Fiction to avoid

[Holmbo]

Let's make a list of fiction we want to warn our fellow aros from. It's mostly for fun since everyone's taste is different and what one of us dislikes another might enjoy.

The reason I thought of this is I just bought a book The Bookshop on the Corner but I accidentally got one from the wrong author so instead of getting a story about a woman who travels around in a bookmobile I got one about a woman who owns a book store and is addicted to romance novels. The book starts with her watching longingly at her friend as she's engaged in pda with her new boyfriend out on the streets. So boring!

I don't know if the book I intended to buy is any good but definitely don't buy the one by Rebecca Raisin.

What do you want to warn your fellow aros from? It could be books, movies, games, you name it.

[illumi]

warning any1 who wants to watch call of the night; dont go in w too high of an expectation

potential spoilers; brief summary & my criticism w this show

Spoiler

kou [black haired boy; the protag] is aroace coded & nazuna [pastel purple haired girl] is only implied aroace but this show is heavily amanormative. the entire plot revolves around the boy wanting to fall in love w the girl despite experiencing 0 romantic attraction toward her; just so that she wont feel lonely. the whole thing implies that romance is the only way to make some1 complete & happy which literally isnt the truth

i like the queer rep but i hate the msg of this show w a burning passion. i thought it would be partners challenging the amanormativity of the sys but they end up wanting to conform to it so it just aint it for me

i just want them to be in an alterous relationship or smth. that sounds way better than a romantic 1 

[EternallyTBD]

Maze runner. You can start it, and it’s  good and very complex etc., but by the time you get to the last book you can’t remember anything because it is complicated and so very bland at the same time. For me it felt like all emotion and sense of purpose had been drained from the series until it you no longer knew or cared what decisions the characters would make. I know some people who enjoyed it though, so I guess maybe it’s not actually that awful?

Edited May 6, 2023 by EternallyTBD

[Celandine]

There’s a bit of a community around mystery and/or time travel visual novels that I’m kind of a part of, where often the same recommendations will get thrown around. If you also like these kinds of games but can’t stand terrible romance, steer clear of Raging Loop. Its romance just isn’t well written at all — it treats its main three story “routes” as kind of a separate romance route for three different characters, and the romance drama is really awful and often sidetracks the story and weakens the characters involved. You also can’t avoid ANY of these routes, as the story is quite linear for a game in this genre and you have to complete each one in order.

(vaguely spoilery past here)

Spoiler

IMO if this game wanted a romance (which it really doesn’t need), it should have stuck with just Chiemi, who’s the focus of the first “route” both plot and romance-wise, and also endgame love interest. She’s more significant than the other two characters and her romance is still kind of weak, but easily the best of the three, ESPECIALLY as there’s much less romance drama between the other characters in this route. Cutting the other romances would also cut some of her most annoying moments.

Also, (non-romance reasons here) the game’s ending is. Bad. It gets gradually weaker after the end of the first route and the ending is a massive letdown. Personally I still like it for its mystery overall, but I can’t say that I recommend it for the above reasons.

 

[Nix]

Ok this is about the Horizon Forbidden West DLC Burning Shores.

Spoiler

Since Horizon Zero Dawn I was a big fan of main character Aloy for turning every flirting npc down with a ‘I don’t have time for this’. Apart from it feeling realistic, I had high hopes that this meant she was aro.
 

But in Forbidden Shores it is really clear she has a huge crush on the new npc Seyka. And even though you can turn down a kiss at the end with the pretty realistic ‘I can’t deal with this, it is too much’, all the awkward flirting is there. And don’t get me wrong, I am all for more queer rep in popular media. But I couldn’t help feeling really disappointed. 

 

Edited May 6, 2023 by Nix
Forgot a word

[Holmbo]

Does anyone else have any warnings? 🙂

[nonmerci]

I remember this manga, Darling in the Franxx. The concept is cool but the amatonormativity and sexnormativity was big. Like it is so ingrained in the writers mind that they haven't realized how inconsistent it is that in a society where romance and sex were forbidden, kids would think attraction is normal (not saying attraction is not normal of course, just saying that in this context, you find a character talking as if every boys were attracted to girls).

[DeltaAro]

Normally I would find this topic rather weird.

I mean, for aros, fiction may contain annoying romantic subplots or may be disappointing because it refutes one's head canon. I wouldn't say such media should be avoided, because that's a strong word.

But then there's Darling in the Franxx. This anime should really be avoided.

If you're in a mentally vulnerable state, don't watch it. Or better, don't watch it at all. High chance you feel awful afterwards.

5 hours ago, nonmerci said:

I remember this manga, Darling in the Franxx. The concept is cool but the amatonormativity and sexnormativity was big. Like it is so ingrained in the writers mind that they haven't realized how inconsistent it is that in a society where romance and sex were forbidden, kids would think attraction is normal (not saying attraction is not normal of course, just saying that in this context, you find a character talking as if every boys were attracted to girls).

I didn't read the manga, just watched the anime.

