First round post here, second round post here, the quarter-finals here aaaaand the semi-finals here.
Please see @purlturtle’s finals post here. That was a hard fought battle between Second Chances and Forced Proximity. Second Chances took the crown! Can it do so here as well?
Second Chances vs Mistaken Identity
Two titans enter the ring. Only one can emerge the victor.
A takeaway I got from @purlturtle’s analysis was that Second Chances is a bit of a comfort. It’s like you can mess up and still find a way back. That speaks to me because don’t we all want to feel forgiven? Maybe it’s just my mental health demons but I feel wrong a lot of the time, so yeah I can totally get behind the vibe of “it’s ok, one screw-up isn’t a failure forever”.
All along I’ve been stretching the definition of Mistaken Identity. I have taken it to places it was probably never intended. Plus it does call to something nostalgic in me. As I’ve got older I’ve moved more into sci-fi/fantasy but growing up I was all crime/thriller. My first half dozen novel attempts were spies saving the world. So on a simpler note of Mistaken Identity, it could be argued that Second Chances is what I’ve been writing more recently, but Mistaken Identity was where I started. Just to add a level to the fight so it’s across time as well.
Second Chances is a whole sub-genre of romance for novel-writers. I’m struggling to think of many canon examples because if they are a bit on/off does that count? I think not. Fanfic obviously is a whole other deal as that’s where we can deservedly give so many ships their Second Chance – ha! fitting, for the nature of what fanfic is, the whole fixing what went wrong, I like it.
Ok having had this thought ^^ about how the trope basically encapsulates the sheer love that we put into fanworks, as much as I want to pull for Mistaken Identity I think we have our winner.
WINNER: Second Chances
So yeah, it did take the crown here as well. What are the odds? Anyway, this was so much fun @purlturtle has decided to turn it into a tumblr wide bracket. So go check out @the-sweets-stakes and let’s see if Second Chances can take a tumblr wide crown…
