#weirdly specific tropes

[suzannahnatters]

Some weirdly specific tropes that I absolutely adore but rarely see: Platonic Love Triangle Two attractive people will battle to the death over the right to be friends with you (I wrote this in A Day of Darkness and otherwise have only seen it in the kdrama Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938)

The UnChosen One In the magical fantasy world, everyone has super awesome magical powers, except the protagonist (A Dream of Fire by JR Rasmussen did this SO WELL and it made me SO HAPPY; I also plan to do it myself in an upcoming project, A Lord of Thorns and Teeth)

Dying Baby King Terminally ill teen boy should be asking out his crush and having fun, not killing himself running a country (I wrote this in The Lady of Kingdoms with my squishy darling Baldwin IV, and I've only ever seen it done otherwise in the Trevor Nunn movie My Lady Jane)

Disabled Love Interest Put your romantic male lead in a wheelchair you cowards (Stella Dorthwany's Song and Flame and @rj-anderson's Knife have two of the best disabled love interests I've seen)

Sword in the Bed You've heard of Only One Bed but this is the superior medieval variant: before they bunk down together one of them draws a naked sword and lays it in the bed between them (IIRC, it happens in the Welsh Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed, and apart from that and some other medieval legends and fairytales, I've only seen it in an unfinished work by @rj-anderson auuuugh)

Fake Divorced Exactly what it says on the tin (I've never seen this? but DV I'll be writing it into the 5th Miss Dark book)

Bad Fictional Matriarchy What if the patriarchy was a fantasy matriarchy? It'd still be bad, obviously. I see this so rarely but it is always an opportunity for fantastic, layered social criticism (Greta Gerwig's Barbie movie did it well; I'm struggling to recall the one (1) other fantasy novel I read that did it!)

Sad Wet Puppy X Righteous Female Warrior ETL Enemies-to-lovers, but he's a skinny waterlogged little weirdo and she's the righteous paladin who is going to hound him to his destruction without mercy on the strength of her own heavenly wrath (it's the one thing in common between the kdrama Flower of Evil and the cdrama Till the End of the Moon and both of them sent me absolutely feral, plus I have an untitled project on the backburner that will give me the chance to do my own version of this...)

[reinanova]

what’s a weirdly specific trope you wish you could see more of?

i’ll start:

“i told my friend i was on a date except i wasn’t on a date but i just saw said friend so i kissed the first person i saw which happened to be you and now we’ve kinda committed to the fake dating bit”

[deeply-unserious-fellow]

I DON'T have a favorite ship dynamic I DON-

...fuck-

[brood-mother]

if i had a nickel for every big beautiful horned lady-beefcake fantasy rpg love interest/companion with a non-binary voice actor we've met in the past year i'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but its fucking AWESOME it's happened twice

[sappho-hoziers-version]

If I had a nickel for every time I saw a gay crime drama with an FBI agent and a killer who are Definitely About To Bang, but instead of finally Resolving The Tension when they’re holding each other like they’re going to kiss, one person stabs the other in a shockingly non fatal way because they can’t Deal With Their Emotions Properly during a season finale…

I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Im a depressed indian bi girl and I dont know if I will ever be accpeted by really close family members of mine. Im scared to come out, but I can also feel myself rotting away bc I cant live as who I am openly. Everyday I feel so disconnected and lonely, even when surrounded by loved ones. I fully believe it when my self-esteem-less brain tells me no one will ever love me as who I am truly. My grandmother wouldnt look at me the same. My cousins would be weird around me. My religious uncles would cease talking to me. My aunts may look at me weird. I will become the weird 'shameful' kid the family would gossip about, and I get so scared even thinking about that future. Im so lost and scared and alone and I dont know what to do.

*sigh* sorry this was sadder than I thought it would be. Please ignore it if you would like to, or if ur just not comfortable

I just. I need advice. Or rather, I need to feel like im not alone, that there is someone out there that gets it. I dont know maybe I need a hug.

Or drugs or something /j

Im so tired yknow

Anyway. Sorry. Have a nice day :)

-a tired queer anon❤️

Hey anon maggot ❤️ I'm sending all the love and hugs to you. I promise you, you are not alone. Maybe you won't find community immediately around you right now, and maybe some of your family won't be accepting. Which is awful, it feels so awful, and you are so valid in grieving that. It isn't how it should be. It'll be a long time before one day we can change the system itself.

