Trope: Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl
Description: Not necessarily a romance trope, when you have a male character and a female character hanging out and doing whatever in your fictional world, one way to play with expectations and subvert stereotypes is to have the man be the calmer, more pragmatic one while the woman is the zany one who's bouncing off the walls. Despite the trope name, this can also be used with same-sex relationships as long as the contrast is there. Mileage varies as to whether this counts as an "opposites attract" trope; a lot of times, the characters share the same goals and priorities, they just approach them in different ways.
Examples: Anna and Kristoff from Frozen, Simon and Kaylee from Firefly, a classic example in Lucy and Ricky from I Love Lucy
Pros: If all our characters had the same personalities, that would get pretty boring. As mentioned above, this trope plays around with stereotypes - often it's the men who get to have all the wacky hijinks while the women get shoved into the "maternal" role to keep everyone grounded. Girls just want to have fun, or so I've been told, so let's let them!
Cons: There's a fine line between "energetic/perky" and "ditzy," and I'm not a fan of the latter. The Energetic Girl can also veer into Manic Pixie Dream Girl territory, which is a trope that doesn't have a spotless history, alas.
Would/Did I Use It?: In reviewing my books, this came up more than I would have expected. In Closing Montage, Abigail is the one who has to convince Edwin to loosen up and have some fun, beginning with the very premise of their virtual date. I'd also apply this to Fire Beyond the Frost despite it being a lesbian romance - here, nurse Sari is the cute, bubbly one, while doctor Catalina just wants to do her job well and barely cracks a smile for at least the first few chapters.
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