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The Romance Tropes In Movies And Shows

The Romance Tropes In Movies And Shows

Coffee shops are a common meeting place for characters in stories. They bump into one another or maybe get each other’s orders mixed up. It can go two ways: either they hit it off or it’s the start of their animosity towards one another. Meet-cute or instant rivals? These are literary devices and themes that hook the audience in.

The Romance Tropes In Movies And Shows

Enemies to friends to lovers/ Enemies to lovers

Oh, the tension! Characters got off on the wrong foot and they can’t stand each other’s presence. It works in an alternate universe and it never gets old. These rivals would then have a deep talk and come to an understanding. Or one saves the other from peril and there’s a moment of gratitude, leading to a cycle of saving one another. They might not even outright acknowledge it but they’ve become friends. 

Well, we know what happens next. 

For example, we have Lona and Bennett from Netflix’s Candy Jar. They are rivals at school, the only members of the debate club, and are soon to be graduating high school and applying for college. They go through debate competitions, even have a few of their own, until they have to team up. There’s something about spending more time together that has you looking at the other in a different light. It’s exactly what happens to Lona and Bennett. 

Candy Jar | Netflix

Friends To Lovers

It’s the absolute yearning between these characters. The cycle of pining will either have you on the edge of your seat or shouting at the screen. But there’s something beautiful about seeing the signs and the build-up to the oh moment of the characters.

However, it does make you want to pull your hair when they go through the miscommunication phase.

This trope has been found in a lot of romance movies and shows. Several of them are: 13 Going on 30 (2004), Saving Face (2004), What If (2013), The Way He Looks (2014), Love, Rosie (2014), Friends (1994 – 2004), Brooklyn 99 (2013 – 2021), and Heartstopper (2022).

Saving Face (2004)

Fake relationship trope

We can kick it up a notch and talk about that editor-in-chief who roped her assistant into a fake relationship. It’s so they can have their engagement and then the wedding. Yeah, that’s The Proposal.

See Also

Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock in The Proposal | imdb.com

The fake relationship trope never fails to hook the audience. You have the comedy, tension, and drama all in one. Characters telling their friends the fake story of how they got together? Clashing details and a lot of elbow jabs? Fun. 

Having to get close physically? You have to look like you tolerate your partner at least if you are together. Skin brushing against another’s? It’s electric. 

What if they realized that they feel a little something more for their supposed fake significant other? But they can’t confess. No, that can’t happen because it would further complicate things. Nobody agreed to fall in love. It’s a golden trope. 

Why do we love these tropes?

There will always be stories that tug at our hearts, make us laugh and cry, and yearn. We have these three tropes and a hundred others in various settings and alternate universes. They’re not unique anymore, some would say. While it is true that these tropes have been around for years, we can’t help but still seek their different renditions. 

If anything, this shows us that we love seeing love.

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