Meme Answers 4
Aug. 30th, 2019 09:07 amMore meme answers! ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
potofsoup asked:
10. What’s your favorite trope?
How could I possibly choose between “huddling for warmth,” “there’s only one bed,” “character A has to pretend to hate character B in order to protect them from the Big Bad even though it rips them apart inside, bonus points if there’s face-slapping,” “face-slapping,” (I really enjoyed the scene where Leia slaps Poe in The Last Jedi), and “hurt/comfort.”
I feel like hurt/comfort might be the ur-trope here, although sometimes the comfort is optional. Emotional suffering might, in fact, be the ur-trope. “I am forced into proximity with this person and I have Feelings about it!” “I think this person betrayed me and I have Feelings about it!” “I have a lot of Feelings about this person and I can’t tell whether the positive or the negative feelings are going to prevail because frankly there’s a good argument either way.”
11. What’s your (least) favorite overused trope?
High school AUs. They’re positively an infestation and I just do not see the point. It’s not that I’m opposed to high school settings on principle; I still read the occasional high-school-set YA novel, most recently the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy. (Still waiting for my hold on the third book!) But I don’t understand the appeal of taking a premise like “nineteenth century French revolutionaries!” or “World War II vets frozen in ice!”, and ignoring canon to make a more boring AU.
Or, rather, I can get the appeal as a writer (less research!), but as a reader, no. And yet they’re so popular! There are so many of them! Why does the entirety of fandom not cater specifically to me???
12. Which trope would you absolutely abolish?
I don’t think I would abolish any of them, because clearly they’re all doing something for someone…
But if A/B/O somehow perished from this earth, I would not cry.
13. Are there any tropes you’re embarrassed for enjoying?
I don’t know how common this trope is outside the Winter Soldier fandom, but there was a small but thriving subgenre of fics that might be summarized as “the Winter Soldier has forgotten what an orgasm is,” which were pretty great. I’m pretty sure they were totally bunk in terms of how amnesia works, particularly amnesia that allows you to retain all your super-assassin skills (presumably you’d retain on handle on your other, you know, physical skills?) but this did not make them any less delicious. Like virginity kink kicked up to eleven. (Which I also like. Blushing! Confusion! Shy enthusiasm! Overwhelming sensations!)
...actually, it occurs to me that I basically wrote a version of this trope for Vikings fandom, where Athelstan asks Ragnar to whip the carnal lust out of him and Ragnar obliges and Athelstan does not realize that the reason he feels less lustful after being soundly whipped is that his lust has been satisfied.
potofsoup asked:10. What’s your favorite trope?
How could I possibly choose between “huddling for warmth,” “there’s only one bed,” “character A has to pretend to hate character B in order to protect them from the Big Bad even though it rips them apart inside, bonus points if there’s face-slapping,” “face-slapping,” (I really enjoyed the scene where Leia slaps Poe in The Last Jedi), and “hurt/comfort.”
I feel like hurt/comfort might be the ur-trope here, although sometimes the comfort is optional. Emotional suffering might, in fact, be the ur-trope. “I am forced into proximity with this person and I have Feelings about it!” “I think this person betrayed me and I have Feelings about it!” “I have a lot of Feelings about this person and I can’t tell whether the positive or the negative feelings are going to prevail because frankly there’s a good argument either way.”
11. What’s your (least) favorite overused trope?
High school AUs. They’re positively an infestation and I just do not see the point. It’s not that I’m opposed to high school settings on principle; I still read the occasional high-school-set YA novel, most recently the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy. (Still waiting for my hold on the third book!) But I don’t understand the appeal of taking a premise like “nineteenth century French revolutionaries!” or “World War II vets frozen in ice!”, and ignoring canon to make a more boring AU.
Or, rather, I can get the appeal as a writer (less research!), but as a reader, no. And yet they’re so popular! There are so many of them! Why does the entirety of fandom not cater specifically to me???
12. Which trope would you absolutely abolish?
I don’t think I would abolish any of them, because clearly they’re all doing something for someone…
But if A/B/O somehow perished from this earth, I would not cry.
13. Are there any tropes you’re embarrassed for enjoying?
I don’t know how common this trope is outside the Winter Soldier fandom, but there was a small but thriving subgenre of fics that might be summarized as “the Winter Soldier has forgotten what an orgasm is,” which were pretty great. I’m pretty sure they were totally bunk in terms of how amnesia works, particularly amnesia that allows you to retain all your super-assassin skills (presumably you’d retain on handle on your other, you know, physical skills?) but this did not make them any less delicious. Like virginity kink kicked up to eleven. (Which I also like. Blushing! Confusion! Shy enthusiasm! Overwhelming sensations!)
...actually, it occurs to me that I basically wrote a version of this trope for Vikings fandom, where Athelstan asks Ragnar to whip the carnal lust out of him and Ragnar obliges and Athelstan does not realize that the reason he feels less lustful after being soundly whipped is that his lust has been satisfied.
