I've always been a little too obsessed with the comrades-to-lovers scenario (especially in queer romance but it's really any), I feel, but it's for good reason: if you're a fantasy/adventure-plot reader and you like your romance liberally sprinkled at best, you're often naturally blessed with an abundance of comrade-type friendships. It's really a bit ridiculous and slightly degrading to go the only other route, which is to have the main character meet their SO in a bar or a party of some sort and be like 'omg, they're so hot' and then not really hang out with them 'cause they have 'things to do' except at the end where they get maaaarried (and/or kiss dramatically).
I mean, this is how fairy-tales and action-thriller films nearly always work, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck donkey balls. I don't need a couple to be friends first or whatever, but some sort of reasonably progressing relationship (even antagonistic! hey, -especially- antagonistic-- I dig it!) is better than riding off into the sunset with a barely-known acquaintance (like even with Harry/Ginny, I guess). I mean, even if it's a really hot acquaintance who kisses really well (and, uh, has a castle). I, personally, don't wanna even seriously date an acquaintance. Sorry, fairy-tale prince and/or people I don't know well. :/
(And yeah, this is partly why I like fairy-tales like The Snow Queen and Beauty and the Beast: omg, they -know- each other! SCORE!)
Man, speaking of emotional climaxes (which we weren't, but): having finished the second Nightrunner book, I finally get all the people who were sort of personally offended, almost, or at least frustrated as hell that the H/G romance in book 6 was so skimpily (flimsily? incompletely? sort of desultorily, even?) handled. I remember people saying that this is because we came to HBP with expectations borne of romance and character-centric fanfic, whereas JKR is writing a plot-centric work that uses characters & their relationships rather than being about them, precisely. I myself didn't care so much because I didn't care about Harry/Ginny (even if I care about Harry & vaguely like my -own- idea of H/G and Harry-romance in general).
Well... having read the 'romance' bits with 'Stalking Darkness', I have to say I have a very similar reaction: there just wasn't enough. I mean, in this case the book is definitely about these two characters, but also definitely focused on the stuff they -do- rather than the stuff they feel (which is secondary); however, this... emotional incompleteness is all the more striking with it being the two main characters, I feel. As if Harry and Hermione -did- get a romance, and yet it was treated little more in-depth than the H/G in HBP. I feel cheated, somehow.
Trying to puzzle it out... I'd have to say that it's just that I feel it's not... I'm tempted to say 'satisfying', but I'll go with to 'a complete arc', and therefore an emotional disappointment. Things don't feel 'right' to me if they don't progress right, at their own pace: so if things were going fast as blazes for a long time, and then the writer throws wrench after wrench in the relationship just to 'avoid the inevitable' and have the couple get together, I get pissed off. Similarly, if things were slowly growing from 'comrades with oomph' to 'deeper friendship with subtext' to 'budding romance in the midst of camaraderie & adventure'-- it's a total cheat to have things wrap up and come to a head in say, 2 days and then drop the issue and jump ahead to 'EEEE, SOULMATES 4 LIFE!!1'. Sorry, thriller-writers. :/
( though actually... there's more to it, of course. )
...And it really doesn't help that I'm now reminded that things -can- work like in the Basara manga, even though there's no comrades-to-lovers relationship (ripe for lovin' as Nachi & Hijiri obviously are). Of course, allowances have to be made for the fact that Basara is one of my favorite love-stories of all time and I consider 95% of its characters absolutely adorable and brilliant and think it's a shining example of the ideal of what fantasy-type plot merged with romance looks like. Um. Well, at least with every not-as-good book I read, I realize how utterly fucking amazing the great stuff is. :> If for no other reason than Basara is one of the very few stories where I love spending time with the all the minor characters just as much as with the main ones. Now -that's- talent.
~~
As an aside, I wonder if I'm the only shy/introverted-type person who feels... um, uncomfortable having to read the main characters constantly stuck in big groups (like, long stretches where they don't get time alone together or just... alone). It's funny, 'cause obviously I get people-tired in that way myself in real life, but reading Flewelling's third Nightrunner book, I actually find it happening sympathetically, even though the characters aren't really suffering that much. Especially since they're in a relationship and I want to see more of that, having them not only investigating/exploring like before but having less time alone than when they were first getting to know each other-- that's really backwards and uncomfortable to me.
