Laughable Fanfiction Mistakes

Have you ever read a fanfiction where you knew a lot about a certain subject involved, but clearly the author didn't? Have you seen your job, hobbies, or other interests misrepresented due to lack of knowledge, and you just couldn't help but laugh about it? Here are some examples from Reddit. I'd love to hear your own experiences in the comments!
Link to the original thread on r/FanFiction: / whats_your_favorite_fa... (some comments shown in the video have been edited by me for length)
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[@kupotenshi]

It annoys me how in all art school fics, the MC falls in love or gets turned on by the naked model in their figure drawing class. Y'all, figure drawing class is not sexy. I blame Titanic 😭

[@distorteddivine3638]

Figure drawing is genuinely one of the most unsexy classes you could ever be in. You're drawing either super fast gestures or slow and precise life drawings, in a cramped room full of equally stressed-out art students, with a highly critical teacher circling behind everyone until they stop to hover over your shoulder to point out about 8 mistakes you made in the last 5 minutes. You're tired yet wired on caffeine and covered in charcoal, sitting there for 2-3 hours just trying to make the chin look right before class is over. The models are usually A: incredibly average fellow students getting some extra cash, B: weird creepy old dudes with saggy junk, or C: random women with the most interesting life story you will ever hear in your damn life.

[@Lil-gay-disaster]

As a now high-school student, last year (8th grade) we had to paint a statue of David and even though I'm gay, I was not turned on because I was more focused on why my painting had the anatomy of Miguel O'Hara instead of a normal human being. I got an A on it though.

[@Frostfern94]

“DO NOT BLOW THE CHARCOAL!!” And any nude model I’ve ever had to draw has been pretty…. Unsexy looking. It’s FOR DRAWING. Who CARES how they look?

[@onionninja5554]

Now I want a comedic art fic where the nude model thinks the artist is into them but the artist is just getting frustrated over the drawing 😂

[@seal8092]

I want an art fic where a student is desperately trying to draw the figure in front of them, on the verge of tears with charcoal on their everything. and said figure, is their crush/love interest but the artist is so distracted and focused (and distressed) they don’t even notice till they are looking at their pictures later on in the day.

[@clonnie-cloo]

if you ever feel bad about making a writing mistake that feels obvious, remember that Shakespeare's famous "exit, pursued by a bear" scene takes place on the shores of Bohemia, aka the Czech republic, aka a country that is very much landlocked. we've all done it.

[@japanpanda2179]

Shakespeare also wrote the entire play "Merchant of Venice" without ever knowing about Venice's canals or that it's an island surrounded by water. He only mentioned it once being a "land", and boats or canals never are important. All he seemed to know about the place is that it was a center of trade with a lot of rich people.

[@titledgoose866]

@@japanpanda2179 As someone having to read this for school, he also likely never visited the Ghetto, so his writing for the main antagonist is interesting!

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

He’s also extremely inconsistent in Twelfth Night regarding whether Orsino is supposed to be a count or a duke.

[@thecavernmonster6365]

He makes a similar mistake in "Taming Of The Shrew"! The character Tranio uses the phrase "come ashore" when he and several other characters have arrived in Padua...which is a landlocked city. Between that and him accidentally using pounds at one point to signify money, I suspect that Shakespeare legitimately never left his home country.

[@shirendjorgee9320]

@@titledgoose866 The Merchant of Venice was HELLA antisemitic. Shylock didn't even get defeated because he's a shitty person but because he's Jewish.

[@hiddlestan42]

It really pisses me off when smut writers use the "they're saying no but their body is reacting a certain way, which means they enjoy it" trope. No, no, no! Bodily reactions to sexual stimulation are NOT a reliable indicator of what the person wants. Stop gaslighting rape victims! It's not sexy!

[@miau5878]

IKR THIS IS LITERALLY A TEXTBOOK VICITM BLAMING THING WHY DO POEPLE THINK THIS

[@sand_eater101]

AND THAT, MY GOOD FELLOW, IS NOT CONSENT. Like just write direct non-con and state very clearly that your work contains non-con so people can put the book down/fanfic away faster

[@milla5454]

I actually like that…. 😅

[@ghaziyamumtaaz5351]

@@milla5454 get some help girl

[@Zulkak1357]

​@@milla5454?

[@ZooomieMoth]

Not a fanfic but these videos i once watched. A character randomly began losing her hair and her family took her to the doctor. She had cancer. But cancer doesnt make you lose your hair... The chemo does!

[@stopreadingmyname7514]

i remeber watching a similar video. the character had like super long air and it started falling out and she suddenly had brain cancer? i couldnt keep watching it

[@moonoftheblood]

This sounds so gacha life lmao

[@ZooomieMoth]

​@@moonoftheblood Probably because it is gacha life 😅

[@moonoftheblood]

@@ZooomieMoth AHAHAHAHAHA NO WAY I KNEW IT

[@DrEqualizer666]

@@ZooomieMoth I must watch this..

[@rosykindbunny1313]

The only thing that comes to mind for me is this infamous Warriors fanfic that spelled "shapeshifter" as "shapeshitter."

[@AbsolutelyAri1]

Shapeshitting: 🤎🟤🟫

[@Ramsey276one]

Oh DEAR XD

[@Ramsey276one]

​@@AbsolutelyAri1 I M G XD

[@willowfernn]

Starkit’s Prophecy my beloved

[@ChaosEnthusiast]

HHAHAHAHAHA

[@Mylenapony]

Yeah As a fic writer I either do to much research or none at all. In the end I just go “fuck it we ball”

[@CCEquestrian-je5uc]

Same 😭 as a fic writer, I have 2 sides: Overthink every little thing, spend forever on research, double checking if words mean what I think the mean and end up with an extremely weird and suspicious google search history "Fuck it we ball"

[@TheAroSpecWallet]

I personally go for "f*ck it we bal- wait how do i spell this, oh i got this fact wrong, imma fix that rq"

[@lunarskys2645]

At this point I'm starting to question if I _can_ write something without doing needless amounts of research! It's usually such overkill but for some reason I am determined to not make a single mistake a human-and _especially_ my target demographic-would ever notice 😂

[@xx_smeltyboi_xx6024]

@@lunarskys2645 what's your target demographic?

[@Lil-gay-disaster]

Me, fanfic writer in the Hamilton Fandom: *stares intensely at a black n white Peggy Schuyler portrait* You had brown hair I assume.

[@Disgustedorite]

I once read a fanfiction author who *consistently* had all pregnancies last 6 months. All of them. Never described as unusual, none said to be premature. The comments were wild.

[@REDACTEDbox]

oh my god this one got me

[@saturnas]

With normal human characters? I mean, I could get it if the author worked with animal/non human characters, or some modified biology as the abo system.

[@erinyes3943]

Babe what were the comments I suddenly need to know

[@sylph-co]

Not really a skill, but as a Polish speaker i was once reading a smut fic where one of the characters was Polish as well. The author clearly had no knowledge of the language but decided to put in some machine-translated phrases into the dialogue which is all fine and well by itself. But when the characters actually started going at it and the Polish one said "shit"... Instead of an exclamation of pleasure they used the term for actual, literal feces. It took me out of the moment so hard i couldn't finish the fic due to giggling uncontrollably whenever the scene crossed my mind. So, monolingual authors, always double check the meaning of the words you're translating when writing a multilingual character. Especially during highly emotional scenes 👍

[@spocony.krasnolud]

Czekaj, czyli dosłownie powiedział gówno?

[@japanpanda2179]

@@spocony.krasnolud I'd assume so, yes. If "gówno" isn't used as an exclamation, what might be an equivalent Polish one?

[@kitkatboard]

I'm French. The ammount of Google translated shit I see everywhere... Can we please stop punctuating everything a frenchman says with "oui" ? It just doesn't happen.

[@spocony.krasnolud]

@@japanpanda2179 shit may be translated to "cholera!"

[@rubyr8922]

I tried to translate a Polish fanfic into English once and got the sentence “he pulled the sword out of his vagina”

[@Shadow_Draws_20]

I’m an equestrian and HATE when fanfictions say ‘they pulled on the reins to make their horse to go faster’ like NO!! Two seconds of research will tell you that that’s how you slow down.

[@erinyes3943]

Oh man I am sorry. Even knowledge of English phrases would save someone from that mistake. ‘Rein it in?’ ‘Hold your horses?’ Hope they’re having a good day, wherever they are

[@itzashiatingz127]

Even I know that but I’m not an equestrian!

[@sasha-is-eepy]

its so annoying to me that if a character has depression and multiple suicide attempts, the hospital will just go: oh you silly goose, not again!!! be careful. and just send them back home????? what??? also not sure if this is a common thing i just read it once and was hella confused edit: okay now i’ve found out that this is an actual thing that happens according to the replies, and that’s just not cool :/

[@rainewhispers739]

tbf, i have multiple friends who’ve been to the hospital for suicide attempts/threatening them and that’s exactly what the hospital did

[@cherubry]

Happy to know that you're unsure whether this is real. Unfortunately, this is exactly what Doctors do in the UK.

[@charleston1789]

Yeah that’s happened to me and friends of mine. Sadly it’s accurate in the uk at least

[@miriam8376]

Can confirm it’s accurate in the US, too. I have severe bipolar and mental health crises are a nightmare to navigate. The hospital is only staffed for emergencies, like active suicide attempts, and then they try to refer you to community services for follow up treatment, because mental health recovery is the work of a lifetime, and you need long-term support. Sometimes, though, that referral consists of “follow up with your provider” and then they turf you. Unfortunately, suicidal people rarely follow up, either because they can’t access treatment due to wait lists or rural understaffing (psychiatrists are in huge demand in most countries) or won’t navigate the process, which is, admittedly, about as complicated and obnoxious as it’s possible to be, because they’re too depressed to take care of themselves. The key to good mental health is-unfairly-to have support services set up while you’re stable. I’m a firm believer that everyone should have a therapist at all times, even healthy people, because you don’t have to go see them more than once a year or so after you set up that relationship, and you can just blather about work or whatever for an hour, but then that contact is there and ready if you ever need it. I learned the hard way to plan in advance for episodes and stress. Whenever I move to a new area, the first thing I do is put my name on multiple waitlists to see a bunch of different providers. That way I can eventually end up with someone I like and trust out of that group (different people like different things in a doctor), and I can always cancel. A lot of people wait until life gets bad, and that’s just not going to keep you alive with our healthcare system. If you’re reading this-even if you’re 100% fine-consider at least taking a look at the services in your area and know how to find someone if you (or a family member or friend) might need one.

[@sasha-is-eepy]

@@rainewhispers739thats awful. guess i had too much faith in the mental health care system :/

[@aishi4017]

What i hate most in fanfiction is when they set a tag to a certain profession and said profession is never mentioned again😭😭

[@chipsleftwing]

i KNOW right, if you're gonna tag something it better be a good part of the story

[@legoworld246]

​@@chipsleftwingI feel that so much. One time I looked up fics featuring Veigar, who is my favorite character from League of Legends, but one that doesn't often get much attention. I found one in which he was tagged. He has *one* scene in like chapter 6 out of 17 (don't remember the exact numbers, just approximating here) and then never shows up again for the rest of the story. Why is he even tagged??

