this trope. this f***ing trope.

[aliana1]

There are a LOT of storytelling/pop-culture tropes I could happily go without seeing again.  You know, like the one where the young straight white male orphan is tapped as the Chosen Savior of the World, and his ensemble of non-young/straight/white/male sidekicks/mentors sublimate their own arcs into his to support him?  Or women being killed,

Comments

[wheelrider]

Was JUST thinking about this... the one that gets me is maybe so general as to not even be a "trope" anymore, but: pairing an attractive (in the typical Hollywood way) young woman with a schlubby dude. C'mon. I WANT EQUAL OPPORTUNITY OGLING.

[wheelrider]

Oh and ... [http://gingerhaze.tumblr.com/post/97490139983/my-least-favorite-trope-and-this-post-will]

Oh AND - when grown-ass women pose with toes pointed inward on purpose, all ineffectual and girly-cutesy. (Is that a trope? I think I'm doing it wrong...)

[aliana1]

Yeah, srsly! Like, it's okay for guys to be non-conventionally attractive as long as they're funny or talented, but women still have to be really pretty. Actually that reminds me of a Kristen Schaal quote, where she read that someone commented that she was "too ugly" to be on TV, to which she responded, "That is exactly why I should be on TV!" Anyway, Kristen Schaal is beautiful. Inside and out.

I remember reading Noelle's repost a while back, and was also thinking about it when I wrote this post. I have this fantasy of writing a sci-fi/fantasy epic in which the protagonists are tasked with finding and nurturing the Chosen One Who Will Save the Universe (who is of course a young straight white male orphan), only to have him get knocked off almost immediately.

Hmm, I haven't seen a lot of grown-ass women with toes pointed inward...that sounds really uncomfortable and possible bad for your legs!

[huinare]

Like, it's okay for guys to be non-conventionally attractive as long as they're funny or talented, but women still have to be really pretty.

That drives me insane! Or, along the same lines (probably a sub-heading of what you're saying here), the non-conventionally-attractive male character can still be considered attractive, just in a non-conventional way. Like, you know, he's carrying around a few extra pounds, but he's still hot, type of thing. Whereas, if a woman is non-conventionally-attractive, she is simply not attractive at all, full stop (and therefore probably not on the telly in the first place, unless she's a nagging wife or the comic relief).

I have this fantasy of writing a sci-fi/fantasy epic in which the protagonists are tasked with finding and nurturing the Chosen One Who Will Save the Universe (who is of course a young straight white male orphan), only to have him get knocked off almost immediately.

YESSS.

[hhimring]

I like Nimona, too.
You might like EverleighBain's WIP Valiant, if you haven't come across it yet--it's got that very trope: although the mentor isn't all that jaded and the young female protagonist is quite young and also they have company.

(It's difficult to avoid fridging people when you're writing about First Age Noldor.But I do try to treat my fridgees with as much respect as I can and I always feel gulty about them!)

[aliana1]

Oh cool, thanks for the rec! I hadn't seen it, but I will definitely check it out.

(It's difficult to avoid fridging people when you're writing about First Age Noldor.But I do try to treat my fridgees with as much respect as I can and I always feel gulty about them!)

LOL, I don't think it's really fridging if Tolkien killed 'em, in the first place! Also I guess it's only considered fridging if it's done in a somewhat gratuitous or exploitative fashion that's all about the wallowing of the survivors, and not about the victims...which I'm guessing you don't do? ;)

[hhimring]

Re fridging:
Slightly more complicated than that:
In the First Age, Tolkien kills off huge swathes of the Noldor (and others, of course, also), usually without so much as mentioning names of anyone who is not somehow related to the royal family. It makes it easy to forget they existed at all, as people.
So I occasionally I give names to those dead to show that we (the reader) may forget them, but the survivors don't. I remain very conscious that essentially all I've done by that is upgraded them from statistics to red shirts or fridgees and that they really deserve their own story...