[ SECRET POST #3319 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3319 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[Homestuck]


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03.
[Manhunter, Criminal Minds, CSI and X-Files]


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04.
[Heroes Reborn]


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05.
[Story of Seasons]


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06.
[Keanu Reeves]


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07.


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08.


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09.
[One Punch Man]


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10.


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11. http://i.imgur.com/Pc6ksVv.png
[photo of naked dude in a suggestive(?) position]


















Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 015 secrets from Secret Submission Post #474.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[philstar22]

Are there any tropes that, when they show up in a fic, will ruin it for you even though you've enjoyed the fic so far and like the writing style?

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[pinkherring]

I don't know that it's a trope but whenever a character suddenly gets bashful, shy, tearful over nothing. Like, suddenly Scully will be crying over how scared she is of Mulder thinking she's ugly or some other absurdity.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[philstar22]

One of the biggest for me is changing characterization to suit what the author thinks people with certain bedroom roles are like. Like a character who in canon is strong willed, brave, experienced, or just generally loud all of a sudden becoming shy and retiring and innocent just because they are submissive.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[kaijinscendre]

The same one that drives me crazy in TV shows, when a long lost character comes back to save the day. OR if a character suddenly has some kind of power/knowledge to instantly defeat the bad thing.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Character bashing. Like, if you hate the character fine, but don't make shit up that's out of character. Like... You know enough about the star wars EU to write a fic about Tahiri, but in that fic you're gonna say luke kicks get out of the order for getting pregnant? CHILD PLEASE

Keeping secrets for no good reason. There can be good reasons sometimes, but mostly I see people using it for artificial drama.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[philstar22]

Yes so much to this. There are some pairings I just avoid reading even though I like them because such a huge percentage of the fics are bashing (Doctor/Donna for one). I hate character bashing even of characters I dislike. It is just such lazy writing and unnecessary.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[sarillia]

I actually find character bashing hilarious when it's really over the top. But yeah, it's not something I put up with when I want a fic I can take seriously.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Since most fanfic I read would be romance... I hate romantic complications in the form of a third party being involved with one half of the intended pairing. If they're sympathetic, I end up feeling sorry for them, but if they're unsympathetic I just get annoyed we're wasting time with this crap instead of actual development for the endgame couple.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Babies Ever After is my least favourite trop of all time, and has ruined a fair number of fics, and indeed entire fandoms.

The fact that it's a sort of post-script trope has its advantages and downsides. If I'm forewarned, maybe I can avoid it by just stopping before the epilogue (not that this always helps for original works, where the fandom is all over it and any Next Gen stuff that comes from it). But the fact that it comes at the end means if it's unavoidable ('cause the author tied other actual need-to-know conclusion stuff in with it), it's just ruined something I already poured all that time into.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

I *just* came across one of these, an apparently well liked Loki fic (well, the review/bookmark list was up there, anyway) and skipped right to the end to see if this Glorious Fic was worth it.

Babies.

Babies and gam-gam (or some other goofy name for grandma I can't recall) and what the fuck even I'm out

just...

fuck it's hard to find loki fic I can bear.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[nightscale]

Infidelity, either having the characters of my ship cheating on each other or using my ship to break up/cheat on a canon pair in a fic, nope. Don't like it. Can't do it. Don't want.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[philstar22]

I agree with this. I hate infidelity, which is making it hard for me to read most post Deathly Hallows Harry/Hermione fics because rather than AUs or having breakups first most of them seem to involve infidelity.

If there is a legitimate reason for it (say abusive partner where it is in-character for that person to be abusive) or say seducing a bad guy because it is the only way to stop him, fine. But otherwise no.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh. I don't like this either.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

What if they're in a canonically open relationship, or if there's canonical cheating (Mad Men fandom, for instance)?

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[eyeshine72]

Surprise pairings that involve half of a ship I like when I'm reading for that ship.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

OOC-ness. Period.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

A character getting knocked unconcious over and over again for scene/time transitions.

Badass characters being suddenly incompetent so another character looks cooler. Especially if it involves their job.

In long fic the same conflict happening over and over again with it always going back to square one.

Song lyrics in the middle of fic 95% of the time.

When a writer insists that a character is obstensibly x but does everything possible to undermine the character being x.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[tabaqui]

Mis-communications that are so stupid and, if fixed, would leave out a lot of pointless angst and bullshite. When anyone gets all weepy and 'vulnerable' when it's just so there can be h/c and it's totally out of character.

Sick/hurt characters either being a)of course i don't need to see a doctor!! (duct tapes guts back inside) or b) reeeeeeeally whiney and stupid. Or when a character has a high fever and nobody even considers giving them Tylenol or anything.

