Experiences Things that bother me when people play teenage characters (Or write them!)

[FoolsErin]

-Overuse of acronyms. Nobody uses OMG in conversation anymore.

-Over peppy friend circle/best friend

-Adorable crush that MC and super evil popular kid are fighting over

-Evil popular kids

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general (Take this one with a grain of salt. I'm currently learning in a school district that is very good at handling this stuff, so I guess I'm not really used to seeing bullying beyond purposeful ignorance)


This isn't even half of it. I have so many problems with realistic fiction nowadays that I could rant on and on.

 

[adrian_]

The useless school staff thing is actually pretty realistic most places in the United States, up here in Saskatchewan it wasn't too bad, but it's hard for teachers too notice bullying.

 

[BackSet]

These annoy me too.

I also live in a school district that doesn't have a lot of bullies (there's a drug problem, though).

 

[Onmyoji]

To be fair, the things you mentioned about bullies like

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general

are all pretty realistic.

All of that can happen and it does happen a lot. No wonder these things became "cliché". People are familiar with them because many can observe that irl. And of course those themes are common in stories/movies/manga etc.

What actually does seem to be bothersome is romanticizing of bullies and maybe that's what you mean?

In reality there won't be good kids heroes that save your character from a bully. Or bullies that fall in love with a good girl and suddenly reform. (Well I don't deny it can't happen but it's not nearly as common as it happens in rp/writing).
Bullies exist and sometimes it's even more violent than the writers describe. And the victims of bullies get no help or get it too late.

 

[BackSet]

Honestly, I wish I went to a school that had bullies bexcause Inwould take them down! Hard!

 

[Ashfeather]

In my elementary school my friends got beaten bloody and staff did very little on a daily basis so that def happens. And I grew up in a rather nice and calm area as well.

On the other notes; at least these stereotypes accurately portray how many teenagers view their surroundings. Strict high school status quo and stereotypical personalities are kind of part of the whole "growing up and finding yourself" deal. It's a time when we learn how to label people, fit in or stick out, and all that stuff.

But these are all also reasons why I don't really RP teen characters anymore lol. I don't think it's unrealistic at all, quite the opposite, but it's not for me.

 

[Jules8008]

Yeah, the over-violent bully thing is pretty realistic. While I fortunately wasn't bullied (I had a pretty intimidating aura and reputation in school, whyever. Well, dunno, Anyway), my partner was in elementary school. Went from namecalling, to being hung on a coat in the girls bathroom with suspenders, he also got a pencil into his eye and the teacher (who was IN THE ROOM) totally ignored it. He recalls that she actually laughed it off and proceeded to ignore it. Literally. He had a pencil stuck in his eye and she ignored it.
Dunno if it counts as "over-violent" though. Mean, he could have went blind. well, went off-topic.

What I do hate is when someone in a roleplay, whose FC is beautiful as HELL, gets bullied for being ugly. Yeah, I know. Beauty is in the eye of the onlooker. But it feels so wrong. Also, falling in love with your bully. Ugh. when I see it I literally leave the roleplay as fast as possible.

 

[Corvin the Crow]

Yeah, the over-violent bully thing is pretty realistic. While I fortunately wasn't bullied (I had a pretty intimidating aura and reputation in school, whyever. Well, dunno, Anyway), my partner was in elementary school. Went from namecalling, to being hung on a coat in the girls bathroom with suspenders, he also got a pencil into his eye and the teacher (who was IN THE ROOM) totally ignored it. He recalls that she actually laughed it off and proceeded to ignore it. Literally. He had a pencil stuck in his eye and she ignored it.
Dunno if it counts as "over-violent" though. Mean, he could have went blind. well, went off-topic.

What I do hate is when someone in a roleplay, whose FC is beautiful as HELL, gets bullied for being ugly. Yeah, I know. Beauty is in the eye of the onlooker. But it feels so wrong. Also, falling in love with your bully. Ugh. when I see it I literally leave the roleplay as fast as possible.

Indeed, I have also found a lot of these "falling in love for the bully" material in recent comics and some amateur readings which concerns me a lot! How can someone fall in love with a person who likes to hurt you mentally and physically???

 

[Corvin the Crow]

-Overuse of acronyms. Nobody uses OMG in conversation anymore.

