I want more “emotionless” (really, emotionally stunned) characters, like Violet Evergarden! Only two true ones I’ve come across are Kansas in Fifty, and Vee in Triaina Academy (WIP). Lex in Balance of Superpower feels the same in practice, but come on! Only three? Give me more of those “Is this a robot? Or is this a person?” ROs!
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Accurate depiction of RO attitude and personality according to the era of the setting is often what is missing. It’s weird to read a married King and Queen to be inloved like teens.
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And language! One of my biggest pet peeves is when the MC calls their parents “mom and dad” in a historical/historical fantasy setting. Like, there are a million options (more like 4, but still), and all of them would work better than mom and dad. I’m not asking for 100% accurate language, but enough to not take me out of it
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An inhuman/monstrous MC surrounded by human ROs. The inverse of this is the super popular trope… but I can’t be the only one who wants to play a feral character, right???
Also, queerplatonic options. Do I always have to romance a character to be the most important person to them, and vice versa? Like, I don’t wanna kiss you but I would die for you and kill all your enemies the moment you asked? Aaaahhhhhhh-!
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YESSSS!! HARD agree! People who are really close but not in a conventional way but also are the most important to eachother and aren’t friends or partners or siblings but a secret fourth thing that they maybe can’t name, but who cares because what matters is that they care about eachother… ahhh!
The funny thing is, this happened to me in a novel actually written in the Victorian era (not medieval times, but still-). Throughout the entire book the parents are referred to as “mother” or “father”, but for one sentence this character uses “dad” and I had to do a double-take 
.
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I think this is actually part of the problem: a lot of things that sound “modern” are actually a lot older. Conversely, when you’re talking about Medieval stories, the kind of English people were speaking would be almost incomprehensible to modern readers:
'Wepyng and waylyng, care and oother sorwe
I knowe ynogh, on even and a-morwe,’
Quod the Marchant, 'and so doon oother mo
That wedded been.’
(And that’s late Middle English; earlier stuff would be even harder. Also proof that straight people have been complaining about marriage forever.)
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This actually has a name: the Tiffany Problem. The name “Tiffany” existed in medieval times, but no one would dare use it in historical fiction because it would sound anachronistic to the average reader.
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CGP Grey has two excellent videos on the Tiffany problem.
The second video is exactly why I try to do the minimum necessary level of world building. I just know I’d disappear down a hole and never write anything.
Zounds, I was never so bethumped with words
Since I first called my brother’s father Dad.— from Shakespeare’s King John
I think it goes to show how discussions about “realism” and “historical accuracy” in media are really about verisimilitude. Successfully evoking the feel of days gone by is more about catering to modern expectations than any sort of commitment to historicity.
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Tiphaine has totally just joined the name list for XoR.
I regularly double-check the Online Etymology Dictionary to make sure I’m not using shriekingly anachronistic language, and am regularly surprised by the age of some words…
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Oh no, you beat me to it 
Here was a thread from another forum where people found some pretty interesting Tiffany Problem examples 
I love that source I also recommend checking out Google Ngrams, which lets you search words and phrases, and can give an idea of how common a word or phrase was at a particular time. For example…
(Granted, this only shows you frequency in published works, which will on average tend to be more formal than how people would’ve been speaking 
)
Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon
Yeah, it’s really interesting how having languages that “feels right” works for historical of more than a few centuries ago or that wasn’t even English-speaking in the first place—like something set in Ancient Rome, say, modern slang isn’t any more inaccurate than more formal English because they’re speaking Latin (or other ancient languages) anyway… but it still gives that impression. Happens with fantasy too; you realize everything is, in theory, in translation anyway, but you still have to pick what tone to set
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I love that Tiffany problem thread!
The Tiffany Problem combines with the problem where fantasy settings get referred to with historical shorthand which can muddy the waters too. I once saw Blood Money (a game set in a tropical canal city with pre-Industrial tech and no gunpowder) referred to as a Victorian London game… and I could expound for far too long about fantasy settings inaccurately called “Medieval”, heh.
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That’s an interesting page! The list of trending words was kinda funny:
Ketchup
I’ve been following this topic since its beginning, mostly because people talking about “underused” tropes give me ideas and I found it fun to read. But I cannot for the love of me think of tropes I enjoy just like that, out of the top of my head
I will just keep thinking about it, I guess…
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Like marshal from ITFO, troubled character always interesting for me to trying to relate and understand them. And when it hurts, it hurts good and memorable.
“Educate ketchup cult”
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“Nightmare: educate ketchup cult.”
File under: next year’s Halloween jam.
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I can help you with your research. I’m married to a man who puts ketchup on everything.
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One of my favourite examples of the Tiffany problem is Chad, a name some monks had about 1400 years ago.
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Who’ll be the first to write the medieval tale of Chad and Tiffany?
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It could be a comedy about a modern Chad and Tiffany going back in time !
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Question about this:
What do y’all think of fake ROs?
You’re able to romance them, they’re nicely written, you share sweet moments together, the whole shebang—but in the end you can’t be with them.
Either because of death, they’re just not interested (with you, your gender, in relationships in general), for plot, etc
So, yay or nay?
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