While in some respects it's not as annoying because it's much less likely to be explicitly contradicted by canon, I have similar reactions when people just assume homophobia. Like, c'mon, if there's going to be Space Homophobia it's at least not going to look like homophobia in the US circa 2017.
Modern Western Christian-style homophobia in a fictional religious order which a) isn't Christian and b) is in a time period when Christians didn't care that much is also jarring.
Like, you get people citing Leia and the slave bikini as evidence that in universe sexism is a rampant thing, but 1) it's a big universe full up with planets with their own distinct cultures so maybe one fucking Hutt being gross ain't the entire goddamned universe, and 2) Han was used as a wall hanging that's the most literally objectifying thing that I've ever seen done to a character in a film it's not like Jabba thinks women are objects for his pleasure he thinks everyone is an object for his pleasure.
Being expected to applaud a character for infidelity when their relationship was fine. I can get behind an abused or neglected partner seeking solace with someone else, not with someone just blithely wandering off with someone else without even thinking vaguely about potential consequences.
Oh god yeah. There's a lot of "this fictional religious group takes some trappings from Western Christianity, better assume they're [list of other traits of the author's understanding of Western Christianity]." Once when I was RH headcanon-jamming years ago I had somebody drop that one on the canon theocracy, and I was kind of, "...literally all we know about this religion's beliefs is that 1) they have a prophet who they think has divine powers, 2) somebody makes an offhand reference to gods living in the mountains, and 3) they really like magitech. Why would you assume they hate gay people."
See also: All religious orders are celibate. Especially when Jabba is considered a wretched pervert by his own species. (Although that is older canon)
I am amazingly fucking done with fantasy Christianity. Like as an entire fucking concept. If I see it I immediately hate the religion in question. Unless you do something weird with it like Bloodborne. For the unaware, Bloodborne basically took the aesthetic of Roman Catholicism and mashed it with Lovecraftian horror. The Healing Church of Yharnam is a polytheistic religion based around the worship of several gods (Great Ones and assorted Kin) and the ingesting of magical blood (which comes from the Great Ones and certain infected people). There's a lot of interesting trappings that draw parallels to Catholicism like the obsession with Holy Blood Communion and the whole gothic cathedral aesthetic, but the Healing Church isn't WOW I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT CATHOLICISM the way that, say, the Andrastian Chantries are. It's a weird unique thing inspired by bits of Catholicism as opposed to we basically just reskinned Catholicism and told you it was a new religion.
Keening. It's such a USEFUL impact word if it's done right, and it's not an impact word if it's the go to term for 'the person was crying and it was super sad, guys'. I know I've run into individual authors who are serial offenders, but just in aggregate, it's super frustrating, because okay yes maybe this word would have worked here if everyone hadn't spent years beating it to death, but now I have been knocked out of this emotional moment and am distracted by analyzing writing mechanics instead. I just ran into a fic that used it perfectly, and it gave me shivers and it was so wonderful, and I still get yanked out of the story to think about how 'keened' is super overused. It kills me. Keening means like... a wail, it's got connotations of being eerie and off-putting, it's something that's supposed to be alarming to hear. It's so useful, and there aren't many good synonyms to stand in its place with all those emotional undertones, but all the oomph gets sucked out of it for everyone when it gets used out of place so often. (especially for characters who are all about that rock-solid self-control. or even without that, a lot of people don't jump straight to openly showing all of their most intense, personal emotions right off the bat. give me a choked off noise of grief before they force themself quiet again, give me someone holding themself too still and rigid with a face that's too blank, give me someone outwardly calm who immediately turns and leaves and tries to keep their mask up until they reach somewhere private and alone, give me a single sob that bursts out of them before they force themselves back under control, give me someone breathing too fast and shallow and they won't look at you, give me someone where they're trying to hold it back and they can't and they aren't making a noise but their hands are over their face and their shoulders are shaking, give me someone where they seem calm, they seem like they're mostly dealing, but it's so, so hard to look at their face. there are so many options and you can flavor them all sorts of ways! save keening for when you need their grief to frighten you, for something inhuman-sounding and almost animalistic, something that's so intense it's hard to know how to respond. I love this word so much and now it just yanks me out of stories I'm trying to enjoy)
this may just be me being petty, but i feel like if your tags are 66 words (112 if we're counting character & relationship tags as well) and your summary is 7 words, you're kinda using your tags as like a replacement summary, and it kinda annoys me. (yes, summaries are the worst, i get it, but also, i don't particularly want to wade through all your tags to puzzle out what the fic is about.) ...especially when the summary in question is "You're my new favorite blanket. Come inside?"
Failed Buddhism or I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S NOT BUDDHISM also tends to annoy me. Same with failed Taoism or it's basically just Taoism. Not for wow there is too much of this reasons, but more I know how those things actually work and seeing someone fuck it up pisses me off. You can tell when people haven't done any research outside of reading the summary on wikipedia. Overuse of keening sounds like it'd grate for me too. Though that's because I have like...very specific ideas of what keening is? Specifically funeral laments. That's me being weird and having religious beliefs and it having religious connotations as a result though. Laments dammit. LAMENTS. If it is just wailing it needs to be a particularly meaningful wailing. KEENING MEANS THINGS. bríghid created the keening for reasons those reasons are ruadán
This. Which is why the whole Sufferer story is made of disappointment for me. Give me something more interesting Hussie. In the book I´m reading now, they do have I-can´t-believe-it´s-not-catholics, but at least you´re not supposed to like them.
i like the sufferer story, but that might be 'cause the parts of the fandom i see emphasize the parts that aren't as christian (that there is no god involved anywhere in it, the ancestor thing and karkat being thought of as the sufferer's reincarnation, how the religion is banned, the religion's explicit social justice slant and focus on creating hemoequality, what happened with the other ancestors, the sufferer's blood colour) and make it into its own thing. so, like, yeah, the sufferer story has a lot of the trappings of christianity, the surface stuff, but that doesn't mean it is just Alien Christianity.
Aside from lack of diety, it´s literally just Jesus Life story. Including the ban, since early christinaity was Not well liked by the roman empire. And yes, even the social justice stuff, and call for non violence. Like, one of the things in it´s favour is including the in my opinion good parts of christianity. So yes, it really is just alien christianity.
well, yeah, christianity used to be banned but it isn't anymore. it's dominant now. and christianity, though it did have some social justice stuff in it, wasn't explicit about it the same way the sufferer's religion is. christianity just calls for peace and love. it doesn't call for the end of any specific oppression, not anymore at least, and it is very possible to be an oppressor and a christian. whereas sufferism is very clear about being for hemoequality and it would be very difficult to twist it enough to stand against hemoequality while also being a sufferist. so, if sufferism is alien christianity, it isn't alien modern christianity.
Well I never said it was modern alien christianity. Because it isn´t. It´s the christianity that was in many ways a social justice movement of the time it was created it. But that doesn´t make it any less a repainted Christianity. I was still disappointed in it, because while it´s a different portayal, it´s still yet another alien christianity.
yeah. and i guess maybe it being alien ancient christianity + all the specifically alternian stuff attached to it (+ the fanon/headcanons i'm familiar with) means that it doesn't feel like just christianity to me.
That´s fair. It´s not much like modern christinaty because it´s based on the legends about it´s roots, not on what there is today. And I don´t dislike it as a thing, I dislike it because it Yet Another of it´s kind. I´d like to see more non-abrahamic or even invented out of whole cloth fictional religions.
