#fictional tropes

[taragreenfield]

The reason I abhor love triangles is because I keep thinking how humiliating it would be to end up on the receiving end of one. Imagine competing for the attention of a flaky girl who cannot decide whether she likes me or another person better? (Pro tip: it means she isn't that into either of us.) Waiting and hoping that she will pick me because she decided she "deserves better" than the other guy? Nah, thank you, I'll pass.

By the way, the genders of all participants are completely irrelevant. It's equally uncomfortable in any setting. A woman choosing between men is just the most common and "acceptable" combination. And I just don't believe in the sincerity of the "romance" if the heroine cannot decide who she likes more for the majority of the story.

And it's especially atrocious when one of the "love interests" is made deliberately awful to make the heroine's choice obvious. The dude will be spewing sexist/racist/homophobic bullshit, cheat on her, drink, gamble, so drugs and commit random misdemeanors 24/7, and the heroine will somehow remain "conflicted" for the most part of the book.

It makes her an idiot at best and an enabler at worst. Besides, it ruins her romance with the actual love interest, because when it seems they start getting somewhere, she is suddenly, "But what about Mr. Chauvinist Dickhead? Maybe he is my destiny? I dunno, it's so hard to tell!"

I've recently read a book where at the 70% mark the heroine got back together with her ex even though she had cut ties with him in the very beginning because he was an absolute asshole. She didn't think about him for the most part, started developing a relationship with the actual love interest, and then, all of a sudden, she is in love with her ex again. The ex could be heard making blatantly sexist remarks, was openly bigoted towards the poor and magical minorities, had friends who hunted said magical minorities for sport, and the heroine was just sitting there like a moron, thinking how he was the love of her life (despite presumably not sharing those sentiments). And only when she caught him cheating did she finally dump him. She can overlook blatant bigotry, contempt towards women, and genocide endorsement, but she draws the line at infidelity! The dumping was accompanied by the indignant "I deserve someone who puts me first!!" rant, of course. I don't know about that; I think she and Mr. Chauvinist Dickhead do deserve each other and should stay together to spare normal people the torment of dealing with their bullshit.

[dracona11687]

aggressive adoption

it's not a common trope but it is basically a character going this is mine now and taking a half feral or abandoned thing be it a child, person, animal, or demonic eldritch entity and walking away with it to take care of it or one of such things doing this to a person. Usually without the their consent and usually involving carrying it home. If it's a child this will usually come with it's own problems. It is a trope meant to combine drama from trauma, found family, whump, and bonding into a comedic or tragedy type setting while allowing a level of warmth and comfort. It is a subtrope of the found family genre and can be tragic or comedic.

[inthemoodforblastt]

If, in an “enemies-to-lovers” story, they haven't tried to destroy each other or attempted to kill each other at least three times, it's not an “enemies-to-lovers” story, it's just vanilla crap about two people who don't get along, period. The word “enemy” is being devalued because of those damn Wattpad books, and I'm sick of you all.

[inthemoodforblastt]

One of the most heteronormative clichés in the world is the typical TV show, movie, or video game where the protagonist is a tough, traumatized guy who embodies all the tenets of patriarchal masculinity but then, out of nowhere, his long-lost older brother shows up at some point in the plot, and he’s a much bigger man, much more traumatized, and basically oozes sex from every pore —and is probably much more dangerous or a worse influence— but steals the spotlight. Is there any research on this? Because I’ve seen it so many times, and it’s always in products made by and for men, and I don’t get where this male fantasy of having a super-tough older brother who fucks a lot comes from. Can someone explain this to me?

[goodanswernephew]

Surprisingly, I'm not entirely opposed to miscommunication plots in fiction, (more under cut)

And I'm not saying I'm a fan of the cheesy, disney channel movie, "Only hears half the sentence from another room and assumes the worst." idiot plot thing.

But there is however, a rare occasion where an instance of "miscommunication", can make for really good storytelling.

Now I gotten admit, this comparison is a little "apples to oranges" here, but just walk with me for a bit.

It's really compelling when two characters have such vastly different experiences in life and ways of expressing their thoughts and feelings to others, that in a moment that really deeply matters to one or both of them, they just utterly fail to connect with each other in a meaningful way.

It's just the juice. The utter juice of it all. That beautiful juice. (<- me when I self ship with beetlejuice)

[darklinaforever]

There's a trope I love. Well, I'm not at all sure you can call it a trope. But it's the case of spouses from an arranged/forced marriage, who will never be in love with each other, but will still develop unwavering loyalty to one another and will always protect each other.

[one-in-a-million-fishsticks]

Formerly dead character who comes back to a different world than the one they left is eating up my brain today.

Closest friends? All seemingly different people than the ones they dead guy left behind.

Dead guy's home? Either sold or way different from the one they left.

Team/family dynamics? Shifted like Pangea.

[that-bird-lady]

I just realized I'm a big fan of Severance, Malevolent and Sanders Sides all at the same time. I guess I just love it when fictional characters split their personality for some reason, which is an awfully specific trope to like and yet here we are. If I had a nickel every time this happened (and I'm sure there's more examples of this that I can't think of rn), I'd have way too many nickels. Anyone else enjoy this weirdly specific trope or just me...?