But I promise that you WILL find people. You will be loved for you are. Maybe it'll take a while. But there are people out there who are looking for someone just like you, and wishing they weren't lonely, and you will find each other. You will have the freedom to choose your family. Some people will change, learn to accept you. Some will not, and you'll have to make peace with that, while recognising they hurt you and that's not okay but they're their own people.

And there will be other people, whom you WILL find, who will cherish you and celebrate you and love you for the very things that made the others turn away.

I was so so alone. Believe me. One of my earliest tumblr posts is a rather sad one that's basically facts about me and begging for a friend, because I had no one to talk to or really be myself with except my dog.

And now I have the most wonderful community here in the world and I love you all so damn much and i wish i could go back and tell that boy in late December that he was going to be okay.

Instead I'm telling you. You're going to be okay. You are not alone. Stay safe, anon maggot, and take care of yourself, especially when it's hard to.

With all the love,

Asmi

[nat-1-whump]

Alright, pardon me for drawing whump inspiration from weird places like a college lab class, but some types of rock, such as marble, sizzle when they come into contact with hydrochloric acid. Which brings me to...

Whumpee is a sentient marble statue. Maybe they're a person who was turned into a statue with a petrification spell, or they're a statue that was cursed with sentience somehow. Either way, they're trapped in this form for the time being.

Though most people have no clue Whumpee is alive, Whumper finds out and takes full advantage of this, torturing Whumpee with hydrochloric acid. It burns and they can't do a thing to stop it. Over time, the acid starts to wear down the stone, and Whumpee can only imagine what a bloody mess their flesh will be if they are ever turned back.

Or, alternatively, Caretaker is trying to figure out what happened to them, and they use hydrochloric acid to test what kind of stone Whumpee is. Caretaker would never hurt Whumpee on purpose, but they're completely unaware that Whumpee can feel every single drop that touches them. Whether they know that Caretaker means no harm, or think that Caretaker is deliberately hurting them, Whumpee can't help but feel a bit nervous about Caretaker from then on.

Whumpee is utterly helpless, forced to hold perfectly still as the burning liquid is splashed onto them. They can't flinch, can't scream, can't cry. Their face is still frozen in the exact same expression they've always had as a statue. And they hate it.

[astrababyy]

can the whole “lovers read each other’s minds” trope in fantasy please go die in a hole because if it’s not something that happens AFTER the relationship is established, it always taints the relationship and its legitimacy for me. i have read a lot of stories with this trope, and i have never, not ONCE seen it done well. it’s always so invasive and a major reason for how the relationship goes from acquaintances to being as close as they are. that mind reading thing is always involved, and a lot of the time, it’s not consensual so it’s just icky.

[plasmodiumpyrexia]

Thinking about a really specific thing: Characters putting their hands on their chest.

Like after a coughing fit (that already sounds painful), caretaker looks over to see whumpee with their hand on their chest, giving it a lil rub...

Or if their heart skips a beat and they automatically reach to their chest. And if their heart is racing, feeling each beat pound away under their hand.

And when they're struggling to catch their breath. One hand is on their heaving chest and the other is braced on the wall, lungs burning and dark spots dancing in their vision as they gasp for air.

Maybe it's the only outward sign of their inner turmoil. Unease building, making it feel like the air is being sucked out of the room, a hand on their tight chest.

Or maybe, it simply hurts.

And the gesture just looks concerning, like even if whumpee isn't fully clutching their chest, they still seem uncomfortable. Something's up and it's probably not good.

[bananonbinary]

being in a small fandom is wild, you really get to know like, 4 specific people's incredibly niche fetishes

[bobafetts-princess]

If I had a nickel for each time Sir Christopher Lee played a magical being that began good and turned evil I’d have two nickels

Which isn’t a lot

But it’s weird that it’s happened twice

[catboy-jupiter]

my favorite niche (is it niche?) romance... trope? is body sharing. whether that's bc smth happens and two people who are in love fuse or have to share one of their bodies for one reason or another, or two strangers end up sharing a body and end up falling in love.. gods it makes me INSANE. i think it's peak romance that two people literally become one (or come as close to becoming one as they can. whether they recognize themselves as different identities or one, shared new identity.... yummy!). ultimate levels of insanely-in-love imo and i LOVE it

[madeimpact]

No I will not elaborate

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

So, I've started playing Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology.

Not that far into it (for those curious: just met Aht and Viola in the respective timelines), but... Selvan and Dias are definitely fucking, right?

[gaydogmarriage]

feel like many of the ppl who critique hoyo for how they write women dont actually know wtf theyre talking about and arent much better themselves