception of that mental health struggle. I do wish we could have seen more into Salira's perspective, the white woman who doesn't know about being gay being the POV makes sense in the like cynical ways but I would have liked to get more into the interiority of Salira who does fall a bit into the "more butch brown woman who dots after he innocent white GF trope." I think that would have been felt a little less if we saw the world a bit more from her eyes. That said the book does do a solid job of showing plenty of fem brown women so I think it be an oversimplification to say it's just an example of that. It's worth noting only in that i know several other BIPOC women who might hesitate at it but I think we're in the clear here.

This book does feel like it in some ways compensates for being about gay women with good straight brothers who are very good boys. In general we get an idea that Salira'a kingdom is homonormative and see that in a page but from that point on basically everyone is implied to be straight in the kingdom. They leave some details vauge, some people could be bi, but this is all the reader chosing the details what we do see if M/F relationships, a set of women attracted to men, and one other woman who is confirmed to be gay but is also tied into a plot twist so I won't go into detail. That's not to day the queerness feels bad in the story it is good, it's the focus, it's great just that I felt there was maybe a little room for improvement within the bounds the story itself set's up. Unlike something like the lack of trans rep which it does not ever bother with so I wouldn't mention outside of like using it as an example for something I wouldn't take points off for. Regardless, my point is it would have been nice for like one more named character to have been queer.

I do really enjoy that both girls have some troubles in the new arranged relationship and both gave up something they love for it. I also enjoy that there is a twist for a lie that is told that while given a moment of weight is not turned into a giant drama moment and just given a tiny bit of time before the pair moved on. It felt more realistic for the two to understand why that lie was told.

Ultimately, this is a rather good story that I feel like was close to great but maybe fell behind just a little. That said I really liked it and I'd totally love prints of it and stuff. The main couple are cute and extra adorable towards the end. I like that there is a flare of action in the story and that the story had some big shifts in the status quo by the end of it. I love a lot of the sweet little moments. I love the ways it really pushed on anxiety as this thing in your life that can be consuming. It's a really great piece of art. If you enjoyed this review and want to see other reviews and support me making my own sapphic art you can support me on Patreon.

[hecouldcomeintomycastle]

No one asked for this, but here's the resource I wanted two months ago. I'll update this if I find more. If you know of a Robin Hood historical romance not included here, please send me a message or reply! I'll add it.

What I consider a "Robin Hood-themed historical romance":

It directly features characters from the Robin Hood legend, or people related to them. This can apply to either to the protagonist couple or supporting characters. This is pretty easy to spot and is a straightforward piece of criteria.

It intentionally riffs on the story of Robin Hood. This can be a little more complicated because there are plenty of examples in historical romance of do-gooder thieves and outlaws, in the forest or otherwise, that clearly lift tropes from Robin Hood. What I tend to look for is barely adapted names/locations, or an acknowledgement from the author of what they intended to do (such as on the dedication page or author's notes).

It must be part of the historical romance genre. These are not Robin Hood books that feature a romance such as "Maid Marian" by Elsa Watson or "Lady of the Forest" by Jennifer Roberson. I love both of those dearly, but they are not historical romance. Books on this list are genre romance novels.

Now, in roughly publication order, here they are. My reviews are linked if I've read the book. I'm adding a ☑️ next to read books and my star rating, as well. (I'll come back and edit the post as I read more of these.) I'm not going to include a synopsis for each one because I haven't read all of them yet. This is just a list of the books and what makes them Robin Hood historical romance.

I'm posting the original on February 3rd, 2025. Check the notes for update edits, in case I find more.

☑️ "Under the Wild Moon" by Diane Carey Signet Books, 1986 (Rated 1 star)

Will Scarlet is the MMC

Features other characters including Robin, Marian, and Friar Tuck.

☑️ "Damsel in Distress" by Shannon Drake Avon Books, 1992 (Rated 2 stars)

Main characters are original to the author, but involved with Robin and the outlaws.

Both hero and heroine are Robin's cousins.

Features other characters including Marian and Little John.

"The Black Thorne's Rose" by Susan King Topaz, 1994

MMC is a forest outlaw who fights against King John.

(I don't have a copy of this yet, and don't know if other characters or similarities will pop up.)

Marsha Canham has published three books as part of her "Robin Hood Trilogy". I don't know much about these, but they seem to adapt different parts of the Robin Hood story, and I've heard that the last book leads into actual Robin Hood lore.

