Trope Meme

[extrapenguin]

Okay, why not do a meme! This one is via at least solo, green, and trobadora, though I'm pretty sure I've missed at least one person. Sorry!

Slow burn OR love at first sight: Neither? My experience of Slow Burn is that it comes with wayyy too much "oh noes I cannot confess because of my insecurities" and generalized pining, which is my anti-kink. Have characters make decisions! Love at first sight, OTOH, can have a lot of bullshit tropes, but usually at least has the characters making decisions without waffling. In both cases, I want the plot to be something other than falling in love.

Fake dating OR secret dating: Fake dating as part of a reasonable plot-relevant thing. The only reasons I can come up with for secret dating are way too depressing (homophobia!) so not that.

Enemies to lovers OR best friends to lovers: I don't actually have a preference? The one that's done better. :P (I'm not into "they fell in love and got together" as a plotline, so the variants are mostly lost on me. I haven't read enough of either to have an opinion.)

Oh no there's only one bed OR long distance with correspondence: The former, since the latter is prone to being depressing if this is supposed to be a ship.

Fantasy au OR modern au: Fantasy AU, I hate mundane AUs, and modern means mundane. Though I don't go seeking out setting change AUs – a large part of the reason I love the canons I love is the setting and worldbuilding. Replacing all that is not something I'm interested in.

Smut OR fluff: Smut, since that usually ends and doesn't leave me with a feeling akin to having eaten much too much sugar. Small bits of fluff are fine as seasoning in longer narratives, but over 1k of it or something consisting entirely of that? Nah.

Mutual pining OR domestic bliss: Domestic bliss, I guess, if only because I hate mutual pining. I have never seen a case of mutual pining that wasn't bullshit misunderstandings to prolong a narrative with unbelievable melodrama that makes me think less of the characters involved. Not that I have particular positive feelings for domestic bliss, beyond enjoying it as an endpoint of a narrative or as moments sprinkled throughout a longer story.

Alternate universe OR future fic: If this is canon divergence vs future fic, my answer depends on the canon. If it's about setting change AUs, then future fic every time.

One shot OR multi-chapter: With regards to length, whatever the natural length of the story. Don't stretch a 1k story to 100k, or condense a 100k story into 1k (though that's less common in fandom). With regards to chaptering, if it's 10k or more, it should get chaptered.

Kid fic OR road trip fic: Neither? *g* Road trips are boring to undergo and even more boring to read about. So I guess kid fic, since that is less boring.

Reincarnation OR character death: I think I should start by saying that I hate reincarnation as a concept. I don't believe in souls, so unless the canon contains reincarnation already, it's just "here are some replacement goldfish for your dead canon characters" at best. Character death, OTOH, can lead to nice and evocative short stories, and is required for certain genres of narrative (e.g. murder mysteries) to work. So character death over reincarnation.

Arranged marriage OR accidental marriage: I don't object to either, though if I had to pick, I'd say accidental marriage, since in the context of my canons, that usually opens up a bunch of interesting worldbuilding. Arranged marriage can, too, but ime it's more likely to be based on a standard fandom trope plot instead of being an exploration of the canon's worldbuilding.

Time travel OR isolated together: Depends on the execution? Well-executed, definitely time travel, especially if it's twisty and has thoughts on various potential paradoxes. If the time travel falls flat on its face ... wait, no, I don't actually like isolated together. Time travel it is.

Neighbors OR roommates: Roommates sounds like a US college AU, so neighbors.

Sci-fi au OR magic au: Sci-fi AU all the way! I love science, I love science fiction, I love space and all the things spaaaaace enables!

Bodyswap OR genderbend: Genderbends generally work better for me, though I don't seek out either. Bodyswap breaks my suspension of disbelief faster.

Angst OR crack: Crack. Angst very quickly reaches the point of being too ludicrous to believe for me. Crack generally involves things other than wallowing and is thus preferrable.

Apocalyptic OR mundane: Apocalyptic, if only because I hate mundanity. Not that I would ever seek it out.

