101 Pet Peeves #4-5

#4Forced Love Interest

We've all seen them, a character walks onto the scene and the main character instantly starts drooling over them. All they seem to do is fight when they are together, and suddenly they are a couple. I'm not going to claim writing convincing attraction and relationships is easy, but it is not a good sign when you can spot a designated love interest the moment they appear in the story. When this happens the characters never need to really work at their relationship. If one of them brings up a good point that they have every right to be upset about something will either distract the couple (like impending death) or the one who "started" the argument will end up apologizing. 

A real relationship, a good one at least, is full of compromise, from BOTH sides. It is so tiring to see characters paired off because the author didn't want them to be single. Sometimes this is evident from the start and others we see the whole cast get matched off screen in the epilogue.

And man do I hate the epilogue shoeing in random couplings. There are couples that those who have been following the story drop their jaws in disbelief, and sometimes the other half of the couples aren't even people from the adventure. They are random people there for the sake of characters getting married and popping out babies. Regardless of previous chemistry between characters or how much a character didn't want kids.

As for the forced love interest in the middle of the story there are several reasons I don't like when this happens. First it is easy and lazy. Seriously have a character accidentally fall on top of someone, have them blush, and bam you have a couple. Man I'd hate to see what would happen to a really clumsy person who got stuck in one of these stories. The other thing though is that is completely lacks any kind of drama or tension. Oh noes the main couple is fighting? Well no matter they will stay together in the end no matter what. Even harems/reverse harems have a designate love interest. It doesn't matter how much you may like a different coupling, it is obvious from the start who the main character will end up with.

Unless we are talking about my pet peeve #5

#5 Teasing the ship

Where forced love interests take things to fast stories these stories take the romance slow. There is a ton of chemistry and a lot of hinting of a character maybe liking another. It would be a great romance. . .except. . . it . . . never. . . follows. . . through!! Seriously, some stories exist in a world where everyone can be paired off neatly, but in this one no one gets together EVER. No one ever falls in love, or no matter how much it is hinted at nothing ever comes of it. This is probably a result of lazy writing just as much as designated love interests.

I'm not even sure what to say about this. People fall in love, they break up, it's just a fact of life. It doesn't have to be the center of a story, but such a thing should be acknowledged. Oh and seriously company's that do it! Stop teasing us!!