User blog:Corbierr/Romance rant yay

'''So I'm back for more angry ranting! Yay!'''

... I'm not angry yet guys, and believe me, I want to try and keep my sanity this time, unlike the blog from yesterday. :P I have measures to take to avoid dying of fan rage. First, this song on repeat when I think I'll need it - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ugebzq3juE. Second, it's snowing out. If I get too worked out, I'm going to go outside. Third, our drain has been fixed, so when I'm done with the blog, I'm getting in that shower.

But anyways, on with the rant!

This time...ROMANCE. Freaking romances. What makes me so angry about each of them? Why do even the best ones make me angry on the inside? Well, there's one big thing that drives me nuts.

THEY NEVER TALK TO EACH OTHER LIKE COUPLES SHOULD.

Try and tell me I'm wrong! But do you ever see couples in HOA actually getting to know each-other, getting to learn more about the other person. Yes, we see them acting like they know the other person and they try hard to make it seem like the attractions are based on true love (yes, even things like Mabian and Walfie, for everyone who wants a reason to cry now). Which, you know, I could buy. I'd buy that Fabina and Peddie and even Jeroy were "meant to be" but besides from the show hitting us over the head with how much they both love each-other (really, these things are hardly subtle but that's nothing worth complaining about since I'm not going to waste my fan rage on something so stupid), why should I? If I never or rarely see them get to communicate, to ask each-other questions and get to form an on-screen bond (mystery bonding doesn't count, Fabina) why should I believe they are honestly meant to be together? If I can't see the two of them even getting to spend at least one episode getting to build things like trust and really understand each-other, I can't honestly convince myself entirely they are meant to be together.

You might just think I'm nitpicking. After all, these things cannot possibly be that bad, can they? Maybe you think I'm just looking for a reason to complain. But I'm not. By God, I wish I was just doing that! But let's look at some common issues that arrise with the lack of communication and trust that plagues nearly every couple on the show (and the opposite, when they trust each-other without really having a reason why they should). I've got to give so much credit to the actors, for being so good at acting like they're in love that there really is an illusion of them, well, honestly being in love, otherwise nobody would be able to ship anything because there'd be no reason TO ship them (at least that's how I see it...IDK, everything is up for debate)

And hey, how can you know anything about a character when they never tell you anything about them? Relationships are a very easy way to show more about characters, but the key is to show them interacting. And when the interactions are minor, plot-oriented or superfacial, it doesn't do anything to tell us about the characters unless the point is to show how bad the relationship is. When it's meant to be true love, you need to show why they are in love and you should show both sides of the story.

So, let's get to the actual ranting part.

'''Fabina, as many people have pointed out, completely failed at all in the area of communication. '''Seriously. Being best friends and being the two leads of the first two seasons should really give them some room for scenes where they actually talk about anything that's not Sibuna related. Apart from the few scenes where they're just kidding around (which last literally seconds) they have no conversations that don't, in some way, bring up someing Sibuna related. HELL, EVEN WHEN THEY KISS IN BOTH SEASON FINALES THEY SPEND HALF THE CONVERSATION BEFOREHAND DISCUSSING SOMETHING RELATED TO THE MYSTERY. Why? Why should I care that Nina is Fabian's Chosen One if we don't get to see any reason why this is? I mean, why didn't he date Joy? Give them some credit, at least they act like friends sometimes! Fabina, no matter how cute they are, barely manage to convince me they're best friends because besides one or two scenes, they're either just discussing the mystery or dealing with love drama without explaining why THEY should be the right couple in the end. ...Guys, don't get me wrong. I ship the hell out of Fabina. But I just can't get past the fact that the show never even attempted to have them act like a real couple or even just best friends! Really, it can't just be me who sees this. They need to TALK TO EACH OTHER DAMN IT. How hard is it to show them just talking about anything other than the plot of the show? It's always "Sibuna this, Sibuna that, WE DEFINITELY STILL HAVE FEELINGS FOR EACH-OTHER EVEN THOUGH WE'LL NEVER BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO SAY IT OUT LOUD, did we mention we have a mystery to solve? Oh yeah, and let's talk about Gran and maybe a little about Joy for good measure." Normal human conversations? What's that?

-Listens to the MST3K Mantra a few times-

...I'm good. Moving on.

