#trope discussion

[blindbeta]

What are your thoughts on the ‘Blind Musician’ trope?

Blind Musician Trope

[Edit: This post has been edited to include citations and information about rates of unemployment or underemployment for blind people, including links and possible improvement of the older estimate that blind people are about 70% unemployed or underemployed in the U.S. End edit.]

This is a fun one. I have no problem with a blind character being musically talented, whether they make it a career or not.

Historically, blind people had even fewer job options than we do now. That is taking into account that many blind people in the U.S are still are unemployed or underemployed according to this article by Be My Eyes. 70% is also estimated by the Lighthouse For the Blind here. While the typical estimation of 70% may be an older estimate that has since improved, employment of blind people is still held back by significant barriers, as described here. So it makes sense blind characters would also gravitate toward a medium that is accessible to them and has a precedent.

I also find that sighted people unfamiliar with blindness can more readily accept a blind musician. Conversely, in my experience, people express surprise when blind people work in other fields, such as computer programming. It makes sense that media would gravitate toward a similar path.

The blind musician trope makes sense. I don’t find it offensive or a negative stereotype. The problem is, it is so common that it’s not as interesting to me.

I want to see blind characters doing a variety of things as hobbies and as careers. I have read enough blind musicians. I want other types of representation, too.

In short, not bad at all. Just not very interesting to me.

However, blind musicians are fucking awesome and should be supported. So maybe more focus on the hardships blind musicians face in the industry, especially blind producers, blind people in orchestras, blind singers and frontmen. A blind metal musician struggling to be taken seriously. A blind producer thriving. I don’t know.

I think my main issue with this trope is that the reality of it is not always explored. People love to feel inspired by blind musicians all while ignoring a blind artist’s struggles with being compensated fairy or being acknowledged in the same way as their peers. I would also like to see blind musicians with lives outside of music.

[transgwender616]

Fiction acts like every town has a mayor but I've never lived in a town that had one or been in a town that did.

[mermaid-of-the-valley]

Talk of Tails

Head canon: the barbs on Lucifer and Charlie's tails in their full demon forms are venomous.

Lucifer's tail has more and/or larger barbs and the venom is stronger because of his age.

The barbs are not always visible, so I'm tentatively going to say that they raise or lie flat based on their need as threat displays.

I've seen many fan artists opt to give Lucifer more barbs than Charlie, and raise them more often.

Odds are the venom would be of the neurotoxic variety, meaning it attacks the muscles. Venom of this sort in stingrays, stonefish, and lionfish follows that trend and is delivered by barbs. Many types of snakes also have neurotoxic venom, though delivered with fangs.

Barbs in nature tend to be capable of snapping off and regrowing. I choose to believe this is true of Lucifer and Charlie's, albeit harder to achieve.

Anyway, I thought the concept was interesting and I wanted to get some thoughts on this head canon and hear what options people have considered for its use in fics.

Please discuss.

[autisticfoxstudios]

Trope Talk.3

People & beings!

What’s your favorite vs least favorite love triangle tropes?

Feel free to explain or elaborate as well!

(Aromatic’s & Asexual’s feel free to join in as well! I wanna hear your perspectives about this too!)

[puzzlemaster-official]

ooc:

the puzzlemaster’s dynamic with the plague doctor is so doomed i hate it and love it

because the puzzlemaster thinks the plague doctor is evil because of the lleech convincing him it’s not them and the doctor is the next most logical choice- so he takes the opportunity to study the plague doctor and find a way to prove that he was right about him being evil the whole time

meanwhile, the doctor thinks that the puzzlemaster is still the lleech host and has always wanted to study a demon, so would do inhumane experiments with an accusatory guise thinking he’s working with a demon, which makes the puzzlemaster even more suspicious of him

