TriGayatri
Butter Cookies Villainess
- Location
- Indonesia
- Pronouns
- She
The tangent was editor replacing ladies with women in wiki articles.
Pet Peeves in Fanfiction
- Thread starter LostHourglass
- Start date
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
With "ladies" it depends a lot of context and tone, but can very easily sound condescending or lascivious.
"Female" sounds like you're a fucking Ferengi.
"Female" sounds like you're a fucking Ferengi.
- Location
- Nunya, Arizona
I think the only case where "female" becomes vaguely acceptable for a sophont/human as a sort of stand alone designation is in, like, technical medical documentation or whatever? Differentiating between male and female expressions of a particular disease or chromosome or somethin', where that degree of impersonalization might actually be expected.
... that's more or less it, though. There's not a large pool of reasonable use cases. Other than something like that it comes across as something badly wrong with either the character or the author (or both, of course).
... that's more or less it, though. There's not a large pool of reasonable use cases. Other than something like that it comes across as something badly wrong with either the character or the author (or both, of course).
- Pronouns
- Male
Maybe a foreigner using the wrong word?
Kazuto Morimoto
Order and Chaos: Master-in-training #5603
- Location
- Somewhere in the vastness of Time and Space
Hmmm, I see what you mean and I admit that you do have a point. My mental image of a wise old guy is someone like Gandalf although that is a bit unfair comparison. In my experience, the old people (70-80s) in my community provides knowledge that you wouldn't get from studying in books/internet . They are really useful stuff and quite insightful as well so maybe I'm a bit biased. Like what to do if you accidentally set a small fire in your local church because your dumbass younger self thought it was cool.
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I actually see "female" used fairly often to describe those of a feminine persuasion, in and out of fiction with no evident intent to be insulting. Especially when "male" is also used, or somebody is clearly getting tired of writing or saying "women and girls" over and over and wants something shorter.
As for "favorite female", while from the description of the fic it probably was denigrating in that case, usually I'd expect that phrase to be used for the alliteration value. I mean, if somebody wrote an article about women in fantasy stories titles Fantastic Females of Fantasy, my assumption would be they were going for the triple alliteration, not trying to insult women.
As for "favorite female", while from the description of the fic it probably was denigrating in that case, usually I'd expect that phrase to be used for the alliteration value. I mean, if somebody wrote an article about women in fantasy stories titles Fantastic Females of Fantasy, my assumption would be they were going for the triple alliteration, not trying to insult women.
I'm getting a bit sick of these crossover fics where one set of characters just slips right in with one of the other universes cast and just does their best to help them out. Seriously I'd like to see some ones where the characters pursue their own paths and wreak havoc on the other setting rather than be nothing more then a tool the author uses to retell canon except with the hero's having an easier time of things.
Kazuto Morimoto
Order and Chaos: Master-in-training #5603
- Location
- Somewhere in the vastness of Time and Space
I mean, depending on the context and who the character is, it might be make sense for them to do that in-universe. I don't really see someone like Shirou Emiya causing chaos everywhere just for the heck of it. Also, I really doubt there would be no opposition against them if they do wreck havoc on another world.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It can also go way too far the other way - if you've got a crossover character that just refuses to interact with the characters or plot of the crossed-over world then it's just as frustrating, especially when it's incredibly out of character for the crossed-over character.
I'd go so far as to say most characters that people want to cross over would probably ally with and help the appropriate teams without too much trouble; I can't see, for example, Harry Potter or Naruto or Ichigo Kurosaki (to pick some of the big names in crossovering) just randomly wrecking shit instead of organising with whoever they can, trying to find a way back, and co-ordinating to assist with big problems until they can get home. Naruto might whine and pull pranks in the process, I guess, if you're using early-series Naruto.
I'd go so far as to say most characters that people want to cross over would probably ally with and help the appropriate teams without too much trouble; I can't see, for example, Harry Potter or Naruto or Ichigo Kurosaki (to pick some of the big names in crossovering) just randomly wrecking shit instead of organising with whoever they can, trying to find a way back, and co-ordinating to assist with big problems until they can get home. Naruto might whine and pull pranks in the process, I guess, if you're using early-series Naruto.
True but I'm talking more about the grey or amoral characters or even those from worlds/universes with very different cultures, rules, and the like I mean I don't see the likes of Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez really giving a damn about hero's or villains if ends up in bnha or the like. Who said there wouldn't be opposition? That's pretty much expected still doesn't mean that depending on the character that would stop them.
- Location
- Elsewhere
It's also frustrating when they flawlessly sort out some complex situation without any context.
"Wow, these guys who fooled the entire world are obviously Evil, except for that cute one who is totally forced into this situation. I'll go track down a random group of sketchy individuals and join them."
"Wow, these guys who fooled the entire world are obviously Evil, except for that cute one who is totally forced into this situation. I'll go track down a random group of sketchy individuals and join them."
Fellow Human
Verified Roado Rolla
I'd be wary of what you ask for coz most of the fics where the MC is not good with the good guys, have a lot of lot of look how stupid everyone else is, me SI is smart!
