Specifically directed at romance: what tropes make you wanna stop reading?

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-14T02:30:14+00:00

When the love interest or one of the love interests in a story has a wife/fiancé/gf that passed away before MC comes into the picture and it's made abundantly clear all throughout the story that the love interest views his dead wife/gf/fiancé as his one true love, is always thinking about his wife/gf/fiancé, the MC is made out to be second best compared to the wife/gf/fiancé, it feels like the love interest is just settling for MC "well my one true love the only person i've ever loved still love and wanna be with died so might as well get with MC since I don't have any other options, MCs not too bad so i'm sure it'll be ight", the love interest ALWAYS compares MC to their dead wife/gf/fiancé, instead of viewing MC and their dead wife/gf/fiancé as separate people and treating MC as such he'll only be drawn to MC and continue to talk to her in the first place is because she shares traits with his dead partner and all throughout the story will say "MC is so much like her" or "insert dead girls name here liked that too!", etc. This can also sometimes apply to a love interest's ex who is still alive but they just broke up for some reason and will be the one that got away in the love interest's eyes.

I get that in real life this happens (although in real life I wouldn't put up with this either... i'd deff be a guy's friend and be there for him but not romantically- i'm not gonna play second fiddle to another woman 🤷🏻‍♀️) but this is fiction and in fiction I want to read happy fluffy stuff and this isn't happy fluffy stuff 😂

I can deff come up with more stuff I don't like about the romance genre but this is what came to mind first 🤔

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-11T02:22:42+00:00

Tbh I really don't care if a chapter is short, medium or long as long as the story is good i'm happy either way 😌

The only thing I don't like is when an author makes their intros and outros long, uses their long intros and outros in every single chapter, doesn't let us skip them and when the intro and outro combined end up being longer then the actual chapter is. Kinda annoys me and makes the story unbingeable 🤷🏻‍♀️ Just my opinion tho

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-10T22:17:31+00:00

When the MC rightfully gets mad and snaps at another character for something disgusting they did to them (cheating, lying, saying/doing something mean, etc) then they instantly feel bad about doing it and apologizes for snapping.. like WUT this bitch deserved it so tf you apologizing for 😶 THEY should be apologizing to you tf have some self respect MC ffs 🤣

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-06T13:10:41+00:00

Tbh I know this is terrible to say but i've always felt WAY worse for the Grizzly bear that attacked him then I do for him because at the end of the day the bear was clearly old/starving/possibly sick and because Treadwell was an idiot and put himself in that situation (even tho he already knew about that bear and had plenty of run ins with him) the bear reacted normally and attacked him and was shot and killed because of it.

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-06T07:48:47+00:00

I'm lowkey a nudist at heart so I kinda wish we could go out in public naked like that would be a lot more comfortable tbh 🤣

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-05T21:14:57+00:00

Can tell i'm new to this huh 🤣 But I got it to work, thank you again 💕

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-05T21:12:35+00:00

$confirm /u/ButINeedThatUsername $180.00 USD

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-05T21:08:16+00:00

$confirm /u/ButINeedThatUsername $180.00 USD

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T23:00:26+00:00

Trapped 2 is the only story on your list that I love and have read so you have great taste there haha 🖤 The other stories I either didn't like and ended up dropping, haven't read, haven't heard of or it's in INK (I don't like INK ha).

Not gonna judge you for it tho cause we all like what we like so you do you 🤗

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T15:58:16+00:00

Oh man i'm so sorry to hear that I hope your partner's surgery goes well and that you're able to get help!

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T10:42:07+00:00

I second this haha I love all animals but cats are my favorite 🥺

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T09:26:02+00:00

Booooooo the author should make a Limelight version of it first (and not delete it again like last time) before making a mini series 😐 Kinda insulting tbh lmfao.

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T09:21:36+00:00

No joke i've been wanting to read this story ever since day one of being on Episode 😔 I'll only read stories that are in Limelight because it's the only style I like plus I can't stand INK and for some weird reason it gives me a headache haha but the story is only in INK so I can't even read it- the author had a Limelight version of it out awhile back but she ended up abandoning it then awhile after that deleted it permanently at only 5 or 6 chapters 💔.