'''Peddie had never even bothered to know the other person in any way at all before dating. '''And somehow, we're supposed to find it upsetting and wrong when they break up. WELL...I'm sorry for saying this, Peddie shippers, BUT ''DUH! ''Have we ever seen them have any conversations in season 1 that weren't banter-y or super romantic? Again, I ship these guys, if only because Patrome has never gone anywhere and I'm a sucker for love/hate relationships. But come on, what made them think they were ready to date? And you know, maybe in season 2, that could have been the point, had they at some point ever realized that they just weren't ready for this considering, oh yeah, they didn't know anything about each-other! You think Patricia's jealousy was just a flaw in the writing? Well granted it wasn't GOOD writing, but hey, it's not like she's ever learned to trust him. They have feelings for each-other and have gone through a lot to make it work. Well, good for them to at least put effort into dating unlike Fabina who simply spent the majority of season 2 being depressed about not dating each other but never actually trying to do anything about it. But if they were never going to take a moment to get to know the other person, why do they think they can pull off a ''romance? '' I'm trying to not be annoyed at them guys, but can you blame me? Season 3...hoo boy, you know, sometimes I feel bad for season 3 because it's not like they didn't try in a lot of parts to make things work...but ugh, we need to talk about Season 3 Peddie for a moment. First off, what a better time to get to learn more about the other? They're broken up, Patricia is delusional about Keddie, and Eddie is in Sibuna now which means there's no more reason for secrets. But HAHAHA NO we just get to see them trying to get together again, clearly having grown not at all from everything that happened to them. Really, I do appreciate Jade's reveal of what happened to Peddie over the summer, but that just makes it worse. Patricia wasn't ready to go so fast, huh? Well, well...that makes complete sense when you look at the facts! But then you never see them dealing with the issue or even just talking for more than a few minutes per episode (seriously, what gives?), so why should I believe the two of them are meant to be when not even one attempt is made for these things to be worked into the show even if just for a way to convince us there was some development going on? I mean... I barely even tried with their romance in TRC but at least I tried, which is more than I can say for season 3 where it seems the barest effort was put in to make them seem believable. You expect me to think that they'd never even attempt to figure out where they went wrong and fix anything? You expect me to think they wouldn't even have an actual conversation for most of the season? Again, props to the actors, otherwise...it'd have been a complete mess.

'''Jara was a very weird scenario. '''From first glance, they seemed to have been one of the few pairings to legitimately try and understand the other person. They've gone through a lot together, they've seen each other in good and bad times... and they seemed to legitimately be right for each other. Come on, no matter what you guys can say about Jara in season 3 and how much you guys may want to say you've never loved the pairing, believe me, I won't believe all of what you're saying. Even I found it hard not to ship them. But here's the thing- when people shipped them, why did they? Did we think they honestly belonged together? Well, maybe. But a lot of us probably fell for Jerome's transformation and wanted to stop seeing Mara procrastinate on an obvious choice...or something like that. IDK, thing is, I'm feeling like Mara only liked the "good" Jerome, and not the entire person, explaining why she jumped to dump him so quickly in season 3 when he showed he still had...FLAWS! -Dun dun dun- Really though, it's weird. At first you can tell yourself that they were getting to know each other, and that everything between them was genuine. But season 3 revealed the ugly truth- Mara was in love with the "good" Jerome and thus they had never really come to real understanding. If anything, they never really learned to fall in love for real- Jerome falls for people who help him, which is why he fell for Willow and Joy as well, (which means if we needed Patrome, we just had to have Patricia show any sort of concern for Jerome and he'd love her within an episode...just saying. You know it's true, look at the patterns) and Mara thought she loved him but really she didn't. Oddly, I'm having a hard time being angry at this pairing, maybe because I just came from the shower so I'm calmed down, or maybe it's because they ended on such poor terms that it just makes it more realistic. Honestly though, when the most stable relationship on the show can't even be portrayed correctly, you know romances aren't your strong point. Maybe they were trying so hard to make them seem perfect for each-other that they forgot to account for what the feelings were actually based on...which explains why Jerome couldn't think of any reasons to keep dating Mara besides superfacial things as shown in House of History. Once she stopped "helping him" (read: acting like she was the one helping him when it was really his father) and proved she really has an issue with all of his flaws, what else is there to base their romance on? Again, this could have been easily fixed with them actually just talking and learning more about each other, developing feelings that are more than just superfacial ideas masquerading as true romance.

Just want to say that Bowling For Soup is helping me a lot to not be angry, probably due to all their anti-romance songs. This is the one I have on now. Haha. Moving onwards...

