colorcoded

A bit random, but I wanted to talk a bit about a WIP that I've had on the backburner but which I got a bit of inspiration on recently due to a thread on fail_fandomanon. Basically, a while back (in February), there was a thread on what makes for a bad [insert genre] fic, including a thread asking what people think makes for a bad omegaverse fic.

Trying to think about this question was interesting and made me think a little bit about what makes omegaverse appeal to me. I think the original question is a bit difficult to answer because omegaverse is a very flexible trope - like, fifty tropes in a trenchcoat that you can freely pick and choose as you like, and I think it has also changed quite a bit over time, changing from something that had a bundle of relatively niche kinks in it into something a bit more mainstream. I guess the central/non-negotiable aspects of the AU is that characters have a secondary sex/designation as alpha and omega (and possibly beta as well), and these come with specialized/dimorphic biology/biological urges of some kind. Aside from that, there's quite a lot of flexibility in the mechanics, worldbuilding, and type of stories you can tell.

As a result, omegaverse can be something different for a lot of people. Is it a way to make the mechanics of same-sex porn and romance as easy to write as the mechanics of het porn/romance (lubrication, G!P, mpreg and fpreg, etc.)? Is the appeal the animalistic anatomy and instincts (knotting, marking/scenting, nesting, etc.)? Is the worldbuilding the interesting part (e.g. rational fic trying to understand how heats would affect the way society is organized)? Ways to explore gender and gender oppression with a bit of distance that sci-fi/speculative fiction can get you? The list of functions goes on and on.

For me, personally, though, I think the appeal of omegaverse lies in two tropes that are commonly utilized in omegaverse: (1) D/s dynamics and (2) dubcon scenarios facilitated by biological heats. These are kinks, but I would say relative to the wider space of kinks, they are fairly common or basic ones, and ones that you'll find in a lot of non-omegaverse smut as well. So my omegaverse tastes lean fairly basic! Also, for me, omegaverse is primarily a porn/romance trope, and therefore has a lot of unrealism/porn logic/wish fulfillment aspects to it. So to answer the question at the start of my post, I think what personally makes for a bad omegaverse fic is one that punctures that fantasy or wish fulfillment aspect.

Of course, the line where something crosses from iddy fantasy into unsexy territory differs for everyone, but for me, I think there's a limit to how dystopian the world can be before I start to go, "oh, this is depressing not fun," even though - at the same time - I also think a good omegaverse fic has at least *some* darkness or fucked-up-ness to it. So that line has to be carefully balanced (and is obviously different from person to person).

I think I only have one WIP that involves omegaverse, and thinking about what I like/don't like about omegaverse is kind of illustrated by the setup of this fic, so I'll discuss it:

( More rambling about my omegaverse WIP )