I will never be embarrassed for loving a love story.
I will never be embarrassed for wanting to see it on screen or in a book or for seeking it out in fanfiction.
Love comes in so many different forms. Familial, platonic, romantic, self.
Every great story has love at its center.
Every great story seeks to understand how powerful love is. How it breaks us apart and transforms us.
I will never be embarrassed for loving love.
But I especially won’t find fault in an audience or readership for expecting a specific end to a story that made sure to have a romantic love as an integral part of its center.
There are other reasons this season failed. So, so many.
But I’ve been finding myself particularly frustrated by the takes on appreciating romance the past year or so.
It’s reductive. And it lacks the understanding that romance — good romance — at its core is not about people just holding hands at the end of the story.
It’s about development and choice and finding yourself and growing and evolving.
It’s incredible to watch as characters change — to have flaws and imperfections, be immature or naive, only to come into their own.
But also to have characters start out as incompatible or not quite right for each other. To build them in such a way that they come through the other side as a team. A partnership. To have these characters, who have seen the best and worst of each other, accept the whole story. The good and the bad. As friends, as lovers, as family.
To watch as a character is transformed by the love around them, all forms, is one of the gifts stories give us.
So, you can love a work of fiction, love every facet, every character and type of relationship. You can love all of it and still appreciate the romantic love.
It doesn’t negate your intelligence or critical thinking skills.
*elle woods voice* It just makes you, like, really good at reading.
