Tropes that became problematic

[u/KalzK]

The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

[u/Writeloves]

Ew, he does that in the Notebook? And people find that romantic? What if she said no? He either looks insincere or he chooses to throw a tantrum and severely harms himself like an idiot.

[u/No_External_539 → u/Writeloves]

The entire movie is a shit show.

It starts off strong with him forcing her into dating him. Then most of their interactions are either really ugly arguments or romantic tension, which is a textbook example of a toxic relationship. And to top it all off, she cheats on her fiancé with the main love interest, then leaves the main love interest to go back to her fiancé, then she goes AGAIN to her weird ass situationship.

Even as a child I have always hated “cheating is romantic” trope, especially since her fiancé was a good man, cause it’s straight up just cruel to the person that did nothing wrong. And now that I’m older, I’ve found MORE reasons to hate this god awful horror story.

[u/AbroCadabro1010 → u/No_External_539]

It sucks because the parts in the future when they're old really are incredibly strong. Those scenes carry this movie and they're so well done, especially with how they want you to know the plot twist with visual cues and think "no... Please no..." before it's finally confirmed. But the flashback scenes are just so insanely awful and problematic and it really ruins the entire mood

[u/No_External_539 → u/AbroCadabro1010]

The old couple in the way that they’re presented works if the story of their life was a sweet and loving one, however after seeing how their relationship functioned outside of her having dementia and dying makes you realize there’s nothing wholesome about them.

Just a trauma bond that never died. Do I know what they were like between the end of the flashbacks and them being old? No, but I’m going to take a wild guess and say it sucked. Also I hate seeing shitty people living happily ever after.

[u/AltairaMorbius2200CE → u/No_External_539]

IIRC the book talks a BIT more about how great they were as a couple, but I remember thinking, "man, I'd be so much more convinced if you'd actually shown them functioning well at any other point in the story!"

Also: why is grandpa ONLY focusing on the story of how they got together? Like, they're supposed to have had 50-odd stable years when they were good for each other and a couple of kids, right? But the part of their lives that he wants her to remember is the part where he was unhinged?