[@damaskusseraph6046]

Yeah i feel like alot if Ao3 authors just tag everything they can think of that has 3 words of screen time

[@wildtamer4461]

not so much my special interest or job or anything, but i once saw a fic involving heinz doofenshmirtz where he didnt know what sex was. for reference, he is canonically the father of a teenaged daughter and is divorced. i didnt even read the rest of it because i didnt trust the author with his character after that sentence

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

Yeah, I’ve seen something similar. I once read a fic where a character who was happily married and had multiple children with his wife needed it explained to him when another character mentioned procreation. One could argue that he simply didn’t know what the big word meant, but given that the author literally wrote “‘What does that mean?’ he asked, the picture of innocence,” and described his eyes widening in shock when it was explained…

[@corvus_da]

maybe Vanessa is a robot

[@annokya5154]

This is the same guy whose mother didn’t show up to his own birth, I think we can safely say there must be some weird reality bending loophole that would allow for him to have a daughter and still not know what sex is

[@LakinMae5]

Charlene be looking sus!

[@hunterlawrence3573]

Maybe in the Phineas and Ferb universe babies are brought by Storks wearing fedoras.

[@yin-sin]

Anytime in which a character is making art. It looks so calming and they’re dressed in nice clothing when in reality you’re frustrated and wearing pajamas

[@Zhavari]

Can absolutely relate

[@radioactivebirbchild]

Yeah, I've done a bit of painting for theater sets and wearing nice clothes while painting is a great way to not have nice clothes anymore lol. And most times I've been doing digital art I've been propped up in bed while frustrated that I can't get the color right

[@yin-sin]

@@radioactivebirbchild and the hours of scrolling on your phone not doing said art piece

[@RayDrawzDragonz]

Relateable

[@Anindeterminateamountofbees]

Eh, it depends. Sometimes drawing is relaxing and sometimes it’s really, really not lmao

[@ArisaMilkawa]

in my experience, authors underestimate the time for travel *a lot* : crossing big cities in under an hour, walking three blocks in minutes, and so many plane flights that break records of speed

[@randomwolfygirl]

Lol they are going Sonic speed.

[@BingQilin]

I'm suddenly reminded of a scene from Glee where one of the main characters has a fight in a parking lot with his partner and decides to walk home like it's no big deal. Said home is three hours away on foot.

[@clemente3966]

After having seen my brother take 15 min sometimes to get us out of the city that is the biggest in the department, and one time having taken at least half an hour to get a situation solved to properly enter Paris, that is a mood. Also, it takes me more or less , depedning on the traffic, 1 hour with the bus to go through the previously mentioned town, and there's more stops after mine in the bus line ? Yeah, no, people don't have any sense of time

[@japanpanda2179]

For crossing big cities in under an hour: that's a US problem. US cities are much more spread out, so for a city of the same size as one in Europe or Asia, it might take twice as long to cross an American city.

[@naolucillerandom5280]

​​@@japanpanda2179 yeah, three blocks over here in Mexico is really nothing special? 10 minutes. Max. We have three cities nicely laid out so you can take a bus from the center of the first all the way to the center of the third, and it takes like an hour and a half. On the bus, that just keeps stopping and getting into traffic. Pretty sure you can make it in an hour by car.

[@persialionheart]

Half the reason i take so long to write something is procrastination. The other half is research because I need to make things accurate. Still mess up though.

[@chipsleftwing]

AMEN TO THAT, MY GUY

[@drakothedragon]

I once did a mildly concerning amount of research on, get this, kitchen pantries for a bit of RP I was doing. How do pantries open? Do they have locks? How large are they typically? Do professional kitchens have walk in pantries? Just. Pantries.

[@Frostfern94]

Same. I have so much research on different types of wood now bc of one throwaway line about a coffee table.

[@a.n.9800]

I spent hours reading up on the do’s and don’ts of soapmaking for a bit of worldbuilding that isn’t ever gonna be brought to the attention of the main POV character.

[@persialionheart]

@@a.n.9800 I once spent hours looking up the origins of a teacup for a fic that never made it to light😭😭😭

[@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155]

I once read an irondad fic where Ned and MJ tell Peter that their school was doing Hamilton. As someone who did high school and theater, and it made me laugh. Even if the rights were out, I highly doubt they’d be easy to get and high schools wouldn’t do the Broadway version. No one questions the legality of this.

[@BJGvideos]

Don't schools do that one regularly?

[@lidlove123]

@@BJGvideosmaybe unofficially??? But the rights have never been sold/released so it wouldn’t be licensed and they could get in legal trouble, plus there’s a bunch of cursing and sex jokes and depending on the climate of the high school/school board/state/parents, it would have to be heavily altered even if they weren’t already altering it to avoid copyright issues

[@arrow_of_ravenclaw5155]

@@BJGvideos if they do, it’s an illegal production. The show is still on Broadway so the rights aren’t out

[@sleepysera]

The only reason I'm aware of the tricky rights situation concerning Hamilton is because of that one pastor and his illegal church play version of it where he rewrote the core moments to be about Jesus and then doubled down when told he can't do that...😅

[@lidlove123]

@@sleepysera so from what I know (which I am in no way an expert about Broadway show rights/copyright) the rights aren’t out so it is technically illegal to put the show on but the only time they’ve actually bothered to get into it legally was with the crazy Christian production situation

[@gabrielabatista6016]

Not usually fanfic/books, but animation. Everytime I see a character knitting something that's either: A - clearly a crochet product, or B - something that would require a different set of knitting needles. Like, granny out there knitting a beanie with a pair of straight pannel knitting needles. Not like, making a panel and sewing it to make a beanie, just straight up round knitting with two simple needles. In the round knitting either uses a pair of needles connected by a wire at the end, or a set of 4 needles without a stopper at the end. It also triggers me whenever they describe someone doing crochet with a needle, particularly on English. On some other languages, like my native Portuguese, they're called needles too; but on English crochet uses HOOKS. Knitting and crochet ARE NOT THE SAME!

[@solaris9426]

In one Simpsons episode Marge starts knitting with what I'm assuming are straight pannel knitting needles in front of what I assume is a family councilor. Homer explains that she knits when she's nervous and that the last time she did that he got a nice sweater out of it. My question is, can you even make a sweater by knitting with straight pannel knitting needles?

[@omnisexualidiot3750]

I feel like this would be something that bothered me more if I knew more about knitting. But the crochet part does but not that badly. Unless it’s a very complicated pattern that very obviously wasn’t done by knitting needles then I start to question what the hell the producers were on.

[@Pinkywinkykinky]

As someone whose crocheted here with a grandma that does both, yeahh a lot of times I'll mention crocheting and people don't even know what I'm talking about 😭

[@nedhunter4444]

@@solaris9426I think you can if you make it in multiple pieces and sew them together afterward. I've never done more than extremely basic knitting myself.

[@ella_cupcake]

If we’re talking animation I have seen too many characters playing string instruments and picking up bows by their hair. Like I don’t expect them to play the violin or whatever perfectly but holy frick.

[@imperiallegionnaire8344]

A diabetic character who stopped having diabetes as if it where a disease like the common cold. Like they made no changes to their lifestyle or diet, not even taking any diabetes related medicine. Just one day they have it, the next day it's gone.

[@genericname2747]

I've met real life diabetics who claim that's happened to them. people are crazy

[@genericname2747]

@Ripthischannel7895 Yes but it doesn't ACTUALLY go away.

[@Solanin0803]

Hey, when I asked to have medication that would need to be renewed every few months, the lady at the other end of the phone said something along the lines of: "For how long? Because your diabetes will go away sometimes, right?" 😂

[@damianjblack]

I blame Wilford Brimley. He stopped doing Liberty Medical ads, so he must have stopped having diabeetus.

[@DarwinRoger893]

Now we need the opposite of this: fanfic writers going above and beyond for research that surprises the people of those backgrounds.

[@NekoChanSenpai]

Yes please!

[@toffthederg1295]

She already made a video on this topic

[@sand_eater101]

I did this before with a smut oneshot because I needed some worldbuilding (it was based off the premise of Twilight). When I stopped because I eventually lost interest, I already had 6k words and I hadn’t even written any smut yet.

[@bruises.n.bitemarks]

When artists (as portrayed in media) create beautiful rendered masterpieces in like... 1 hour... with no references... The creative process is so much more complicated... And we don't have everything memorized...

[@SugarbirdyOvO]

I'm an artist, but I don't use references [other than the classes where they are mandatory.] Usually everything I draw comes straight from my head. Everyone's creative process is different, and for some people isn't very complicated [sorry if I sound rude here, it isn't my intention I just don't know how to say things rn ^^;]

[@PandoraBear357]

No one in movies ever has to stop so a layer of oil paint can dry before they can proceed with the next layer even for end result paintings that would have required them to do so.

[@altalt479]

​@@SugarbirdyOvO yeah I don't use references either thoo I know I should, but I've never finished a painting in 1 hour. My minimum is probably about 3

[@thisurldoesnotexist]

Started reading one about Ducktales and one of the characters gets pregnant, which would be fine if it was a human AU but they specified she was a duck in the first chapter. So idk why she's experiencing morning sickness

[@lidlove123]

Ducktales fics with any pregnancy is always complicated cause they’re kinda anthropomorphic. Like in the pictures of Della’s eggs they’re so big that I can’t imagine they lay regularly? So I kinda understand giving them some traits of human pregnancy leading up to the laying. It’s all a little strange to thing about lmao

[@sleepysera]

To be fair, do we KNOW whether ducks get morning sickness? Don't think we ever asked them how they feel before laying an egg! 😉

[@randomwolfygirl]

​@sleepysera it's hard to ask when we don't speak the same tounge..

[@sunbirth4795]

​@@randomwolfygirlwack

[@vilukisu]

it's so weird because in many sources Disney ducks lay eggs

[@Captain_Avery]

I was reading a pregnancy fic that had a trans guy character who was on T, i am a trans guy on T, and it said that both it was impossible to get pregnant on T, not true, and that the fact the character did was a whole "how is this possible" thing, like T isnt a contraceptive or something that makes you infertile

[@Artificer_]

are you by any chance a Khonjin House fan?

[@hunterlawrence3573]

If the character got pregnant when they thought they weren’t supposed to be able to, maybe the point was that the character was wrong? Like, I’ve read stories where the characters think they’ll be fine if they use the pull-out method, and then they get pregnant because the pull-out method isn’t a reliable form of birth control. Maybe it was a case like that?

[@japanpanda2179]

Sure, it wouldn't make pregnancy impossible, but testosterone is definitely a contraceptive, similar to how estrogen is commonly used as a contraceptive: both make the pituitary think that there are enough sex hormones present, so it suppresses the ovaries or testes. This is why athletes who take lots of testosterone usually have fertility problems. Read about it here if you want: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6305868/

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

Fr? That’s funny because I know a trans girl who somehow managed to get her girlfriend pregnant. I figured she became infertile a long time ago lol

[@Captain_Avery]

@@hunterlawrence3573 i thought so given its a pretty common misconception but the way it was written felt very like the writer themselves thinks that and the charcter never has a moment realising they were wrong, that could always be the case tho

[@ressa3524]

Okay but about the teacher one at the start: I totally had teachers who just left the school building at the same time as us students. Maybe that's a difference between countries but they just did all their extra work at home instead of sitting around in the school

[@Stardustgirlie]

Just came here to say that I even have a teacher who leaves a period early

[@sleepysera]

Was about to write the same thing. Teachers always leave early and do stuff like grading and lesson prep at home here. They have a meeting with other teachers like twice a month that lasts until evening, but that's the exception to the rule.

[@Lila-ie1eo]

My mom does that. She prefers working in the morning, so she gets to school at 6:30 (that's when it opens) to prepare for the day. And when she is done with her classes, she leaves ASAP to have a hour-long nap and then finish whatever work she has left.

[@naolucillerandom5280]

Yeah both my parents are teachers and that's how they do it. Mom is in elementary school so she goes home at the same time as the kids, dad is a middle school teacher and he is usually the first one to get home because of how irregular schedules are. I often helped him grade tests in the afternoon or transcribe tables of numbers from paper to PC.

