What kind of couple do you prefer?

[Maxedrox]

So, here is a question for Valentine's Day
What kind of couple do you prefer to read/write/draw in a story?

1. The traditional MC X Love Interest (side character that doesn't participate in the main plot)
2. The traditional MC X Love interest ("damsel in distress" type of character)
3. Power Couple (Both are MCs)
4. Enemies to Lovers (Villan X MC)
5. Rivals to Lovers
6. Childhood friends to Lovers
7. Friends to Lovers
8. Open Relationship
9. "Realistic" Relationship (MC dates a Love Interest but eventually the MC breaks up and finds another Love Interest)

You can add options if you have one in mind to choose from.

I personally don't have a strong preference for a type of couple, I think more if it works for The Story and the time required to develop during the main plot, but what I can say is... I really don't like leaving the Love Interest as a side character or as a Trophy. I prefer to meet the Love Interest as their own character.

For example in my Actual Story,

I decided for Childhood friends to Lovers because its easier due to the nature of how quickly the chaos approaches the main plot (everything happens in a spawn of 3 days so, that doesn't make it easy to build a romance from zero)

The Love Interest appears in Chapter 8 but he was mentioned in Chapter 5, you start to know him more and more and due to his heroic and protective nature you see how easy is for him to become part of the Main Cast, plus his friendly personality makes easier to like him a lot.

[harlan]

Ah, I'm a fan of all kinds of romantic approaches and totally get sucked in, but my favorite might be romances where the two are very different people but complement each other and its a slow burn.

[stiatent]

Exciting! Looking forward to Feith and Saliot's friend to lovers relationship blossoms, cute picture too

4 and 5, because I'm a sucker for those strong contrasts
Honestly don't have a strong preference either, all you mentioned are fun to write, except 1, because I enjoy the love interest being part of plot more.

Guess the cast in my current series displays a mixture of the ones you mentioned, bec the cast is kind of big.
But hoping to do a short BL in future with #7, a bit of #2 and MC X Their Hero

[WildMoonCrow]

Idk, as long it works for the story it doesn’t really matter much to me, they can all be interesting in their own ways, and would all work on different stories But I do like writing contrasting couples, or couples that kind of complement each other.

[TheLemmaLlama]

tbh I have a bit of a soft spot for #2, but it's not an outside threat that's putting the "damsel" "in distress" but their own internal struggles XD A 'saving them from themself' kind of plot, so to speak

Possibly overlapping with #4 if the 'distressed' character is deliberately putting themself in bad situations because they believe it's the right thing to do.

It could easily fall into unfortunate implications, but when done well, I find it heartwarming in the way that makes rescue romances appealing in general but doesn't feel 'shallow' in the sense that the danger that was fought was something character-independent that could've happened to anyone (e.g. being kidnapped)

[Lensing]

I like 6-9 with humour and drama.

It doesn´t have to be childhood. The characters can meet 10 years before the main story happens in the backstory
of the characters. For example the characters meet in university when they are 20, one of them falls in love with
the other and then they meet again in the main story and they are in their 30s

[HGohwell]

1 and 2 are the only ones I don't really enjoy (although like anything, a good story can make me enjoy anything) but I like a mix. I think lots of these can overlap for some really fun dynamics.

Enemies to lovers has to be kinda careful to trend the line between enemis but not so toxic and vile that they can't be redeemed (unless you're looking for a particularly toxic relationship and enjoy reading those, which is fine as long as it's obvious that's the purpoose and not just badly written). Personally, I actually have a soft spot for a well written enemies to lovers corruption arc where rather than the hero redeeming the villain and them getting together on the sie of good, the villain slowly corrupts the hero and they get together as joint villains.

Childhood lovers is really hit and miss for me. I like them, but I do have the issue where all childhood friends seem to be seen as secretly in love. Some childhood friends can just be childhood friends. Just like some friends with benefits are just that and don't have to evolve into feelings.

To be honest, in the end, I just want them to have chemistry and know why they like each other. That's all.

[DarkSena]

Personally I enjoy the most realistic approach of two people growing love after some time. No like boom and done, but something genuine that evolved after some period of time. I've read so many stories and very little of them did feel authentic, genuine, more like rushed and forced. Somebody might like but I grew to dislike the stereotype when a "normal" person falls into with the "idol" person and they're secretly in love with each other. I grew literally tired of that dynamic.

[Kaisei]

If it's a romance,
Power Couple
Bad First Impression to Lovers (not quite Enemies to Lovers, but a "Pride and Prejudice" type tension)
Partners in Crime (not necessarily literally a crime, lol - or perhaps they solve crimes together)
Rivals to Lovers (assuming they are rivals for something besides love, rather than them competing over the same love interest)
Friends to Lovers (but not if it comes out of blue - If you haven't been attracted to someone at all despite knowing them for a decade, that's probably not going to change.)
MC and Love Interest bond over mutual hobby/interest/skillset

If it's not a romance, there's more leeway because the romance is subplot. You can pull a love interest out of nowhere.

For characters I've created, I find I rely on Childhood Friends to Lovers too much (to be fair, some stories are set in time periods when many people were born and died in the same town). However, it may be "we were childhood friends, so we started dating, but it was the worst decision ever, so we broke up then married other people," "we were childhood friends, fell in love, but were torn apart by circumstances," or "we were childhood friends, then we got married but honestly it was a terrible idea, but then she was murdered, and I'm sad because I cared about her, but she wasn't the love of my life everyone thinks she was." For other pairings, I particularly like symbiotic relationships where the two compensate for each other's weaknesses/flaws, although I occasionally throw in a drama llama side couple for fun (the type that cycles through fighting and making up). I've also had characters that are in a position of power and have to maintain a certain facade in public, so the other character (with less tangible power) serves as their confidant and refuge from the challenges of being a public figure.

[Maxedrox]

Bad First Impression to Lovers

Oh I get what you mean, those situations where the characters can have a bad impression at first but they are not enemies, just knew each other under the wrong circumstances and still they get better as time goes on, I like it!

MC and Love Interest bond over mutual hobby/interest/skillset

Cheesy but adorable, I don't know why this trope doesn't have a name if in a lot of media happens, movies, kids' cartoons, in anime don't happen that often, but is like the most innocent one.

If it's not a romance, there's more leeway because the romance is subplot. You can pull a love interest out of nowhere.

Do you mean like a new character that becomes a love interest eventually? Like a secondary character or something like that?

[Kaisei]

Cheesy but adorable, I don't know why this trope doesn't have a name if in a lot of media happens, movies, kids' cartoons, in anime don't happen that often, but is like the most innocent one.

It's cute, but also healthy. Relationships aren't all passion and romance. Having a shared interest to spend time together doing is a good "glue" for the relationship.

Do you mean like a new character that becomes a love interest eventually? Like a secondary character or something like that?

Either. If the romance is only a small part of the story, it's less important to develop relationship "on screen." So the love interest can be a minor character. But I do think a Partners in Crime relationship can work well in many genres.

[system]

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