LJ Idol Season 10, Week 6: Heel Turn
“You’ve never heard of TVtropes before?”
The question is innocent -- filled with wonder. You glance into those dull hazel eyes; at the way her hair falls into them before giving the slightest shakes of your head. You son, barely ten months old, snuggles closer to you, his eyes half-lidded as he suckles himself to sleep.
Before you can stop her, she’s picking up your netbook, typing in something in the search bar, and handing the small computer back to you. Or well, placing it beside you on the couch, where one of your hands can reach while the other continues to cradle your nursing son. A website stares back at you.
“It’s a wiki,” she says, her excitement hardly contained as she settles onto the couch between you and the netbook. She’s guiding you through the pages, her eyes bright, now, as a wide grin sweeps across her lips. “Basically, it documents all of these different cliches we use in media, right? And you can search it by fandoms and see what kind of tropes are listed, or you can read through the tropes pages themselves, or -- it’s an amazing timewaster. I think you’d really like it, since you’re a writer and all.”
The individual page is about Avatar: the Last Airbender -- one of the many shows she’d introduced you to, the months she’d been living with you and your spouse. Your eyes scan the summary; scan the various “tropes” -- and you find yourself clicking each one that makes no sense to you, even when considering the title of it and the example given.
It’s not long before you have four, seven, fifteen different tabs open, all while your son snoozes in your tiring arms. Each tab is a page on a different trope -- one of them being to Heel-Face Turn. You’ve never even heard of these terms before, but she was definitely right:
This is the most amazing timewaster you’ve ever been on.
***
She introduced you to more than just TVTropes. She introduced you, as I’ve mentioned before, Avatar: The Last Airbender. To Revolutionary Girl: Utena. To Adventure Time. To Regular Show. To Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- though that one didn’t stick, despite her best attempts.
Each show contained a small moment of bonding. Like the two of you, sitting on the couch together, your belly rounded out and twitching with your son’s little kicks and thumps. Bed rest, your doctors had ordered. No working. No strenuous activities. When she wasn’t working, she’d put on Avatar and watch you intently for your reactions -- squealed with you over how amazing Azula was as a villain -- how adorable Zuko was when he was awkward (which, well, was a lot -- Zuko’s the definition of awkward).
You loved her, then. Maybe not romantically -- though in hindsight, you wonder if there had been a lingering crush or more. She’d loved you, once -- that much you knew; you remember the hand-written note clearly: I’ll treat you like a queen, it had said. You deserve the world and more.
You remember staring at it for a long time. You remember glancing at your then-boyfriend and biting your lip as you contemplated your response to her. You’d never had to turn someone down, before.
There are times where you wonder what would be different, if you hadn’t.
***
She’s not with you anymore. She hasn’t been for the past four years.
You miss her. The empty space on your couch begs for her. There’s a long list of television shows you desperately wish to watch with her: Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Yuri!!! On Ice, Breaking Bad, How to Get Away With Murder, Steven Universe, and so many more.
You want to show her how media is slowly becoming more inclusive: how there’s bisexual representation, lesbian representation in children’s shows. You want to show her all of the evidence that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum were together. You wish more than anything she’d been alive to see Korra and Asami walk off into the Spirit World together, hand in hand.
She’d “shipped” the two of them together since Legend of Korra, season one, after all.
You want to show her Steven Universe more than anything else -- GAY SPACE ROCKS, you would tell her. LESBIAN SPACE ROCKS. And she’d love every second of it. Pearl would no doubt be her favorite -- or maybe Rose. Or Garnet. Or Amethyst. They’re all worthy of her affection, you think.
You want to show her Yuri!!! On Ice, because Victor and Yuuri have by far one of the most organic love stories you’ve ever seen in anime. And she would have loved the figure skating aspects, too. She would have loved to see a character with anxiety portrayed realistically. She would have screamed with you when Victor flung himself into Yuuri’s arms, kissing him in front of a live audience, the two of them collapsing in a pile of limbs onto the ice and Victor protecting the back of Yuuri’s head all the while.
She’d have drawn fanart -- so much fanart. She’d have done a world map for you and your creative partner, no questions asked, because she’d always been a fan of Jazz and Savin and she’d have fallen in love with Devin and his universe too, no doubt.
You wish, more than anything, you could’ve given back the joy she’d shared with you, introducing you to all those wonderful shows damn near a decade ago.
Instead, you settle for opening up TVtropes every time you finish watching something. It’s a Wiki, after all.
Maybe she had a hand in updating it.