[@CalvinNoire]

Hey! I have the same experience, in my school, almost all the teachers there leave at the same time the students leave. though there are a few who stick around for a little while before going.

[@kokoro7996]

The one where 20 year olds all have top jobs kills me every time!

[@WooperSuper]

[Totally not an excuse to infodump] My favorite visual novel, Cool Kid Cody, DOESN'T do this! Characters aren't 20, but most of em are around 18 and I think that's close enough. Some characters are cameos from the devs' other visual novels. Most of em are background characters right now, but Brownie from Purrfect Apawcalypse, along with Patches and Olive get speaking cameos! ...Although, some of the PA characters are gods. Literally. Social class system type thing. Lowest is losers, then Cool Kids, then Gods. Gods are powerful n stuff tho. Olive is the God of criminal reformation, and they're 17 in CKC. They're disguised as a Loser, and are named Coffee Shop Barista. Brownie is a Cool Kid named Luna's Coffee Shop Barista. She's 17 as well. Has a gf named Coco. Patches is a Loser named Vintage Boutique Worker. He's 18. Im bored, so here's my favorite scene featuring one of em. You don't gotta read this, it's just really funny.: --- Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: Next! Pizza Boy approaches the barista and stubs his toe the counter. Pizza Boy: OW!! Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: We don't have ''OW''. The drink was discontinued after putting twelve people in the hospital. Pizza Boy: S-sorry! W-what I meant to say was, uhh... I'd like to order, err... W-w-what's it called again? Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: We don't have ''err... W-w-what's it called again.'' That drink's seasonal. Pizza Boy: N-no! I just forget what it's called. Liquid Tranquilizer? Lunar Nyquil? Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: Loser, we don't have your drink. Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: Here's a tip, don't waste a Cool Kid's time like it's our job to carry you. Come back when you figure out how to order like everyone else. Pizza Boy: HUH?!? I-I don't need a Cool Kid to carry me!! I used to be as cool as you, y'know. W-way past cool even! S-s-so d-drop the attitude, p-p-p-punk! The barista is unconvinced. Surrounding Cool Kids stare. Pizza Boy: I'll show myself out. Pizza Boy approaches the exit and stubs his toe on the Holden. Holden: One Lunar Tranquility please! And a dark roast Black Hole Coffee and Starberry Lemonade while you're at it. Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: Size? Holden: Planet! Luna's Coffee Shop Barista: Name? Holden: For this fella here, Peter I believe. Peter's drink appears in the blink of an eye with the name ''Lououszyerr'' written on it! Holden: And here I thought you'd improved your spelling. --- Coco I love you and your gf, but you gotta teach her how to spell girlie...

[@nedhunter4444]

I've got a story that I'm working on where there's one guy in his early 20s who's a CEO of a major tech company. But he's something of a special case since he's secretly a reality-bender who used his powers to create free energy devices and secure faster-than-light communication technology. So his whole company is based on technology that nobody else can replicate.

[@silverish9081]

The only way this can work is either a serious case of nepotism or some alternate reality where children start working as soon as they turn like 5.

[@2breakfast]

as a flower nerd who also loves fanfiction, i live in a constant state of rage. i once read a fic where a character pressed a whole uncut peony perfectly flat and nearly started screaming at 3 am

[@darkacadpresenceinblood]

just. flattened an entire flower?? i don't know anything about flowers but just like. common sense and physics should tell you that would work, no?

[@2breakfast]

@@darkacadpresenceinblood most of the time, flowers can easily be pressed with enough weight. flowers that are thick are generally considered unsuitable for pressing without modification. peonies are CHUNKY and as such pressing is not recommended unless you cut them vertically down the center, which can be rather difficult to do :)

[@nameless_void5917]

Aren't peonies like a dense mass of petals?? Unless you've got a hydraulic press you wouldn't really be able to FLATTEN it would you??

[@BlindStarLily]

Peonies are one of my favorite flowers. My grandmother grows them in her garden. Reading this comment made me widen my eyes and shake my head a little. I have actually pressed a peony before, and let me tell you it was h a r d. I needed my grandma’s help through basically the entire process, and even then we agreed that it was not gonna work well like the clematis we pressed a day before had. I think the only flower harder to press than a peony for me was when we took a crack at these little hydrangeas that grew along the side of the house. That poor iron...

[@Anindeterminateamountofbees]

I can only imagine they got them confused with poppies or smthn cuz flattening a peony sounds HARD

[@lightninmoth]

whenever somebody writes a character waking up from a coma and they can immediately talk.. that's just not how it works. also, when anything includes snakes, whether it be the care for them or just general facts about them. maybe that's more niche, but snakes are my special interest, so it's very important to me

[@vilukisu]

Like all snakes being venomous (or confusing venomous and poisonous), eating way too often, actively going after humans...

[@lightninmoth]

@vilukisu yes exactly! and then they describe a type of snake that does match any of the behaviour previously stated. apparently, everything is either a viper or a cobra.

[@wizardlizard4496]

Ikr, I have read a fanfic before when someone sucked the poison to treat the bite. (which, of course, is a big no no: the blood is already in the system so its not possible, and this can also infect the wound the and cause further damage)

[@lightninmoth]

@wizardlizard4496 what?? i have never heard something that bad before but i am, unfortunately, not surprised.. my biggest annoyance is when a snake that, according to the rest of the fic, would eat things like frogs eats whole ass rabbits or smthing??? apparently my niche annoyance isn't as niche as i thought it was,

[@JurassicGlitchy]

Late comment but what really bothers me is when writers describe snakes blinking. Like, screw ocular scales, now snakes have eyelids?!

[@jozefienvoets2744]

Trying to put religious imagery in my stories is super funny because I’ve always been atheist. It took me literal MONTHS to remember that priests aren’t allowed to have kids

[@NekoChanSenpai]

The vow of abstinence is literally the hottest part about priests (in fiction)

[@CalvinNoire]

​@@NekoChanSenpai Fleabag show be like:

[@charleston1789]

Tbf it does depend on the denomination

[@rustyjones7908]

It used to be if you didn't have a wife and kids you were seen as not trustworthy enough to be a priest. I forget when that changed though

[@saph5461]

afaik that's only in Catholicism. Orthodox priests are allowed to have wives and children, as are Protestant pastors.

[@GloomyFish]

I read one where in one story arc, the main characters who usually live in Japan, needed to go to England. One character had to get used to driving on the opposite side of the road. The thing is, Japan is one of the few countries that does drive on the same side of the road as England. The author also wrote the English school as if it were an American one. Mind you, this is the same fanfic full of insane typos, nonsensical plots and infinite crossovers complete with an out of character Jack Sparrow and Megamind for some reason, so it makes sense the guy did no research. It's my favourite fanfic lmao

[@_Sparky144]

Which one is it?

[@anonymoose6703]

well now i must read this fanfic

[@Acidfrog475]

WHAT’S THE DAMN FIC?!

[@WellThinkOfATitle]

THAT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY INSANE WHAT

[@TheChristianCountess2721]

Dude, that fanfic sounds like a fun trip; please tell us what it is? 😀

[@tessabakker662]

Any time a character buys their crush/partner a fish and gets the husbandry all wrong. I once read a fic where A got B a Cardinal Tetra. Singular. Paracheirodon axelrodi. A beloved SCHOOLING FISH.

[@wahitsoctavia]

PLSS IDK ANYTHING ABOUT FISH BUT THAT PROBABLY WOULDVE TAKEN LIKE FIVE MINS OF RESEARCH

[@Maria-chan5863]

I don't have any Cardinal Tetras, but my family has several other varieties of tetras, and the only way we buy less than 4 is if we already have more of the same variety in the same tanks already. Buying only one seems like torture to the fish.

[@evdrexel5192]

To add: when a fishbowl is used as set decoration in tv/movies. The bowl itself CANNOT be more than 3 gallons, and there's always either a goldfish or longfin betta in there. No filter, no heater, shitty little house or castle shaped hide

[@genericname2747]

​@@evdrexel5192 The only acceptable time I've seen a fish in a tiny bowl is Megamind. Minion gets an entire mechsuit attached to the bowl

[@genericname2747]

Oh I thought you meant as food. A single tetra, truly a delectable treat

[@bluelfsuma]

6:16 I really like this one, because, last I checked, "dilate" means to "open". Which is just the cherry on top of the wrongness sundae.

[@jamie594]

As a biology nerd, it’s surprisingly not a mistake. Our eyes have a dilator muscle, which contracts causing the interior of the iris to be pulled outward, which exposes the pupil and makes it appear bigger. In simpler terms, the hole/opening in the iris dilates.

[@smilingstingray5537]

once read a fic where a character impaled someones hand with a knitting needle - like straight through and everything. Later in that same fic, a crochet hook got caught in someones skin like it was a fishing hook or something... both times it was an accident.

[@yourshoulderdevil5229]

What kind of fics are you reading?? Why are they knitting and crocheting to the point where they're stabbing themselves?

[@varia2354]

How were they even holding them so they could so much as poke themselves? I... what?

[@clyde-or-monty]

HOW AGGRESSIVELY ARE THEY KNITTING / CROCHETING HOLY FUCK DUDE

[@darkstarr984]

Oof. I can see using a knitting needle as a weapon, but to stab someone it would take enormous force. My guess is they never actually picked up either of those items.

[@novamythic_8]

I crochet and there is NO WAY a crochet hook could stab someone. It’s basically a narrow blunt weapon if anything. Idk how a knitting needle works, but the way you hold a needle makes it INCREDIBLY difficult to stab you self with it

[@kitkatboard]

"He just had some broken ribs so it didn't hurt too much" when his crush accidentally jabs him into the ribs. Broken ribs hit like shit. I couldn't even get up alone for 10 days, and it was always with excruciating pain. I had to lock up my cat who I usually sleep with because her weight on my torso would've been unbearable.

[@darkacadpresenceinblood]

"just some broken ribs" ?????

[@kitkatboard]

@@darkacadpresenceinblood Trust me, it took all of my willpower to not rush to the comment section to HMM ACTUALLY

[@Zhavari]

You have better self control than me, I couldn’t have held it back lol

[@titaniumvulpes]

The "writing about religions you know nothing about" thing sets my teeth on edge. I'm writing a book where the main characters are Jewish and Muslim. I have put _so much effort_ into research over the past few years and gotten so much help making sure I'm portraying them well. But I'm genuinely almost afraid of the book getting popular because I just know if it did it would spawn some truly ignorant fanfiction, especially with the state of the world right now.

[@voidtectonic]

It sounds like a very interesting book, I hope that if/when you publish, I find your book. It sounds like a fun read.

[@smal5504]

as a muslim, we get misrepresented SO much in the general media and its one of my least favorite things ever. im really happy that youre at least trying to represent us correctly

[@Zitronen_]

i know what u mean by being afraid of it getting popular, thats like my worst fear for my own story

[@smal5504]

@@Zitronen_ if mine got popular, people would IMMEDIATELY see its inspirations; some would even jump to the conclusion that im copying.

[@Zitronen_]

@@smal5504 that's so real bcuz one of my stories shares a lot of similarities to a very popular show (it wasn't directly insp but they have similar plot points) and i imagine that wouldn't go well for me 😭

[@peepysprite]

I love body mods and any fic depiction of piercing or scarification is always hilariously unsafe. Tattooing gets the long end of the stick but not by much. Bonus, pretty much any ""BDSM"" fic written prior to 2015 was just glorified non-con with a side of sadism.

