Favorite trope 348234: when person who nearly died wakes up in hospital bed, looks around, sees the object of their affection asleep in a chair next to them because they haven’t moved in days
I’m so fucking guilty of this trope in like everything.
enemies-to-lovers and villain/heroines works so well for me because it prevents you from dismissing the emotional element. sure, you can say that the villain doesn’t feel True Love, that it’s just narcissistic obsession, and probably some of the time, you’d be right
but framing it as a question mark forces you to pay attention to the ways in which the villain could be telling the truth, could really, really feel like giving up everything for someone else while AT THE SAME TIME killing people. the romantic angle forces a wedge between those two aspects of the villain’s personality and asks whether it’s possible to be fallen and falling in love, and we get to see which side wins out in the end! but the entire plot hinges on those heartbeats between the two characters. that’s going to be what tips the scale, and watching that play out where a villain might PUT THEIR WEAPONS DOWN AND SAVE COUNTLESS LIVES AT THE LAST MINUTE JUST BECAUSE THEY LEARNED WHAT IT MEANS TO BE SELFLESS?????? AHHHHHHH
listen, there is absolutely nothing that gets me going like mutual seemingly unrequited pining like? i live for both people losing their minds over the other person in bitter silence. savoring every single accidental brush of their fingers, elbows, thighs, every stray glance, memorizing every gesture or expression they catch while the other isn’t looking, all while being absolutely convinced that it’s one-sided only to finally!! finally find out it wasn’t in a triumphant moment of bliss after years and years of delicious, soul-rending, torturous, heart-wrenching pining. i literally don’t care about the fact that this trope is predictable af and always plays out the same way i will still go wild over it every single time like they’ll be doing the same reveal scene i have seen a million times and i’m still on the edge of my seat gasping “are they gonna kiss???”
my single greatest weakness as far as love stories go
is when a story is told through one character’s (pining) point of view, but you the reader KNOW that their love interest loves them back
and the pov character casually says something that you the reader KNOW is gonna be completely devastating to their love interest, but pov character has NO IDEA, like:
“[innocently devastating thing],” said pov character
a strange look seemed to pass over love interest’s face. “yeah, [seemingly casual response that comes off as a little stilted, for reasons pov character just cannot pinpoint],” said love interest.
“uh, [joke that accidentally just DIALS UP THE AGONY TO A THOUSAND FOR LOVE INTEREST],” pov character added, to cut the tension.
love interest step’s faltered for a second. “[seemingly casual response that is FILLED WITH EXQUISITELY REPRESSED PAIN AND LONGING].” it sounded a little gruff. probably love interest was just distracted, or wanted some space. who could blame them?
setepenre-set 