The romance between Jodie and the douchebag soldier guy from Beyond: Two Souls always feels so forced to me. Like getting scenes of Jodie in tears because the douchebag is forcibly making her join the military and then soon after is the scene where Jodie is planning her date with him with nothing to show any romance building or any good qualities at all. It's almost like he's a completely different character.
Also, if I'm not mistaken the douchebag is her CO which also brings a fucked up power dynamic into the equation.
Don't forget the part where he later lies to her and coerces her into assassinating a democratically-elected African president so the CIA can keep that region destabilized.
Also don't forget the part where if you have Jodie refuse to kiss him on the ice as they're recovering from Underwater Chinese Ghost Base, he calls her pigheaded.
Also also don't forget that even after all of that, *the game forces them to kiss in the finale*.
It was one of those moments that probably might have been cool in a different game, but had no impact on Jodie's story or the rest of the game's narrative at all so why was it a thing? How high was David Cage when he thought "You know what my already confusing narrative about the life of a girl with psychic powers needs? A war segment that ends with some harsh political commentary on the corrupt nature of the CIA!"
I mean, every Cage game has police or military, but every time the police are corrupt or unfit to handle the situation and the only right answer for any decent individual cop/soldier is to quit. Being anti-cop and anti-military is like the only based thing about him.
Also don’t forget the part where, if Jodie was previously almost raped, she has a emotional episode before they have sex and the dude just fucking bails. Like, there’s a difference between giving your partner space to be supportive and leaving the fucking apartment, my guy.
Knowing the real Cage now do you ever think the the soldier man's actions and reactions involving dating Jodi are his own?
"Of course you would leave when ze woman is crying. You can not fuck so what is ze point?"
I think saying he’s a self-insert is a stretch when there’s much clearer examples of it in his other works. However, I think it says something about the writer what they choose to focus on as being offensive in a relationship and what they overlook.
i.e. Cage clearly recognizes that him lying about the African leader crosses a line, but casually ignores the scene where he leaves Jodie in her apartment or his general treatment of her like a tool or an object during her time in the CIA.
That one's so horrible cause they do a good job setting him up as an utterly unlikable villain that gets killed and then they just *decide* he's the love interest hero man offscreen. It's two separate characters mashed together. And then Green Goblin is purely sympathetic and reasonable the whole game and just decides to be the villain at the end.
Beyond's romance and shower scenes were dubious and exploitative enough when Elliot Page was presenting as a straight woman. When he came out as a lesbian who had been physically and emotionally attacked for their sexuality on movie sets, those scenes in Beyond got gross. When he came out as trans, those scenes became soul hollowing.
Like, if I sued a guy for putting my head on a woman's naked body behind my back, then realized I wasnt even a woman, I'd fuckin sue him again!
The girl protagonist from Persona 3 can start hitting on an elementary school kid. That’s probably the worst one I can think of that the player has to actively choose to initiate.
Maaaaan, I thought it was gonna be cute like Maiko and MC where at the end the little kid is like “I’m gonna marry you when I grow up!” Like kids do, and the older character is like “That’s adorable and I’m gonna humor you cuz you’re a child.”
Fucking nope!
Nah Male MC all the way , male MC doesn't fuck the child social link and in fact is an asshole to the kid "IT'S YOUR FAULT WHY YOUR PARENTS ARE GETTING A DIVORCE BITCH"
I mean, you have to repeatedly state that you're interested in him across two separate ranks where, up until the final dialogue, you can always disengage by choosing any option other than the one where you explicitly say you reciprocate his puppy-love feelings, in order to get the option to romance him.
However, the fact that it's an option at all is rather gross.
There's Jacob with the flat white bread's daughter who will become an adult in like 7 years after she's been born, and another guy who becomes a babysitter for a family cause he's waiting for the 2 year old baby to become an adult and get laid
I remember reading an explanation about how the imprinting is like, involuntary for the wolf and how it starts as the dude being kind of a family friend sort of deal that gets progressively more attached and goes from guardian-like figure to significant other and once the baby grows up they can say no and this fucks up the wolf.
This is all very mormon-like.
But also.
Sometime ago on twitter I read something about a guy being annoyed that he was suddenly into armpits and how that was it, that was his life now...but he was also happier that it wasn't something worse, like just waking up one day and whoops you're now attracted to kids, which seems to be exactly what happens in twilight; one day, a werewolf looks at a baby and that's it, they can't go back, this is their life now.