[@bogwife7942]

i read a fic where a character got his lip pierced with a HOOP and was just. walking around like that. talking like normal. 💀 in a different fic a character got a tattoo and immediately afterwards their partner KISSED IT. they put their MOUTH on an open wound!! when i tell you i screamed--

[@elaboratedreamer]

​@@bogwife7942NOT THEM KISSING THE FRESH TATTOO 😭 that's a sure way to get an infection for sure

[@bogwife7942]

@@elaboratedreamer right?? human mouths are _filthy_ 😭 just because the care is a little different doesn't mean a tattoo isn't still a wound

[@moonkenzie]

Nobody gets a skin test. I know that would slow the narrative, but seriously? I feel like a horrible allergic reaction to the ink would slow it more

[@bogwife7942]

@@moonkenzie I've personally never gotten a skin test, but tbf all my tattoos are blackwork ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think it depends on when/where they're getting the tattoo and what inks they're using

[@TheOblivionMan]

Avengers fanfic that had a scene where Tony was doing shirtless arc welding. And I don't mean just popping down a couple of quick spot welds. It was a project that would have required hours of work. Imagine the worst sunburn you've ever had, then make it like fives times worse.

[@marqkc]

Just learnt about arc welding recently and YIIIKES. I cringed from that description 😬😬😬

[@TheFansOfFiction]

Yeah, but can you honestly say Tony _wouldn't_ do that?

[@margarita2003]

I study Criminology, but in my college the program includes a few Criminalistics classes. Now I can't watch crime TV series or read books/fics with murder plots because that's not how anything works. 😭 What gets me everytime is when there's a scene with a dead body and the forensics team and the detectives just inspect and hang around the body without full biosafety suits and such. That can cause cross contamination for the evidence and people can get sick.

[@LakinMae5]

But how can they monologue and make quick quips with their colleagues?

[@miraculousmoonsanddragons]

The one thing I've seen actually do this properly is Hot Fuzz. All the forensics team are dressed in protective gear and goggles

[@margarita2003]

​@@LakinMae5They can make quick quips after the forensic examination, maybe? I know it's for the sake of showing the character's faces when they interact, but it personally really takes me out of it.

[@margarita2003]

@@miraculousmoonsanddragons Oh 👀 Nice, I'll check it out!

[@Pipkiablo]

Now I'm just imagining that scene from an Adam Sandler film where a guy pulled the murder weapon out of the corpse and then tried to put it back in when everyone told him he shouldn't have touched the murder weapon or disturbed the crime scene, but an entire forensics team is doing it.

[@alicebthegachaweirdo8378]

This is probably gonna get lost in the comments and people are definitely not gonna care, but it’s my birthday today!

[@lorelaimorace-kk1xz]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUDE YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[@eeeeee8829]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! mines tomorrow ;)

[@lorelaimorace-kk1xz]

@@eeeeee8829 HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY WOOOOOOOOOO mine is april 28th

[@_meriessa]

Happy birthday!

[@kai_said_bai]

Happy birthday!!!

[@Moonlitwatersofaqua]

I read a fanfiction set in the 80s where the characters use slang from the Heathers like "how very". The slang in the Heathers is all made up in order to make the movie feel more timeless. It isn't authentic 80s slang.

[@lukeflanagan1307]

3:41 Same problem with menswear, especially in the 19th century. Nobody seems to realize that people wore different things in the day and the evening. Also, they keep trying to make neckwear complicated. Regular neckties existed for nearly half of the century.

[@hellobees3320]

Even more so with visual media, I think. There always seems to be some monstrous child of the jabot in anything vaguely historical, no matter the era which is being portrayed

[@mariacori9500]

My favorite example of this is from my favorite fic of all times. The main characters traveled the Europe in 2012-2014 in search of supernatural stuff. They had to do it the cheapest way, so they used trains. Author did incredibly good job describing western Europe, it was super engaging and fascinating, but also they at one point mentioned the fact that characters were passing through one Russian city near Belarus border. And trust someone who had the privilege of being on the cheap train from Minsk, the capital of Belarus, to said city, Smolensk, ones in the same years. It is not a romantic road trip, and those soft french boys wouldn't survive it. The experience of russian railroads is excruciating and will change you forever.

[@king_tutankhamun]

love the marquis de lafayette pfp 🙏🙏 that’s my favorite portrait of him

[@spacedisaster9923]

i've been through 5 days experience of the cheapest option russian railroads in that exact time period (traveling with family across the country), i just lived through it again with this comment. 💀

[@mariacori9500]

@@king_tutankhamun omg thanks, love the guy ❤

[@mariacori9500]

@@spacedisaster9923 you are welcome. Respect to all who survived multiple days of that shitshow, what doesn't kill us makes us stronger

[@margotsquirrell]

in one of the Heroes of Olympus books, one of the characters transforms temporarily into a fish. While reading it aloud to us, my mom was very irked by "goldfish" and "koi" being used interchangeably. What kind of fish is he really? They're not the same thing!

[@mordi17]

for me its the violin. people just often dont know what theyre talking about. i remember once before a smut scene someone dropped their violin and all i could worry about was if the instrument was ok

[@salmonsalem6159]

It was in a Sci-fi fic. The author wrote the words “vegan tobacco” my friend, tobacco is a leaf Edit: As some people very kindly informed me, I was wrong! It’s like vegetarian cheese. As in, though the products used to make the tobacco itself are of course plant based, there might be meat based substances used in other parts of the manufacturing process. The more you know!

[@keythealien]

Hi, so, I love bullying vegans as much as the next guy but I would like to inform you that most tobacco products are, in fact, not vegan as they use animal products as filler or were tested on animals or were grown with chemicals that were tested on animals/harm the environment. So "vegan tobacco" is probably a borderline incorrect way to quickly say "it's American Spirits but not" because, yeah, the leaf itself is vegan but to use it for human consumption requires some extra steps. Was there any context denoting it wasn't literally just dried tobacco leaves or something? It's an outrageous line to consider, for sure, but it's not technically incorrect. 🌟🌈the more you know🌈🌟

[@riverAmazonNZ]

It’s like vegan wine. Yes grapes are vegan but a lot of wine is made using fish products (isinglass) or egg white.

[@AssortedMold268]

doesnt the "-fi" in sci-fi stand for fiction? i know a fic is a specific type of literary work, but i feel like any other synonym would have sufficed to avoid redundancy (i am extremely autistic if you could not tell)

[@lindseylindsey9200]

I’ve seen someone who said they saw “vegan apples” that came from trees that were manually pollenated instead of bees doing it, maybe that’s what it was referring to Of course, I think people who think that bees doing what they have done to get food before humans even existed is some form of animal cruelty are whack jobs, but it is apparently a concept

[@darkstarr984]

@@AssortedMold268The “-fi” does stand for fiction. I might have phrased a comment like OP’s differently, but in this context it’s not unreasonable to be redundant. They’re discussing a work of fanfiction, so “fic” ends up being a noun, while “sci-fi” is an adjective.

[@yourshoulderdevil5229]

12:53 this has always bothered me. I asked my dad once and he basically said "if they kill you you're dead, but if they just bite or scratch you, you become a zombie" I still don't like it, but it's the only thing that made sense.

[@jessionkorn]

I like the logic of the Walking Dead. Everyone is infected and being bitten just speeds the process. You become a zombie no matter how you die.

[@WooperSuper]

One of my favorite visual novels has zombies. They either do stuff like this [The zombie character is the one named Zombies]: --- Amidst the products is a small first aid kit! Olive: I w-wonder why she needs this. C-can't she just heal Angel and Brownie using magic? Sparky: Oh right! I'm not sure what the extent of her abilities are. I guess, if she could heal she could've just healed Angel's body instead of giving him Patches'... Olive: ... Sparky: Oh. Oh no. I-I don't think she can undo death... But she promised the zombies she'd fix their bodies! Olive: B-but, that means she's going to break her promise!! And they'll all be sad!! Sparky: I think they'll be more than just sad. We can't tell anyone about this, or else the zombies will freak out!! Olive: Do you think th-them seeing the first aid kit... They'll g-get suspicious?? As the two speak in hushed whispers, the bathroom door opens. A zombie peers in. Zombies: OoOoOH SORRY. WILL KNOoOCK NEeXT TIME. NICE FIRST AaAaID KIT. The zombie slowly shambles away. --- ...Or the zombies maul a lesbian black cat named Coco who killed them while trying to kill a serial killer gay dog named Patches.

[@sarahdyclon3093]

There's a webtoon called hooves of death which about the four horsemen of the apocalypse. People become zombies because death wasn't doing his job properly.

[@Kyumifun]

​@@WooperSuper hey i remember that game. Apawcalipse? Or smth like that. I heard there's a sequel (and propably that's the one you were quoting?) but only saw the first one where stuff happen in school.

[@Kyumifun]

I often am bothered by the fact the zombies are violent and "attack everything that moves" but they aren't violent against ine another. Like, they just know they're the undead/infected and they're automatically on the same team. What? I guess it can make sense but what about the "rabies" versions? These infected fellas should fight between each other, not form teams even to the point where they are perfecly synchronised and and can get on top of each other to form ladders and bridges to get between places. Why don't they fight each other and how do they communicate?

[@odetoclear]

Writing tip! If you make clear your characters are in the Netherlands don't say they walk into a 'coffee shop'. In the Netherlands 'coffee shop' is a place where you buy drugs. I've only come across this happening twice but it makes me laugh so much.... Just say they're going to get some coffee, not going to a 'coffee shop' lol. Unless they are gonna get drugs, that is🫣

[@suspiciousshadeofgreen]

I go to the coffee shop every weekend

[@Thylaacine]

@@suspiciousshadeofgreen name checks out

[@sarahdyclon3093]

Fun fact: on tv if you are showcasing someone with a government related job then something has to be wrong with the costume or you might be charged with impersonation of a government official. My dad who was part of the military is always pointing out whatever small detail it is. In one show the ensignia on a soldiers hat was upside down.

[@TracksideProd758]

"something has to be wrong with the costume or you might be charged with impersonation of a government official." I expected nothing, and yet I am still disappointed. 😞

[@SilentProti]

I think FBI is spelled wrong on the badges in the x files :)

[@damianjblack]

I guess on Stargate SG-1 the mere fact that the USAF were fighting alien gods from space, did the trick. 😂

[@lovetolovefairytales]

I do remember reading a book that was basically a glorified smutty Don Bluth Anastasia fic in printed book format where the author REALLY did not get how Imperial Russia worked. She literally kept calling Anastasia a Tsarina, for a start. And her hemophiliac brother apparently was healed by being fed on by vampire rasputin. Like how DO you reach adulthood and not get how royalty or blood works?

[@Mr.Brothybear]

Don Buth Anastasia?

[@lovetolovefairytales]

@@Mr.Brothybear the animated Anastasia movie?

[@sundown6806]

I'm an adult, I don't know how royalty works, and I've gotten along fine

[@lovetolovefairytales]

@@sundown6806 yippee for you.

[@LakinMae5]

She is the Grand Duchess!

[@darkfiretype5684]

5:47 I agree with this one severely, I remember once reading a fic which had two 5 year old characters interacting and their speech was similar to a teenager's and as a person who worked in a daycare lemme tell you, they are NOT that linguistically skilled. Every now and then they'll pull out a sentence that'll have you stunned, but that's mostly out of surprise at the complexity of what they said, and not what they said itself.

[@aino-kaisav5504]

I work at a kindergarden and I'd say even professional writers sometimes seem to fail at depicting young children. Looking at you Kohei Horikoshi. Realistically speaking the most dangerous job in the MHA world would probably be a kindergarden teacher. Having to make sure kids won't do anything stupid is difficult enough without them suddenly getting superpowers that may vary from invisibility to straight-up making things disappear out of existence.

