Top 5 Tuesday || Tropes I Want More Of

Shanah @ Bionic Bookworm Blog always picks awesome T5T topics, but this one? This is one is SO GOOD, guys. It lets me indulge in all my tropey guilty pleasures, and I am SO FIRED UP.

Are you ready? Because these tropes are going actually maybe get super shippy. It’s a rare moment from me. Witness it.

1. Battle Couple

This is it. This is the trope that I almost always fall for. I’m hopeless and predictable, and DAMMIT, I refuse to let go of it!

See, I’m so, so picky about my shipping, and nine times out of ten, when I find a ship I like, I discovered I like them because they make a killer team in a fight. Whether it’s more of a brawn over brains fight or a brains over brawn fight, so long as you can pitch me two characters who make each other better in battle (and obviously also outside of battle), I am RIGHT THERE.

 

2. Formal Titles or Last Names or Nicknames and then TROUBLE

Listen. This one goes hand in hand with battle couple, because there is NOTHING that has the ability to wrench my soul out of my body and then stuff it back in in a panic quite like a battle couple who refers to one another exclusively by last names/formal titles/nicknames until something goes WRONG and then the first names come out. Of course, this also works for couples who aren’t battle couples. Slightly different effect, but still.

It’s the good stuff. The prime, sappy, angsty material I crave. The pinnacle of shippy perfection. Gimme more of it. Let me be greedy for this one thing, please.

 

3. Stay in the Car

Okay, so this one isn’t shippy, but it’s SO MUCH FUN and SO VERSATILE. Basically, it’s when one character tells another “stay in the car” so the other character doesn’t get hurt/because the character doesn’t have any applicable skills/someone needs to be able to get away, except car character arrives STILL IN THE CAR to run something/someone over and save the day.

Technically, they didn’t leave the car.

 

4. Interrogation Confusion

The more the merrier for this one! I love interrogation scenes where all of the team is caught, but everyone is telling a wildly different version of the same story, and the interrogators are left scratching their heads. Bonus points if the story helps them escape (not just get off the hook). Double bonus points if, in some weird, weird way, it’s all true.

 

5. Stuck Together

For the most fun possible, attach two characters together in some way that means they can’t split up, and they don’t yet have the means to remove the binding. Now, make sure these characters drive each other UP THE WALL.

This is one of my favorites mostly because it forces characters who dislike each other to cooperate, which generates conflict and propels the story forward at the same time. “We’re handcuffed together and I hate you” is seriously classic for character development, and usually really damn funny if played right.

Plus, if you combine it with rivals/enemies to lovers, you are GOLDEN.

 

I’ll admit, I think I’ve found more of these in TV than while reading, since they translate really well to TV, but they’re still such good tropes. They’re sooooo good. And they’re just about a guaranteed way to catch my interest.

What are some of your favorite tropes?