(in your opinion) what are the most TIRED romance tropes?

[radicles]

i thought this would be fun to ask, feel free to drop your personal opinion, here's my list of pet peeves:

• thrill of the chase (story simply ends after the couple is together, aka, happily ever after, no 'here's them working around relationship problems' i mean i enjoy the buildup yes but don't LEAVE ME CRAVING FOR THE PAYOFF, GOD.)

• DAMSELL IN DISTRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ughhhhgghhhhhh
  (mostly in het romance but who am i kidding in gay romance too, just, look i can't symphatize with a character purely out of pity)

• Love At First Sight
  ok, ok, don't throw rocks at me but god this is rarely done right. like, the cheesiest thing is this whole/ i love you without knowing your personality or ever talking to you before HONEY ID DIE FOR YOU BECAUSE I SPOTTED YOU IN THE FROZEN PRODUCT SECTION OF THE GROCERY STORE/ i just can't, i'm sorry

• All Women Are Queens, Anakin
  that one romance who is clearly abusive and one character keeps being aggresive towards their partner but it is somehow painted as an 'misunderstood soul' or 'the way they show love' by the author and just, no, honey no don't do that don't//

• 'i love u for ur personality not ur looks >>> proceeds to try and change partner by giving them a haircut, swapping their clothes, making them lose weight, etc etc etc'

from the top of my head those are what i remember first

[LordVincent]

The "rape or emotional abuse is love" trope.
Can't stand it.

[joannekwan]

Height differences (especially when the shorter one is around 5' and acts all tough like a chihuahua)

It's like yo! stop squeeing and making such a big deal outta it!
And this is coming from a 5'5" person whose husband is 6'9". We're hardly actively aware of our height difference.

Plus I don't know why creators like it so much, it's hard fitting both characters in a horizontal panel without cutting off bits of them.

[LordVincent]

I am not entirely sure but I think it's a "tall dude = big dick" matter.
Which is... kind of silly.
Plus, that could go from a bonus to a painful minus pretty fast for some people.

[joannekwan]

[Sleepyowl]

I am not entirely sure but I think it's a "tall dude = big dick" matter.Which is... kind of silly.Plus, that could go from a bonus to a painful minus pretty fast for some people.

Now that you mention it, why do the guys always have huge cocks? It would be interesting to see a guy who had a smaller dick still be able to be swave with ladies and such. Instead of every guy who's alluded to having a small dick is a loser/bully

[LordVincent]

I don't know in most people's cases, but I have been told that I myself draw pretty big ones and when I see pics of people that are rumored to have big ones my mind just goes "isn't that normal?". It could be because, besides the 1 inch transdick I have in my pants, I have mostly been exposed to larger ones so my mind has been trained to see that as average.

...then again I've also heard people who say I draw small ones.

...I don't know what to believe anymore. What is life? Who are we? Why are we here?

[Sleepyowl]

Sorry my talk of dicks brought you to an extensional crisis.

Feels bad mang.

[azureXtwilight]

The tsundere. End of story.

[Cherry_sama]

Awww, man, you're not gonna like my comic 'cause it's going to end on the thrill of the chase. XD That's kind of the point, though...

Recently, I've come across four different comics on this site (two moved to webtoons, though) that all followed the same plot:

1. Girl meets guy.
2. Girl hates guy for (often completely understandable) reasons.
3. Guy is smitten with her for no particular reason and keeps pursuing despite girl CLEARLY not being interested.
4. Every person in the comic's universe is trying to get girl to "stop being stubborn" and go out with guy, despite girl still having every conceivable reason to NOT want to get together with him. (If there is anyone in the comic's universe that dares to respect girl's choice, they will be portrayed as being "in the wrong"/evil.)
5. Girl refuses to give in and guy STILL tries to woo her.
6. Repeat Step 3 and 5 for 50+ chapters.
7. Girl gives in and gets together with guy.

Like I said before, I've seen this with four different comics, and two of them actually seemed to do it right. However, the other two drove me CRAZY. It's more about execution rather than the tropes themselves. I found this video to be particularly helpful on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK7OCJrJoos

[VermillionWorks]

"What is this feeling? My chest is so warm..."

It also seems like lines like these are used the most when a character has no real good reason to like another character but they still have to have "that special feeling" made obvious anyway.

Also, 30+ chapters of an insecure or meek girl being treated like dirt by a guy (not necessarily physically abusive but definitely verbally) just to witness the sloowww transition of him starting to like her. I don't like "sweet person converts bastard by being patient a doormat" stories. I don't find them romantic, I find them tedious and anger-inducing. XD

[ahhvecadoes]

My biggest problem is either you get the "Happily Ever After" ending or the relationship's story continues only to have constant drama and miscommunication and no one is happy. Like, give me characters that mutually break up because they realize their relationship isn't working, and don't get back together. Or give me some fluff at least to satiate me after all that lead up to an actual romance.

That or what I call The Stepping Stone: Having a character either in a relationship or enter a relationship that is almost promptly tossed aside and never spoken of again once the main ship starts to sail.

[kimber_anne]

I'm not a big fan of love triangles. Can you really love that individual if you're struggling to choose between them another person? idk. I think they can be done well in a sense of explaining the struggles that fidelity can have, but it's definitely not romantic to me. If someone was struggling to choose me or another person, I'd make the choice easy for them and say, "Byyee"

[joannekwan]

Definitely!

I don't like relationships either where they start with either one or both parties disliking/bullying the other. Just doesn't seem healthy imo.

[hades]

Down with love triangles
up with poly

[indagold]

Maybe this is more of a hatred to reaction to tropes than tropes themselves but I absolutely loathe that when lgbt couples are in an emotionally abusive/unstable/unrealistic relationship, everyone and their grandma think its a perfect relationship because they're not straight. People will rant about how tropes applied to straight couples is unrealistic and damaging but cream themselves if the couple is same sex and in the same fucking tropey relationship.

Guy rescues princess, happily married = Ugh disgusting, unrealistic.
Make them lesbians = everyone squees.

[Tanisha]

Well....
When the couple gets married at the end of the story. Not everyone is that quick to get married! Whether it be a commitment thing or not.
When the couple has a CHILD at the end of the story. Seems pretty weird to me that after seeing all the drama the couple goes through, to just drop a baby with them. Idk maybe I just like taking things slow in a relationship ;///
I think I just don't like seeing the far future in general like most manga does. ;o

[VermillionWorks]

Well....When the couple gets married at the end of the story. Not everyone is that quick to get married! Whether it be a commitment thing or not.When the couple has a CHILD at the end of the story. Seems pretty weird to me that after seeing all the drama the couple goes through, to just drop a baby with them. Idk maybe I just like taking things slow in a relationship ;///I think I just don't like seeing the far future in general like most manga does. ;o

I get this, though to be honest if it's supposed to be years later then I may find it cute. XD Though I would like to see a "years later" thing with no kids, like, do they always have to have kids?

[SpavVy]

Love triangles even if it's not poorly written, I'm just tired of seeing it.

The antagonist that wishes to get in the way of it and have them for him/her self.

Rape being romanticized or any form of abuse...no just...no.

Multiple people being in love with the same stupid person which is even more annoying than a love triangle

Arranged marriage

Based off of Romeo and Juliet.

Love stories that take place in high school is a bit overdone as well.

[NanettesClouds]

do they always have to have kids?

I think part of the reason this happens is because all-of-a-sudden-having-kids is a good visual shorthand to clue the audience in to how much time has passed.

"Years Later"
oh how many years?
Sees a bunch of squaking kids
...
OH.

But yeah there are probably better ways to show that time has passed without forcing the couple to have that life step within your story :V