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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Ship Shape: Banter, Bicker, Bang


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Last time on Ship Shape: Best Kiss Scenes and What Makes Them Great

I love, love, love when my ships fight.

When characters fight over fundamental character differences in philosophy or temperament, it is glorious. it is sexual tension. Romance in literature is, to me, a character finding another character the either balances or helps them overcome their fatal flaw. Their flaws and strengths complement each other like inverse puzzle pieces. It's negative space and positive space. Which means the two characters are going to be fundamentally different. Which means they're going to fight.

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"I HATE YOU but I also kinda want to make out with you emotions are hard"

I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS FIGHT. To me, that's make out time. That's tension. That's what makes a sense go all romantically crackly for me, and I feel it in my fingers I feel it in my toes (feel it is my to-o-oooooes). This is why I honestly love hate-to-love stories because I know I'm going to get some good complementary flaws and sexually charged arguments, yes indeedy. (Or at least, I hope I'm going to get that, and it's not just a rote hate-to-love for no reason or just to cash in on the trope.)

Don't get me wrong. I don't love when fictional couples fight for bs reasons, like author-forced angst, or if they're actually not a good  and healthy couple, but we're meant to believe they are. When there's no character-inherent reason for the arguing besides "Well, arguing's hot, right?" Well, yes, okay, right, but also...no. But that's not fun to read, because there's no reason or tension, right? I want them to fight in a very passionate, meaningful way, and then mayyyyybe to silence each other with a fiery kiss up against a wall? Or...whatever. Ahem.

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"OUR VERY DIFFERENT PHILOSOPHIES ON HOW TO KEEP OUR SPACE ORPHANS ALIVE IN THIS RADIOACTIVE HELLSCAPE MEAN I HAVE TO STARE DEEPLY AT YOU WITH SEX IN MY EYES"

I've loved sweet romances in the past. I know that some characters are not the "banter, bicker, bang against a wall" type, and that's fine (I just personally happen to go BUG NUTS over those. Blame Darcy/Elizabeth and Dimitri/Anastasia) (neither of which did any on page/screen banging but YOU FOLLOW). But no relationship is sunshine and roses all the tme, and being able to overcome obstacles both outside of yourself and within yourself is the greatest thing there is to me. It's what gets me from "aw they're cute" to SHIPSHIPSHIPSHIP.

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"Fine." "Fine." "FINE."

As Meg from Cuddlebuggery once said to me, "If a couple never fights, they're basically lobotomized sand people." Which is just so much more eloquent than anything I could ever say.

Some of my favorite Banter, Bicker, Bang couples (some hate-to-love, some such BBB):
(This list is by NO MEANS comprehensive:)

From TV:
Bellamy and Clarke from The 100 aka Bellarke (everything is Bellarke)
Logan and Veronica from Veronica Mars
Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls ("This was not Nick and Nora, this was Sid and Nancy")
Dimitri and Anastasia from Anastasia
Belle and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast
Seth and Summer from The O.C.
Mindy and Danny from The Mindy Project

From books:
Ron and Hermione from the Harry Potter series by Her Majesty, Queen J.K. of Rowling
Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Emma and Mr. Knightley from Emma by Jane Austen
Percy and Annabeth from the Percy Jackson series and the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
Micah and Lainey from The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes
Blue and Gansey from The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
Ryder and Jemma from Magnolia by Kristi Cook
Titus and Iolanthe from the Elemental trilogy by Sherry Thomas (REALLY great romance about two opposite types who banter with the best of them)

What about you? Do you like hate-to-love or bicker, banter, bang? What are some of your favorite fighting couples?

16 comments:

  1. Bellarke! I love Bellarke! And these are some of the best types of couples! So much fun to read/watch!

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  2. This post is life. Bellarke is life and LoVe and I 10000000% agree with every ship you mentioned except the one from the Elemental Trilogy because I haven't read those yet but now I'm even more excited. Loooooooooooooooooooooooooooove

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  3. OMG. I love you're post! Seriously everything you said is what I love about reading and watching. By the way I love love LOVE Anastasia. I'm totally gonna go check those tv shows and books you mentioned. I love me some good banter. I'm totally gonna stalk you're blog now, I can't believe I found it until now!

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  4. OMG Yes, to all of this!! I hate it when authors use arguments and fights for no reason. But when it fits the couple and the story-line? Oh, the tension is so delicious!! I personally ship passionate couples too, a lot more than cutesy relationships where everything's all sunshine and rainbows and heart eyes. Because they honestly make for some of the best banter and chemistry, and my ship feels go BERSERK.

    ALSO BELLARKE! <3 Awesome post!!

