Things You Want LESS Of In Books

I like to mess around with symbolism and such.
One of my main characters has a fiery personality, but the color she wears is blue.
Her sister is still fierce, but more of a behind-your-back type than in-your-face. Her color is red.
It's really fun!

Fashion.
I'm not sure if they'll get magic or not, they might later on but they don't have any right now.

Yes!!! I gave my antagonist a red and gold color scheme which is more frequently associated with royalty and the “good guys.”
Then my protagonist has a black and dark purple color scheme, and honestly dresses more like a stereotypical villain.

My villains include (in all different stories)

• A fairly young royal woman who Stalin-style executed everyone in her court after her parent's deaths (she may have orchestrated her parent's deaths as well, still working out that one) including her 11 year old brother at least she thinks she killed him and replacing them with people around her age instead. She's insecure and paranoid about everyone, so she attempts to control everyone around her with varying degrees of success.
• A 21 year old sadist who wants to climb as high as possible in an anarchy, and is part of an organized crime group. She's unhinged and tends to manipulate people into doing what she wants, and the second she's done with someone, she takes them out either on her own or by hiring someone to. Also she basically manipulates her younger brother into committing murder, and shatters one of his hands in their final showdown, along with giving him a glasgow grin.
• A basically pirate woman who stormed the castle and assassinated the king because she felt that he was pouring efforts and money into the wrong things. She has a group of pirates and other soldiers who are exceptionally loyal to her.
• A wealthy businessman who has a disturbing fascination with the possibility of world domination. He's controlling and not above straight-up beating the information out of people.
• A fae who possesses and manipulates human women into joining him so he can have an heir. He usually kills or severely injures them and then brings them back as fae. He's also a sociopath and an overdramatic bastard.

Can we STOP with the adults telling kids that they need to change when the kid was doing the right thing

This happens everywhere also irl but what made me think of it again is the movie I'm watching with my family right now. The boy who would have been king? I don't know exactly. Also The Secret Series and just every book ever with young children protags

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Unintentional shriek YES I STILL LOVE IT BUT I'M PROBABLY TOO OLD its fine

Wait there's other people who've read the Secret Series???? That's my best friend's favorite series!

Unintentional shriek YES I STILL LOVE IT BUT I'M PROBABLY TOO OLD its fine

Are you referring to ASOUE? If so, then yes. I love it too and am also probably too old.

No, it's a different series but with a semi-similar feel/premise.
If you enjoy ASOUE you'd probably also like the Secret Series!

I'd like to see less of the sloppily done 'Chosen One' trope.

I want less of the "One person saves the day" trope

I like to play with the 'one person vs the world' trope.
One of my characters thinks he's the only one who can save everyone, and it will likely result in his death, or at least a very bad injury.

• Meg has had 2 love interests prior to the story and isn't viewed as a 'slut' for it
• When Lucas finds out his heritage, he's rightfully pissed off and upset at his father for forcing him to spend 17 years in the care of an abusive woman.
• Same with Iam, he's conflicted about how he doesn't find it morally right to be upset with his mom because she's dead, but still resents that she never told him that he wasn't fae.
• Ansel is only 12, and is traumatized by the war he fights in. After the first battle, he starts crying and breaks down in the arms of his mentor figure
• Therese and Nich, Leah and Stephen, Fern and Asher, Esther and Cedar, Jackson and Geneva, and Giana and Lucas all have strictly platonic relationships, because meeting a person doesn't mean you have to want to be with them romantically
• Oleander is dramatic, pretentious, and generally irritating and sleazy, and viewed like most people view that one really racist and homophobic family member they only see at Thanksgiving in a 'well, I have to see him, but then I won't need to be around him for a while'
• Lysander, an average size/slightly petite 16 year old, is an eager and intelligent farmboy turned royal guard, and duels a guy 6 years older than him and twice his size. He gets the everloving crap beaten out of him, breaking several ribs and getting fairly deep cuts across his body
• Huxley sees his father's execution, and has PTSD from it 10 years later, because trauma doesn't disappear. Even after he falls for Fern, he still doesn't magically heal from his trauma.
• Oliver is still pretty messed up from, y'know, seeing his fiancee arrested and executed for treason as he was forced to watch, and generally has a lot of issues that he tries to solve via showing no emotions and drinking too much. He's forced into a leadership role he's not nearly as prepared for as he should be, and in the current draft dies a fairly painful death at age 24.
• Giana wishes that she hadn't been forced to let Vivian risk her life throughout her teenage years, but also knows that she had to or her and Ophelia would have died. Instead of just dismissing that, she struggles a lot internally about the role she played/plays in the lives of her sisters.