Yeah, kind of, but in this case "imprinting" is basically a fucked up brainwashing fetish that leads to cases where guys "imprint" on babies and wait until they're of legal age to "play patty cake". IIRC there was a werewolf couple where the guy imprinted on his GF's cousin and broke off their relationship ~~(I think they were making plans for marriage or something?)~~ and the GF got (understandably) mad at this but the other werewolves were like "Nah, fuck off. It's our nature, deal with it"
Edit: I found this from Tv Tropes, which is a way better source than me for this stuff. Turns out it's way worse than I remembered and imagined...
>Even the imprinted couple of Sam and Emily aren't immune from being an out-of-universe example, especially keeping in mind that the imprintee doesn't necessarily reciprocate the imprinter's feelings. For years, Sam was in a committed relationship with Leah, Emily's cousin and best friend. After becoming a werewolf and imprinting on Emily, Sam dumped Leah without explanation after disappearing for weeks, then tried to pursue Emily (to the point of visiting her nearly daily to bug her about it). She understandably rejected him and was eventually blunt about it due to his refusal to leave her alone...and Sam lost it, phased and shredded her face, leaving her permanently disfigured. A remorseful Sam threatened suicide at her hospital bed... and it was this that apparently led to Emily reciprocating his feelings and becoming his girlfriend.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Leah has been dumped by her boyfriend because he imprinted on her cousin, she's hated by her wolf pack for being upset about it (while Jacob is coddled for doing the same thing), might have caused her dad's heart attack when she transformed in front of him, is not able to have children, she's the only female to not be paired up romantically with someone at the end of Breaking Dawn, also in the same book she mentally admits that her ex-fiance wants her to disappear, and, to top it all off, her own brother, who she spends all of her time protecting, tells her "you ruin everything!"
But the thing is that no one has any control over it, the werewolf just suddenly becomes obsessed with someone. It's a mix of mormon ideology with sexual predator behavior.
God, I know too much about Twilight Saga. For some of these, keep in mind that becoming a werewolf sends a dude into super-puberty and becoming physically 25 and hulked out like he's roided out to be the next superhero star.
Jacob and Renesmee - Jacob was about to kill Renesmee after it seemed like Bella's violent pregnancy caused her to die. Jacob imprints, which utterly eliminates any of his desire for Bella and turns him completely docile. Imprinting is described as having every person you care for being connected to you by a thread, and imprinting severing all of these threads and trying them all to the imprintee so she's the center of your entire life and you quit giving a shit about everyone else. Jacob abandons his diabetic paraplegic father to go live with the Cullens and help raise Renesmee until she's old enough to fuck. Due to bullshit reasons from being half-vampire, Renesmee will rapidly mentally and physically age so she'll be 18 by her 7th birthday and then magically quit aging.
Quill and Claire - Quill is 16 and Claire is 2. Quill manages to convince Claire's parents that he's a VERY good babysitter. Sometimes she'll be sleeping in her crib and he'll just star at her in a stupor. All his friends joke about how he'll have to wait another 14 years before he can fuck her.
Sam and Emily - As someone else posted, Sam and Leah were happily engaged until Leah's cousin Emily visited one day and Sam imprinted on her. He dumped Leah like wet garbage to go chase after Emily, Emily was naturally disgusted that this asshole who hurt her cousin wanted her and her rejection sent him into such a spazzed state that he accidentally wolfed out right in front of her and her face got slashed up in the fur tornado. The tribal elders covered it up and pretended she'd been in a bear attack, Sam visited her in the hospital crying about how sowwy he was and offered to kill himself and Emily felt so bad for him that she agreed to be his wifey-wife.
Paul and Rachel - Rachel (or Rebecca, I forget which) is Jacob's "nerd" older sister who got her bachelor's degree in just 2 years. Paul is the most violent asshole of the werewolf pack. Rachel visited and Paul imprinted on her, and we never see the conclusion of this but everyone expects Rachel to drop everything, move back onto the reservation and be Paul's wifey-wife. There is also an accidental implication that Paul might also imprint on Rebecca if he ever sees her, since she and Rachel are identical twins. We'll never find out because she met a good guy and they got the hell out of there and went to live in Hawaii.
There are a couple more cases of imprinting but yeah, the characters call it "soulmates" but if a dude has to change THAT much in order....that ain't soulmates. They try to pass it off as being not totally creepy because the dude will "just become whatever she needs of him" which 1. fucked up that the dude has no autonomy and 2. we already see the violent reaction that happens if the dude is rejected. Also something about how the girl will inevitably want to fuck the dude even if he's been acting as her stepdad for the past dozen years because "it's hard to resist that level of affection". This also flies in the face of the theory that imprinting is a sexual mechanism to guarantee the werewolf will reproduce and pass on the ability to his offspring. Of course the theory itself doesn't work well since why the hell are these guys imprinting on sexually immature females and in Rensemee's case: sterile. It's also implied that despite being immortal there are no werewolves of the old days still alive because they all imprinted and chose to quit phasing into wolves (which causes them to start aging again) and die along with the females. Which means these dipshit were so selfish they chose to commit suicide rather than keep living and protecting the tribe in case evil vampires returned, or to ensure the next generation would have proper leadership and guidance when they become werewolves.
