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sottovoce June 7, 2026 5:38 pm

a flag is a communication tool. a basic and common function is signalling if a path is clear (green) or obstructed/hazardous (red).
imo, many people are using "flags" weirdly because it makes more sense to apply it to behaviors and attitudes rather than to a person or character as whole. that's how I saw the concept used, initially, anyways. so this is in terms of attitudes, behaviors and actions
green flags: emotional intelligence (being able to know/identify one's own feelings and recognize them in others), respect for boundaries, willingness to share, communication skills, anything that facilitates a functional relationship
red flags: being controlling, ignoring and violating boundaries, undermining the autonomy of others, superiority complexes, being invested in hierarchies, self-sacrificing or guilt-tripping, anything that leads to an abusive relationship
stuff like that
you can have conflict in a story, even a romantic one, without resorting to abuse and so-called red/black flag characters. it's as simple as characters having different needs and wants in life, or pressure from external forces. but that kind of thing takes actual writing skills and capacity for complex reasoning.
(there's a question about flags that I'm responding to, but it looks like I'm blocked by the op of that)

    fwopfwop June 7, 2026 6:13 pm

    Its honestly overused to simplify a complex action, decision, character, development and dumbs down the person assigning it cos they cant comprehend that people (even greatly written characters) are black and white (or green or red for this matter)

    fwopfwop June 7, 2026 6:13 pm
    Its honestly overused to simplify a complex action, decision, character, development and dumbs down the person assigning it cos they cant comprehend that people (even greatly written characters) are black and w... fwopfwop

    Are not* black and white

    sottovoce June 7, 2026 6:35 pm
    Its honestly overused to simplify a complex action, decision, character, development and dumbs down the person assigning it cos they cant comprehend that people (even greatly written characters) are black and w... fwopfwop

    great point! it oversimplifies things to talk about characters like that! if you've ever seen people bring up "yellow flag", I feel like that's an attempt by people using flags that way at reintroducing the nuance that got lost by reducing characters to red or green.
    after thinking about it some more, a point I forgot to mention is that some traits or qualities can be green flags/positive in some contexts or situations, while red/negative in others. is someone ambitious, or a social climbing user? is a person pragmatic, or cynical? are they easygoing, or lacking drive? even the negative interpretations of those traits could potentially work in a relationship with someone on the same wavelength or just drive conflict in a story in a way that's not merely abusive.

    fwopfwop June 7, 2026 7:09 pm
    great point! it oversimplifies things to talk about characters like that! if you've ever seen people bring up "yellow flag", I feel like that's an attempt by people using flags that way at reintroducing the nua... sottovoce

    Yea, that just shows that different people interprets some actions differently. The key word is “tolerance”, how much a person tolerates the character’s bs and affections. This is why i think many readers may find a character/ action “red flag” only because they dont have personal affections to the person doing it. Meaning, that affection increases a person’s tolerance to bullshits, making some actions acceptable to the person involve. This supports your conclusion of it working in a relationship or driving the conflict. This is also where perspective also comes into play. Different perspectives have different access to information of why and how is an action performed to be labeled as a flag. To anyone reading just one side of the story, it may be a “red flag” but after knowing the whys and hows, it challenges a person’s judgement to adjust, essentially claiming “yellow flag” to redeem themselves and compromise.

    Ive actually seen this in Solo for two. It was interesting seeing the different reactions of the readers in real time as they try to label the complex characters. Many have debated where the destructive and clumsy love of the main characters are red flag or not. Watching and entering the debate as people try to label the main character in “flags” summarizes to me that altho these labels are a widely accepted basic descriptive analogies of a person’ character, we cant essentially use it to describe anyone as a whole, especially for humans and humanly written characters. Cos if we do, everyone is a red flag, since human mature is very selfish and self serving. But its also not a red flag. (Btw im anti flags in the debate in this story, the characters are very human to just label them red green yellow)

sottovoce April 12, 2026 5:58 pm

who do you wish got more screentime, better development, a whole spinoff...?
mine is the blink-and-you'll-miss-it hint of the relationship between the MC's sunbae/former crush and the ml's ex-lover in love for sale. still hoping they'll get their spin-off eventually! it didn't seem completely off the table for the creator...
someone asked this earlier and I would have replied but I seem to be blocked (not mad about it, but why?)

    fushiguro99 April 12, 2026 6:19 pm

    cant rem the name of the manhwa rn but it was the mcs landlord x tall alien and the bottom just wanted to remain attached to the alien like always in his lap it was so cute

    Judas April 12, 2026 6:52 pm
    cant rem the name of the manhwa rn but it was the mcs landlord x tall alien and the bottom just wanted to remain attached to the alien like always in his lap it was so cute fushiguro99

    Love in Orbit yes i’m still waiting for the side stories too please author nim

    Judas April 12, 2026 6:58 pm

    ummm for me i feel like there’s a lot but one i remember a lot is the words in your snare second couple it was not fair they only got 2 side stories and just called it a day author should've explored it more hell it should gotten spin off like bad apple from red candy matter of fact in both those stories red candy and and twiys i didn’t like the main couples they were boring and dragged way too much so it was easy to be distracted by the other side characters

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