"Through a Dark Mist" by Marsha Canham Bantam Books, 1991

"In the Shadow of Midnight" by Marsha Canham Bantam Books, 1994

"The Last Arrow" by Marsha Canham Bantam Books, 1997

"The Thief's Mistress" by Gayle Feyrer Dell, 1996

Robin and Marian are the protagonist couple.

A very direct adaptation.

"Lady Outlaw" by Kathryn Kramer Zebra Books, 1997

FMC is a member of Robin's outlaw band.

☑️ "Queen of the May" by Denee Cody Zebra Books, 1997 (Rated 2 stars)

FMC is a healer for the Merry Men.

Robin, Marian, and Tuck are supporting characters.

Primary villain is Guy of Gisborne.

"Prince of Thieves" by Saranne Dawson Love Spell, 1998

The main characters are Roderic Hode and Maryana (Robin and Marian)

Plot elements follow the Robin Hood story, as well.

"The Baron" by Juliana Garnett Bantam Books, 1999

FMC is is Robin's niece.

MMC is a (different) Sheriff of Nottingham.

Robin, Marian, and others are supporting characters.

☑️ "What a Scoundrel Wants" by Carrie Lofty Zebra Books, 2008 (Rated 3.5 stars)

Will Scarlet is the MMC.

Robin and Marian are supporting characters.

☑️ "The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes" by Cat Sebastian Avon Books, 2022 (Rated 5 stars)

The protagonist couple is Robin (Rob) and Marian, but make it 18th century.

That's all that I know of for now! Feel free to join me in the delightfully escapist goal of reading all of these. Maybe I'll finish by 2026?

[arcane-vagabond]

Arcane-Vagabond's FAQ

Hi! Welcome to my FAQ page! Here is a list of the different questions I get asked fairly frequently or things I've had to address more than once.

✨ Can I tag you in my fics?

Did I ask to be tagged? Then no.💛

(You will be blocked if you do this anyway.)

✨ Will you promote my fic?

I try to reblog fics I come across, and promote the ones from smaller authors as much as possible. However, that does not mean my blog is a billboard for you to promote your fics on. I was once a small time author, so I know how hard it can be to get your stuff out there. Shoving your work at me is a guaranteed way to get me to NOT read it and actively ignore it in the future.

✨ Can I make fan art of your fics?

My brother in Christ…..we will have a spring wedding.

(Just let me know/tag me/give me credit)

✨ Can I be added to your taglist?

I do not have a taglist. If you would like to be notified on when I post, follow my sideblog ( @arcanevagabond-library ) and turn on post notifications. I will ignore requests asking to be put on a taglist from here on out.

✨ Do you have a posting schedule?

I attempted, but that ended fast. So….no, not currently.

✨ Can I request something?

If my requests are open, then yes! But please keep in mind that I might say no if I'm not interested or comfortable with the topic. Usually, I will send you over to an artist/writer who I think might be able to fulfill your request if I cannot.

✨ You haven't answered my ask/request/questions or updated my favorite story in a while. Why?

While I try to get to requests, sometimes the writing juice just isn't plentiful for an idea. Also, I'm a grown woman with a full time job, friends, family, and other hobbies/obligations outside of this blog. I travel for work which means at any given time, I'm sitting in a hotel room after multiple hours of driving. If I have time, I try to answer everything, but I also have (as of 7.30.24) 94 requests sitting in my inbox, with some from a couple of months ago. Please be patient.

✨ I want to write a story, but it's similar to yours. Is that okay?

Listen, my love, as long as it's not a complete ripoff of one of my stories, I really don't care what you write. You want to write about mermaids? Please do! You want to write about cursed pirates? Go ahead! The nature of AUs is that you are going to use similar tropes for the stories, and the nature of tropes is that you are going to have similarities to stories that use the same ones. There's only so many ways you can write a meet cute in a bar.

✨ Why do you have so many WIPs (Works in Progress)? You know you probably won't finish all of those, right?

I do, and that's okay. That's the nature of writing fanfic, unfortunately. Not everything is going to get finished. You also have to understand that just because I haven't touched a story in a month or two doesn't mean it's been abandoned. The writing muses just haven't given me inspiration or motivation to write for it. I will make an announcement and take something off of my masterlist if I have decided to abandon it.

✨ What are some thing I can do to get my writing noticed?

