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Romance in a fictional story is no more “unnecessary” than car chases and sword fights are unnecessary. Some things are just put there because they’re interesting to watch
There shouldn’t be any deep and hard reasoning why romance is featured in a story other than “the writers wanted to tell a story with romance in it”, and this should be enough
People in real life fall in love and enter relationships all the time, and romantic relationships tend to be a huge part of people’s lives. It’s not cheap, forced, or contrived to mirror this huge aspect of the real world in fiction
Romance shouldn’t have to justify itself to be allowed to exist in fiction. If you don’t interrogate how necessary is a found family plot or a friendship plot there’s no need to interrogate how necessary a given romantic subplot is
(and the very approach to assigning value to a story element such as romance on the basis of how “necessary” it is is on itself a very narrow minded and utilitarian approach consuming fiction, one that values a story on the basis of how airtight is the plot rather than its thematic and aesthetic merits)
You’re allowed to dislike romance in fiction. You’re allowed to dislike a specific type of romance you think is overdone as far as depictions of romance goes (heterosexual, intra racial, etc). You’re allowed to dislike romance for a specific character or between a specific set of characters. But for heaven’s sake, learn how to differentiate your personal preferences from actual critique. Learn to see writing choices in context and put your own biases aside for a moment if you’re willing to give a story any criticism more substantial than “I hate that they had to make it romantic”. This is not meaningful critique of a piece of fiction, it’s just you is rehashing your “eewwww kissing” days from when you were eight and watched your dad give a goodbye peck on your mom’s lips as he leaves to work
And I hate to break it to y’all but stories that focus on familial bonds and friendships and other types of platonic love are no less common than romance is and, depending on which genre we are talking about, romance can be even more rare to be found on them. Yes, most main characters in fiction have a love interest, but the presence of a love interest is not the same thing as the presence of romance as a story element. A fictional character that pretty much only exists to be impressed / won over / saved by the protagonist is not a romance, it’s just using romantic love as an utilitarian narrative tool to create motivation. Romance implies actually dedicating narrative space to explore their particular dynamic and delve into how the interiority of the characters is affected by their feelings, and we can’t have that in genres oriented for male audiences because it’s considered to be cheesy, which is why romance is mostly found in female oriented media while action movies and other Boy Stuff is filled with the more serious and dignified narrative about platonic best bros and their super special bro connection. Or a son learning to live up to the expectations of his father. Or brothers having a complicated relationship. You get the deal.
Anyway, as I said before, you are entitled to your preferences, and you are entitled to dislike (specific types of) romance. But “romance bad” is not real critique, and it’s definitely not the super refreshing take you think it is.
Discussion ¬