It's the main reason I don't read slash. Well, also because slash has a tendency to get graphic, and that just squicks me out. But it's one of the big reasons.

Romance is hard. A lot of people don't think it is, but romance is very, very hard to write in a plausible way. At least for me it is. Many of the people in the Pit think they can write romance, when they really can't and should never even be allowed near someone else's canon. But then again, that's what we're here for...

My personal pet peeve is when a young protagonist is arbitrarily paired with his/her father figure/mentor. Say, Luke Skywalker/Obi-wan Kenobi, or--I actually found a fic with this pairing the other day--Mr. Miyagi/Daniel. Eurgh. Not only is it squicky for age reasons, it destroys a perfectly good nonromantic relationship.

But even if a character doesn't have a love interest in canon, that doesn't mean they don't want romance ever. Life isn't divided into "asexual" and "sex-crazed," and although yeah, you can't make someone just ditch their canonical passion, that doesn't preclude the possibility of romance. The first example that comes to mind is Lightning from FFXIII, who has no real love interest and didn't have much of a life outside her military career, but defrosts over the story and could conceivably end up with somebody. On the other hand, if it's someone who can't feel or can't love, like Peter Pan, I am totally with you.

In some of my fandoms, established asexuals are always forced into romance, just because the Suethor fancies the actor, or thinks it would be 'really cute' if two characters got together. That does make it badfic in my opinion, because they are out of character - we have the Department of Bad Slash dealing with people turning heterosexual characters homosexual (amongst other things)so maybe that should be included in there?

And I think it is. It seems to be a trait of badfic writers to think that asexuality doesn't exist, and it's just the matter of finding the "right" person. (Or they've never heard of it, which amounts to the same thing.) As a slash writer myself, I can't be too critical, as my writing tends to take assumed heterosexual male characters and pair them with other assumed heterosexual male characters, but I do try to make note of that and explore at least a little why they're in danger of changing their assumed orientations.

Anyway, to stop rambling, I think it is a charge and a common trait. It's also lazy. Puppy-love is wonderfully cute when it's well done, but it's Gods' awfully hard to do well. Mithros knows I've tried...

--anamia