#Types of Generic Conventions

[creampuffqueen]

i say this with all my heart, from one person who cares about animal welfare to hopefully many others:

please take the term “factory farm” out of your vocabulary when discussing animal welfare

talking about the welfare of livestock and livestock production is incredibly important! all animals deserve to have the best welfare possible, regardless of if they’re going to end up on a plate or not

but the term “factory farm” does not actually discuss animal welfare in the way so many people seem to assume it does

for starters, “factory farm” is not an actual industry term. it doesn’t actually mean anything, because what constitutes a factory farm is completely subjective. you will never see the phrase “factory farm” in any kind of published research or official article because, again, it doesn’t mean anything

sure, the phrase definitely has connotations. and the connotation is the issue here. people use the term “factory farm” as a shorthand for… well, typically, “farming practice i don’t understand but think looks bad”

the term isn’t something neutral. it is specifically designed to create a negative image when you hear it. someone says “factory farm” and most people imagine large amounts of animals kept in bad condition

the key here: large amounts of animals

the size of a farm does not dictate the welfare of the animals on it. there are plenty of large farms with hundreds, thousands of animals that take stellar care of their livestock. there are small farms with only a couple animals that live horrible lives

the size of a farm is not the issue when it comes to animal welfare, but rather the practices used on the farm. sometimes they do go hand in hand, yes. there are some practices that are only necessary because of the amount of animals present

but say that

there are other terms that are actually industry terms that work better for these scenarios. try “conventional farming” “industrialized farming” “commercialized farming”. these actually have meanings that you can then jump off of into talking about animal welfare practices on these farms

“factory farming” is just a term used to paint farming in an entirely negative light, when what actually makes a farm have good or bad welfare depends on so many other things

[gatespage]

Gates McFadden’s biggest (and tiniest) fan.

Starfleet Ball 8 (2002)

+ bonus wine mom gates

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

Rosamund Pike is maybe one of the most beautiful women who has ever lived

She was beautiful as a young woman, and she is still a lovely woman now in middle age

Remarkable

[hopelesslyprosaic]

I enjoy this but also- "conventionally attractive" is a kind of meaningless term. I agree that it's weird to imagine Holmes looking like Henry Cavill, but there's a difference between that and weird-looking. Though- have people SEEN Jeremy Brett in My Fair Lady (or Rebecca, where he is marred only by that stupid mustache)? That dude was definitionally "conventionally attractive." The kind of attractive that he was just happens to go well with descriptions of Holmes in canon, and a lot of it came down to makeup and costuming.

As in, Holmes has some distinctive facial features mentioned in canon, but there's nothing that says that he isn't also attractive in whatever that very distinctive way is. (I'd also add that I've seen some tags mentioning Holmes needing to be super-thin, which is admittedly canonical, and this was a notion that really hurt Jeremy Brett when he was in the later years playing the character- he had a lot of water retention due to health problems/medications and literally apologized to fans for not being the thin Holmes that they expected, which is kind of heartbreaking.)

Lord Peter Wimsey is described early (as is noted) and often as odd-looking, but not unattractive per se- lots of people critical of the Wimsey-Vane relationship will talk about Sayers de-uglifying him by Gaudy Night, such as by making him taller and more attractive to women, but that doesn't really follow from the books because a) Wimsey is established as a respectable-if-not-tall-per-se 5'9" as of Clouds of Witness and b) in Gaudy Night Wimsey is seen through the eyes of Harriet... who loves him, even if she won't admit it. Sayers is very willing to write in the Vane Quadrilogy exactly what it is that Harriet finds attractive physically about Peter- in a way that, incidentally, she doesn't really have Peter do about Harriet. Of course, the person who plays Wimsey should be able to be interesting-looking as he's described in canon, but if they erred on the side of better-looking I don't think it would be the worst thing in the world, especially with hair and makeup. It's not about how good-looking the actor naturally is, but how their look is designed for the screen.

Now Poirot... yeah, he needs to look dorky, there's no two ways about it. He needs to look like someone whom only Vera Rossakoff could, well, I won't say love- let's say find endearing.

if there's one thing about classic literary detectives it's that they are not conventionally attractive. doyle told sidney paget to stop drawing holmes so pretty. christie was like "let me introduce you to this short pudgy balding man who is retirement age and i hate him." sayers compares wimsey to maggots on literally the FIRST PAGE

i love it. i love them. stop casting hot people in these roles. we need our detectives to be Charmingly Weird-Looking

[tvmblrsillyman]

Cold take but I hate how much ai art has plagued the picmix community. The way ppl are incorporating generated collages that is made to be bland and palatable for the masses on their gifs only hinder the final result of the piece

[zinesbycee]

I'm reading a book named "A Guide to The Correction of Young Gentlemen Or, The Successful Administration Of Physical Discipline To Males, By Females" - essentially, a fantasy femdom BDSM book, written in 1924 by Alice Kerr-Sutherland but first published in 1991.

