Have to disagree with you here.

Happy Anti-Valentine's Day. by Maudlin Hart on 2010-02-15 00:17:00 UTC Reply

Single?
Couldn't care less?
Yeah, me too.
Seriously, it's been months since I've read a book or seen a movie in which nobody ended up in a romantic relationship with anybody else. I'm not suggesting that romance should be entirely purged from the media, but really. I find myself muttering under my breath, "Gah! Stop looking at him with 'a new understanding'! Just go off and stab some monsters! That's why you were written! And you! It doesn't matter if you upset her, because she's an idiot! Quit worrying about it!" It's like, no character goes through a novel without acquiring a significant other. If they're gay, that is the whole story and there's no plot other than "can we be gay or not?" and in the end they can, hurrah, caviar all around. Every story needs to have twu wuv in it somewhere. Discuss?

Sure, I'll discuss. by Cinnia Aine on 2010-02-15 02:44:00 UTC Reply

Part of it is human nature. Part of it is human stupidity (though I'm not quite sure there's a difference between nature and stupidity). Part of it is film producers who have this great action movie and think only guys will want to see it, so they try to appeal to the female crowd by adding romance. *rolls eyes*

Why do you think I'm sort of fed up with the Romance genre at the moment? It's not that I hate Romance. It's that it's everywhere! Why? People want to know what happens next. It's an overused cliffhanger that keeps people watching these movies and shows or reading these books. Will so-and-so end up with this person or that person? Le gasp! This character kissed this random person at the end of the movie! Oh, I guess I'll have to see the next sequel to find out what happened!

*sigh* Human nature. At least it means that we have an instinct for this sort of thing, right? As in, we may end up overpopulating the earth, but as long as there aren't any apocalypses, nuclear wars, plagues, climate disturbances, or badly functioning governments, we'll never have to worry about dying out, right?

Personally, I don't mind Romance all that much. I wish they'd come up with a more original way to keep people interested, though. And I hate nearly all of the Romance clichés, so I'm getting bored with seeing this everywhere.

Anyone else think that they do this to keep the viewers watching a plotless two-hour movie, among other things?
Re: Happy Anti-Valentine's Day. by doctorlit on 2010-02-15 01:58:00 UTC Reply

I think the reason romance plots are more glaring in movies is because the entire romance has to get shoehorned into the parts of the two, three hour movie left over from the main plot. This leads to a situation where the audience is still just getting to know these characters, and now that guy and that gal are already jumping at each other's lips. The same is kind of true in a stand-alone novel. In a longer book series or television show, we can be slowly led into the romance one scene at a time over multiple chapters/seasons, so it feels less forced and more like a natural progression of the characters' storylines.

I don't mind romance between action-oriented characters, so long as the romance doesn't completely disable them DURING the fight scenes.
Yay! by Laburnum on 2010-02-15 01:12:00 UTC Reply

RL asexual here. Meaning to come out to the people who know me in real life because I'd like my parents to stop thinking I'm just a social failure. Eventually.

Also busy writing a novel in which the main character does not end up in a relationship, because A) she's thirteen and B) she has better things to worry about. Two of her gang members sort of have a thing going, and there's two guys between whom I'm going to intentionally include as much Ho Yay as possible because if I don't actually state that they're gay then the fans who don't like slash will ignore it and the fans who do like it would imagine it was there even if it wasn't. But neither of those relationships is actually a major focus of the plot.

Bully for you! by Maudlin Hart on 2010-02-16 00:21:00 UTC Reply

No, really. Sounds like a good novel. You'll have to tell me when it gets published.

Re: Happy Anti-Valentine's Day. by orangedream13 on 2010-02-15 00:55:00 UTC Reply

Isn't human interest lame? They even shoehorn it into war movies of all things. Also, I hate how twu wuv seems to be about treating the female lead like a princess instead of a partner.

Have to disagree with you here. by Neshomeh on 2010-02-15 18:37:00 UTC Reply

Human interest (which is not a synonym for romance) is not lame, especially when it comes to war movies. Most of them aren't just about fighting; most of them are at least in part meant to show how demanding, how awful war is for the people doing the fighting, which is something very important to remember. If they add in a few romantic liaisons, that's just part of the whole cloth because it's one of the few ways those guys have to relax and NOT go completely nuts. Though some of them will anyway, unfortunately.

I do agree with you about the latter, though. I know a few women who could do with realizing that equality means we have to do half the work, not just reap the benefits.

~Neshomeh

Re: Have to disagree with you here. by orangedream13 on 2010-02-17 16:39:00 UTC Reply

I'm not talking about "For whom the Bell Tolls" romance. I'm talking about "Transformers: The Movie" romance, which seems to infect nearly every movie but is named after the movie in which it stood out the most. If you want to do a mature take on it that is juxtaposed with a war that's cool, but most screenwriters don't seem to do this.