#to be fair to myself i do think that the other times I've written Etho have been much more in-character

[redwinterroses]

Fic writer challenge: what's the most egregious case of mischaracterisation you've fallen into with the hermits?

Bc I'm very guilty of making Stress the Mum Friend of the hermits, though it was less a uwu soft bean kinda mum and more inspired by my mum who would, when I was growing up, would look at me or my brother when we fell over and just be like "what you doing down there?" (The correct answer was always "getting up") and if we got little bumps and scrapes would just talk about how pretty the bruise was gonna be. Kinda more a Cool Mum archetype? Idk she's always reminded me of my mum lol

I'll admit to using tropes sometimes just because I LIKE them, even if they're not accurate. Like... I'm pretty sure I had someone run to Stress for a potion at one point, but it was more just because it was a convenient, established trope than because I actually want to use Stress as "server doctor" -- actually, if i was going to use that for any hermit, I'd probably go with Xisuma because of his massive potion factory near the end of s7. Again, not because the characterization works super well, but because that was an element I absolutely loved and would enjoy using.

So yeah -- I've done Responsible Dadmin (though I try to always mix it with a healthy amount of Derp) for Xisuma, I have indulged in Griangst (what can I say, he leaves so many potential plot hooks dangling), and so on... but my worst one was probably also my first fic in the fandom, lol. baby's a red was a self-indulgent ficlet where 3rd Life Etho decides to go red deliberately, and because I had only seen Etho through the eyes of Grian, Xisuma, Mumbo, and Impulse at that point, I very much had the fandom stereotype of "brooding and calculating" for him.

That fic is one of the most ridiculously out-of-character fics in the Etho tag. XD I don't take it down because... I mean, I wrote it, I gotta fess up to it, but if I were to rewrite the same idea today it would be 100% different.