Viewpoint Unpopular roleplay opinions?

[Jannah]

Most of my RPs set in the Pokemon fandom universe are all OCs anyway, so I do get what you are talking about though. I also understand that not everyone has the same perspective on how characters act and, while I like the spontaneity of it, I tend to tread very carefully and ask for headcanons first if I'm playing a canon character for someone.

But damn XD hope that RP goes well for you :3

It's going well actually. And yes, I say pseudo-historical since it doesn't follow the events exactly and kind of plays off the "Anastasia survived" myth that persisted for decades after the family was executed. It also has all new fictional characters rather than the real historical figures. Of course with it being that way we have much more room to take creative liberties with things too. It's very different from how I usually do historical RPs, but it's working out well and it's fun.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Merciless Medic I think the way I have taken to describing crushes for myself is “Friends but with Kissing.”

Like I get that’s not exactly it but it’s usually close enough for the kinds of relationships I write.

For the most part I usually stick to my “culture shock” or “work place drama” but with MAGIC and goats/dragons/birds!

 

[Murdergurl]

THAT'S WHAT THAT'S CALLED! I gotta edit it in now XD

Hence the prologue to Romeo and Juliet:
Two households, both alike in dignity,
In fair Verona (where we lay our scene),
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes
A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life;
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows
Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
The fearful passage of their death-marked love,
And the continuance of their parents’ rage,
Which but their children’s end nought could remove,
Is now the two hours’ traffic of our stage;
The which if you with patient ears attend,
What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

Merciless Medic so as an aro/ace I do not have crushes. As such trying to explain the concept to me is usually pretty frustrating. So it’s not so much that I have anything against it it’s that I genuinely don’t understand what people are talking about.

It doesn’t help that a lot of shipping tropes can be pretty creepy if you just do a surface level reading.

I'm ace aro as heck and that is part of why I don't like shipping with people. I'm not really all that comfortable or into writing the overly cuddly wuddly stuff with other people. And I'm not talking sex. I feel weird even with things like kissing and cuddling in a romantic spot while talking and such. Especially if they seem to be getting way to into it OOC.

And it also doesn't help the two times I agreed to let a side character ship with someone's with complete up front I was not a ship writer, don't expect much and I'm only agreeing as they are side (and I could agree their WAS chemistry I could make out a bit) It destroyed the entire RP as they immediately tossed aside all else, made attempting to move the actual RP with the mains impossible and started on what I consider a toxic love story.

It probably doesn't help I don't see romance in everything. Like a hug or talking or trying to help someone is something platonic friends do! So I can write that just fine with people. But some people can't see a hug and not think "They have a chance!"

And another thing that makes shippers annoyed is I can write married couples if I'm in charge of both. But I like to really get into the head of my characters and the thought of why my own character fell in love would likely annoy anyone if I used that level of thought to RP love. And like I said, I just feel uncomfortable writing that with another person! So sue me! SHEESH!

My brain is like ... “but why tho? How is a negative trait attractive? They literally aren’t anything. They are just not a thing.”

My brain whenever someone tries to convince me my character and theirs have romantic chemistry when what I'm seeing is just friendship, team mate or even flat out frienemy at best. Like the person that just HAD to try to have a love story with my ex vigilante in a hero based story. All because she was secretly a agent for the villains and he could try to guide her to good once she confessed yada yada yada. Like dude, that's not chemistry. That's just a typical bad boy saving worst girl cliche and once he finds out just what all evil she did he wouldn't touch her with anything but a bullet. (I think I mentioned this case elsewhere where someone tried to tell me ace aro wasn't a thing. This was that person as I reminded them both me and the character were very much Ace aro)

I know most any trope can be interesting if done RIGHT. But to many people just end up writing horribly toxic characters and then want someone to write the idiot who falls in love with them anyway. And THAT really gets uncomfortable. Someone helping a toxic damaged person and building a friendship through it I can do. But romance, just no.

 

[Murdergurl]

Getting back on track to unpopular opinions, but still staying on the subject at hand; I actually despise romantic plots.

