Tropes Don't Ruin Stories
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Tropes don’t ruin stories. But I do wonder if they’re ruining marketing. Have you seen the trope arrows on books basically spoiling the development of characters in the stories?
This is my issue with the current trends in book marketing. They either list tropes in the book and inadvertently reveal half the story or they place trigger warnings in a way that the same thing happens.
Similarly the “elevator pitch” Merphy describes is becoming part of regular marketing. A book with be described in its own advertising as “X Book meets Book Y in this new story of Z” or “Readers of X Book will love this new novel titled Book Y”
It is an interesting topic and discussion. One the one hand it’s good that ppl can easily find the tropes they like and avoid the ones they usually don’t like. On the other hand sometimes it does spoil stuff. For example if it’s listed as enemies to lovers then you know the spoiler of who the character is going to end up with unless the character has a lot of enemies. Usually at that point it’s likely there will be one of a few that seem to be the most likely
Tropes in marketing is atrocious.
really depends on the market. Romance and romance adjacent markets rely on the trope marketing because people tend to buy them based on tropes. they're not considered spoilers in that market because its standard practice. has that bled over into other markets? possibly, but I don't see it that much outside of the romance genre. however, I don't pay attention to much corporate marketing in the book community as a rule unless I'm laughing at it
It definitely bleeds into the writing sometimes, at least with "booktok" books. Some of them hinge on using popular tropes and not much else--and I'm saying this as someone who has seen tropes they LOVE be used in such ways. Particularly with romance. The classic "enemies to lovers", the "only one bed", the "who did this to you?" Etc. I love those tropes, but I felt there were instances when it seemed like the author was trying to check a quota of Romance TropesTM and hoped that that would be enough. Like giving a wink to the audience, that sort of thing.
I'm so glad you made this video, Merphy! For the most part, a trope is just a tool that can be used well or not well. Saying, "I hate this trope. Authors should not use it" is a bit like saying, "I hate screwdrivers. People should only use hammers."
Great comment
@@Christian-ut2sp Cheers!
Agreed! I don't really care about tropes at all
Awesome comment, friend
Stop using screwdrivers >:(
Romance is the only genre where I really pay attention to the Tropes - because there are some I hate and some I love. For anything else its the story and the world I'm interested in.
I think people often mistake tropes for cliches.
Tropes are just storytelling elements. They are completely neutral and necessary for a story to work. Cliches, by nature, are overused ideas /tropes that have become stale due to overexposure.
Every great story has tropes, but whether something is a cliche is heavily dependent on the writing. Cliches aren’t even necessarily a bad thing, but they do tend to be the least interesting parts of a story.
Overly Sarcastic Productions has an entire series called "Trope Talks" where Red deconstructs a trope and shows good and bad examples of that trope being used.
Highly recommend checking Red's series.
Thank you for making this insightful video Murphy! It's always fun to talk about tropes!
Also, Trope Talks comes recommended by Brandon Sanderson.
THANK YOU. And that extends to pretty much anything in a novel. It's down to the author to have the skill to use these age-worn elements to tell a gripping story. There's nothing new under the sun, after all. Also, I love that without missing a beat you paid the proper obeisance to your overlord when it decided to leave you be 😂
love the subtlety of the shirt. Doing a great job
Undulating intensifies
I think people often misuse "tropey" to mean a shallow, uncreative story which doesn't transcend its influences. Or, when talking about fantasy in general, transcend genre conventions. The thing is, these conventions often exist for a reason, which in some cases can be because they're compelling constructions that readers almost always love (like, who hates found family?).
Within narrative works in general though, the rule is that you only suspend disbelief if you are enjoying things. If you're not buried in the story, you tend to "see the seams" and shift into the critical mindset, which is why tropes are much, much more evident in things you're not vibing with.
IF it's a heist story... 50/50 chance the comp title will be Six of Crows.. whether it's accurate or not smh 😆
Well put! All of this needed to be said. The word Trope is almost a trope in itself, considering the reaction one gets when the word is spoken.
Keep shaping our definitions toward truth, Merphy!
4 seconds ago?? Wow!! I can tell you now that I’m still reading Malazan because of you and I love it so much!!!!
I had a similar conversation with a friend about how eerie music and loud noises are necessary in horror but aren't what makes a horror good. I find this is true with tropes too. Every story has and needs them but when you rely on it to make your story good it'll almost always fail.
OH MY GOD!!!! That cat is so cute!!!!!
