(no subject)

[skygiants]

I read a Georgette Heyer book this weekend that I didn't love or even really like at all, which makes me kind of sad as even the less-appealing Heyers usually have enough highly entertaining bits to count as comfort reading for me. But in Bath Tangle, I just couldn't get past the fact that the hero and the heroine are two of the most enormous jerks I have yet encountered in a Heyer novel, and that possibly includes the villains. They are meant to be appealingly passionate and have argumentative chemistry, but I sort of suspect they actually both have serious anger management issues and will end up murdering each other within a year, taking out a wide swathe of bystanders along the way.

The storyline also centers around a trope that I have discovered generally tends to frustrate me, which I have dubbed Engagement Chicken. The game of Engagement Chicken, a popular pastime in the Regency period as far as I can tell from romance novels, is played something like this:

Character A: Character B, whom I secretly love, has become engaged to someone else! So now I will become engaged to someone else. TAKE THAT, CHARACTER B.
Character B: Wait, now that you're engaged to someone else I have figured out I love you! But I can't break my engagement unless Character C also wants to break it.
Character C: I have realized my terrible mistake in getting engaged to Character B, but I can't break my engagement unless Character B also wants to break it.
Character A: Hah, I knew you didn't love Character C!
Character B: SHUT UP I AM TOTALLY MARRYING CHARACTER C AND I HATE YOU.
Character A: Anyway, I can only break my engagement to Character D if they also want to break our engagement!
Character B: . . . so, hypothetically speaking, Character C, what are the circumstances under which you would break our engagement?
Character C: I would never break our engagement! Unless, I mean, unless you wanted to break our engagement.
Character B: What, I mean, why would you even think that? Damn our inevitable misery, full speed ahead!
Character D: I have realized my terrible mistake in getting engaged to Character A, but I can't break my engagement unless Character A also wants to break it . . .
EVERYONE: *sits around and stares hard at each other as the wedding dates approach until SOMEONE finally gets fed up enough to break their engagement, generally in the last five pages of the book*

Sometimes there is only one engagement involved, sometimes there are two or three, but it always involves a lot of sitting around and agonizing over the terrible mistake they have made and how they can possibly extricate themselves.

Is there already a name for this trope, or have I discovered a new one? And are there enough examples that it could, say, justify a TVtropes page? Flist, your input and examples would be appreciated!

Comments

[gramarye1971]

I would help you check this, but it would require going to TVTropes, and that's kind of dangerous to do at work. (Not because I'd get slapped on the wrist for reading it at work, but because I'd never be able to do my actual work.) But later this evening, I will look!

[skygiants]

Hahahaha I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND your reluctance to venture into the realm of TVTropes at work. But I appreciate your assistance for later! :D

[gramarye1971]

Looking at TVTropes, I think Engagement Chicken would be classified as a subtrope of the Love Dodecahedron. But I think it deserves its own subpage, because of its constant use in Wodehouse and Heyer (and maybe even Utena, if you squint). There's at least one storyline in Ranma 1/2 where the person Ranma's engaged to changes three or four times through a series of epic misunderstandings. I can't think of any other examples at the moment, though.

[skygiants]

Maybe to round up examples I should just go study the Love Dodecahedron page to see which situations actually involved engagements . . . and the whole Maximilien/Valentine/Albert/Franz/Eugenie/Eugenie's girlfriend thing in Count of Monte Cristo might count.

[tenillypo.livejournal.com]

Even if there is another name for it, I think it should be known as "engagement chicken" from now on, just because.

I usually rely on Heyer to provide comfort reading for me as well, so I will avoid this one. The only time she's let me down so far was with "Devil's Cub" -- I loathed the "hero" so much by the end that I was disappointed when they got together. But at least that one featured a heroine I could stomach....

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I like Devil's Cub -- against my feminist will, since the hero does deserve to be loathed. The book also contains a round of Engagement Chicken.

Bath Tangle is one of the weakest of the Heyers, I agree. I've more or less forgotten it, and I don't forget the good Heyers.

[tenillypo.livejournal.com]

Heh. There's a really delicate line for me with that kind of arrogant bad boy archetype. I think I would have been okay with Devil's Cub if he hadn't physically threatened/restrained her near the beginning, with the implication that he would have been perfectly justified if she really had been the slutty bad girl he mistook her for. It made me so angry that I just couldn't bounce back from it, much as I tried.

But then, Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite books ever, so my feminist will obviously has its own issues... :)

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

You're right, and in fact the whole book is about how the heroine is the kind of girl one marries (as opposed to the slutty sister), so obviously someone has to marry her. I do not blame you at all for continuing to loathe the structure.

[skygiants]

It is currently officially at the bottom of my list. In the other ones I've read where I disliked the protagonists or the plotline, they generally had enough hilarious slapstick to make up for it, but this one was not even all that funny; I'm pretty sure I only giggled once. Cardinal sin, for a Heyer!

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

I think you should read A Civil Contract, because, while it is low on hilarious slapstick, it is also not like other Heyers in all sorts of interesting (and mostly successful) ways.

[skygiants]

I keep hearing A Civil Contract is interesting and unusual, and then hesitating every time because sometimes I don't want interesting and unusual when looking for funny comfort reading. But I really should bump it up on my list.

[skygiants]

I keep waffling about reading Devil's Cub, because on the one hand I hear the hero is terrible but on the other hand I always hear it fondly referenced as the one where the heroine shoots the hero, which does sound weirdly satisfying . . .

