20 Things That Might Make Me Like Fiction. (Or forget it was annoying me 2 minutes ago.)
Because I am bored (And because I think someone asked me this in a meme I never finished. Also, I’ve seen a few others do this the last week or so, and I am a sheep.): A partial list of things that will probably get me
DISCLAIMER: Depending on what is involved and the canon, “get me” can range from “squee like a madwoman” to “laugh and point.” Also I kinda assume anyone who’s been here long has figured out that I tend to prefer female narratives, and prefer historical and SFF settings to contemporary/realistic ones.
1. Friends/family/lovers turned enemies. Especially with Significant Staring Across Battlefields.
2. Angsty Cannot Touch and its close friend, Significant Not Touching.
3. Stoic second in commands.
4. I hate love triangles, but if it’s a f/m/f triangle where the women involved become BFF, or one (or both) admires/idolizes the other, I am all over that. I may wonder why the dude is there, though.
5. Badass dorks, angsty swordsmen, and snarky swordsmen. Better yet, combine them into one. Just leave out the angstwallowing.
6. Couples who have adventures.
7. Separated families.
8. Alternatively, teams that function as families.
9. Doubles: Twins, clones, reincarnation, shapechanging, changelings (of the mythic kind), doppelgangers (of the “totally hanging out here for your death” kind)
10. Stories based on myths and fairy tales, particularly if they’re intended to address metanarrative trends and Fail. (Unless they Fail worse.) 11. Descent narratives.
12. Monomania, provided it doesn’t result in obsession and/or/stalkeryness and/or “I will sell out the kingdom/war/universe and/or threaten/hurt/kill innocents for you.” (Will and Elizabeth in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie: GOOD. Sexby in The Devil’s Whore: BAD.)
13. Central female relationships where they drop everything for each other. (Alternatively, things like “Saying ‘my BGFF needs me’ is no longer a valid excuse to run off when I want to talk about Feelings!” means that you are dead to me.
14. Making out in the middle of a battle/fight, whether fighting each other or after wading through mutual enemies. (Extremely unwise. Do not try at home.)
15. Forehead nuzzling.
16. Fallen/reincarnated angels. (Similar to descent narratives, but not quite the same.)
17. So Bad It’s Good. (Mostly limited to shoujo and 90s TV. Sometimes shounen.) It's cose friend Awesomely Bad is also welcome, but more likely to just be Bad or Boringly Bad.
18. Women with weapons who actually use them, as long as “badass” isn’t 90% of their personality.
19. Things involving apocalypses, whether it’s post-, pre-, or “OMG IT’S THE APOCALYPSE! HIDE!”
20. Respectful animosity/bickering.