It has some genuinely fascinating stuff to say about gender, and I feel like it's worth looking at/thinking about in the context of Historical Gender Stuff. This 100 year old book has the following to say:

"The truth is that some young gentlemen would rather they had been born young ladies: they cannot admit this openly, because in the male world to confess as much would lead to instant ostracism if not worse; but they cannot conceal it either, and by preferring the company of girls, and soft, feminine clothing, and by flinching during the rough pursuits to which all boys, willing or no, are occasionally heirs, they attract opprobrium."

"Such boys weep too readily for their fellows' tastes - weeping is a great crime among boys unless it is generally admitted that circumstances left little choice - and are hounded for that reason."

"Just as there are girls who had rather been boys - we all know examples of the type - there are boys who, in a kinder world, would have been born into the gender more suited to their dispositions."

"Many young people of this sort are riven with a guilt they do not deserve but have been forced, by the conventions of society, to adopt; they are confused, ashamed and thoroughly unhappy."

"The ideal thing to do would be to treat these cases on their merits, send them to girls' schools, and so on. (The same thing should happen with those girls who would rather be young gentlemen.) Boys of this sort are girls in any case-in all respects save one."

"Most subjects of this sort have a secret name - a girl's name."

[chaosvanquished]

One really weird thing I encounter more and more is the Netflixifaction or something of media. I'll see a recommendation and the comments will be flooded with "where can I watch this ?!" as if it's a given that every piece of media is a 2 season show available for streaming. And often the rec just refers to a book or manga or web comic or even to a fucking prose woven in a tapestry or something.

[astrow1zar6]

Astro Observations~ 46

Mars conjunct venus individuals can easily swing from being the sexiest in the room to their most obnoxious.

Uranus square Venus natives are so confused romantically lol. I’ve seen their relationships be very on & off cuz one minute they are in love the next they feel nothing & are detached. Their feelings for you go from hot to cold. If you value stability in your relationships these are not the people for you lol.

A lot of people with Mars square Venus in their natal can be big cheaters. In my observation I notice it’s difficult for them to be loyal or only mess with one person.

Moon in Scorpio men are super prideful. They’ll lose you before they come off as vulnerable or “weak” to someone. They act like they don’t have feelings but will lose their shit if you actually leave😂 I also notice they are usually super monogamous. Even if they act like they don’t like you if they see you flirting with someone else all hell will break loose ��� they do not play about that. Deep down they can need as much attention as a Leo moon they’re just more embarrassed to ask for attention.

Taurus mars men usually prefer a conventional type of partner. They can go for a more housewife type of woman.

Mars/Venus in Libras do not know what to do with themselves when they are single. They can be big serial daters.

Moon in Libras i notice tend to have flatter faces.

Heavy Venus in the chart can give the native big anime/doe eyes. Also they have the BEST smiles everrrr💕

Cancer moons tend to take longer to move out of their parent’s house than most I notice. They will live with their parents till they’re like 30 I swear😭.

Aries moons are super outgoing but I notice they enjoy being alone & doing things alone rather than with others. They are super independent.

Capricorn moons tend to have a harder time in their romantic relationships. It’s harder for them to show affection openly which can make their partners think they aren’t that into them.

Mars in Geminis are always on the go. If ADHD was a placement it would be mars in Gemini. They need constant mental stimulation or they can get very depressed & self destructive. They are more likely to have multiple jobs/hobbies. It’s super hard to link with these people cuz they stay busy. Be careful not to neglect important relationships because of your restlessness.

Jupiter trine ascendant gives the native a very healthy strong body.

Venus conjunct ascendant in the first house are obsessed with their appearance. Sometimes to their detriment. Gives an amazing body shape usually.

Gemini Venuses love getting their nails done. Anything that draws attention to their hands such as rings, finger tats, acrylics ect.

The most annoying underdeveloped moon sign imo is Leo. These people can be so childish when immature.

Mars in the 3rd house people usually get in trouble for speeding. Driving fast calms them down a lot.

Mars in the 8th house I read somewhere can give a very painful death ( not to scare any of you guys😭).