'''Mickra proves that Mara has always been this way. '''For all their talk about making it work despite being really different, it doesn't seem that way. And what does Mara have against boys with flaws? Is that why she went for Fabian at the end? Ehh...whatever. Same issue applies here that applies to the others, especially Peddie. They never learned how to trust each other and thus every issue makes them fall apart. The one thing they bonded over was the training, and that lasted for only part of season 1. They just don't make any sense to me. This is why they were so tedious in their plot, they never actually figured out how to date each other! Mara got possessive over him even though he was just a passive player and the real problem was Amber. Mick got over her almost-getting-him-expelled thing really, frustratingly easily, because she wrote a letter; meanwhile she holds a grudge over his overeager attempt to help her win until he humiliates himself. Do these two ever talk about their problems and come to an understanding the proper way? Apparently not, because when Mick returned FROM FUCKING AUSTRALIA to talk to her she kissed Jerome instead. Yeah, way to mess up the one shot you two had at having an actual relationship, you bitch. Have fun with Jerome in season 3, I'm sure that will work out real well. Hahahahaha....Ah, is that karma or what?

-deep breath-

'''Jeroy... actually seems to put in effort. ''' Yeah, weird, huh? The most random, out of nowhere romance on the show actually put effort into communicating and acting like a real couple. I mean, it wasn't a big scene, but when washing Letdown, they did at least discuss their parent issues, because the writers decided to remember they actually had some. Give them some credit, their random romance did have some realistic basis. And then they actually tried to make up for real at the end of their plot, rather than just deciding to forgive each other because they can. You know, this is one thing I can't pick on Jeroy for. Genderswapped? Yeah. Random? Yeah. Overly dramatic? Yes. But at least they actually tried to communicate and grow as a couple. So...fuck it, Jeroy escapes this time.

'''Amfie's otherwise perfect development included everything but this. '''Weird, again. Amfie was one of the best written pairings on the show...but they still lacked communication. In the beginning of season 2 when their plot actually kicked off, they clearly had issues based on the fact that Alfie really wanted to date Amber, who was kind of forced into it (I WILL NEVER GET OVER THAT) and when they broke up, it made sense. They had no reason to date at the time. Well, that's all fine and good because it's realistic. And then they developed into liking each other for real and got back together in the end, and I'm okay with that, except...the most they did at the end was have Amber ask to date again and Alfie agreed his own terms. And she agreed to them. And that was apparently all that was needed? I understand that the Amfie subplot was very minor by comparison to things like Fabina and Peddie, and that it was the season 2 finale so doing anything else would have taken more time than the show allowed for...but really? That's what it was building up to? Don't get me wrong, in season 3, they definitely proved to have truly developed real feelings for each other, and this is still one of the best pairings in the show. I just think it's weird how even they didn't have scenes where they just joked around, learned things about each other, and were able to showcase their new friendship that turned into romance, mirroring Fabina's "development" in a way. Does anyone else feel the way I do? All I'm saying is that a simple talk or two about random things would have been nice to see...

Final one, I believe. Shippers, get ready to be pissed...

Walfie never even had development to begin with. Ah, Walfie. So cute, yet so frustrating. One of the biggest issues is the mere fact that Alfie would fall for anyone else so soon after Amber left, with no sign of struggle. It was like Amber didn't exist, and was a slap in the face to Amfie shippers. But there's more to it than that. We never even got to see them fall in love. It just happened! There were no interactions between them, and thus to reasons to care. It's worse than the other cases that at least tried to build up a believable romance, regardless of if they failed or not. Their only reasons for being together was that they were similar. BIG FUCKING DEAL. That's like saying that if Queenie was a male, I should be married to her instead of Haley. I mean, we're so similar, SO IT MUST BE MEANT TO BE! Screw the sister thing, right? No...it doesn't work like that, HOA, IT JUST DOESN'T! But at least Queen and I know each other! What do Walfie know? ...Well, that's the million dollar question, ain't it? With so little genuine interactions between them, with so little substance, we might as well just assume they know as much as the shippers do! Namely that, again, they are a lot alike, and nothing else. I JUST WANT TO SEE THEM ACTUALLY TALK TO EACH OTHER ABOUT SOMETHING! IS THAT SO MUCH TO ASK?

-Sobs on the inside-

...I need to listen to the Mantra a few more times.

Now some of you may be asking why I didn't mention things like Jabian, Mabian, and Mickber. Well, Mabian was literally just one five minute scene and one kiss. If you don't want to see me explode, I won't talk about them because there's nothing to even say outside of angry, inchoherent ranting. Jabian had a kiss, but never went anywhere, so that won't work. Mickber fell apart specifically BECAUSE they were based on superfacial feelings. Non-canon pairings, I can't talk about because they didn't actually date so I'd just be complaining about nothing.

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'I got through this one without having a complete breakdown! Success! :D'