5 Tropes I'm sick of & 1 pleasant surprise

[risti]

So as mentioned, I've been reading far too much J2 fic over the past few months, largely because, well, there seems to be a never-ending supply of it. Having said that, I've moved beyond just skimming rec lists and have slowly been making my way back through various masterlists

Comments

[moirariordan]

I don't think you're talking about J2 fandom, I think you're just talking about fandom. I've never read anything J2 in my life and I know exactly what you're talking about and have seen all of it a zillion times.

I think what all of this really stems from is that a lot of the time, an author's first priority is sex. Like their goal isn't to write a love story or a story about two characters or plot or whatever, it's to write about two people they find attractive having sex. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be frustrating to people who don't read with that same goal in mind.

I'm all for letting people like and write and read whatever they want without judgment or criticism, but there are times when I notice large-spread trends - like the one you mentioned about slashing fandoms who villainize or marginalize women - and think, well that's fucked up. And sometimes you just have to point it out. :/

[morganlight]

I think what all of this really stems from is that a lot of the time, an author's first priority is sex. Like their goal isn't to write a love story or a story about two characters or plot or whatever, it's to write about two people they find attractive having sex. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be frustrating to people who don't read with that same goal in mind.

THIS.
To me, fic is the continuation of story, an implicit scene made explicit, or just riffing on 'what if's with your favorite characters. And they have to be characters. Random pairings are just like picking two random models out of a magazine and making them have sex... and if that's what you're doing, well, there's plenty of well-filmed porn out there.

[narcissa_malfoy]

I have to respectfully disagree a bit with the poster above me :) To me, these tropes seems much more widespread in the J2 fandom. Some I have never for all my reading in other fandoms seen elsewhere. I wholeheartedly agree with your explanation and I too think that it stems from lazy writing. My major problem with J2 and that I think lie at the bottom of a lot of these problems is the lack of characterisation. Many times they have no actual personalities and therefore nothing to build a relationship or UST on.