i have a potentially controversial take about genres. specifically romance.
for all the times when sfth play genre and get romance but freeze it and the compére says ‘__ doesn’t understand romance!’, i think they’re right that its a misunderstanding of the genre* but i also dont think romance is actually its own genre.
romance does not have its own hallmarks as a genre (aside from centring a romantic relationship) and works best when paired with another genre. for example, the well developed and recognized rom-com (romantic comedy) genre is functionally a comedy movie that centres a romantic relationship, making the romance incredibly important to the plot but the way it is crafted and acted carries the ideals of the comedy genre (with a lot of absurd circumstances, light hearted stakes, misunderstanding, etc)**. similarly, horror romance would look tonally like a horror story but the plot wouldn’t work without the embedded love story. even that which is regarded as ‘true romance’ as a genre is actually romance + drama. there are misunderstandings taken seriously, “he said she saids”, high stakes, and low lighting.
romance being given as a genre doesn’t actually let anyone flex their knowledge of genre ideals, it just pidgeonholes characters into a relationship that may or may not have developed organically***. like a cardboard cut out, on its own romance can’t stand. it needs to borrow traits and ideals from other genres to effectively make a notable tonal shift. alone, romance just pushes the relationship of the characters and dictates how it should develop to suit the genre which feels selfish of the genre to demand a direction for a relationship to take when that should be formed in a way that makes sense for the characters rather than forcing feelings if they arent there.
anyway. theres the rant. i dont think romance counts as a genre. (read below for my little asterisks cause theyre interesting i think :))
*there is one scene in my memory that actually has a really good handle on what romance is as a genre and that is the first kiss from the off season. luke as john iacob makes a thing of the quiet closeness. what makes it feel like a romance is the lingering, the waiting, the yearning (its also really helped by the warm lighting). by the time the kiss actually happens we’re all pulled so taut by the quiet tension that its like a thread snapping when it happens; its a release of that tension. its neither entirely soft and innocent (like a rom-com) nor entirely sexually motivated (like something proper smutty for the sake of it). it walks the tightrope of tension and tenderness and demonstrates the idea of romance unsanitized (as it might be for a family film) but also as a separate idea from sexuality. btw the off season isn’t a romance. its a romantic historical drama/period piece. they focus on the challenges, obstacles, and environment provided by the time period with a romantic plot at the story’s core
**while sfth does rom-coms fantastically with all the tripping into each others arms etc when its given as a genre, the game where it actually shines the most is the one where sam and aj were given the relationship of father and son in law. the conversation takes on a comedic tone while making sure we know the focal relationship, although not the one currently being played out, is the one sam’s character has with his wife (aj’s character’s daughter). it takes the ideals, cliches, and traits of comedy (lightheartedness, ridiculousness, laughter) and focuses it on a romantic relationship.
***the genre game in sfth ep #2 ‘bertie portal’ exemplifies why romance doesn’t exactly work as a genre for this game. tom and aj were already building a romantic tension, that relationship sort of developing naturally. when given romance as the next genre they just slip out of noire mode and seem a little bit directionless and uninspired by the genre prompt because the scene had already been moving in that direction and romance alone has no tonal landmarks to hit so they just keep developing the relationship which is great improv practice but the entire point of the game is to reconfigure the scene they were just doing with the ideals and traits of the new genre they’ve been given, and romance doesn’t give them enough to do that.
