Trope I haaate: marital rape as a "historical norm" in a historical fiction/fantasy story that's sometimes seen as neutral and appallingly sometimes used as humor, like first of all this is fiction, I have suspended my belief in other ways for this story so whyyy include this, and if the wife is the perpetrator, it's hand-waved away. Bridgerton is the worst in this. I hate it I haaate it!
23:21 in the rhelm of terrible book misogyny, there's such a specific thing I hate that I keep seeing. (Not even sure it's a trope, just a reoccurring annoyance) but it's when every bad guy is a predator and it's very clear that the author uses it as a short cut to make you not like them cuz "if he's bad guy then he also clearly doesn't care about consent" (but also) when u have that + the love interest has a very deliberate "acknowledge consent" moment to prove that he's "different" and "worthy" of being being chosen by the fmc. And it's always something stupid like the mc getting accidentally aphrodisiacked, magically or otherwise, and then the guy says no but the fmc is thinking "wow, he's such a gentleman, but I wouldn't've minded if he said yes." Blehhhhh. Ick. I don't like a cavalier and cheap it is for the authors. It honestly feels insulting and I think it's lazy writing. Especially cuz the characters this usually affects are the ones, like u said, that willingly jump on the opportunity for violence and can excuse the worst behavior. It feels like the author thinks that no matter what horrible things the love interest does, he's still a good guy if he respects consent. And I hate to break it to them (that's a lie, I'd love to), but consent isn't the be all end all of morality. (Sorry if that was a tangent but it really get's my blood boiling.)
To add on to your tangent (which was a great one), doesn't the love interest usually trample all over the fmc's boundaries in every other non-sexual instance? Which implies that the only time consent matters is in the bedroom and no where else, which is super ick but it's never, ever addressed as being super ick
@@xoPotatoTreexo Ya he's always super possesive and makes decisions for her. And there's always a second guy who the love interest calls overprotective and insults him for not letting her do her own thing, but then he goes and does the same shit. (Cuz the author thinks there's "hot" possesive vs "creepy/strict" possesive.)
@monster-enthusiast right?! Maybe I'm just too old and ace for it all but it doesn't sound romantic or appealing in the slightest, and it's turning me off whole genres of books because it's so prevalent
Yes absolutely. Honestly I think we need to bring manipulative Nice Guys™ as a BAD guy idea back, because now we have them as the romantic option instead.
I also don't like enemies to lovers for the exact reason you listed. They aren't enemies. Rivals at most, usually. The only time I liked it was from a series called "The Winner's Trilogy," but that was it.
In fantasy you get the opposite problem sometimes, where they're *such* enemies that you can't figure out why they'd like each other (like one is helping lead an invasion of the other person's country or something)
A lot of the tropes really fall on the spectrum of 'bad unless done well'. Like, forced proximity? Well, for a romance, ya gotta push your couple/throuple together so 🤷♀ okay. But when the author's hand shows (and it's awkward/illogical), then it's just shitty. I think the same for age gap and probably enemies-to-lovers as well. But yah, I think this format is fun! Oh, and the love triangle is only, as others have said, a love corner cause there's no base.
Yeah, I feel like certain tropes keep getting flack for being "bad" tropes but the trope itself is fine, it's the author that's just bad at writing it.
Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope but I hate it cuz it’s soooo bad done most time (at least by my standard ). But if it’s welllll done it’ll blow me away
It's good if there's like, substance to the whole enmity between two characters. If someone writes it just to "get to the good part" as fast as they can and don't care for building good, interesting characters with a meaningful conflict between them, then it's just two people with no chemistry that do nothing but annoy each other smooching because the narrative says they have to.
The only time I've enjoyed it in recent memory was in Venom & Vow where the main leads are nobles from opposing kingdoms who's parents were cursed, but each person thinks the other one was responsible. Add in a dash of secret identities and falling for said secret identities, with a dash of political intrigue, protagonists with chronic pain, and assassination attempts, it was really good time!
My self esteme is way too low to relate to a "special special" main character. Grandpa Wizard says I need to go on a quest? What's the catch? I'm gonna assume I'm the decoy for the actual special special at best.