Little kids in every fic calling people Mr. or Miss First Name. I never did that in my life, and it sounds so stupid. Pwecious wittle kids of any kind.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

1. Helpless flailing does not equal plot.

I like my characters to be active and at least moderately bamfy. They don't always have to have the perfect, genius solution that takes out the bad guy in a hot second. Some real struggle and fear and uncertainty is awesome. But it drives me crazy when they spend most of a fic wringing their hands and going, "Woe as me! This is really bad! I have to do something, but what? There's nothing I can do!"

IMO, if you write your character(s) into a place where there is genuinely nothing they can do, that's just bad writing. Like, what a boring, annoying story. The whole point is to write them into a place where it seems like there's nothing they can do, and then have them figure something out and do it.

2. Poor communication.

I actually like miscommunication as a trope in itself, but that presumes the characters are good at communicating most of the time, and there's just one particular instance, or one particular area where they really fail at communicating (usually because they're scared and vulnerable and trying to hide it). That, I love. But when they're just generally terrible at actually conveying information to each other, and their failure to explain things to each other is the main thing that's causing everything to go wrong, that drives me crazy. Like, I've read some fics where the characters will have really important issues to discuss, but the author won't let either of them speak more than half a sentence before having the other one cut them off, misunderstand them, derail the conversation, freak out, and storm out of the room. Even one scene like that can be annoying, but when it seems like that's the only way the author knows how to write dialogue, it's the worst.

3. Constant melodramatic emotional vacillating.

I don't mind heaps of angst, and I'm perfectly capable of enjoying fics where the characters act kind of like teenagers about each other. But some authors write the characters as going from one emotional tailspin to the next. Literally every chapter they bounce from "I am miserable and my life is empty and hopeless," to "everything's okay, I'm fine," to "I am so, so in love!" and back to "My life is empty and hopeless." Ugh, nope, no thanks.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[mimi-sardinia.livejournal.com]

Love triangles, especially when the disputed character is in an active relationship that is portrayed as rather sweet, while the other person is awful, but disputed character is still in love with them and not really with the one they're involved with (the "Nice Guy" option).

There's a been a couple of fics like that which I recall (and probably some in don't), which have caused this aversion.

If I have to put up with a triangle, I don't want that angst. I think I mostly want the central character to pick the nicer option.

Or a threesome. I still love threesomes (my RP has taken a step towards a threesome).

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know if there's a trope name for this but characters having inexplicable sexual experience or a rich sexual history

b/c the fandom I'm in is an anime about middle school students

I don't think it's completely unreasonable for the pairing to be having sex in the end but if you're telling me they've both had multiple partners and have complex kinky bedroom desires at 14, no

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Overly understanding characters. Like, if one character is keeping a secret (usually they're gay or trans or have some kind of illness) and it comes out, invariably the other characters are like "why wouldn't you tell us that? Listen, you know you can tell us anything, right?" And it's not exactly infantilizing, but it's something kind of like it.

I'm just saying, where are the people who are pissed off about being kept in the dark? Where are the people who are frightened or unsure of what to do or say with this new information? Why does it ALWAYS read like some sort of hippie-dippie instructional video on dealing with your problems?

I hate that I'm here so late, because I'd really like some confirmation I'm not the only one who knows what I'm talking about.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[dancingmouse]

Irrational jealousy. Like when a couple who was married for 20 years runs into the husband's old high school flame somewhere, and the wife starts acting like the husband's going to leave her/gets insanely jealous about it. This just makes me want to scream "What the hell? He hasn't seen her in 20 years! What makes you think he's going to just up and leave you for someone he dated for a month back in high school just because he said hi to her?"

I see this mostly in Sitcoms, but it can bleed over into other forms of media.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Pregnancy+childbirth. Regular or mpreg. I just straight up do not want to read fic about that, at all. I have no problem with it in real life obviously but it's not a thing that I EVER feel a story needs. Never have I been reading a story about people getting together and thought "hell yes, it's all coming together. NOW TIME FOR A BABY TO SEAL THE DEAL" which in reality would be more like "time for the actual story to come to a screeching halt so every single sentence to come can be about babies!" I just.......don't want it.

Re: Tropes that can ruin a fic for you

[(Anonymous)]

Pair EVERYONE! Having more than one couple in a story is fine. Heck, the canon source more often than not has more than one couple. But then there are writers who seem to think that being in a relationship is the be-all end-all of existence, so they painstakingly make sure every named character gets a partner, even if they have to reach steep crack pairing levels to do so.