besttropeevershowdown

[besttropeevershowdown]

Do you like Arthurian legends?

Do you want to watch various forms of it duke it tournament style? Then oh boy, do I have the blog for you!

Rules and qualifications:

Any kind of media is permitted: books, movies, tv shows, comics, anything at all.

One-offs and isolated characters are not allowed, such as a show that has one episode set in Camelot or a comic book series that just has Merlin there for some reason. (Things like Somic and the Black Knight will, though.)

That's it. Be free. Be nice to other people when poll time comes. If you have any questions my ask box is open.

@tournament-announcer @cover-art-showdown @besttropeevershowdown

[besttropeevershowdown]

Dating Do-Si-Do has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Soulmates for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 1

Dating Do-Si-Do

In a long-running series, all the characters eventually end up dating each other at some point.

Propaganda:

Like, what story are you even trying to tell here?

Soulmates

Two characters are destined to be together and incomplete without each other.

No TVTropes page submitted.

Propaganda:

It can be done well, but especially as a romance trope, most variations on the concept of soulmates is deeply annoying and usually aphobic as fuck. The way it's usually done: there is one singular person who completes you, fulfills your life and obviously you'll fall in love with them and be romantically (and sexually, but that can also be just implied) involved with them and be happy. You can't be happy until you meet your soulmate, dummy! Don't worry if they're a total stranger, you were made for each other. It rubs me the wrong way. One, how can someone you don't even know be the key to your happiness? Be the only right partner for you? I mean, hello? Also, putting work into relationships is so much more interesting?? Then, obviously: soulmates complete each other. It's almost like you're somehow lacking if you haven't found this singular random person yet. You can't be complete and happy and fulfilled on your own, you're only half of a couple! I mean, hello?? I don't think I need to describe how annoying and harmful that is. And that's even for allo folks! Aspec people don't even exist or are broken according to this trope, just like, as default. That's fucked up! But noooo, it's deeply romantic! It's so romantic and sweet if two people were made for each other and just two halves of a whole (<- sarcastic). Again, there are variations that actually work, like when soulmate bonds are something you build rather than inherent—but even then, why soulmates? Why not just good old relationships? There's nothing wrong with those! The entire concept of soulmates disregards so many parts of the human experience, ignores aspec existence or others who just enjoy their own company (or prefer it to a committed relationship, whatever), and just predetermines one of the most essential part of the characters' lives. Enough with soulmates! Please just find other ways to write about personal relationships that are actually interesting and not insulting to the variety of human experience. I'm tired and sick of seeing this concept again and again as if it's also something to aspire to in real life. Just… live and love the way you want to, if you want to.

It feels really lazy, and it skips over the build-up and tension of falling in love, which is my favourite part of a love story. Giving a magical explanation for your insta-love doesn't make it any less boring.

[besttropeevershowdown]

Teacher/Student Romance has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Chic And Awe for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 2

Chic and Awe

One character assumes that another will be unattractive, but, upon seeing them in person for the first time, discovers that they're incredibly good-looking.

Propaganda:

How remarkably shallow. You're seeing this person for the first time? You were enchanted by their personality, but you're truly worried that they're just ugly so you'll have to pass? Good grief.

Teacher/Student Romance

A teacher and their student date.

Propaganda:

A Teacher character always has too much power over the student character: keeping them after class, changing their grades, in highschool settings it comes of exponentially worse. It very much makes it seem like the student character wouldn't get an actual choice in the matter. It just doesn't come off romantic to me. The fact it's been part of some shows endgames baffles me.

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One-Sided Friends to Lovers has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 3

One-Sided Friends-to-Lovers

A pair of friends in which only one has romantic feelings, unless changed at the very last moment so they can end up together.

No TVTropes page submitted.

Propaganda:

When media uses this trope, the romantic feelings usually make the crushing one a not very good friend who might even try to pressure their friend to date them.

Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl

A brooding, angst-ridden, but normally good-hearted male character is paired with a gentle, cheerful, kind-hearted female character.

Propaganda:

I like brooding/gentle pairings as a general match up but when its also getting really clearly mapped onto specific gender roles (like this version of the trope is) it often gets written in a way that has some unfortunate implications about how its women's job to "fix" an unpleasant male love interest without him needing to put a reciprocal amount of work and care into the relationship

[besttropeevershowdown]

Relationship Revolving Door has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to My One Exception for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 4

My One Exception

A character sees their love interest as the only good or worthy one of a group or of humanity as a whole.

