Top Ten Tuesday: Tropes I’d Love an Update On

Hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

The original topic for this week was “characters I’d love an update on.” It’s a good topic, but I’ve had some disappointing experiences with sequels that either ignore the previous world building and character development or veer off into storylines that don’t fit the original trajectories of those worlds well at all.

I’m sure there are plenty of authors out there who know how to reintroduce characters to their audiences while staying true to the character and story development they had previously established. Since I’ve had trouble finding them, I’m going to quietly read all of your answers this week and talk about something slightly different instead.

Tropes I’d Love an Update On

That is to say, here are some common tropes I wish could be updated.

Man wearing a red superhero cape and a red eye mask holding his fist forward. He’s wearing scrubs and gloves and so is probably a healthcare worker. The Chosen One 

Most of the stories I’ve read about the Chosen One involve people who were given that title due to factors like who their parents were, which magical item they found or were gifted,  or what abilities they happened to be born with.

I think it would be interesting to read about characters who became the Chosen One after many years of preparation and hard work  or who stepped up to the plate after realizing there was no Chosen One coming to rescue everyone after all.

 

Love at First Sight 

Queer black woman cuddling a queer white woman.

The concept of meeting someone is fuzzier than it used to be.

Should you say you first “met” someone the first time you watched one of their Tik Tok videos or read a tweet from them?

What about the first time you sent them a private message or exchanged phone numbers and started texting?

Should in-person meetings be the dividing line instead?

Romance isn’t a genre I read very often, but I do think there’s something to be said for playing around with the idea of what does and doesn’t count as a first meeting between two people.

You could theoretically have two characters who have been online friends for years or even decades finally meet up in person and realize their feelings for each other are anything but platonic.

 

Uploaded Consciousness 

An artistic and metallic rendition of a human head. There are green beams of light shooting out from and circling it.This is a common science fiction trope that 50% of me thinks is awesome and 50% of me thinks is terrifying.

Many of the tales that include it assume that the human body or mind would struggle to adjust. Those possible outcomes make sense, but what concerns me more than that, though, is just how unstable online communities and places can be.

There are sites I loved and visited for years that have since been completely erased from the Internet.

Despite what parents and teachers may have warned us, not everything you put online lasts forever.

Sometimes it stick around just long enough to lull you into a sense of complacency before vanishing for good.

 

 

 

Clones 

Toddler twins standing in front of a large wooden door adorned with red lanterns.

Maybe it’s because I grew up around so many people who were twins, but I was never frightened by the idea of a clone.

Some people had womb-mates.

Some people have someone else walking out out there who shares all of their DNA.

None of this is remarkable to me. It’s simply something that occasionally happens among the people in my life who were or are my friends, classmates, and relatives.

 

 

If you know of any books that (lovingly) poke fun at these tropes or have reinvented them, I’d sure like to hear about them!

38 Comments

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38 Responses to Top Ten Tuesday: Tropes I’d Love an Update On

  1. Love your idea for love at first sight. It would be fun to play around with that.

  2. ” for playing around with the idea of what does and doesn’t count as a first meeting between two people.” That’s an interesting point! Love at first sight used to mean… erm, at first sight lol! What is it now??

    I do love cloning and uploaded consciousness stories, although yes they can be terrifying. I think there’s so much story still to tell with those tropes, especially uploaded consciousness/ AI’s/ whatever.

  3. This is a cool way to twist the topic. I think it would be interesting to update the love at first site trope.
    My TTT isn’t posted yet because I’m migrating blog hosts right now and it’s not done yet. Hopefully later today.

  4. Great twist on the topic! I would also love to see a story about someone who sets out to become The Chosen One, or something like that. Something other than “you’ve been prophesied to do this since birth.” Even a science fiction version like you’re the nth person to upload a picture to such-and-such, so now you’re the Chosen One. That’s a neat plot bunny.

    My TTT: https://bookwyrmknits.com/2021/11/23/top-ten-tuesday-characters-id-love-an-update-on/

  5. Love this take on this week’s prompt! Great points about how “love at first sight” might not really be the same anymore considering how we interact with most people for the first time online 😂 Would be interesting to get a twisted trope story about that (even though the whole insta-love vibe isn’t always my jam lol)!

  6. Oooh, I like this topic. Trope details definitely have to change over time because of changes in technology, pop culture, environment, etc. You could probably write a thesis on any of the topics in your list today. Lots of food for thought here.

    Happy TTT!

    Susan
    http://www.blogginboutbooks.com

  7. I would read something about a more normalized version of clones. That sounds really good, actually. 🙂

    Happy TTT!
    Lori
    https://fiftytwo.blog/2021/11/23/ttt-10-characters-id-love-an-update-on/

  8. Love that update on the Chosen One trope! And definitely also the love at first sight one.

  9. I love your topic switch, and I also love your suggestions! The chosen one in particular would be a nice change.

  10. Ooh, I’d love to read about a chosen one who chose themself. You can’t always wait around for somebody else to fix a problem. Sometimes you just have to suck it up and do the work for a whole community.

  11. Great twist on this week’s prompt, Lydia. You bring up some good points about the love at first sight trope. With today’s technology and abundance of social media, it can definitely mean different things now.

  12. Oooo, I like your update ideas for “Love at First Sight,” and good point about the uploaded consciousness trope!

  13. I love the way you twisted the topic. It’s funny that you mentioned love at first sight and the way you described it. In some ways, you described the beginning of my relationship with my husband. We met in a chat room many years ago, and after emails and (eventually) phone calls for several months, we met in person and have been together ever since.

    Pam @ Read! Bake! Create!
    https://readbakecreate.com/10-books-that-should-have-sequels/

  14. It’s been interesting to see the way people have adjusted this topic. I had a go at the “characters I’d love an update on” but gave up because I enjoy open endings too much. I prefer to use my own imagination on what happens to them than to read a sequel

  15. Kel

    Interesting twist on the topic. I like the ones you brought up, especially love at first sight, cause it is so different in this world with social media and all. I, too, have walked away from books cause I didn’t like how they character was going and they were not the character from the first book at all. But then there are some that I just completely engulfed myself in.

  16. Wow, you got me thinking now! What is Love at First sight now? People do fall in love online, so what is that? Great post!

  17. I do love a good chosen one, especially if it has a slightly different take to it.

  18. RS

    Such a seemingly obvious and yet rarely-made point about scary clones vs. perfectly ordinary concept of identical twins! I love all of these, but that one really made me go, “Wow, yeah.”

  19. I’ve never thought about the Chosen One plot much. Maybe because I don’t tend to read it in books? I don’t know. But you have some interesting theories or ideas. 🙂 Thanks so much for visiting Finding Wonderland on this week! Appreciate that.

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