The question is innocent -- filled with wonder. You glance into those dull hazel eyes; at the way her hair falls into them before giving the slightest shakes of your head. You son, barely ten months old, snuggles closer to you, his eyes half-lidded as he suckles himself to sleep.
Before you can stop her, she’s picking up your netbook, typing in something in the search bar, and handing the small computer back to you. Or well, placing it beside you on the couch, where one of your hands can reach while the other continues to cradle your nursing son. A website stares back at you.
“It’s a wiki,” she says, her excitement hardly contained as she settles onto the couch between you and the netbook. She’s guiding you through the pages, her eyes bright, now, as a wide grin sweeps across her lips. “Basically, it documents all of these different cliches we use in media, right? And you can search it by fandoms and see what kind of tropes are listed, or you can read through the tropes pages themselves, or -- it’s an amazing timewaster. I think you’d really like it, since you’re a writer and all.”
The individual page is about Avatar: the Last Airbender -- one of the many shows she’d introduced you to, the months she’d been living with you and your spouse. Your eyes scan the summary; scan the various “tropes” -- and you find yourself clicking each one that makes no sense to you, even when considering the title of it and the example given.
It’s not long before you have four, seven, fifteen different tabs open, all while your son snoozes in your tiring arms. Each tab is a page on a different trope -- one of them being to Heel-Face Turn. You’ve never even heard of these terms before, but she was definitely right:
This is the most amazing timewaster you’ve ever been on.
***
She introduced you to more than just TVTropes. She introduced you, as I’ve mentioned before, Avatar: The Last Airbender. To Revolutionary Girl: Utena. To Adventure Time. To Regular Show. To Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- though that one didn’t stick, despite her best attempts.
Each show contained a small moment of bonding. Like the two of you, sitting on the couch together, your belly rounded out and twitching with your son’s little kicks and thumps. Bed rest, your doctors had ordered. No working. No strenuous activities. When she wasn’t working, she’d put on Avatar and watch you intently for your reactions -- squealed with you over how amazing Azula was as a villain -- how adorable Zuko was when he was awkward (which, well, was a lot -- Zuko’s the definition of awkward).
You loved her, then. Maybe not romantically -- though in hindsight, you wonder if there had been a lingering crush or more. She’d loved you, once -- that much you knew; you remember the hand-written note clearly: I’ll treat you like a queen, it had said. You deserve the world and more.
You remember staring at it for a long time. You remember glancing at your then-boyfriend and biting your lip as you contemplated your response to her. You’d never had to turn someone down, before.
There are times where you wonder what would be different, if you hadn’t.
***
She’s not with you anymore. She hasn’t been for the past four years.
You miss her. The empty space on your couch begs for her. There’s a long list of television shows you desperately wish to watch with her: Avatar: The Legend of Korra, Voltron: Legendary Defender, Yuri!!! On Ice, Breaking Bad, How to Get Away With Murder, Steven Universe, and so many more.
You want to show her how media is slowly becoming more inclusive: how there’s bisexual representation, lesbian representation in children’s shows. You want to show her all of the evidence that Marceline and Princess Bubblegum were together. You wish more than anything she’d been alive to see Korra and Asami walk off into the Spirit World together, hand in hand.
She’d “shipped” the two of them together since Legend of Korra, season one, after all.
You want to show her Steven Universe more than anything else -- GAY SPACE ROCKS, you would tell her. LESBIAN SPACE ROCKS. And she’d love every second of it. Pearl would no doubt be her favorite -- or maybe Rose. Or Garnet. Or Amethyst. They’re all worthy of her affection, you think.
You want to show her Yuri!!! On Ice, because Victor and Yuuri have by far one of the most organic love stories you’ve ever seen in anime. And she would have loved the figure skating aspects, too. She would have loved to see a character with anxiety portrayed realistically. She would have screamed with you when Victor flung himself into Yuuri’s arms, kissing him in front of a live audience, the two of them collapsing in a pile of limbs onto the ice and Victor protecting the back of Yuuri’s head all the while.
She’d have drawn fanart -- so much fanart. She’d have done a world map for you and your creative partner, no questions asked, because she’d always been a fan of Jazz and Savin and she’d have fallen in love with Devin and his universe too, no doubt.
You wish, more than anything, you could’ve given back the joy she’d shared with you, introducing you to all those wonderful shows damn near a decade ago.
Instead, you settle for opening up TVtropes every time you finish watching something. It’s a Wiki, after all.
Maybe she had a hand in updating it.