No TVTropes page was submitted.

Propaganda:

The hypocisy. One character meets another character with different beliefs, a different background or maybe they are an entirely different species. Either way, everything they came from is bad, evil and wrong. But because that character is the love interest, they are one of the good ones or the only good one to the other character. Usually the narrative supports that, painting it as true. Nobody except the Love Interest is worth saving from that specific group of people. So everyone else deserves whatever punishment is lashed out due to not being the love interest and therefore just "bad forever"

Relationship Revolving Door

A couple keeps breaking up and then getting back together.

Propaganda:

I maintain that this is the worst romance trope to ever exist because it doesn't matter what your individual stance is on the ship, romance in general, or even just basic storytelling, because this is a good way to annoy absolutely EVERYONE, and is generally considered the mark of lazy writers who love to play on the audience's shipping but then don't have the first clue what to actually DO with an established couple, so then just fall back on writing the exact same make up and break up cycle over. And over. And OVER again.

Ship it? Congratulations, be prepared to spend the rest of the story tearing your hair out in frustration that your OTP can't seem to just work out their issues and actually stay together this time. Think this ship needs to die in a fire? Hope you enjoy banging your head against the wall when the writers keep shoving it in your face even though it's crystal clear that they're never going to actually DO anything with it. Enjoy romantic subplots as a rule? Good luck finding any that are actually worth investing in if the characters will just be broken up again the next time you see them. Hate romantic subplots with the fire of a thousand suns? Prepare to spend the rest of the story shouting at the characters to just make up their damn minds so you can get back to the actual plot already.

I have yet to meet a single person who does not hate this trope, which given how contentious the subject of romantic subplots can get, is really saying something.

[besttropeevershowdown]

A Match Made in Stockholm has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Didn't Know They Were Dating for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 5

Didn't Know They Were Dating

Everyone knows these characters are dating, except the characters themselves.

Propaganda:

Relationships are defined by the people in the relationship. If two people say their relationship isn’t romantic, then it isn’t romantic. No one gets to decide on someone else’s behalf that they must be dating. People can make out, have sex, get married, and have fucking candlelight dinners every night, but if they sincerely consider their relationship to be platonic or otherwise non-romantic, then it STILL isn’t a romantic relationship. We’ve gotta do away with this “but what if maybe everyone else knows your feelings better than you do and should get to define your relationships for you” ass trope. Maybe I’m swinging a bat at a hornet’s nest with this one, but I’m a mean old bitchy aromantic, so I don’t care.

Idiots in love can be fun. Friends to lovers can be fun. But "didn't know they were dating" leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Instead of letting the characters involved decide what kind of relationship they're in, this trope relies on seeing any closeness as inherently romantic and enforces strict labels on what relationships should look like ("friends don't do this").

A Match Made in Stockholm

Two characters fall in love after one kidnaps the other.

Propaganda:

Don't get me wrong, it /can/ be well done, but stop trying to be Beauty and the Beast, you're not going to be Beauty and the Beast!

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Love Redeems has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to The Lost Lenore for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 6

Love Redeems

A character turns away from villainy because they fell in love.

Propaganda:

It’s arophobic garbage that ties the ability to love — especially romantically — to morality. And before someone comments saying “oh, but love can be platonic!” or “aromantic people can still love,” I would like to gently remind you that some of us, myself included, are aplatonic or loveless aros.

Love can be toxic and cruel just as much as it can be healthy and beautiful, and lovelessness does not imply cruelty or immorality. There are loveless people who are kind and selfless, and there are loving people who are cruel and abusive (sometimes even towards the people they love). Love is completely morally neutral. The ability to feel love doesn’t make you better or more morally pure and upstanding than those of us who don’t love.

This trope perpetuates the idea that being able to love makes you a better person than those of us who aren’t. It implies that people like me are more prone to being corrupt, that we are lesser. It’s barely a step above outright aro-coding villains to other them or to “dehumanize” them.

The Lost Lenore

A dead love interest whose death continually affects the protagonist and the plot.

Propaganda:

Besides the absolute corniness of the flashback scenes under white cover or laughing in the beach, I hate that it's always the women who die to further up the sad lonely male main character. And like all these women that died always have the same pure saint personality (unless the plot call for some secret reveal but that doesn't fit this trope). Their dialogues (if they have at all) are always some sweet advice or a heartfelt promise.

