There are some things in films and tv shows which, no matter how problematic the show may be, I love because they’re just, tbqh, ridiculous. Here’s a list of my top three.
1. Horses in places they shouldn’t be.
I love, love, love this trope. If we had fewer love triangles and more horses in strange places, I’d be a very happy lass. Think horses indoors, usually the great hall à la the scene with Theoden during the battle of Helm’s Deep. There was also a pretty nice example in the last season of Game of Thrones.
I love this trope simply because of the sheer impracticality of it, and for the almost comic despair the servants in charge of cleaning the hall must feel when they see some lord set on riding a horse (a horse!) across the fresh rushes. Also, I love it for the dissonance of seeing a horse in indoor spaces designed for humans.
2. Actors playing characters who are actors
I just. I don’t know. I love it. I love that sometimes it’s obvious the writers are enacting revenge on actors they’ve come across before; I love the layering of it; I love imagining what it must feel like for the actor to portray that character, and what it’s like for the other actors to see their lives/careers fictionalised.
3. Sea shanties (general singing).
I love me a good sea shanty anytime. I love song, and music, especially folky/traditional style music and song so any tv show or movie with these gets a bucket of points from me. Notable examples include LotR (the funeral song Eowyn sings and the song Pippin sings for Denethor), and the shanty in the Robin Hood film (which would have been vastly improved if they’d cast Cate Blanchett as Robin).
R.E. Navan 