First round post here, and second round post here.
Please check out @purlturtle’s post here. I’m doing this in response to them, as they said I could ramble and join in 🙂 Now we’ve reached this point only half my picks are the same as theirs. It’s getting really interesting!
So in the BLUE CORNER
- Bodyguard vs Second Chances
Rocking that RED we have
- Grumpy/Sunshine vs Soulmates
The sun shines down on YELLOW
- Mistaken Identity vs Amnesia
Aaaaaand finally working that GREEN
- Friends to Lovers vs Sworn Off Love
Under the cut for my picks and rambles!
Bodyguard vs Second Chances
Hmm. On the surface this is hard because I have expressed my liking for both tropes. However, in my gut it is actually super easy. I love Bodyguard a lot but it just can’t hold a candle to Second Chances.
WINNER: Second Chances
Grumpy/Sunshine vs Soulmates
This was one of those brackets which I talk about later, of winning by default. I don’t dislike Grumpy/Sunshine (I gave some examples of ships I like that have it last round) but it’s not something that compels me on it’s own. I like the ships for other reasons. So this one is the easiest match-up this round, it has to go to Soulmates.
WINNER: Soulmates
Mistaken Identity vs Amnesia
Now we’re getting into trouble. I do wonder if I have been stretching the definition of Mistaken Identity to be fair, by talking about masks and acceptance. I suppose it’s because that’s the thematic message I have always seen in the trope. It’s like Jack and Irina from Alias. Irina was KGB and was ordered to marry Jack to spy on him long-term but she broke the golden rule and fell in love with her mark. You can talk the high-stakes espionage plot but it’s compelling because of the betrayal, the bitter sting of all those lies, the “was any of it real?” despair.
And Amnesia I waxed lyrical last round about the echoes of memory, the imprint of love. Do memories make a person? Are we more than who we were? Can we begin again? Can they find their way back together? Compelling stuff! Both of them. I honestly don’t know what to choose. This is not an easy choice. But it’s not the first impossible choice (that occurred in the first round!!) and that’s the game – I have to pick.
WINNER: Mistaken Identity
Friends to Lovers vs Sworn Off Love
Ok another impossible bracket. I chose on the last one, I can do it here as well, but yikes. Some brackets that have had a more ‘general’ trope I’ve ruled against them for that, as it’s not like it would work on it’s own – it needs something more to make it a story. However, for Friends to Lovers, that feels different, as it is the bedrock of any and every ship I would ever write.
I have experimented in the past with trying to write the attraction/romance/sex first because that’s a story too, and building a relationship the reverse way is a good thought experiment, and important as an author to try and see the angles. But that’s an experiment, it’s not where my heart lays so to speak.
Now Sworn Off Love, that is specific. It tears at my heart. I have such feelings. It is so good. I think of Helena Wells and it matters. Yet I have to choose. Argh!! Plus I feel like if I give in to Friends to Lovers then it will just steamroll anything more specific, by virtue of it applying to all my ships. But on the other hand is that a bad thing? Maybe it’s an early indicator of what will take the ultimate crown. And yet… circles round and round I go. Ok 3,2,1 choose-
WINNER: Friends to Lovers
Some of these weren’t as hard as I expected. The random brackets are a blessing a curse in that respect. Some real contenders got knocked out early because they were up against another awesome trope. Whereas some of these got through more than one round virtually by default as I didn’t think much of the competition. Still that’s the nature of the game.