UndieGirl on Tropes: Damsel in Distress

Hello lonely readers, I want to talk to you to day about a very serious problem plaguing our favourite fictional universes: the damsel in distress. You know the girl she’s beautiful and nice and small animals flock to her when she sings. She’s generally a joy to be around. The problem is that she’s constantly getting herself kidnapped and locked in a tower and/or tied to a train track. This results in an extreme level of manpain and the overpopulation of white male heroes. While manpain driven hero narratives are okay in moderation, in abundance they can be really fricken annoying, not to mention problematic but we’ll get to that first let’s talk about the damsel in distress.

UndieGirl Talks Tropes: The Love Triangle

A lot of people have been hating on the love triangle recently (for good reason) but the thing is when they’re done well there is nothing better. Conversations and arguments get heated where love triangles are concerned and people have to pick a team (even going to the extreme of wearing t-shirts declaring their side). Families and friendships have been ripped apart and that kind of passion should not just be dismissed because we’ve been oversaturated… that said we have reached the point where I want to grab people and scream: it is possible to have a dramatic romance without a love triangle.

UndieGirl on Tropes: Wild Teen Party

A little while ago I confessed my love for trashy teen flicks and I figured why not show this genre a little more love by highlighting on of my favourite tropes.  This is another one of those tropes that I love in movies but loathe in real life. A wild teen party seems like a good idea but it’s really really not. It is however overly dramatic and often hilarious, which is what makes it so fun to watch.

UndieGirl talks Tropes: Fake/Pretend Relationships

Remember when Patrick Dempsey couldn’t get a date so he blackmailed a popular girl (Amanda Peterson) into pretending to go out with him (Can’t Buy Me Love). What about when Nick desperately asked Norah to be his girlfriend for five minutes after his ex turned up unexpectedly (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist).  Or even when Easy A’s Brandon was so desperate to stay in the closet that he begged Olive to fake a sexual encounter... That, ladies and gentlemen is the fake/pretend relationship trope. There are a million other examples I could give but all that would do is reveal the absolutely ridiculous amount of knowledge I have about romantic comedy’s and romance novels besdies I think you get the gist.

UndieGirl talks Tropes: The Love Interest

The love interest – basically it does what it says on the box, because the love interest’s sole purpose is to be romantically connected to one of the main characters of whatever television show, movie, book or comic you’re looking at. Occasionally he or more likely she actually develops into something more but most of the time this character is simply a series of stereotypes with a pretty face.  As a romantic subplot is expected in most stories this trope is fairly prevalent but sometimes it would be nice if they ignored the love story completely rather than included these shallow characters.

UndieGirl Talks Tropes: Nice Guys Finish First

Let me tell you about the ‘nice guy’. You know him, he’s your best friend, he watches crappy rom-coms with you even though he doesn’t like them and he would never pressure you to do anything you didn’t want to do. He cooks, he cleans and he listens to you complain about the ‘bad boy’ whenever you want to. He’s the kind of friend everyone dreams of but before you get too excited you should know, all this niceness has an ulterior motive.

This blog is dedicated to the 'nice' guy, because sometimes he should finish last.