[@wrightcember]

@@aino-kaisav5504ive thought about tgis in EXTENTION. imagine how scary it is to be a kid at 4 years old. you shit your pants one day and all of a sudden you can evaporate yourself. absolutely bonkers

[@sleepysera]

It's complicated, because children can differ SO much in their development. I've known two 5 year olds in my family, and one was able to hold a conversation like an adult. At some point you'd realize that there were some basic concepts she had no clue about, but just based on her speech patterns, it was no different from talking to a grown-up. The other one was still wearing diapers and struggling with 2 word sentences... both of those aren't normal, but like, that's actual real life people. I don't find it weird in fanfic if I see crazier stuff in reality 😅 So as long as it's physically possible, I'm pretty open to unusual development for any age.

[@clemente3966]

​@@aino-kaisav5504 Or simply Eri. Like, I know she's been through a lot, and might have a lot to catch up on, but iirc, there was one quick shot of Mirio looking after her while she was drawing with crayons!? I do remember it being crayons, but I'm not sure about the memory itself being real to begin with. But, like, at her age (6-7), it should be pencils already. But yeah, what the 4 years old kids were saying, from what I remember, it should normally be the level of what Eri would say instead (vocabulary complexity wise i mean)

[@darkstarr984]

Yeah. Like how my family will tell me stories how when I was a baby I would say “god bless you” but they also said they pieced it together from realizing I frequently said something like “gobby-doo” after someone sneezed. Small children might say something that shows clear understanding, but they don’t usually have a wide vocabulary, and mispronunciations are very common in children under 6. Likewise, they’re more likely to come up with something completely off the cuff that may terrify or confuse adults, due to typically not quite understanding what they saw or heard!

[@jakelevinson7802]

Whenever they have “realistic” CGI, DNA, like they’ll have it look like it’s semi-translucent, organic and biological or growing around stuff and moving as if it was an animal. no DNA is a bunch of chunky little molecules I think the problem is that DNA doesn’t look “realistic” enough I think it’s because people don’t realize how small it actually is it’s literally a bunch of molecules attached to each other not biological structures in a conventional sense so they’re gonna look like a bunch of molecules string together, which looks really cool, but it’s hard to depict in film because of this fact I’ve seen a lot of really egregious depictions, but I think the DNA scene in Prometheus really took the cake for me

[@margarita2003]

I know nothing about DNA, but that scene in Prometheus killed me too. I think about it on a regular basis. It's also a great meme format lol.

[@schrodingerscat3741]

@@margarita2003 Oh. Oh no. It looks like two tapeworms mating

[@saturnas]

Petition for a big movie to depict DNA as some tiny translucent drop inside those micro tubes we use when running PCR 😂

[@chimebell8237]

We so often imagine DNA as that mystique-looking winding staircase string that seems seamlessly smooth and transparent, but yeah, it's really a bunch of tiny molecules that just formed themselves into a winding staircase. The more interesting thing I wish people knkw is that at a slightly less micro-scale, DNA literally looks like a string wrapped on beads.

[@wizardlizard4496]

Blushing, god.... Everybody's cheeks going red in seconds and with each cute or awkward interaction. In reality, blushing extremely different from person to person - It changes from skin colour to the spread of blood vessels on your face and their reaction to emotions. Read a number of fics already with blushing being the only major use of body language, nothing else. I personally can't visibly blush, so that's probably why its a small nitpick of mine.

[@ronweezer]

THISS! me a dark skinned black person when I see people write darker skinned characters to blush makes me exit the fic, it takes me out😭

[@BlindStarLily]

I write for a few fandoms in which most of the cast isn’t human. Writing a character without human skin blushing has always been a workout for my brain. My current MC is a tree spirit of sorts with sap instead of blood and I just kind of gave up and described it as the sap feeling thicker when they’re embarrassed. I live in constant fear of how I’m supposed to verbalize it when they’re bleeding considering, y’know, they don’t have blood XP

[@Littlepup93]

I'm light skinned and blush/become flushed frequently. People comment on it all the time to me, which only makes the problem worse. When a character keeps blushing and no one comments, I'm just like "bro what?"

[@clonnie-cloo]

ok i do have to say. sometimes i see a fic tagged "(character) has adhd" and get excited, but then it immediately becomes evident that the author only looked at the name of the disorder and didn't do, like, a single google search to find out if there are other symptoms. like, ok, your character spaces out in class and fidgets a lot, great. but what about things like executive dysfunction, emotional dysregulation, hyperfocus, forgetfulness, impulsiveness, hyperfixations, et cetera? if you're not familiar with most of those terms or didn't know they had anything to do with adhd...do more research before you write about it maybe? and this is just a personal example but i would say it also goes for any disability since you're writing about someone who has a fundamental difference in life experience than you!

[@hunterlawrence3573]

Also, sometimes I see things where people act like ADHD is the same for everyone who has it. I have ADHD. I’ve never had that hyperfocus happen to me, but it happens to plenty of other people. ADHD affects everyone in different ways.

[@NekoChanSenpai]

Could it have been figurative? Like how people say "I'm really ocd about this"? (Really frustrating when names of disorders are used figuratively since I can't always tell)

[@ettaetta439]

​@@NekoChanSenpaiIf the fic says "character has ADHD" then I doubt they're meaning to be figurative. And we really shouldn't be using serious disorders that are often taken lightly as just figurative terms.

[@NekoChanSenpai]

@@ettaetta439 obviously people SHOULDN'T, but the fact is that people do.

[@ettaetta439]

@@NekoChanSenpai True lol

[@shingshongshamalama]

Actually, the butt is the stump of a cigarette left over when it's been burned. That usually only consists of the orange part because that part is _actually_ the filter, which not all cigarettes have and is not technically a cigarette butt. If you smoke an unfiltered cigarette, eventually there will be a small stub left of the end that goes in your mouth that is the butt of the cigarette, even though it has no filter and isn't orange. Also not all filters are orange. It's like calling a human body a corpse. While it is still a living person. Technically it is not a corpse yet, AND not every corpse is a _human_ body.

[@REDACTEDbox]

“it’s like calling a human body a corpse” is a GREAT way to describe something like this

[@daynamorris2399]

One of my pet peeves about surgery fics is when writers don't even say a word about the after effects of morphine/ wound care/ PT because I had surgery on my legs when I was 16 and you can't just go home after surgery if you need to have a morphine IV drip for days after. Also, write about chronic pain for years after

[@ruinparadox4812]

I confused Naginata, the weapon, for a fighting style. Granted, the fic doesn't exist anymore, and nobody really noticed or pointed it out, but I only found out my mistake years after the fact and I still think about it on occasion.

[@marcopohl4875]

This point probably doesn't apply here since it's japanese, but european martial arts are often named after the weapon being used (I practice longsword).

[@lindseylindsey9200]

There’s a Sonic game called Sonic and the Black Knight which is basically “Sonic gets isekai’d into Camelot” and there’s a character named Caliburn who’s like a grumpy but secretly affectionate swordsmanship mentor to Sonic and calls Sonic “knave” which I thought meant a knight in training but actually means idiot and long story short I had him basically say “Sorry I killed your parents dumbass” in a fanfic I wrote It’s also long gone now and nobody pointed it out but man just thinking about it I both laugh and cringe

[@darkstarr984]

Oof. My weapons-geek self would’ve cringed so hard at that. I’m glad you didn’t get picked on for it.

[@darkstarr984]

@@lindseylindsey9200To be fair, in most contexts where I’ve seen “knave” used, it is perfectly reasonable to guess what you did since it’s archaic and fairly interchangeable with some other concept if you’re not aware it’s kind of rude.

[@Ramsey276one]

A 1st person Gladiator game (also available in PC but I don't remember the title) has a Ninja shout NAGINATA before tossing random arrays of *SHURIKEN* Of course all characters speak English, not just that ninja and the Chinese miniature Kung Fu master XD

[@PancakeTheKat]

I’m not kidding but I’ve seen a fic where the character was in an au where it was a realistic au where they grew up hyper religious. They got EVERYTHING ABOUT CHRISTIANITY wrong. I’m a Christian with a special interest in theology. This pissed me off so much :,)

[@kiplingwasafurry1108]

This goes back to what the pagan said as well, as a Christian myself I've noticed it with other religions and it is so annoying, because people can't just do research.

[@nedhunter4444]

Bear in mind that some of the more extreme hyper-religious sects of Christianity often have fundamentally different ideas about theology then other Christians. In fact, such major differences exist even between major branches. There's the whole trinitarian vs unitarian debate for one, and faith vs works. I've heard that at least some forms of Celtic Christianity reject the concept of original sin. Then there's of course the young-earth creationists. And then all the ways that Mormonism is different from basically all of the other branches. All this to say that, while I can't be certain due to being ignorant of the full context, from the knowledge I have it's entirely possible that the version of Christianity portrayed in that story could have been based on a real sect.

[@NekoChanSenpai]

My morbid curiosity

[@SugarSpice07]

One of my biggest pet peeves. I try to avoid any fic with religion involved just in case now because I hate how Christianity gets portrayed sometimes.

[@kiplingwasafurry1108]

@@SugarSpice07Felt, not even as a Christian but as a history enthusiast to because a lot of the times it's just plain wrong.

[@crazybunnyproductions7287]

Reading fanfics is a roller coaster, because fans will interpret things that aren't even up for interpretation in the first place, so anything that is even remotely ambiguous or unclear becomes an invitation for brainrot. Media centered around mysteries or iceberg-esc lore have it the worst. The more popular a character or subject, the more likely you are to encounter an completely nonsense take that leaves you questioning if they watched/read the same thing as you.

[@crazybunnyproductions7287]

And yeah, can't forget when a book, show, movie, or game is written with the same level of nonsense. Anywhere from bad courtroom dramas to survivalists that makes sure you won't survive, there's a very broad grey area where people are willing to forget that just because a piece of media exists or is enjoyable, it doesn't mean it's good.

[@TheCleverArachnid]

I read a lot of Team Fortress 2 fanfiction and it's the little things that interest me. People are generally good about the big sweeping landscape of the past, but fumble small details because you don't realize that you've taken them for granted. For example, knowing that the color TV had been invented is easy to look up. Knowing that the remote control as we know it wouldn't become commonplace until a later decade, or that there were only three channels and reception was terrible and that they all signed off at night, and there were absolutely not cartoons playing at 3AM, is a totally different thing. I saw one fic do it right in that it involved a VHS tape, but no one knew what it was on sight except for one person, who had a VCR for some reason that made sense for the character. It makes me wonder how many little things I take for granted that would not have existed in their familiar form in the time periods I write in.

[@pretzelbomb6105]

Another thing is that people tend to label certain things as more "high tech" or "modern" than other things, without actually checking how old they are. One mentioned in the video is the pocket lighter being invented before the strike match (by about 3 years). Another one that I've yet to see brought up anywhere is toothpicks. Examples made of metal and bone go back to ancient times. The modern disposable wooden toothpick, however, is about 70 years younger than dental floss.

[@limendime3720]

The TF2 fics get me with their word choices. Can't stop reading them though, lol.

[@TheCleverArachnid]

@@limendime3720 I'm not sure what you mean but I also think I agree?

[@nmheath03]

On one hand, I get people noting anachronistic things in fics. On the other hand, teleporters and invisibility devices exist in-game.

[@hollow_w33n]

tbf, tf2 is game where they have the technology to instantly heal open wounds, alongside spy’s invisibility watch.

[@lightyearpig12]

This is why I try my best to research things I write about or stay away from things I'm not familiar with. For example, I had to research the US government & military, the vice president's house, places in New York, legal systems, psychology, Krav Maga, mockumentaries, Russian history, and more for my big shared universe of Steven Universe stories I finished last year.

[@coolDude-sx6we]

I tip my hat to you, fellow SU fan. If you had to guess, about how many mess ups did you make?