Tag appropriately. I cannot tell you how many people are going to scroll past your writing if you tag a character fic with the actor (for example, tagging a Jake "Hangman" Seresin fic with Glen Powell). In fact, you are more likely to get yourself blocked versus someone reading your fic. Make use of the "Read More" feature on your fics. People are more likely to block you than read your fic if they have to scroll endlessly past your fics. People will find your fics by searching the appropriate tags. Just give it time.

✨ What are some things I should do when posting/writing?

Put appropriate trigger/content warnings above your fic. If you are going to write about sensitive topics, it is SO important that you warn people before they reach the story. Writing about losing a child, cancer, or sexual behavior? Tag it explicitely so people can filter it. Do not censor your warnings and do not use "angst" as a catch all. Allow people to protect themselves.

✨ I didn't like [insert fic here].

I literally don't care. Telling me you didn't like something instead of scrolling without a hateful comment makes you a loser, actually.

✨ Do you take non-fanfic related questions?

Yes!! I encourage them, actually! Never feel like you can't shoot me an ask that's not related to fanfic or fandom because I love chatting!! Even if you want to chat with me about fics, I'm more than happy to do so!

✨ Who do you write for?

Mainly Top Gun Maverick at the moment, but I might write for other fandoms in the future! I write reader inserts, and it’s good to note that my reader inserts are female unless otherwise stated!

This is by no means a comprehensive list, and will be updated as I get more questions!

[olderthannetfic]

wait has someone ever written up a history of sentinelverse au's? because this feels like a topic that needs to be discussed

--

IDK. What's on Fanlore?

I mean, on a very basic level, yes, I'm sure someone has written something, but I'm not aware of any well-researched deep dives into exactly when such-and-such a part of the trope first showed up.

Given the era, I would guess that at least some important developments happened in zines. The internet was taking over pretty thoroughly by the time the show aired, but oldschool writers, some of them popular BNFs, were still doing zines. Sentinel fandom itself had a lot (and I would bet that the AU does come pretty squarely from TS fanon even if it doesn't come from TS canon). It was also an era of mailing lists, which don't have publicly accessible archives.

That big, old Sentinel archive got imported to AO3, didn't it? So at least a decent chunk of stuff will be findable, but I'd bet there's plenty of old Sentinel fic that's just on somebody's hand-coded HTML page from back in the day. And other fandoms of the era are like that too and/or have dead archives that aren't always on AO3 now. And god knows what developments happened in the LJ years.

By the time we get to easily-findable stuff of the last decade or so, the trope was very firmly established. I'm sure people still come up with new takes (there's some BTS fic by people who clearly have heard of the trope but not really read it, for example), but a lot of the history requires digging.

Anyone have thoughts on the evolution of Sentinel AUs?

[doubleaspectrum]

Oldboy Hallway Fight Analysis

So, I recently watch Oldboy. The 2003 version, not the remake. Seriously, why do people even make those anyways? Remakes only make sense if the original creation sucks and you’re giving things another try to fix it. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Right? Well, OLDBOY AIN’T BROKE!

Sorry about the tangent, I just really don’t get why media outlets keep trying to improve on something that already worked. Most of the times they make things worse. Heck, if anyone can find an example that improved on a success, let me know.

Okay, I’m done this time. So, the reason I was pointed to Oldboy is because my eldest sibling showed me the famous hallway fight scene. At the time, I didn’t see how it ended, they stopped at the first moment Dae-su is knocked down and the gangsters start to crowd him.

So, of course, I figured the obvious answer, no matter how skilled Dae-su could be he’d lose the fight. Skill doesn’t account for much if you’re overwhelmed. Imagine my surprise when I was told that he wins. My jaw dropped. How could he win with those odds?! Only someone like John Wick could win and even then, he’d being using a gun! Well, when I saw the scene itself in its full glory I understood why, and my goodness I loved it!

Now, to go with the beginning parts I saw, they were good, but they were also rather par for the course when it comes to action movies.

There’s a degree of martial arts with Dae-su dancing his way into the crowd.

There’s a part where he fights pragmatically by taking a human shield.

And when he first gets crowded, he gets right back up and starts charging the crowd.

And while this is great, I’m sad to say this isn’t unique. Any other action movie character can do this. There’s no shortage of martial arts films, and we’ve seen heroes like John McClane and John Wick (there’s no shortage of Johns either) tank plenty of hits and manage to keep walking on both feet before the movie ends. So, what is it that makes Oldboy so unique? Don’t worry, I’m getting there.