[besttropeevershowdown]

Dating Best Friend's Sibling Drama has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Hanahaki Disease for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 7

Dating Best Friend's Sibling Drama

Romantic drama mined from the romantic lead's love interest also being their sibling's closest friend (or closest friend's sibling).

Propaganda:

Idk I just think of the multitude of ways to introduce like a "forbidden" aspect to a relationship, it tends to be one of the most boring and badly written

Hanahaki Disease

A fictional disease where a character coughs up flower petals due to unrequited love.

Propaganda:

"hey if you don't love me back immediately you're gonna be the single person responsible for killing me and are a horrible person. this is definitely romantic and not coercive at all uwu"

[besttropeevershowdown]

Demoted to Satellite Love Interest has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Childhood Friend Romance for being the least worst trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side C, Poll 8

Childhood Friend Romance

Characters who were childhood friends fall in love.

Propaganda:

Let people be friends. Just because they grew up together, that doesnt mean that they are destined to be together. Its also weird to ship kids in the hopes that they'll grow up and marry each other

Demoted to Satellite Love Interest

After becoming a couple, a love interest character becomes less prominent/interesting and starts to have their personality and/or storyline made to revolve entirely around their partner.

Propaganda:

Nothing worse than watching a relationship you were rooting for go canon only for one member of the pairing to get absolutely screwed over in terms of their writing because of it

[besttropeevershowdown]

Found The Right Person has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Break Their Heart To Save Them for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 1

Found The Right Person

When a character claims to not be interested in romance or not attracted to anyone until they meet the love interest.

No TVTropes page was submitted.

Propaganda:

It feels like "arophobia: the trope". Everyone feels love of course! Not feeling love or being attracted to anyone is impossible! That means they have to be forced into a relationship and fall for the love interest! …ugh. Aro representation is so hard to find and sometimes I'll stumble across a story that I think has some rep only to be hit with this trope. Why can't a character live a happy aromantic life? Why does everyone need to be paired off no matter what? It's so frustrating and perpetuates the idea that if someone says they don't date it just means they haven't found "the one" yet.

Break Their Heart To Save Them

A character behaves cruelly towards their love interest in hopes of causing them to leave to keep them out of danger.

Propaganda:

JUST. TELL THEM. THE PROBLEM.

It's fine sometimes, but I think a lot of the time it's used to create drama between a romantic pairing when the writer(s) can't think of a more natural way to do it and often ends up making the character trying to "protect" their partner/love interest look bad, even after they reveal to their partner that it was just them trying to protect them. Especially because in a significant number of scenarios it feels like the character would have been better off just like, explaining things fully to their partner and like doing this instead is just a show that they don't trust them or respect them or think of them as capable of handling themself, so it ends up not feeling like the romantic & selfless gesture its often portrayed as being

“But it’s dripping in drama and heartbreak!” And many times in execution, there is an alternative method where you can communicate to the other person beforehand so wires aren’t crossed and you can get through something tense together.

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One-Sided Enemies to Lovers has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Aborted Declaration of Love for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 2

One-Sided Enemies to Lovers

One character hates their love interest and is mean to them, while the love interest does not reciprocate their hatred, and then they fall in love.

No TVTropes page was submitted.

Propaganda:

I like my enemies to lovers with a roughly equivalent exchange. This kind just feels mean-spirited, verging on abusive, and it's often misogynistic because of the most common gender configuration.

Aborted Declaration of Love

Character starts to confess their feelings, but then decides not to.

Propaganda:

I just think it often gets overused or misused, especially as a way to push will-they-won't-they pairings to the point of frustration, and its also pretty often a variant or component of the old "miscommunication that could be easily solved if people had one (1) conversation with each other" plotline which is its own whole mess

[besttropeevershowdown]

Changing Yourself for Love has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Cock Fight for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 3

Cock Fight

Two male characters fight over the affections of a woman.

Propaganda:

Don’t you love it when two people are fighting like children against each other to win over someone…and that someone usually isn’t involved in the process?

Changing Yourself for Love

A character changes their personality or appearance to attract their love interest.

Propaganda:

5% of the time: character reflects on some of their worst traits and actively tries to improve upon themselves. 95% of the time: Denying interests and being cold to friends and others to try and completely change personality to cater to one specific person. This will inevitably be undone by the end of the story.

[besttropeevershowdown]

Loving Bully has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to My Friend Thinks You're Hot for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 4

Loving Bully

Bullying someone to hide the fact you have a crush on them.