I mean ......another cool video Merphy😊
8:15 your shelf almost gave me a heart attack. Lol.
A trope i sort of love/hate is just anything to do with orphans. At first I'm like "oh great another story about an orphan" but at the same time I'm like "hmm, I wonder what kind of journey will befall this one." Lol. I am hopeless.
That was a moment of true horror. And she barely noticed!
I’m sorry I couldn’t stop looking at the lap cat
I agree. Tropes are tropes for a reason, it's because they work. I don't think there is any problem using a trope in whatever way, an author decides to use them.
I laughed out loud as soon as I saw your shirt. It's perfect 😂
This was a great analysis! Generally I’m tired of the trope conversation but mostly because of the way the booktok space uses them. It’s a cheap, shorthand way to cast a wide net to draw in as many readers as possible. The way Tropes are used is the internet equivalent of putting reviews on the back of the book instead of a book blurb. It doesn’t actually tell me what the book is about. And it has pushed the book space in this direction where some tropes are automatically good, so they are being used indiscriminately and in a surface level way. So they are buzzwords that don’t actually mean anything.
Tropes are tools and in the hands of the right craftsperson?! A simple structure can become architectural marvel. Love this vid!
When the shelf looked like it was going to fall down I experienced more horror than anything Stephen King could devise.
Trope Talks by OSP are great, and have recontextualized tropes for me
1. Blame TV Tropes - their impact on early 2000's discourse cannot be overstated. 2. Far too often(even now), people confuse 'Trope' and 'Cliché.' Tropes are tools, Clichés are what Tropes devolve into when they become overused or are used poorly.
Yeah? TV Tropes loves to laud "Tropes are tools, not good or bad" nowadays, but not sure what it was like in the early 2000s.
I agree with everything that you say in this video. I think it's an important discussion to have. In my case, the one trope that makes me cringe and stay far far away is the school or academy for something that, in my opinion, shouldn't have one in the first place, like a school for assassins... I immediately think: "Really?" But hey, to each their own.
Newcomer by Keigo Higashino has a miscommunication trope which I called the most bittersweet misunderstanding I've ever read. It was unavoidable and the coincidence was so realistic. It's a Japanese mystery set in Tokyo and the whole book is just so unique. There are many tropes I don't like like the monster in law, miscommunication, protecting the loved one from a harsh truth etc but they're all so so well done. It is one of my favourite reads of this year
I've just noticed that today people use 'trope' the same way they used to use 'genre' and what's more interesting is that these days the people who roll their eyes at a book openly containing tropes tend to be the same crowd who roll their eyes and say 'Urgh, genre fiction...'
Tropes are awesome to categorise books I might want to read.
As you say, if I see something and it has "thief" or "heist" or something to that effect I''m like niceee say less I'm def checking this out.
God, I miss the dear authors series. Those videos changed my life. I guess you covered everything, so I understand.
I recently came across your channel and I am very impressed. I love the way you dive into the books and explore characters, themes, ideas, and plots. I am appreciating what I am reading on a whole different level.
I was wondering if you thought about going back to some of the classic sci-fi and fantasy novels of the past. It would be interesting to hear your takes on past Nebula and Hugo award nominees and winners. Not only the literary elements, but also how well they have aged and whether they are worth reading today.
I am almost complete with my binge reading of Dresden and I look forward to your take on this amazing series each month. My next series may be the Cadfael books by Ellis Peters.
Some of my favorite series were ones I started based solely on the tropes. I began The Dresden Files in 2009 because it was one of the first Urban Fantasy series I had ever heard of. Later on I started the Starship's Mage series because it was a Space Fantasy.
Excellently stated 👏 I like saying that tropes are the familiar flavors of a story. Like food! I don't typically like spicy food, so if you tell me something is spicy, I'm not going to reach for it. Buuuut there are certain dishes I like that are spicy. Same with tropes! (Also if I can relate it to food, I'm going to).
Lately I’ve found tropes to be a fun challenge for me as a writer. Gathering a few odd tropes that are typically antagonistic and trying to come up with a story that weaves it all together is quite fun. As you say, it’s not the trope, but the execution 😊
I always picture tropes as the basics for a story less the skeleton and more the nervous system of a story. They inform all the parts what the story's outline wants and then the meat and other parts of the story go from their.
