Let's Talk About Romance!

[PotentialContestant]

I've let slip a couple of hints, mostly by accident. ^.^;

[Nallmian]

I just noticed another lolcat signature!  That website is either the craziest idea ever, the most brilliant, or both.

It's gotten to the point where somebody actually wrote a piece of LOLcat slash.  Basement Cat propositions Cheeseburger cat in LOLcat speech to make his ex-BFF Ceilingcag jealous.  In a clear allusion to themes from Paradise Lost, Ceilingcat watches this illicit liasion and laments the fall of his favorite.  That or somebody just thought it would be funny to write LOLcat Slash and has never heard of Paradise Lost.  Take your pick.

[IPlanToBiteYou]

...Lolton time!

[Cricket Argyll]

Nallmian and Bite...you both scare me just a bit.

Now! On the matter of romance, I can't say I'm the biggest fan other than in parody. Sycamore put up part of a Fates awful pic I did back during ROC:S3 that paired up my fellow contestants with one another while leaving my own charrie absent. Thinking back on it...oh the slash that could be written with Jickador/Sycamore with Jick "teaching" Sycamore "so many things" about "how to be an otter". ;P Aaaaannnyway, the romances I've seen between contestants in these contests just haven't been...particularly gripping. Ashira and Silus, I love you two to the end of Southsward and back, but that thing you guys tried to pull off just didn't work. At all. Even a little. The only exception I'd have to make would be Kaja and Sandrose because they were such adorable jerks who were made for one another and the timeline within the story went on long enough for them to have a believable romantic attraction form, grow, and come to fruition. Tried doing a romance between Alam and Greypaw for a while there, if you'll remember that, Cairn, but again, it was just awkward. Alam the character just wouldn't mold himself to what I wanted by the time that romance was starting, he was too devoted to his son to care about a mate. And then, of course, there was Greypaw getting killed, which really ends a romance quickly.

Now, I fully approve on romance between contestants and NPCs so long as (again) they're believable. In fact, I don't think we see enough romance in this arena. There are plenty of characters in these contests in their prime and the thought that there's nobeast they're interested in from back home seems silly. I've found some of the most endearing charries are those who have a loved one waiting at home. Gives you something to fight for!

Interspecies...I don't have a problem with similar species (stoat to weasel or mouse to dormouse), but that's me being selfish. My VI character, Terri the ferret, fell madly in love with a friend's character, Eagle the pine marten, so I'm bias. Needs to be similar species, though. Terri and Mihn the Lecherous Fox would not make an acceptable combination.

[PotentialContestant]

Terri: And Thad went bonkers over Kara (back in the day -- 'course they're dead now).

[Ms Pearl]

But for straight romances, I very, very very very much prefer the species to be the same. Seems to me that animals - especially in Redwall - generally only look for mates so they can reproduce*, despite the philanderer characters that have been popping up recently.

Conversely, if your aim is NOT to reproduce what better contraceptive is there than to mate with somebeast with whom it is genetically impossible to conceive. Of course the majority of woodlanders would have been brought up so conservatively that they would never think of such a thing. But I would imagine among vermin the idea would actually be encouraged; something like liberal educators passing out condoms in middle schools.

[Sycamore]

. . .

SODOMY

. . .

[foxpen]

See, now I'm picturing Gabool standing around and overseeing the passing out of condoms to drunken pirates. It's an island; we only have limited space, people!

[Jarrtail]

This is supposed to be a PG rated forum! Shame on you!  :P

[Vlaine]

Just want to say thanks to Dozystoat for the endorsement of Anora/Fetrikh. That was simply bizarrely fun to write - and probably the only reason Fetters stayed for as long as he did. For me it wasn't a plot device at all - pursuing Anora was really just something that Fetters had to do. If you want a romance to succeed in these things, it has to be for the benefit of the character, rather than the author.

[Dozystoat]

Hear, hear! Frankly, if I'm going to write romance, I'd want to do it with my actual, y'know, girlfriend. (Reilch/Rufelle never did take off, though... haha, bird pun!) You actually sort of get this a lot in the VI, for instance. Vertherian and vladimir are married, but Vlad's actually married to Tara! IceRain and Vespero were married, but Vespero's girlfriend wos another character's author! Romance can't be for the author's benefit in such cases.

And you're welcome, Fetry. XD

So here's hoping for a bit more of that stoat romance - c'mon, we got two of them! I wanna see the fwuffy again. 'Sides, Venril seems the type who'd be lucky to snag even a loaded jill.