More narrative dealbreakers

[dolorosa_12]

The sun is shining, I'm completely exhausted, and it's time for Day Twenty-Three of the fandom meme:

W: A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

I think we've established from previous posts that I particularly dislike stories which 'reward' characters who spend the narrative drawing closer to other people, finding family and community and closeness and saving the(ir) world and each other by separating them forever from those connections, that community, and indeed the very world that they have saved. I think the only time it works is in The Lord of the Rings.

Other tropes which I really despise: characters being pressured by the other characters around them into forgiving or rebuilding a relationship with people who have abused or hurt them, and painted by the narrative as being unreasonable or heartless for not wanting to do so. (This happens frequently with teenage or adult children being pressured by other characters to restore contact with abusive parents who they previously cut out of their lives.) 'It was all a dream/hallucination/"just a story"' cop outs also irritate me, as well as situations which have characters doubting their own reality, or being disbelieved by everyone in their lives.

Generally you see these tropes in original works rather than fanfic (in fact fanfic often seems to be written as a deliberate effort to overturn a lot of these tropes).

Fanfic tropes I dislike include 'shovel talk' situations, any scenario in which friends and family members seem overly pushy or invested in other characters' potential love lives (I really hate when other characters just appear in the fic to be a sort of cheer squad of shippers to the main pairing), and making a character's canon love interest abusive (if they aren't abusive in canon) as a way to justify breaking them up for the fic's preferred pairing.

Due to tagging, the fanfic ones are generally pretty easy to avoid, but the tropes in original fiction can sometimes appear out of nowhere, souring me on stories that I'd previously enjoyed.

Do any of you have similar narrative dealbreakers, whether in original works or fanfic?


X: A trope which you are almost certain to love in any fandom.

Y: What are your secondhand fandoms (i.e., fandoms you aren’t in personally but are tangentially familiar with because your friends/people on your dash are in them)?

Z: Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go!

Comments

[skygiants]

oh god, the fanfic tendency to have every other character's lives revolve around their investment in the main pairing getting together! I have seen this so much that now by default I tend to make every other character mildly-to-extremely annoyed by whatever romance is going on and can only convince myself to change this with extremely reluctance.

[dolorosa_12]

Yeah. The only time I can remember people being that invested in their friends' love lives was in high school, so it creeps me out when grown adults do it in fiction!

[author_by_night]

Other tropes which I really despise: characters being pressured by the other characters around them into forgiving or rebuilding a relationship with people who have abused or hurt them, and painted by the narrative as being unreasonable or heartless for not wanting to do so. (This happens frequently with teenage or adult children being pressured by other characters to restore contact with abusive parents who they previously cut out of their lives.)

YES. Sometimes it's healthier to just walk away, or to at least approach that relationship very differently. It's a very dangerous trope too, because it reinforces the idea that you're supposed to forgive family at all costs. If one comes to that decision for their own reasons, but they shouldn't have to.

And look, I'm an incredibly family-oriented person, but I'm also lucky to come from a mostly loving, caring family. Not everybody does, or they come from the sort of families that seem really close and loving until you realize there's an expectation of "payment" for being "close and loving."

I've also noticed friendships get similar treatment. The bottom line is that no one is owed your forgiveness for the big stuff, and it should come from you, not from other people dictating how you respond.

[dolorosa_12]

It's a very dangerous trope too, because it reinforces the idea that you're supposed to forgive family at all costs.

Yes, exactly. Like you I come from a very close and caring family, but not everyone does, as you say. Narratives of forgiveness at all cost seem to push the line that refusing to forgive people is more unforgivable and damaging than the damage those people did in the first place.

[naye]

The splitting up of groups hurts. One of my favorite self-contained anime stories has an odd threesome go twenty episodes together learning to care for each other and then at the end they literally head down different roads and I am in such emotional agony every time I think about it the only way I can keep my love for the series is to picture them meeting up five minutes later and going "Oh well must be fate let's stick together!"

In fact I realize I might be doing this with other canons that end on a parting, and that's why it doesn't bother me as much as it otherwise would...

Do any of you have similar narrative dealbreakers, whether in original works or fanfic?
See, I swear I've had conversations about this before and I know they exist, but at the moment all I can think of is the classic YA love triangle (so boring)? And I guess things that are dealbreakers in hindsight, like getting slapped in the face by the Harry Potter epilogue? Otherwise...Hmmm, I think my biggest one I can identify in original fiction I've read in the past couple of years is Cannon Fodder Friends. The author creating characters just to kill them off to motivate the MC is annoying at the best time, and so easily turns into the fridging trope.

In fanfic dealbreakers aren't "dealbreakers" as much as "tags I have no interest in", from kidfic to body horror. But like you say, those are usually easy to avoid.

[dolorosa_12]

Ugh, YA love triangles. At this point I only tolerate them if it ends with some kind of polyamorous resolution (or with none of them together at all), but the standard 'I must choose between two love interests' set up is just tedious.

Cannon fodder friends is awful as well — as you say, it's pretty much another form of fridging.

[naye]

At this point I only tolerate them if it ends with some kind of polyamorous resolution (or with none of them together at all)
Both of these are things I enjoy, but if there's a drawn-out will they or won't they happening before that I'm still just...ugh.

Though I haven't come across it much in recent reading, which I take as a good sign!

[dolorosa_12]

Probably a sign that you're reading less YA (or at least less clichéd YA)! I haven't seen it as much recently either, although I can't tell if this is just due to my current reading preferences.

[merit]

Children being guilt-tripped to accept a parent back in their lives after a long absence... ugh. Back to idea of children being 'owned' by their parents.

Tagging is great though. However I have been found to scroll through a work if the tagging is several paragraphs.

[dolorosa_12]

Back to idea of children being 'owned' by their parents.

Ugh, yes. And it pushes the notion that refusing to forgive a damaging person is more unforgivable (and damaging) than the things they did to you. I hate it.

Like you, I'm not a fan of the wall of tags and generally scroll through, especially if it's obvious that it's someone's multifandom drabble collection.

[monanotlisa]

"Fanfic tropes I dislike include 'shovel talk' situations, any scenario in which friends and family members seem overly pushy or invested in other characters' potential love lives (I really hate when other characters just appear in the fic to be a sort of cheer squad of shippers to the main pairing)"

Preach it! I'm reading The Witcher fanfic, mostly because my other video game fandoms are the opposite of prolific, and many tropes there BUT ESPECIALLY THIS ONE drive me nuts.

[dolorosa_12]

I'm astonished that you would get that trope in The Witcher, of all fandoms! But people really seem to like it, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it appears there (or in any fandom at all).

[scripsi]

Other tropes which I really despise: characters being pressured by the other characters around them into forgiving or rebuilding a relationship with people who have abused or hurt them, and painted by the narrative as being unreasonable or heartless for not wanting to do so.

I hate that too!

I will back-pedal any fic where characters have "soul marks".

[dolorosa_12]

I don't know why anyone would enjoy that first trope, and when I'm feeling particularly uncharitable I assume it's because the writers/showrunners have poor relationships with the people around them and blame everyone but themselves for this!

"Soul marks" and soulmate AUs are not things I seek out deliberately, although because I really enjoy stories about enemies/antagonists being forced into each other's proximity and having to work together, I can enjoy soulmate AUs if they involve that element.

[scripsi]

"Soul marks" and soulmate AUs are not things I seek out deliberately, although because I really enjoy stories about enemies/antagonists being forced into each other's proximity and having to work together, I can enjoy soulmate AUs if they involve that element.

I like that trope too- only I would probably already backed away at the soulmate mention. :)