Fandom Trope Meme
Mar. 2nd, 2020 06:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tiggymalvern
I've seen versions of this on a couple of journals and then not got around to doing it, so I'm stealing the version from jo_lasalle's journal because it's the most recent one and easiest to find...
Slow burn OR love at first sight: Slow burn. I just don't believe in love at first sight, so it's not a convincing place for a story to start for me (though LUST at first sight with the love following along later is more than fine :-) )
Fake dating OR secret dating: I can't say I'd actively seek out either, but on the whole I prefer serious fic to crack, so I'll go with secret dating, because there have been plenty of fandoms where homophobia or other factors require that a relationship can't be open. Fake dating seems to be primarily a humour trope.
Enemies to lovers OR best friends to lovers Best friends to lovers. So many of my fandoms have involved pairings who have an incredibly close friendship. I absolutely love long plotty stories, though, and I've read many FANTASTIC fics of enemies to lovers, but they've all progressed slowly via friendship as an intermediate stage, so I still count those as friends to lovers, kind of? Enemies to friends is already canon for Picard/Q for instance, we just add the to lovers part :-)
Oh no there's only one bed OR long distance with correspondence Only one bed because those can be short and fun as a palate cleanser from the longer stuff, and the epistolatory format is really hard to pull off for anyone but the best writers.
Fantasy au OR modern au: Neither, honestly. I fall in love with the universe of a show as well as the characters, and taking them out of those circumstances is going to leave me uninterested much of the time. The characters I love tend to be incredibly complex and shaped by their backstories, so unless you can take those backstories with them into an entirely different setting, the character can end up an entirely different person. (There is an exception to this generalisation, and I'll go into detail on it later when I reach it.)
Smut OR fluff: Smut. I'm not much of a fluff person overall, I prefer DRAMA. Fluff is good as a few moments of respite in a longer, more serious story.
Mutual pining OR domestic bliss: Mutual pining. Domestic bliss is up there with the fluff category - small doses only, evening out the drama. I'm not much for curtain fic, and certainly not for kid fic.
Alternate universe OR future fic: Entirely dependent on the interpretation of 'alternate universe'. I LOVE fics that take a point in canon and change it, and spin off what might have happened from there (close canon AUs). I have no interest in reading about complex, mature adult characters dropped into a high school setting. I also really love future fics that take off from where a series ended - I've written far more words of those kind of stories than I have of any other. So probably future fic over close canon AUs by a nose.
One shot OR multi-chapter: Multi-chapter! Long and plotty stories are so good! But only when they're complete. I went on strike from reading WIPs about twenty years ago. The only WIPs I read now are the ones I beta for friends.
Kid fic OR road trip fic: Road trip. I have no particular interest in kids in real life, I'm not interested in reading about them either. Road trip holds a lot of potential for close quarters UST and dealing with irritating little habits :-)
Reincarnation OR character death: Reincarnation all the way, and I'm sure anyone who was ever even peripherally involved in Saiyuki fandom would say the same. This is my one exception to not liking taking characters out of their setting that I was talking about above. Because Minekura shows how to do that brilliantly. Sanzo as a high ranking Buddhist monk makes no sense at all - until you know who he used to be, and his determination to Do The Right Thing whatever the personal cost, and then it makes all the sense that his guardian saw something in this bratty little orphan. The motivation and drives of Minekura's characters remain the same, keeping them innately the same people whatever the life and whatever the backstory, and so many good writers in that fandom did it too. And if you can do that with your AU - if you convince me that Will Graham found a way to divert his fascination with violence and turn it into something positive by being say, a war zone reporter instead of law enforcement, I'll come with you for that ride. Reincarnation adds an extra frisson of canon connection, even if the characters themselves don't remember it.
Arranged marriage OR accidental marriage: I'd probably go with arranged marriage, purely because with a few rare exceptions accidental!marriage is crack fic, which isn't my main preference.
Time travel OR isolated together: Time travel. Such dramatic potential! Desperately trying to change what went wrong the first time! Risking making things worse instead of better, and what if time resists being changed? Someone who's already in love with an earlier version of their lover who has no idea who they are! So many possibilities to play with!
Neighbors OR roommates: I'm not invested in either, but probably room-mates. It brings back that UST and living with each other's annoying habits that I got into with the road trip.
Sci-fi au OR magic au: Neither, but sci-fi if I must. I was always more of a hard sci-fi person than a fantasy one.
Bodyswap OR genderbend: Bodyswap. It's such a personal invasion to have someone else inhabiting your body, especially if it's someone you might be attracted to. How do you communicate with them afterwards, when they already know you with such physical intimacy?
Angst OR crack: Angst all the way. Not necessarily unending angst, but Drama With Plot over silly shenanigans.
Apocalyptic OR mundane: Apocalyptic. I have plenty of mundane in real life, I read fanfic to get away from that!
