Snowflake Challenge #11
1/21/23 10:55 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateIn your own space, Talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.
Tropes can be so much fun but if you want a little guide to articulating your favorites you can check a wealth of them on fanlore or TV tropes.
There are clichés, motifs and themes that bring joy to our fannish hearts. Let’s talk about them.
And of course we have kinks which can be more on the non-sexual cliché side or they can be all kinds of sexy. We have ‘em, we love ‘em, we want to talk about ‘em.
Found family.
I'm not even really sure what this is; while there are stories specifically about it, it tends to thread through stories as a background theme as well. I guess most people think of it as a trope, but I almost think of it as part of oeuvre. Most of the people I know who write found family write it all the time. It is simply the way they view the world and how their minds work. I know for me, it is always about this, even though I also love blood/legal family relations and the complexities those can represent, good and bad.
Family in general is a thing for me, but when family is either not enough, lets a character down, or for some reason goes away, I like to give them someone(s) to prop them up, people who love them the way we all sort of think families should. (I keep wanting to insert a tangent about family relationships here, BUT I AM RESISTING IT!)
So yeah, I tend to love canons with found families (yes, team dynamics definitely falls under this), so that's a super easy starting point for found family themes and tropes. But even when it's not, I'll create it for my characters. I just feel like everyone deserves to have someone that sticks with them, treats them with respect and wants good things for them. Sometimes you have to make an OC to do that. Sometimes you can repurpose canon characters. Whatever it is, it is my happy place when someone (regardless of what their actual family situation is like) finds their person/people.
I would say most often this is not romance, though it shows up in ship fic a lot. Sometimes someone's person is the love of their life, and that person is the found family. Sometimes they come with literally a whole family, whether their blood/legal relations or their own found family.
But some of the best gen fic out there is about this trope. I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but if I'm going to read it, guaranteed I'm going to read the Avengers living in Stark tower together as a team. That is what I want for them. Comfort, ease, support, closeness of those who love you.
I think, in the end, I typically like characters who have a lot of angst/troubles in their storylines, so the fanworks I create and those I enjoy are those where they get the support they probably didn't in canon. Whether it's fluffy fic about someone making a character hot chocolate or dense plotfic that fixes everything by introducing someone who cares deeply about the character, I just want comfort in the form of good relationships.
I will also add that I think my love for this trope comes from my parents. When I was young, maybe 12? My parents showed me my adoption paperwork. Included in it was a statement about why my parents wanted to adopt a child. Their answer was, "We have room in our home and our hearts for another child." And so they got me. And my younger sister. And then they acquired a daughter in the form of my older sister's best friend. And my younger sister's best friend. And I brought in our little brother when I was in grad school. All of our friends considered my parents to be the best parents, and most of them called them mom and dad when they visited. They have always opened their home and hearts to their children and the people who love them, and it has been a rich and varied experience. I often offer my family to people who need one, because they're great, and they will welcome you into their home and their hearts without a second thought.
Tropes can be so much fun but if you want a little guide to articulating your favorites you can check a wealth of them on fanlore or TV tropes.
There are clichés, motifs and themes that bring joy to our fannish hearts. Let’s talk about them.
And of course we have kinks which can be more on the non-sexual cliché side or they can be all kinds of sexy. We have ‘em, we love ‘em, we want to talk about ‘em.
Found family.
I'm not even really sure what this is; while there are stories specifically about it, it tends to thread through stories as a background theme as well. I guess most people think of it as a trope, but I almost think of it as part of oeuvre. Most of the people I know who write found family write it all the time. It is simply the way they view the world and how their minds work. I know for me, it is always about this, even though I also love blood/legal family relations and the complexities those can represent, good and bad.
Family in general is a thing for me, but when family is either not enough, lets a character down, or for some reason goes away, I like to give them someone(s) to prop them up, people who love them the way we all sort of think families should. (I keep wanting to insert a tangent about family relationships here, BUT I AM RESISTING IT!)
So yeah, I tend to love canons with found families (yes, team dynamics definitely falls under this), so that's a super easy starting point for found family themes and tropes. But even when it's not, I'll create it for my characters. I just feel like everyone deserves to have someone that sticks with them, treats them with respect and wants good things for them. Sometimes you have to make an OC to do that. Sometimes you can repurpose canon characters. Whatever it is, it is my happy place when someone (regardless of what their actual family situation is like) finds their person/people.
I would say most often this is not romance, though it shows up in ship fic a lot. Sometimes someone's person is the love of their life, and that person is the found family. Sometimes they come with literally a whole family, whether their blood/legal relations or their own found family.
But some of the best gen fic out there is about this trope. I'm not a huge Marvel fan, but if I'm going to read it, guaranteed I'm going to read the Avengers living in Stark tower together as a team. That is what I want for them. Comfort, ease, support, closeness of those who love you.
I think, in the end, I typically like characters who have a lot of angst/troubles in their storylines, so the fanworks I create and those I enjoy are those where they get the support they probably didn't in canon. Whether it's fluffy fic about someone making a character hot chocolate or dense plotfic that fixes everything by introducing someone who cares deeply about the character, I just want comfort in the form of good relationships.
I will also add that I think my love for this trope comes from my parents. When I was young, maybe 12? My parents showed me my adoption paperwork. Included in it was a statement about why my parents wanted to adopt a child. Their answer was, "We have room in our home and our hearts for another child." And so they got me. And my younger sister. And then they acquired a daughter in the form of my older sister's best friend. And my younger sister's best friend. And I brought in our little brother when I was in grad school. All of our friends considered my parents to be the best parents, and most of them called them mom and dad when they visited. They have always opened their home and hearts to their children and the people who love them, and it has been a rich and varied experience. I often offer my family to people who need one, because they're great, and they will welcome you into their home and their hearts without a second thought.
For easy organization later:
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on 1/21/23 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 05:08 am (UTC)no subject
on 1/21/23 06:34 pm (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 05:09 am (UTC)no subject
on 1/21/23 06:43 pm (UTC)I agree with you on the MCU Tower Fic. It's also one of my favorites, and I generally tend to gravitate toward fic that live in the post-first Avenger film.
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on 1/23/23 05:10 am (UTC)I could read 8000 versions of that same story, for real. Give me literally any story that has them living together in Stark tower, I love it!
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on 1/21/23 07:56 pm (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 05:10 am (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 04:15 pm (UTC)no subject
on 1/21/23 08:26 pm (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 05:11 am (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 03:14 am (UTC)I just feel like everyone deserves to have someone that sticks with them, treats them with respect and wants good things for them.
That's a lovely sentiment and I agree with it. Like you, I love reading post Avengers fic where they all live in the Tower and are a happy team.
Also, your family sounds great! Thank you for sharing with us. :D
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on 1/23/23 05:12 am (UTC)And yessssssss Tower fic, gimme all of it. I love them supporting each other - that is the real meaning of team!
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on 1/23/23 03:27 am (UTC)no subject
on 1/23/23 05:16 am (UTC)Yeah, my parents (who had more than enough legal/blood family to go around) still ended up creating a found family, somehow, and all of their kids have gone on to just assume that is how you are with people, you know? It's a pretty great thing.
no subject
on 1/23/23 04:21 pm (UTC)