fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5558 ]

[ SECRET POST #5558 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5558 ⌋

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

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03. https://i.imgur.com/2dbj7Jd.png
[OP warned for nsfw; two people engaging in oral sex (Bridgerton)]

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04. [SPOILERS for Rise of Skywalker maybe? I don't actually know this fandom]

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05. [WARNING for discussion of sexual harassment]

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06. [WARNING for discussion of abuse]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #795.
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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What popular fandom characterizations do you hate?

I don't know if it's super popular, but I've started reading Star Wars fics set in the time period around the prequels and the amount of UwU twinky emotionally clingy whumped to oblivion versions of Obi-Wan really surprised me. I see where it came from, but I don't like it.

I'm reading OT/Mandalorian era fics and there's a similar thing with Luke as well. Slightly more feral twink than Obi-Wan, I think, but definitely heavy on the emotionally fragile whump end. (To be fair, Luke canonically has lost a hand and being lightning tortured by the Emperor, so he's probably had more physical torture than Obi-Wan, who is usually the cause of other people losing limbs instead of losing any himself). Probably it's just a Jedi thing? They tend to be on the weedy magic end, and high drama in terms of plot, so they get to be fragile and whumped in fic?

Maybe! For Obi-Wan there's heavy leaning on the novels to whumpify him and make him into the world's saddest and most unloved (except for the one they're shipping him with, ofc). But yes, he's absolutely got the high score for amputation of others!

I hate Genma Saotome's fandom portrayal as being a fat evil git. While it is true he is perfectly capable of being a bit of a cowardly git at times, he's not fat nor is he even particularly evil. Canonically he is thickset but muscled, and he is more dumb than evil.

He is floofy when he turns into a panda though.

The series treats it all pretty comedically but the training he put Ranma through as a child was absolutely abuse. I can understand people wanting to draw a line at that.

This applies to a lot of the fandoms I've been in - but where a female character is The Evil Bad/Villian/Bitch who's primarily there to 'get in the way' of a m/m ship or cause some unnecessary evil just because.

Use to be a lot more common back in the day and has mostly fallen out of favor - but every so often it pops back up in a couple of fics I've come across that had been written recently and always feel a little whiplash from it.

Seconding this all the way!

HONESTLY. There are cases where I've found that type of characterization fair (character A is in love with character B, but character C develops feelings for character A, character C canonically tries to pit A and B against each other, fails, then eventually tortures character A...), but it's RARE. Even when there's a canon temporary!love interest who's terrible, there are better ways of using those characters for a story that's more interesting than Local Bitch Hates Gay Love for the millionth time.

Anyone who is a generally nice, kind character suddenly becoming a rapist.

I have seen this in multiple fandoms and seriously wtf. (Maybe because they are genuinely nice guys and the writer only knows "nice guys"...?)

When it's violent rape? No, I can't see it at all. But I'll give some suspension of disbelief for situations where they just...give in to temptation and take advantage of someone they really like who is drunk/under the influence of something and also coming onto them hard. Or if they were both under the influence. I'm all for when characters, even usually well meaning ones, fuck up incredibly hard and have impossibly messy feelings about it. And I have an interest for emotional whumping where it ruins their chances of ever having a relationship with someone they truly care about from that point on.

Yeah, that's a fair view of it. I was definitely thinking more along the lines of a character who has always been pleasant and respectful to the other character involved, then in a fic suddenly is like "now that we're alone..." and turns into a complete monster, no moral dilemma or second thoughts.

In discussing a case of this recently, the other person noted that it might be someone's rape fantasy with them identifying with the female character, so I mean... okay, I'm not going to judge someone for having rape fantasies. I'm uh, gonna kind of judge the characterization in these kinds of stories though. :P

I have a weakness for Dark!character AUs, but I get turned off hard when the author thinks the character is really like that.

Re: Based on 6

(Anonymous) - 2022-03-26 04:31 (UTC) - Expand

Dr. Watson as an idiot. He wasn't!

He was also a hottie.

I have never understood this because just going by Holmes's characterization, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't waste time with someone who was an idiot. Watson has to be rather intelligent in his own right in order for him to not be an ever-present annoyance, I'd think.

Blame the 40s movies for that. They seemed to have made Watson extra goofball to insure that Holmes seemed super clever.

Maybe you’ve already seen this, but there’s always room for more Hark! A Vagrant:

http://www.harkavagrant.com/history/watsonsm.png

And its sequel:
http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=264

Re: Based on 6

(Anonymous) - 2022-03-26 07:46 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Based on 6

(Anonymous) - 2022-03-26 13:53 (UTC) - Expand

That Melkor is abusive towards Sauron. I can absolutely believe it in-character for Melkor, although I usually point out that he shared power with Sauron, which he doesn't do with anyone else, and let Sauron have a hand in all his works. But it isn't remotely in-character for Sauron to put up with that. Sauron is a complete narcissist. There is no way he'd put up with being abused and remain loyal to Melkor if that was going on.

I actually agree with you that that simply wasn't the relationship they had (I actually don't think Melkor is as edgy as he likes to believe, it makes more sense for Melkor if their relationship wasn't out of bounds of any other Vala mentor/Maia favorite apprentice relationship), but the idea that a narcissist wouldn't put up with abuse isn't true in the least. There's no personality type that is invulnerable to cons or manipulation and the abuse therein. Praise ~~kink~~ gone darkly dysfunctional is something Sauron is imminently capable of being caught up in.

Not a single characterizations so much as a group characterization, but I hate when Harry Potter fics act like the Gryffindors were all self-righteous bullies and if they'd been nicer then the Slytherins wouldn't have been the way they were, and after the war the Gryffindors have an ethical responsibility to extend a hand in friendship to the poor downtrodden Slytherins, and if they don't do it then they're no better than the blood purists they fought to defeat in the war.

It comes up a lot (though I think has been less popular in recent years), this sort of woobifying of the Slytherins while simultaneously acting like the Gryffindors had it soooo easy and were actually self-righteous jerks. And I'm just not here for it.

None of the Slytherins are beyond forgiveness or redemption, IMO, because they were young and they were parroting what they'd been taught. The good/bad divide isn't nearly as cut and dried as canon makes it out to be, and I do have sympathy for what some of the elder Slytherin characters must've gone through. But the elder Slytherins were plenty old enough to know they were doing things that were very wrong, and I'm not interested in seeing them cast as victims over and above the people who were actual victims of Voldemort and his supporters.

Creepy pedophile Uncle Steve creeping on Sharon as a child for Steve Rogers.

Dark, predatory, coercive characterizations of Tony Stark.

I can see why people don't like that characterization, but there were some occasions in the MCU where Tony was very manipulative and on occasion, coercive when he wanted something or thought he was right.