Sunshine revival Challenge: Love

[author_by_night]

  The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.

I posted about this on tumblr, but I've said in the past that I don't really care about romantic storylines. Except I've come to realize, that's not true at all. There have been a lot of pairings I've loved, both in canon and in fanfiction. (Sometimes more in one than the other.)

Since this is meant to be a positive entry, I'll focus on what I love in my romantic pairings. I love seeing two people working together - perhaps in the sense that they're coworkers or have intersecting jobs, perhaps in the sense that they have a common mission, be it something major or minor. I love when the story is less about whether or not they'll be together, and more about what happens once they are. I love seeing them connect with one another's friends and family. I love seeing them help each other be their best selves. I love when conflict isn't about whether or not they "truly" love each other, but how new information or a miscommunication has - temporarily - rocked the boat. I love physicality. The way they hug and kiss, the way they move together, in a natural tandem.

Don't get me wrong - I'm here for some UST and other things you often see. I love a little drama. :P I just prefer all of that as the starting point, and I lose interest if it drags out for too long.  I love even more when none of that happens, and the couple just... comes into being. 

Comments

[soricel]

As someone who generally thinks of themself as not very interest in Romance, I think I'm with you on a lot of this! I wish I could find more stories/media that focused more on established/developing relationships, without them being either completely drama-free "domestic fluff" or full of drama related to cheating or death or something. Of course there's a place for all that too, but yeah, I find myself craving more stories about relatively happy couples navigating the everyday ups-and-downs of relatively healthy long-term relationships, including, like you mentioned, work partnerships. :)

[author_by_night]

Cheating in particular bugs when it's done for conflict alone. I have seen shows where the cheating was treated like a huge betrayal that would take a while to move past, but not that many, and maybe only one, now that I think about it.

I'm also with you that pure fluff isn't always much fun either. I like conflict, I just need conflict I find believable.

Death especially bugs me when it feels like it was done for shock value.

[smallhobbit]

That's the sort of relationship I like, too. Where the pairing works together to overcome the hurdles that life inevitably throws at them.

[kitarella_imagines]

Oh that is a really interesting take on romance and I tend to agree with some of it e.g. miscommunications rock the boat. I don't like drama for the same of it.

[florianschild]

I agree completely with your take! I don't necessarily like *romance* but I love when characters are deeply in love and all the emotional depth that goes along with that.

I also agree on not dragging out miscommunications! That's one of my biggest pet peeves in fiction when characters are fighting over something for ages that could easily be resolved by...oh... having a conversation??

[author_by_night]

Yes! Just communicate.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>I love when conflict isn't about whether or not they "truly" love each other, but how new information or a miscommunication has - temporarily - rocked the boat. <<

I love when characters have genuine differences that can't be handwaved away as a "misunderstanding" but must be worked through in order to continue the relationship.

Re: Thoughts

[author_by_night]

Yes! I had meant to add that as well. You're right. Actual misunderstandings any couple could have. As well as conflicts that aren't even about misunderstandings, just very difficult obstacles.

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

Among the things that people might be working through:

* Differences in mess quotient

* Cultural clashes, especially between cultures that haven't gotten along historically

* Religious differences, which can make it difficult to marry if the religions refuse to acknowledge each other

* Differences over politics or other key beliefs and practices

* Situations where one or both people have committed a great wrong in the past

* Challenges in finding a situation where both can be happy (e.g. City Boy/Country Girl, Travelern/Homebody, Mountain Man/Beach Bunny).

[lunabee34]

I love seeing connecting with friends and family, too. Some of my favorite SGA stories were always Rodney bringing Sheppard to stay with Jeannie or Rodney going with Sheppard to his brother's.

[scripsi]

I think there is a lot to this! I don't care much for romances, but now and then I read something I like a lt anyway. I haven't really analyzed the why's, but I agree with what you say!

[elizalavelle]

I have sentimental summer memories just because when we're young it's such a time of freedom. I think thinking the other day about the summer of Our Lady Peace's album Clumsy - it was so popular up here that every store you went into that summer was playing it so those songs often remind me of wandering through shops in the summer.

Not at all a romantic bit of sentimental but summer doesn't feel so much like romance to me, it's more that feeling of freedom and time with your friends.

[author_by_night]

Oh, I definitely have that association as well. Summer when you're young is ABSOLUTELY about freedom and time with your friends, and really just time to get up to all kinds of things.

I don't think I ever heard that album.

[elizalavelle]

Because Our Lady Peace were Canadian I assume the album was huge up here, less popular in other places. Although I do have an Australian friends who loves them so their music did get around :) If you have any fondness for 90's Alternative Rock it's worth a listen :)