Dueling tropes
Mar. 1st, 2020 11:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
enemyofperfectI'm a little late to the game, I think, but this one was just too much fun to skip.
Slow burn or love at first sight: Definitely slow burn. I like to see the relationship grow and change over time.
Fake dating or secret dating: Fake dating all the way! It's kind of a ridiculous trope, but I enjoy it deeply.
Enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers: Best friends to lovers. My tastes can be bafflingly wholesome sometimes.
Oh no there's only one bed or long distance with correspondence: Oh no, this is the first difficult question! Only one bed is so good for fraught intimacy, but having characters write to each other is so cute and adorable, and I feel like in a way it encourages the characters to open up more, given the greater emotional safety yet also greater loneliness of physical distance. I guess I've talked myself into saying correspondence!
Fantasy AU or modern AU: Fantasy AU! I love them, especially when there's enough worldbuilding to bring its own flavor.
Smut or fluff: Hmmm. This is difficult for the opposite reason as only one bed versus epistolary -- I don't feel like either smut or fluff is often a big draw for me by itself, so it all comes down to execution and how many feelings are involved. I guess I'll say smut.
Mutual pining or domestic bliss: Mutual pining. All the mutual pining. I need to find some mutually pining OT3 fic just so I can have 50% more pining in the same fic!
Alternate universe or future fic: AU, for sure. Future fic can be awesome, but I rarely have a specific craving for it, whereas I'm always up for a new AU.
One shot or multi-chapter: The more fic the better! Give me your longest fics and series! One million words is not too high!!! But I also prefer reading completed works where possible.
Kid fic or road trip fic: Kid fic, provided that the kids are believable young persons and not just there for cuteness. But if they are, I will be all over that.
Reincarnation or character death: This is another hard one. I think sometimes I frustrate people by not being more into character death when I'm into almost every other form of fictional terribleness, but reincarnation might interest me almost even less. I guess I'll say character death on the grounds that I have at least one long-standing plotbunny founded on it.
Arranged marriage or accidental marriage: Arranged marriage! In the tropey sense, at least, where it dramatizes the stakes of wondering whether your feelings will ever be returned (while genre conventions guarantee that they definitely will be). I'm not sure I've ever read a more realistic treatment of the subject.
Time travel or isolated together: I really like isolated together, but I think I'm still going to say time travel, because I have such a weakness for characters sent back to an earlier point in their timeline and trying to figure out what to do with everything they know about the future.
Neighbors or roommates: Neighbors, I think. Roommates is almost too much of a good thing for me, in terms of enforced proximity.
Sci-fi AU or magic AU: Oh no, this one is difficult. I love robots! But I also love werewolves! How can I pick! I guess I'll say SF, especially if it's still set on Earth.
Bodyswap or genderbend: Genderbend, I think. I think it's really interesting to cisswap characters, or subject them to physiology-altering magic, or imagine them as trans, and see what happens!
Angst or crack: I'm not that much a fan of the word crack, but I guess I'd be going with angst anyway, so no need to make a production about that. I mean, I love stories that take an absurd premise and run with it -- I love them so much! But angst is my fannish bread and butter, here. I cannot deny it.
Apocalyptic or mundane: Mundane for sure. The apocalypse is way too upsetting!
I feel like that last answer is especially ironic coming directly after the previous one: all the misery, but like, only for a few people at a time, please! But that's me for you, I guess.
Slow burn or love at first sight: Definitely slow burn. I like to see the relationship grow and change over time.
Fake dating or secret dating: Fake dating all the way! It's kind of a ridiculous trope, but I enjoy it deeply.
Enemies to lovers or best friends to lovers: Best friends to lovers. My tastes can be bafflingly wholesome sometimes.
Oh no there's only one bed or long distance with correspondence: Oh no, this is the first difficult question! Only one bed is so good for fraught intimacy, but having characters write to each other is so cute and adorable, and I feel like in a way it encourages the characters to open up more, given the greater emotional safety yet also greater loneliness of physical distance. I guess I've talked myself into saying correspondence!
Fantasy AU or modern AU: Fantasy AU! I love them, especially when there's enough worldbuilding to bring its own flavor.
Smut or fluff: Hmmm. This is difficult for the opposite reason as only one bed versus epistolary -- I don't feel like either smut or fluff is often a big draw for me by itself, so it all comes down to execution and how many feelings are involved. I guess I'll say smut.
Mutual pining or domestic bliss: Mutual pining. All the mutual pining. I need to find some mutually pining OT3 fic just so I can have 50% more pining in the same fic!
Alternate universe or future fic: AU, for sure. Future fic can be awesome, but I rarely have a specific craving for it, whereas I'm always up for a new AU.
One shot or multi-chapter: The more fic the better! Give me your longest fics and series! One million words is not too high!!! But I also prefer reading completed works where possible.
Kid fic or road trip fic: Kid fic, provided that the kids are believable young persons and not just there for cuteness. But if they are, I will be all over that.
Reincarnation or character death: This is another hard one. I think sometimes I frustrate people by not being more into character death when I'm into almost every other form of fictional terribleness, but reincarnation might interest me almost even less. I guess I'll say character death on the grounds that I have at least one long-standing plotbunny founded on it.
Arranged marriage or accidental marriage: Arranged marriage! In the tropey sense, at least, where it dramatizes the stakes of wondering whether your feelings will ever be returned (while genre conventions guarantee that they definitely will be). I'm not sure I've ever read a more realistic treatment of the subject.
Time travel or isolated together: I really like isolated together, but I think I'm still going to say time travel, because I have such a weakness for characters sent back to an earlier point in their timeline and trying to figure out what to do with everything they know about the future.
Neighbors or roommates: Neighbors, I think. Roommates is almost too much of a good thing for me, in terms of enforced proximity.
Sci-fi AU or magic AU: Oh no, this one is difficult. I love robots! But I also love werewolves! How can I pick! I guess I'll say SF, especially if it's still set on Earth.
Bodyswap or genderbend: Genderbend, I think. I think it's really interesting to cisswap characters, or subject them to physiology-altering magic, or imagine them as trans, and see what happens!
Angst or crack: I'm not that much a fan of the word crack, but I guess I'd be going with angst anyway, so no need to make a production about that. I mean, I love stories that take an absurd premise and run with it -- I love them so much! But angst is my fannish bread and butter, here. I cannot deny it.
Apocalyptic or mundane: Mundane for sure. The apocalypse is way too upsetting!
I feel like that last answer is especially ironic coming directly after the previous one: all the misery, but like, only for a few people at a time, please! But that's me for you, I guess.
