Huh. So, when I think of an unreadable face I kind of imagine nothing? Not as in a schooled expression, but as in I cannot at all think of a specific placeholder face that has an expression I don't understand, because my ability to pick up social cues from expression is very limited because it's a learned ability I'm not very good at it. So I take from the thoughts of the character receiving the look to figure out what that was all about. Sometimes people use the term weird look in that situation and it makes me take pause because weird sounds like a specific expression, and that doesn't line up with continuing dialogue. But yeah if I think of weird look as those cronuses and unreadable as you described it makes significantly more sense.
Ohhh. That might be part of why I don't mind it then? Social cues from expressions I pick up pretty well.
Hah, I just thought of the phrase "his face was unknowable" and it kinda sounds like something from wtnv but also accurately captures my feelings on "an unreadable expression"
On instinct "strange" feels a bit more like "unreadable" and "weird" gives more of a "wtf/questioning ur judgment" vibe, but possibly people also use "strange look" for "wtf/questioning ur judgment," I don't really know.
Strange look to me has always been the same as my previous definition of unknowable look, just automatically for some reason. I have no idea if it'd be similar to weird look though. Edit:...I meant unreadable. I'm stuck on unknowable now.
Out of context "strange look" feels more menacing than "weird look". Like someone with a strange look is going to hurt me or attempt to hurt me. Something about it just triggers my panic responses.
My fanfiction gripe is when the characters are all miserable, but they wouldn't be if they were in character. Like... A Harry Potter fic where Ron is evil for some reason, Harry is overwroughtly angsty, and Draco is sweet and nice. Like, none of this would have happened if you'd been in character, guys. That's not a specific example but it's the general idea. I get so bothered by that I had to stop reading stories that did that because I'd just obsess over how they could be better.
This is really fandom-specific, like, I've only seen it in BH6 and Voltron, but...people using the names for the old, all-single-ethnicity (Japanese) cast for fics about the new series where they aren't all Japanese. Especially when the author has stated that they are going with the movie canon/have ethnic-background headcanons for everyone. Okay, if the character is Korean, Kogane and Tanaka are not Korean surnames. Just...go find a list of popular Korean surnames and pick one, it's like five minutes of research, and then I don't have to spend the rest of the fic distracted from the plot by the dissonance there.
So many, but one which springs to mind is blatant informed attributes. See Hogwarts Exposed, which made a huge deal of telling the reader Hermione was the smartest witch ever, not just of her generation, but then emphasised her appearance over any actions she took and ended up having her be outwitted by Crabbe and Goyle of all people. A student character was supposed to be super-smart as well, but required a male character to explain to her how tampons worked because the author was too dim for it to occur to him that there might be instructions on the boxes. Another, which I think is the worst; crossovers where all that's happened is the author has copied out the script of one story and pasted in character names from another. Nobody is ever even remotely in-character and all the entertainment value is sucked out because WE ALREADY FUCKING KNOW WHAT HAPPENS.
*flashbacks to an alleged "crossover" I saw once where Madoka Kaname was just sort of following the movieverse Fellowship of the Ring around, doing nothing but making inane comments, while they acted through the movie script with barely any acknowledgment that she was there*
that reminds me of a really bad oc fic I read once. nothing changed, and at the end a character went "who knows what would have happened if you weren't here" and like, WE ALL KNOW CAUSE NOTHING DIFFERENT HAPPENED
I was looking for fairytale AUs because a) I'm a sucker for the non-Disney ones and b) I'm writing some myself, and I ran across one where the author had basically written brief synopses of the stories with character names pasted in. At least with the copied scripts all the good lines and exciting scenes are still THERE even if the interest has been sucked out >:( If anyone's read How Not To Write A Novel, see the entry "The Minimalist", and that was pretty much how it read.
I love crossover AUs and there are so few that follow through with the premise. If you're writing a version of Great Expectations with John Egbert as the protagonist, don't just have him do and say the exact same stuff Pip did. It's no fun if the author doesn't take into account how these particular characters would react to their situations, and how the story might change because of it.
It also doesn't make it better if the author takes the exact script and then adds unnecessary cursing.
quote because i cannot jam the like button enthusiastically enough crossover AUs can be so good but they're usually so bad because people do this and are generally scared to play with the setting. it's why I won't RP them anymore. ... No but now I have a new book to read.