Propaganda:

I find it deeply uncomfortable, but it crops up with surprising regularity

Teaches that acting like a bully is fine if you're secretly in love with whoever you're picking on

My Friend Thinks You're Hot

A character's siblings/friends/coworkers flirt with their love interest for them.

No TVTropes page was submitted.

Propaganda:

It heavily resembles a form of teasing/bullying me and a few others went through in school, where popular kids would make up other people having crushes on us, so it turns me off when it’s done even in a cute “oh they’re too shy to confess directly to you” way. Also when done by a sibling it’s uncomfortable, especially an underage one around adults or an adult one around minors

[besttropeevershowdown]

Cheating With the Love Interest has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to It's Not You, It's My Enemies for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 5

It's Not You, It's My Enemies

A character wants to break up with their love interest to protect them from their enemies.

No propaganda was submitted.

Cheating With the Love Interest

A character in an unhappy relationship cheats on their partner with their endgame love interest.

No TVTropes page was submitted.

Cheating is a horrible way of going about dealing with a bad relationship, and is a super quick way to convince the audience that the end game couple might actually be bad people/that the cheated on spouse is the one who really deserves the sympathy. How can you continue to read/watch something when the couple you’re supposed to be rooting for is dating BEHIND their actual partner’s back(s)? Like this is the real world, not high school. In most forms of media, cheating should NOT be romanticised as a cutesy thing to do because it helped the main couple get together “against all odds”. And it totally creates a disconnect between the audience and the couple because instead of thinking about how cute the couple is, they’re thinking about their high school ex boyfriend Tim (hypothetical) who cheated on them with their best friend since kindergarten and decimated their friendship with said friend. That’s not cute. And it certainly won’t make the audience more likely to like your characters because it’s just a refurbished version of Tim!

It’s such an odd trope to use, and I couldn’t count how many times I’ve had to stop reading or watching something because THAT’S HOW THE COUPLE GETS TOGETHER. And a lot of the time the writers/author just don’t take the time to think about the moral implications of what they did and will instead vilify the person who got cheated on?????

It is cheating

[besttropeevershowdown]

Best Her to Bed Her has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Yandere for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 6

Yandere

A character who is highly affectionate and dangerously obsessive concerning their love interest, and will violently lash out against other characters their crushes are close to.

Propaganda:

Annoying flat character. I can't think of a single example of a yandere being there to enhance the story as opposed to just tell the same boring jokes again. Just nothing unique or interesting, and if you take it seriously it's just abuse.

Best Her To Bed Her

A female character will only date a man who can defeat her in some kind of competition, usually a physical fight.

No propaganda was submitted.

[besttropeevershowdown]

Cartwright Curse has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Love Dodecahedron for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 7

Cartwright Curse

All of a character's love interests die or leave them.

Propaganda:

I feel like a lot of writers do this because they want to enforce a loveless status quo for characters, or because love interests are prime for fridging. Ask Spider-Man fans if they like that.

Love Dodecahedron

4 or more characters are connected in a web of attraction and love.

Propaganda:

•If your romance story needs an official diagram so that the readers can keep up with what's going on it's not a very good written one •polyamory is almost never on the table, despite the fact that it would be a more satisfying (or at least more interesting) than the "everyone stays where they started", "the couple that was teased the whole time finally gets together" or even going completely unsolved •it overtakes any plot the story had going on, if a character isn't involved in the love dodecahedron no matter how important they were to the plot before they'll get less focus because they weren't involved in the romance drama

[besttropeevershowdown]

Disposable Fiance has won the matchup and will be moving on to round 2!

Congratulations to Playing Cyrano for being the least worst romance trope!

THE WORST ROMANCE TROPE SHOWDOWN: Round 1, Side B, Poll 8

Disposable Fiance

A character has an existing partner who is not a full character and exists only as an obstacle to their relationship with the love interest.

Propaganda:

I just think it's so boring! It's like taking the idea of a love triangle and removing all the things that make good love triangles actually work, resulting in always getting the worst possible version of an already often badly done trope. Either commit to making a full love triangle where all three characters are interesting and which couple will be the actual pairing is an actual question you can see multiple resolutions to or find some other reason why your main couple can't be together right away other than one of them has a wet blanket of a partner that they have 0 chemistry with and who isn't even functionally a real character!!

Playing Cyrano

Someone relies on a friend to tell them what to say to their love interest.

Propaganda:

It will either lead to a misunderstanding we all see coming, or a mistranslation that ruins everything.