show transcript

patrick star from spongebob, labled “the media”, holding a large watermelon, labled “unnecessarily straight characters”, over a sleeping squidward, labled “every god damn movie”, whose mouth is wide open

  • Miles O'Brien@startrek.website
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    106
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    17 days ago

    Every time my family brings up some character they believe “didn’t need to be gay”, I start bringing up movies I know they like that have unnecessarily ham-fisted romances that make no sense.

    To all the people who think Pacific Rim would have been improved by Raleigh and Mako kissing at the end, you are wrong. There was 0 need for romance in a movie about giant robots beating the shit out of giant alien monsters.

    Most action movies don’t need their little romance subplots, yet they’re everywhere.

    Most movies would be mostly unchanged if you took out any romantic entanglement at all.

    9/10 times, they’re all unnecessary.

    But if they’re going to be crammed in, they should be representative. Lgbtq+ exist. They deserve representation.

    My family has mostly stopped mentioning it around me.

    • Makeshift@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      41
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      17 days ago

      So much this. Why does every darn movie need some romantic subplot? This crap is everywhere. It’s like heterosexuals can’t imagine a goid story being possible without cramming some random love couple in. Why?? Why was random romance needed?

      A disproportionate number of songs that are total bangers otherwise are also all the same topics on repeat. Soulmate love song, upset breakup love song. Do they not know there’s more things they could sing about?

      • Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        ·
        17 days ago

        Hold on, do you think most music has romantic subplots?

        Because the original argument is that a movie about giant robots fighting doesn’t necessarily need a romantic subplot tacked on. It’s not saying a Valentines Day romance movie needs to stop shoving romantic plots down our throats.

        Maybe I’m just not well versed enough in music, but as far as I know, music producers aren’t out there saying, “and now the big kiss… and moving on”.

        • doctorskull@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          24
          arrow-down
          2
          ·
          17 days ago

          Every major pop song now features a 2 minute interlude, spoken word only, introducing new characters and lore, almost always shoehorning in a love story that nobody asked for. Jack Antonoff must be stopped.

        • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          17 days ago

          Unleash The Archers’ concept album Abyss, the sequel to Apex, has a romantic subplot. Also it’s gay. In the process of defeating the Matriarch, the Immortal falls in love with Earth and Ash, and then loses him. After the Immortal is freed from his curse, he hears Earth and Ash’s voice in his head, telling him not to fall to the same corruption as did the Matriarch.

    • Th3D3k0y@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      17 days ago

      My friend and I had this conversation about anime and telling people ages of characters. Do I need to know that the MC is 27 and nearly a spinster? Not really, it doesn’t make a lick of difference.

      What makes it real weird is when they go out of the way to point out characters are teenagers in a clearly non-teenaged novel.

    • Dragon Rider (drag)@lemmy.nz
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      17 days ago

      Yesterday drag watched Edge of Tomorrow. Do you think the romantic subplot in that movie has an impact?

      Drag actually decided to watch the movie because OSP Red says the movie uses the romance to explore the isolation of being in a timeloop. Most characters who end up in timeloops are completely isolated. But while Cage is in a timeloop, Rita has already been in one before. Every loop, she’s ready to be caught up by him on the plan and do whatever he says they need to do in order to win. But what she’s not ready for is that he’s falling in love with her, because she’s the only human connection he can find. So their relationship is completely novel in its structure. That said, they could have just made a perfectly good movie about killing aliens in a timeloop without any romance. What do you think?