So the "children" mecha pilots are biologically different, i.e. the children have a normal human development (they even live in artificial biospheres aka "quarantine zones", that emulate normal earth with all its natural pathogens), with sex drives and romantic desires, while humans in mainstream society are asexual, aromantic, biologically immortal and sterile.

Children need to be different in that way because piloting the Franxx is a very obvious analogy to sex (male pilot = stamen, female pilot = pistil) and the pilots also need "compatibility", so that's likely sexual and romantic attraction.

It's indeed weird that the children talk about attraction as totally normal... I mean, they have no knowledge of basic human sexuality, don't even know what kissing is, but they just accept this attraction and make jokes about it? Don't they wonder where this attraction leads to?

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

Not to potentially stain the image of this book, since I heard from people that the book is problematic, but I've yet to find the means to read it myself to actually see if it is - so take this with a grain of salt. But, there's a book called "The Art of Being Normal" by Lisa Williamson, and it's about two trans teens and them going about their life in their own experiences, but there's supposed transphobia throughout the book; where the trans guy character supposedly misgenders and deadnames a trans girl repeatedly, and some of the chapters own POVs has it to where the girl's perspective is labeled in her deadname and not the one she's chosen.

So, yeah, sounds bad already, though I haven't been able to read the book myself. But in case it is as bad as it's been told to me, then it's a book to be cautious of.

If anyone's curious about potential problems in the book here's an article I found out about it:

https://vocal.media/humans/the-big-problem-with-the-art-of-being-normal-by-lisa-williamson

[Celandine]

1 hour ago, The Newest Fabled Creature said:

Not to potentially stain the image of this book, since I heard from people that the book is problematic, but I've yet to find the means to read it myself to actually see if it is - so take this with a grain of salt. But, there's a book called "The Art of Being Normal" by Lisa Williamson, and it's about two trans teens and them going about their life in their own experiences, but there's supposed transphobia throughout the book; where the trans guy character supposedly misgenders and deadnames a trans girl repeatedly, and some of the chapters own POVs has it to where the girl's perspective is labeled in her deadname and not the one she's chosen.

So, yeah, sounds bad already, though I haven't been able to read the book myself. But in case it is as bad as it's been told to me, then it's a book to be cautious of.

If anyone's curious about potential problems in the book here's an article I found out about it:

https://vocal.media/humans/the-big-problem-with-the-art-of-being-normal-by-lisa-williamson

Oh! I have read “The Art of Being Normal” and can confirm that the trans girl character is misgendered by the other main character throughout the book until literally the very end.

Back when I read it the deadnaming stood out less because the character only mentions her new name about halfway through as “I’ve been thinking about going by this” instead of “this is my name now”, but the misgendering was really jarring and honestly hard to read— iirc the other main character, after she comes out to him, continues to misgender her through his perspective (although I don’t think he ever does so to her face?) right up until the final chapter, once she has come out to everyone else. I read it a few years ago now and I was a bit less informed on trans issues back then, so my memory of the book might be a bit faulty or lacking.

But yeah, this is one to stay away from. It’s not wildly offensive, but it is uncomfortable (and also pretty slow and uninteresting plot-wise. Would not recommend).

[The Newest Fabled Creature]

18 hours ago, Celandine said:

Oh! I have read “The Art of Being Normal” and can confirm that the trans girl character is misgendered by the other main character throughout the book until literally the very end.

Back when I read it the deadnaming stood out less because the character only mentions her new name about halfway through as “I’ve been thinking about going by this” instead of “this is my name now”, but the misgendering was really jarring and honestly hard to read— iirc the other main character, after she comes out to him, continues to misgender her through his perspective (although I don’t think he ever does so to her face?) right up until the final chapter, once she has come out to everyone else. I read it a few years ago now and I was a bit less informed on trans issues back then, so my memory of the book might be a bit faulty or lacking.

But yeah, this is one to stay away from. It’s not wildly offensive, but it is uncomfortable (and also pretty slow and uninteresting plot-wise. Would not recommend).

Yeah, I read reviews of it, and many people thought that it felt like the trans characters were only respected for their gender when they finally came out; like, as if they weren't who they said they were when in the closet (hence why the trans girl gets called by her chosen name until the very end).

[DeltaAro]

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)

This isn't a horror movie, but an anime about a terminally ill teenage girl and her relationship with some weird introverted loner boy.

The idea, I guess, was to subvert the teen romance genre, which would've been nice. But it totally fails. "Introverted loner boy" turns out to be rather creepy, so all suspicions others have were justified. Also, we learn that platonic relationships don't work.

Long explanation with spoilers here.

[HelloThere]

52 minutes ago, DeltaAro said:

I Want to Eat Your Pancreas (2018)

This isn't a horror movie, but an anime about a terminally ill teenage girl and her relationship with some weird introverted loner boy.

The idea, I guess, was to subvert the teen romance genre, which would've been nice. But it totally fails. "Introverted loner boy" turns out to be rather creepy, so all suspicions others have were justified. Also, we learn that platonic relationships don't work.

Long explanation with spoilers here.

How the actual frick does that get funding to be a show?