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Probably the worst writing advice truism in the history of genre fiction (both as in the least accurate and the most damaging to the medium) has got to be “the only way to write romance is as the chasing after a partner or the scramble to revitalize a failing marriage. Settled relationships are never interesting.”

If you can’t figure out a way to write two (or more) characters going through the motions of a being an item and make it engaging, you’re probably also wasting your time playing “will they or won’t they” as that same lack of chemistry or zest also shows in their pursuit of a partner.

There may be less room for endlessly repeated drama between an already stable couple, but as someone who’s not impressed by longrunning series for the sake of longrunning and longs for the return of open and shut short stories, I don’t see that as a negative.

Plenty of series can make settled romance fun, Yakuza Househusband just as one recent example. Sure it’s a comedy and the dudes actual marriage is a secondary focus, but then romance stories are rarely solely centered on the romance; can’t have battle harems without battles and all.

And it’s not like modern harem or general romance fiction ever actually keeps the emotional distance between the subjects until they make it “official”; within a couple dozen chapters everyone involved is acting basically fully domestic together just without explicitly admitting it or using the bf/gf labels as they wait for the obligatory next crisis to remind them they’re technically still vying for each other’s affection.

To be clear; I’m not actually annoyed with BB here. This is a rant I’ve had in me for a while, and this little comic just happened to be the most convenient outlet.

@Groffin This is why post OMD Spider-man comics are so shitty.