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  5. This is awesome! Great post. I love good love-scented arguments, but only when I'm sure the two will eventually make up (and make out). I'm a sucker for happy endings.
    I dislike arguments when the two are supposedly in love but say really awful, hurtful things to each other. Some words cannot be unsaid.
    Darcy & Lizzy are the best, right? The original in this cool list of yours :)

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  6. I'm going to sit in this post for a bit if you don't mind. Not on. IN. Like, full-blown wallowing. Mmmmmmmmmm.

    (To your lists, I'd add...

    Books:
    Ror and Niklaas, Princess of Thorns
    Aria and Perry, The Never Sky Trilogy
    Irene and Gen, The Queen's Thief series
    Margaret Hale and Mr. Thornton, North and South
    Marina and Finn, All Our Yesterdays

    TV:
    Beckett and Castle, Castle
    John and Carter, Person of Interest
    Dean and Jo, Supernatural
    Juliette and Shawn, Psych)

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    Replies
    1. AUGH! And Lilac and Tarver from THESE BROKEN STARS. I forgot them.

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  7. Haha! Banter, bicker, bang is such a good name for these types of romances and like you, I absolutely love them! Oh, the tension! I'm currently reading Pride and Prejudice and I LOVE it!!!

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  8. I love when my ships fight too! I love the tension and the bickering and it's just really cute. Oh my gosh Bellarke <333 YES. Also Aiden and Alex from Covenant have awesome fighting banter. I love your list, especially Darcy and Elizabeth and Knightley and Emma! Micah and Lainey are adorable <33 Awesome post!!

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  9. Oh so excellent!!! Dimitri and Anastasiaaa! They are THE BEST! I might like Knightley and Emma just a teeeensy bit more than Darcy and Elizabeth, at least the movie version, because he's so delightfully snarky with her. And they just really bounce off of each other.

    "You didn't ask me to contribute a riddle, Emma."
    "Your whole personality is a riddle, Mr. Knightley. I thought you overqualified."

    Ron and Hermione, Micah and Lainey, Blue and Gansey, Belle and the Beast! Yessss! I'd also add Tiana and Naveen from Princess and the Frog. Love. Them. It really is such a good trope, isn't it <3

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  10. "I will stop your mouth." <- forever swoon

    Unless you're BIngley and Jane, you're going to fight sometimes, and unless they have some fights and get through them, how do you know that you can? Plus, I generally think talking things out will be more effective than the Bing and Jane method of making assumptions and almost missing out for stupid reasons.

    Funny how I like all of these things. Hmmmmm.

    THOUGH WHERE IS PYNCH? Probs for spoilersish stuff but GUH. I am waiting for that last B reaaaaaallly hard. Like they are.

    Aaaaand done.

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  11. Bickering couples are the best. My thoughts always go straight to, "I sense some sexual tension."
    Hmmm.... picking favorites is so hard. Let's see. There's Percy and Annabeth, Zach and Cammie (Gallagher Girls), Lilac and Tarver (These Broken Stars), Leah and Grayson (Such a Rush), Cecile and Tristan (Stolen Songbird). I could go on forever! I also really love Aurora and Niklaas from Princess of Thorns, which I finished during the weekend.

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  12. This post gives me life, but you know this is basically my #1 fave kind of ship anyway. DUDE KISSES TO SHUT UP THE OTHER PERSON ARE THE ABSOLUTE BEST AND I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THERE ARE NOT MORE OF THEM IN MY BOOKS. FIX THIS GRAVE INJUSTICE, AUTHORS.

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  13. I totally agree with the hate-to-love/banter-bicker-bang type of romance! There's just something fun about watching two characters with two different perspectives fight it out, escalating the tension between them until they can do nothing but act on their attraction to one another. I think, in fact, part of the attraction lies in the challenge, the way that the other person is able to make them rethink something or think differently. Just thinking about it is making me smile!

    I basically nodded at most of your book couples. They have the best bantery relationships ever, ever, ever.

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  14. I agree, but it's such a very fine line to walk..I view contentiousness for no reason other than attention seeking as a huge character flaw, so if couples bicker then it's a 50/50 chance I'll walk away from it. Elizabeth and Darcy are the quintessential couple for it because, despite their inherent differences and disagreements, they respected each other enough to be civil. Just like Bellarke respect each other enough to (privately) apologize, admit uncertainty, etc without the other holding it against them. It's this basic desire to support each other, even just socially, underneath all the bickering, that makes it sexycakes in my opinion.*


    * That being said, my man and I have never had a fight, in 2.5 years. I hope we aren't lobotomized sand people, but ya never know.

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  15. I personally am a big fan of slow building romances, but I agree with you that fighting couples can be fun as well. I just want them to fight over something real and not just over a miscommunication. The book that I first think about when reading this post was the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, which has an incredible slow building romance were the main character fight a lot and eventually fall in love. It's so well doen and you really feel the tension. Great post!

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