Main Page » Blog-Like Typing Detected »

2012/06/27: I Don't Hate Marisa/Tsundalice, I Hate Romance

Created:

Always use secure-HTTP / Unsecure HTTP / Permanent Link

So I've been thinking.

So, you might know my views on certain depictions of Alice's personality in romance doujins and fanfics. I've commented that apart from my own stuff, I can't really enjoy any romance-stories other than my own, due to the association; I get this weird sense of revulsion. Well, something happened recently: I was reading a romance-doujin with an entirely unrelated romantic pairing between two characters who were behaving more or less according to canon,1 and I got the exact same sense of revulsion. That's when the title of this blog post hit me: I don't hate Marisa/some-off-canon-depiction-of-Alice romance stories, I hate all romance stories. I don't know why, it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't have a problem with fanart depicting pairings I like, but as soon as I have to start reading it, it puts me off. Except most of my own creations, for reasons I still haven't quite figured out. In fact, here's a revelation: I always cringe at comic #3, and always have. I had no idea why, though, until now.

I still hate what some fans have called "FAILice," of course, but now I understand that my problem stemmed from two different things which were actually entirely separate, and one of them was less specific and more subjective than I thought. The results, now that I know this? Well, mostly different choices about what stories I expose myself to, for the most part; nothing anyone else will necessarily see. But it's always interesting to find out new things about the way my mind works, and how to leverage this so I can hopefully get more enjoyment out of life.


Side note: I was originally going to include some sort of comment about how "it is not her canon personality" isn't a good reason to dislike FAILice given that there's good and bad both canon and non-canon, and futhermore it would be mildly hypocritical given what I've done with Flandre alone (at least in the Catness arc, but more generally her whole character-arc from "psycho" to "sane" to "doctor in the future-timeline"). But then I realized that canon never actually came up in the Deadly Cliche article, and it's still generally agreed (or at least by people who agree with me) that it is objectively terrible, so I decided that bringing up canon and related ideas would be irrelevant and distracting.

1As far as any Touhou characters in fan-made stories can be said to be "behaving according to canon."

8 Comments (auto-closed) (rss feed)

Wolf

Well at least you know what was behind the whole ordeal with how you disliked the tsundere Alice now. Granted it sounded like the long way around to understand that you didn't like romance stories as much now.

Anyways as for the Flandre bit I have to say that for her to be insane at first and work her way into being a respected doctor sounds like something that could happen. I mean even with Koishi being her so-called girlfirend with the fans after the SA game made it where Flandre might be.... well aporachable.... somewhat.

Atherius

I think I might have an idea on this one. Most romance doujin focus on a budding romance - that sickening sweet time when the characters first get really into each other. Most of your romance throughout the comic has been about AFTER this part - where they act more like a level-headed long-term couple, and less like the wide-eyed, oblivious-to-the-world in love couple. It might not be a hate of all romance, but rather a hate of that beginning relationship mentality. Just a thought.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Good point! Now that you bring it up, it is the stories where the emphasis is on the "romance" part that bug me in particular, as opposed to "they're together" being pretty much a secondary background thing.

MWchase

So, it's something like the equivalent of wondering why all superhero movie series have to start with an origin story nowadays?

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

... that ... kind of feels like apples and oranges, but yeah, that kinda makes sense.

Atherius

I think what he's getting at is that the emphasis on a lot of superhero movies (ie, the new Spiderman movie) is the origin story, rather than on them saving the day/awesome battles/witty comic book banter. In both cases, it's not so much the fact that there is a romance/origin story, but more than it's just highlighted too much for an individual taste, or done in such a way that it becomes nauseating rather than engaging.

Dizzy H. Slightly Voided

Ah, yeah, that makes sense.

Atherius

One last note: regarding comic #3, it might be the reason you're not that keen on it. The comic is devoted to that early stage, even if it's not as romantically-intensive as most romance doujins (hence "cringing" instead of "repulsed"). Anyway, sorry to belabor the point.

As a side-note, that FAILice comic is hysterical. Though at least half of it reminds me of Yuno Gasai. And that...that is terrifying.