[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

Disagreements with the bulk of your assessments aside (obviously, art is subjective, and I just don't think our brains work the same way ), I have a genuine question that I cannot for the life of me understand.

Why are you not a fan of romance in stories?

I hear this said a lot, and it completely baffles me, because I personally feel that stories without romantic relationships don't reflect reality. Romance of some sort almost always occurs in any situation where groups of people are forced to live and/or work with and around each other for extended periods of time, so excluding these fundamental relationships from fiction makes stories without them feel hollow and unrealistic (to me). I don't mind when a story doesn't involve romance (even though I feel like it's usually a missed opportunity in stories without it), but it seems like a deal breaker for a lot of people that dislike seeing romance depicted.

Over the years, I've gone through many rabbit holes trying to understand this preference, and I never find the answers or perspectives I'm looking for. I'm truly, genuinely curious about this because it feels like a completely alien mindset to me, but it's so common in genre circles that I feel compelled to at least understand where it originates.

AkibaSilver already made some good points about it, but I'll add my own thoughts here:

I can't speak for everyone that feels this way obviously, but for me it comes down to a few things. I should probably just get this out of the way first, on a personal level I have no interest in romance and am probably the least thirsty person you'll ever see. So, I suppose due to my lack of personal connection and interest, sticking characters in a romantic subplot is just about the least interesting thing imaginable to me. On a personal experince level, I also haven't encountered co-workers falling for each other very often, so it isn't something that feels realistic either. I like human drama a lot in tokusatsu, you know, characters having a good old existential crisis, fighting, becoming friends or enemies, family drama, etc. Love that stuff, so if a romance is used in a way that complements the rest of the drama and narrative I can like it. I watched Timeranger recently, and actually really enjoyed the romance in that show and how it tied into the overarching theme of living in the present even if things cannot last forever, perhaps enhanced further by the bittersweet nature of it. On a note that AkibaSilver brought up, I also just get *real* tired of seeing romance in almost every piece of media. I think because romance is so widespread, tokusatsu tends to attract people who don't like it, since it is generally light on it compared to other genres, so that might account for the disproportionate amount of people who don't like it you encounter in the community. I hope this makes sense, it is a little hard to put into words.

Anyways, TLDR romance is really prolific and not for everyone, especially when it feels like it comes at the expense of other character relationships and plot beats. Also, guess who JUST realized the reason she doesn't like V-Cinemas is the frequent use of romance plots? I'm sure you'll never guess.