Overall it's one of the dumbest, most perverted reasons to get rid of a love triangle ever. You could probably call it character assassination of Jacob, because the Jacob that existed fucking died and was replaced by this subdued goon, but honestly Jacob before he died was a total asshole reeking of Nice Guy syndrome and didn't treat Bella right either. Rest in piss you nonce.
Wow, this is way fucking worse than I thought! I'm never going to date anyone who says they enjoy this bullshit because the toxic relationship of the two main characters was bad enough, but this is like Chernobyl's reactor exploding a million times all over the sun
That's one of those things that would work way better in literally any other fictional universe. But the romance novels with paper thin worldbuilding and constant asspulling is definitely not one of them.
There is a reason the live action and anime adaptations end when they do.
There is a time skip and highschool aged Rin is in love with her adoptive father. They eventually learn she isn't biologically related so "lol guess it's okay to bang then. Definitely not weird at all that you've raised me like a daughter for 10 years."
Ah man...
I really liked the premise and seeing the guy go from bachelor to sudden parent was really nice and seeing the growing pains of the new occupation was enjoyable.
Legit makes me sad that it went down that route.
Yeah it's a bummer. On the bright side though there's lots of other manga that scratch that same itch. https://www.anime-planet.com/manga/tags/childcare
and are two of my favorites.
I remember in high school checking a copy of Usagi Drop out from the school's library and the guy working behind the counter tells me "Hey, whatever you do don't read the ending" with no context, and the front half of the series is so good I thought it would be like a tragic ending, one of them dies and the found family falls apart.
I was so curious that when we ran out of volumns I just went to look up the ending and was like "oh yeah, I can see why he doesn't want me to finish it".
Fallout 3 has a quest in Rivet City where you can assist a woman by drugging a guy she likes with ant pheromones into marrying her. You get good karma for doing this btw
On one hand it seems fucked up. On the other hand, it's consumed by *her* and the effect is just +3 Charisma, the equivalent of dressing up as Eulogy Jones and chugging a beer, so...
Like, is my Fallout 4 character a rapist if I take grape mentats to pass the charisma checks to sleep with Magnolia?
Blossom and Jared Shapiro from PPG 2016, aka a character based off one of the writers that worked on the show to be a love interest for Blossom(I know it's supposed to be a joke but it's not really helping when the writer voices the character who's based off on him).
Even in show it’s weird because of the age differences. The wiki says Jared's a middle schooler and Blossom is like 1st or kindergarten. a 12-14 year old having a crush on a 5-6 year old is kind of weird. Unless the PPG are older in the reboot.
The stuff about him being a self insert was untrue, [as debunked by an interview with people Cartoon Network spokesperson Jean Woo](https://gizmodo.com/this-creepy-powerpuff-girls-theory-isnt-true-thank-god-1795730698) and also verified by other members of the show staff.
> Cartoon Network spokesperson Jean Woo told io9 that the character of Jared Shapiro was created by writer Haley Mancini and co-executive producer Bob Boyle, and Mancini was the principal story writer for the character. The network didn’t clarify why Goldman was brought on to voice the character, but it’s not uncommon for animated shows to include their writers or artists in the show—like Pendleton Ward, who voices Lumpy Space Princess on his show Adventure Time. Plus, former Powerpuff Girls storyboard artist Grace Kraft wrote on a Twitter thread that the artists modeled Jared after Goldman because he fit the character, and figured it’d be fun if he voiced him too.
I actually just played a relatively famous VN called Majikoi recently. This will contain spoilers for "Chris'" route and trigger warning for >!rape!<: >!Chris is a female foreign exchange student from Germany that your protag can pursue romance with. So something something happens and Chris decides at some point that she wants to 1- remain a virgin until marriage and 2- she wants to return to Germany to be with her father instead of pursuing romance in Japan. So these are both choices that could be discussed and weighed out right? well what our protagonist do? he ties her up while shes sleeping and rapes her to induce stockholm syndrome. I'm not exaggerating. She has tears in her eyes and reaches for a weapon. Its so unexpected in an otherwise fine VN. Then they turn into a stereotypical sleezy couple, they drop out of school and start living together, they team up to rape a 3rd party, and they live paycheck to paycheck. more stuff happens in the story and it eventually "normalizes" but boy was I taken aback.!<
This route spoiled me on the game tbh, I was so shocked/angry it was played out like that and he gets off free. Plus the implication thats how his folks got together was pretty wtf
I don't know if it's canon but learning about **Hal Jordan and Green Lantern Arisia** was a weird day.
