Pretend There Is No Love So Sweet You Would Have Died For It

[redbrunja]

12_12_12 has talked several times about, basically, Rule 63-ing particular characters and tropes and seeing how they play.

Okay, you know the trope of the two guys who are both interested in the same girl and one of the guys basically gives his blessing to the other guy or tells the girl she should be with the other guys?

Well, at the end of Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl run, there is a gender reversed example of this, and it turns out that it is an annoying trope regardless of the genders*. Because the vertex person (typically the girl) is basically having other people tell him/her who she/he should be dating, while the person doing the telling has skin in the game (and is usually withholding information, to boot).

ADDITIONALLY, with these kinds of situations, there is usually a sense that one of the two relationship options is objectively a better choice, and that the vertex person should choose the rationally best choice. And that is just not how feelings work.


*There were also other reasons why this particular example didn't work.