A look at popular romance tropes

thou shall not judge but I'm about to judge like mad!

One of the worst things that has ever happened to my childhood is that they gave birth to my sister before me because tell me why I had a full-blown Wattpad phase?

Every time I look in the mirror, I remember I’ve read a book called “Married To The Devil’s Son” and I just shake my head in disappointment.

I even like white girl pop music. I’ve sang in the shower to Little Mix, Meghan Trainor, Miley Cyrus and the likes. I know more than a hundred Taylor Swift songs.

If white girls and Oluwalabomi (my sister) discovered BTS in 2015 instead of 2020, that’s how me too I’d have been shouting Jungkook up and down. Damnit!

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Romance is one of the (if not the biggest) genre in the entertainment industry. Almost everything we watch or read is sprinkled with romance themes even when it’s absolutely not necessary¹.

You’ll go see a movie about two strangers who are trying to survive a zombie apocalypse and twenty minutes into the movie, these idiots are kissing themselves. Then one time when they’re running from the zombies, she’ll trip, break her leg and won’t be able to walk again and she’ll go:

“I love you, Marcus. I’ll always love you! Now run, I’ll slow them down for you.”

With the horde of zombies rapidly closing in, Marcus will say something along the lines of:

“I can’t leave you, Lily. I’ll never leave you. I can’t live without you”.

Marcus, you must be very mad. Today is Friday. You met this babe on Wednesday. You’re a 35 year old man. What do you mean you cannot live without her?

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Sorry, I went off-topic for a minute (I’m watching this movie and this Marcus boy is just vexing me).

Today, we shall be reviewing popular romance tropes from books and movies and I shall be telling you what I think about them.

A trope is a recurrent/repeated theme that different stories have in common. So let’s begin.

1. Sibling Love Triangle

A good example of this one is The Summer I Turned Pretty or The Vampire Diaries where two brothers are interested in the same girl and she’s stringing both of them along because she’s an EVIL WITCH suffering from chronic indecisiveness.

But Damon and Comrad, why will you be dragging babe with your younger brother, ehn?

Rating: I like a good, unpredictable love triangle. It keeps me on my toes. I like the drama, and you never really know who the evil witch is going to end up with so it keeps you interested and in suspense. I remember watching Kissing Booth and I was just waiting for that her best friend to tell her he likes her so everywhere will just scatter. The drama of sibling love triangles is peak. I’ll give it a 9/10.

2. Arranged Marriage/Marriage Of Convenience

This is the one where Marcus and Lily get married because of a particular situation, let’s say their families are at war so they use marriage as a peace treaty. Marcus and Lily hate each other at first, Lily has a gardener back home that she is in love with and had planned to elope with since she was 16. The newly-wed couple ignore each other’s existence and give each other attitude for a while then they eventually realize that the other person isn’t so bad and they start catching feelings for each other. Awwwnnnn!

What happens to the gardener you might wonder? He learns the hard way that money is the language of romance².

Rating: I like the slow-burn of it. The process up until they admit they like each other is always cute when it’s done properly. 8/10.

3. Fake Dating

This trope is the one where Marcus and Lily start fake dating because Marcus is trying to use Lily to make his ex-girlfriend jealous so she'll get back together with him and Lily is using Marcus (who is tall, buff and incredibly handsome) to scare away her ex-boyfriend who won’t leave her alone. Somewhere along the line, Marcus and Lily realize they are meant for each other.

I’m sorry but I hate it.

It’s overused, over recycled, over washed, it’s just bleh. The reason they start fake dating never makes sense. The first and last time I thought fake dating was cute was in To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.

Rating: 2/10.

4. Best Friends To Lovers

This is the one where Lily and Marcus have been best friends for like a decade then two hundred and sixty five breakups and four divorces later, they wake up on a random Monday morning and to their surprise, their best friend is actually attractive. It never occurred to them before during their 10-year friendship oh, every time you accused one of them of liking the other they’ll play the “Oh, so you’re saying men and women can’t just be friends” card on you but on a random Wednesday evening, you’ll see this two liars kissing each other.

Rating: I’m not really a fan of people who liked someone, it didn’t work out, then they become 'best friends' which is what happens in this trope most times. Set some boundaries now!

BUT,

The friend-zone is a sad, deadly place for unintended residents. It’s like purgatory but for romantics. In the friend-zone, there’s hail and brimstone, there’s wailing and gnashing of teeth. I’m proud and happy for anyone who manages to crawl out of the friend-zone, which is why I shall give best-friends to lovers a 6/10.

5. Terminally-Ill People Romance

Marcus is a sick boy. Terminal cancer. Lily is healthy, or sick, who knows? Two of them fall in love. One of them dies in the end.

Rating: Midnight Sun, Me Before You, Five Feet Apart, Everything Everything, Life In A Year, I proudly give all of you and your remaining counterparts a 5/10. Maybe a 6³.

6. Mafia Romance

Mafia romance readers I know what you're looking for, you know what you're looking for and I know you know that I know what you're looking for.

Rating: LOL.

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We’ll be reviewing more romance tropes in my next post. What’s your favorite and least favorite romance trope? Also, which trope would you like me to talk about in the next post?

See you next time✌.

1. To be honest, I think our generation as a whole has consumed/been fed way too much romance through media and entertainment that we’ve become quite obsessed with it.

2. I just remembered this book I read The Selection Series. The guy’s babe entered into like a selection ceremony where they had to live in the palace for a few months until the prince chooses one of them to be his wife. Brother was missing his babe so he went to apply to a security guard post in the palace. After all the military drilling, this brother became a security guard just to see that his babe has fallen in love with the prince🤣.

3. 10/10 to Me Before You though (if you know, you know).

Welcome to the best month of the year by the way! Almost all the beautiful people in the world were born in October, Nigeria’s Independence included😭.