I made a video kind of talking about this same topic a few years ago- so glad to see a bigger channel talking about it👏🏼👏🏼
Good points! I agree; tropes are fine as long as they are done well. They usually need to have some type of complexity or offer something slightly different for me to fully enjoy them. For instance, I like the typical time-travel trope of "changing the present by going back into the past", but the characters should have distinctive, realistic quirks or the plot should drift into plausible side stories/quests, leading up to some good twists here and there. I just want to be surprised in some way. So I like when tropes are expanded upon and used creatively and not just a easy way of getting from point A to point B. Maybe the character is thrown off somehow to point C and then they have to continue on to point D in order to get back to point A? That's when things start to get really interesting...
And when tropes are used in marketing, I usually take them with a grain of salt. Advertising doesn't always reflect the product, and I've been disappointed way too many times, so now I take my time to research and dissect a book thoroughly before buying...😅
Tropes are necessary to make the audience understand the motivations of many characters in a short amount of time, but it’s definitely a tool that can be used effectively or not
Really well said! I think the problem is if the book is ONLY tropes and nothing else. But if it has a unique spin that’s fine with me. Like the “neutral blob” is a good analogy
I think there's a difference between:
Genre Trappings - the things that are common and help define the genre in general or be common in main instances of the genre
Premises - tag lines or main idea summaries for books (or other media)
Clichés - things that are overused, lose its effect, and common enough to be irritating or take one out of the media
but sometimes Tropes try to cover all three. The clichés are the things to avoid or that cause problems. The genre trappings are mostly necessary a lot of the time, and the premises are the jumping off point where the execution really shines (or fails).
You could even make a bet with an author that silly premises can still make a good book if executed well (say "Pokemon" meets "Lost Roman Legion" bet that Butcher turned into Codex Alera).
Also, it depends what the purpose of your story is. We have shared cultural cannon for a reason, and lots of stories that aren't necessarily all about their fictional world building can use "known" genre trappings be it elves, dwarfs, halflings, orcs, etc. Or vampires, werewolves, zombies, mermaids, sirens, demons, etc. Or story beats like Hero's Journey, Christ figure, Romeo+Juliet romance, etc. all of these are part of the cultural cannon so it makes sense that it forms the background of our fiction, and as you said it matters much more what you do with it. Sometimes it is a twist to well known "trope", sometimes it is applying the trope to a different current issue/view, and sometimes it is just using the trope to convey a lot of shared background to get to the point which is unrelated to the trope.
If anyone is trying to get people to read their story I think tropes are essential. Something in design I’ve learned is that a general audience wants familiarity (think about how a joke is often funnier when it is related to someone you know), they want something relatable (something they have seen, been through, or can imagine), and they want to see it be done with its own unique/different voice or perspective.
Tropes offer familiarity because we’ve all seen these stories before and know what to expect, but we also don’t want it done in the same way we’ve seen time and time again. Once the joke has been told, we’ve already heard it. By considering something many people understand or go through in their lives (ie struggles, big life events, etc), a trope can become relatable to almost anyone. Then adding your own experiences or ideas into the trope’s themes, messages, interactions, and/or characters can give it a unique voice.
I’ve seen a bunch of people that don’t use tropes in their stories and it can often get overcomplicated or convoluted. As a designer I see a trope as reference material. I’m not going to copy the reference and steal it, Im going to take part of that, part of another reference and another one and then piece them together in a way that makes it my own. I think the most effective tropes can do that.
I just read a book where the fmc is brought back from the very brink of death/should be dead. I usually hate that trope but the way it was done was so good because the villain manipulated them into that scenario for his own benefit. So we the readers are almost wanting the love interest NOT to save the the FMC cause we know it plays into the big baddies plan.
I usually don't like the miscommunication trope but I absolutely LOVED Happy Place cause', for me, it felt very logic and real.
I've had an idea for a "story search engine" which would interact with a site like TV Tropes and let you search for media (especially books) that match certain criteria. For instance, one could search for a creepy seaside smalltown thriller with two best friends, one of whom is a gentle giant who... hmmm. Maybe I should call it "The Echo Chamber." 🙃
But in all seriousness, I bet having a switch that you could throw that would turn "off" certain trigger tropes or topics could be super helpful for some with PTSD or just intense preference. Too bad I have no idea how to code or market such an engine.
Excellent insight -- differentiating the nuanced and the real issue that makes/breaks narrative: execution. It's like "jump scares" in horror movies -- low-quality movies employ them (frequently and adding nothing) and quality horror movies have them (selectively and effectively). I really enjoyed this video. This is only my second time commenting here -- first time was to congratulate you on adoption. Btw, your T-shirt is so funny, lol (mean that respectfully). Take care.
