User blog:Corbierr/A big old pairing rant

This one isn't going to be about specific pairings like Peddie or Jeroy, but instead... I'm just ranting about them in general. And why they are kind of, sometimes, toxic to the show.

So to start off I need to start with Season 1, where pairings were just kind of like... the side-orders to the main meal of the mystery plot. They were relatively drama-less, natural, and for the most part, done pretty well. We had a whole bunch of friendships, including Joytricia, which contributed directly to the mystery itself. In fact, season 1 had more friendships than romance, and the romances themselves were simple, cute and not too distracting from the main plot. All in all, the pairings were handled pretty well.

But in the time before Season 2, the pairings took up a big focus of the fandom. Of course. Shipping is a huge thing nowadays, and you saw it everywhere for us. The Nick Boards had the HOA fanfic forum and it was 75% romantic fanfics with every couple you could put together in the show, for example. Everyone wanted Fabina and despised Joy simply for her crush on Fabian. Patrome was a thing, because Patricia and Jerome were both single at this time. Shipping, basically, took up a lot more focus than the mystery did at this time.

And the writers must have noticed, because Season 2 had much more romance than season 1 did. However, this time it seemed to be done specifically to appeal to fans instead of complimenting the mystery. So you had Jara falling in love while Mick got pushed to the side and derailed into a jerk. You had Eddie, Patricia's new love interest, and their fast-paced, dramatic love/hate relationship. And then you had the Jabina love triangle. On the side were things like Amfie (which was major in itself but more like the romances in s1 where they were just on the side of the mystery and not a big plot) or small pairings like Pifie, Jamber and Meddie to further tease the shippers. During this time, there was also a noticable decline in friendships, probably because the romance had now become not a side-order, but a whole separate meal for a different purpose while the friendships became, like, the bread you get when waiting. These romances could have been done okay if they were more natural, intertwined with the mystery or even just done more subtly, but what I think we ended up with was just a lot of communication problems, pointless drama and derailed characters simply to satisfy the fans.

Just that fact alone- that the fans basically demanded this- upsets me. In making romance a larger part of the story, they had to add more to them. But to add more, they ended up just overstuffing the plots until they were filled with problems anyone with common sense could fix, and they got too over-emphisized, which is actually why the second season is my least favorite. But other fans? Many people only cared about Peddie and Fabina after this was done. The mystery, psh, it was about the romance for them. Some only watched for this romance. And that makes me sad. The show should not be about who dates who, but it should just be a story of friends solving a mystery together and falling in love on the side. And again, the fact that the friendships were more ignored this season really didn't help because let me say this, FRIENDSHIPS ARE PAIRINGS TOO. NOT ALL OF THEM HAVE TO BE ROMANTIC. Don't remove them from the show to make more room for dumb drama, because you know what? In doing so, the characters get a bit dehumanized. They become more one-dimensional. Romance is not the only pairing that should be used to develop a character. Friendship is just as, if not more, important. But sacrifices had to be made, right? It's not like they could just dial down the scale of the romance plots or anything...

Season 3 got even more complicated. I did like their closer focus on minor pairings- but again, friendship was left out- and I liked their less obvious romances. The writers also seemed to realize that over-doing the romance can annoy people, so it was dialed down to sub-plot again. Except, this was the season where the romances became so random, so sudden, so overly dramatic, that just saying the words "Operation Jerome" can get people pissed off. Why? Because in their attempt to make us be wowed by the amazing new romances, they forgot to make them make sense or how the characters originally acted. This is a bad thing. Romance should not be there just to surprise people and add drama, because it becomes shallow and, even worse, upsetting to the fans that you're trying to please.

But again, some fans only cared about one thing that season: Peddie, and Fabina no longer being a thing. I mean, some people still only do care about those things. It's like the show is only about Peddie and nothing else! And while I admit they're cute, that's missing the entire point of the show itself and Peddie this season was really kind of angering just because of how bad their plot was. They didn't talk or grow as characters, the only reason they even happened the way they did is for the sake of drama and that just makes me sick. Patricia was derailed for this plot! I'm losing sight of why people actually enjoy Peddie now, in all honestly. All I ever see from them are two people who really don't understand how dating works and never learned anything from the experience of being love/hate and on again, off again. If anything, this romance set back development for Patricia, if not Eddie too, by having it consume the characters.

My point is, romance is great if used properly. Season 1 did this perfectly. But fans wanted more, and in the end, more romance turned out to be a corrupted wish made by a sadistic genie. It not only created a strange effect in the show where characters had to simoltaniously be interested in both romance and mystery at the same time, which did not work. If anything, it backfired horribly, by completely ruining development and character.

If you love relationships like Peddie, more power to you. But at least don't try and pretend that the show didn't suffer from these plots or that it's the only thing important about the show. Because a simple deeper look will show you how wrong you are.

Thanks for reading, everyone.