Disney Channel and romantic tropes

My DVD player has died and I've been compensating by watching Disney Channel shows.  Do not ask.  I think I've mostly thinking about how they'd be so cool if I were 12.  All the supposedly charming or cool or cute guys need a ounch in the face.  The goody girls who I'm supposed to like are snooty and superior, all other girls are supposed to be annoying, materialistic comedic relief, but are more entertaining.  The smart boys are supposed annoying twats and the "cool" boys are annoying brats who could do with being grounded for years.  I think the only character I like is the hyper competitive and academic sister in some show that's a Brady Bunch knockoff that's named after her irritating stepbrother.  I despair over her taste in boys, though.  (The only show whose title I know is The Suite Life of Zach and Cody.  That one is entertaining, though I keep wondering why the adults haven't murdered all the kids.)

Make me stop watching them.

ANYWAY!

Over at Dear Author, they have a poll about favorite and least favorite romantic tropes.  Since this is a type of topic I never tire of (people's likes and dislikes) give me some of yours.

manhua: The Four Constables Vol 1-2

The Four Constables is a fairly standard wuxia in comic book form, focusing on four swordbrothers raised by (of course) a famous kung fu master named Zhuge. They all have more than one name, but I’l just use their nicknames, which are Emotionless, Iron Hands, Life Snatcher and Cold Blooded. Life Snatcher is immune to alcohol and was a debt collector until his inner softie got him in trouble. He’s also either dumb but lucky, or crafty but acts dumb. Emotionless was crippled as a child, but became a master of projectile weapons and compensating for not being able to use his legs with his arms. He also has a flying wheelchair with projectile weapons. Cold Blooded was raised by wolves. I eagerly await Iron Hands’s backstory.

Unlike most kung fu masters and their pupils, Master Zhuge voted against the standard mountain/cave hermit thing and instead serves the throne and court. Very sensible of him. As a result, the four aren’t naïve young men entering the real world after being locked away on a mountain, but fairly well known heroes. It’s something of a fun mirror on the normal wuxia in this regard. They are currently trying to catch The 13 Masters, who are trying to overthrow the emperor or some such.

The art is pretty spiffy, despite sometimes falling prey to way too many muscles, but it’s rather light on plot and has even more fight scenes than shounen, and there’s something a little too stilted about the translation at times. Despite this, the series and characters have a certain charm, and I admit to being fairly fond of a particular subplot.

( Spoilery WANGST! )

(Where did all my wuxia icons go?)

Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow Vol 6 (end)

( spoilers )

Now I feel compelled to reread all of Tsubasa to catch all the Cardcaptor Sakura references.

ETA:  Tsubasa spoilers have worked their way into the comments.  One specific one for vol 16, one vaguer one from more recent chapters.  No more without the spoiler code, please.

Pet Shop of Horrors: Tokyo Vol 3

This volume seemed to be a lot more about Kabuki-cho than about D and his shop. Actually, this series as a whole has a bit of that going, the earlier volumes just not as much so. Not a complaint as I like stories like that, but I wonder if that has to do with the series being set in Tokyo, instead of an unspecified U.S. series like the first was.

There also seemed to be less of Woo Fei here than other volumes, but we did get an interesting look into his darker side in the second chapter.

( spoilers )