[@lightyearpig12]

@@coolDude-sx6weOutside of getting Red October mixed up with the murder of the Romanov family, I think I did pretty good.

[@Imgood438]

I read a fic 2 years ago and one of the characters was Irish...the amount of stereotypes in that story were insane. (Speaking as someone who has lived in Ireland their whole life)

[@margarita2003]

This is why I overthink everything I write lol

[@JNAB0212]

10:50 to answer how so many people don’t know basic gun safety, not every country lets people own guns without a license, so if you didn’t live in America and have grown up around guns or just took up gun stuff as a hobby, it’s completely reasonable for someone to not know what they consider basic gun stuff.

[@altalt479]

FORREAL did bro forget that like most first world countries have banned guns? I live in Australia and I've never even seen a gun irl and the only time they're mentioned is to do with hunting which only the indigenous people are allowed to do anyway so...ofc people dont know how a gun works 😂

[@theownerofthisaccount2521]

I’m a mythology nerd and I swear no one gets anything correct. If they are intentionally changing it that’s fine(I love Records of Ragnorak) but if they are trying to make it lore accurate I lose it with things like evil Hades

[@thegreenjellybean77]

Ya like come on! Hades is one of the good ones

[@theownerofthisaccount2521]

@@thegreenjellybean77 Zeus on the other hand… Honestly a lot of the gods were big jerks at times. Worst is probably Hers honestly. Zeus was bad but Hers took things out on everyone. She kept Io prisoner and then sent a horsefly after her, she gave Pandora the box to prove she wasn’t perfect, she had jealousy towards Hercules, etc

[@theownerofthisaccount2521]

Hera* ugh autocorrect

[@thegreenjellybean77]

@@theownerofthisaccount2521 Tbh all this f'king up started when Kronos decided to eat his children 😬

[@Mr.Brothybear]

Well Thats Just Mythology For Ya

[@deadend3520]

I read a fic once were a doctor pulled an arrow out of a patent right outside the hospital. Not even waiting for them to be brought inside. There was no reasoning. Edited to clarify. The patent was dragged by his friend to the hospital and was lying on the ground outside. The doctor walked out, pulled the arrow out of his stomach, THEN called for people to help get him inside fir medical treatment.

[@darkacadpresenceinblood]

the mental image of this is making me laugh so hard like imagine having a literal arrow sticking out of you so you go to the doctor and they literally just grab it and rip it out without hesitation😭😭

[@deadend3520]

​@@darkacadpresenceinblood If u remember correctly he then followed it up by saying something along the lines of "You're in good hands" or "Don't worry, we'll take care if you." 😐

[@asierx7047]

He pulled. An arrow. The projectile with a famously barbed tip so it reopens the wound when you try to pull it out.

[@darkacadpresenceinblood]

@@deadend3520 suuure. very good hands indeed. "good" if your goal is to die at least💀

[@deadend3520]

@@darkacadpresenceinblood Yea, wouldn’t trust someone who starts pulling things out while you're on the ground outside, especially if it's an arrow in your stomach. Should have been a part 2 with a police report.

[@thediscodevil0949]

I once read a Mario Kart (specifically, Mario Kart Wii) fanfiction that I couldn’t finish because it got everything wrong, lol. Five laps in one race (if it was Super Mario Kart, that’d be correct, but Wii? No), Coconut Mall being in the Shell Cup instead of the Flower Cup (the Shell Cup is a retro cup. It’s for retro tracks, not a nitro track like Coconut Mall), the racers were eliminated if they fell off the track instead of Lakitu picking them back up, I’m pretty sure there were more than twelve racers on the tracks, etc. The Coconut Mall one was what made me stop reading, lol. Even in Mario Kart 7, it’s not in the Shell Cup. It’s in the Banana Cup in that game.

[@LuckySketches]

TBF while it's bad for gameplay, eliminating racers is good for narrative. But the rest... If they like Mario Kart Wii enough to write a fic about it, you'd think they'd have a copy they could boot up to check some things.

[@thediscodevil0949]

@@LuckySketches I don’t see how that’d be good for narrative since this series doesn’t actually have a story, but ok. Also, they said that the Blue Shell never misses, which I actually get. I understand portraying it as something to be feared…but you can literally dodge it with a Mushroom in Mario Kart Wii and onward. Also, if you happen to have gone through a cannon in Mario Kart Wii while the Blue Shell is above you, it’ll miss every time. They fixed that in the later games, though. There are plenty more ways to evade it in the games, too.

[@thediscodevil0949]

@@LuckySketches Oh, and they also called the Blue Shell ‘prestigious’… Basically, prestigious means respected… Most of the fandom literally hates it. That’s the opposite of respected, lol.

[@frostbite_1244]

​@@thediscodevil0949of they respect it... They respect it's authority over whether they win or lose, nobody messes around when it comes to blue shells.

[@thediscodevil0949]

@@frostbite_1244 I respect it tbh, lol. I’m glad it exists, considering how much of a pain it was to catch up in Super Mario Kart because it didn’t exist yet.

[@esuterunokitsune3556]

Once read a smut scene, and the whole time I couldn't focus, cause they were ON A BEACH. THEY MENTIONED LAYING ON THE SAND MULTIPLE TIMES! the whole time I was thinking "the sand is gonna get everywhere. Why."

[@REDACTEDbox]

something something anakin skywalker

[@esuterunokitsune3556]

​@@REDACTEDbox it gets everywhere! XD

[@akl2k7]

Yeah, at least use a towel!

[@PraiseJ-Pope]

Beach sex is bad, only followed by anything water sex. The amount of times where fanfic chars get it on in the shower/bathtub/hot/ocean and i'm sitting there, eyes twitching and wanting to die.

[@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072]

3:18 the printing press would not have been invented until 1440, and even then it’s not like they could’ve mass produced them very quickly because the industrial revolution wouldn’t happen for another 300 years!

[@Pinkstarclan]

not to mention literacy rates!

[@mattybrunolucaszeneresalas9072]

@@Pinkstarclan MMMMM!!!!!

[@damianjblack]

So much this. I was writing a fic set in an alternate timeline of ancient Egypt where literacy became more widespread during the 12th century BCE and I had to be reminded that town newsletters would more than likely be clay tablets displayed in the middle of town rather than individually available copies!

[@cwloomer8475]

Medical stuff. I'm not medically trained by any means but I am the child of an A&E nurse and a paramedic who made sure to hammer as much practical medical knowledge into my head as they could when I was a kid. CPR, the recovery opsition, joint dislocation, wounds that need stitches, the himelich, animal bites, people in labour, car crashes, house fires, vehicles in water, allergic reactions, that kind of stuff. Basically how to deal with emergency situations that I have a chance of encountering at some point in my life. I've also absorbed some less useful medical knowledge through osmosis. Like what actually happens if you light someone's fart on fire or what happens when you get shot in the boob with a pellet gun. It means I'm prepared for basically anything but it also means that I can spot medical innacuracies in what I'm reading. The most egregious one I ever found was a fic that described a woman "loosening up" downstairs during sex as her "dilating". Which is just.... so many different kinds of wrong. Made me click off it instantly. Dilation refers to the cervix, which is at the top of the vagina and is basically the door between the vagina and the womb. Like the knot in the neck of a balloon. If it's dilating, she's pregnant and going into labour. Not horny.

[@paradoxtatorstudios9681]

gotta love people who don't understand basic anatomy lmao

[@kbomb234]

I can't read anything where a psychologist or therapist has sex with their client. It's such a deep violation of HIPAA and makes me (a grad student) so viscerally uncomfortable that i genuinely can't continue

[@breawycker]

Holy shit as someone studying to be a therapist that's a massive breach of APA ethics

[@altalt479]

I feel like most people know it's not realistic though, they just think the dynamic is hot 💀

[@PowerSpirit50]

When I read about relationships with unrealistic emotions. Yeah, you may have only known this dude for 3 days and he just did something that goes against your values but it's okay, forgive them immediatelly and cater to their flaws.

[@Kyumifun]

I read a book which is an adventure book that obviously mostly focused on the ongoing mystery, but since it was a fantastical reimagination of the author's and his lover's time at some place, there had to be romance between the two main characters shoved in. Picture this, a family consisting of the mother, the daughter, and the son move in to a town/village in france cause they found a job there. The daughter (the MC, which represets the author's lover) meets a cousin of her best friend, both fall for each other immediately. The girl is 15, is described in the book multiple times to "be very attractive" and nice. That's her personality. The guy? He's a loner that likes boats, even rides one which he named after some greek word. Perfect match. The bestie leaves them alone so the guy can give the girl a ride home. Then after that they plan a date "on saturday". Then there's a few days time skip, which ig they don't interact with each other otherwise it wouldn't be skipped. Then they go on a date and decide to go to some spooky island which they visit a lighthouse then have a picnic and kiss each other. So the author is telling me she knew this guy for few days, presumably interacted with him ONCE and the next time they meet they're already dating!? Not to mention all the scenes where she, a 15 year old was sexualised.... The book takes place in 1930s around the times before the war. Times were different back then sure, but jeez that was not fun to read.

[@Pinkstarclan]

I reaaaally wish this one was unrealistic. unfortunately a lot of people really are like that. it's not ~romantic~ tho, it's a recipe for abuse.

[@PowerSpirit50]

@@Pinkstarclan I mean the ones where there isn't even a hint of annoyance or negative emotion. Without those the romance feels pointless.

[@Pinkstarclan]

@@PowerSpirit50 sadly, that also exists... I agree it feels pointless and isn't fun to read tho.

[@laraalexis9186]

There was one story that was very evocative, with so many feels… but they had chocolate. In an ancient Egypt setting. Chocolate is from the americas, along with vanilla, corn, avocados, and potatoes. Like if it’s in a fictional setting, I can overlook that, but setting it in Ancient Egypt really broke the immersion

[@slytherinlady3907]

never going to forget the fic set in venice italy where the phrase “dinner at olive garden “ was actually spoken that said, i don’t blame people for minor cultural inaccuracies in fic. usually, the things they misinterpret are so commonplace in their country that you’d never think it’s different elsewhere. for example, in france, restaurants are closed between lunch and dinner, but in the us this would never happen, and no american author would actively imagine that something so mundane and commonly accepted is different elsewhere

[@SilentProti]

If you lesrn anything about France that's probably one of the obvious things, everything being closed during lunch.

