Episode 224: Alpha Male Love Interests

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This week on Fable and the Verbivore, we’re starting a new series about male romance character tropes starting with the classic — alpha male.

In this episode, we talk about some words that are often used to define how alpha characters tend to be. Things like: Dominant, Overprotective, Possessive, Strong, Confident, Assertive, Controlled, Powerful, Men of Action, Motivated, Protector, Many-layered, Complex, and Assured

We talk about some example alpha male characters, such as — James Bond, Heathcliff, Rochester, Mr. Darcy, Edward Cullen, and Christian Gray.

And we dig into the psychology of what readers tend to like about these characters and why they can be so appealing. We touch on things like personal decision fatigue, the desire to feel conviction about what we should do, the innate sexiness of someone who is confident and passionate and assured, and the ego boost that comes from seeing a powerful and controlled character come undone just by someone being themselves.

We also acknowledge the potentially toxic nature of these relationships, the negative aspects found in Alpha Holes, and the abuse that can be given cover in these stories.

Towards the end, we talk about the common story element of bringing a character to their knees and the possible personal catharsis from witnessing a character apologize for their hurtful actions.

We hope you enjoy this episode and we’ll be back next week talking about another male character romance trope.

Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

Books and Films Mentioned:

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
‘Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Bethany Stedman