What’s a trope you thought you didn’t care about until you wrote/read the right version of it?
thanks for including me in your ask-a-thon :) definitely have a fair few. may not be recalling the first ones here, but memorable ones i enjoy are below. and as always, blanket recommendation for anything by the below authors, and feel free to add ones you like!
character x OC - this is back from my overwatch days, but Halcyon Days by @pentacass is an absolute masterpiece. Ana Amari and OFC, from pre-Omnic crisis to post canon.
age gap - really recent for me in Destiel. wear the hat by @vicsankles, your The Middle of course. prior and years ago, Overwatch had some great opportunities: Rode Hard, Put Away Wet by @xekstrin, i think Götze by silkinsilence or something other Anamercy was my start.
murder - The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by @akaalaisabel gripped me all last summer. it's the closest i can probably get to murder husbands because dark/killer characters aren't my thing. their fic Incentive would probably fall into both this and previous too.
time travel - psalm 40:2 by unicornpoe and Crazy Diamonds by @pantheonofdiscord. i'm generally not huge on time travel in any medium besides doctor who, but these are phenomenal.
omegaverse - common thing for folks i see ha. i've come to love non-traditional a/b/o due to tiamatv (example fic Phalaenopsis). The Courtship of Combat by @bendingsignpost is also great.
wing fic - generally just not into anything with wings, but @northern-sparrow of course has amazing fics (You Can Keep Holding On may be my favorite and was my first, but i also love Under the Midnight Sun). dream in color by @sharkfish is the other i enjoy.
canonverse - so i near-exclusively read AU, specifically from @destiel-au, for at least the first two years of being into destiel. i still prefer AUs for most fic regardless of fandom. but there are some absolutely wonderful canonverse ones here. until the end and after by Philyra912, Assimilation by @sann-dh, take that history and other codas by @vaudelin
and as a bonus, there are tropes i absolutely love but am very particular about/rarely find fics i love in:
sports - For All You Young Hockey Players Out There, Pay Attention by @thursdaysfallenangel is possibly my all-time favorite due to when i found it/how much it's meant to me for over a decade, Playing Hard to Get by @salamitsunami1 i absolutely love how they build dean, cas, and dean+cas in every one of their stories and the art by @witchy-worm is gorgeous as always. Deep Edge by @akaalaisabel is an annual reread now, break the ice by @puppycastiel a fun and sweet oneshot.
medical - Apheresis by @bendingsignpost, for me no one does it better than @salamitsunami1 (most recent obsession was Heated Medicine which i forgot was HR inspired until the second chapter, just because i was so invested already), muscle ache by @gracefreakdean, What I Need by Jacqueline Albright-Beckett (xaandria).
academia and/or college - Chili Peppers by @justanothersong is another fic i have loved for more than 10 years, professor Dean and professor Cas.
homeless and/or sex worker are the ones i'm the most particular about due to my life. do enjoy Twenty Dollars and A Winter's Tale by @northern-sparrow, Four Letter Word for Intercourse by @bendingsignpost, midnight cowboy by @gracefreakdean, like moses and batman and james dean by saltyfeathers, And This, Your Living Kiss by opal_bullets may be my modern favorite fic.