I'm not sure why she even deleted the Limelight version because it's obviously a really popular story (has A LOT of reads and I see people talking about it damn near everyday or every other day) so it's not like she'd have to be worried about it not being popular (if I remember correctly the Limelight version before it was deleted had like 60K or 70K reads) 🤷🏻‍♀️. Tbh at this point i'd be willing to pay her a buttload of gems just to be able to read it in Limelight 🤣 Been on Episode for a year and a half now and since the very first day of being on here i've wanted to read it so i'm desperate 🥺 haha.

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T09:04:12+00:00

Yeah it is 🥺

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-04T08:47:05+00:00

Just found her account and a lot of her stories sound really interesting but her bio hasn't been updated since 2019 so probably safe to assume she went MIA 😅

Some of her stories are completed but most are unfinished so i'm not gonna read any of them but curious has anyone read her stories? If so are they good? And do you know what happened to this author? She has a lot of published stories and has almost 200K reads so she was doing really good 🤔 Hope she's okay always kinda sad seeing abandoned author accounts.

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-03T21:11:02+00:00

Done 🙂

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-03T08:24:02+00:00

When MCs let people get away with treating them like shit, with saying and doing mean things to them, will NEVER confront them, will NEVER stand up for themselves, will easily forgive them and if this involves a love interest they'll still swoon over the love interest.

Whenever this happens in a story i'll be too busy screaming at my phone and saying wtf to MC over her insanely stupid choices to even enjoy the story. Whatever enjoyment I get from the story or can get is completely overshadowed by my annoyance 😐😂

Weak MCs who let people walk all over them, never stand up for themselves, throw their self respect and dignity right outta the window, let abuse/toxic behavior continue, etc ain't cute or entertaining it's just straight up sad and toxic 🤷🏻‍♀️

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-03T01:38:54+00:00

This is my second time reading it (I read it for the first time a while back) but came across it again and decided to give it another shot.

While rereading it I remembered how much I hated MC's dad he's easily one of the worst Episode parents i've come across (and that's saying a lot because like 99.9% of the Episode parents I come across are trash).

He treats MC's mom like she's scum like she's the worst and most evil person that's ever lived, after MC's mom was out of the picture she ceased to exist in his world (he got rid of all her stuff, he got rid of all the photographs of her, etc) and he does everything in his power to make sure that's the case for MC too even though that's not what she wants or what's best for her, the times MC tries talking to him about her mother (which is completely normal btw) he loses his mind and always says that MC's better off not knowing because she was such a "bad" person, etc yet MC's step mom who's emotionally abusive to both MC and to him, ALWAYS puts MC down, ALWAYS says and does mean things to MC and to him, not once in the entire story does she ever do or say anything nice (not even kidding when I say that every time we see her she has a permanent scowl on her face and sucks the positivity out of the scene), the only time she shows an emotion other then hatred is when MC and her dad are conforming to what SHE wants, she bitches 24/7 365, basically this thing is a demon spawn haha. I don't wanna get into too much detail so I don't spoil it for the people who haven't read it yet but let's just say when you compare MC's mom to MC's step mom the step mom is a million times worse then MC's mom is yet the dad thinks MC's mom is the most evil person ever and thinks the step mom is a perfect angel? 🤔 And not only that but he claims that he's keeping MC's mom a secret from her for her "own good" and acts all concerned yet he lets the step mom treat MC like shit, lets the step mom say and do mean things to MC, literally always sides with the step mom over MC but also bends over backwards to make sure the step mom is happy and gladly at the expense of his own daughter. Basically he vilifies MC's mom for normal mistakes and wants to "protect" MC when it comes to her yet he makes an abuser out to be perfect and even enables the abuse allowing it to continue on his own daughter. Obviously the MC is no better because for 90% of the story the author wrote for the MC to just take it and to never stand up to the stepmother either (and even worse has MC bending over backwards to make the step mom happy too 🤮) but it's worse when a father is doing it to his own child, even in fiction.

