In my head, there is a sliding scale of appropriate epithet use that goes from "the cashier handed him his change" to that Forgotten Realms book I found at the library in high school that referred to one of the main characters as at least three of 1) beautiful, 2) raven-haired, 3) green-eyed, 4) sorceress pretty much any time she did or said anything. With an extra stop past the end of the scale for slash fic that has someone refer to their boyfriend as "the taller man" when it's a live-action fandom and the actors they're played by are the same height.
The taller man as a code for 'the top in this scene' is one of the ones that kills me, ngl. Especially if it swaps.
i personally don't notice character's heights much in canon so it never bothers me 'cause i never know for sure if it's wrong
I'll use "the taller/shorter one" on occasion if there's a blatant height difference and it's necessary, but I wouldn't use it for two characters who are close in height? (Like, I've used it in Pearlmethyst fics before, but I wouldn't in a Rupphire fic even though technically Sapphire is slightly taller, because the difference is so tiny.) And I'll admit it's not the greatest sort of epithet, but sometimes (read: gay smut mostly, in my experience) it's a lot less obnoxious than repeating the names over and over would be, at least IMO.
I'm usually okay with epithets unless the epithet in question could refer to more than one character in the scene. See infamous badfic Deserving, which persisted in using "the Gryffindor" in scenes in which every character was from Gryffindor.
One of my favourite fics does go a bit heavy on using the characters' names. Or "the other man" but the pov usually makes it clear who's who in that case
as in all things, context and moderation. i vary between names, pronouns, and epithets, depending on the scene and who's talking and the structure of that specific sentence. sometimes you need to change things up so your phrasing doesn't get too repetitive! sometimes you need to specify a name! sometimes you WANT to draw attention to a particular feature! if you say "i'm never going to use this rhetorical device ever" that just limits your writing toolbox too much. Spoiler: nsfw i even was deliberately leaning on "the larger man" and stuff like that in one smut scene recently-- but that's because it was a size kink scene, and i WANTED the reader to be constantly aware of that size difference, because the pov character certainly was! but i would never use it in a scene where the height differences were unremarkable or unimportant. context. moderation.
This!! All of this. Context and moderation (especially context, I’d personally argue, although some DEFINITELY need to be used in moderation more than others) are EVERYTHING when it comes to rhetorical devices. Another contextual example: I wrote an Amedot one-shot a while back. In it, I’d occasionally be like “Amethyst kissed her girlfriend on the lips” or what have you, because the context of the fic would make it obvious that I was referring to Peridot and epithets aren’t evil—but if it weren’t a scene where that were a Known Fact, it’d get super confusing!
There's also personal taste that should be taken into account. People prefer different shit, so honestly I don't bother attempting to appeal to a particular audience. I write the sort of shit that I think sounds nice. Some people agree with me. Others find me pretentious and aimless. So eh.
"Lord of the Gallows" and "Friend of Ravens" are perfectly valid ways to refer to the Rune-winner, the Bringer of Victory, the Blinder-with-Death, and I will not hear otherwise.
I’ll cheerfully read past pretty much any epithet situation, no matter how over the top, if I’m into other aspects of the story. If it’s actually confusing who is doing what in a way that affects the meaning of the story, that’s pretty much the one thing where it might slow me down enough to wander off. It’s sort of like how IDW miscolored Thundercracker and Skywarp as each other A Lot in early days but it didn’t matter at all until they started arguing about the merit of various ideas. Then it mattered so much because that was character development, and if it was inconsistent their personalities became incoherent. Then Thundercracker’s motivation would have been missing from the major plot point where his actions were crucial. Then it’s not a story anymore, it’s characters doing random, sometimes vaguely epic actions for no conceivable reason. Like a Michael Bay movie. Other than stuff like that, which is really more of a technical issue for an editor at that point, I may joke around about overuse of epithets but as a reader I don’t actually care all that much. I wanna hear the cool ideas the writer has, whether or not that includes particular attention to linguistics. I’m generally happy to focus on whatever aspect of the work the author is most enthusiastic about delving into. There are stories I love, that made me think and feel all kinds of things, that do exactly the epithet thing people complain about. Sometimes it’s pretty obviously because the author was inexperienced. I’m so, so grateful that they didn’t let that stop them. Your writing may make someone’s day a little bit better. It may even mean the world to someone. It doesn’t have to be perfect to do that, but it does have to exist somewhere visible to other people.
Person: "Hanahaki disease is a Bad Trope because it sends unhealthy and damaging messages so I'm offering a Healthy and Wholesome alternative that keeps the flower aesthetic!" Me, seeing this post: "Hanahaki played as beautiful and romantic instead of as a literal metaphor for unhealthy/destructive repression gives me the screaming jibblies, but the fact that you said the phrase 'damaging messages' already puts me on my guard." Person: *describes thing that is not actually much better on the Problematic(TM) front and is arguably worse on the body horror front in a tone of smug superiority* Me: "...Great, now I'm considering giving myself the screaming jibblies on purpose just to spite you."
Yep, that's the one. Like, yes, you removed the coercive "love me or I'll die" aspect, but now you're narratively presenting anyone who ever had a crush and isn't in a reciprocated romantic relationship as incomplete for the rest of their goddamn lives, and making their relationship status obviously visible to everyone in the world with all the accompanying issues, and if those things make your id happy that's fine but you have not actually solved everything and made it pure and healthy and wholesome for everyone. and oh god just the thought of the feeling of pulling clothes over buds on your skin, AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH-
Wow, that's actually more fucked up in a lot of ways, imo. And not in a fun way. Frankly, I'd rather die than have that happen. (Which means you COULD use it for fun fucked up purposes, but the OP is like "uwu my version is Pure uwu" so fuck him hardcore.)
Yeah, exactly. You don't like how screwed-up hanahaki is, that's fine, I don't like it played as cute either unless they make it nonfatal, and you like your thing, that's fine, but the fact that it squicks you personally less does not actually make it morally superior.