Uranus in the 12th house people hide their quirks to fit in usually. They have really original eccentric personalities deep down yet most are forced to act basic.

Sun in the 1st house people can become big narcissists when insecure.

Saturn in the 7th house people could’ve been used to others calling them a “buzz kill” or “too serious”. They also tend to find humor in bullying? Like mean people are hilarious to them. I think that’s a big Saturn thing in general they love “mean humor”.

Saturn in the 5th house people could’ve been judged heavily for expressing their personalities. Usually these people are super talented but it was usually shut down by others from a young age due to jealousy. This is why they can grow up being very robotic. They are also very awkward when it comes to crushes and love until much older. Could be the last one in their friend group to get married/lose their virginity.

Moon in the 7th house people tend to marry pretty early.

A lot of people on the autism spectrum have heavy Aquarius in their chart. ESPECIALLY moon in Aquarius.

Having a grand square in your natal chart can be SOOO exhausting! You are constantly being forced to evolve and grow. This gives an opposite effect from the grand trine. With the grand trine things flow to them naturally & talents come very naturally but they can be very lazy with it. However grand squares usually have to work extra hard to achieve success, nothing comes easy for them unfortunately. When you surrender to laziness with a grand square it can completely ruin your life & make you 10 steps behind everyone. It forces you to overcome any laziness.

Best sex I’ve ever experienced with mars signs have to be TAURUS, Capricorn, Virgo & Aries. I feel like people are gonna come for my throat cuz I didn’t add Scorpio mars but I honestly think their sex can be overrated. They are just big horn dogs.

Virgo placements especially the sun and Venus tend to stay virgins longer than most. They don’t need physical affection as much as most placements (especially Venus in Virgo). They’re more into the mental aspects of love.

Your biggest crush probably has a lot of 5th house overlays with you. Especially (sun,moon, venus & mars).

12th house synastry can either be your soulmate or the most traumatic experience you’ll ever have with a person.. no in between.

Leo suns with a Venus in Libra tends to have SO MANY CRUSHES.

Moon/Venus in Pisces have terrible boundaries.

It’s easy to get along with someone who has their sun in the same sign as your Venus (also trine). It’s very difficult to stay made at them for too long, you tend to view each other with rose colored glasses.

On the other hand, Mars square Venus synastry can make you annoyed with eachother easily (especially as the Venus person). Every time I had this with someone as the Venus person I genuinely found them so annoying & corny lol. Theirs this bizarre sexual tension however that can make things kinda awkward especially in a friendship. The mars person tries too hard and can be too aggressive in trying to get the Venus persons attention to a point where it’s a turn off. Timing in general is usually off (eg; one can like the other when the other isn’t interested then it can switch where the one who wasn’t interested becomes interested then the other loses interest😭).

Aries risings tend to have bigger foreheads (ex; Rihanna). They also tend to have a very good head for being bald or having pixie cuts. Their heads are usually really well shaped.

Taurus placements (especially moon & sun) can struggle hygiene wise when they are depressed. Like forgetting to shower or going days without brushing their teeth or hair.

Cancer suns can either be extremely corny humor wise or be the funniest people in the room. A lot of comedians & YouTubers have cancer suns.

Mars in pisces are usually amazing singers/dancers.

Aries sun men tend to be more interested in a person when they act like they don’t like them lol. This can also be true with Venus in Aries.

Cancers love when people open up to them emotionally/vent to them. It gives them pleasure to nurture others.

Neptune in the 1st house people tend to look like a different person every time you see them. One change to their appearance such as changing hair color, or different makeup/clothes and completely alter what they look like. The definition of shape shifters.

Moon in Geminis love experimenting with different looks/aesthetics. These people are also lowkey shape shifters as well. They can also be addicted to dying their hair lol. ESPECIALLY during mental breakdowns!

Saturn positively aspecting Venus in synastry are real Ride or Dies. It hard for you guys to leave eachother alone (especially Saturn). These people can heal past relationship trauma together🥺 i see this aspect in a lot of married couples. Saturn/venus aspects are really the glue to a relationship. Even if you have great chemistry/synastry with someone such as Sun/moon, mars/venus, Pluto/venus it will fizzle out fast if their isn’t enough Saturn influence.