15:09 Yes this is indeed Happy Place by Emily Henry, I didn’t care for it personally, probably a lower tier trope for me. Also, I love true enemies to lovers personally (your points were pretty on point imo), but the amount of books I’ve read that are legit enemies to lovers I can count on my hand. It feels incredibly watered down these days.
Also as someone who feels bad abt being lazy all the time (like I can’t even finish a fanfic forget write a book lol) ur little laziness monologue made me feel v good abt myself hehe.. my new excuse “I’m not lazy I’m tired from life”
I see this bucket is getting use. I was NOT threatening you I was just being a menace you can't be mean to your patrons like that. I also don't like Enemies to Lovers but I love Age Gap (as long as they're both firmly adults).
My worst one is the "guy who obviously loves the fmc the second he saw her but acts like a shit to her". Back when this trope was used sparingly, i liked it, it added an extra flair to the enemies to lovers trope. But now thats all there is. It's not enemies to lovers if they have all the reasons to hate each other but dont because theyre sexy. Talk about fucked up morals.
I like age gap when it's appropriate. Someone whose like mid to late 20s falling for a guy whose older is great but it's never that. barely legal girl and an older guy is always the theme in a lot of romantasy books....it's why I'm writing a story where the fmc is nearly 30 and the guy is older lol
I think what you said about love triangles and the inherent queerness of them is why a lot of the tropes mentioned here I tend to hate for cishet pairings but I enjoy more with queer pairings (or even just bi4bi het couples)
What about the best ever swordsman, but he's a single dad of two little girls and lives in modern times so has a basically useless skill and is also friends with the world's top swordmaster, who is his apprentice/third kid but adopted. Now that's a story I would wanna read (please somebody write this).
As a fellow enemies-to-lovers hater, I liked how this turned out, lol. The trope in its truest form isn't for me (I just can't relate to or find joy in it) and most of what you see out in the wild these days isn't even enemies to lovers! It's something else marketed incorrectly...which I'm sure is disappointing for people who actually do like the trope, but I don't think people would keep marketing like that if it wasn't also very successful. 🙄 The biggest thing for me is that it feels like nobody ever does anything interesting with the trope. It's almost always "they're enemies for a reason that is either extremely stupid or so valid you can't imagine the characters getting over it" and/or "one character is just a bully." Bleh. As far as the other tropes go, I mostly agree. I don't mind age gaps to a certain degree (consenting adults, any imbalances are explored within the narrative of the story), but that "several hundred year old person getting with a teenager" shit is awful. When I was a teen I don't think it would have bothered me, but the older I get the worse it feels. Even if I still looked like a teenager myself, I wouldn't want to spend my time hanging around them, so imagining some guy four or ten times my age going out of their way to do that? Gross. Also, whenever you say "edgy shadow boo" I just imagine the ghastly/haunter/gengar pokemon line for some reason, hahaha.
I've been writing a book where two police officers call each other Cupcake and Sugar Pie as an inside joke between them. It also has a love triangle where the girl hates the species of the two men, and it's the bi man who can't decide between the girl and the other guy. (once the girl gets over her racism of dhampirs) it gets weird in that book. The other love triangle I'm working on is even weirder. You got the angsty "I must redeem myself" guy trying to win the girl from the "I give no fucks about what I've done in the past" guy who is trying to not only woo her but a third guy as well who is more of the "I will protect her" and she's just "What the fudge happened between the Dragon Riders and the Wyvern Riders?"
Trope I haaate: marital rape as a "historical norm" in a historical fiction/fantasy story that's sometimes seen as neutral and appallingly sometimes used as humor, like first of all this is fiction, I have suspended my belief in other ways for this story so whyyy include this, and if the wife is the perpetrator, it's hand-waved away. Bridgerton is the worst in this. I hate it I haaate it!
23:21 in the rhelm of terrible book misogyny, there's such a specific thing I hate that I keep seeing. (Not even sure it's a trope, just a reoccurring annoyance) but it's when every bad guy is a predator and it's very clear that the author uses it as a short cut to make you not like them cuz "if he's bad guy then he also clearly doesn't care about consent" (but also) when u have that + the love interest has a very deliberate "acknowledge consent" moment to prove that he's "different" and "worthy" of being being chosen by the fmc. And it's always something stupid like the mc getting accidentally aphrodisiacked, magically or otherwise, and then the guy says no but the fmc is thinking "wow, he's such a gentleman, but I wouldn't've minded if he said yes." Blehhhhh. Ick.
