I hate many romantic tropes. Enemies to lovers, pointless misunderstandings, love triangles, harem, super slow burns, toxic behaviors being treated as romantic, etc. I've seen a lot of these HAVE examples that work well, but I've been burned too many times with the examples of ppl executing the whole thing very badly. Like a number of misunderstandings can be very reasonable, people miscommunicate all the time, but nah, most of them in romances are like, "JUST HAVE A SINGLE DAMN CONVERSATION." Toxic behaviors being treated as romantic is basically just never a fun time for me with the exception of the thing I'll mention later. Enemies to lovers, sometimes ppl can be getting over preconceived misjudgments, but MOST OF THE TIME IT'S TWO PPL WHO SEEM TO HATE EACH OTHER AND HAVE NOTHING THEY SEEM TO LIKE ABOUT EACH OTHER THAT EVERYONE INSISTS MEANS THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND HAVE AMAZING CHEMISTRY. NO. MOST OF THE TIME, PPL WHO HATE EACH OTHER JUST HATE EACH OTHER.
And love triangles, I just have no good feelings about anyone or anything. If it's a woman sandwiched between two men she can't decide between, I feel both like the woman is usually a wishy washy person who like IF YOU'RE NOT CERTAIN ABOUT EITHER OF THEM, THEN NEITHER OF THEM ARE WORTH IT, WOMAN. And also like the men are assholes bc they're usually fighting over the lady like she can't make up her own mind. If it's a situation where the woman seems pretty committed to a single person, the other person is an irritating hindrance to the plot most of the time who does not need to be there, or an annoying sadboy who's just there to be pathetic and sad, OR a rapey "I don't care you have someone you love" asshole, OR is legitimately a better person than the asshole the woman is committed to, and makes us all wonder why the woman is so fucking stupid. If it's a MAN who can't make up his own mind between two women, it's almost always like, he legit doesn't seem to give a shit who he ends up with as long as he gets some, and the two women appear to have nothing else worth living for in their life. If it's a man who's committed to someone, but there's another woman there, usually she's either kinda sad, or ALSO an irritating hindrance to teh plot who does not need to be there, OR A STRAIGHT UP VILLAIN! Like yeah, I should LOOOOVE reading or watching stuff where women only exist to fight over a man and can legit become evil because they're terrible people who're willing to destroy each other without ever questioning why this boy is worth it when he's often an ass to at least one of them. Mm yes, unambiguously evil females bc they have nothing to care about in life except a boy is my FAVORITE. (No. No it's really not.)
Like no shame to you if you like any of these tropes, I just feel my blood boiling most of the time when I read em (except love triangles where three ppl end up together, that's legit okay). I may also feel particularly strongly about the love triangle thing, because I was a part of one when I was in high school, where I was committed to one guy, and the other guy who was my friend but also very clearly liked me would not let go of his little sadboy feelings, and I HATED IT. HATED IT.
MEANWHILE. I LOVE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS TO LOVERS, POOR ANXIOUS PEOPLE MAKING BAD DECISIONS BUT STILL HAVING A GOOD HEART, AND MY ONE HUGE HUGE GUILTY PLEASURE ONE IS when the love is mutual, but one person is like, "bye, I gotta go bc I'm not good enough for you, or I'm gonna die in 6 months, etc" and the other person is like "TOO LATE, YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE, I'LL CHASE YOU TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH." I know it's problematic bc they're not respecting what the other person is saying, but I'll readily admit to just plain enjoying most of those stories so much (so long as the love part is mutual).