...Though I'm actually a freak 'cause I get a sort of 'aaah, too many people!!1' discomfort just from changing povs with too many characters while I read, too. Before now, I just took it for granted that I'm naturally more interested with deeper-quality relationships with fewer-quantity characters/people (in real life as well), but I wasn't quite aware it was my introversion kicking in before, even while I read.
I mean, this is how fairy-tales and action-thriller films nearly always work, but that doesn't mean it doesn't suck donkey balls. I don't need a couple to be friends first or whatever, but some sort of reasonably progressing relationship (even antagonistic! hey, -especially- antagonistic-- I dig it!) is better than riding off into the sunset with a barely-known acquaintance (like even with Harry/Ginny, I guess). I mean, even if it's a really hot acquaintance who kisses really well (and, uh, has a castle). I, personally, don't wanna even seriously date an acquaintance. Sorry, fairy-tale prince and/or people I don't know well. :/
(And yeah, this is partly why I like fairy-tales like The Snow Queen and Beauty and the Beast: omg, they -know- each other! SCORE!)
Man, speaking of emotional climaxes (which we weren't, but): having finished the second Nightrunner book, I finally get all the people who were sort of personally offended, almost, or at least frustrated as hell that the H/G romance in book 6 was so skimpily (flimsily? incompletely? sort of desultorily, even?) handled. I remember people saying that this is because we came to HBP with expectations borne of romance and character-centric fanfic, whereas JKR is writing a plot-centric work that uses characters & their relationships rather than being about them, precisely. I myself didn't care so much because I didn't care about Harry/Ginny (even if I care about Harry & vaguely like my -own- idea of H/G and Harry-romance in general).
Well... having read the 'romance' bits with 'Stalking Darkness', I have to say I have a very similar reaction: there just wasn't enough. I mean, in this case the book is definitely about these two characters, but also definitely focused on the stuff they -do- rather than the stuff they feel (which is secondary); however, this... emotional incompleteness is all the more striking with it being the two main characters, I feel. As if Harry and Hermione -did- get a romance, and yet it was treated little more in-depth than the H/G in HBP. I feel cheated, somehow.
Trying to puzzle it out... I'd have to say that it's just that I feel it's not... I'm tempted to say 'satisfying', but I'll go with to 'a complete arc', and therefore an emotional disappointment. Things don't feel 'right' to me if they don't progress right, at their own pace: so if things were going fast as blazes for a long time, and then the writer throws wrench after wrench in the relationship just to 'avoid the inevitable' and have the couple get together, I get pissed off. Similarly, if things were slowly growing from 'comrades with oomph' to 'deeper friendship with subtext' to 'budding romance in the midst of camaraderie & adventure'-- it's a total cheat to have things wrap up and come to a head in say, 2 days and then drop the issue and jump ahead to 'EEEE, SOULMATES 4 LIFE!!1'. Sorry, thriller-writers. :/
( though actually... there's more to it, of course. )
...And it really doesn't help that I'm now reminded that things -can- work like in the Basara manga, even though there's no comrades-to-lovers relationship (ripe for lovin' as Nachi & Hijiri obviously are). Of course, allowances have to be made for the fact that Basara is one of my favorite love-stories of all time and I consider 95% of its characters absolutely adorable and brilliant and think it's a shining example of the ideal of what fantasy-type plot merged with romance looks like. Um. Well, at least with every not-as-good book I read, I realize how utterly fucking amazing the great stuff is. :> If for no other reason than Basara is one of the very few stories where I love spending time with the all the minor characters just as much as with the main ones. Now -that's- talent.
~~
As an aside, I wonder if I'm the only shy/introverted-type person who feels... um, uncomfortable having to read the main characters constantly stuck in big groups (like, long stretches where they don't get time alone together or just... alone). It's funny, 'cause obviously I get people-tired in that way myself in real life, but reading Flewelling's third Nightrunner book, I actually find it happening sympathetically, even though the characters aren't really suffering that much. Especially since they're in a relationship and I want to see more of that, having them not only investigating/exploring like before but having less time alone than when they were first getting to know each other-- that's really backwards and uncomfortable to me.
...Though I'm actually a freak 'cause I get a sort of 'aaah, too many people!!1' discomfort just from changing povs with too many characters while I read, too. Before now, I just took it for granted that I'm naturally more interested with deeper-quality relationships with fewer-quantity characters/people (in real life as well), but I wasn't quite aware it was my introversion kicking in before, even while I read.
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