High school romance or middle aged romance: Middle-aged. With the exception of Gundam Wing, I don't think I've been actively fannish about any pairing where the protagonists are terribly young. And the thing about Gundam Wing is those poor teenagers were hardly kids. When it comes to live action TV, even when I was a teenager myself, I was mostly hot for actors who were late thirties and up. So from the point of view of both visual aesthetics and character complexity, I'm going older.
BDSM or vanilla: Vanilla. Mainly because many BDSM fics become all about exploring the kink and less about exploring the characters. They can be done well and do both, but on the whole, more conventional sex scenes seem to find their place in the long, plotty character-driven stories I'm into.
Redemption or corruption: Hmmm. I've been seriously into pairings that involve both. Clearly Hannibal is about the corruption (or more the unveiling?) of Will Graham, while Due South centres on the unrelentingly good influence of Fraser on everyone around him. I honestly think I just love change and influence of characters on one another, and the direction isn't as important as the journey? And which way the character in question inherently wants to go...
Vampires or werewolves: That's a hard pass on both.
Soulmates or second chances: Second chances. It's so much more interesting when the characters have choices vs the starting-point inevitability of soulmates.
Hurt/comfort or romance: Romance. Not necessarily traditional flowers and curtains, but the hurt/comfort formula doesn't do it for me.
Rescue fic or working together to defeat X: Working together, yes! Sometimes it can be, 'I don't like you much, but this has to be done, and it has to be us, so shut up and get started.' Sometimes it can be, 'We're so tired and stressed over this and the only ones we can lean on are each other.' But I'm WAY more into teamwork and shared responsibility than I'm into damsels in distress and heroes.
And that's this one come to an end, have at it!
jo_lasalle's journal because it's the most recent one and easiest to find...Slow burn OR love at first sight: Slow burn. I just don't believe in love at first sight, so it's not a convincing place for a story to start for me (though LUST at first sight with the love following along later is more than fine :-) )
Fake dating OR secret dating: I can't say I'd actively seek out either, but on the whole I prefer serious fic to crack, so I'll go with secret dating, because there have been plenty of fandoms where homophobia or other factors require that a relationship can't be open. Fake dating seems to be primarily a humour trope.
Enemies to lovers OR best friends to lovers Best friends to lovers. So many of my fandoms have involved pairings who have an incredibly close friendship. I absolutely love long plotty stories, though, and I've read many FANTASTIC fics of enemies to lovers, but they've all progressed slowly via friendship as an intermediate stage, so I still count those as friends to lovers, kind of? Enemies to friends is already canon for Picard/Q for instance, we just add the to lovers part :-)
Oh no there's only one bed OR long distance with correspondence Only one bed because those can be short and fun as a palate cleanser from the longer stuff, and the epistolatory format is really hard to pull off for anyone but the best writers.
Fantasy au OR modern au: Neither, honestly. I fall in love with the universe of a show as well as the characters, and taking them out of those circumstances is going to leave me uninterested much of the time. The characters I love tend to be incredibly complex and shaped by their backstories, so unless you can take those backstories with them into an entirely different setting, the character can end up an entirely different person. (There is an exception to this generalisation, and I'll go into detail on it later when I reach it.)
Smut OR fluff: Smut. I'm not much of a fluff person overall, I prefer DRAMA. Fluff is good as a few moments of respite in a longer, more serious story.
Mutual pining OR domestic bliss: Mutual pining. Domestic bliss is up there with the fluff category - small doses only, evening out the drama. I'm not much for curtain fic, and certainly not for kid fic.
Alternate universe OR future fic: Entirely dependent on the interpretation of 'alternate universe'. I LOVE fics that take a point in canon and change it, and spin off what might have happened from there (close canon AUs). I have no interest in reading about complex, mature adult characters dropped into a high school setting. I also really love future fics that take off from where a series ended - I've written far more words of those kind of stories than I have of any other. So probably future fic over close canon AUs by a nose.
One shot OR multi-chapter: Multi-chapter! Long and plotty stories are so good! But only when they're complete. I went on strike from reading WIPs about twenty years ago. The only WIPs I read now are the ones I beta for friends.
Kid fic OR road trip fic: Road trip. I have no particular interest in kids in real life, I'm not interested in reading about them either. Road trip holds a lot of potential for close quarters UST and dealing with irritating little habits :-)
Reincarnation OR character death: Reincarnation all the way, and I'm sure anyone who was ever even peripherally involved in Saiyuki fandom would say the same. This is my one exception to not liking taking characters out of their setting that I was talking about above. Because Minekura shows how to do that brilliantly. Sanzo as a high ranking Buddhist monk makes no sense at all - until you know who he used to be, and his determination to Do The Right Thing whatever the personal cost, and then it makes all the sense that his guardian saw something in this bratty little orphan. The motivation and drives of Minekura's characters remain the same, keeping them innately the same people whatever the life and whatever the backstory, and so many good writers in that fandom did it too. And if you can do that with your AU - if you convince me that Will Graham found a way to divert his fascination with violence and turn it into something positive by being say, a war zone reporter instead of law enforcement, I'll come with you for that ride. Reincarnation adds an extra frisson of canon connection, even if the characters themselves don't remember it.
