Snowflake Challenge #9
Jan. 18th, 2026 09:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
soricelTalk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works. (Feel free to substitute in theme/motif/cliche if "trope" doesn't resonate with you.)
Often when I'm reading a book or watching a show, I find myself wishing all the *plot* would stop so the characters could just hang out. I like quiet moments and small but significant gestures; I like seeing how characters interact when they're not trying to do Some Big Thing but rather navigating mundane reality together. So I tend to like slice-of-life type stuff, especially post-canon/future fics set after the dust settles and people have to try to adjust to a new normal, or to deal with some emotional stuff that was left unaddressed while they were busy trying to do Some Big Thing. I'm also less interested in seeing people get together or live happily ever after than wrestling with some challenges related to how exactly they want to be parts of each other's lives.
I've also always been really drawn to the theme of mind control. I can trace this interest to a specific moment in my childhood, when I caught a glimpse of some weird live-action Transformers performance at the local mall. One of the human characters--I forget who--had gotten their mind zapped by some villain (if anyone reading this is a Transformers person, maybe you have some idea who I might be talking about), and I found it simultaneously terrifying and captivating. I think I've always been interested in questions about why we think what we think, to what extent our thoughts are our own, and how our conscious and unconscious minds interact with each other.
That said, I don't tend to seek out fics based on tropes or themes; there are plenty of stories that have some of these elements but just didn't do anything for me, as well as fics that I found beautifully written but feature characters and tropes I'm generally disinterested in. I think I tend to be drawn to language first and foremost.
And *that* said, if anyone has any fic recs that sound similar to anything I described above, please feel free to share!
Often when I'm reading a book or watching a show, I find myself wishing all the *plot* would stop so the characters could just hang out. I like quiet moments and small but significant gestures; I like seeing how characters interact when they're not trying to do Some Big Thing but rather navigating mundane reality together. So I tend to like slice-of-life type stuff, especially post-canon/future fics set after the dust settles and people have to try to adjust to a new normal, or to deal with some emotional stuff that was left unaddressed while they were busy trying to do Some Big Thing. I'm also less interested in seeing people get together or live happily ever after than wrestling with some challenges related to how exactly they want to be parts of each other's lives.
I've also always been really drawn to the theme of mind control. I can trace this interest to a specific moment in my childhood, when I caught a glimpse of some weird live-action Transformers performance at the local mall. One of the human characters--I forget who--had gotten their mind zapped by some villain (if anyone reading this is a Transformers person, maybe you have some idea who I might be talking about), and I found it simultaneously terrifying and captivating. I think I've always been interested in questions about why we think what we think, to what extent our thoughts are our own, and how our conscious and unconscious minds interact with each other.
That said, I don't tend to seek out fics based on tropes or themes; there are plenty of stories that have some of these elements but just didn't do anything for me, as well as fics that I found beautifully written but feature characters and tropes I'm generally disinterested in. I think I tend to be drawn to language first and foremost.
And *that* said, if anyone has any fic recs that sound similar to anything I described above, please feel free to share!
no subject
Date: 2026-01-18 12:32 pm (UTC)Same! I've found out while trying to write plotty original fic that I much prefer writing the characters hanging out. I also like k-dramas that are about the slow moments in which characters develop their relationships.
No fic recs really come to mind, but I like some of Cynthia Kadohata's books for the way they focus on characters living their lives with each other.
no subject
Date: 2026-01-18 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-01-18 08:33 pm (UTC)i think i can find my fic recs of that sort for fullmetal alchemist and avatar: the last airbender, if that interests you?