I'm not by any means an ace/aro like CecilDMMasters or nerdy tangents (I actually had to google that term to figure out what it meant). I'm totes into dudes (with an intermittent interest in women), but I digress. In my RP narratives, romance is a subject I avoid like the plague. Sexual tension, provocative imagery, and low-brow innuendos are totally within the margins of what I'll write. But it's more like a highlight to the writing and never the focus. But romance, actual romantic build up and interaction? Hard pass.

I'd much rather write about epic starship battles or the visceral disembowelment of a monster's victim(s), over the budding romance of two characters. I just find the whole premise of romantic interactions to be very yawn-worthy. Not to say that the subject is bad, by any means. If that's your thing, all the power to you. It's just not MY thing.

 

[Jannah]

Getting back on track to unpopular opinions, but still staying on the subject at hand; I actually despise romantic plots.

I'm not by any means an ace/aro like CecilDMMasters or nerdy tangents (I actually had to google that term to figure out what it meant). I'm totes into dudes (with an intermittent interest in women), but I digress. In my RP narratives, romance is a subject I avoid like the plague. Sexual tension, provocative imagery, and low-brow innuendos are totally within the margins of what I'll write. But it's more like a highlight to the writing and never the focus. But romance, actual romantic build up and interaction? Hard pass.

I'd much rather write about epic starship battles or the visceral disembowelment of a monster's victim(s), over the budding romance of two characters. I just find the whole premise of romantic interactions to be very yawn-worthy. Not to say that the subject is bad, by any means. If that's your thing, all the power to you. It's just not MY thing.

For me to be interested there usually needs to be more to the story than just romance. I generally won't write romance simply for the sake of romance so I definitely get the dislike of it.

 

[Murdergurl]

For me to be interested there usually needs to be more to the story than just romance. I generally won't write romance simply for the sake of romance so I definitely get the dislike of it.

To be perfectly honest, I HAVE tried my hand at it (a long, long time ago). I'm just super awkward. Like, I really just don't understand wtf I'm supposed to do with a scene. And I'm not particularly good at that kind of character building. But like anything else, it should have a point. Like, writing a pointless gore scene is still pointless. I guess it's just that I see a TON of RPs where the main focus right off the bat is they want a romance RP. Different strokes and all that, but to me it seems a bit of a shallow plot. Like, what? You just write about getting all mushy and sentimental and becoming an item and ...done? These are the parts in movies where I get up to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. lol

Now, a good story would be if some romantic thing happened alongside a great adventure or whatever. Cool. Sure. But I'm just really terrible at it. And I feel like I'm just wasting my time trying to attempt it. So I've learned to dislike it.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Personally I always had the unpopular opinion that established relationships are more romantic than “falling in love”.

I think it’s because established relationships tend to be more along the lines of “friends/family but with kissing”.

They also delve more into what makes people stay together and share a life, and not as much in physical attraction.

 

[Jannah]

Personally I always had the unpopular opinion that established relationships are more romantic than “falling in love”.

I think it’s because established relationships tend to be more along the lines of “friends/family but with kissing”.

They also delve more into what makes people stay together and share a life, and not as much in physical attraction.

I typically take the "falling in love" angle since it works better with the romance tropes I like.

 

[nerdy tangents]

I typically take the "falling in love" angle since it works better with the romance tropes I like.

Oh yeah it’s definitely an unpopular opinion but there ya go. I just like exploring what makes people stick it out for the long haul over what makes them initially attracted.

Just because I think a lot of times it’s easy to get caught up in the rush at first (or so romance novels tell me) but it’s another thing entirely when you have to live with your choices.

Like star crossed lovers, all well and good to have that forbidden romance. But what happens after you get together/get married?

How do you navigate the fact that your families hate each other? The unknowing prejudice you might have? The lack of support as you tackle your milestones? I find that stuff fascinating.

 

[Jannah]

Oh yeah it’s definitely an unpopular opinion but there ya go. I just like exploring what makes people stick it out for the long haul over what makes them initially attracted.

Just because I think a lot of times it’s easy to get caught up in the rush at first (or so romance novels tell me) but it’s another thing entirely when you have to live with your choices.

Like star crossed lovers, all well and good to have that forbidden romance. But what happens after you get together/get married?

How do you navigate the fact that your families hate each other? The unknowing prejudice you might have? The lack of support as you tackle your milestones? I find that stuff fascinating.