I don't like a cavalier and cheap it is for the authors. It honestly feels insulting and I think it's lazy writing. Especially cuz the characters this usually affects are the ones, like u said, that willingly jump on the opportunity for violence and can excuse the worst behavior. It feels like the author thinks that no matter what horrible things the love interest does, he's still a good guy if he respects consent. And I hate to break it to them (that's a lie, I'd love to), but consent isn't the be all end all of morality.
(Sorry if that was a tangent but it really get's my blood boiling.)
To add on to your tangent (which was a great one), doesn't the love interest usually trample all over the fmc's boundaries in every other non-sexual instance? Which implies that the only time consent matters is in the bedroom and no where else, which is super ick but it's never, ever addressed as being super ick
@@xoPotatoTreexo Ya he's always super possesive and makes decisions for her. And there's always a second guy who the love interest calls overprotective and insults him for not letting her do her own thing, but then he goes and does the same shit. (Cuz the author thinks there's "hot" possesive vs "creepy/strict" possesive.)
@monster-enthusiast right?! Maybe I'm just too old and ace for it all but it doesn't sound romantic or appealing in the slightest, and it's turning me off whole genres of books because it's so prevalent
Yes absolutely. Honestly I think we need to bring manipulative Nice Guys™ as a BAD guy idea back, because now we have them as the romantic option instead.
@@jasminv8653 truuue
I also don't like enemies to lovers for the exact reason you listed. They aren't enemies. Rivals at most, usually. The only time I liked it was from a series called "The Winner's Trilogy," but that was it.
In fantasy you get the opposite problem sometimes, where they're *such* enemies that you can't figure out why they'd like each other (like one is helping lead an invasion of the other person's country or something)
"The reason it never happened is cuz it's actually not a great idea." WHAT. I think it's hilarious.
If I had money I'd definitely wear "edgy shadow boo" t-shirts lmao
To get shirts/hoodies made at the quality I’d like is costly and 100 percent not worth the joke.
A lot of the tropes really fall on the spectrum of 'bad unless done well'. Like, forced proximity? Well, for a romance, ya gotta push your couple/throuple together so 🤷♀ okay. But when the author's hand shows (and it's awkward/illogical), then it's just shitty. I think the same for age gap and probably enemies-to-lovers as well. But yah, I think this format is fun! Oh, and the love triangle is only, as others have said, a love corner cause there's no base.
Yeah, I feel like certain tropes keep getting flack for being "bad" tropes but the trope itself is fine, it's the author that's just bad at writing it.
I feel like almost every trope can be done well, but with some the authors fail in execution more often than with others.
Enemies to lovers is my favorite trope but I hate it cuz it’s soooo bad done most time (at least by my standard ). But if it’s welllll done it’ll blow me away
It's good if there's like, substance to the whole enmity between two characters. If someone writes it just to "get to the good part" as fast as they can and don't care for building good, interesting characters with a meaningful conflict between them, then it's just two people with no chemistry that do nothing but annoy each other smooching because the narrative says they have to.
@@antonioscendrategattico2302 💯
The only time I've enjoyed it in recent memory was in Venom & Vow where the main leads are nobles from opposing kingdoms who's parents were cursed, but each person thinks the other one was responsible.
Add in a dash of secret identities and falling for said secret identities, with a dash of political intrigue, protagonists with chronic pain, and assassination attempts, it was really good time!
@@TheNumnutRandomness That sounds like Miraculous but in a fantasy setting.
My self esteme is way too low to relate to a "special special" main character. Grandpa Wizard says I need to go on a quest? What's the catch? I'm gonna assume I'm the decoy for the actual special special at best.
Gosh I like that idea. 😂
@@ironicallynice Honestly it did get the story gears moving after I posted that! 😅
15:09 Yes this is indeed Happy Place by Emily Henry, I didn’t care for it personally, probably a lower tier trope for me.
Also, I love true enemies to lovers personally (your points were pretty on point imo), but the amount of books I’ve read that are legit enemies to lovers I can count on my hand. It feels incredibly watered down these days.
