What romance tropes you like and don't?

[laccoff_mawning]

I like slow romances as opposed to fast ones.

For example, I really don't like it when some girl gets saved and immediately falls in love. Or a guy acts nice and a girl immediately falls in love, or... you get the idea.

I'd much rather see the guy get friendzoned for 100 chapters or something before their relationship progresses.

 

[BouncyCactus]

I hate the 'Misunderstanding plot', especially if most of the misunderstanding can be ironed out with like 3 minutes of talking; 'Unbalance Power Dynamic' is also up there for me; lastly 'One-dimensional love interests'.

I love slow-burn romance, with a lot of internal conflict and self-discovery, and reversed gender norms and standards.

 

[BearlyAlive]

I Love "Master/Servant" romances (unless done for female audiences) if done right, especially Butler x Lady and Knight x Prince(ss).
Coworker dating is also nice; Teacher x Teacher, office romance, cooking couples, etc. Especially if the couple ends as a power couple or bickering couple.

I dislike harems that grow too big. My Visual Novel brain registers every congregation of more than 5 potential love interests as low-budget self-masturbation by the author. You can't sell me romance when the main characters are glossed over quicker than TikTok videos.

People falling in love too easily. I'm okay with love at first sight, but switching from dislike to love in a few chapters because of a small reason is just bad writing.

Now back to the Master X Servant "for female audiences" or Yandere, now that I think about it, pretty much the same turd by any other name: That isn't Romance, that's a psycho-thriller/horror hybrid: Abuse, imprisonment, and torture paired with rape, all in the name of "love". Those aren't love interests, those are psychopaths...


Misunderstandings and/or accidents in general. Especially the "Lucky Pervert" accidents, and misunderstandings that could be solved by one of the concerned parties using more than half a brain cell. I hate those.

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

I like teacher x teacher, vampires x everyone, maid x mistress. Tropes I hate is teacher x student, any relationship with slaves(they can be good, but most of them it's just toxic bdsm smut) and forced relationships

What trope you also have in your novel(if you have of course)

Mine's got the Summoner x Summoned trope, Maid x Master trope, Master x Slave trope, Tsun Friend x MC trope, Teacher x Student trope. Yes, it's harem. And isekai.

 

[Zagaroth]

So, I have discovered that I enjoy having the relationship be happy and committed early in the story, though this does make it "fantasy with romance" not "fantasy romance", but I am good with that.

I discovered that I also like a 3-person dynamic with the right setup.

Both of these discoveries were made in writing my story. I admit I was originally aiming to do a harem that built reasonably over time, but the trio that I started with was just too perfect together. So, Thruple it is! (Never be afraid to abandon a plan for a better one, so long as you aren't considering everything 'new' to be 'better'.)

Flipside:
I *hate* miscommunication tropes, whether it causes someone to simply try to distance themselves because they think the other one is in a relationship or the stupid anime thing of the guy getting slapped because he accidentally walked in on a girl naked.

I also deplore jealousy. That doesn't mean there should never be *any* (One of my upcoming chapters is going to deal with someone coping with a touch of that), but the trope versions are just plain stupid.

Supid romance comedy plots in general. No, I do not want to see a Rube Goldberg-esque plan to find out if the guy likes her or not.

There's a reason I am very happily married. I don't want relationship drama!

 

[BouncyCactus]

Rube Goldberg-esque plan to find out if the guy likes her or not.

Even if it is played for laugh? That is my fav trope for a chapter or two if done right and not over the top. But this can go so wrong, especially getting someone to pretend to be their SO to see if the other person cares/is jealous/likes them or not, and I hate that!

 

[Succubiome]

Have you considered: vampire teacher maid x teacher mistress?

 

[meta-level]

I like the commoner x (fallen) royalty trope a lot. It's so interesting to see for me how the commoner tries to impress the royal person only to fail at first because of the status differences but eventually wins the heart (Bonus point for the commoner being the more dominant person but I don't mind subversions and all). For a fallen royalty it's a bit easier, but many people are denying the loss of status more often than not at first to cope with the trauma (Our psyche will probably treat it as such, regardless if it makes sense or not).
I also like the action couple trope, too.

What I dislike - besides poor execution of course - are tropes like harem (often gets a "Wish fulfillment" treatment) or poor communication for nothing more than cheap drama. Also the will they, won't they trope if it is dragging on without good reason.

 

[Anonjohn20]

I dislike when an MC spends a lot of time seducing, flirting, manipulating, training, gaslighting another character for the relationship only for the MC to later act like he was the one getting taken advantaged of and being manipulated.

After making the mistake of reading both

Spoiler

"World of Women"

and

Spoiler

"The Man of the House"

I came to realize that the author,

Spoiler

Whatsawhizzer

, is an expert in writing manipulative characters that later pretend to be a victim.

 

[Azhurie_Mythephan]

I like (genderbent alien x human GL)

 

[Nevafrost]

I hate harems.

 

[Thraben]

'Lifemates'. Y'know the types, Mustang and Hawkeye are probably the best example though. The exact state of their relationship at any given time is irrelevant, they're together for life romantically or otherwise. I actually attempted to write a harem like this a couple years ago for an isekai'd antagonist (that's right, I gave an isekai harem story to an antagonist. Don't ask questions), with the harem totality being lifemates. Battle partners is also a good name for this trope. Interestingly, it doesn't even need to be a romantic thing for me to like it. Platonic lifemates is still a favorite trope of mine.

As for things I don't like, unrealistically slow romance (or more accurately, 'kiss bait' romance) deserves the death penalty. People do not dance around chastely for 6 months and then confess sweetly before starting to date normally. That is not how things work.

 

[AnonUnlimited]

No male vampires.

 

[Rezcore]

I sort of agree with the teacher x student. But I have a caveat, I dated my senior year English teacher, we had 5 years between us, and waited until I finished school. I believe that kind of trope can be a great example of restraint and consensual respect of boundaries.

I also like the Enemies to lover trope, because it demonstrates my belief that hate is just love fueled by anger.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I like playful relationships - ones where either everyone except the couple already sees them as a couple or where they are just friends who play around and realize there is something more to it.
Also tend to write "Cinderella" stories where one character is only noticed after making a major change of some sort.