#Zephyr Goldberry

[fogwarden]

Piggybacking off this post to say that one of my absolute least favorite tropes both in canon and in "fanon" is taking a character that appears to (or does) fit into the above type described by OP and turning them into a confident fuckboy or having all their emotional barriers drop the minute their romantic interest indicates they might reciprocate feelings.

Nothing worse than seeing some self-deprecating never-says-his-genuine-feelings-out-loud bastard man suddenly become an extremely passionate smooth-talking lady-killer or a super genuine heartfelt empath or whatever. Let him half-jokingly flirt because he can't bring himself to do it genuinely! Let him allow the other person to be part of some mundane private ritual that nonetheless symbolizes a huge extending of trust on his part! Let him make a notable effort to stop self-deprecating so much because he knows it makes the other person feel bad! Let him be secretly overly sentimental and make excuses for why he keeps trinkets and memories from early in the relationship! Let him reflexively reach out for physical contact with them when asleep or relaxing or otherwise not paying attention as if he constantly seeks a tactile reminder of the other's presence!

Love is made of and found in a hundred thousand little things that mean just as much if not way more than the big dramatic declaration that the sopping wet bastard man wouldn't say unless at gunpoint!

once again opening a ship tag on AO3 and opening a dozen fics and closing out of almost all of them immediately because they would not fucking act like that