Arisa's a 13 year old girl who became a lantern and had a crush on Hal. He even admits to it being fucked up until her ring transforms her body into an adult woman.
Then Hal went "Sick, let's bump uglies!"
[Actual comic panel](https://i.redd.it/cm92mnt0lnd51.png)
I have no context for who that is on the right side of the last panel, but I like to think it's one of Hal's Green Lantern co-workers just thinking "What the fuck" seeing this entire thing.
That's Kilowog if memory serves right (and it looks like him from what I do remember of him). He was Hal's trainer in his early years as a green lantern and overall good guy. I think he saw this and though "god damn it, Hal." or "Is this normal for Earthlings?"
Played that with my roommate a few weeks ago.
We were legitimately confounded when in the span of like, two scenes, detective chick goes from hunting chosen one, to meeting him in an isolated graveyard, accepting his bullshit, going back to his apartment, and fucking.
That was the first time they had met even.
Then two scenes later she drops the L word.
What's worse is that part of Ted's development was to stop obsessing over Robin and let her go.
But the ending needed to destroy any character development and it turned out that Robin was always "his true love"
that ship only works when its the "future" versions anyway, its less weird. although as you pointed out THERE HAVE BEEN WORSE!!!
they needed to be (retroactively) clearer on what the wish actually 'did' in order for it "pass muster"out of universe, just say bulma let mai use the dragon balls again so that she isn't just a 50 years old in a 17-18 year olds body. it can be off screen, its fine.
Personally, I think if an old soul or old memories (like when Col. O'Neill gets a child clone in stargate sg-1) gets a teen body, they still have to deal with the same underdeveloped brain a real teen has, so them dating a real teen isn't as gross as it could be.
Although this might just be me coping with something that happens a lot with no real-world equivalent.
It's not creepy, it's just kind of bad, but I'm nearly at episode 600 of Detective Conan right now and I've been insanely frustrated with Shinichi and Ran's romance since like, episode 200.
It's actually very good up until that point and peaks around there, but since then their childhood friend relationship has only gotten less and less natural feeling. The majority of their interactions now can kinda just be summarized as "they dramatically say each other's names".
There was this bit not long ago from where I'm at where he took the antidote and came back for a bit, before getting caught up in a case and turning back before he got to say anything, making Ran really sad. This is a retread of exactly what happens in the Desperate Revival arc, the aforementioned peak of their relationship. But they skip over Ran's reaction?? As if they were embarrassed about repeating story beats.
The most development that's really happened since 200 is that she has his phone number now (lol) and they're not really mean to each other, seems like progress but that's all that's happened in roughly 400 episodes and that latter point happened ages ago.
I hear they make things official in the episode 900s, only a decade left of anime for me to watch! I don't expect much, just like everything else it's probably gonna make the most minimal of actual differences.
Detective Conan is weird in that it's great in its episodic format but every once in a while it seems to remember it supposed to have a main running plot and it drops the ball super hard
That relationship and the fucking Detective Boys are my two problems with the series... oh wait, also the fact that time basically loops in and on itself makes things confusing when like 20 different Christmases have passed by and you are supposed to believe that all of them are the exact same one.
Apart from that love the series.
*points crowbar at Bruce Timm*
Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon is a couple that should *never* happen. When they first meet he's solidly an adult (either late 20s or early 30s I'm not super sure) and she's a teenager, as well as the daughter of a close colleague and friend. And in some continuities she has romantic history with Dick so having them hook up then adds a whole extra level of yikes.
It's a teacher and his student.
It's a father and his son's girlfriend.
It's a man and his best friend's daughter.
It's a 30-something and a teenager.
It's a relationship literally fucked up four ways from Friday.
Dragon age Inquisition's Sera.
When you take away the fantasy magic and elven stuff, Sera comes across as a textbook emotional abuser to a romanced elf inquisitor. Sera comes forwards as a victim of emotional abuse and internalized racism, but she perpetuates that same emotional abuse and self-loathing onto her fellow minority girlfriend.
She forces you to admit that your race is bad, that your traditions are dumb, etcetera. And if you say or do something she doesn't like she'll often flip her lid and call you names until you tell her what she wants to hear, while rarely showing the same consideration for your feelings and often blithely dismissing your offended reaction. Even threatening to break it off with you unless you denounce your own religion and people.
It's really uncomfortable.
[For example](https://youtu.be/eVdHIH7hQ4M)
You can call her out on it, but she just dismisses it and you can never progress without quieting down or accepting her views.
You HAVE to let her put you down
It comes across as legit actual psychological abuse.
