You can. From experience. Sorry for the TMI 
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But if they donāt include them, thatās a problem too?
See, I myself am struggling with this in one of my stories. You want to make a story that takes place in, say, Eastern Europe. Where there are little to no people of color. If itās not realistic to have every 3rd or 5th background character as a poc, what do you do?
Seeā¦ You have to include the poc best friend just so no one complains about not having poc characters. But you donāt know what to do with that character, because it shouldnāt be there at all in the first place.
I found myself with this problem and always started thinking that todayās stories can only take place in the richer countries, where it would be normal to include people of color.
Now Iāll shut up bc I replied to other comments too lol.
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Yh I hate it when a man is possessive of her or she has an li not everything Is about romance
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How? Iāve never actually seen it. But itāll still be an Episode pet peeve of mine, unfortunately.
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Eww. I never really understood that either.
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Iām not really the best one to ask about this, but you do make a valid point about an issue I have also struggled with.
A little bit ago, I read an article about writing diverse characters that I thought was extremely informative and made me think differently about how I included diversity in my story. Iād definitely recommend checking it out if you have the time (Iād say itās about a 10 minute read)
I think the most important takeaway from the article is that it is important to include otherās perspectives, but not as a token gesture. People in minority groups are more than just their marginalized identities and writers should take the time to properly include diversity in their stories.
Iām sorry if this didnāt answer your question 
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Yk, tbh I donāt really care if itās a bad story or not. I mean, you have to think that some people might just write because itās fun for them. So they might be like, āMy story is going nowhere, well, I donāt care this is fun!ā Same for spelling/grammar.
But I just hate it when writers - especially bigger ones as well- just put in terrible/romanticized things that they just brush off into a story. Like, I hate it when the MC is constantly criticizing those around her. Like slut shaming or just anything of that nature to say that she is somehow ādifferentā or ābetterā than them.
Similarily, I donāt like it when writers write the mean girl as just the mean girl. I think itās kinda toxic to think that people are just mean for absolutely no reason. I mean, you canāt really justify bullying but like there are some real life situations that influence a personās actions. There was a girl at my old school who was a huge bully and then I was recently informed that she had a terrible home life. Yeah, it doesnāt justify what she did but everyone around her wasnāt exactly treating her nicely back as well.
So thatās just something to think about.
And a toxic/controlling LI. Literally, read one story where the LI straight up shot this dude for looking at MC/dancing with her- like, she consented to that! and yeah there were no consequences whatsoever.
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Love this topic!! Iām in the process of writing my own story and I couldnāt be more happy to see others share the same pov as me! Keep it coming people!!.. also I read a story recently that I believe is perfect! I hope this is allowed, if not pls lmk!
-Times Square, by Janine Dela Cruzā¦
IMO, she uses great directing, really demonstrates great sideline stories as well as there is no mafia related, which is what I kind of needed. A break from the mafia scene. Not sh*tting on mafia stories but damn did I love learning about the militaryā¦ it was a wonderful change for me.
One last thing, I LOVE business stories where the MC is independent, strong and men are literally in fear of herā¦ Thanks for reading 
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I totally get this!!
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Thereās also the important topic of sexual assault here as well, guys get assaulted as well.
And omg Iāve seen this happen sooo many times in mafia stories! Or stories where there is some sort of spoiled rich girl or something. The MC is so annoying and whiny and simultaneously the most perfect/innocent person there is. And the LI is always the person that can read the MCās mind or something! And then other significant others are criticized for not doing that.
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Well, I donāt really know how can you explain this 
Itās just possible to talk while kissing. Maybe one day youāll do it or try it out or idk, call it whatever you want. Although Iām not telling you this in order to convince you to take it off your pet peeve list, just as a fun fact.
But, then again, havenāt you seen characters in movies, when thereās a passionate and wild kissing scene that theyāre talking while kissing? Or talking in-between kisses, without pulling their heads away from one another? I think thatās what the authors are trying to showcase when they put dialogue into kissing scenes.
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I wanted to include that as well, yes, but I figured Iād really get a lot of hate if I said that, because some people tend to ignore that completely, in that wild feminism theyāre practising, where nothing else matters but the women and their traumas and male traumas are completely shat on and invalidated, becauseā¦well, because theyāre MEN 
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I agree with all of this 100%!
My pet peeves are also bringing other women down (usually the ones that also want the LI) and making them look bitchy/stupid/dumb! Like you donāt have to bring others down to make your character seem more likeable!