[utilitycaster]

a brief guide to types of fantasy names

I put some syllables together and they sounded nice

I put some syllables together and I can't say they sounded nice per se but they do sound vaguely like they come from Arthuriana so close enough

reasonably common real-world name but a letter or two is changed or added

extremely apt real-world character descriptor but a letter is changed (you know who you are)

two reasonably common real-world names smashed together in some kind of fantasy name particle accelerator

this means something meaningful in a foreign language (real-world)

this means something meaningful in a foreign language (elaborate conlang, self-created)

this means something meaningful in a foreign language (hey Siri, how do you say Fateful in Quenya? Set alarm for D&D Session Zero for 45 minutes from now.)

real-world names, but exclusively ones that are no longer in common usage, frequently either from the ancient Mediterranean region or else medieval European names

"this is Linda and she fights dragons. fuck you."

referred to only by a series of complex and mysterious titles

rigid naming convention across the board, but within that any one of the above is possible

some kind of pun or overly long memeified joke

I don't know what data set the fantasy name generator runs off of and I'm too afraid to ask but not too afraid to reap the benefits

acronym that I never replaced

Literally just a noun

[moonlightsapphic]

I will hold your hand as I say this. Sabrina is an adult woman who likes to make tongue-in-cheek music about luring and murdering men. Her persona since the last album cycle has been very femme fatale—feminine, pretty, cutesy, sexy, kinky, small, submissive in bed, wants a prince charming, also direct, non-conforming, frightening, intelligent, scheming, ruthless, might poison you, callous, player, comedienne. The man on the cover doesn’t even look like Sabrina’s general type, or particularly romanticised. He feels more symbolic of “posh rich old man who has no idea I’ll eat him alive”.

We’re circling back dangerously close to policing women’s sexuality as a political tool, both from the left and the right and it is not a good thing. Our implicit puritanical expectation of white women is already weird (and racist on the flip side when we regard BIPOC women as inherently sexual). Let women exist and own their sexuality in peace without politicizing it. Conventional femininity isn’t inherently unfeminist, even when it is performed for a masculine partner and not just “for the girls”. We can’t make this mistake again, we moved on from and built nuance upon the exclusionary principles of second-wave feminism for a reason. We’re not doing 4B. We’re not doing political lesbianism. We all have valid big feelings lately but we have to take a deep breath and stop projecting them onto minor media aesthetics and optics, and instead channel it into real community work. Read a book.

[gatespage]

Gates McFadden - ST: TNG 5th Season Convention (1992)

Bonaventure Hotel, Los Angeles

more from this event: (1) (2) (3) (4)

[heartfullofleeches]

Rich Darling who pays Brie [Cam Boy Yan] big bucks, but not to see him strip live - they want a full tour of his room and figurines. Rich Darling who's lonely as can be cooped up in their bedroom unable to make friends due to social anxiety amongst other issues, and gets their needed human interaction by tipping random streamers and conversing through chat.

Normally they steer clear of 18+ streamers because they know the type of conversation they want differs from the audience they're trying to pull in, but Brie seems so down to ear and easy to talk to from his sfw posts and before things get really spicy in his livestreams. Not to mention the walls and shelves plastered with posters, figures, and other merch of all his favorite shows.

His heart skips a beat whenever their name pop up in chat. He can't deny the fact he entertained their trivial requests due to their generous donations for a time, but getting to know them Brie is correct in the assumption that Darling is the sweetest person he's ever met. If not a little silly at times-

"Less ass, more figurines!!! If you have the time once your finished. ^^ I'm only joking either way.. Sorta.:p"

Brie dreams about going to conventions and shopping dates with Darling- They can be the richest person on the planet, but he'll insist on paying for whatever they want. Sure, some of his cash may have come from their pocket already, but it's the thought that counts

They're a breathe of fresh air in his streams - even if he won't mind them reaping the same benefits all the others in his chat pay for.

[dios-apate-megas]

Regarding Born in the Morning-

I know there’s been a ton of discussion in the fam about Born in the Morning’s name but I have a theory! As anyone who has been reading my posts knows by now, this is kinda long-winded.

So I think his name is Chen, a Chinese name that signifies “born in the morning”. Literal translation would be like, “dawn” or “morning”. (I really hope I did the link correctly!)

Kid has so many fathers, right? Well, in Chinese from what I gather grandpa, parents, dad, and male relatives all have the same Chinese symbol in how they are written!

父 fù is the Chinese symbol for patriarch and the compound version is placed above other symbols to produce derivatives! I’m sure there are more than what I’ve listed below, but here are a few.

