2026 snowflake challenge #6 & #9

[rukario]

oops! all numbered lists!

Challenge #6: Top 10 Challenge

mid last year i started logging the songs i had on repeat every month, so here are my top 5 (taking into consideration actual playback time, but also how much i like them)

1. "it's you" (stevie wonder & dionne warwick) - the CHOKEHOLD this song continues to have on me must be studied in a lab. "i just called to say i love you" is a fine song and it's the most popular single off the woman in red soundtrack for the reason, but "it's you" is just so romantic to me. which makes it more baffling to me that it comes from a soundtrack to a movie about attempting to do an infidelity but that's neither here nor there
2. "big vibe" (seaway) - i'm heartbroken that i will probably never hear this live seeing as they are pretty much disbanded. it's an earnest "this is a cool girl and i adore her" song, i can even excuse rhyming "shit" with "shit."
3. "enchanted" (taylor swift) - i run the gamut of "uninterested" to "actively hostile" when it comes to taylor swift as a person, but i have a soft spot for her older work. there's just something about the "please don't be in love with someone else" lyric that speaks to my soul, i could see it as great material for fic too.
4. "flash forward" (le sserafim) - 2025 was the year i "got" le sserafim, thanks to spaghetti. i love their club bangers but as always i love k-pop b-sides that just sound like this.
5. "earthquake" (knuckle puck) - unpopular opinion but i prefer knuckle puck's more "chill" stuff as opposed to the angst they are known for (copacetic, etc.). i feel as though thematically this song is in the same vein as "big vibe." love the guitars on this one!

Challenge #9: Favorite Tropes - Talk about your favorite tropes in media or transformative works.

1. fix-it fics - i have respect for fix-it fics on principle because is that not why writing is so wonderful? to take what you consider a bad outcome and taking it upon yourself to set it right? i enjoy knowing that anything is possible.
2. groveling - i'm going to be real you guys, sometimes i seek out romance fiction with male leads i know i'm going to despise just to see if it has a good grovel. then i pretend it ends there so the protagonist doesn't take him back.
3. loving bully - i've written about how much i like this trope before in a previous snowflake challenge, and i will reiterate that there is a very fine line delineating when this trope is cute and when this trope becomes repulsive to me. i once picked up a romance novel with this as its central trope and i hated every minute of it because i was expecting the bullying/teasing to be light-hearted and clearly the product of immaturity (upon further reflection it's when this trope is crossed with that of the tsundere that i enjoy it most), not for the male lead to be an irredeemable prick.