ok i think what gets me about the kind of post that's like '[children's media] has child soldiers, where are their parents!!' is that those stories really and truly aren't for people who'll think about that, they're for the people the children's age, who don't, for the most part, want to be kept safe or told they're too young to participate in the world, they want to be given a sword

#''children save the world'' stories are for the children to feel powerful and strong  #''responsible adult steps in'' stories are for adults looking back realizing they shouldn't have needed to be strong in the first place  #because someone should have done something (and that someone could be them now)  #the former is an important story to tell because children deserve to feel powerful and strong  #the latter we see a lot on tumblr because. well. that's who's here (via @iguessyouregonnamissthepantyraid​)

Spot on original post, and great addition in the notes.

big fan of 'i'd find you in every universe'. BIGGER fan of 'there are maybe five universes where we find each other and in four of them it ends badly i think we're some kind of anomaly i think every law of everything points towards this being the death of us. but we could try to save it anyway.' THATS the good shit.

Good trope: Character yelling, "It's not what it looks like!" while doing exactly what it looks like.

Great trope: Character yelling, "It's not what it looks like!" while doing something so unfathomable that the person who interrupted them can't even begin to attempt to figure out what the hell it is they're seeing.

“oh no we need to practice for our fake dating” is the funniest trope to me cause like. there are so many people who force themselves into a shitty relationship they hate just because of amatonormatiivity that it’s an ingrained part of popular culture to joke about hating your partner.

which is to say, oh my god you dont need to hold hands and go on fake dates, you don’t even need to agree on a single detail of your cover story beforehand. you can literally stand 6 feet apart at all times and look profoundly uncomfortable and all anyone will think is “yikes™. not my problem”

actually people should address this in fanfic more because “i know we could half-ass it, but i would never fake mistreat my fake husband, how dare you” is absolutely delightful

New trope: fake dating for spite.

“Look, my only goal here is for our pretend relationship to be demonstrably healthier than Aunt Rita and Uncle Carl’s fifteen year, three child marriage - which means the bar is so low we probably can’t fuck this up”

preserving @river-gale’s tags for posterity because yes. yes. this is it. you get it.

episodes that i think every tv show should have:

• one where the camera follows a side character around for the day & the A-plot is left to happen in the background

"magical fey shapeshifter surrounded by regular animals" is by far my favorite cartoon saloon trope

This is the funniest fucking addition anyone has ever made on one of my posts. Everyone else go home

Top-Tier Villain Motivations

Very important, cannot believe I forgot:

God I love “We’re enemies, but we’ve been enemies for a long time, which is sort of like being friends.” Great trope.

Especially when it comes with a side of “this OTHER enemy isn’t being your enemy in the right way. I will help you defeat them, so that I can go back to being your primary enemy, your correct enemy.”

he's fighting a beautiful buff lady. her shirt gets ripped and she's left in her slutty little tank top. "come on," you think. "why is the woman always wearing sexier things than her male counterparts." but fear not. now HE takes off his shirt and he's left in HIS slutty little tank top. equality. and then they kiss

Could really use more media where wives viciously protect their husbands

Also violently. I want very violently. I want her to go scorched earth. I want five scenes earlier to see her husband being diplomatic and calming down a situation so no one gets hurt because his wife is in danger. And then something happens and now he's unconscious and being threatened and his wife just absolutely levels a seven block radius with the force of her refusal to let anyone hurt him.

There is nothing better than the antagonist finding out the husband was the humane restraint on a woman who can make the Furies go “…wow, okay, that’s maybe a bit much.”

(friend)ship dynamics or smth

“Yes, but just because I can crack reality open like an egg and reign as a galactic conquerer doesn’t mean that I want to. I want to be the silly nemesis of a street level hero”

Sometimes you just want to be a campy gay D-tier villain with your time

im a fucking sucker for the “character gets so badly injured that they can’t think clearly and start calling for help in a distressingly vulnerable way.” characters who start using nicknames for their friends they haven’t used since they were kids. characters who start begging for their brother they haven’t seen in years to be there. characters who would usually use their parents’ names or call them mother/father/etc crying out mama when they go down. u understand.

some random redemption arcs that aren’t just ‘zuko, but a little to the left’

okay but "the symbolism is Real and Trying to Kill You" is my favorite kind of symbolism

like yeah the monster is a representation of your unresolved trauma and guilt and a manifestation of the sins of your past but it's also a real creature and it's going to fucking Get you

I love a character raised to be a weapon as much as the next guy. But what really gets me is a character raised to be a shield. Who can’t fathom being needed—or even being wanted— beyond keeping others safe. Who believe they are alive only to insure someone doesn’t die. no matter the cost. Characters who self-sacrifice not because they think they deserve it, but because no one else does deserve it, and it’s their job to protect.

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.

Bonus points if it’s not a legitimate job they’ve been given. Maybe at one point it was, but now that they are free from it, they haven’t given up that mentality. No one is forcing or asking them to do this, but they need to. They need to in order to be deserving.