Here are some recs not like that :
Growing Pains [DBZ/DC] - how will a Saiyan girl get strong if not by fighting heroes?, Going Native [DBZ/DC Comics] - SI is Tarble, there are no Namekians so no Dragon Balls, he needs to survive Saiyan training and missions before he can do anything
One Punch Worm (Worm CYOA V5, SIOC) - SI gets himself One Punch-like power while giving to his friend King-like power(luck) hilarity ensues
To Live is to Fight (Worm/Bleach) - Unohana and Gin in BB, what more do could you want
The Devil of Brockton Bay [Worm/DxD]
Climbing to The Top - one of the rare Overlord fics that isn't a minor twist on Nazarick
This Venom Inside - SI gets transmigrated into Bane, that doesn't sound so bad...when he was a child...born in the world toughest prison. MC uses Bane's superior genes to cause a prison break and take over Santa Prisca and then fixing DC the smart way, not by punching people one at a time.
Rising of The Isekai Mess
You would say this.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Pet Peeve: Non-Euclidean Geometry.
For reference, Euclidean Geometry is any geometry on a flat plane.
Non-Euclidean Geometry is any geometry on a plane curved in either direction.
For example*:
The interior angles of a triangle drawn on a flat surface add up to 180 degrees.
The interior angles of a triangle drawn on a globe do not add up to 180 degrees.
*If anyone is driven mad by exposure to the mind-bending nature of Non-Euclidean Geometry and wishes to start a cult, I only accept offerings in the form of cash and the first commandment is to stay far away from me.
You may notice that there's nothing particularly unusual about Non-Euclidean Geometry.
If an object has "Non-Euclidean Geometry" then that pretty much means it's not perfectly flat.
And yet, every eldritch horror author throws it around like it actually means something.
Yes, it might be non-euclidean, but what else is it and why do we care!?
"This building is full of Non-Euclidean Geometry!"
"Yeah, that's probably water and age making the wood warp, but you might want to get the foundation examined in case it's something more serious."
Now Non-Euclidean Space might be more interesting, but even that isn't saying much.
After all, gravity also bends space, so any gravity well could be modeled as Non-Euclidean.
Also included in this peeve are things like Dark Matter, and Radiation.
Do you know what dark matter is?
Rocks.
People.
Planets.
Literally anything that has mass, but isn't visible from lightyears away is Dark Matter.
There are plenty of exotic theories about other things that might also be Dark Matter, but having a character grab a rock and yell "It's Dark Matter!" doesn't actually tell the reader anything.
Radiation is all around from plenty of common sources.
Plenty of characters will react in shock and horror at something emitting radiation, without any indication that it's more dangerous than 10 minutes outside.
Then they spend the day sunbathing.
For reference, Euclidean Geometry is any geometry on a flat plane.
Non-Euclidean Geometry is any geometry on a plane curved in either direction.
For example*:
The interior angles of a triangle drawn on a flat surface add up to 180 degrees.
The interior angles of a triangle drawn on a globe do not add up to 180 degrees.
*If anyone is driven mad by exposure to the mind-bending nature of Non-Euclidean Geometry and wishes to start a cult, I only accept offerings in the form of cash and the first commandment is to stay far away from me.
You may notice that there's nothing particularly unusual about Non-Euclidean Geometry.
If an object has "Non-Euclidean Geometry" then that pretty much means it's not perfectly flat.
And yet, every eldritch horror author throws it around like it actually means something.
Yes, it might be non-euclidean, but what else is it and why do we care!?
"This building is full of Non-Euclidean Geometry!"
"Yeah, that's probably water and age making the wood warp, but you might want to get the foundation examined in case it's something more serious."
Now Non-Euclidean Space might be more interesting, but even that isn't saying much.
After all, gravity also bends space, so any gravity well could be modeled as Non-Euclidean.
Also included in this peeve are things like Dark Matter, and Radiation.
Do you know what dark matter is?
Rocks.
People.
Planets.
Literally anything that has mass, but isn't visible from lightyears away is Dark Matter.
There are plenty of exotic theories about other things that might also be Dark Matter, but having a character grab a rock and yell "It's Dark Matter!" doesn't actually tell the reader anything.
Radiation is all around from plenty of common sources.
Plenty of characters will react in shock and horror at something emitting radiation, without any indication that it's more dangerous than 10 minutes outside.
Then they spend the day sunbathing.
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- Location
- Right Where I Am
But how big is Greenland?!?!
The maps don't agree. Am I supposed to blame Mercator or Cthulhu?
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
This one is Lovecraft's fault. He frequently used words that he didn't actually know the meaning of ("cyclopean") and had "too delicate of a constitution for math."
This one, however, is wrong. The normal matter that you are describing is called "baryonic" matter, and is not Dark Matter. Dark Matter is matter that we've only been able to detect by its gravity. If it were normal matter, we would see it reflect or scatter or absorb or emit light from the light sources behind it. We could do spectroscopy on it. There's too much of it for it to not do so. A quantity of dust or rocks with a mass equal to an appreciable percentage of the galaxy would be have a noticeable effect on the light.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
'Cyclopean' is just another word for 'big masonry', though, and that's how Lovecraft used it? He absolutely did use ten-dollar words when five cents would be better and some of them he didn't understand, but you did pick the worst example there.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Nope.
