Weird Fanfic Trope Meme - aka Ultimate Fanfic Trope Showdown

[shadowkat]

Okay this is just a weird meme, it's entitled The Ultimate Fanfic Trope Challenge, but honestly? It could also be the Ultimate Romance Genre Trope Challenge and work just as well. I know I've read a lot of romance novels in the past three years and they have the same tropes.


Rank Name
1 Enemies to Friends to Lovers
2 Amnesia
3 Hurt/Comfort
4 Magical Connection (telepathy, etc)
5 Friends to Lovers
6 Rivalmancy
7 Role Reversal AU
8 Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU
9 Seemingly Unrequited Pining
10 Espionage AU
11 'Groundhog Day'/Karmic Time Warp
12 Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings
13 Royalty/Arranged Marriage
13 Adopting/Raising a Baby
15 Actually Unrequited Pining
16 Loyalty Kink
17 Trapped in an Elevator/Snowed-In Cabin/etc
18 Found Families
19 Sex Pollen
20 Fake Out Make Out
21 A/B/O
22 Soulmate Identifying Marks: Tattoo, Red Thread of Fate, etc
23 Coffee House AU/Food Service AU
23 High School/Uni AU
25 Age Difference (possibly due to time travel)
26 Vampires/Werewolves AU
27 Incest
28 Selfcest (possibly due to time travel)

And I had to do it twice, because it's just weird. First round didn't work out quite right - I had things like Selfcest above Hurt/Comfort and Amnesia. And, just no.

I used to like Vampires/Werewolves AU...but I'm not sure what that is? Everybody's human? Anyhow, not as into anymore. Never liked Age Difference or High School/University AU, nor a huge fan of Coffee House/Food Service. At any rate the stuff that I hate is safely at the bottom - Soulmates, Age Difference, Incest, High School...no frigging clue what A/B/O is or Selfcest is.

The stuff I love is safely within the top ten, so no problems there. The middle though is a hodge-podge, possibly due to indecision.

My kinks lean towards:

1 Enemies to Friends to Lovers [Basically Spuffy]
2 Amnesia [I read a lot of amnesia - I loved What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarity, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (film), it's a huge kink.]
3 Hurt/Comfort [Spike S7, Buffy S5]
4 Magical Connection (telepathy, etc) [Willow/Tara]
5 Friends to Lovers [John Crichton/Aeryn Sun, actually a favorite]
6 Rivalmancy
7 Role Reversal AU
8 Reincarnation/'25 Lives' AU
9 Seemingly Unrequited Pining
10 Espionage AU

Everything else, doesn't quite work for me. This goes for romance novels as well as fanfic.

Some, I admittedly have no idea what they are. This meme comes from tumblr, which explains a lot.

Comments

[sophist.livejournal.com]

There should be a general category for shapeshifters too.

Speaking of which, have you read the latest Kate Daniels book?

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Speaking of which, have you read the latest Kate Daniels book?

In the midst of it, at the moment. Or about 35% of the way through Magic Shifts. It's slower than the last two and not quite as funny or emotionally gripping -- but I'm only 30% of the way in. (I just re-read all but the first two in the series, this summer.)

The Kate Daniels series has admittedly ruined me for urban fantasy. Also ruined me for vampire and shapeshifter stories. I love this author's innovative take on vampires and necromancers. Also, shapeshifters who are lions, tigers, bears, hyenas, moongoose, and bison...is a stroke of genius.

This has got to be the most unique world-building that I've seen in an urban fantasy novel. (Too many of them feel like carbon copies of Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Twilight.)

Missing Andrea, Raphael, Aunt B, and Desandra...the book is horribly female light at the moment. Also, for some reason the writers stopped putting Raphael in the books after Gunmetal Magic. Which is annoying. I found him to be interesting.

But curious to see where she goes with it. Also I adore the characters still in it, and love the Curran/Kate relationship and banter. (Now that's how you do a long-term romantic relationship successfully -- Joss Whedon and Company should take notes.)

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

"Selfcest" means having sex with yourself through duplication, alternate universes, or time travel. "a/b/o" means "Alpha/Beta/Omega", which is a very complicated concept that developed in slash a few years ago, combining destined-soulmates with genetically enforced sex roles.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

"Selfcest" means having sex with yourself through duplication, alternate universes, or time travel.

In other words, Spike travels back in time to bugger William the Bloody Awful Poet?
OR Angelus travels back in time to bugger Liam?

Okay, I interpreted that one correctly and yes, it belongs safely at the bottom, possibly next to incest. Really not my cup of cocoa.

"a/b/o" means "Alpha/Beta/Omega", which is a very complicated concept that developed in slash a few years ago, combining destined-soulmates with genetically enforced sex roles.

WTF? Okay having troubles visualizing this one. So they are genetically enforced to be Beta and Alpha? OR genetically enforced to sleep with just each other? Or they have to be sub and dom?

I think or sounds like they are playing with gender roles or gender identity and sexual identity and the roles our society has forced people into. A lot of slash fiction is actually written for a heterosexual readership that is hunting a way out of those traditional gender roles. (ie. woman (alpha)/male (beta) as opposed to male (alpha)/woman(beta). or a combination.) Or male (fighter)/female(manipulator)...etc.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Alpha/dom/top combined equally rigidly with Beta/sub/bottom as I understand it, with "Omega" as the rare guys who don't have an unalterable role.