Well, in the RP I'm in now we do intend to have these star-crossed lovers stay together, but most of the obstacles they have to navigate in order to be together will eventually be gone.

 

[nerdy tangents]

Well, in the RP I'm in now we do intend to have these star-crossed lovers stay together, but most of the obstacles they have to navigate in order to be together will eventually be gone.

I guess for me I look at it from the more nuanced perspective. Like typically with star crossed lovers there is legitimate hate for either side. That doesn’t just go away in a single generation. You will always have family members making snide comments or holding onto old grudges.

Like that’s just IRL never mind something more stylized for drama. I think for me that’s what I love (not just in romance but in stories in general)

How do you handle life after happily ever after? How do you move on if your the chosen one and you finally defeated your enemy? Or your Romeo and Juliet and you got married against your parents will.

But meh I think that’s just cuz I like the psychology of it.

 

[CecilDMMasters]

Oh yeah it’s definitely an unpopular opinion but there ya go. I just like exploring what makes people stick it out for the long haul over what makes them initially attracted.

Just because I think a lot of times it’s easy to get caught up in the rush at first (or so romance novels tell me) but it’s another thing entirely when you have to live with your choices.

Like star crossed lovers, all well and good to have that forbidden romance. But what happens after you get together/get married?

How do you navigate the fact that your families hate each other? The unknowing prejudice you might have? The lack of support as you tackle your milestones? I find that stuff fascinating.

Other than my discomfort of doing much this is exactly the reason I can't stand the overdone romanticized and overdone conflict leading to love tropes so many love. I 'overthink' the relationship as someone accused. Though I prefer to think of it as fleshing out the characters.

If I have two of my own characters together I pretty much mulled over and worked on their romance and why they are a couple instead of just friends. In the case of couples who have reasons people would object how do they handle it. How do they deal with and view the imperfections of the other partner.

When people want to ask me to guarantee a ship plot it pretty much feels like they are not only asking I go into things I'm not comfortable with but also ask I agree to play a plot that doesn't let me fully get into my characters head. Because in RP sometimes your partner can throw decisions from a character into an RP that you don't expect. But most shippers don't want a decision that ends in "You know, you aren't the person I thought you were." If they want a ship they want a ship.

Like with the two I mentioned who I stupidly trusted to ship m side characters to their characters. They threw in sudden personality issues that I frankly felt would make the budding relationship suddenly be rethought by my characters. And neither were too happy when I pretty much moved my characters mentality away from romance to escape.

 

[nerdy tangents]

CecilDMMasters oh yeah the “why are you thinking about this so much I just want to have fun.” mentality.

I get that in general but it’s especially egregious in romance.

I think it’s just unpopular to base relationships in reality. Most people just want the fluffy fantasy.

Which hey I literally ONLY do fantasy role plays, so I am hardly going to stick up my nose about it.

I just prefer fantasy in the sense that - “oh there is no racism or sexism or COVID or climate change. instead we all get to keep little magical dragon pets and brew fun potions out of our kitchens.”

Not really fantasy in the sense of people’s interactions.

 

[Murdergurl]

CecilDMMasters
...I just prefer fantasy in the sense that - “oh there is no racism or sexism or COVID or climate change. instead we all get to keep little magical dragon pets and brew fun potions out of our kitchens.”...

<--- has written Fantasy settings with slavery, sexism, diseases spreading across the land, and terrible natural disasters. Fantasy genre comes in all flavors. Keeping the uglier and more tragic parts of life out of the story doesn't make them any less a fantasy. If anything, omitting these elements makes the narrative a lot more... boring. But that's just my opinion.

 

[Jannah]

<--- has written Fantasy settings with slavery, sexism, diseases spreading across the land, and terrible natural disasters. Fantasy genre comes in all flavors. Keeping the uglier and more tragic parts of life out of the story doesn't make them any less a fantasy. If anything, omitting these elements makes the narrative a lot more... boring. But that's just my opinion.

Agreed 100%. I have also written stories with these elements.

 

[Daisie]

<--- has written Fantasy settings with slavery, sexism, diseases spreading across the land, and terrible natural disasters. Fantasy genre comes in all flavors. Keeping the uglier and more tragic parts of life out of the story doesn't make them any less a fantasy. If anything, omitting these elements makes the narrative a lot more... boring. But that's just my opinion.