Baryonic Dark Matter is a term used to differentiate between it and more exotic theoretical dark matter, but it is still dark matter.
We can't see all baryonic matter, only some of it is in a position to be detected from light sources, and we infer that there is insufficient to account for gravitational effects from models, but we don't actually have good ways to detect it.
There could be entire "galaxies" of gas giants and we would have no idea.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If you can perceive it through things like sight and touch, it's definitionally not dark matter; the defining factor of dark matter is that it cannot be directly observed. Which is why it's 'dark matter' - matter we think might exist but we only think that because of the second/third/etc. order effects we can see on surrounding matter.
It's not complicated. The second you can perceive it, it ceases to be dark matter and we can categorise it appropriately.
It's not complicated. The second you can perceive it, it ceases to be dark matter and we can categorise it appropriately.
I don't know if this is the same or similar, but stories where a character from one series/universe/whatever is introduced into another, interacts heavily or is implied to, but at the end of the chapter/story/whatever, the plot and outcome and everything is 99.75% identical to the movie, tv episode, book, whatever.
I'm not big into a mary sue or deus ex machina type character, but at some point if you're gonna add a heavy hitter from one universe into that of another, I expect something to start changing eventually. Some random red shirt that dies in canon survives, or some random flunkie villain that survived is killed. They don't have to stop the villain's master plan right then and there, but maybe deal with a couple villain of the week scenarios differently.
Some of the stuff where 99.9% of the plot looks like someone essentially copied and pasted from a movie or tv episode transcript, that's a waste of time to read, and TBH, I'd honestly wonder if some stories like that could be considered a copyright violation of sorts.
Kadmus
Dragon's teeth are surprisingly hard to sow
- Location
- Devon
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Ah, the 'I have never had an original idea' genre of fanfic; it's incredibly common because it's super easy to just, well, novelise the episode/chapter/whatever instead of change it. Having a totally-not-an-SI there along for the ride often feels like...
Okay. So, for me, fanfiction is about the transformative aspect. It's about taking the base ingredients and rearranging them, adding spices, and so on. It's not about re-treading the same ground over and over.
But for a significant chunk of writers and readers, fanfiction is about continual engagement with the original piece. They don't want new plots and new events and new characters; they want something that's comfortable and familiar. And that's fine! It's just annoying to run into it when the synopsis sells the opposite to you.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
"Cyclopean" doesn't mean big. It means "masonry made of irregular stone pieces," such as that used by the Mycenean Greeks. Lovecraft described every goddamn building in his stories as "cyclopean" because he thought it meant big and scary, but it actually just meant that no one in his stories bothers to carve their stones into rectangles before they stack them up.
No. Literally none of that.
Our best theory is that Dark Matter is not baryonic matter. It's not just matter that we don't happen to see, it can't be seen. If it could be seen, we would see it. It makes up 85% of the universe. Our galaxy is surrounded by a halo of it. If it affected light in any way, we would be able to see the effect on light from distant sources. If it were possible for it to just be normal matter, then we wouldn't have been scratching our heads over it for fifty years.
Anyone who uses "Dark Matter" to refer to matter that just happens to not have a light on it is using it wrong.
My mileage on this varies with the setting — mostly, because it depends on where the impetus for events comes from. If Benjamin Adguy turns to villainy because of a misunderstanding that the crossover character prevents, then their evil plans should, understandably, be halted in their tracks. On the other hand, it doesn't matter how many tiddlywinks tournaments our protagonist wins (even if they are summoning magic monsters to do battle with each other with those special tiddlywinks tokens from [Insert Ancient Culture Here]), the trillion-year-old meteor on a collision course with Earth just doesn't care.
Basically, you have to judge whether or not events occur in response to the Characters' actions or not. For example, Team 7 always going on the Wave mission? That only happened because Naruto was being a whiny brat. If his attitude improves, or the Hokage no longer favours him quite so much, then it shouldn't happen. On the flip-side, the Chuunin exams always happen a couple of months after Team 7 graduate. This is all in accordance with huge international treaties, which are older than the cast have been alive. It'd be like rescheduling the Olympics, or the Eurovision Song Contest — not something that what are effectively a bunch of school kids are realistically going to be able to affect.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Except for this part
All the current theories say that most Dark Matter is non-baryonic, but ultimately Dark Matter is a negative definition.
Mass required for Observed Movements - Observed Mass = Dark Matter
The MACHO project concluded baryonic matter was insufficient, not unqualified.
The Narrator
Disembodied Voice
- Location
- Somewhere Offscreen
Well, that's new since my last astrophysics class. However...
Article: Only a small proportion of the dark matter in the universe is likely to be baryonic.
Article: The total amount of baryonic dark matter can be inferred from models of Big Bang nucleosynthesis, and observations of the cosmic microwave background. Both indicate that the amount of baryonic dark matter is much smaller than the total amount of dark matter.
"A small amount of dark matter might be baryonic" is a long way from "dark matter is just rocks."