At 13 I probably would have asked them where they were hoping this leading question might take us because I’d hate for them to be disappointed. I was a very friendly little shit at 13.
This is not really a gripe because it has (thankfully) only happened once, but I saw a summary for what I assume to be a fairly tame reader-insert fic that ended with "Enjoy ladies!!" and I felt my spine curl all the way up into my stomach in horror. Like, okay. Reader insert is not really my jam, but I know some people are into it, so, y'know, you do you. But the author addressing me in the summary like a wine-drunk aunt trying to convince me to give 50 Shades of Grey a try because it's so ~~steamy~~ makes me cringe so hard my face might get stuck like this. And that's not getting into the weird heteronormativity thing. Please, please, just give me a hint about what happens in your story and be done with it.
The “little shit” part is mostly because of how much I would have admired it myself. Kid me, it’s a witty comeback, good work, please continue with your life.
I just fucking hate those questions. Do people ask mystery writers if they condone murder? If someone does condone incest, or murder, do these people seriously think they would admit that to randos on AO3? I mean I honestly can't be arsed to give a shit what adults do consensually, but in reality, it's a rude, insulting question.
this is kind of hard to quantify but i hate when writers throw in characters that they clearly dont care about like, if we need a plot device to do something interesting for the main couple, let's make it come from these other two characters! except that the other two characters are flat and out of character and unsettling because the author clearly doesn't give a shit about them or portraying them as people with interiority, only as plot devices to augment the main characters
Mmmm I see that with Amporas A LOT (though I'm sure Gamzee and the Serkets also get that. I just don't seek out content with them the same as I do my trashy fish boys). Part of having the plot drive come from another character is that you can get the audience even more deeply invested in it. This new person has personality and motivations! They have reasons for doing the things they do, that may align or conflict with the main characters! Use that!
When authors introduce canon characters like they think the audience doesn't know who they are. Por ejemplo, a Harry Potter fic that starts like "A boy with messy black hair, round glasses, and a scar on his forehead shaped like a lightning bolt said to his friend, a red-haired boy with freckles and a Chudley Cannons t-shirt, 'Don't you think it would be much less annoying if the author just called us Harry and Ron?'" (And this always comes with incredible overuse of epithets in the rest of the fic, too.) And yes, I realize there are times when that kind of description might be appropriate, like if the POV character doesn't know the other character, but that's not what I'm talking about. (edited for a stray comma I left in this post overnight, wtf me)
Mmmph, IDK. I was never into Harry/Hermione, but I was so anti-Ron/Hermione that I won't read fics with that as a background ship unless they break up. I'm not cool with relationships between intelligent girls and boys who belittle their interests/passions, and I'm not cool with jealous acting-out under emergency situations, and there's just tons of things Ron actually did in canon that make me ship him with his left hand at best. YMMV, obviously a lot of people like him, but you don't HAVE to make him a Death Eater to think he doesn't belong in a relationship with someone like Hermione.
yeah, the exaggeration of ron into a death eater is ridiculous but it's fair to think that the relationship's not as healthy as rowling meant to present it, as long as you're not harassing people over it or trying to convince people to stop shipping ron/hermione entirely.
I appreciate that the author tagged this fic "slow burn" but at nearly 130k words and one solitary scene of anything near-explicit with the leads - and it was dubcon, and it ended up Angsty, and it's unfinished - that's not slow burn, that's called being a fucking tease.
They're not talking about disliking the pairing, they're talking about outright turning Ron into a villain.
Why is it that in a/b/o people so often have the characters addressing each other with "alpha" or "omega" rather than their names? It's really creepy and grosses me out.
Suspect part of it is a case of, “Oh Yes This Is How We Do Things In Our Alien Society, Have We Mentioned That We Are Super Weird In This Specific Way Recently, Because That Is Still A Thing In Case You Forgot.” In the more self-aware cases, the creepiness is likely intentional; it emphasizes the power imbalance, and deemphasises the personhood of the adressee by reducing them to their gender role. ... Y’know, I don’t even like a/b/o that much? I just have some adjacent kinks that tend to funnel me in that direction. I did not intend to become well-versed in this topic, dammit.
Spoiler: nsfw and i kink on a/b/o omega oppression so it's hot to me, personally like, i like exploring the implications in a worldbuilding sense a lot too so "it's hot" isn't the only reason i like that kind of thing but yeah... it's one of those things i read 'cause it turns me on, among other reasons
@unknownanonymous since this is a general thread would you mind putting discussion of personal sexual preferences under a spoiler, please?
