Transcript
A therapist sits in a comfortable chair with her clipboard talking to someone offscreen.
Therapist: How do you feel when you think about taking initiative? Scared?
A tall man with a leather jacket and an angsty expression sits in a similar chair.
Man: Never scared. I know what I have to do and I do it, even when it’s like cutting out my heart and eating it.
A more zoomed-out shot shows the therapist, the man, and another chair next to the man’s. A petite woman in feminine getup is curled up in it, peeking out from behind a pillow. A sign on the wall reads, “Hetero Romance Therapy.” The therapist looks exasperated.
Therapist: That question was for your girlfriend. Again, please let her answer.
Man: She’s not my girlfriend, I just protect her with my life.
Therapist: You’ve said. We’ll work on that next session.
P.S. Our bills are paid by our wonderful patrons. Could you chip in?
first! but also, I’m not sure about the trope this is poking. Other than the character utility gap you see in a lot of het romance.
I think it also opens up to the question of what it’s like when your boyfriend is always going forth fearlessly and you worry whether he’s ever coming back. Or what it’s like to be kidnapped and threatened on a weekly basis because you’re in a relationship with a hero.
Also, it includes the whole deal about characters denying the existence of a relationship even when they’re, for all intents and purposes, a couple.
Bravo!! you definitely nailed that one!
:-)
Next episode:
They address the girlfriend’s new-found fear of refrigerators.
That makes a lot of sense given how female characters get stuffed into the fridge and left to rot these days. That shouldn’t happen, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it still does.
Scared? no, but everyone should feel a little tense when rolling for initiative.
Should your main character take initiative to solve the stories’ problems? Normally, yes, but this is a romance you see and she’d be less feminine if she did such unladylike things. So we have her overshadowed by the male love interest who does all the things. Never mind that the girl is actually the main character most of the times.
Bonus points if by “protect her with my life” he means stalking, controlling, hiding information or even kidnapping her. Cause that’s sexy???
/end sarcasm
(This actually strengthens my theory that a lot of romance stories are “relationahip horror”, including the MC being incredibly reactive and disempowered for most of it…)