tfa_kink | DISCUSSION/OFF-TOPIC POST

Because everyone has popular and unpopular tropes and fanon headcanons that they love and hate. TFA already seems to have some well-liked fanon headcanons and fic tropes, so what ones do people like or dislike?

Alternately, what fic/fandom tropes do you wish there was more of in fic or headcanon?

The only thing that comes to mind is somewhere in the meme someone assigned Han Solo to Gryffindor instead of Slytherin.

*stands on a table* FIGHT ME.

Harry Potter houses are serious business, yo.

I get MESSED UP with sorting! No fucking way is Han a Gryffindor. I got your back.

Gryffindor!assigner here. Slytherine was my go-to house for him, because obviously the cunning. However, narratively, I needed him in Gryffindor because Kylo Ren chooses Slytherine to specifically piss off a largely anything-but-Slytherine family? How could I resist? Besides Han doth protest a bit too much with doing stupidly brave shit.

We have to remember Peter Pettigrew was sorted into Gryffindor as well.
I actually do think Han Solo would be in Gryffindor. I don't think he's as sly, cunning or subtle enough for Slytherin. He has kind of a Sirius Black-type Gryffindor thing going on. Han's kind of reckless, when he can't turn a conversation he just shoots...first. So I can definitely see an argument for him for being sorted in Gryffindor.

I don't particularly hate it, but I am start to grow tired of seeing innocent!naive!Finn who knows nothing of the world and can't feed or clothe himself without Poe or Rey's help.

The guy is a trained fighter who survived after being stranded on a desert planet. Sure he may be unaware of other cultures, but he's not incapable of self-preservation. He's not helpless.

(It's reminding me a bit too much of how mcu fandom treated Bucky post-Winter Soldier and I'm not fond of the trend)

Ohhhhhhhh myyyyy goodddddd DA here but YES YES YES THIS ALL OF THIS. I'll read innocent!naive!Finn, but I honestly do kind of lowkey despise it. He may have had a weird stunted upbringing as a killing machine, but like you said, he's a trained fighter and survivor. Also, he clearly forged relationships while a stormtrooper?? He was really affected when FN-2003 was killed on Jakku, and the actual canon (ty wookieepedia) for that relationship has Finn saving 03's ass more than once. He definitely has some stereotypical ideas about how people interact (like trying to hold Rey's hand and save her before realizing she's perfectly capable) but he's not a child?????

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THIS.

AYRT

YES EXACTLY. I love some good innocent!naive!Finn or oblivious-to-social-customs!Finn, but there's a difference between, say, latching onto Poe and Rey because they're the only people he knows and not knowing what food or showers are. I love some good clothes sharing or codependency fics, but Finn isn't going to fall to pieces if he has to fend for himself.

I guess I just don't see the appeal of taking badass characters and making them completely helpless or victimized to the point that they need to be saved by the power of love.

Yes yes yes everything you said. I don't know if I've seen anything as extreme as not knowing what showers are lol but like? He's a grown ass man. Like 23 years old dudes are plenty dumb in general but they're still capable and stuff. And the movie proved Finn is more than capable!!

Competent functioning adults ftw o/

I think a lot of people in fandom must really like the savior/victim trope, because it honestly baffles me that they'll take a grown adult and imply they don't know basic survival skills. It's a bit unsettling, tbh, especially when you're taking two people who are more or less equals and making one "less than" for the sake of a romantic plot.

And like, for a 23 year old dude who did something akin to going AWOL from the military, Finn seems to have a lot of his shit together. I doubt he's going to wake up from his coma and burst into tears and start asking people what kissing or bedrooms or names are. HE KNOWS WHAT A NAME IS. HE HAD A NAME BEFORE FINN, IT WAS JUST NOT A TRADITIONAL ONE FFS.

Re: Favorite and Least Favorite Tropes and Headcanons

(Anonymous) - 2015-12-30 16:16 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Favorite and Least Favorite Tropes and Headcanons

(Anonymous) - 2015-12-30 16:27 (UTC) - Expand

MCU fandom is the worst about making characters complete idiots. I hate that Finn is getting that type of treatment.

I was around when MCU fandom started, right after Iron Man came out. I never really joined then because I'm not a fan of Tony, but it was a pretty small, chill fandom at that point. My joining point was Cap 1 (and TFA is really throwing me off because I keep thinking it means The First Avenger, not The Force Awakens). I adored the small, friendly Cap 1 portion of the fandom, but that started to end when The Avengers came out, and then exploded into such drama and weirdness when TWS came out.

One of my biggest gripes with MCU fandom is that a large portion of fandom has fanon headcanon they look at as fact that is.....completely opposite of canon portrayal. I'm just like....were we watching the same movies? Reading the same comics? Where did you get this interpretation??

