Character Genres I Can't Help But Love
Jul. 17th, 2011 03:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateelliottAn earlier post on Character Genres I Avoid has a lot of interesting and quite amusing answers about "character genres" I, you, we, etc as readers can't stand or are sick of.
The post was inspired by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
manga_crow's response in one of my other posts, which included this particular type which I found deeply amusing: Ungrateful jerk has life saved by being turned into something not-quite-human and won't shut up about how they want a normal life again.
BUT.
What about the flip side of this?
What about the character genres that get you almost every time? Even when you feel that perhaps you know better? Or can tell you're being manipulated, but don't care? Ones other people avoid but which you can't get enough of? The ones that if you read a version of it and it goes off the rails, you feel almost personally betrayed by what could have been?
I was going to say ones that may be guilty pleasures, but pleasure shouldn't be guilt-ridden. Life is hard enough without having to flagellate ourselves over eating ice cream, buying shoes, or liking a certain character plot just because it scratches an emotional itch.
You know what I mean. No squee-harshing here!
I am a complete sucker for:
The handsome asshole jerk (one who is actually decent at heart somewhere deep inside) who learns the hard way to be somewhat less of a jerk because of his interaction with a smart woman.
Not that you would recognize this character plot in anything I"ve written recently . . .
N.K. Jemisin writes a great version of this character genre in THE BROKEN KINGDOMS (Shiny!)
ETA: I accidentally deleted an anonymous comment that I had already answered, so if you don't see your comment here, please resend! Sorry!
The post was inspired by
manga_crow's response in one of my other posts, which included this particular type which I found deeply amusing: Ungrateful jerk has life saved by being turned into something not-quite-human and won't shut up about how they want a normal life again.BUT.
What about the flip side of this?
What about the character genres that get you almost every time? Even when you feel that perhaps you know better? Or can tell you're being manipulated, but don't care? Ones other people avoid but which you can't get enough of? The ones that if you read a version of it and it goes off the rails, you feel almost personally betrayed by what could have been?
I was going to say ones that may be guilty pleasures, but pleasure shouldn't be guilt-ridden. Life is hard enough without having to flagellate ourselves over eating ice cream, buying shoes, or liking a certain character plot just because it scratches an emotional itch.
You know what I mean. No squee-harshing here!
I am a complete sucker for:
The handsome asshole jerk (one who is actually decent at heart somewhere deep inside) who learns the hard way to be somewhat less of a jerk because of his interaction with a smart woman.
Not that you would recognize this character plot in anything I"ve written recently . . .
N.K. Jemisin writes a great version of this character genre in THE BROKEN KINGDOMS (Shiny!)
ETA: I accidentally deleted an anonymous comment that I had already answered, so if you don't see your comment here, please resend! Sorry!