[@slytherinlady3907]

@@SilentProti yea im french the restaurant schedules scare me whenever i visit

[@SilentProti]

@@slytherinlady3907 my brother has been living in France for a few years now, he's still pissed the lunch time is basically a wasted time for him

[@akanthal7515]

As someone studying classics, all the PJO fics who try to take their story deeper into Greek myth without knowing how the fuck Greek myth works. Like Rick did it fine with just using the characters from the myth and their scenarios without directly retelling the myths itself. Rick didn't write PJO to be anything other than a fun story that takes Greek myth characters and translates them into his story as his own characters. It kills me every time someone characterizes Zeus as a horrible guy in their "closer to myth" fics and then turn around and build Poseidon up as a great father and a loving husband and oh so gentle. Like if you write Zeus as a bad guy, you should write Poseidon as one as well, since Poseidon was arguably worse. He literally personified everything a civilized and controlled man shouldn't be. Omg or when a character learns a language in under a year and is automatically fluent and their accent is perfect and they never mess up the inflections or tones. LIKE?????? I've been casually learning Latin for almost a decade, and seriously studying it for half a year and I'm nowhere near fluent. Or when a character fluently and poetically translates an ancient artifact in Linear B or Middle Egyptian in 30 seconds when it'd take weeks of back and forth and parsing to even get a messy translation. Combine that with the fact that no ancient word is going to translate perfectly into English AND THEN RHYME IN ENGLISH. Drives me insane. It irks me when people take random ancient terms and misuse them as well, especially when it relates to ancient religions like Druidism or Historical Greek religion or Old Norse religion. Like they find a term, read the wikipedia blurb, and then make up information about it because they can't be damned to read more thoroughly on the word and religion to properly recreate it or write it. Also honorary mention of Lore Olympus because that story is so fucking bad. It bastardized Greek myth to the point where the characters just share names with the gods they're supposed to be. And the characterization of Apollo, which directly contradicts his position in Greek myth as one of self control and mindfulness, is so disgusting. The story completely ignores the fact the Persephone and Hades are very much not a love story, but an allegory on how sometimes young women die before marriage and it's not something their mothers or fathers can control. Even if you take the Homeric Hymn to Demeter at face value (which you shouldn't), all it does is hammer in how miserable Persephone is down there and how much she misses her mother. Sure, if you want to take it as romantic, go ahead, but like... it's odd to me when there's other better love stories, like Orpheus and Eurydice, Aphrodite and Adonis, Iphis and Ianthe (Trans man x girl relationship, come on people!), Odysseus and Penelope, and so many others. Just lay Hades and Persephone to rest, i'm begging you

[@BookWyrmOnAString]

Eros and psyche!

[@Saphira-Seraphina]

So, I did Latin for a very long time and my final exam in school was actually about the rapture of Proserpina. Not to go against your comment because I agree with a lot of points - especially the mentality of "oh I want to do it more acCurAtE tO tHe oRigINaL mYtH" irrcs me the fuck out. But I'd still say people should do their own thing with ancient mythology because this is what this was always used for. Myths change a lot over time and get used for different symbolism in different periods. That said: although it wasn't for me as well, because it _is_ very very far off from the homer and Ovid adaptations of the myth and I did too much goddamn research on that one, "Lore Olympus" still has it's place to stand as an adaption because retelling myths to process a new world structure or to represent new thinks has a long history. What irritated me so much was the comments in the story stating that "this is how the story AcTuAlLy is" because??? Bro, y'all have never read other versions of this myth and it shows. Thinking there can be "True adaption" is wrong in and of itself. So yeah, people fundamentally not understanding what myths are and thinking that there is a single original story you can interpret right or wrong is also my personal ick

[@BlindStarLily]

@@BookWyrmOnAStringThank you! Eros and Psyche is my favorite Greek myth and I was heartbroken to not see it as an example in OP’s comment. I also like Dionysus and Ariadne, but given Dionysus is not the best guy in Greek Mythology... y e a h-

[@SuperHGB]

I read a fic (No shade, it's my favourite fic) where the main character gets injured, and the hospital doesn't have his kind of blood, and needs the blood from his love intrest. That hospital sucks if it doesn't have O-

[@Unluckydood]

Easy solution when you’re writing and make a mistake like this: just have the setting be a fantasy word and say “oh it’s a *magic* version of that thing”

[@SugarSpice07]

Shhh! Don't tell them my secret! Lol. I work in a fandom where logic really doesn't need to... work. Like. At all. And while I do a lot of research sometimes (you don't know how long I spent searching how desert animals work while trying to engineer a heat-resistant humanoid) if I'm not feeling it, I just shrug and go, "eh, it's [fandom], the rules of reality don't make much sense anyway."

[@squidnipendleton3765]

Whenever someone writes a fashion designer as a snooty, uptight, Devil Wears Prada-type with no artistic ability 😔 they dont know how weird we really are, and how most of us actually hate the spotlight and just want to sew silly clothes Edit: also, artists being completely inept yet savant-type genius. Like we haven't learned how to present our art or describe art verbally. That's the best part! We get to verbally vomit about the art !!!

[@eBic_Individual]

I got one, one character gave some astronavigational advice to another character, though if they were to follow the advice it’s make them do I giant 180 over a few hours

[@eBic_Individual]

The thing is I wasn’t even reading this thing voluntarily, I darn hate English class

[@catpartyfor1]

One time a fic mentioned that avian hybrids(it was a fantasy world) couldn’t eat meat. it made me so mad because no???? What about hawks, falcons, eagles and various other birds(even songbirds!) that are carnivorous??! Carnivorous bird erasure I tell you.

[@SugarSpice07]

Likely a reference to the Origins mod. Avians can't eat meat there, and I think the author must've been trying to be accurate. I think it's ridiculous there too though, so I agree

[@ihatehandleswtf]

This is so funny to me... like... beyond just birds of prey. Did they forget how many birds are insectivores??? Aquatic birds that eat fish and crustaceans and such?? How many scavenging/carrion birds there are? SO many birds are opportunistic omnivores. (My PARROT chews on bones and noms on hard boiled egg.) It's extra funny when you remember that birds come from the branch of dinosaurs who, quite famously, evolved to EAT MEAT.

[@catpartyfor1]

@@ihatehandleswtf exactly!

[@catpartyfor1]

@@SugarSpice07 h- how did you know this was about mcyt Fanfiction… 😅

[@ihatehandleswtf]

@@catpartyfor1 just looked it up. While I can't find consistent numbers, the general consensus is that truly herbivorous birds are actually quite the minority! The majority of birds are omnivores. It seems obvious when you think about it, but I think the mistake here stems from the whole "cutesy and harmless = herbivore" idea that most people have baked into their head about animals.

[@whilenya4714]

Software engineer in the making here, and I concur with 6:22. I've read programming be so grossly misrepresented so many times by even supposedly professional authors (Dan Brown you know what you did) that I'm numb to it at this point. I've given up.

[@TheGoldfishArmy]

Digital Fortress? Yeah, that one's pretty egregious.

[@cas2116]

a persona 3 fic where akihiko ‘sprinkled’ protein powder into his water and drank it straight away, no shaking or anything. absolute madman

[@paigeepler]

To be fair, I think my dad would do this.

[@Pinkstarclan]

I do that, I do not recommend it

[@abbycollins]

As a nerd myself, I get super mad when nerds are seen as stereotypical forum-loving complainers or annoying um actually guys. Or seeing fans in general being seen as an annoyance. Yeah, I am weird sometimes, I get it, but I am not insufferable and I feel like people should make a distinction about that.

[@cabinfever5730]

As someone whose mother is technically 100 pounds overweight, what you eat is not at all a 1 to 1 ratio to your weight. She barely eats ANYTHING, because of her chronic diarrhea. I am the same way, though I'm only 40-60 pounds overweight.

[@ettaetta439]

My mom is pretty much obese. She barely eats anything, but she's not losing weight because she doesn't exercise. Meanwhile I eat a ton, but I do tons of walking every day. It really depends on each person. I'd say that what you eat absolutely will affect your weight, but it's more like a 1-5 ratio. The other factors being deliberate exercise (working out in certain ways with the intention to lose weight), unconscious exercise (just walking your dog or biking to work), the foods you eat (how high in calories vs nutrients are they), and genetics (your metabolism, health defects). If that fanfic character was eating that amount every day but not exercising, and didn't have a strong metabolism or were on the older side, they'd be far more than 100 pounds overweight.

[@rustyjones7908]

Every time it's been tested, it's been found that people either lie about how much they eat, or if they submitted to observation every one loses weight.

[@cabinfever5730]

@@rustyjones7908 Source?

[@lemonace6695]

Most time a fanfic has a therapist. People just don't know how to write therapists and most of fanfic ones are very unprofessional, bad or at very least a bit quesionable.

[@Pinkstarclan]

as someone who has had a lengthy string of unprofessional, bad, and questionable therapists...they don't even write bad therapy correctly, lol

[@marionlieron2599]

I once read a fic taking place around the Viking era (so around the 8th or 9th century), and one person (Character A) gifted some parchment to another (Character B). Character B, who was a monk, proceeded to doodle on it with some coal and, after finishing his drawing, burned the parchment in the fire. Now, if you don't know, parchment is made out of animal skin, and it was VERY expensive to make. So much so that monks would scratch a thin layer off used parchment and write over the scratched text. And you want to tell me a MONK, whose job would have been to write books by hand, doodled on actual parchment and then burned it?? No. Absolutely not. Also, coal was not used to write on parchments, because again, it was animal skin. It didn't penetrate the parchment the way quills diped in ink did. Funniest part was that everyone praised the author for historical accuracy. Using old timey words doesn't make something historically accurate!

[@strawberrymochi118]

this one's really minor because I absolutely do not expect writers to learn a new language just for a plot point, but I've seen it a lot: When a fic has a non English speaking setting, like historical Japan or something, but its plot hinges on a piece of wordplay that only makes sense in English. For example, a misunderstanding based on words sounding the same, or a riddle solved because two very specific words have to rhyme.

[@Lil-gay-disaster]

YES THANK YOU

[@SilentProti]

There is a riddle in danganronpa 2 that's basically based on the characters and players being Japanese and not knowing an English word. Very wtf for us.

[@dreaddeadfox7098]

i used to have a special interest on service dogs, and at the same time was in a very popular fandom with quite a lot of service dog fics. i did not often find people who had truly researched service dogs, which is very sad because proper representation of disabled people (especially those with service dogs) is very important (also i may add that whenever the service dog was done wrong, the disorder was also often done wrong, but i’ve never been adept at disorders like i have been at service dogs - it’s just that when you’re researching service dogs so often, you learn quite a few things about the disorders they can be trained to help). the worst one i ever read, though, had this: 1) the service dog being wildly intelligent, almost human: this is a very common misconception. a service dog is a highly trained dog, not a human being trapped in a dog’s body (unless you’re writing something with that, which they weren’t). 2) the service dog randomly deciding to guide its handler straight into another person, because “she gets irritated when i don’t give her daily treats, haha lol”: i don’t think i have to explain why a service dog regularly choosing to guide its handler into whatever the fuck it wants would be grounds for retirement (there was also a scene where the dog guided him into a random room without being told to. it was the room he was going into, so it didn’t get brought up how the dog just randomly pulled him into it despite no command of “hey go in” ever being given) 3) the service dog growling at people in threat: service dogs are not legally permitted to be protection dogs, and this sort of reactivity to other people would’ve had this dog taken out of the program immediately. it was played off as “being protective” but service dogs are specifically not meant to be protective - if they’re in any way violent to the public, they can’t be a service dog legally. yes, even if the public is some random asshole character. and much more, but that’s all i remember because it’s been years since i read that fic. they did have some stupid stuff on blind people too though: 1) the blind character feeling another person’s face to see what they look like: a blind person has no use for what you look like. literally if you look online for like “how to write a blind character” like all of them will tell you that the trope of a blind character feeling another’s face to see what they look like is stupid because a blind person doesn’t have any sort of use for that 2) a fully, black-out-vision blind character using sunglasses: sunglasses are used by blind people to protect their remaining vision from uv rays (as not all blind people are “see nothing” blind). a person with no remaining vision at all really doesn’t have use for it? 3) a blind character having super human hearing: unless your character just has super human hearing, a blind person can’t hear somebody’s height and silent movements by the way the air was moving (yes, that happened). a blind person hears more than you because they’re focusing on their sense of sound more than their sense of sight, which non blind people rely on. they can’t hear molecular movements any more than you can. i actually left a comment on this fic way back when, trying to politely inform them that their representation was way off and if they wanted i was more than willing to aid. did the same on one other fic too, which had some but not as egregious representation mishaps. the first one didn’t reply, but rather commented on one of my own fics telling me that my writing style was garbage but they were willing to help me fix it (in a very obviously sarcastic way) and the second one was immediately receptive, actually going back and fixing the representation in previous chapters which i didn’t expect with the advice i gave, telling me that they would never want their readers to read a poor representation of disabled people. funnily enough, the first fic was made to educate people on disabled people with multiple scenes talking about how you shouldn’t pet service dogs and how not all blind people are fully blind (it was quite majorly piece on how blind people are just as capable as non blind people) and the second one was just a fic that had service dogs in it.

