- Joined
- Apr 9, 2011
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I was reading the "What NOT to do" thread and I was thinking about the next step.
I plotted my WiP around violently subvert the sanctity of the "Power of Love saves the day/I know you're in there" trope: The main characters find out that they might go evil, and so they exchange keep sakes and promise not to give up on each other. When the climax occurs, the day is saved but --surprise!-- the Love interest had been taken over by his evil side. The main character fights him for a while before presenting his keepsake (his mother's wedding ring) and imploring him to come back and he takes if from her and then... he throws it away and stabs her in the gut! He then proceeds to try in kill her until she is saved by the cavalry.
This moment has always been really important to me in the story because since the possibility of going evil hangs over the entire story, I felt like I needed to show that this was not going to be solved by positive thinking.
It's also fun writing in a way, because the trope is so well known that even if I set the subversion up really strongly people still won't be expecting it!
So what about you all? Have you ever planned a WiP around destroying a trope that annoys you? Have you ever taken a "what NOT to do" so to heart that you've gone out of your way to skewer it?
I plotted my WiP around violently subvert the sanctity of the "Power of Love saves the day/I know you're in there" trope: The main characters find out that they might go evil, and so they exchange keep sakes and promise not to give up on each other. When the climax occurs, the day is saved but --surprise!-- the Love interest had been taken over by his evil side. The main character fights him for a while before presenting his keepsake (his mother's wedding ring) and imploring him to come back and he takes if from her and then... he throws it away and stabs her in the gut! He then proceeds to try in kill her until she is saved by the cavalry.
This moment has always been really important to me in the story because since the possibility of going evil hangs over the entire story, I felt like I needed to show that this was not going to be solved by positive thinking.
It's also fun writing in a way, because the trope is so well known that even if I set the subversion up really strongly people still won't be expecting it!
So what about you all? Have you ever planned a WiP around destroying a trope that annoys you? Have you ever taken a "what NOT to do" so to heart that you've gone out of your way to skewer it?