Hi! For the writing ask meme, #10: what's your favorite trope?
I’ve answered this before but I’ll never get tired of talking about it (or reading/watching it) - Enemies to Lovers/Enemies to Allies.
I love watching characters from opposing positions start to appreciate, respect and even desire the other and all the ways that can play out.
Maybe its a one-sided Villainous Crush but while they desire the heroine they ridicule her integrity and morasl until they spend more time with her and realise the depth of her strength and conviction.
Maybe it’s a snarky anti-hero who’s too cool (read damaged) for all that sickly friendship/romance crap but can’t get the girl out of his head that gave him a verbal beat down for his attitude (looking at you Kaiba), or the twinge of jealousy in his heart when she comforts his rival but has only contempt for him.
Maybe its the unexpected banter between enemies as they encounter each other repeatedly, the unresolved sexual tension in their fights, how they get to see the best and worst of each other, how they are forced to see a side of the world they’ve repressed or neglected. That could be the villain who’s neglected their humanity because of fear and a need for power and control, or the hero/heroine who actually is too self righteous at times and doesn’t see the pain and darkness in the world and themselves.
Ultimately it harks to one of the key themes that has always fascinated me - encapsulated by work of the famous Swiss psychoanalyst Carl G Jung - the balance of opposites and the quest for wholeness.
I know this trope invokes much discord in fandom and understandably so in a way, but I don’t look at it so much sociologically, I look at it mythologically/symbolically. That is - our enemies represent things about ourselves we dislike and vice versa. If we can understand, render into better form and integrate those things more wholesomely, we become better people. So that’s why I love seeing this theme done well. Plus you know, the snark!
Hmm, that maybe a bit more than you bargained for there! *blushes*