父亲, 爸爸, 爹, 爸 - Father or Dad

父母, 父母亲 - parents

岳父 - father in law, good-father

祖父母 - grandparents

祖父, 外祖父 - grandfather

舅父, 伯父 - uncle

教父 - godfather

“Born in the Morning, who was saddled with five fathers: Eldest Father, Second Eldest Father, Brother Father, Younger Brother Father, and New Father”

I’d assume these are all on his father’s side as Chinese naming conventions follow the paternal line (and much much more really cool info regarding male lineage!)

Eldest Father - Grandfather

Second Eldest Father - Father

Brother Father - Older Uncle

Younger Brother Father - Younger Uncle

New Father - Father’s New Husband???? (This one stumped me but sexual orientation rules are very evolved in TLT so this wouldn’t be a reach)

In the TLT universe, womb-vacs are available for citizens to use, I don’t think they’d be limited to the Nine Houses since they’re the ones to “Shepard” and take care of newly colonized planets. It’s entirely plausible that Born in the Morning’s family utilized womb-vacs with donated eggs and selected male chromosomes for the child they’d incubate, thus producing only males in their family. This is a fascinating possibility and one that theoretically could be replicated by other families with different variations. (I could go on about the possibilities womb-vacs could create, but I’ll shush for now. Ugh I love TLT so damn much!)

Back to the naming conventions of Father; if Nona is directly translating names from what the name means into House (which I think is assumed to be English) then if Born in the Morning is talking about his shúshu (叔叔) Nona would translate that to Younger Brother Father because she’d automatically add in all of the age and generational differences associated with that name. Which is fucking impressive as hell! As if being able to automatically translate all languages wasn’t impressive enough.

**I do not speak or read Chinese, I’m just going off what I read and dug into during this rabbit hole excursion. I hope I did okay, this was so much fun to work through! I love language!!! And adding in the different types of possible family dynamics made it even more fun! Any Chinese speaker feedback would be great!

[prokopetz]

Hi! Do you know of any TTRPGs that can (or must) be played with multiple DMs? Not DM-less systems, DM-More

Since you explicitly specified "not [G]M-less", I'm going to leave aside collaborative worldbuilding games like Microscope, as well as stuff like Belonging Outside Belonging/No Dice, No Masters hacks which do the "anyone can voluntarily step into a temporary GM-like role as needed" thing; one can argue that these are technically "multiple GM" games, but given that every participant has roughly equivalent narrative authority at all times, one could equally say that they simply decline to recognise a player/GM distinction – "if everyone is GM then no-one is", and all that.

So, then: games which have a formal player/GM distinction, but also explicitly require more than one of the latter. The first one that springs to mind is Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North. It's not the first of its genre, but it's certainly the most well known early example. In brief, it's a game for exactly four participants, one of whom takes on the role of the Heart, or player character; another takes on the role of the Mistaken, an antagonistic GM whose explicit goal is to kill or corrupt the Heart; and the other two take on the roles of the New Moon and Full Moon, co-GMs tasked with mediating between the Heart and the Mistaken and playing any non-antagonistic NPCs the Heart encounters. Each of these roles rotates scene by scene, so everyone will eventually have the chance to play all four roles.

(Interestingly, that last point isn't necessarily true in playtest versions of the game, contained some extra stipulations regarding the gender of the Mistaken which explicitly depended on the Heart player's gender, not their character's. This is absent in the published version.)

For a somewhat less esoteric take on the premise, you might instead have a look at Perfect (Unrevised). It's a game about heroic criminals in a quasi-Victorian dystopia, and features a similar rotating-roles setup, save that each player is specifically assigned to be a different player's GM; any time your character is the focus of a scene, your assigned counterpart steps into the role of GM. Like Polaris, it operates on the assumption that generally only one player character will be "on screen" at a time, in this case recommending a sort of anthology framing in which different player characters may indirectly influence each others' stories through the fallout of their actions, but may never encounter each other in person. It differs in that it features multiple GMs serially rather than simultaneously, with participants other than the active player and their assigned GM serving as a sort of semi-interactive audience.

Heroine poses a fun spin on the rotating-GM setup in that the GM role rotates while the player role doesn't. It's very blatantly designed around emulating Labyrinth (1986), with one player taking on the role of the titular Heroine, one player acting as Narrator, and the remainder playing as Companions; i.e., the Heroine's various weird muppety friends, rivals and hangers-on. The way it strays from a conventional one-GM-many-players setup is that the Narrator and the Companions are effectively on the same team, with the Companions functioning as co-GMs each assigned to a specific major NPC. (This might sound like a hair-splitting distinction, but you'll totally get what I mean when you see the rules that Companion play by.) The Narrator role rotates from scene to scene exclusively among Companion players, so the same player remains the Heroine from start to finish while everybody else gets a turn as both Narrator and Companion.

