#(zahoin—her father—uses droids. he claims it's because living servants can be mind tricked but honestly)

[sith-shenanigans]

T + X from the post!

T: Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

Honestly, not that I can think of? There are some where my bar for execution quality is higher, and a few where it’s extremely high, but I can’t think of any I hate that aren’t just “the failure mode of a wider trope.”

… I don’t like mundane modern AUs, as a category? I read basically entirely SFF, if you take the characters out of their interesting worldbuilding and make them people I could meet irl I lose interest. But my dislike lessens if they’re given a profession that interests me and the author goes into detail on it. I’ve read a couple actor AUs good enough for me to enjoy them, for example. But I do not want the coffee shops or the florists or the ice skating or the high schools. I would like them to go elsewhere. And I am not entirely on board with college AUs, either.

When it comes to fandom-specific tropes, though… yeah, some of those I hate.

Any interpretation of the Star Wars ‘verse that makes you sound like Kreia will drive me up a wall fast. Any plot that involves “reform the Jedi Order by letting people ~love~” will lose me. On the other hand, if you write Jedi behaving callously (usually with bad teaching methods) and then go “and they’re right,” I will not consider that fascinating societal worldbuilding or a good point about how The Light Requires Effort, I will want to throw your fic at the wall.

Also, “the person you are as a darksider is not actually you” makes me yell incoherently. The dark side doesn’t brainwash you—yes, except when it does because you poked a Sith artifact or got possessed by a ghost or were captured and had your mind turned inside out or something, but those are different because an actual specific entity did it. The dark side does not brainwash you. Whatever you do with it was already there.

X: A character you enjoy making suffer.

That… might be most of them. I’m not a fluffy author, uh, at all. >_>;;

Though, hm. For most of them, I like making them suffer because it makes the story interesting, not because I enjoy the suffering—the only one I can really say I want to make suffer to make suffer is Orinara. Because she is being an awful Sith brat and it will be so fun to hit her with the clue-by-four of character development. :D

… I mean, that serves a narrative purpose too! But the others don’t deserve the suffering. It’s just where the story is. Orinara, meanwhile, has some likability debt to pay, especially after the whole “they’re just levy soldiers, zie can get more” thing. Like… Orinara, I love you, you’re a terrifying true believer who is ultimately going to strive for your ideals above all else, but right now? You are an entitled little Sithlet. You are an entitled little Sithlet and that means I get to hit you with so many sticks.

[fanfic ask game]

#orinara gets better! but… she has been raised in this. #i mean dear stars #she doesn't know *anyone* who isn't another sith at the start of her arc #her interactions with Normal People have been limited to random imperials doing their jobs and other people's servants #(zahoin—her father—uses droids. he claims it's because living servants can be mind tricked but honestly) #(i think he's covering for what he considers 'squeamishness') #(he doesn't… *like* being around people who are unhappy. or terrified of him. he considers this something of a secret weakness.) #but anyway. vette is in some ways her first actual real *friend* #vanyas kind of counts but there's still that 'only friends because she can't be a threat to them' thing hanging over it #and the human sith she met at Evil Prep School were all… well. #being a legitimized bastard made her lower-status and ​her somewhat terrifying amount of power made her a threat #she wasn't bullied—you can't exactly *bully* the most powerful kid in school—but that's not the same thing as being *liked* #unfortunately her method of handling this was to decide she should ignore the concept of self-doubt entirely #she's arrogant and self-absorbed and bloodthirsty and also deeply *desperately* lonely #and i can will and must hit her upside the head with character development #because i love her #asks #oc: orinara izarae