In this case it's not just that the hero and heroine were terrible to each other, but they were both really, really awful to a third party who should not have been involved (see: Engagement Chicken) and I pretty much just could not take it.

[tenillypo.livejournal.com]

Her shooting him is one of the reasons I liked the heroine enough to keep reading. :-) Sadly, my hopes that she would then pull a Cotillion and drop the rogue for a man who didn't need to be shot in the arm were never realized. Ah, well.

[skygiants]

Cotillion continues to be my favorite for this very reason! Oh Kitty and Freddy. <3 How much I wish for a crossover where you go shopping with Sokka.

[tenillypo.livejournal.com]

... whoah. I think you just blew my mind WITH AWESOMENESS.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

I have determined that it is not an existing trope, because it would totally be on the Jeeves and Wooster page if it was.

Wodehouse actually does Engagement Chicken well.

[skygiants]

Oh, cunningly deduced!

It's true, he does. I can think of two explanations for this: neither Jeeves nor Wooster has any kind of a tendency to agonize, and Wodehouse is incapable of writing any plotline that isn't hilarious.

. . . relatedly, I need to read more Jeeves and Wooster books.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

CLEARLY, WE MUST MAKE A PAGE.

Both of these explanations hold great truth.

I also need to read more of them.

[skygiants]

THE PATH BEFORE US HAS BEEN PREPARED. - wait, I don't even know if you've gotten far enough in Utena yet that this is a quote you'll recognize. OH WELL.

I also keep meaning to watch the show; I have been kind of subliminally programmed into wanting to do so since the soundtrack was my mom's ringtone for a while.

[elspeth-vimes.livejournal.com]

I AM NOT. I need to get watching again.

The show is glorious! ...It gets weaker later on I admit, but Laurie and Fry are so perfect. And man, is that opening theme addictive.

[shati.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a job for Neko-sensei and the Rose Bride tag team.

[skygiants]

Whoever wins the game of Engagement Chicken gets to be engaged to Anthy! Whoever is runner-up gets to marry NEKO-SENSEI.

Unless the runner-up is a sloth.

[shati.livejournal.com]

"I'd never break our engagement, Anthy! I mean, unless Ends of the World wanted us to --"

"If you break your engagement, you will have to marry me!"

[skygiants]

"My brother, whom I secretly love, has become engaged to someone else! So I will become engaged to the whole school in turn."

"I have realized my terrible mistake in getting engaged to Akio, but I can't break my engagement unless Akio also wants to break it . . ."

"I would never break our engagement! Unless, I mean, you have a black-rose-induced psychotic break. No wait, not even then."

[gramarye1971]

The Mikage Seminar will be hosting marriage counselling classes for couples who find themselves confused or uncertain about the current state of their matrimonial commitment. Please fill out the form provided at reception, and follow the signs down the hall to the conference room marked by a white label hanging from the doorknob.

[skygiants]

@_@


@_@


@_@




Mikage in a Georgette Heyer novel is a thing that needs NEVER TO HAPPEN.


@_@ @_@ @_@ @_@ @_@!

[silveraspen]

*SHRIEKS IN TERRIFIED GLEE*

ETA: Also, gramarye1971? I dare you to write this.

And if you do, you can claim a written forfeit of your choice from me. :)

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

I had to repeat "engagement chicken" to myself a few times. I love you, dude.

[skygiants]

I would never break our imaginary engagement, Feather.

(Unless, I mean, unless you wanted to -)

[wickedtrue.livejournal.com]

Yes. I do. We're broken up and I'm marrying this other dude. Look, I don't know who, but it's this other dude! I'm sure I'll be very happy. He bought me shoes! How can this go wrong?! (Was that really such a good idea--?!)

[skygiants]

FYI, I am now picturing you marrying a Shadow Girl with a giant mustache pasted on her face.

(mukashi mukashi . . .)

[gramarye1971]

But they can only get married when it snows on a sunny day!

[skygiants]

The better to play a very long round of Engagement Chicken, my dear!

[enleve.livejournal.com]

Engagement Chicken is a wonderful name for this. You should totally add it to TV Tropes.

[skygiants]

Hee, thanks! Though first I have to come up with enough examples to make sure it's a legitimate trope and not just Heyer and Wodehouse . . .

[jothra]

I'd say it shows up in Epic Fantasy Novels too.

[skygiants]

I think you're right, but I can't think of any specifics. Concrete examples, Joface!

[jothra]

I'm pretty sure in 'Blue Moon Rising', the princess got engaged to the Prince's dickish brother, because she thought he was dead. Then they get mad at each other and don't break it or make up until much later. Only one engagement, though. Good enough?

[skygiants]

I think for troping purposes, it's probably enough if it's just one terribly unsuited engagement combined with a Big Misunderstanding.

[lacewood]

From a cursory look at the Engagement Tropes index, I don't think this exists! You should totally add it. XD

It occurs to me that this trope should also be REALLY POPULAR in kdrama, though the only not-exactly example I can think of is Full House, where B marries A in a contractual marriage to make C, who he's been in love with for years, jealous because she's been in love with D, who actually develops a thing for A... And all A wants out is to get her house back.

(Though maybe it doesn't exactly fit because A and B actually DO get together in the end, though not until they go through A DIVORCE ahaha)

[skygiants]

I was just thinking the epic kdrama love squares have got to have a few of these! But I have not seen enough yet to pull them out. :O (In TVtropes terminology, we could maybe call this a subverted Engagement Chicken?)