If what you're after is something which is simply built around the assumption or requirement of more than one GM, rather than this "everyone is a GM except for a single, possibly rotating player role" business, I'm afraid your options are much thinner on the ground. Trying to search for games of this type tends to yield results choked with a lot of worthless "well, this one time I was in a D&D group with a co-DM, so technically Dungeons & Dragons counts" anecdotes, which I suspect may be part of the reason you're asking me!

I have to confess it's not really my area; I don't have a great deal of interest in that particular strand of the genre. I was going to plug Pantheon – a game where participants are divided between GM-like gods and player-like mortal champions – here, but when I checked I noticed that the author seems to have withdrawn the downloadable version from publication, so that's my top rec here off the table. Perhaps this blog's followers will have better suggestions?

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention @jennamoran's Wisher, Theurgist, Fatalist, which at first blush seems to fall into the same "if everybody is GM then no-one is" category that disqualifies Belonging Outside Belonging and such, save for the very amusing twist that it supports mechanically mediated adversarial play to resolve GM-type rulings: that is, if you and another player disagree regarding what the rules of the game actually are, you can roll dice at each other to determine who's right! It also has a more conventional GM-esque facilitator role in the Weaver, but includes formal procedures for other players to depose the Weaver and usurp their authority, so whether it meets our criteria or not raises some pointed questions about exactly how we're defining both "multiple" and "GM".

[troglobite]

i also really like chimecho, AND i like comfey for Comfey Sweep reasons

i could say pidove (not v original or random, but unpopular), mime jr. (same thing), or even krookodile (i Cannot Articulate why i love krookodile SO MUCH), possibly even kecleon (i'm so fond of it, but it's kind of possible to articulate why)

so i think the real answer here is vanilluxe

and tbh the entire line, but i think the prevo is probably more well liked. i just really like vanilluxe. lol

what's a random ass pokemon that you love for reasons you can't articulate

for example: I'm lke chimecho

[tarisbackyard]

Here's how to write an authentic Grimm style fairytale, brought to you by a Certified German TM:

Forget everything Disney movies taught you, besides maybe Snowwhite, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. But even those are on thin fucking ice. Also ignore modern fantasy literature conventions, especially Dungeons & Dragons type stuff.

Ideally only the protagonist or none of the characters ought to have names. And the names should either be really fucking ordinary, or some kind of epithet. Like, either that's a Franz or a Bramblesock, cause when Bramblesock was a child he lost a sock in a shrub of brambles. Everyone else is either the king, the grandma, or the carpenter.

The common types of protagonist: Regular working class guy who cons his way into a life of riches, poor downtrodden peasant who through hardworking kindness is granted salvation (usually via gaining riches), too pure too good for this world princess who can't catch a fucking break, too nasty too bratty for this world princess who gets taught a lesson in humility.

The characters are generally very one note and the only kind of character growth they can experience boils down to "maybe I shouldn't have been a dick, huh?"

The location is either as vague as possible or super fucking specific for no reason; either the story takes place literally nowhere or in the town of Buxtehude.

Animals and inanimate objects that can talk for no apparent reason and no one bats an eye at are always a great addition.

If you want to add any fantasy races, use giants (large, dumb brutes), dwarves (angry little guys who live in the wilderness and get really angry if you touch their beards), or gnomes (mischievous house spirits who might be helpful but watch out!), but never more than one of these. Fairies are rare and usually the "tall beautiful wise woman" type, not the small annoying pixie type. Dragons are very pointedly no-where to be found, those distinctly belong in sagas, which are their own distinct type of literature.

Weird moral of the story that either boils down to "be smarter than all the other fuckers", "good things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people", or "don't upset the supernatural".

Random tidbits of gore that no one bats an eye at.

Witches eat children, if a mother gets more than single line dedicated to her she's evil, fathers are spineless and/or assholes who either die or come around in the end.

Ugly means evil, pretty means good. Except when it doesn't.

Optional: Repeated rhyming phrases and numbers. Seventh son of a seventh son kinda stuff. The numbers 3, 7, 12, and 13 in particular.

Ideally a 19th century scholar should be able to read some clumsy Germanic pagan wishful thinking into the story, no matter how big and obvious the Christian overtones are.

Optional: Start the story with "Once upon a time" and end it with "And if they didn't die, then they are still alive today."