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anyone else find their interest in romance in fiction decreased after identifying as aromantic


Collie

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I was never huge on shipping (imagining fictional characters to be in a relationship), but I did have a few ships and OTPs that I loved and enjoyed thinking about. But now that I identify as aromantic I have far less interest in that. I still have some ships I like and even an OTP, but I just prefer to assume characters are aromantic tbh.

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Yeah very relatable, I guess I participated in shipping for the same reasons that I invented crushes on people: To try and fit in. But since I found out I don’t ‘fit’, I lost all interest in shipping. Whenever there is a possible queer couple I will still root for them, but usually I just look at fictional characters and think ‘these would make GREAT friends’.

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Yeah, the same thing happened to me. I think that, before I knew I was aromantic, I was more interested in romantic stories and ships since I thought it was something I had to like to be normal. After I figured out I was aro and became a little more comfortable with being aro, I didn't really feel the need to do that anymore.

Edited by queer_kaleidoscope
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I was never that interested, and thankfully being a bloke I was not expected to be interested in romantic fiction.

What I have found though is that my attitude towards bad or unnecesary romance in fiction has became a lot less tolerant. So before if a story would have a romantic subplot that added nothing much to the main story I wouldn't really care because of course romance was there, its what everyone wants. Now I am a lot more observant about the fact that it doesn't need to be there.

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No, I didn't. I have the same way of thinking about romance in fiction as I had before realizing I'm aro. Ok, I'm a shipper but I really don't enjoy when there is lot of romance in canon. I always preferred when plot has something more to show than it.

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I still enjoy my fair share of romantic fiction, as long as it's done well and not just shoved into the plot for the sake of having romance.

Edited by bat
typo
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I think that's why I usually prefer romance in anime over romance in USA Hollywood. The latter is usually forced, while anime does a lot of development more often than not.

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Oddly enough, I've found myself going deeper into shipping ever since I realized I'm aroace, LMAO. Though I have to say that I'm much more invested in character interactions in its purest form than anything else, and I tend to just eat up any content I find of them, haha.

But with the content that I make myself, I have found that I tend to stay very far away from making things that are explicitly romantic. I kinda just leave the romanticism up to interpretation (because I'm non-confrontational and hate arguing with pushy allos), and have it as a personal headcanon that all the characters I write are a-spec and ships I write are QPRs.

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I have definitely lost my patience for what I consider to be 'lazy' romance - instalove, pairing off characters for all round hea etc. - but I don't mind a well done one. I certainly appreciate friendship/found family tropes a whole lot more though. I stay away from romance-first stories in general.

Unless it's a hallmark christmas movie because those are a hilarious drinking game!

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I was reading The Name of The Wind and in that series there is a romantic relationship between two characters that never begins. As in they come so close to falling in love so many times yet something would always interrupt them or they would decide to stop. I found myself deeply invested in their relationship regardless of my own aromantacism. I was able to be invested because that romance took place outside of me. It was akin to desperately wishing the horse I bet on to run faster in the final lap. So yeah, I still enjoy romantic relationships in books.

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Not really. I still get all fanboy-y about fictional romance, even if I can't really relate to it. It's sorta comparable to like, liking weapons in videogames and hating weapons irl. I am not the biggest fan when it comes to me in real life but damn do I like watching it in a story (if its good lol).

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On 4/4/2022 at 5:39 PM, Reengo said:

I was never huge on shipping (imagining fictional characters to be in a relationship), but I did have a few ships and OTPs that I loved and enjoyed thinking about. But now that I identify as aromantic I have far less interest in that. I still have some ships I like and even an OTP, but I just prefer to assume characters are aromantic tbh.

My interest in romance in fiction before identifying as aromantic: 0%
My interest in romance in fiction after identifying as aromantic:    0%

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