-Over peppy friend circle/best friend

-Adorable crush that MC and super evil popular kid are fighting over

-Evil popular kids

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general (Take this one with a grain of salt. I'm currently learning in a school district that is very good at handling this stuff, so I guess I'm not really used to seeing bullying beyond purposeful ignorance)


This isn't even half of it. I have so many problems with realistic fiction nowadays that I could rant on and on.

There are so many topics in the adolescence that could be explored..... like the fears of growing up, premature adult life or maybe the identidy crisis??

 

[Ashfeather]

Indeed, I have also found a lot of these "falling in love for the bully" material in recent comics and some amateur readings which concerns me a lot! How can someone fall in love with a person who likes to hurt you mentally and physically???

Well abusive relationships are a thing.

 

[FoolsErin]

Honestly you should take my opinions with an extreme grain of salt. I've never had to deal with "real" bullying (But I get in a few conflicts where I have mistakenly identified them as such), so I guess I've never seen it as realistic. But I also admit that I'm in Special Ed, and therefore had a lot of teacher attention when social things became an issue.

Actually, when I think about it, I've never really experienced the average joe's view of school.

That's... An uncomfortable thought.

 

[Umbrie]

speaking of bullies, i was harassed by the bullies for being the one girl in my class that had to sit on a copy of the pacific bell yellow pages to see the blackboard in addition to wearing glasses and sitting in the front row. but they didn't realize i was intentionally researching weaknesses and insecurities so that at the right moment, i could turn the popular students into bullying each other by removing logs from my bonfire to feed thier bonfires. which was a trick i learned in martial arts classes, while i lacked agility, lacked dexterity and lacked charisma, i had more than enough intelligence, wisdom, strength and constitution to be the happiest and biggest badass in the entire school. i hit with the force of a hammer, but i thought like a surgical scalpel. because of this, i ran the entire school from the shadows, and i could completely ruin any bully's popularity on a dime.

meant nobody made fun of me for being a short and petite girl who could pass for younger. "why's the 2nd grader in a 6th grade class?" "she is a 6th grader like the rest of you."

i offered to do tests and homework for my classmates in exchange for favors. like smuggling cans of soda, handing over free pokemon cards, or accepting oreos. i wasn't very liked. but i was the little kitten that ran a school filled with lions and panthers. i had leverage, bullies eventually started peeing themselves in fear around me not because of the way i looked or acted, but because i culd make them feel multiple school years worth of emottional trauma while still maintaing a childish smile or giggle and could theoretically put them in a cast using more than one method.

i was the baddest gun in the west. but i was the sheriff rather than the outlaw. i had an RPG club, i was a geek, i took several martial arts classes, and i had miimal time to do chores or make friends. but i was a Swole Little Autistic Genius Girl nobody wanted to mess with, and i proved how clever and scary an autistic elementary schooler could be. nobody messed with Little Lilly. Little Lilly had the most clever Disses that were always accurate.

 

[BioshockRP]

Honestly, my biggest gripe when RPing as a teenager character is the issue of puberty as well as its incorporation and distraction in roleplays. It just creates this dilemma for the cast acting as role models (if older) to the teenager in a confused state of identity as their body changes. Mainly it's the issue on hormones, and how it may detract from the story.

 

[Scriptwriter_Mika]

My aversion to rping anywhere in the teen years is that I've passed those years. I don't see the need to delve back into them. Also, the rps I've tended to see teenage characters in are just genres that I've grown incredibly bored of. I dislike high school/school rps in general. Sure, there are a lot of things you can explore when you're trying to get into the mindset of a teenager, but I dislike the chaos in those years. And for some reason, I dislike seeing that chaos translated into a post. Difficult for me to explain...just something I avoid.

 

[Umbrie]

teenage characters can be interesting in a not school based setting. a lot of Shonen Protagonists are Teenagers.

 

[MikaboshiEinst]

-Overuse of acronyms. Nobody uses OMG in conversation anymore.

-Over peppy friend circle/best friend

-Adorable crush that MC and super evil popular kid are fighting over

-Evil popular kids

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general (Take this one with a grain of salt. I'm currently learning in a school district that is very good at handling this stuff, so I guess I'm not really used to seeing bullying beyond purposeful ignorance)


This isn't even half of it. I have so many problems with realistic fiction nowadays that I could rant on and on.

