I'm starting to severely doubt this genre exists.
I want a badass, powerful, independent, assertive female character that is in a relationship with a guy she's superior to (ideally socially and in combat).
Ideally, she's not a tsundere or any kind of caricature.
No harems please.
Ideally the male protagonist is exceptional in his own way. But I'd take less exceptional male protagonists as long as they're not pathetic. Basically I want a guy I can relate to/is independently compelling or who I can self insert as.
I have never really seen this done well, and I'm not convinced it exists, but I'm asking anyway.
~All the male protagonist stories I read who had a love interest that was superior to the male protagonists proved disappointing to me.
The love interest was often disappointing as a character (not independent/her own person, reduced to an accessory of the male protagonist, didn't have her own ambitions, etc.) or was inferior/subordinate to the male protagonist (the male protagonist quickly surpassed her, in the worst cases, she was later made a damsel in distress) and so didn't quite scratch that itch.
Only exceptions I've found that really captured the dynamic well had the (potential) love interest be the final antagonist or something.
So she both had the fiercely independent, badass, domineering vibe, and the dynamic lasted beyond the initial meetings.
I've read a lot of female protagonist stories, but ~all the badass female protagonist stories I read with romantic subplots were Yuri stories.
The genre may not really exist, but it won't hurt to ask I guess.
I want a badass, powerful, independent, assertive female character that is in a relationship with a guy she's superior to (ideally socially and in combat).
Ideally, she's not a tsundere or any kind of caricature.
No harems please.
Ideally the male protagonist is exceptional in his own way. But I'd take less exceptional male protagonists as long as they're not pathetic. Basically I want a guy I can relate to/is independently compelling or who I can self insert as.
I have never really seen this done well, and I'm not convinced it exists, but I'm asking anyway.
~All the male protagonist stories I read who had a love interest that was superior to the male protagonists proved disappointing to me.
The love interest was often disappointing as a character (not independent/her own person, reduced to an accessory of the male protagonist, didn't have her own ambitions, etc.) or was inferior/subordinate to the male protagonist (the male protagonist quickly surpassed her, in the worst cases, she was later made a damsel in distress) and so didn't quite scratch that itch.
Only exceptions I've found that really captured the dynamic well had the (potential) love interest be the final antagonist or something.
So she both had the fiercely independent, badass, domineering vibe, and the dynamic lasted beyond the initial meetings.
I've read a lot of female protagonist stories, but ~all the badass female protagonist stories I read with romantic subplots were Yuri stories.
The genre may not really exist, but it won't hurt to ask I guess.
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