The first part that really impressed me was Dae-su getting knocked down the second time. You know what he does?

He slams his hammer into his opponents’ feet!

Now this is a stroke of genius! From what I’ve seen of hydraulic press videos, everything likes to hold its shape before enough force makes the substance break in its weakest spot. This applies to the process of hammering a nail. Now, you may get those situations where the nail proves to be the weaker substance and you’ve got a bent nail, but ideally the wooden board is the weaker substance and it gives way when slammed. Now with these principles in mind, tell me what happens when a human foot is stuck between a swinging hammer and a concrete floor.

Now, if a hammer was hitting a floating limb, it would hurt but would go with the swing, but with the concrete floor as a brace, where does the force go but into the foot? It was at this point I realized that Daes-su wasn’t just fighting harder than a gang of thugs, he was outsmarting them!

On a slight side note, I have read a copy of Sun Tzu’s the Art of War, specifically without commentary. So, I remember the advice that you should know both the enemy and yourself to judge your capacity for victory. So, when I say that Dae-su was outsmarting his opponents, I made sure to judge their intelligence accordingly.

The next key part of the fight is that Dae-su gets stabbed in the back and collapses.

This lulls his opponents into a false sense of security, and they start to wonder if he’s dead. One important thing to mention, they don’t take the knife out. Now, if you have basic medical knowledge (or in my case, have read the Worst Aid page on TV Tropes) then you’ll know that what kills someone isn’t putting the knife into the body, it’s the blood loss when the knife is removed. So, when the thugs start wondering if they’ve killed a guy without removing the knife, you can assess how smart they are.

This actually plays into the greatest part of my analysis. You see, Dae-su takes everyone by surprise when he gets up and keeps fighting; from there the atmosphere changes. Suddenly, the gang doesn’t rush him all at once anymore.

They keep their distance, they back away more often, and push each other.

All around, they don’t want to get close to him. And that’s when I understand, none of them are particularly smart so as far as they can tell, some guy they just killed has come back to life and is still kicking their asses! To put it simply, they’re scared. And that makes all the difference. Suddenly this isn’t a simple fight anymore, Dae-su has engaged several opponents at once in psychological warfare, and he’s winning.

Thus, my question was answered. How did Dae-su win the fight? He wasn’t just a juggernaut or a martial artist like any other action hero; he won through tactical genius. He turned unfavorable situations into brutal counterattacks, he used his enemy’s lack of intelligence to catch them off guard, and most of all, he terrified the crap out of an entire group. Normally, we’d be worried about how much sense a fight scene can make, but when I saw this fight, it clicked together and I loved it all the more.

[jophiel-extras]

Hi! So I was looking at your page, and I went through the entire thing, and I noticed a few things that are sort of fishy to me. So, you posted that you aren’t comfortable doing dub con content, but you’re okay doing hypnosis/influence fics? And cnc? I’m sorry, I’m just a little confused as to how neither of those are explicitly consented in a fully consensual way. Cnc is a little better than hypnosis/influence fics but they’re both dub con in nature, if not noncon as far as the hypnosis ones go. I was just wondering your thoughts on that. Thanks!

Sure, so I was referring to “hypnosis” in terms of being more realistic; not full body takeover, if that makes sense. More like trigger words that can cause a physical reaction wink wink. As for “influences” I am referring to aphrodisiacs, things that amplify sexuality and desires the examples I used being drugs that boost libido or sex pollen which is a common smut trope. I do understand how that can be confusing though, hope this helped and I’ll specify these in my kink list. Also CNC refers to the consensual roleplay of non consent, which is a fine kink for people to roleplay in a safe setting with a safe word. I don’t hold any judgement towards people who write dub con, but I just don’t want to! Sorry if that disappoints, I’m sure there are plenty of other fic writers who don’t mind.

[mackycheese]

i like editing for tvtropes not because it's a great platform for media analysis or because it's informative or for The Community or whatever. i like it because im autistic and not smart enough for wikipedia

i have nothing of value to add to any page on an obscure species of yeast, but when i accurately remember the events of a story, there's always another editor on tvtropes who thinks they do but doesn't and whose edit i get to correct. everything on wikipedia is already very standardized, but i got to alphabetize the work examples on several trope pages already.

not to mention there's plenty of obscure works that don't but very much could have a tvtropes page (no such thing as notability and all that)