i love this dude

"Elden Ring, like every Souls game before it, will unfortunately include a poison swamp: a presumably nasty area where you're assaulted by enemies and projectiles that inflict you with the relentless ticking damage of a poison debuff. It turns out creator Hidetaka Miyazaki can't help but make one every time.

"While making this game I rediscovered my love for making poison swamps," he told Game Informer. "I know how people feel about them but I suddenly realize I'm in the middle of making one and I can't help myself. It just happens."

- the i stan poison swamps interview

(no subject)

"Tropes / settings / character archetypes / relationships that draw you in, and/or what stuff is an immediate turn-off" - mucky

attraction

• tropes: wiggy military symbolisim out the wazoo; add guns in anything and you can't not make me happy if only for the eye candy l m a o. generally the more pulpy violent irreverence is mixed in with a strange heart, the more I like it. Stories that allow an enormous amount of nuance and have an infinite amount of variations of "bad guys" (Unsounded). Magical body horror of the 'deal with the devil b/c of fucked up circumstances' variety. monsters hidden away in basements/dungeons/etc for Very Good reasons who are let out and the whole thing is weirdly hot (Hellsing, lol). anything where half the cast has lowkey c/ptsd and they deal with it terribly lmao.

• settings - off-kilter "weird" settings that take risks, border on surreal horror, and that will visit you in dreams (Majora's Mask, FF7). cyborg /evil computer horror in settings you'd never expect such as high fantasy (Antrax lives in my head rent free for this one (1) reason).  Ancient Void-Like Power Is Awakened (+ bonus if one of the characters gets messily fucked by it, metaphorically and/or literally).

• archetypes: self-aware villains (++if they have fun being hammy). villain-coded dudes who literally can't die for body horror reasons (but very much want to). cyborg-y characters who have to work around their bodies. villain uncle of the team who *stays* a villain but nobody gives a shit lol (VAU),  sarcastic/sadistic loner poacher/hunter gun dude (or butches, this would be a fun as fuck butch trope IF IT WAS ONE), evil slimy hot viziers. pretty boi long-blue haired swordmasters with leather all over is weirdly specific but the amount of times it's happened.. :v  evil hot grandmas. women who are (and who are allowed to be) a little ... spacy? eccentric? in their own world? but have the inner strength that villain types respect (Luna Lovegood pls rec me some fics where she's shipped with Snape i beg). Self destructive characters. characters horny for the things that fucked their lives over, and are extremely annoyed by this fact lol. stories where the seemingly most mild/stable character is secretly the most fucked up one of them all.

• relationships: distinct unavoidable power imbalances that you can't not engage with (doesn't *have* to be kinky but bonus if it connects id-wise). bonus if said imbalance sharply subverts expectations. (lady(?)human/monster (but the human is/feels more monsterous). genuine respect between types who you never would expect to have respect for. femdom where the domme ain't someone you expect to fit the bill, or she's kinda learning it with a powerful dude who is extremely into the vibe. fuckin' where there's demon posession and there might be three somes and half the party hates each other, robofucker ships. corruption kink, vampires and menstrual kink, service kink, dubcon (i might be reading off my Ao3 tags now) :v

minor caveat with the below that i've been known to read and *wildly enjoy* something way on the turn-off list or NOTP's if it's executed well. keeping the character's, mmm, dignity? is not the right word because i like them to suffer >:) - but keeping their inherent "sense of self" consistent is probably the single most thing that matters.
 
turn-off

• tropes/archetypes: that fucking tendency these days to make characters who wouldn't give a shit about social justice stuff to repeat the party line; probably the most sure fire way for me to not ever engage with your story. "inspiration porn" natch, stories with no uneven power tilt (whether relationship-wise or institutional). toothless villains. stories where defiance is actively punished in a meta-textual level (i will have a white-hot grudge against this one book for the rest of my life). ""frieeeeendship solves everything" cop-outs. alternatively, excessively gritty stories that can't laugh and make fun of itself. Characters who aren't a little jaded/weary of life. The weird emphasis on "bloodlines" and/or "chosen one" that a suspicious number of stories have.

• settings: modern day AU's and "fluffy" settings like coffeeshops. post-apoc and steampunk stories (as much as i like the latter visually i glaze over all the stories lmao; for the setting they rarely engage in the social consequences). Settings that feel generic and not-lived in.

• relationships: most shonen slash/het if they're both under 25-30; teenagers just aren't that interesting to me.