Missed your previous video ranking tropes so caught a double bill. Your previous video discussing a love for ancient artifacts and ruins makes me wonder if you’ve ever tried to give HP Lovecraft a go? His whole brand of horror revolves around the arcane and unknowable so wonder if you’d dig it. I’m just dipping a toe for the first time myself with the Call of Cthulhu. Collection and am finding i have very complicated feelings on his stuff. I would LOVE to know what you made of it!
Tropes. Are. Stories. All stories have tropes. All stories are made of tropes. Tropes are just recurring elements of story across multiple stories. People being like "tropes are bad" is like saying "dialogue is bad". It makes no sense if you know anything about how stories are actually put together or how meta analysis WORKS
Thank you! Too many people that talk about tropes really don't know what they're talking about.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I plan to keep undulating
Good thing I wasn't drinking or eating anything when I saw that shirt. 😅 I feel like people equate tropes with cliches, and that's one reason why even just the word 'trope' has become synonymous with 'bad'. Not all the time, but I've seen it pop up enough in discussions online that I've started noticing it. Also, cat! 😻
Love your shirt!
The Will of the Many was one of my favourite books of last year, and it was also probably one of the tropiest books I read last year lol
that t-shirt is fantastisk
I love these discussion style videos! Also missing Dear Authors, is that coming back?!
❤ Awesome as always thanks
Well said. If you've ever made a "wish list" of qualities for a potential partner and then later compared that list to your actual partners, you know that a lot of times our isolated preferences break down in the face of a compelling cohesive whole.
To me it’s not about the trope used but how we get to point A to point B. Its the journey in between that makes things satisfying or not when we get to the trope.
Hi Merphy, can you please review Catching Fire and Mockingjay books? I saw ur HG review and it was so insightful and fun to watch!!
First time ive noticed the shirt. Its great.
I think tropes are good especially when you have tropes you love! However, I do not like the trend of marketing new books ONLY by trope. We had such a shift from promoting books based off of what it's actually about to JUST promoting "oh hey this has found family!". Like, okay cool, but what else should I expect from the story? Tropes are good and fun and I love when my favorites are in books, but I want to know the plot first when picking something up. I know you kind of touched on that, and I agree that it should be a starting point but so often it's kind of the only point of discussion when it comes to book recommendations. (Or maybe I just need to follow better people online, who knows! 😂😂)
Plus sometimes I like being surprised by a trope, and sometimes knowing right off the bat that it's an enemies to lovers (or even better, lovers to enemies 😈), can ruin the surprise or any tension. I do sometimes like a "will they, won't they" situation instead of already knowing characters will end up together. I hope that makes sense! It's early.
I think you’re exactly right. It’s not about the tropes themselves but how they’re used. In a way, speaking of plot tropes is like a predictive shorthand (do you like stories of type X in very general terms?). But (let’s say) enemies to lovers-that category includes (and the label maybe even cheapens) Much Ado About Nothing and Rome and Juliet. The former also has a faux resurrection. The Winter’s Tale has something closer to a real one. As you might guess, all these tropes work amazingly-because Shakespeare.
One of the other commenters here mentioned marketing, and that’s really smart, I think. It’s not that I blame publishers; they get a whiff of some zeitgeist and try to invest in books that scratch that itch (so Hunger Games -> dystopian craze). It’s economics rather than aesthetics determining what’s on offer. Publishers need to make money to keep supplying books, which are not the most sought-after commodity these days.
So I think people like you, Merphy, and others who talk about books for their overall effect and quality (their capacity to revivify tropes or deaden them) are doing the proverbial Lord’s work. Fun videos aside, I think your position is essentially that you have a certain set of topics and plot forms you are predisposed to like, but ultimately ALL that matters is what the author does. And that means you care less about forms per se and more about content. As any lover of books must, I think. Loved this video!
Thanks for this video. I completely agree. Tropes have and will always exist. Every book has some kind of trope. As you said it's a repetition of something. You can also turn any trope into something new or exciting or different. Usually, when people refer to a "bad" trope they have a specific book in mind they didn't like (where the trope was done badly). So yeah I think the whole rating about "bad" tropes is a bit pointless.
1 series I've seen so many 1 series I've seen so many Booktubers Say they don't like because it's full of tropes is the Belgariad by David Eddings I love that series precisely because it has all my favorite Tropes in it and they're used well to create a fun engaging story Over5 bucks series I've read this series it doesn't I don't care if I don't care if it's geared for younger Audience audiences I love it
I want to write a story with the main character is maybe a clone(never answering who was first), which could be a trope. I don't think it would be the normal way of using it, so it would grow the idea by being in the 'clones' POV.
