Tropes that get me every damn time, in no particular order and with no particular rhyme or reason
a group of morally grey criminals/thugs/assassins has a Mom Friend in the group
Incredibly broken character trying to love, knowing they don’t know how to accept or show affection and trying anyway
Gentle and Good™ character who would Never Hurt a Fly goes into absolute beast mode after their family or someone they care about is hurt or threatened
Group of characters who hate each other’s guts forced to team up
Literally any book-within-a-book device is used: excerpts or even mentions of a made-up in-universe book within the book. Bonus points if it’s some kind of Fantasy Textbook being included purely for infodump purposes.
Independent, self-serving character ends up forced to be a hero and do good. Bonus points if this happens multiple times and independent self-serving character is just resigned to it at this point.
On that note: universe/world has to rely on a bunch of criminals with 0 moral fibre that were more or less dragged out of a dumpster to save everyone
any scene wherein the strong and stoic™ is getting patched up post-battle by their love interest for whom they have not yet admitted their feelings, probably shirtless and definitely wincing in a brave manner as bandages are applied
Smol and Cute character turns out to be full of terrifying darkness
Character finds terrifying monsters cute and/or endearing.
Character doesn’t understand sarcasm or figurative language. Literally. Any. Use. Of. This. Trope.
Character’s somewhat embarrassing or weird backstory comes out only when it is ABSOLUTELY necessary. Example: In the seventh book of a series, the characters must go undercover at a Zyrg’hnrrian ball and the Strong Stoic Axe Warrior Guy, who we have known for all seven books so far, must grudgingly admit that he knows how to dance a Zyrg’hnrrian Waltz.
on that note: characters must disguise as something and go undercover but their already super shoddy cover starts falling apart, resulting in your entire body cringing at the page. bonus points if their disguises start LITERALLY falling apart
on THAT note: only reason characters are able to infiltrate something is that the guards are bored and not paying attention
Characters who are a couple team up in battle and start absolutely kicking ass
Criminal mastermind getting himself involved in multiple recursive layers of double-crossing that all fall apart at the worst possible time.
A character who has spent the whole book acting like he doesn’t care suddenly throws himself into harm’s way for another character and comes out of it battered and half dead
Literally any scene where a badass character comes out of something that should have killed them covered in blood and wounds and with fire in their eyes.
Any scene where a character puts on a brave face for something that no person should be able to bear or endure, on behalf of someone they love.
Literally any story where MC goes to school to learn the art of murder/to be an assassin/to be a villain/the ways of evil and darkness in any sense
Over the top plots where shit is just hitting the fan and the characters themselves are somewhat aware of how crazy it all is and are just like “this might as well happen”
A Good, rule-following character forced to collaborate with morally-grey trash can.
character bonds with an animal that annoys them at first but by the end they are willing to lay down their life for the varmint. Bonus points if they rush back into danger cursing about how annoying and ungrateful their animal companion is while actively risking their life on its behalf.
Character who has never really received affection and love receives loving physical touch and has no idea how to respond or process what’s going on inside them other than oh god don’t stop
On that note: hideous, monstrous-looking creature/character is shown gentleness/affection for the first time.
Any scene where a monologuing villain gets slammed with a comeback that makes him realize all of a sudden what the heroes’ plan is all along and that he’s lost
villains have great fashion sense
on that note: sexy villains hhhghghhhh. Yes you can write a callout post.
janainaart
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