My Favourite Character Tropes | Top 5 Wednesday

Top 5 Favourite Character Tropes

Hello bookworms and welcome back! It’s Wednesday and you know what that means. . . It’s time for another Top 5 Wednesday! This is a weekly meme that was created and hosted by Lainey @ gingerreadslainey over on the Booktube, so I suggest you check that lovely lady out! Also, she has a Goodreads group for this meme, which you can find by clicking here.

I am over ecstatic about this week’s topic which is our favourite character tropes! If you are unfamiliar, or are unsure of what a character trope is, let me explain:

A character trope is things you see often in books, something that usually gets overused in novels – and this occurs a lot in YA. Tropes can include: one girl against the government, two best friends falling in love, etc. 

So without further delay, here are my Top 5 favourite character tropes!

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1. The bad boy meets good girl and finds redemption and love trope

That title was a total mess, but I’m sure you get what I mean! I’m weak when it comes to the ‘bad boy’ character in books. They just pull me in. And this trope, where the good girl meets the bad boy and then the bad boy slowly reveals himself to have a good heart and falls in love with the good girl, is honestly one of my favourite tropes. Any variation of this is my favourite. I can’t help it! 

2. The (well-overused) love triangle trope

As frustrating as this trope can be, when it’s done well, I love it. I love the tension, and the constant switching between who I want the protagonist to be with! I’ve enjoyed nearly, if not all of the love triangles I’ve read in books. The love triangle in Throne of Glass between Celaena and the two males in the story, for one. The love triangle in the Fallen series and many more. The only love triangle I can think of that I didn’t like was the one Red Queen, which was honestly more like a love square, which was extremely weird.

3. The tortured hero trope

I love myself a good tortured hero. Whether this tortured hero is the main character, or a secondary character, I love it. It gives so much depth and story behind the character, giving them more colour and allows me to become even more invested in their story and their goals within the novel. 

4. The oh-so-special protagonist

This is the protagonist who finds out there is something different about them, maybe a superpower or they are ‘the chosen one’. They have a destiny that is planned out for them, they are the one who is destined to save the entire world from chaos or whatever bad thing is going on in the story. This is a trope most used in YA fantasy, and one that I personally love. This is possibly because I fantasize about being the chosen hero and reading about it slightly fulfils these fantasies of mine. 

5. The half human, half something else trope

It’s actually been a while since I’ve read a book with this trope included, but it’s one that I enjoy. Again, because I love imagining that I am secretly half-something else: half elf, half werewolf, half magical-being, whatever! It’s just one I enjoy reading about. 

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Aaaand that is it for my Top 5 Wednesday! Wow, that flew by. There are an incredible amount of tropes in literature, and different tropes apply to different genres! I just found a blog that has an entire page dedicated to common tropes within different genres of literature, that I think you should all check out! It’s amazing and not only did I see many that I recognise, but I found more that I didn’t even think was a trope in the first place! Click here to see it! 

What are your top 5 favourite character tropes?

Do you agree with the ones that I listed in this post?

Or do you dislike any of my choices?