What romance cliché or trope do you hate?
Added 2025-02-14 19:21:25 +0000 UTCHappy Valentine’s Day to everyone! Whether you’re single like me or in a relationship with someone you love, we can all agree that romance itself is complicated. It can be convoluted too. Not as much as it can be in fiction though. So to celebrate this holiday of love, let’s discuss what romance cliché or trope everyone here either dislikes or downright despises.
Me? I can tolerate certain tropes depending on whether or not it’s well written or well-paced. However, if there is one romance cliché out there that I do not like no matter how it’s written, it’s this: one character likes another, and over the course of their romance they suddenly decide to get married. A wedding is planned for. However, either on the night of their wedding or when they’re at the altar, the couple suddenly decides this is a huge mistake and cancel everything. It doesn’t matter if both families spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars preparing for this day as long as they return to the status quo. This whole experience somehow even doesn’t result in a couple breaking up at the end. You find a lot of storylines like this in sitcoms like “That 70s Show” but also films too. I still cannot watch “Runaway Bride” without seeing Julia Roberts’ character as a complete and utter sociopath.
To be honest, I’m also not fond of romances where one character starts off terrible to the other and that person just treats them like a personal deity, but it somehow still ends with the two becoming a couple. That is one reason I am not a big fan of the romance in “The Princess Bride” or even certain tsundere in anime that are just downright abusive, even when it’s deconstructed or played with.
How about you? What romance cliché or trope do you not like to see?