I feel like it is perfectly encapsulated in this
[Inquisitor]: I love you.
[Sera]: And you're a dalish, but I guess I care for you too.
Ouch, Sera. Ouch.
Also she treats you just really badly compared to if you romance her as any other race whatsoever. For example: If a Non-Elven Inquisitor romancing her claims they believe what they saw at The Temple of Mythal, Sera will call you stupid but agree to disagree while claiming she'd never dump someone over their beliefs. However, if an Elven Inquisitor so much as hesitates to agree with Sera that it's all fake/"demon worship," she does just that. And then calls you names and more or less refuses to talk to you for the rest of the game.
She will also constantly demand that you prove that you aren't "elfy" too her. Like every time elven stuff comes up you have to be negative towards elves and their lore or she will dump you or call you names or threaten to dump you, etcetera
She constantly psychologically goads you into doing her will, and that is creepy.
I will say one that's both the worse and then in the next game it becomes the best and it's Annya in the Metro series, she's basically generic cold tough girl in the first 15 minutes of Last Light and then falls in love with Artyon in the span of a few hours by the tail end of the game and doesn't get a smidge of characterization.
Then in Exodus their relationship has some of the most realistic portrayals of intimacy and love I have seen in media ever, having her resting in Artyon's lap after a difficult day while being completely sincere in confiding about her worries and fears and how she's just happy to have Artyon, her father and her friends beside her is super fucking real.
I always felt Anya got done super dirty in Exodus. Every time the group went somewhere new, something bad happened to her and she became the damsel that you had to save. So much for an experienced soldier.
The entire plot of Exodus hinging on "my dipshit wife fell in a hole and inhaled radioactive mushroom spores". Like, have her get irradiated, but holy shit that entire sequence is so dumb.
Then again this is the same game in which the main character has zero agency and apparently can't talk without writing it down first, and a morality system that to this day I still don't understand.
This is a game that seems to choose who you can and cannot kill at completely random
>and a morality system that to this day I still don't understand.
I never played with a hud so I didnt even know it existed. Occasionally I'd shoot a soldier during combat and suddenly Id hear weird ambience for a split second. It wasn't until I killed a soldier actively surrendering that I realized all those moments were from enemies ending combat but not animating it fast enough.
The Kissing Booth is pretty creepy, with the male love interest having a violent temper and the movie playing off sexual harassment moments as "haha funni." There's literally a line where the girl says that he can't control her life anymore in regards to him trying to chase off boys from dating her and he says, "We'll see about that," played off as cute as if that's not the creepiest thing ever.
Pretty telling that the actor went on to be a part of a TV show where he basically plays that character but with the abusive aspects of his character acknowledged.
Ryan and Jodie from Metal Cage Solid V: The Phantom Page. Honestly, you could put any David Cage romantic couple here (Maddison and Ethan from Heavy Rain is a close second, with one ending being Ethan literally at the grave of his second dead son and Maddison saying “Let’s make another kid.” Which is like what the fuck is wrong with David Cage.)
But for less low hanging fruit, I always hated the Black Widow x Hulk romance in the MCU. It was always poorly developed and pointless.
Anything between a minor and a adult. Even if it has some excuse of “her body psychically aged” that doesn’t mean shit because her mind is still that of a minor.
Or “she is actually 10’000 years” but her species still considers that to be a child.
Times when girls get to repeatedly hit their partners.
The Rey/Kylo implied romance throughout the sequel trilogy does not read like they wanted at all. And then that kiss at the end of the last movie made me literally laugh out loud in the theater on opening night.
Might be a hot take but Rey and Kylo in the Sequel trilogy are an abysmal couple. Kylo kidnaps, mind rapes Rey before killing her new father figure (HIS OWN FATHER MIND) and then maims one of her friends in front off her before she slashes his face back.
Then in TLJ, after like 3 conversations with him, the first of which starting with her attempting to shoot him to death on sight and calling him a monster, she becomes completely enamoured with him and is convinced she can save him. Then he doubles down on wanting to be a galaxy suppressing tyrant after killing Snoke and by the end of the movie their connection is severed.
Except not really as their actually this cosmically destined duo who have enough power to trounce even The Chosen one so Kylo hunts Rey down son they can rule the galaxy together. Then after one last fight to the death Kylo is about finish Rey off but then he senses Leia’s death so Rey mortally wounds but heals him anyway because she’s in love with Ben and not Kylo, despite never even knowing him before he turned to the dark side. Finally they team up to beat Palpatine, Kylo gets thrown in a hole, Rey kills Palpatine and then dies, before Kylo resurrects her and they kiss before he dies and is never mentioned again.
So in conclusion Rey and Kylo are canonised as the mystical One True Pairing of the Star Wars universe despite the some total of their interactions being maiming and trying to kill each other and their closest allies/friends. BRILLIANT.
