#the YA author hot take industry chugs along apace for this very reason

[reachexceedinggrasp]

I've been wanting to ask this question for a long time, but haven't been able to since I've never truly been aware of it till now and you can maybe provide some eloquent insight on this subject. I've been watching lots of dramas,movies,and even reading fanfics and something that truly baffles me is how most of these authors treat One True Love romance trope. They always make the main character yearn,pine,and even internally devote her/his whole heart to this one character they love. Set it up as if the main character couldn't and wouldn't have been able to fall in love again if they never manage to get together in the end. That it is NOT that the main character can't move on, it's just that they CHOOSES not to because their love is just simply too great. Some writer even go as far as making the main character be content with being ALONE and just having the other guy/girl inside their heart forever even if they're never officially together because the devotion and memory they have of that one person is enough to keep them going. ONLY TO TURN THE WHEEL right before the Ending by making the main character act like they never even think of all those stuff in the first place and Authors playing it off as "Even though the MC loves this guy/girl so much, they still themselves as a person first and foremost. They shouldn't and don't need to depend on some memories/feelings for another person to survive. They're perfectly capable of MOVING ON." 🤪 The fun and SUSPICIOUS fact is this : Usually this kind of things happen MORE OFTEN in stories where the MC is a woman🙃 Like you just know the writer's gonna backtrack right before it ends🤡 Why bother writing all those sappy romance stuff then,if you're just gonna slap your reader in the face for expecting unwavering loyalty that you set up in the first place from your MC?!

Like do you think this kind of thinking/interpretation and writing of a story is thematically right? Or is it simply the case of the writer being a coward,afraid of fully committing to that heart wrenching love and devotion THEY set up in the first place?

It's probably a combination of being wishy-washy in general because you haven't thought through your story or what it's saying, wanting the big flowery devotion and the romantic cliches but not really wanting to commit to them, and people just chickening out.

If it's a theme or intended message, then the story should actually deal with that and have the character coming to a realisation that undying devotion is a destructive ideal or something that they don't actually believe in or whatever. That would be fine. Some books do have that as a theme they're exploring.

But switching gears tonally without any justification of that or having a character randomly completely change their attitude for no reason is bad writing. And sort of yanking the rug of romanticism out from under the reader without setting that up as the point is going to frustrate and alienate them. We as the audience don't need the author to turn to us and remind us to drink water and get enough sleep. You are not our mum. It's not a guide for life, it's a story. Don't lecture me about how the main character don't need no man, I'm not reading a romance because I want to be told romance isn't important. I want them to give the cat a name and realise people do belong to each other, that's why I'm here.

Of course, people are undercutting their own drama left and right, so maybe it's just fear of being dramatic at all. God forbid we have any heightened poetic emotions, I guess.