I am very disturbed when I am reading the Typical "Undulating Trope". It is Shameful. Living in Kentucky I often see people in public places and they start undulating. They cannot help the fact they are undulating. It seems authors would be more respectful of the helplessly undulating folks out there.😁
I think the perfect example of tropes aren't bad and depend on execution is this romance/sport manga called Blue Box. This manga has quite few romance tropes. Love Triangle, Miscommunications, etc. But what surprises me how well they are handled. Like for example, whenever there is miscommunication, they don't last too long. It's only a handful of chapters. Then the characters realized that something is wrong, they confront the problem head on, clarified what happened or any wrong conceptions, and apologize for any accidental trouble they caused. They leave the conversation with their relationship stronger than before. And the miscommunication isn't overly dramatized, so the problem doesn't feel melodramatic, but real with a simple solution which is talking to each other properly. And this manga does communications between characters really, really well.
Highly recommend Blue Box. Lol.
The main thing I don’t like about tropes is when the book feels like the author was given a checklist of tropes to include and they didn’t include a single thing more. It’s what an author does with the tropes that shows their creativity.
Did that shelf almost collapse when she pulled out the Malazan book; or was that just me? :D Does this video need a 'deleted scenes' follow up?
That shelf has been dodgy for years now. One side no longer has the bracket to hold it up.
Tropes are necessary since they are supposed to entice you into reading a particular book. But books are more than their tropes.
I would say a story *should be* more than its tropes, but I have read some stories that were only about the tropes.
I don't mind tropes, UNLESS it's very obvious it is the only thing the story was made for. If there is found family in sth I read I'll like it, but prob not if that is all it hopes to achieve.
I mean heck, the Wizard of Earthsea is a story about a young wizard sent to a mysterious hidden wizard school. That was written 50 years ago and Harry Potter is definitely not a rip-off of that series.
Except when the publishers really pay attention to tropes and they literally make a book based on them… -> 4th Wing. If you listen closely to the interviews with the author… she basically discussed with the publisher what to write before she had any story and then she wrote one around the most popular tropes on TikTok. And it was marked on them. No matter the quality. Well, they made a lot of money, didn’t they?
I don’t think that Pride and Prejudice is a proper example for that trope. It’s not about miscommunication. More like the usage of the society and the behaviour in it at that era and make fun of it. They do communicate quite properly but the era requires some standards and that creates some situations where they fall back into prejudice ☝️and the pride doesn’t let them do x thing. That allows the author to make fun of her era. These miscommunications are coming from the society and not some usual tropes what we see in romance novels. They do what they usually have to do inside the rules of the game. And that makes this book extraordinary not like the majority of romantasy books. That’s why you like it and don’t hate it. 😁
In general I agree with the idea of "it depends how the trope is developed", but to me "Deus Ex Machina" and "Plot Armor" (this one in particular when it's excessive) aren't tropes but cheap writing instead. Once I read a book with the "adults are dead, children society" that hook me in and later on the books turned to an alien invation that ruined it for me because I wanted the stroy to keep developing the kid's society aspect more; on the other hand the "heist" trope is not something that I tipically read, but Mistborn got me out of a huge reading slump (granted, what I liked most was the magic system and world concept rather than the heist aspect that is arguably not as important, but still it was an interesting device to get the plot going).
very interesting topics you are discussing!! i watched a movie titled Prometheus(2012). Am i getting this right that it is consisting of the trope: What is a human really?
When I see a trope used well I immediately think « this author knows his classics »
Fun fact: deus ex machina was originally a neutral description of a trope before the modern-day critical meaning came in - and as a neutral trope, there were ways it could be done really well! Lots of Greek tragedies ended with an actor on a movable platform playing a “god in the machine” descending to fix all the mortals’ problems at the climax of the story. How a Greek god fixes things and how we might want them fixed is often totally different, so there was room to play around with irony and so on. ~
I'm sorry for asking out of topic but what camera are you using? The video looks crisp!
I immediately get excited when I read an amnesia trope
...Said no one ever
Honestly, I've read so many good takes on the amnesia trope that I have very mixed feelings. I guess it depends hugely on the context for me.
Look up Brian McDonalds pod cast. "You are a storyteller."
Trope is inadequate and a shallow assessment style to determine if a story is good. It is far more efficient to look at the armature.