AND the lleech is in the plague doctor’s mind, slowly driving him to evil subconsciously and convincing him to take more and more drastic measures against anyone he is suspicious of, while making him think it’s all his own thoughts and for the greater good

they’re both extremely smart and detail oriented, paranoid of the other one, and being played by a demon against each other using that paranoia against both of them, but they’re both too stubborn to let go of those ideas because they’re so sure that it’s all gonna work out if they keep going, because they’ll find something eventually

and they’re both selfish too, and doing it all for their own gain, the puzzlemaster is horrified of death and thinks that offering himself as a test subject will keep him alive longer, while the doctor wants to study a demon and doesn’t care about the consequences of leaving it alive and withholding evidence from the town for his own personal curiosity.

they both also think they’re in control of the situation, but to actually have any agency need to admit their faults and make a huge sacrifice

[ramblingsofanangel]

The whole “reading someone’s diary to embarrass them” trope is so weird (specially if it’s some sort of teen drama) because if someone read someone’s diary in reality, you’ll either end up

calling the cops

calling a therapist

calling a priest

or all three

(Dividers by @cursed-carmine)

[awkwardposter]

If you think about it, Megatron in Beast Machines is basically the alien robot equivalent of a litch. He's got an eerie, almost ghost-like presence while in robot mode, being suspended on cables and wearing a cloak. He has hordes of mindless minions made from the corpses of other Transformers. He plans to become a god by assimilating the captured disembodied souls of his entire race. And he also recreated (or should I say, "resurrected") Optimus Primal's old body just to spite him.

If that's not a litch, then I don't know what is. (Feel free to give your opinion, though!)

[davidlikebowie-noturaccountant]

margo. roth. speigleman.

i actually feel really strongly about this, i feel so strongly about this and i FEEL strongly so much and i'm gonna fucking talk about it because it's one am and i'm watching the paper towns movie because this is the kind of shit i do at one am and i am reminded of when i managed to quote john green in every single one of my ap lit papers and i was actually kind of impressed with myself and then one of my classmates got annoyed with me because (in her words) he "made the manic pixie dream girl trope" and then got mad at me when i tried to explain that in reality that is not at all what john green did, functionally. is margo roth speigleman a manic pixie dream girl? sure, if you only read half the novel. the whole point of margo roth speigleman and her relationship with q is to deconstruct the manic pixie dream girl trope. is there or is there not a whole arc in the book dedicated to q realising he was viewing margo as a concept and not a person. is there or is there not a whole page where he understands that he isn't understanding her or seeing her as a whole person. is there or is there not a moment in which he realises that that's bad and what is actually functionally keeping him from getting her and ultimately finding her. she is a teenager who has a lot of hurt in her, and for all his perceived faults john green is REALLY GOOD AT WRITING HURT.

and herein lies the problem, doesn't it? who is going to take the time to read the novel in the context of understanding margo past what they believe her to be? these same people who look at their real friends and see their hurt as surface level entertainment are the people who think that margo roth speigleman is meant to be the hailing crown jewel of the manic pixie dream girl trope, because they think that that is the function of trauma. the read of margo and her stroy, of the novel in general, as something that glorifies the manic pixie dream girl is a read that comes from a person who already glorifies the manic pixie dream girl.

maybe i'm projecting a little. maybe i had a friend who continuously compared me to margo in ways that made me realise he didn't understand the book. maybe when he said don't pull a margo on me as a fun little joke he didn't realise that there was some part of me that wished i was that bold. maybe that's the point. margo represents something, undoubtedly. but she isn't meant to represent the manic pixie dream girl in a way that markets it, rather, she's meant to show how the manic pixie dream girl is underneath the perception of the trope. what it means to be the person who others look to for their lifechanging experiences and use the ways that your hurt informs you to grow without helping or understanding you. using your broken pieces to build themselves up and then letting them break all over again after they get used up.

maybe i'm not making sense, maybe it's just one am.

but at the same time, maybe margo roth speigleman is so completely nuanced that people just want her to be shallow because it means they can get away without examining themselves.

anyway, i should stop consuming john green media in the middle of the night. it always makes me sad and pensive.