#plot tropes

𝐏𝐢𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞ⵑ𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐱 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐧ⵑ𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫

⤷ gender neutral, ambiguous race, and any size reader. Requests are open, thank you for reading!

for anon! I hope this is enjoyable my love! ˖°𓇼🌊⋆🐚⋆˚࿔

ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ | ᴹᵃˢᵗᵉʳˡᶤˢᵗ ᴵᴵ

Oh I love this question! I have so many! I will make an official post about tropes in the future, but right now I'll focus on my favourites! (thank you for this question omg)

These basic plot tropes describe the overall goal/conflict of the story, which means that everything that happens in the story is for the sake of the trope. It is the protagonist's main goal/desire. These are helpful for when you have a setting and/or character but no plot. You can use a trope that seems fitting to structure your story.

Notes: Sorry if my examples are not well-known. I just used what I’ve seen, but I’ve provided links if you want to know more about the examples. Also, the list is incomplete. I plan on adding more as I figure out more tropes.

Powerful Object

Protection: Someone has a powerful object or skill which they must keep safe from enemies who want to abuse it and/or they must get rid of it. It's usually something that is bestowed upon them and they don't have much say in the matter.

Natsume's Book of Friends: Returns names to spirits because they can be used to control them and other spirits want this book.

Lord of the Rings: Goes on a quest to destroy the ring and prevents others from getting it.

Nabari no Ou: Has a powerful ninja technique that others want.

Searching: Someone is trying to find a powerful object or person before others who want to use it or destroy it (sometimes because it is the key to taking them down). They are searching out of their own free will but in a way are forced to because they need the object.

The Scholar Who Walked the Night: Searching for a book that says how to defeat the vampire who secretly rules the kingdom.

The Raven Cycle: Searching for the king Glendower who supposedly grants a wish when you wake him up.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Searching for the Philosopher's Stone.

Finding Oneself

A character is on a journey (whether intentional or not) to figure out their identity and their place in the world. They usually are the loner type who doesn't fit in (sometimes a delinquent) and someone reaches out to them, which causes them to open up and make friends. Sometimes it's a troubled character who heals from their traumatic past via interactions with other characters who accept them for who they are. They may have a secret they are keeping from the others.

All for the Game trilogy: Neil keeps his identity a secret while healing from his traumatic past by getting close to his teammates.

Girls of the Wild's: Jaegu gets over his fear of women by going to a previously all-girls school and interacting with many girls.

Kids on the Slope: Kaoru figures out that he likes playing jazz and makes friends in the process.

Revenge

A wronged character will do anything to get revenge. The wronged is usually an underdog and the wrongdoer is usually a powerful person. Sometimes the wronged doesn't know who the wrongdoer is so a lot of the plot is the search for the wrongdoer. Often the wronged is torn between punishing or sparing the wrongdoer because they end up having a connection to the wronged (sometimes they are family).

City Hunter: Revenge on the politicians for abandoning the soldiers they sent on a secret mission in North Korea, which caused them to get killed.

The Time Between Dog and Wolf: Revenge on the leader of a gang for killing his parents.

Iljimae: Revenge on the noble who killed his father and disgraced his family by framing them as traitors.

Mystery

The character is solving a mystery, which is usually a death/murder. Solving this mystery often brings corruption to light. This can be a police-type mystery (like Law & Order), but this trope becomes deeper and more interesting when paired with unveiling the corruption of people in power by underdogs.

Signal: Solving cold cases which reveals how they were covered up by the police.

Arang and the Magistrate: Arang solves why/how she died, which brings to light nobles' corruption and evil deeds.

City Hunter and Iljimae also fit. The mystery is who the wrongdoer is and solving this brings corruption to light and allows them to finally get revenge.

Deadly Game

A game is deadly or dangerous (or it starts out innocent and becomes dangerous). Only certain people know about and/or participate in this game. Sometimes they can choose to participate (in the beginning when it was harmless) but they always have no choice once it becomes dangerous (i.e. they can't pull out unless they die). They usually have randomly chosen special abilities or weapons. The last person standing sometimes has the ability to control the game (they become the new game master).

Battle Royale: Students are stranded on an island and have to kill each other. The last person is allowed to leave the island.

Future Diary: Select people playing a game where they must kill each other.

Seeing how oppressed and overworked the poor impoverished are, Philip Moneybags, now aware of this horrible tragedy, throws money at the poor. They are now happy and love Mr. Moneybags because he is their great savior.

Why this can be bad: When a story shows poor people being saved from their horrible states of life by a kind philanthropist, it takes away the agency of the poor and treats poverty and its effects like they can be fixed with sudden influxes of money. Not only is poverty a lot more complicated than “people don’t have money,” it’s not as easily fixed as giving the poor money. These feel-good stories of rich people making others’ lives better by giving them money also sets up the same kind of story as heroes saving princesses; the saved are incapable of saving themselves, and need someone outside of their group to save them. In other words, they are incapable of saving themselves.

How you can fix it: Mirroring Mad Max: Fury Road is actually a pretty good idea -- in character structure, that is. The problem with most of these “privileged saving the underprivileged” stories is the privileged person is both the main character and the protagonist. In Fury Road, Max is the main character, but he is not the protagonist; Furiosa is. That means that Furiosa is fighting against the injustice she faces; Max isn’t fighting it for her. This same concept can be applied to parallel stories, like that of the rich helping the poor. This strategy will then give the story a heavier significance and greater representation. It shows a more appropriate use of power and how people can use their privilege to actually help people.

If you’re experiencing suicidal or depressive thoughts, you are not alone. Click here to find a suicide lifeline in your country.

This trope was extremely common during the renaissance, but still persists today. A woman’s husband/boyfriend/fiance dumps her or dies, and so the woman kills herself in her despair. Unfortunately, this happens in real life, but the way that many pieces of media handle this trope can be cause for alarm. (Due to the spoiler-y nature of this trope, I will not be giving examples, but you can find plenty here.)

Why this can be bad: When it comes to media, many of the women who commit suicide are disposable. These women are either used to further the male character’s motivation (because he’s not really dead or he feels guilty) or as a way to bring tragedy to the piece because “look how much she loved him.” But this trivializes the issue that is so deeply and often felt worldwide. These female characters often don’t have lives outside of the male character’s either, which is why writers can so easily justify the suicide -- because she has nothing else to live for! But this is the result of lazy characterization and rarely an honest, accurate representation of suicidal behavior and mental illness. 

How you can fix it: Before you have your girl off herself, consider what her support system is like (family, friends), her goals in life, and her mental health. All of these will influence her. If she has a strong support system, a good life, and good health, she’s probably not going to be driven to suicide (though of course she’ll be devastated). If one of these is lacking, however, then it’s a more plausible outcome. However, if you’re going to go down this path, then you need to be respectful about it. This is not something to be taken lightly, used as a dramatic garnish.