It sounds like they were talking about fantasy as in "fantasizing", not fantasy as in a setting like LotR, Harry Potter, ect

 

[Murdergurl]

It sounds like they were talking about fantasy as in "fantasizing", not fantasy as in a setting like LotR, Harry Potter, ect

well, they mentioned pet dragons and potion brewing... so, I mean...

 

[Daisie]

well, they mentioned pet dragons and potion brewing... so, I mean...

A fantasy fantasy lmao

 

[Murdergurl]

A fantasy fantasy lmao

 

[Fenix]

<--- has written Fantasy settings with slavery, sexism, diseases spreading across the land, and terrible natural disasters. Fantasy genre comes in all flavors. Keeping the uglier and more tragic parts of life out of the story doesn't make them any less a fantasy. If anything, omitting these elements makes the narrative a lot more... boring. But that's just my opinion.

This is what actually intrigues me about writing characters with depth and a lot of difficult life experiences. It’s really those events that mold their character - change their belief and behaviour. I’m a pretty character-centric writer and while I do really enjoy being creative with the setting, it’s this intrinsic human experience of successes and failures that make you root for characters fiction or otherwise. If they didn’t experience these things, I don’t think I’d be as interested in the story as I would’ve.

 

[Murdergurl]

This is what actually intrigues me about writing characters with depth and a lot of difficult life experiences. It’s really those events that mold their character - change their belief and behaviour. I’m a pretty character-centric writer and while I do really enjoy being creative with the setting, it’s this intrinsic human experience of successes and failures that make you root for characters fiction or otherwise. If they didn’t experience these things, I don’t think I’d be as interested in the story as I would’ve.

right. It's one thing to dole out a personality description. But writing WHY their personality is such is quite another thing. And making it believable, even more of a challenge. And then adhering those traits throughout the narrative as events unfold, and even possibly changing them further depending on your story. It's an art all of its own. One that I feel a lot of people miss. Placing your character in a happy-go-lucky bubble of G-rated static gives no room for any real character development. #growingpains

 

[Fenix]

right. It's one thing to dole out a personality description. But writing WHY their personality is such is quite another thing. And making it believable, even more of a challenge. And then adhering those traits throughout the narrative as events unfold, and even possibly changing them further depending on your story. It's an art all of its own. One that I feel a lot of people miss. Placing your character in a happy-go-lucky bubble of G-rated static gives no room for any real growth. #growingpains

Definitely! To develop a character is one of those nuanced things and I agree that it’s actually a challenge. People’s behaviours aren’t always cut and dry. It’s very circumstantial. It’s just like how your response might change if you’re stressed vs if you’re calm if someone’s confronting you.

That isn’t to say that only difficult events change a character. I do like fluff and other happy and silly interactions during RP. There’s joy in the levity of it. And it goes to show a different character side of a character that might otherwise be serious.

To me, balancing it is the best route. You can’t experiences the highs, if you don’t go through the lows.

 

[Jannah]

This is what actually intrigues me about writing characters with depth and a lot of difficult life experiences. It’s really those events that mold their character - change their belief and behaviour. I’m a pretty character-centric writer and while I do really enjoy being creative with the setting, it’s this intrinsic human experience of successes and failures that make you root for characters fiction or otherwise. If they didn’t experience these things, I don’t think I’d be as interested in the story as I would’ve.

This is very true. I'm playing one character now who is a revolutionary. Because he's a revolutionary he has committed some atrocities himself. However, he justifies his being a revolutionary by how much he and his family suffered under the previous regime. I feel like without that suffering in his backstory some of the actions he has taken would be difficult to justify.

 

[Murdergurl]

This is very true. I'm playing one character now who is a revolutionary. Because he's a revolutionary he has committed some atrocities himself. However, he justifies his being a revolutionary by how much he and his family suffered under the previous regime. I feel like without that suffering in his backstory some of the actions he has taken would be difficult to justify.

That's actually pretty realistic, as the vast majority will always grasp at some sort of justification to their actions (regardless of their severity). Vary rarely do you have the monsters that willfully do harm just for the sake of it and are utterly uncaring about it. Even the Nazis believed they were in the right.