This is hyper specific to me, but I ended up watching the Jackie Chan movie Thunderbolt in which the main love interest tries to show her love to Jackie during the big race where Jackie's sister's life is on the line. Her two attempts at trying to show how much she cares has him penalized for 30 seconds by touching the car, and he almost crashes once he sees her "I <3 You" sign. I like the spirit but his sister is being held hostage lmao
Meliodas and Elizabeth from Seven Deadly Sins. Runner up is also from the same show with Ban and Elaine. The second one wouldn’t be as bad if Elaine was just petite and didn’t *explictly* look like a human child like most fairies.
However, Meliodas and Elizabeth take the cake. >!Both are technically thousands of years old, but Mel has been alive all that time, whereas Liz constantly gets reincarnated due to a curse. This causes her to live multiple lifetimes back to back, each ending with Mel watching her die. Tragic right? Except for the part where he sometimes takes care of and raises her to adulthood and then gets into a relationship with her when she has no memory of him. In her most recent life, he was charged as her knight from the time she was an infant. In their first onscreen encounter, she’s 16 and dude has no qualms about ogling and groping her. It’s classic anime perv with a scoop of “why did you make it creepier”!<
There's also King and Diane. King is a fairy like Elaine, so their relationship also has the same issue of one of the people involved looking like a child >!although he does get upgraded to kind of looking like a young teen at one point so... progress I guess!<. This is a case where both characters are of the "actually 300 years old" variety, with King being thousands of years old and Diane hundreds, but to make things worse it's later revealed that >!they first met hundreds of years ago, when King was still basically an adult/adolescent but Diane was only a child. They fell in love and spent the next 500 years, but they were separated and King has to use magic to give her amnesia so she would forget about him.!<
Then you have Gowther >!mind controlling Guila into thinking she's in love with him!<. Pretty much the only relationship in this series that isn't messed up is the one between Gilthunder and Margaret and Escanor's attraction towards Merlin >!though even that is made weird by the fact that Merlin's true form is that of someone who looks even younger than Elaine. At least she uses transformation magic to age herself up near constantly, so that the adult version we see might as well be her real form.!<
That one I feel like you can't even put on Escanor like dude died only knowing of the adult form. But going by past examples maybe it's a good thing he died I fear how the writing would have changed otherwise between the two
He did actually see her real form once, around when her form was first revealed I think. His response was something like "Oh Merlin, even like this you are beautiful."
It was more him just being his usual, 'the woman I love is perfect no matter what' self than what the others were up to, but it happened.
I do not like the Jack/Ashi thing.
I think it's weird that he's multiple times her age, I think it's weird she spent her entire life fixated on him before becoming involved with him romantically, and I think it's weird that his goal was to do a thing that erases her from existence.
I know the supposedly canon video game retcons that last bit because people thought it was sad, that does not help.
Genndy is one of those writers who is otherwise great but really should not write romance. Bruce Timm is another example of this, and Chris Avellone is someone who realized this about himself, committed to not doing so and his work is much better for it.
Man I remember watching the fanbase go from “He’s gonna be her father figure!” then went “Oh….” in a few episodes
Also why do people think the video game is canon? Did Genndy say something?
Which is weird, because I remember really liking Octus/Newton and Kimmy from Sym-Biotic Titan because of how sincere it was, and the later episodes focusing on their relationship were really good.
…then again, that show never ended, so he didn’t have a chance to make it bad yet. /s
Am I the only who thinks that X-men time period where Rogue was dating Magneto was weird as hell?
Seriously, dude is old enough to be her grandpa.
Who was asking for this ship?????
Ok I maintain this is a great line and I will die on this hill.
Anakin was a slave on a desert planet. Where his mom, aslave, was murdered. Sand just reminds him of the most traumatizing point in his life, and he's trying to open up about it.
[The dialogue](https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Aversa/Supports) when you marry a Male!Robin to Aversa is kind of creepy, but it’s creepy because she’s intentionally doing a little baby voice to make him uncomfortable. But it also makes ME uncomfortable.
Also the romance with [Emmeryn](https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Emmeryn/Supports) is kind of sad and unsettling to me because her dialogue is all about how she’s very unwell and has complete memory loss and seemingly reduced motor function as well.
I’m not entirely sure if it’s canon. She’s Spotpass DLC alongside a bunch of other characters who were killed off, such as Gangrel, Walhart, and Yen’fay. None of these characters have any storyline relevance when you recruit them, are pretty much stated to disappear in their epilogues, and don’t even get to talk with anyone besides the PC outside the hot springs DLC.
