Broken Characters in Romance

[cherrystark]

As I've been reading stuff online, why are we often so quick to label our characters as "broken"? I've seen so many romance novels called "Broken (Insert Random Word)." Yes, it sounds angsty and dramatic to have a character who is a "broken angel" but the relationships in these stories feel more and more toxic.

I am 100% for healthy relationships and better mental health. Why are we so often quick to call a character broken and the only way for them to get better is their love interest? Yes, a good partner can be vitally important when you are going through a tough time but they can't always "save you" from it.

I'd like to see more characters that are going through a tough time pull themselves out of it or at the very least are active participants in changing their story. I'd like to see more characters find their love when the time is right and not simply as a solution to everything. A character in a book I like was abused as a child. 20+ years later, she carries the scars from her trauma but she's better. She still has bad days but her husband is just there to support her and love her, not save her. She's made peace with her past. I've like to see more mutually loving and supportive relationships where both partners benefit instead of one person sacrificing everything for the sake of the imagined relationship only to get hurt later on.

[JoshRaid]

Ghost eyes is about mentally ill gay teens falling in love and shit but there are also demons. There's a scene where the protagonist argues with his love interest and it escalates into him attempting to kill him, and he only regrets it because he hasn't been fully forgiven yet. I'm super worried about this plot point because if handled wrong, it could literally ruin the series. I'm not sure if It can even be done, and am even less confident the plot really needed the moment to be something this serious.

[DiegoPalacios]

This is part of what i like to name "the Disney fallacy".

While a relationship can help in some situations due to the mutual support, putting said relationship as the solution to all problems is unrealistic.

[domisotto]

What goes well on the Internet are the stories with huge drama in the relationship, basically think melodrama, because they are easy to read, get you invested fast, make you want next chapter.

A lot of people who read on the Internet do not have experience of reading thoughtful general fiction, they come after watching anime and tv dramas or movies, and not the sloooow grungy movies made in the 70s, heh.

The nice characters with subtle relationships are much harder sell. The story unfolds slower, you have to read attentively, there is not a lot of exclamation marks on the end of sentences and smirking.

Add to it beloved tropes like nursing someone to health, plus the teenage angst that naturally leads to secret dreams of being noticed and loved through being uplifted from martyrdom...

A tragic hero’s appeal is not new. Epic sagas, operas and telenovelas all thrive on the sex appeal of a suffering/damned but beautiful soul with huge emotional swings and unbridled passions

...

[cherrystark]

While a relationship can help in some situations due to the mutual support, putting said relationship as the solution to all problems is unrealistic.

And I've seen so many girls IRL fall for that fallacy. One of my old roommates literally stepped up to be the "wife" of this guy under the hope he'd ask her to be his girlfriend. He didn't. He ran off to be with this ex. Another girl I knew was with her high school boyfriend to "save" him and endured years of abuse and drugs linked to their relationship. It's not healthy.

@domisotto You're right. Drama and romance go great together for storytelling. I am a big fan of romantic dramas. It just worries me when people treat toxic relationships as normal and "goals". Every story doesn't need to have a happy ending. It's just more examples of positive relationships and characters making their mental health a priority in stories.

This is more in romantic drama/fantasy stuff, but two love interests don't always have to be rivals for the sake of drama before the inevitable battle between whatever foe. They can be an established couple. They can be a couple who likes each other but are too shy to say so. They can be the nerdy BFFs that are just happy to be together. The goal should be a healthy relationship even if it only lasts a few months.

[domisotto]

Romance actually has to have a happy ending, either an HEA or HFN. If your love story ends tragically, you are writing General Fiction, not Romance. It is a genre convention.

As for being concerned, well, it will probably never go away. The most popular stories will always feature a possessive strong-willed character whisking away a coy passive one into the Dreamland under protest of some kind, where the passive character will teach the possessive one to love.

Pamela, the very first English language romance novel was like that and things hardly ever changed as to what people want to read in romance.

I am sort of divided, because I want to write triumphant womanhood, but I hate when women are belittled for their tastes and their power dreams, no matter what they are, be it two magic bad boys fighting over a blank slate of a girl or the only girl in the world who doesn’t want to embroider and is really good with a sword.

Women have the right to drool to whatever they find drool worthy without someone telling them how they shouldn’t

[WillowTree]

Every story doesn't need to have a happy ending.

The goal should be a healthy relationship even if it only lasts a few months.

A HEA/HFN (Happily Ever After/Happy For Now) is essential for a story to be considered a romance. If the novel doesn't end with the mcs in HEA/HFN then it's not a romance, it's a love story

[WillowTree]

Romance actually has to have a happy ending, either an HEA or HFN. If your love story ends tragically, you are writing General Fiction, not Romance. It is a genre convention.

You beat me to it!

[domisotto]

The goal should be a healthy relationship even if it only lasts a few months.

You will love my every book on Wattpad. I have asexual adversaries to friends. I have the nice guy and gal facing real problems in their life and overcoming them then coming together. I have excellent Princess and her chivalrous and sensitive Dragon Knight fighting for their True Love. I have a polyam with a matriarch who is a rock.

But other people don’t, vs the books that have million reads with possessive men, forcing a resisting girl to love their stunning abs

[cherrystark]

@domisotto @WillowTree you are right about the distinctions but there are still romantic subplots appear in other genres too so the HEA and HFN aren't the primary focus.

I am sort of divided, because I want to write triumphant womanhood, but I hate when women are belittled for their tastes and their power dreams, no matter what they are, be it two magic bad boys fighting over a blank slate of a girl or the only girl in the world who doesn’t want to embroider and is really good with a sword.

Women have the right to drool to whatever they find drool worthy without someone telling them how they shouldn’t

I get this. Some people's tastes I don't jive with. I don't like Harry Potter but I won't condemn anyone who does. I'd just like the main character's mental health and priorities to play a larger part of who they are. Another romance story that I liked, she only accepted her love interest is because he was willing to be a father to her child. Her child was her chief priority and he was accepting of her dreams and goals.

[domisotto]

Usually, what works well for a romance, works well for a romantic subplot as well. After all, you are adding it for the audience who loves romances. It makes no sense to add romance for teen boys who assert that they hate romances and yell really loudly how all romances are shoved down their throats in media and how the world will be a better place without them. If you are writing for that audience, add a harem of willing women in random places.

[ar-ninetysix]

..My gamer brain read and interpreted "broken character" as a character that needs to be reworked for competitive online matches. Imagine my confusion in finishing reading the title of the topic lol

"oooh okay, who got nerfed? let me see what's new in the update"

[Prometheus]

I haven't really read any romance comics or novels, but I do have to say that I agree with you on your topic.

[domisotto]

I haven't really read any romance comics or novels

quod erat demonstrandum

[Prometheus]

@domisotto

Wait, what?