I'm enjoying this format of drawing from the bucket! And the musical intro is good too! 😁
Also as someone who feels bad abt being lazy all the time (like I can’t even finish a fanfic forget write a book lol) ur little laziness monologue made me feel v good abt myself hehe.. my new excuse “I’m not lazy I’m tired from life”
I love the musical intros!! I'd love to hear a full cover
I see this bucket is getting use. I was NOT threatening you I was just being a menace you can't be mean to your patrons like that. I also don't like Enemies to Lovers but I love Age Gap (as long as they're both firmly adults).
Top 10 Worst Tropes on a Wednesday!? Is it 2016 again? 😱
*kicks back with popcorn in hand 🍿*
😂Oh, no D. Don't give them ideas! I love the hoodie idea. Please do it!
I’ve been working on A hoodie idea as a passion project but it’s not that.
I love this. The concept of this is so fun. I hope you do one about ranking your favorite tropes
This was so chaotic and unhinged, I absolutely loved it. Points were made 😂
My worst one is the "guy who obviously loves the fmc the second he saw her but acts like a shit to her". Back when this trope was used sparingly, i liked it, it added an extra flair to the enemies to lovers trope. But now thats all there is. It's not enemies to lovers if they have all the reasons to hate each other but dont because theyre sexy. Talk about fucked up morals.
“Measly 6.2” lmao
12:30 gotta do the influencer hand behind the object trick
Not an influencer so I didn’t know that 😅
17:05 this was a wonderful reminder LOL
Edit: 25:33 I'm glad you kept all of that because SAME
21:35 are you kidding that’s a great idea 😂
I watched the Spy Family video... I liked it.
You’re a real one 🫶🏽
I like age gap when it's appropriate. Someone whose like mid to late 20s falling for a guy whose older is great but it's never that. barely legal girl and an older guy is always the theme in a lot of romantasy books....it's why I'm writing a story where the fmc is nearly 30 and the guy is older lol
off topic but where'd you get your hoodie? it looks comfy
I guess it would be more interesting if the character was THE BEST EVA at something ridiculously useless.
I think what you said about love triangles and the inherent queerness of them is why a lot of the tropes mentioned here I tend to hate for cishet pairings but I enjoy more with queer pairings (or even just bi4bi het couples)
What about the best ever swordsman, but he's a single dad of two little girls and lives in modern times so has a basically useless skill and is also friends with the world's top swordmaster, who is his apprentice/third kid but adopted. Now that's a story I would wanna read (please somebody write this).
As a fellow enemies-to-lovers hater, I liked how this turned out, lol. The trope in its truest form isn't for me (I just can't relate to or find joy in it) and most of what you see out in the wild these days isn't even enemies to lovers! It's something else marketed incorrectly...which I'm sure is disappointing for people who actually do like the trope, but I don't think people would keep marketing like that if it wasn't also very successful. 🙄 The biggest thing for me is that it feels like nobody ever does anything interesting with the trope. It's almost always "they're enemies for a reason that is either extremely stupid or so valid you can't imagine the characters getting over it" and/or "one character is just a bully." Bleh.
As far as the other tropes go, I mostly agree. I don't mind age gaps to a certain degree (consenting adults, any imbalances are explored within the narrative of the story), but that "several hundred year old person getting with a teenager" shit is awful. When I was a teen I don't think it would have bothered me, but the older I get the worse it feels. Even if I still looked like a teenager myself, I wouldn't want to spend my time hanging around them, so imagining some guy four or ten times my age going out of their way to do that? Gross.
Also, whenever you say "edgy shadow boo" I just imagine the ghastly/haunter/gengar pokemon line for some reason, hahaha.
Man, when I read that Naruto was a reincarnation of some ninja Jesus, it hurt my soul.
Yessssss
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I've been writing a book where two police officers call each other Cupcake and Sugar Pie as an inside joke between them. It also has a love triangle where the girl hates the species of the two men, and it's the bi man who can't decide between the girl and the other guy. (once the girl gets over her racism of dhampirs) it gets weird in that book. The other love triangle I'm working on is even weirder. You got the angsty "I must redeem myself" guy trying to win the girl from the "I give no fucks about what I've done in the past" guy who is trying to not only woo her but a third guy as well who is more of the "I will protect her" and she's just "What the fudge happened between the Dragon Riders and the Wyvern Riders?"