Haha I'm surprised you dare to wear that shirt!
Tropes be tropin’
For the most part, people focus on romance in tropes. And as someone who doesn't give a damn about romance, for the most part talking about tropes in fiction doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't describe the book. It doesn't even tell me the genre and I shouldn't have to guess by the cover. And the thing is some people will say look into it for yourself, but they aren't giving me a reason to. If anything, I sometimes use tropes as red flags for books that I wouldn't be into. And I don't mean tropes that I dislike either. I like morally grey characters, for example. One of my favourite and few romances I care about in fiction is an enemies to lovers. But if you say enemies to lovers and morally grey to describe a book, chances are I would hate it because typically it is a badly written and poorly developed and meant for a very different reader that is not me. Marketing books through tropes is dumb, and if you're going to do it at least pick ones that actually describe the book to me. That being said, I also do think there needs to more experimentation with tropes on parts of both the readers and the authors. Like people will say they hate the chosen one trope and then turn around and gush over soulmate romances and royal characters. Is not soulmates just the chosen one trope in a romance lens? Is not royalty a form of the chosen one trope through birth right? By the way I personally like the chosen one trope and I feel like a lot of people misunderstand it but I also think people shouldn't dismiss it. Personally I like it because I like seeing the way it affects the character, their perception of the world and their life. Because essentially they are being made to live a certain life. Are they resentful of it? Do they rise to meet it? Do they try to avoid it? How does this affect their families and their relationships? How does this affect the politics? Do they have any real choice, and what choices do they have? What if they fail, what does that mean? Is there varying opinions on the chosen one and so on. But people say they don't like it because they don't like when people are handed everything? Which in my experience with the chosen one trope is never the case. What they're describing is just bad writing. I think there can be a lot of interesting discussions on tropes and possibilities, but because it has turned into a marketing thing people aren't willing to give the tropes a chance. Aka, step out of the comfort zone and experiment a little bit. This comment is long and kinda says nothing but here you go
I undulated whilst watching this.
I always say I don’t like the miscommunication trope too 🥹😂
I feel like “what is human” is an ageless trope. Even now with the advancement of AI, we are asking ourselves “is this human?” More and more often
"There's no such thing as a bad dog, only bad owners" is how I feel about tropes. "There's no such thing as a bad trope, only bad authors." That doesn't mean the author can't do other tropes well, just that maybe what they were trying to do with this one didn't land. We've all seen hit and miss books from some top tier authors.
My favorite trope is undulation.
Yes the cat❤
Most tropes arent bad, there are just a lot of tropes that are too often badly written
Overall the core Good/Bad of tropes can primarily be broken down into "is this trope being used as a crutch, or is being used as a legitimate part of an interesting story."
It's so funny that you first picked up an Abercrombie book since he's as anti-tropey as you can get lol
It's romance in general that has started to irritate me. Characters become predictable, all their attitudes and behaviours motivated by their OnE tRuE lOvE and I don't want that anymore. I've yet to find one that pulls it off in an interesting way.
Ah, the I hate tropes trope... ;) (kidding Merphy!) :D
I noticed you have the word undulating on your t-shirt now? Are you becoming more accepting of undulating now? Are you undulating more in your daily life? Is undulating becoming a trope?😊
Before watching this video do not read her shirt, and definitely don’t read it out loud
Honestly, there are no tropes that are horrible 100% of the time... But dang, if it don't feel like Love Triangle is trying.
Nice special effects but we all see through it...that book wasnt real, that background is wallpaper XD.
❤
***undulations intensify***
I would generally agree with this sentiment if it weren’t for the fact that love triangles is inherently a horrible trope no matter where I’ve read it. It’s never been done well because it’s inherently a dumb premise that I’ve never seen ever happen in real life and built on being wishy-washy. It’s a predicament that wouldn’t garner respect in real life, and shouldn’t in books either.
If the popular comments above say tropes are like tools, the love triangle is useless. It’d be like trying to use your mind to pull out a nail instead of getting hammer from your drawer.
People who don't like tropes are tropeist!
Think about every time you have walked into a book store. And how many times those shelves have turned over with newer books. How much sheer writing that is. All of them contain tropes. You cannot avoid them. Can anyone name a new trope?
Since you are wearing that shirt, I don't know if you saw that I found 14 "undulates" in Perdido Street Station where Lynn said there were 7. Then she informed me that combined with mine there are 15. I missed one!
🧡📚🧡📚🧡📚🧡