@aradinfinity i mean i know i write plenty of dumbass obscure shit, but that's because i often end up writing a fic that can be summarized as "this is a concept other people have done before really horribly but somehow works this time"

because i like that challenge! i like surprising people like that!

but uhhh it does mean that i'm sure there are people out there mocking it for trying too hard to work with a shitty idea so

*ANXIOUS GRIMACING.*

@aradinfinity honestly i think a lot of the concepts are good ones. if an idea seems done to death, sometimes where there's smoke there's fire, you know? there's SOMETHING about it that is interesting or compelling.

what people are tired of is bad execution. they just don't know it yet.

like... my fucking pet fic. on its face? it's another fucking "redeemed darth vader au". you can find these in fucking spades. fuck, there's even a couple of official comics that are same premise. >

@aradinfinity but people like it for a reason. people go back to it for a reason.

so yeah, i wear the comments i've gotten in my hat with pride about how someone says "i never though i'd like a fic with this idea as much as i do this one. you're actually following through on so much of what everyone else doing the concept is skipping."

for me it's interesting BECAUSE of what gets skipped. ofc people aren't going to like stories where you take the interesting out. so keep the interesting in.

@aradinfinity and so in my case, it means 70k words (and i'm barely 1/4 through) of darth vader being a shitty person, because good to bad like a binary switch is kind of boring, but the parts where he's struggling, trying his damndest, not quite making it, then realizing he's fucked up and starting again - that's interesting! having everyone around him in the Rebellion resent him hardcore for taking up their oxygen - that's INTERESTING!

it's just not what usually gets written with the idea.

@aradinfinity EXACTLY! it's the same reason everyone i've ever met who has watched ATLA is ready to throw fucking down in Zuko's defense at any moment

letting people know redemption is possible, even if you fuck up, and that doing better is always something you can and should do - that's compelling!!!

i mean fuck it's basically what drives the story for the Yakuza game franchise.

sometimes where there's smoke, there's fire, and the fire is a real good concept.