The only thing the fandom has done that I enjoy I'd how it's a collective decision to ignore the bullshit in Age of Ultron.

Uuuuugh. MCU makes me claw my eyes out with their characterization.

DA

To be fair, even the MCU screenwriters and directors don't seem to have a handle on characterization. Everyone is so different in their solo movies than they are in the Avengers movies.

every single fic where kylo ren is a nice guy. every single one. i love him because he's NOT NICE, and even if he struggles with the light it absolutely does not change his actions. there's been so much erasure of the traits i adore in him.

however, with hux/kylo, even if i don't enjoy the content because of the above, i do like that hux is a either 1. a toppy smarmy guy who is in control much more so than kylo or 2. a bottom smarmy guy who knows what's up and how to cater to kylo's desires for control.

in general, i prefer darker stuff so: bring on the cruelty without kindness!

in less-mean things though... more bb-8 in every good guy fic. i need endless bb-8. i want to hug bb-8 and have one and talk to one and save it from anything. bb-8 for life.

Okay, I'm going to assume you're me from an alternate timeline because *this*, exactly this, about characterisation of villains and particularly Kylo. Also I agree 100% about the way a Hux/Kylo dynamic would probably go down. Smarmy is definitely the right adjective.

I am here for dark and cruel relationships. They are my jam.

I really hate when fandom decides one character HAS to always be a bottom or the more submissive one in the relationship because of their looks/personality. I find it gross and offensive.

+1

So of my favourite fics are written specifically in response to a strong dom/sub trend in fandom that flips the popular dynamic completely.

Mostly I just think fluid dynamics are more fun. Everyone is a switch.

It makes me uncomfortable when people assume that someone can only enjoy being the bottom because they're more emotional/nicer/needy/broken or because they're prettier. Sometimes it reeks of fetishizing or trying to make a relationship unequal (because people there's a strong stigma of "person who receives is lesser than" in mainstream society).

I just find the idea that people can never ever switch positions unhealthy. If that's what someone wants out of a relationship, there's nothing wrong with it, but insisting one person can only ever bottom or top is a pretty limited view of sex and relationships.

It's classic heteronormativity being shoved into queer relationships.

The things we associate with bottoms tend to also be associated with women - kindness, submissiveness, neediness. The things associated with the 'top' tend to be masculine. And it's that framework that we get the idea the penetrated partner is lesser. Because penetration is associated with men and taking something into you is associated with women.

It's transposing limited patriarchal heterosexual archetypes onto queer relationships. Never mind that a quarter of gay men don't engage in anal sex at all on a regular basis. 1/4 do other things and that's that.

In fics with a the clear delineation between who is a top and who is a bottom because of personality traits, I've often noticed the idea that penetrative sex is the be all and end all of sex. It's real sex, whereas hand jobs and blow jobs somehow aren't as important or intimate.

That's also a heteronormative framework. So there's a lot of norming the queer that goes on in fics like that.

TLDR I agree with you. It is a really limited view of sex and relationships.

I'm not saying that I've read papers on this topic, I'm just saying maybe I've read papers on this topic.

YES, EXACTLY.

I sometimes wonder if the people who are so insistent on one character always being the bottom or top are heterosexual or virgins. Or just really naive and don't understand how problematic it is.

Penetrative sex is great and all, but the idea that it's the only legitimate type of sex is a bit narrow-minded and heteronormative.

Re: Favorite and Least Favorite Tropes and Headcanons

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-17 22:12 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Favorite and Least Favorite Tropes and Headcanons

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-17 22:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Favorite and Least Favorite Tropes and Headcanons

(Anonymous) - 2016-01-18 00:42 (UTC) - Expand

Hi, are you me? Thank you for beautifully summing up why seme/uke dynamics piss me right off. Switch/switch 4 lyfe.

I think a lot of it is confusion between "what I like" and "the way it has to be." We have lots of cultural baggage around what it means to penetrate or be penetrated or be in charge during sex. That's stuff we deal with when we have sex IRL, and so it also affects fic preferences. Personally, I prefer the character who's more traditionally masculine (bigger, butcher, older, etc) bottoming because, well... I could explain all day but it comes down to the fact that it's my kink. Doesn't mean that I'd ever argue that a certain character *has* to take any particular role. When people start trying to justify their preference being somehow canon by talking about other traits as if they predict what the character will like during sex, then it gets heteronormative and icky.

Safewords and needling people for verbal consent in settings where the characters wouldn't be likely to know or give a shit.

Would a Jedi set up a whole safeword system and check in every step of the way in a pre-arranged bondage scene? I can believe it.

Would Han Solo? Probably not. I don't think it would occur to him, especially when he's just trying to get into Luke's pants.

Would Kylo Ren? AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA NO