Oooh, shiny new rant @____@

Thank me, you know you want to.

This time on "Gboy and Ggirl break up so the boylove can happen" scenarios. Well, on one thing that happens too often with these scenarios.

The Gboy and the Ggirl were together because 1) the girl pleaded them to try and/or 2) they thought they didn't have a chance with Love Interest(tm). (never because he honestly loves her and she honestly loves him back)

So they get together. Often, the Gboy pines for LI(tm) even though he's with his gal who, understandably, chafes at being second best. Often, he's only with her by duty (Heero has to protect/keep Relena sane, Duo knocked Hilde up while drunk or other reasons of the kind) but tries his best to enjoy not being with his LI. Sometimes, he's truly in Forever Luuuurve. Or thinks so.

Then they break up.

Often enough, because the Ggirl had changed into Teh Evul Biatch From HELL (ohno, poor gboy is HEARTBROKEN!! quick!! everyone jumps on the Sexual Healing bandwagon!! Mansmut Power!! XD). Or sometimes just because she realized that he doesn't really care about her the way she wants to (which is a bit better, because i don't like bastardization) and/or herself falls for someone else (the bitch, how dare she).

Why isn't it more often SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY FALL OUT OF LOVE? It can happen, goddammit. And JUST BECAUSE THEY TRUELOVE SOMEONE ELSE DOESNT MEAN THEY NEVER REALLY LOVED THE FIRST ONE. Argh.

This is my new pet peeve. Just because they're now in love with someone else doesn't mean the first relationship had to be less meaningful or powerful.

IMHO, if you need to make the feelings in the first relationship weaker just to make it look like the second relationship is stronger, then often, either it looks lazy or the easy way out, or even worse, It Doesn't Work. It's just a milder form of the "If You Need To Kill Or Bastardize Every Other Possible Love Interest To Make Your Pairing Work, Then IT DOESN'T WORK" rule.

disclaimer: I'm not saying every fic made with that formula sucks donkey cocks. I'm saying that I'm tired of reading tons of fics with the same exact premises. Sometimes people can break up and stay on good terms, and not only the people who were just friends trying something new. u_u;;

This is only a minor pet peeve, though; it's not going to make me stop reading a fic on its own. If the fic is good despite that, I'll keep reading; so long as it's described believably it's okay. But when people don't work at the scenario, as if pulling one out of a hat full of used romance novel plotlines... then it's just yet another nail in the coffin. u_u;;

One fic that I really loved, for example, even though it did get Hilde with Duo to get a kid just to kill her off later, was Lasha Lee's arc; Duo got with Heero, and loved Heero, but he honestly loved Hilde too. He still loves her, even though she's dead. She doesn't disappear from his heart because he's got someone new. Duo's still thinking of her, even years after.
(of course it helps that Lasha chose to free the way for Heero by killing Hilde off rather than breaking them up nastily, but-- ah heck. I liked that Hilde was still present, and not bastardized in any way. So this fic is at least mildly relevant to my rant XD)