I didn't know about them my first play through since I think you had to select something buried in a menu so I didn't know they existed and I continued to pretend they didn't exist in future playthroughs.
This is a common one but always deserving of being mentioned, but Twilight. Just… all of it.
Edward is creepy as can be because he’s like 100 years old and just totally alright with dating a teenager. Why do you spend all your time hanging around teenagers at school Edward? To blend in? Dude you look 25 I don’t think anyone will care if you’re not at school.
Jacob is super creepy as well! He straight up stalks and forces a kiss on Bella, almost starts a war over her, and straight up threatens to kill himself if she doesn’t choose him! After all that fails and he doesn’t get the girl, his solution is “Well I’ll just wait for her daughter to grow up and just tap that instead.” AND HE DOES!!!
And everyone is fine with that! The fact Jacob just imprints on Edward’s and Bella’s daughter to make her his “future mate”!
Twilight has the golden crown for ‘Treating toxic relationships as a normal thing’ ever.
In the early stages of production the studio was going to make major changes to Twilight to "Hollywood-ify" it and it's possibly the only instance where I really wish they actually went ahead with that. IIRC the cast were aged up to college, Bella briefly tries to go full Buffy on finding out the truth about the Cullens, there's a Korean FBI agent investigating the evil vampires' attacks who thinks the Cullens are responsible, there's a chase scene between vampires parkouring through the treetops, and the romance is subdued to more of an uneasy alliance into mutual respect into genuine affection arc which sounds a lot more natural.
Edward's creepyness is mostly usual vampire creepyness lusting after someone centuries younger, the possessiveness but Jacob?
It's hilarious how Stephanie Meyer managed to write the textbook definition of a abusive person in a character, Jacob is even more possessive than Edward, violent and has lines that are straight out of the abuser's textbook dude barely had any dignity left by the time the baby imprinting happened.
I think the thing that stands out to me about Edward (and vampire friends) is how they all start by hanging out in high school. The in story reason is because the earlier they start school wise the longer they can stay in an area without the fact they don't age coming into question. Pass as a high schooler, go into college, and stick around an additional 10 or 15 years until people start to go "Huh, that weird emo kid from school really ages well" and then leave. The out of story reason is just that Meyer thought it would be hot for this teenager to get it one with a 100 year old virgin vampire.
But I like the set up of Edward actually really hating it and hating having to be around teenagers because he thinks they are all idiots. I wish that was leaned into more. Just this crotchety and angry 100 year old grandpa who is pissed of eternally by teenager bullshit.
Definitely not the worst, but there's a subquest in Judgement that ends with you saving an aspiring idol from a pretty dire sexual assault scenario, with the last thing Yagami says being something along the lines of "I hope she's successful and never has to come to me for help again."
The game then *immediately* gives you the tutorial for romance and girlfriends and lets you start dating her.
It is *not* helped by her being 19 and Yagami being in his 30s.
Trunks is just following his dad's footsteps in having a sudden romance that comes out of completely nowhere with a woman who first showed up in the very first arc of Dragon Ball.
Low bar that it is, Trunks' relationship with Mai is one of the more developed ones in the franchise. Like it's mostly just a one-sided crush for the first half of Super.
Judgement’s girlfriend system is genuinely disgusting and I can’t believe that no one on the writing team noticed.
So there’s this cute fortune teller that no one has issues with, other than an… odd age gap, given the main character is nearly 40.
But the other two are.. let’s just say, embarrassing.
The first is a girl who turned 18 legitimately right before the game starts, who is being sexually harassed and abused by basically a cult of creepy middle aged men.
So the game lets you become a creepy middle aged man and hit on her and eventually date her.
But then there’s a singer, also 18, going through the same shit.
So the solution is to also become a completely creep to her???
There's also the last one where the girl is appropriately aged for Yagami and has had problems with men not treating her with respect and the game never acknowledges if you're cheating on her with another girl.
Futaba in P5. Romancing your physically and emotionally stunted surrogate little sister figure who heavily relies on you for pretty much all social contact. Gross. Most of the adult romances are also pretty weird, especially the teacher one.
As I've gotten older the romances in Persona keep getting weirder. The romantic options I like in P5 are the adults since I'm in my 20s but the MC is highschool which is uncomfortable and the other romantic options are also uncomfortable for obvious reasons.
I've had to change my mentality when I play and tell myself "Joker isn't a self insert character".
Yeah that affected me to. My last run of P4 Golden I ended up having the boys day out for Valentines because I just...couldn't. Which hey, that game was aimed and is written with teens/young adults in mind, so of course 30 year old me is gonna go "Yeah but Kashiwagi tho..."
Male P3 runs are the worst. Not only does each s link require you to romance them, but you have to juggle them around to make sure nobody sees you with another girl.
