HEY GUYS TODAY'S LINK IS ALMOST RELATED TO REAL ENTRY CONTENTS! Try to read this article without laughing and/or wanting to slap someone. I didn't actually make it all the way through, the eyerolling was giving me a headache.
So on what note,![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
squeemu wonders WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ROMANCE?
aw, guys, my thoughts on romance are so conflicting. I am actually a total sap (I like to think I hide it well). But at the same time, a lot of portrayals of "romance" make me want to punch people - usually the parties involved.
My main problem with it is when personalities get railroaded for the express purpose of two people (it is never portrayed as more than two) getting together. You have interests? NO, YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND. You have friends you want to hang out with / take care of / see at all ever? No, sweetie, you have a boyfriend. You can't have both. MALES AND FEMALES ARE INCAPABLE OF INTERACTING WITHOUT ENDING UP IN LOVE, GUYS. (It's been quite a while since I read any of the Hunger Games books, but I really feel like in the first one, Katniss was all, GALE IS BASICALLY MY BROTHER OKAY and then later she was all romantically conflicted and that just drives me nuts why can't they ever just be friends it would have been okay without the love triangle, I PROMISE. Also Gale was really possessive and weird. Like, HOW DARE YOU TRY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE AND PEETA'S??? or something I don't know, I'm probably mixing the books and the movies a bit. Gale skeeves me out.)
It is especially irksome (to me, anyway? Maybe at least part of this is the asexual perspective) when the sole motivation seems to be WOW THEY ARE SO HOT.
But, I mean, I see this shit in real life, too, so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it as a genre.
I'm actually willing to give fanfiction almost a total pass in this area, though, because I can just chalk it up to self-indulgence if I don't like it.
But anyway, people are like SUCH ROMANCE and I don't really feel like that is romance? But then I guess otherwise it'd be, what, action adventure mystery thriller instead of, you know, instalove or whatever.
(Video games actually seem to handle romance happening quite well. Uncharted's Nate and Ellen, for example, OMG ♥ but those are hardly romance games. THOSE TWO CHARACTERS JUST HAPPEN TO TOTALLY FALL IN LOVE and she rolls her eyes and saves his life all over the place and it is adorable and THEY are adorable and everything is perfect.
Also, I mean, FFVIII is a whole mess of love story, but, at least in my opinion, and wow do I know this is an unpopular one, but if you don't like it then shut up and talk about it somewhere not my journal, but IN MY OPINION Squall and Rinoa really, really work.)
ROMANCE HAPPENING IN MY STORIES IS FINE. Romance being the story is usually boring as heck. There. That's about what I mean, I think.
And watching people be romantic irl can be totally adorable. Watching people think they're being romantic and failing either makes me sad or makes me uncomfortable, depending on how it plays out. Also, I've seen way, waaay too many fan-made videos entered into fan video contests that end up being a marriage proposal and if anyone ever did that to me I'd deny knowing them. But maybe it works for those couples. I don't know, I don't have a lot of experience here.
So on what note,
squeemu wonders WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ROMANCE?aw, guys, my thoughts on romance are so conflicting. I am actually a total sap (I like to think I hide it well). But at the same time, a lot of portrayals of "romance" make me want to punch people - usually the parties involved.
My main problem with it is when personalities get railroaded for the express purpose of two people (it is never portrayed as more than two) getting together. You have interests? NO, YOU HAVE A GIRLFRIEND. You have friends you want to hang out with / take care of / see at all ever? No, sweetie, you have a boyfriend. You can't have both. MALES AND FEMALES ARE INCAPABLE OF INTERACTING WITHOUT ENDING UP IN LOVE, GUYS. (It's been quite a while since I read any of the Hunger Games books, but I really feel like in the first one, Katniss was all, GALE IS BASICALLY MY BROTHER OKAY and then later she was all romantically conflicted and that just drives me nuts why can't they ever just be friends it would have been okay without the love triangle, I PROMISE. Also Gale was really possessive and weird. Like, HOW DARE YOU TRY TO SAVE YOUR LIFE AND PEETA'S??? or something I don't know, I'm probably mixing the books and the movies a bit. Gale skeeves me out.)
It is especially irksome (to me, anyway? Maybe at least part of this is the asexual perspective) when the sole motivation seems to be WOW THEY ARE SO HOT.
But, I mean, I see this shit in real life, too, so I guess I shouldn't be too hard on it as a genre.
I'm actually willing to give fanfiction almost a total pass in this area, though, because I can just chalk it up to self-indulgence if I don't like it.
But anyway, people are like SUCH ROMANCE and I don't really feel like that is romance? But then I guess otherwise it'd be, what, action adventure mystery thriller instead of, you know, instalove or whatever.
(Video games actually seem to handle romance happening quite well. Uncharted's Nate and Ellen, for example, OMG ♥ but those are hardly romance games. THOSE TWO CHARACTERS JUST HAPPEN TO TOTALLY FALL IN LOVE and she rolls her eyes and saves his life all over the place and it is adorable and THEY are adorable and everything is perfect.
Also, I mean, FFVIII is a whole mess of love story, but, at least in my opinion, and wow do I know this is an unpopular one, but if you don't like it then shut up and talk about it somewhere not my journal, but IN MY OPINION Squall and Rinoa really, really work.)
ROMANCE HAPPENING IN MY STORIES IS FINE. Romance being the story is usually boring as heck. There. That's about what I mean, I think.
And watching people be romantic irl can be totally adorable. Watching people think they're being romantic and failing either makes me sad or makes me uncomfortable, depending on how it plays out. Also, I've seen way, waaay too many fan-made videos entered into fan video contests that end up being a marriage proposal and if anyone ever did that to me I'd deny knowing them. But maybe it works for those couples. I don't know, I don't have a lot of experience here.
Tags: