Dueling tropes

[enemyofperfect]

I'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.

Comments

[pauraque]

I need to find some mutually pining OT3 fic just so I can have 50% more pining in the same fic!

You could go higher if all three people were mutually pining in each possible direction: A pines after B and C, B pines after A and C, C pines after A and B. It could be done! It might be excessive, though. Imagine trying to get through that true-feelings-reveal conversation.

[enemyofperfect]

That's true, it's actually up to three times the pining! Now I'm trying to think of a way to make the pacing work. Maybe A confesses to B, who gently turns them down because B thinks A and C are meant to be together... Okay, this is a fun game!

[scytale]

This is a fascinating read! And I love your explanations; it's always cool to see why other people like a thing. And going by this meme, I think we have a lot of tastes in common, so it's also fun seeing the similarities and differences. :D

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.

I love arranged marriage for that, too, and the way someone who seems wholly wrong for you ends up being the right person for you.

Hmmm. I'm drawing a blank on more realistic treatments of the subject too, but now I'm craving one. :o

[azurelunatic]

I prefer "craic" as an alternative. Too much of a good thing, unless that's the right amount.

[enemyofperfect]

Aww, I'm glad it was interesting for you! I love comparing and contrasting with other people and spotting areas of overlap and divergence, too.

and the way someone who seems wholly wrong for you ends up being the right person for you.

That can be lovely, yes! And the way that it sometimes sort of starts the relationship off at "all right, it's going to take work to make this good", which can be a really cool process to read about, but doesn't often take center stage in stories about new relationships.

I'm drawing a blank on more realistic treatments of the subject too, but now I'm craving one. :o

I simultaneously want one, and don't know if it would disorient me not to have that guaranteed True Love waiting in the wings! Like when I had unsweetened peanut butter after being used to the doctored kind -- it's a perfectly reasonable food, but it wasn't what my palate was expecting! But it could be really interesting, I think.

[corvidology]

Ah mutual pining... ALWAYS!

[enemyofperfect]

Oh, that's a lovely borrowing!

[enemyofperfect]

Yes! I was honestly going through the list like... ahh, slow burn can have such good mutual pining. And fake dating -- so good for mutual pining! And you know what arranged marriage is also good for? Mutual pining. :D

[corvidology]

Sharing a bed...

[enemyofperfect]

Absolutely!

[scytale]

And the way that it sometimes sort of starts the relationship off at "all right, it's going to take work to make this good", which can be a really cool process to read about, but doesn't often take center stage in stories about new relationships.

Yes. :D I am here for people who deliberately decide how to figure out how to make it work.

I think this is partly why I like fake dating stories, actually, because they involve the discussions of how to make the fake relationship work for both people's goals.

Like when I had unsweetened peanut butter after being used to the doctored kind -- it's a perfectly reasonable food, but it wasn't what my palate was expecting!

Oh, yeah, same! And I would definitely feel betrayed if I wasn't warned up front. xD But maybe on some toast, with some honey added?

[enemyofperfect]

I think this is partly why I like fake dating stories, actually, because they involve the discussions of how to make the fake relationship work for both people's goals.

Oh, I love that point! The relationship negotiation starts even before the real (or at least acknowledged) romantic relationship does. That is so good.

And I would definitely feel betrayed if I wasn't warned up front. xD But maybe on some toast, with some honey added?

Sounds delicious to me! :D

[pauraque]

If you try it, make sure you get my attention so I can see how you pull it off!

[violsva]

OT3s with mutual pining are also entirely my jam. You may enjoy Oblivious by Sholio (Agent Carter), in which everyone pines a lot.

Arranged marriage in romance is interesting because it's usually so binary: either they are of course going to fall in love eventually, or else it is the terrible threat someone has to escape. I don't know if the latter is "more realistic", exactly.

I would like to see a more realistic treatment - I have a great fondness for platonic or mostly-platonic marriages in fiction, where the couple both have passions elsewhere and are both fine with that, and ideally are also really good friends. And they're very hard to find.

That said, in the romance novel line I am greatly enjoying flawedamythyst's From This Day Forward.

[enemyofperfect]

Ahh, thank you for that OT3 rec! What a great arc that has in Jack's narrative voice alone, as well as in the developing relationships.

I would like to see a more realistic treatment - I have a great fondness for platonic or mostly-platonic marriages in fiction, where the couple both have passions elsewhere and are both fine with that, and ideally are also really good friends.

Yes, this is exactly the sort of realism I had in mind! Or where neither of them really end up with any great passion, but they have a happy home life and they're content with it -- or where they frankly dislike each other, but make a deadly political team as they pursue their overlapping ambitions -- or where they're both young and eager enough and the sex is great, but it gradually creeps up on them the arguments they're having because they didn't have time to get to know each other before they'd bound themselves together for life... Any of the range of ways human beings can surely fit together besides "conveniently, we're now wildly in love".

But of course, I do also really enjoy that last possibility as well, so thank you for the Winterhawk rec! I'm really appreciating the way it portrays the variability of Clint's hearing, especially.