Favorite tropes

Challenge #11 - In your own space, talk about your favorite trope, cliché, kink, motif, or theme.

I didn’t want to do the snowflake challenge, but I saw this one in shadowkat's posts and suddenly I have ideas.

And… I am not sure any of the popular tropes I can name as my favorites. Enemies to lovers? It’s fine, I love it. Friends to lovers? Fine, too. There is only one bed? No, please, it’s too awkward. Coffee shop? Only in small doses. I love seeing people fall in love. The thing is, I don’t automatically feel drawn to a story because of these tropes. And I am not sure which tropes have power to make me read or watch just by themselves. I, in fact, too often drawn by subversion of popular tropes.

But here is the thing. I’ve ever been powerfully attached to two fictional couples. (ok, maybe more, but I was only truly fannish about two.) and on the surface they represent completely different tropes. It is Spike/Buffy of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Mai/Zuko of Avatar the Last Airbender.

Spike and Buffy are obviously enemies to lovers. Or enemies to reluctant partners to weird coworkers to lovers to friends. Mai and Zuko are childhood friends who meet after a long separation. Is there anything in common, except me?

And when I think about what really pulls me in, I can get to an answer. Both couples are rather dysfunctional wand unhappy when they get together. Both are kind of unexpected, surprise couples that didn’t have that much fandom love during their canon run and beyond. Both couples prove that “all you need is love” wisdom is not that wise in their case. For both couples getting together and the first kiss is not the happy end, but another step in a long and painful process of their relationship. Both couples are stubborn enough (or co-dependent ) to keep going on. Both couples emerge at the end of the story better people with better relationship to each other. And I like each one of the partner in both couples, and believe that they have a good future together.

Is it a trope? I wish I knew.