Arranged marriage OR accidental marriage: I'd probably go with arranged marriage, purely because with a few rare exceptions accidental!marriage is crack fic, which isn't my main preference.
Time travel OR isolated together: Time travel. Such dramatic potential! Desperately trying to change what went wrong the first time! Risking making things worse instead of better, and what if time resists being changed? Someone who's already in love with an earlier version of their lover who has no idea who they are! So many possibilities to play with!
Neighbors OR roommates: I'm not invested in either, but probably room-mates. It brings back that UST and living with each other's annoying habits that I got into with the road trip.
Sci-fi au OR magic au: Neither, but sci-fi if I must. I was always more of a hard sci-fi person than a fantasy one.
Bodyswap OR genderbend: Bodyswap. It's such a personal invasion to have someone else inhabiting your body, especially if it's someone you might be attracted to. How do you communicate with them afterwards, when they already know you with such physical intimacy?
Angst OR crack: Angst all the way. Not necessarily unending angst, but Drama With Plot over silly shenanigans.
Apocalyptic OR mundane: Apocalyptic. I have plenty of mundane in real life, I read fanfic to get away from that!
High school romance or middle aged romance: Middle-aged. With the exception of Gundam Wing, I don't think I've been actively fannish about any pairing where the protagonists are terribly young. And the thing about Gundam Wing is those poor teenagers were hardly kids. When it comes to live action TV, even when I was a teenager myself, I was mostly hot for actors who were late thirties and up. So from the point of view of both visual aesthetics and character complexity, I'm going older.
BDSM or vanilla: Vanilla. Mainly because many BDSM fics become all about exploring the kink and less about exploring the characters. They can be done well and do both, but on the whole, more conventional sex scenes seem to find their place in the long, plotty character-driven stories I'm into.
Redemption or corruption: Hmmm. I've been seriously into pairings that involve both. Clearly Hannibal is about the corruption (or more the unveiling?) of Will Graham, while Due South centres on the unrelentingly good influence of Fraser on everyone around him. I honestly think I just love change and influence of characters on one another, and the direction isn't as important as the journey? And which way the character in question inherently wants to go...
Vampires or werewolves: That's a hard pass on both.
Soulmates or second chances: Second chances. It's so much more interesting when the characters have choices vs the starting-point inevitability of soulmates.
Hurt/comfort or romance: Romance. Not necessarily traditional flowers and curtains, but the hurt/comfort formula doesn't do it for me.
Rescue fic or working together to defeat X: Working together, yes! Sometimes it can be, 'I don't like you much, but this has to be done, and it has to be us, so shut up and get started.' Sometimes it can be, 'We're so tired and stressed over this and the only ones we can lean on are each other.' But I'm WAY more into teamwork and shared responsibility than I'm into damsels in distress and heroes.
And that's this one come to an end, have at it!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 10:04 am (UTC)Haha, I count these as 'enemies to lovers' because the starting point is enemies, and the end point is lovers. I'd expect some 'friends' time in the middle, yes.
So much this! Aaaah, I wish I had to time to watch al of Saiyuki again...
Yep, that's my take too.
I already knew I could never be into Hannibal but this here is probably the main reason why, in a nutshell. I really just don't 'do' corruption.
And both are so, so tasty!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 06:20 pm (UTC)Yes, yes, I know I cheated a bit (okay, a lot) with that one. But even without the cheat, I'd still go with friends to lovers, because that's what most of my preferred pairings have been. Every now and then I find myself going for a Muraki/Tsuzuki style pairing, but there has to be a lot there in canon to fire it off!
I rewatched Saiyuki about a year ago, becasue I showed it to my SO who had never seen it (we watched the original series then Gaiden) and it was great to watch it again. I still love that backstory arc and Kenren/Tenpou so much.
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 02:13 pm (UTC)I absolutely love long plotty stories, though, and I've read many FANTASTIC fics of enemies to lovers
I like these a lot too, and they often work for me in fandoms where I might read fic but am not actively fannish. For my own pairings I'm drawn to friends to lovers much more, but especially where I was more a casual consumer (Harry Potter, for instance) enemy pairings that take the time to build the relationship up can be really cool.
and dealing with irritating little habits
POINT! :D
This was very fun to read, I'm glad you picked it up!
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 06:21 pm (UTC)That doesn't surprise me at all :-)
no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 05:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-03-03 06:25 pm (UTC)