In the spirit of Valentine’s Day, I have decided to rank my favorite tropes found in the romance genre. Most of these tropes will relate to either the plot or the relationship rather than specific situations, which excludes tropes like “only one bed.”
If a trope is not in this list, this can mean one of two things. Either I forgot about it, or I really hate it. For example, the “ugly duckling” trope is not cute and I vehemently hate it thus will not be on this list for favorites.
10. Arranged Marriage
Arranged marriage is mainly played out in regency-style historical fiction with a dash of nobility. I enjoy the setting and the grandiose meaning of rich that arranged marriage can bring. Two powerful families joining powers by marrying off their children to make an heir so their alliance is solidifies. How cute – not. The love is artificial. Forcing two people to be together is not romantic in any sense. However, I have seen many instances where this can work out. Even if they do genuinely develop love for one another, the feeling of not choosing initially will always weigh on their minds, which I cannot get over. While this trope is not the worst trope, it is far from my favorite.
9. Love Triangle (or any polygon)
The classic love triangle involves three people, but in typical romance media, it’s not a true triangle, where all parties are pursuing each other. Traditionally, two people are trying to win the affection of a third party, leaving the audience to pick sides. This obviously can become very violent and competitive – and while I don’t necessarily love the rollercoaster of emotions that comes with this, I do enjoy winning. If the love interest I was rooting for ends up with the main character, it brings me an immense sense of joy. I also enjoy seeing people fighting with each other.
8. Fake Dating
Fake dating is similar to arranged marriage, but much better and much more modern. Usually, one person needs to date someone to avoid one situation or another and develops genuine feelings while in the midst of this fake relationship they have. Miscommunication ensues and undeniable feelings are getting harder to hide from the other person without ruining the barely-holding-on platonic relationship that they do have. I love the internal struggle within the characters – I believe it humanizes and characterizes both people very well. While I do not have a problem with the miscommunication, an excessive amount and ridiculous events caused by the two “fake lovers” attempting to hide their feelings gets old very fast. Still, this trope has a lot of variety to it.
7. Office Romance
I romanticize the office life. I love the 9-5 grind, the business wear, the holiday parties, the bonds between coworkers, the little meetings at the break room, and most importantly the relationships you can have with said coworkers. The most common trope in this category is CEO and employee, but I want to expand this to include all types of relationships. While the CEO-employee dynamic brings up some good conflict over the legality and guilt over potential manipulation, I think that generally, this trope is cute. I especially enjoy when the employee does not know the power that the CEO has when they initially meet at an nondescript place such as the convenient store. Another common one is between two work rivals – whether they work for the same or opposing companies is up to anyone — who attempt to one up one another, or are simply just goofing around during super serious meetings. This has potential.
6. Amnesia
You will see that I quite enjoy sad plots. Amnesia just brings out a feeling of melancholy that you cant replicate in other genres. The effort to try and remember someone, the pain and disappointment of learning that the other person does not remember you, and the small glimmer of hope that they can help restore their memories is simply such a beautiful sequence of events. I will say that most amnesia tropes do not play out like I just described. This trope is a hit or miss for me. If done well, it’s great, but one error, and it ruins it for me. I love the effort and the momentary happiness of remembrance. It’s also a little like a mystery novel, where the amnesiac has to piece together all the informations.
5. Opposites Attract
Red-Blue. Light-Dark. Tall-Short. Rich-Poor. Cute-Scary. Something in our brains says that this looks good and is quite comical thus they must be together. There’s not much to say about this since this is a little different from our other tropes, so its middle line. Generally well-liked, but a little basic.
4. Enemies to Lovers
My favorite toxic trope. Obviously I would assume this trope take place in a fantastical setting, with warring kingdoms, assassins, and many other violent activities that would warrant enemy standing between two different people. This trope does not include academic rivals or anything of that sort since the enemies are not actively trying to kill one another nor servely antagonizing each other. This trope brings out tension and passion – very strong emotions – which illicit visceral responses from the audience, leaving them on the edge of their seat. It has potential, but I don’t love the murder aspect of this couple.
3. Soulmates
The soulmates gimmick is cute. I love the idea of not having to think or make a decision about soulmates – predetermined and compatible to a fault. Whether this comes with red strings or shared tattoos, I enjoy this trope in most of its forms. Sometimes, turning off your brain is empowering and relaxing, and the yearning that the character will have also makes for some interesting decisions. However, my one caveat to this trope is that there is no choice. I do love the angst that appears when a person actively tries to ignore their destiny and tries to love someone else without recognizing that it is hurting the both of them.
2. Second Chances
I enjoy uncomfortable feelings. The angst of either the first split, or breakup coupled with the hope that comes in during the second chance is simply scrumptious as an idea. The history of the ex-couple also adds a certain tension and fluttery aspect to their interactions, which can be both hilarious and painful at the same time. Another way that this could play out is during a period of falling out of love due to a number a reasons; perhaps clashing schedules, an inactive sex life, or even simple routine causing boredom in a relationship. I feel as though this is the side of love that is never talked about. No one wants to admit the falling out of love aspect of love, but it’s a valid feeling and while people may feel uncomfortable acknowledging that someone they pledged their loyalty to no longer shines as brightly as they used to nor bring up nearly enough butterflies when talking to, it needs to be brought to people’s attentions. “Get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable” as they say. With this second method, one person will realize and start to take the necessary steps to better the relationship by putting in more effort. And I think that is beautiful. Whether this happens post-breakup or pre-breakup does not matter. All that matters is that both parties make an effort to fall in love again, which is extremely romantic.
1. Friends to Lovers
When I was younger, I thought that this trope was vanilla and boring, but now that I am older, I find myself enjoying this trope. Friends to lovers builds off an already strong foundation and a small push in the right direction is all it takes to launch the relationship officially. I am fully under team “if you weren’t there, you didn’t actually experience it,” which means that a person can’t really truly connect to a person’s experiences without having lived through them already. And doesn’t everyone say that your spouse should be your best friend. So, I don’t really get the backlash for this cute trope. Someone mentioned how they didn’t like how the love interest would only become friends with the intentions of dating, but I will have to counter against that because that is not what friends to lovers is at its core. Friends to lovers can be childhood friends who grow up together, or are separated and reunited, or even met in middle school and now are best friends. In most of these examples, I doubt any party would be going into friendships with a partner in mind. That is ridiculous. This trope is based on the fact that after a long period of friendship, one person realizes their feelings and thus sugary, embarrassing, and cute moments ensue to navigating new feelings. You cannot go wrong with this trope.