Unnecessary, annoying, disgusting, etc fictional romances

[Neon Green Packing Peanut]

Just a place to rant about specific fictional romances. If it contains spoilers, just use the tag.

For example, in "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Phillip K. Dick, 

Spoiler

The main plot was disrupted because the main character was going to be unable to finish killing the androids unless he slept with one, because he fell in love with her. And by sleeping with her, he would get rid of those feelings and be able to kill her.

About 3 chapters could have been taken out (the book is less than 200 pages), and no one would have noticed because it is so unimportant, but forced in there for some reason. I just wanted some good sci-fi and action.

[Holmbo]

The romances in between the sensates in sense8 is such a waste of space. I like the two existing romantic relationships though. 

[Karst]

A number of the romances in Deep Space 9 felt like they were written in just to persuade the viewers that various characters weren't gay.  The 90s were a different time...

(On a related note, I think that Dr. Bashir has the most powerful Bi Vibes I have ever seen in a TV character.)

[nonmerci]

I was reading the Artemis Fowl books,  who are very "aro friendly" considering they don't have a lot of romance in it (or any romance at all if you take the first books, it only started at book 5 because the author decided his main character reached "puberty", and even like that it is not a lot... I mean the only serious love interest for Artemis only appears in book 5 as if the author wanted to get rid of her, the other characters never dated or only one, and the only character who get married does it "off-screen" (I mean not off-screen because they are books, but you see what I mean)). To be honnest I even wonder if the author didn't put the few romantic stuff because he felt like he had to.

But now I just finished book 6. And even if it is said that it won't happen again and the romantic nature of that kiss is left ambiguous , it was so unnecessary and weird.

Spoiler

 

So in book 6, Artemis and Holly, two of the main protaginists, travele through time. In reality, Artemis is a just a kid (14 years-old) and Holly us an adult (her age is not clear, in particular as she is a fairy and live older than human, but I believe her age would be the équivalent of a 25 years-old woman or something like that).

Thanks to time travel secondary effects, Artemis looks briefly a bit older (17) and Holly looks like a teenage girl. At some point she kissed him. It is said it could be just the hormones that are messing with her because she is not used to be a teenager again,  and the fear because she kissed him after he almost died. But it is never clearly said that she is not in love with him and I think it is very disturbing. She is an adult and he is still a child. The fact that their body were temporarily the same age doesn't change that.

And I think the worst is that Holly said it won't happen again not because of their ages, but after Artemis confessed he lied to her about something.

 

 

It doesn't change that these two characters have a wonderful friendship, a perfect "ennemies to friends" narrative. But it somehow upsets me more because I know what happened. A lot of fans ship these two characters (because in the world of allos you can't have a deep relationship that isn't romantic). So the author decided to give these fans what they want for one book. He tried to make it less weird with the age thing and left the romantic nature ambiguous so the fans who don't ship them won't be upset. But in the end I'm sure it satisfied anybody.

Well at least the book established it won't happen again, though shippers will always ship.

 

I know that there are more disturbing or upseting romances in other books, movies or shows, but I just finished this book and also, I was so convinced it would never happen that it upseted me more than a book where I see it coming. But don't get me wrong, these books are good and to be honest, they are even good for aros because there is almost no romance in it. It is just this particular book that was messed up in that regards.

[Thiel]

Ready player one! The plot was great but the romance was completely unnecessary in my opinion, although it wasn't the worst I've read.

[nisse]

ooh i just read the Circle by Dave Eggers (good book, but unfortunately already irrelevant kind of? ending was good), and the MC has two romantic interestests that are both.... meh.

Spoiler

The MC is a woman who works at a tech company growing alarmingly fast (definitely meant to mirror Amazon and Silicon Valley tech start ups). Her two romantic interests are a dude who's heavily implied to be a bit of a lowkey incel type (he films their first night together in secret to prove that he had sex With A Woman), and she doesn't really like him but she keeps going back to him, all the while complaining about how boring he is. The second one is a mysterious dude she can't find a trace of anywhere else, who turns out to be one of the founders of the company now trying to take it down. They hook up several times, and she's immediately infatuated with him, even though they? never talk? and even their hook ups come out of nowhere, no real lead up or anything. Just awkward to read. I did check with an allo friend that my reaction wasn't just me being Too Aspec™, it is actually badly written lmao.

i think both the relationships don't have to be cut, but should've just like.... been developed more. Not as in, they should've been more romantic and wholesome or w/e, it's fine that she has two fucked up relationships; they both just felt extremely shallow, and not in a way that gels with the overall themes of the book.

I couldn't decide if I didn't like how it was written because of my orientiation, so I just didn't click with it even though I've enjoyed plenty of fictional romantic plots in the past, or if Eggers just cannot convincingly write that kind of relationship. I've landed on the latter, it veered into "men writing women" too much. (that said though, he doesn't really for the rest of the books! besides that plot point, his female characters are solid and well written. no "boobily breasted down the stairs" lol).