[ SECRET POST #4000 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4000 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 42 secrets from Secret Submission Post #573.
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

[fscom]

03. https://i.imgur.com/axAt4hR.jpg

[feotakahari]

Is this gendered? I've mostly seen AUs with F/F pairings, and I haven't seen a lot of red flags in them.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know if I would say "red flags", but I feel like I've definitely seen F/F AUs where the characters are into each other really strongly, really quickly, in a way that would feel utterly weird in any real-world context.

[feotakahari]

I think "into each other really strongly, really quickly" is just a function of the romance genre. Fanfiction or not, these people fall in love in the span of two paragraphs.

[(Anonymous)]

to some extent, but it still varies a lot in degrees

there's a range from "oh I've just seen someone for the first time and I feel magnetically attracted to them" to "I've talked to this person for 20 minutes and I'm strongly considering changing my entire life to be with them"

[(Anonymous)]

To be fair to the genre, there is also a lot of "I keep seeing this person around and they're growing on me for some reason..."

[(Anonymous)]

I think that's actually what appeals to people about that genre - having a fandom where the characters' romantic attraction to each other is built in at the starting point because the reader is already familiar with it and ships them. It's a feature, not a bug. It's kind of a nice, appealing, comfortable fantasy. Sort of similar to soul-mate stuff.

Obviously that doesn't mean it has to work for anyone, I just think it's interesting that you've got right to the center of what's going on there.

[(Anonymous)]

The thing people don't get about coffee shop AUs is that they're not supposed to be "good stories." They're supposed to be sexy role play between your OTP. You're reading the literary equivalent of a couple playing sexy cheerleader and captain of the football team, and arguing about the logic of using pompoms in the bedroom.

[(Anonymous)]

but coffee shop AUs are clearly not just pure smut, so it's not just sexy roleplaying

[(Anonymous)]

Some people like their porn with plot.

[(Anonymous)]

Some AUs don't have porn at all!

[mimi_sardinia]

Then it's the PG-rated roleplay.

[(Anonymous)]

But some coffee shop AUs (a lot of what I've read actually) aren't about sex at all, they're about fluff and meetcute that, and I agree with OP in this one, don't seem to take into account that when you're making the characters strangers then you have to doubly work for their connection but they rarely ever do.

[(Anonymous)]

I hate when fandom takes asshole characters and places them on a pedestal. It's like they worship their cynicism and how they "savagely" are rude to others, yet these same fans would probably cry and whine if they ever were on the receiving end of this in real life.

Even worse how fandom sees optimistic, inspirational, and kind people as just boring. There is enough bitterness in the world right now.... we could use some decent people even if it's just fictional.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I experienced this playing D&D. I played a paladin and lots of people make fun of them as being dumb, or a stick-in-the-mud, when I wasn't playing my character as either. I roll my eyes at edgelords who think apathy is cool. It's better to try and help others than to stand at the sidelines and make snarky quips (not to say i can't snark while helping others haha).

The only exception to this is I love the hell out of It's Always Sunny. But I mostly love the episodes about the weird schemes they get into, and their bizarre friendship with each other, rather than when they're just mean.

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, this. It's even worse when the fandom wants these fictional assholes to do bad things to them. :/ Like, you'd really want to be smacked in the face? Really?

[(Anonymous)]

That's just a kink

[(Anonymous)]

You know people are saying that because it's fictional and they know it won't happen, right? Like do you take people griping about work saying "just shoot me" as literal too?

[(Anonymous)]

I mean Korean dating culture and the general interactions between men and women need a serious overhaul in general so I'm not surprised if K-pop RPF continues those dangerous trends...

Some stuff I can give a pass to. I'm not always in it for rebuilding canon. But there are a lot of red flags and usually from less experienced writers that don't sit well with me at all. Depends what I'm in the mood for I guess.

[(Anonymous)]

This happens in so many AU fic scenarios because it’s just a “given” that these characters are friends or more that many authors don’t even bother to write them interacting in a way that might reasonably lead to friendship.

Then again you have canons like Big Bang Theory where the characters clearly hate each other and we’re supposed to believe they’re friends.

[feotakahari]

Kyle: We just wanna warn you: Eric Cartman, the fourth grader, is goin' to try and trick you somehow into getting your wiener bitten off by a pony who lives at Denkins' ranch.
Scott: How do you know?
Kyle: 'Cause we're his friends.
Scott: Then why are you telling me?
Kyle: 'Cause we hate him.

[(Anonymous)]

Most AU's I've seen don't really explore how a character would react to a certain environment, which is what an AU is supposed to do. I mostly just see out of character bullshit everywhere, which is why I tend to stay away from AU's.

[(Anonymous)]

^

[(Anonymous)]

You might never see this comment, but this picture! This is somewhere where I live (but I don't know where specifically). I'm just shocked someone used a picture from where I live on fandom!secrets! It's a small world. :D

Also, I agree with the secret. I also wish AUs had better development and understanding of why characters had a relationship in the canon in the first place.