[@vampbitch02]

I'm into historical costuming and I get so pressed when they A. use corsets in the wrong time period and B. misrepresent what it would be like to wear a corset. for those of you who are interested in corsets; you should NOT be feeling pain while wearing a corset! you're probably lacing it too tight! loosen it up. and please break it in before you have an event you're going to where you will be in a corset for long hours. thank you.

[@iamawesome4026]

There was a episode of the goldbergs with Adam, Erica, and the other family where they tried to do Phantom of The Opera but they couldn’t because of the rights and tried to do a knock off version but that didn’t work.

[@Mr.Brothybear]

i remember that One

[@REDACTEDbox]

THE PHANTASM OF THE GYMNATORIUM

[@Pinkstarclan]

I'm an evolutionary biologist & I have a strong background in genetics. I have a friend who keeps sending me HTTYD worldbuilding docs etc intended for fanfics (often from non-mutual friends), partially to fact-check but partially to brag about how "realistic" they are. I always feel bad gently explaining how many fundamental misunderstandings of basic concepts act as the foundation for the entire thing, every time. (mind you, I encourage creativity and non-realism, but they're going for & asking me about realism, so I provide)

[@Rainok]

Mine is most portrayals of nerodivergency in most media. I was tested for autism and adhd and I find it hard to relate to most depictions of either. Granted I'm on the higher functioning end of the spectrum and I'm unsure if I have both or if there's more overlap between the symptoms than I thought, but I've been around others with autism and adhd and Media just can't get it right. It's mainly a single movie which has so many problems, but I have notice most Hollywood depictions of it describe it as a superpower instead of something people actually struggle with

[@tsifirakiehl4250]

Honestly, I think some of the best neurodivergent representation I’ve seen is from characters who weren’t intentionally written as neurodivergent. The characters from the farce “Noises Off” all feel like real neurodivergent people, even though that’s probably not what the writer intended.

[@breawycker]

​@@tsifirakiehl4250yeah some of my favorite neurodivergent characters the writers had no intention of making them neurodivergent. It just comes about when writing a socially awkward intelligent character. For me, Luz from Owl House, Wednesday from Netflix's Wednesday, and Marcy from Amphibia. Also Zuko from Avatar: the Last Airbender and Peridot from Steven Universe. For a life action show, when I was younger I'd used to watch Bones a lot with my family and Dr. Brennan is very clearly either coded as autistic or it's just writers of these kinds of murder mystery/police procedural shows always have a character who's super smart but socially awkward/obvious to social cues to play off the less intelligent but more street smart/socially confident character. That or people just think all intelligent people are autistic/socially awkward

[@juliaabreus]

Very much a pet peeve, but mixing up aphasia and apraxia. I had a subject basically all about that in the semester I read it, so I kept having to change it in my head. It was weird because the author apparently was a nurse, so everything else was pretty accurate I suppose, but there's a reason speech pathologists exist.

[@sileylav]

There was this one fic I read where a gluten free character couldn't come within a 10 foot radius of bread without having an anaphylactic reaction. I laugh a little every time I think of it

[@REDACTEDbox]

i mean some people with nut allergies are like that but i don’t know if i’ve ever heard of it with gluten (someone can correct me if i’m wrong)

[@sileylav]

@@REDACTEDbox I'm gluten intolerant! I don't have celiac or anything but gluten intolerance isn't a kind of allergy that can be airborne. It's only if you consume something.

[@altalt479]

​@@sileylav my bf has celiac and it's not fatal at least for him, he just gets a bad stomach ache and tells me to brush my teeth before kissing him if I eat bread 😂

[@keythealien]

I have lit the wrong end of my cigarette twice, which isn't a lot but--- also only one of those times was in the dark. I don't smoke anymore but that is laughably accurate if you, at least, have ADHD and are easily distracted by the sounds of the hamster wheel spinning in your head. Also, some of these are a bit 😬like don't even make sense in response to the topic. Tropes and stereotypes aren't necessarily "wrong" as they exist because of their frequency. Maybe less so these days but shy people can be florists. I'm a shy artist. Some of these answers are almost offensive in that sense. Like "I don't agree with this so it's wrong" kind of thing or "I didn't experience that so I want to ruin it for someone else." People care about these responses because it's input a writer can't normally get anymore now that no one will give criticism or help improve an author. Most people are just not worth listening to because they don't even know what they're talking about😤

[@miraculousmoonsanddragons]

Does all of My Immortal count? But also like, a lot of nobility fics in general? I don't even know much about nobility but I'm sure these guys know even less. The children of nobility would have busy schedules because they're learning how to do everything required of them. Unfortunately they are not gonna have much time to spend with the hot gardener

[@chaoticfroggo6852]

I love watching true crime and know a lot about murder and how disposing of a body works. I once read a fic and the MC was a serial killer and I lost my MIND at the rookie mistakes and just doing things that didnt make sense at all!!! If you wanna know, he: got blood on his carpet but "since its black no one will notice" (Does the author realize blood has a smell???); left phone call evidence making him the last known person to see him alive; leaving all sorts of DNA without covering it or cleaning it; not making any sort of alibi on it; and DONATING HIS COFFEE TABLE THAT HAD BLOOD ON IT BECAUSE HE "couldn't scrub it off"??!?!?! Anyways... I was in AWE at how this man wasn't caught sooner. Somehow, he miraculously got away with all of it and no one noticed.

[@miraculousmoonsanddragons]

I mean, that's kinda accurate to real life serial killers. They can get away with it for ages if they're charismatic white men because the cops tend to be incompetent

[@WooperSuper]

hey you know one of my favorite visual novels has a serial killer character, Patches. I mean, he's only technically a serial killer in certain endings but I think that counts. Also, all the characters are animals. Brownie is a corgi (also worth mentioning that she has a broken leg during this scene. She would easily be able to overpower Patches since Patches had a whole body swap thing with a really weak cat, but Brownie is poisoned and has a broken leg, so...), and Patches is a dalmatian, although he's swapped bodies with a White Siberian cat who is also his ex-boyfriend, named Angel! Yeah he killed Angel. Angel became a ghost and possessed his body. Yeah. Anyway, here's a not really silly scene: --- Brownie is hacking up blood into the sink. Brownie: Ughh. Patches: You should get that checked out. Brownie: !!! What did you do... What did you put in the cake? Patches: Your favorite thing! Chocolate! Brownie: !!! Brownie hacks up more blood. Brownie: C-COCO!! Patches: Hmm, did you want me to get Coco? I don't think there's much she can do for you. Ginger might be able to bring you back as a zombie... But, not if your body is damaged beyond repair. Patches takes Brownie's apron. Brownie: What... What are you doing? Patches: I can't go the rest of the school day with a stained shirt. Patches grabs Brownie's hair, And slams her head into the corner of the bathroom counter. She struggles, but is weakened from the chocolate. Patches: Jeez, if only I had a knife. He slams her head again and again. She coughs up more blood, and is growing even more faint. Patches: This is taking a while huh, Brownie? The novelty has definitely worn off. Let's change things up! Patches shoves Brownie into a bathroom stall and submerges her head in toilet water. After a few minutes she stops moving. Patches: Not the most graceful kill, but I'm glad I could make do! --- A lot of the characters have actually killed others before. COCO KILLED OVER 1000 DOGS TRYING TO KILL PATCHES [Patches killed Angel, Coco's younger brother, so Coco wants revenge.] Pls let me infodump pls pls pls

[@BookWyrmOnAString]

​@@WooperSupergo ahead and infodump! :)

[@REDACTEDbox]

that sounds like something you’d see on one of those shitty facebook marketplace memes “coffee table and rug set, weird smell, only slightly used”

[@chaoticfroggo6852]

@@REDACTEDboxLMAOO 😭

[@tehcodekid8421]

"How do so many people not know basic gun safety/ gun cleaning" Because not everyone is gunnut. I wouldn't be surprised if most of Europe (or at least Scandinavia) haven't ever so much as HELD a gun.

[@ettaetta439]

Yep. I'm fine with people talking about things that they're a nerd for that they hate when people get wrong, but when they say "how does everyone not know this" it's so annoying. It really betrays their lack of understanding about how education is not universal. Unless it's basic self safety tips that everyone SHOULD know and should be taught, especially ones regarding healthcare, they really shouldn't be surprised that not everyone knows their hobbies as intimately as they do. Yeah, it should be pretty obvious that guns can get hot after firing many bullets, but most people aren't going to put two and two together because most people don't think about guns in such a technical way or discuss them daily beyond politics (which doesn't require you to know anything about gun cleaning). Obviously it's possible to make the connection, but only if you're actively thinking bout it. And who's actively thinking about how guns work normally?

[@totalrevengeance3904]

lmao as a British person, the character I write most often is kinda a gun nut and I do literally everything in my power to avoid getting into details to stop myself looking like a fool. I do not have the energy to research firearms just for a throwaway line.

[@SilentProti]

In Finland, Norway or Switzerland they have quite a lot of guns. Not common in most of the Europe below the baltic sea, though.

[@JustAnotherRandomYoutuber]

@@totalrevengeance3904 Hey, If you ever need help with writing someone who is probably too obsessed with firearms, I can probably help. Also, I recommend MikeBurnFire. Hazard will teach you the ways of the boomstick

[@isidorskogberg03]

I’m a osteo-archaeologist (an archaeologist who specialises in bones) in training and let me tell you, I’ve never seen a single funeral pyre done properly in any media. Firstly you need a shit ton of wood to actually burn a body, and it’s not a one and done thing after you’ve lit it, someone has to watch and add more fuel as it burns for several hours. Secondly, bodies don’t stay still unless they’re weighed down. You know those bodies from Pompeii? When bodies are exposed to extreme heat they begin violently contracting and usually end up in a kind of dead bug pose with their legs pulled up under them and their arms raised in the air. And thirdly, a simple wood fire is not enough to reduce a body to ash. Even most modern crematoriums don’t burn hot enough for that, what you end up with after a pyre is a whole bunch of burned fragments of bone usually still very much recognisable. (In case you’re wondering the “ashes” you get from crematoriums are bones that have been ground to a powder.) There are a whole bunch more pertaining to fire and skeletons but this is my main one.

[@TheMischievousbull]

I once read a fic about my favourite character from this show and it had the character talking, a lot, and that character barely said anything vocally in the show, especially about himself. I'm pretty sure most of the dialogue was telling you his backstory

[@thedandylion1696]

Great Gatsby story where they cover the missing scene with the hydroplane. The author wrote it as a real plane; it's a boat.

[@venturerweegee64]

Something I can actually contribute to! So I was reading a fanfic based on a popular law video game series, but had a lot more supernatural elements. There was a chapter detailing how the main character had been horribly abused as a child, and their parents had found them as a 30-something year old in order to make their life hell. A sticking point in the ending was that nothing could be done due to the statute of limitations having already run out. Now to give the writer credit, they were not from the country where it’s set, but I am. Given the scene where this happened, there were still a lot of criminal charges and civil torts that could be levied against them that would completely change the state of affairs. I informed the writer of this (which is how I learned that they weren’t super familiar with this country’s laws), and those may get put into play or get considered for the future, so all’s well that ends well!

[@ihatehandleswtf]

Ace Attorney fan spotted 🫵

[@venturerweegee64]

@@ihatehandleswtf *fUCK*

[@AtarahDerek]

That florist one is just a summary of Isabela's character arc.