Comments

[solo]

My experience of Slow Burn is that it comes with wayyy too much "oh noes I cannot confess because of my insecurities" and generalized pining, which is my anti-kink.

I'm totally with you on the anti-kink but boy you must have been reading some crappy stuff. :) Take 'enemies to friends to lovers' - which okay, you don't have strong feelings about but part of why I like this is that it's a slooooooooooow burrrrrrrrn because quite reasonably they don't/can't hop into bed at the first sign of attraction and fuck like bunnies. It's no about insecurities, it's about... preconceptions, perhaps perceived danger, and just getting to know that person So. Very. Slowly.

But your comment has reminded me that I should post a list of 'anti-kinks' sometime, too. :)

Oh no there's only one bed OR long distance with correspondence: The former, since the latter is prone to being depressing if this is supposed to be a ship.

Rigth? RIGHT! I feel exactly the same way. Damn you The Untamed fandom and all your epistolary fic which is actually sometimes quite good but SO SAD.

"here are some replacement goldfish for your dead canon characters"

::sporfle::

Angst OR crack: Crack. Angst very quickly reaches the point of being too ludicrous to believe for me. Crack generally involves things other than wallowing and is thus preferrable.

Very good point. Mine is, there's way more angst than crack around and I would like more crack. But of course only crack that's actually funny.

[extrapenguin]

I'm totally with you on the anti-kink but boy you must have been reading some crappy stuff. :)
I think we're also interpreting the question differently? I'm thinking about slow burn qua slow burn, instead of "there is other stuff going on, so the relationship is thus a slow burn due to the A-plot space war" etc. The latter scenario gets classified as "space war" (or whatever the A-plot is), instead of slow burn. Categorizing by the main thing versus the garnish? (And almost everything can work as a garnish for the right kind of plot, too, so I prefer to interpret the question as being about main flavors.)

But your comment has reminded me that I should post a list of 'anti-kinks' sometime, too. :)
Sounds interesting! I know I have my narrative squicks; I wonder how much people in the same fandoms overlap on those.

I would like more crack. But of course only crack that's actually funny.
I admit I haven't browsed the Crack tag on AO3, but I generally find crackfic I encounter in the wild to be better than the angstfic I find. Part of that is personal preference, but I do think that crack being less en vogue than angst is means that people writing crack tend to be more invested, and investment brings a small boost to skills? IDK.

[solo]

I'm thinking about slow burn qua slow burn, instead of "there is other stuff going on, so the relationship is thus a slow burn due to the A-plot space war" etc.

Okay I get you! Different takes. But OMG I just had this totally preposterously snobbish moment when I was like "'qua' OMG I see a 'qua'" ♥♥♥

I feel bad about it but I love it. I don't like to go heavy on my edumacashion and all my fucking privilege but there's things I see so rarely nowadays and they give me joy. /o\

#killmenow

[extrapenguin]

I just had this totally preposterously snobbish moment when I was like "'qua' OMG I see a 'qua'" ♥♥♥
:D The English language has a lot of nice words (...which it has stolen from other languages' pockets), and I like using them! (Especially as I live in an ESL country, and thus regularly have conversations like "no, epitome is an actual word, they didn't just make it up". I enjoy every chance to flex my vocabulary muscles! "Alas" is a perfectly usable word!)

[china_shop]

so unless the canon contains reincarnation already, it's just "here are some replacement goldfish for your dead canon characters" at best.

Hee! :-)

[extrapenguin]

Sometimes one can write something tragic - hope bait-y? - with the replacement goldfish, but mostly, nah. "Here's someone who is not your love interest, but also not allowed to be a completely different person, because who falls in love twice anyway?" Not my thing.

[china_shop]

Not quite the same thing, but OMG, yesterday I watched the final episode of a British show from 1979. Near the start of the last season, one of the gay characters commits suicide, and in the final episode, the actor shows up again, blond and Australian this time, and the characters conspire to set him up with the dead guy's grieving boyfriend and it works. /o\ /o\ /o\ /o\ /o\

[extrapenguin]

I had a very intense reaction to that which boils down to DNW. Just ... nope.

[china_shop]

Yeah, it was pretty horrifying.