edited 29th Dec '13 3:23:52 PM by TheMuse
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I think you've already bypassed one of the biggest cliches of the trope, where the two pretend lovers realize that they do feel something for one another and engage in a real relationship, or the false marriage results on unresolved sexual tension that makes things awkward for them. I don't really have any examples of this trope that I can think of at the moment besides an episode of Monk I saw once. I hope that was helpful.
Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake. — Edgar Walllace
I think an interesting twist would be if people who know the "couple" really well are seriously squicked by the idea of these two being or even pretending to be couple. Like "eww that's like marrying your sister".
They are mistaken for a couple a few times by strangers (partially as foreshadowing and partially to make it more believable that they could pull off people genuinely thinking that they are a couple)
- The do some Like an Old Married Couple moments between them, but anyway who knows them well is much more 'familial' than Slap-Slap-Kiss and sees anyone trying to find 'deeper meaning' in their actions as No Yay or 'pseudo-incestuous' than anything else.
NO PLACE TO HIDE
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Why don't you have them actually be brother and sister? That way, you'd not only have the dynamic between them, but someone could find out that they're siblings without realizing they're only fake married. This could result in all sorts of hi-larious misunderstandings.
interesting
If it's too late to make them real brother and sister. You could achieve a similar affect by making them fake siblings (i.e.they lied to some people about being married and to others about being siblings)
edited 7th Jan '14 8:35:56 PM by HistoryMaker
Actually at one point they lie about being a parent and child (which happen to be possible because they both happen to be The Ageless)
So part of my story features two characters being forced to pretend to be married. it's not a huge focus of the plot and it's mostly Played for Laughs but it leads to a couple subplots later. I understand that this trope has been done to death, but are there any unexpected twists that might make it a bit more interesting? In addition to that, are there any overdone cliches this trope often uses that I shouldn't touch?