......you just described the school life of the protagonist of popular Web series known as WORM
-the first one is not as prominent (Thank God)
-Lisa aka Tattletale
-Brian LaBorn
-Sophia Hess, Madison Clements and Emma Barnes
-Locker scene
-Mr.G er Mr. Gladly, Principal Blackwell
-shoving the Protagonist in a Locker filled with trash, used napkins and Tampons
-the Trio as stated above and an extwnsive bullying campaign for a year

 

[FlyingDemon]

-Overuse of acronyms. Nobody uses OMG in conversation anymore.

-Over peppy friend circle/best friend

-Adorable crush that MC and super evil popular kid are fighting over

-Evil popular kids

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general (Take this one with a grain of salt. I'm currently learning in a school district that is very good at handling this stuff, so I guess I'm not really used to seeing bullying beyond purposeful ignorance)


This isn't even half of it. I have so many problems with realistic fiction nowadays that I could rant on and on.

The useless staff isn't really un-realistic, believe me, you can find them in some places/or countries.

What is annoying, is how much teens are associated to anything romantic, and high-school in general.

 

[The Mad Queen]

Indeed, I have also found a lot of these "falling in love for the bully" material in recent comics and some amateur readings which concerns me a lot! How can someone fall in love with a person who likes to hurt you mentally and physically???

Stockholm syndrome?

 

[Tove]

Probably the fact of teenagers in roleplays having one so called life experience but afterwards they know everything about the world

 

[cry baby]

I'm actually really glad so many people stepped in here with the same thoughts I did. None of these things are unrealistic in the slightest. I was the victim of very strong bullying in school and can tell you the best my teachers did was tell me and the person bullying me to "hug it out" and force us to hug. Know what it's like being forced to hug the person who made you go home crying every day until you had to transfer schools? It doesn't solve the issues. Yes, bullying is a realistic thing and yes, they are as "dramatic" as they must seem to you.

 

[FoolsErin]

I think I need to rethink how insensitive I am.

 

[Saccharine Cyanide]

At my school, the popular kids weren't mean or bullies at all - they had really good social skills, hence why they made so many friends. It was the same in middle school.

I dunno, is that unusual?

 

[Onmyoji]

It is not unusual but there are 7.6 billion people in the world. Things like that are bound to happen somewhere.

 

[Coco Adel]

-Overuse of acronyms. Nobody uses OMG in conversation anymore.

-Over peppy friend circle/best friend

-Adorable crush that MC and super evil popular kid are fighting over

-Evil popular kids

-Popular kids that bully and get away with it

-Useless school staff that believe everything the bullies say

-Over-violent bullying that everyone is just okay with

-Bullies in general (Take this one with a grain of salt. I'm currently learning in a school district that is very good at handling this stuff, so I guess I'm not really used to seeing bullying beyond purposeful ignorance)


This isn't even half of it. I have so many problems with realistic fiction nowadays that I could rant on and on.

I get some are annoying but they're kind of realistic in some cases. The useless school staff is all too real I remember when kids would be getting bullied right in front of the teacher and the teacher wouldn't do anything and punish the victim if they dared to try and tell them about what was clearly going on in front of their faces or only step in once the victim stood up for themselves and then again...punish the victim. Also the popular kids were usually the bullies so yeah the teachers let them get away with it.

 

[rae2nerdy]

I think I need to rethink how insensitive I am.

I wouldn't say insensitive just sort of sheltered and possibly missing the point. A high school roleplay isn't about doing an autobiographical recreation of any one person's lived experience in high school. No more than a military roleplay is a point for point recreation of being a soldier. Or a road trip roleplay is a point for point recreation of going on a trip.

I mean just because a roleplay is "realistic" doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a point for point recreation of an individual lived experience. It's more about crafting a interesting and entertaining story. So if that means embellishing things than that's fine. The point isn't to be realistic it's to be entertaining.

Now that being the case high school roleplays aren't everyone's cup of tea. And they can be tricky to navigate in a way that keeps the embellishments and manufactured drama from becoming too overbearing. So just not liking the fact that everything seems to be hyper designed to create drama is totally valid and something a lot of people would probably agree with.