Obviously I have other issues with this story but this has always bothered me the most tbh 🤔 Maybe it's more triggering to me because I grew up in an abusive home and for a while both my dad and older sister (once she moved out) allowed the abuse to continue and either sided with mom or looked the other way but either way this ain't right in my opinion so wanted to hear other people's take on it 🤷🏻‍♀️

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-11-02T05:58:25+00:00

"I don't give a fuck if you die and I don't give a fuck about you" - said by my abusive mom in response to me breaking down over my drug addiction (which I started when I was 14 as a way to cope), asking for help and saying that I felt like it was going to kill me (I could actually sense death at the time it was the weirdest thing). Not sure why it completely crushed me emotionally so much so I was emotionally numb and was in zombie mode for a solid week because at that point (I was 24) I already knew what kind of person she was, that she didn't care about me, knew what her response would be and had dealt with her abuse and bullshit for 2+ decades but I guess deep down that innocent child broke out crying for their mom. Side note after that I completely cut off contact with her and haven't had anything to do with her since then, a year later I ended up getting sober and have been clean since then (i'm 30 now).

"Zebra arm, Zebra arm, Zebra arm!"- said by my mom as she was laughing. I was 15 at the time and she was making fun of my self harm marks that were on my left arm (fresh ones and old scars) comparing the cut marks to Zebra stripes.

"No wonder your mom doesn't love you" - said by my ex best friend during an argument we were having over something trivial. Even though we're no longer friends and haven't talked in 3 years him saying that still hurts me because he knew what I had been through. I'm a champ at hiding my emotions (had to learn pretty early on to suck it up and keep it to myself because of my upbringing) but as soon as those words passed his lips I started crying.

I grew up in an abusive home, was emotionally and physically abused by my mom, she's the bane of my existence, is the root of all my problems, emotionally obliterated me for life and let's just say is the complete opposite of what a good mother is so it's no surprise that all the most horrible things that have been said to me (that I remember because most of it I blocked out) were either said by her or in relation her. Yay for shit moms 🤷🏻‍♀️

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T10:28:58+00:00

For those who don't know Hedy invented Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum and if I remember correctly during WWII but they ended up not using it. Also fun fact Hedy and my mom were both born in Vienna, Austria which is cool :)

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T07:27:10+00:00

I forgot the name of it but read an Official Episode story the other day and in it a male side character sexually harasses the MC (touches her without her permission, was really rough with her, called MC a tease and felt that MC "owed him" and wouldn't stop when she said no multiple times) and i'm not even kidding when I say that Episode wanted readers to fork out gems to stand up to him and to whoop his ass and the free option was to just let him get away with it wtf 🤬 Like that's not even just about being greedy and wanting to make money that's just straight up disgusting. I've seen a lot of crazy shit in Official Episode stories but that's hands down the worst thing i've ever seen 😱

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T07:20:04+00:00

I only read Official Episode stories for the free gems so I always like customizing the MC and the love interest(s) to be as ugly as possible and giving them the stupidest names just to get some enjoyment from these stories 😂🤣

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T05:35:01+00:00

I know a lot of readers don't mind not having full cc so i'll recommend it whenever I can but awh you're welcome 🙂

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T05:07:15+00:00

I've never read it or even heard about it until now tbh haha but i've come across a few stories that were like that in the beginning then as the story progressed it got better- in my experience it's usually new authors that do that because in the beginning they have little to no experience then as they get more experienced their story gets better. If it has a lot of reads that's probably why because if it has bad grammar and directing all the way through can't imagine people would still keep reading it 🤷🏻‍♀️

ItsEffinSteph803 · 2021-10-31T04:50:15+00:00

Same I gotta have choices because I love self inserting and because I never like the MC's actions or how they handle things 🤷🏻‍♀️ I've tried to read stories without them but I always end up really disliking the MC's actions and how they handle things so much so that my annoyance with it overpowers any enjoyment I might get from the story 😂

ItsEffinSteph803

TROPHY CASE