NOPE ; character relationships ( not necessarily shipping just in general ) can also do YEP for this too if you want uwu
send me a 'nope' for something i don't like to write. send me a 'yep' for something i do enjoy writing ; accepting
HMM lets see here. like you guys mentioned in your asks too, i don't have a lot of hard nos when it comes to the types of character relationships i will play, but there are of course a few. or maybe less 'hard no' and more 'lets talk about it', just like you said in your ask!! its more of a case by case basis with a lot of these things. like most people on here ill write unhealthy or toxic relationships, provided it is treated with the respect it needs and remains somewhat grounded in the reality of 'this is not a healthy relationship dynamic to strive towards'. with that in mind, there's not many things i wont touch. however, when it begins to skirt into the territory of 'wouldnt it be cute if my muse was a student to your muse and they fell in lurv???" like no it wouldn't be cute. it would be abusive. that's something i need to establish right away. im not knocking anyone who writes these dynamics and saying they all automatically are just fetishizing it. there are ways to tackle more 'problematic' content without falling into the trap of making the narrative actually approve of whats transpiring -- but anyway. im getting WAY off topic.
as i said before i dont really enjoy writing romantic mentor/apprentice relationships because of the sorely uneven power dynamic, and the fact that vali remains pretty professional with his apprentices. keeping them at arm's length. not really letting them in his life past a purely mentor figure standpoint. so it just would be ooc for him to pursue one of his apprentices. if one of his apprentices is trying to pursue him, he shuts it down. he knows he has a position of power.
now, as for actually equal exchanges of information between people, acting more like academic colleagues or intellectual peers than teacher and student, and falling in love via that dynamic? that seems a lot more up my alley. i guess you could call it.... teacher/teacher or student/student.
where its an equal exchange of information between equal academic peers rather than someone in a position of authority passing down information to someone without a position of authority. i could see that being an actually pretty cute dynamic. but mentor/apprentice? naaah, not my cup of tea either man. i can see someone giving such a dynamic the space, respect and critical eye that it needs in order to be written well, but im not willing nor interested in picking up that particular torch.
something else im kinda eeeeeh on but not like. NO about. is probs the concept of soul mates. i get the concept and why people like it! its very romantic if written right, and can open up a whole new world of dynamics to explore via past lives. but i never really got into the whole soul mate dynamic thing. maybe because there's often this implication you only have *one* soul mate, and that soul mate is *always* going to be a romantic one. i do however like the idea of two souls who were met to meet, but maybe not for the reasons the characters think.
i think it ties into the tropes of 'love at first sight', 'love conquers all', 'twin souls', 'opposites attract', and the whole idea of the universe wanting you two to be together. which can easily go into the cliche territory i guess. none of these tropes are inherently bad in the slightest, cliches are not inherently bad, there's a reason cliches are cliches, cuz they work if they are so overdone. and if done well, can be amazing. but i often don't see myself really getting into these sorts of tropes except in circumstances were its just. exceptional. i guess.
i do, however, like the idea that two character's meeting was fated -- maybe not in the romantic 'we were always meant to be' soul mates way, but in the 'we are meant to teach each other something in this life' kinda way!! karmic relationships > the whole soul mate fanfic trope thing
