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sunshine revival challenge #2
Journaling: The romance of summer! What do you love? Write about anything you feel sentimental about or that gets your heart pumping.
I'm constantly talking about the things I love here already, so instead I'm just gonna talk about romance in general.
one thing about me: I tend to avoid romance as a genre, especially since I have very little patience for the standard m/f romance tropes. I'm much more open to romance in queer stories, and when I feel like watching/reading romance, I seek out specifically queer media/books. but in general, romance is not my priority and hasn't been since I was a teen. I think that's part of the reason why I like romantic fic so much, it's the most contact I have with the genre lol
ok but what *do* I like, then? when I think of romantic scenes in tv shows/movies/books, what comes to mind?
first thing is this scene from "the glory":
"I'll be your executioner, who do you want me to kill first"??? I lost my fucking mind with those lines. that's PEAK romance as far as I'm concerned.
I usually think of the eulogy scene from "captain fantastic" too. "my face is mine, my hands are mine, my mouth is mine... but I'm not. I'm yours." that line :')
one of my favorite movies of all time is "imagine me and you". the banter! the longing! the "didn't know they were in love"! I think this movie informs so much of my writing LOL from always adding a little bit of comedy, to the ending being a callback to another scene/line from earlier, to the trope of one character being slow to catch up on their feelings and the other being so down bad for them from the get-go...
and the clichés are so well done too. the only movie where I think love at first sight made any sense thanks to the scene being perfect. and the ENDING? bye. "YOU'RE A WANKER, NUMBER NINE!" is on my top3 most romantic lines despite making no sense out of context. the friends to lover-ness of it all...
and I think I'm referencing this scene all the time without even realizing:
which is also true for the ending of "ever after", also a favorite of all time. there are many other scenes I like more than this one and yet every time I rewatch it I'm like huh. did these lines inspire all the romance I've ever written in my life?
that's... basically it. in books I like romance woven into stories, and not the other way around - which is the opposite of what I like/do in fic lol so for instance "the darkness outside us" and "the song of achilles" are two recent ones I really liked. I'd include "captive prince" in that too, because the overarching plot is what made me like the romance as much as I did. "fingersmith" will forever be a favorite, and for some reason I was SO into the relationship in "the paying guests" too? sarah waters writes such angsty, fucked up, together-against-all-odds romance, I'm hooked every time... as I'm typing this I'm realizing most of these if not all are at least tangentially about dying/killing for someone you love and you know what. sure. LOL I do like the mutual devotion trope, yes!!!
speaking of which: I'd be remiss not to mention killing eve too because look... are their scenes romantic in the traditional sense of the word? not really. do villaneve truly love each other? debatable. but do I like their relationship? YES. couple of all time. the moment she pulls the knife here - that's ROMANCE for them. and shoutout to IWTV for being all that AS WELL AS having such a fun universe with complex characters that the romance only makes things better. most of the time I get annoyed by dumb romance storylines in otherwise fun shows, but in these two cases that's the whole point, the romance *is* the storyline without making it annoying. win!!!
I'm constantly talking about the things I love here already, so instead I'm just gonna talk about romance in general.
one thing about me: I tend to avoid romance as a genre, especially since I have very little patience for the standard m/f romance tropes. I'm much more open to romance in queer stories, and when I feel like watching/reading romance, I seek out specifically queer media/books. but in general, romance is not my priority and hasn't been since I was a teen. I think that's part of the reason why I like romantic fic so much, it's the most contact I have with the genre lol
ok but what *do* I like, then? when I think of romantic scenes in tv shows/movies/books, what comes to mind?
first thing is this scene from "the glory":
"I'll be your executioner, who do you want me to kill first"??? I lost my fucking mind with those lines. that's PEAK romance as far as I'm concerned.
I usually think of the eulogy scene from "captain fantastic" too. "my face is mine, my hands are mine, my mouth is mine... but I'm not. I'm yours." that line :')
one of my favorite movies of all time is "imagine me and you". the banter! the longing! the "didn't know they were in love"! I think this movie informs so much of my writing LOL from always adding a little bit of comedy, to the ending being a callback to another scene/line from earlier, to the trope of one character being slow to catch up on their feelings and the other being so down bad for them from the get-go...
and the clichés are so well done too. the only movie where I think love at first sight made any sense thanks to the scene being perfect. and the ENDING? bye. "YOU'RE A WANKER, NUMBER NINE!" is on my top3 most romantic lines despite making no sense out of context. the friends to lover-ness of it all...
and I think I'm referencing this scene all the time without even realizing:
which is also true for the ending of "ever after", also a favorite of all time. there are many other scenes I like more than this one and yet every time I rewatch it I'm like huh. did these lines inspire all the romance I've ever written in my life?
that's... basically it. in books I like romance woven into stories, and not the other way around - which is the opposite of what I like/do in fic lol so for instance "the darkness outside us" and "the song of achilles" are two recent ones I really liked. I'd include "captive prince" in that too, because the overarching plot is what made me like the romance as much as I did. "fingersmith" will forever be a favorite, and for some reason I was SO into the relationship in "the paying guests" too? sarah waters writes such angsty, fucked up, together-against-all-odds romance, I'm hooked every time... as I'm typing this I'm realizing most of these if not all are at least tangentially about dying/killing for someone you love and you know what. sure. LOL I do like the mutual devotion trope, yes!!!
speaking of which: I'd be remiss not to mention killing eve too because look... are their scenes romantic in the traditional sense of the word? not really. do villaneve truly love each other? debatable. but do I like their relationship? YES. couple of all time. the moment she pulls the knife here - that's ROMANCE for them. and shoutout to IWTV for being all that AS WELL AS having such a fun universe with complex characters that the romance only makes things better. most of the time I get annoyed by dumb romance storylines in otherwise fun shows, but in these two cases that's the whole point, the romance *is* the storyline without making it annoying. win!!!