A few decades ago, Bodice-Rippers was a trending theme for Romance. I would reimagine how scenes would go if the FML was supposed to be initially structured as this pinnacle of perfection but didn't have an ounce of thought in her head when blatantly stating she loathed the MML.
Like, there was this one scene where both leads were being forced by the king to marry and both leads shouted "NO!" at the man. I liked that. But then the king convinced the lead male, who is a knight, that if he marries the duchess, then he receives not just a duchy but that the king will throw in another duchy that became vacant after the war. For context: the king is Richard the III, so the war was after his father and any nobles that lost their titles for siding with the previous king.
Anyways, that changed the male lead's tune. Now that leaves the female lead, leaving almost without a word, but the king stops her and demands respect enough to at least beg for her to be excused. She does, leaves, and heads straight outside. She's laying on some flat stone in the middle of a pond or something, not really thinking of anything.
It's at that point I would've changed the story to regain some of her agency. But the genuine story followed up with her conducting cunning plans to get back at the male lead, which only keeps backfiring. It got infuriating because those servants of the female lead who had been with the duchess her whole life started betraying her for the male lead, even though the story framed the female lead as being the kindest to these people. Like... dude. This is cosmic plot railroading without reason anymore. And then, some many chapters later, when she finally surrenders, NOW everyone sees her like some angel descended from the Heavens?
Fuck that bullshit.
Yeah, that got me into writing my own shit.
