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usuallyhats
frayadjacent gave me two prompts! One of them I am answering today; the other will probably be tomorrow. (Unless it isn't. But I've drafted most of it already, so it's looking good!) Today's topic is What are your favorite character types and/or story tropes?I love characters that don't really understand their own feelings but have a lot of them anyway (this is probably the source of my Batman problem, let's be honest), or who are trying to puzzle them out from first principles. (I wasn't going to buy the Angela comic in singles, for example, but then I read a review that said she was "weird and complicated and dealing with her emotions in awkward ways" and now my resolve is SORELY TESTED.) Characters who are a bit weird, or secretly (or not-so-secretly) giant dorks delight my heart.
I love characters who actively choose to be heroic because it's the right thing to do, who don't just do it out of instinct, duty or obligation. (I include Buffy in this because right from "Welcome to the Hellmouth" we see her over and over again rejecting the idea that she HAS to fight evil, and then choosing to do it anyway. ♥) I love female characters whose first instinct is to try and punch their way out of their problems, and I love seeing what they do when faced with a problem they can't punch.
One trope I like is "outsiders just can't understand their love", or relatedly, outsiders not being able understand something about a character because of stuff they can't talk about. That's not very well explained, is it? Hmmm. There's a bit in Bruce Wayne: Murderer where Bruce is accused of murder and he has no alibi because he was Batman at the time, so everyone in Gotham is talking about it and he can't defend himself... this is weird, isn't it? I'm OK with that.
I don't like villains, but I do like stories about reformed villains having to prove that they're definitely a good person now. (They have to be properly reformed, and ideally not to have been too villainous in the first place - I especially like it when they've been kind of villainous by default rather than by choice.) Which actually is kind of similar to the above? And also related to how much I love characters who choose to be heroes.
I like giant sprawling universes with oodles of characters and lots of history, and I like characters who already have established relationships with each other. (This was one of the things that hooked me on Birds of Prey, and thus comics in general.) I love happy endings and kindness, and characters who care about each other and who are trying their best to do the right thing, even if they can't always manage it. I would read/watch/listen to 10000000 stories about women mentoring other women, if I could only find them.
A group of misfit heroes coming together to form a team and a family will always make me happy, as will friendships in general, especially completely platonic male-female ones. I am a sucker for a hilariously punctured dramatic moment. I really like stories that take an old trope or story type and just change it enough to make it new, especially if the change is "everyone's queer" or "...but in SPACE". (Or, ideally, both.)
Also, highly intelligent people falling over. BEST.
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Date: 18 Dec 2014 12:55 (UTC)YES. This is my FAVOURITE, it makes me so happy.
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Date: 18 Dec 2014 22:34 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Dec 2014 01:35 (UTC)I include Buffy in this because right from "Welcome to the Hellmouth" we see her over and over again rejecting the idea that she HAS to fight evil, and then choosing to do it anyway. ♥
Aw, yes. +1000
I love happy endings and kindness, and characters who care about each other and who are trying their best to do the right thing, even if they can't always manage it. I would read/watch/listen to 10000000 stories about women mentoring other women, if I could only find them.
A group of misfit heroes coming together to form a team and a family will always make me happy, as will friendships in general, especially completely platonic male-female ones. I am a sucker for a hilariously punctured dramatic moment. I really like stories that take an old trope or story type and just change it enough to make it new, especially if the change is "everyone's queer" or "...but in SPACE". (Or, ideally, both.)
Also, highly intelligent people falling over. BEST.
Also +1 to all this! These are wonderful things. Though I realized recently that, all else being equal, I would replace "but in SPACE" with "but in THE WOODS". Which possibly is related to my love for Xena.
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Date: 19 Dec 2014 21:37 (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Dec 2014 21:42 (UTC)Ooh, yes! I watched a lot of Star Trek, Red Dwarf and Babylon 5 as a teenager so "in space" is basically my happy place, but "in the woods" is also great. :D
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Date: 18 Dec 2014 12:50 (UTC)Which is totally half the appeal of the West Wing, yes? ;-p I'd never seen someone else also list this as a thing before. (I didn't know it was a thing with me until I watched the WW and a lot of highly intelligent people fell over in various entertaining ways.)
(I think you explained your tropes. They all sound understandable, and in some cases, things I go for too. But then, we do share one or two fandoms, even if I don't really do comics. :-D)
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Date: 18 Dec 2014 19:46 (UTC)This is one of my favorites, too. <3
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Date: 19 Dec 2014 21:35 (UTC)(Hurray! And yes, that makes sense. :D)
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Date: 19 Dec 2014 21:36 (UTC)no subject
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Date: 24 Dec 2014 03:14 (UTC)