Also cliches like losing your memory and getting it back with the help of LI, or falling/getting in some dangerous situation and LI is ALWAYS there to catch/protect you.
Another one is that the guy always has to be sooo much taller then the MC, and is usually very confident, funny, intelligent etc. but the girl is usually shy, uncomfortable, insecure and acts completely uninterested and even with so little conversation/interaction between them she somehow still manages to sweep him off his feet and LI becomes infatuated by her. Like in real life he would just move on, no guy would fanasize about a girl who didnāt even want to talk to him, especially after just one brief conversation!
The biggest one for me is probably portray of the toxic relationships, for example overcontrolling partner or a partner who punches every single person that comes to speak with their significant other (out of pute jealousy!) and itās still somehow pictured as ācuteā and ādesirableā under the excuse that he is only āprotectiveā over her 
Or something even more dangerous, promoting Stockholm syndrome as something good and healthy like even if a person forms some kind of relationship with his/hers kidnapper there is no way in h*ll that this kind of relationship is healthy and it shouldnāt be portrayed as such!
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Yeah I totally agree with things said on this thread
keep it going!
PET PEEVES:
- No range of characters and diversity AT ALL, every other character seems to have a generic sad backstory never exploredš
- Taking too long to acc show some life in the characters and throwing around plot points
- MC and LI are grown ass ppl with no self control whatsoever and hook up every 10 mins
- Characters going through some type of trauma and never reflecting on it or rather it never seems to affect the others around them
You see, I have a small dilemma with this whole ādiversityā thing, as in, I personally love seeing stories with so many backgrounds and Iām implementing that into my first story Iām considering writing.
ālike I wanna be able to show different viewpoints and beliefs of characters but itās not as if they will all be in the main cast because thatās a lot of main characters and backstories right? I wanna be able to put a variety of people including Muslims in my story but she just wonāt happen to be āthe main castā per say (due to the nature and focus of the storyline) but will *still have an actual life and personality.
āI just Donāt want it to be viewed as āooh diversity cardā simply because the main cast may not have every single individual possible.
I think if authors want to focus the community/plot on the diversity they need to actually give them some type of LIFE rather than (childhood friend helps them [oh btw sheās Muslim!] and then continue, no importance) u understand?
Anyways what are your thoughts on this?
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U know when the li gets mad at the mc and she like doesnāt care or she like brushes it off or agrees or tryās to like sympathies wid him gets in my nerves I wish she could just swear at him also when they act like ur the problem and then just say I love u and pin u to the wall that makes my blood boil
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- Toxic romantic relationships
- When the love interest is a bad boy (the bad boy trope has got to end)
- Love triangles
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This is something that Iām also struggling with. Iām currently writing a story that takes place in Germany in the 1920s. It would not be realistic to show many POC (or with a different kind of diversity) background characters. Most of them were white at the time. Of course, there are also POCs that can also be German, but in the 20s, it was rare. I wish people think more about diversity in different countries and periods, instead of expecting the same diversity in every country. But since we know how the episode community can be, I added full CC (for the German MC) and unrealistic diverse background characters so that I donāt get attacked for poor diversity. Otherwise, Iām āracistā.
For example, The diversity in Russia looks completely different from the diversity in the United States. You would see more white and Asian people than Black people. Iām not saying that Black people donāt exist in Russia. Itās just not that often.
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Same. In Romania, even today arenāt many black people. I barely see any lol. Only in big cities that are famous for their universities. And thatās exactly the thing: the people of color you see in the country are here for affordable education, not because they were born and raised here. And most probably they wonāt stay in the country after graduating. I hate it that people are ignorant and think everywhere is like in the Americas If I want to depict the verosimile time and period, then let me, donāt force your expectations on the author.
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I donāt understand the need for diversity in every storyā¦ Sure representation is nice but sometimes itās isnāt possible to include it or else it feels forced. And for me, forced diversity is worse than no diversity . Did some people geniunely āattackedā you for not including ādiverseā character in your story?? Did they even try to learn about history outside of the US?? Your story being set in the 20ā Germany is it self a way to show diversity in term of culture and era
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Definitely:
. Stories that romanticise the mafia
. Stories with not very good plots or donāt make sense.
. Stories that promote racism or homophobia
. Stories that donāt have a unique plot.
. Stories that make the mc annoying and rude.
. Stories with bad coding.
. Stories that promote toxicity in relationships.
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