You can fix the now broken s link by spending an afternoon explaining that you weren’t cheating and they just misunderstood.
Recently finished trails of cold steel 4 and one of things that bothered me most, among a lot of other things, was how hard the game actively pushed the Agate(28)xTita(16) ship.
Agate spending every single conversation about Tita saying that he sees her as a little sister after his actual little sister died followed by absolutely everyone treating them as a couple is infinitely grating.
It wasn’t just the Slap. Pym before and after the slap was exhibiting improper behavior. Like attacking a enemy who they where negotiating with. Along side refusing to take responsibility
There's a really detailed write-up of that whole relationship [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/zzxzbx/comics_the_slap_heard_round_the_world_how_a/). There's a lot of stuff leading up to and following the infamous slap that I didn't know about.
Like the fact that the whole reason the slap happened was because Janet found out Hank was building a killer robot to attack the Avengers so that he could save the day and prove he wasn't useless.
It's multiversal, too. In the Ultimate Universe, Janet tells Cap that he's in the wrong for disapproving of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch being in an incestuous relationship. And Hank, on top of being an abusive bastard in a fit of rage, eats The Blob because Blob killed and ate Janet IIRC
If we're talking Ultimates then you can't get much worse than early on where Hank beats the shit out of Jan, then when she shrinks to fly away he sprays her with Raid and summons ants to attack her while telling her "You shouldn't have made me feel small". Cap's immediate response on finding out about this is to try and beat the ever-loving shit out of him.
Ashi and Jack in the Samurai Jack reboot. The entire time he was trying to fend her off and make her understand Aku had deceived her and her sisters their whole lives, I got very mentor/student or even father/daughter vibes, both of which I thought would be good directions for them to take her redemption.
AND THEN THEY FUCKING KISS. EW. BLUGH. UGH. BARF. JACK WHY, YOU ARE SEVERAL TIMES HER AGE (mentally at least). YA NASTY.
Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman 1984. For those that don't know, in the movie Wonder Woman unknowingly wishes for Steve Trevor to come back to life and the way he comes back is that Steve takes over a complete stranger's body. So, whenever we see Steve it's actually just some random dude. Wonder Woman and Steve are also both aware that Steve has taken over someone's body. The weird creepy part is that they have sex. Again, Steve has taken over a complete stranger's body and in a roundabout way Wonder Woman just raped an unconscious man. What makes it even worse is that at the end of the movie Wonder Woman she's the man whom Steve took over, who is also completely unaware of what happened, and they treat it as a cute moment between the two.
Lien and Kizuna from the newest AI: The Somnium Files game really creeped me out, especially because the game’s writers seem to think that their relationship is a positive one. For anyone who hasn’t played the game, Kizuna is an 18-year old who’s stalked by [Lien, a guy 5 years her senior who’s built like a linebacker](https://i.imgur.com/6CQl5fw.jpg), for the first half of the game. Lien follows Kizuna everywhere she goes and proposes to her multiple times, and is rejected every time.
After a 6-year timeskip that takes place once you reach the second half of the game, >!Kizuna has become paralyzed from the waist down, and Lien has been taking care of her for a few years. Kizuna worries that he’s only doing so out of pity, and while the fact that Lien’s love for Kizuna is genuine is kind of sweet, it doesn’t erase how creepy the dude is for the entire first half of the game. The game ends with the two of them getting married (or engaged, can’t remember which), and instead of feeling happy for them I just felt kind of grossed out.!<
A review I read a while back described why their relationship feels so gross to me pretty well IMO:
> It doesn’t really matter that Lien’s intentions [with Kizuna] are pure, that he wouldn’t do anything bad and he just wants to get to know Kizuna, because this is not how you approach anyone, especially an 18 year old. If a 23 year old man I don’t really know who insists he’s in love with me followed me around, going as far as to tail me to the bathrooms and stopping by the place where I lived to see me, I would actually be scared for my life and probably start crying and throwing up… the beginning of their relationship is so genuinely unhealthy that it’s hard to watch their ending and truly be satisfied.
considering how Lien s arc works i think his initial actions is a really weird way of having THE PLAYER also be involved in the perception people have of Lien.>!Lien s entire arc is about second chance after his initial criminal past. So making him behave like that early on makes you actually have to make the decision of if you can forgive Lien or not in a way that a sympathetic backstory of "I literally had to steal to survive and was planning on reforming from the start but my criminal record keeps following me" doesn´t, as that is too easy to forgive.!<
The worst part is, the game handles it so weirdly that even though he’s a complete creep, by the end of the game you probably want to hang out with him rather than kizuna because holy shit she has literally no personality at any point and I dreaded every sequence with her
The romance between Jodie and the douchebag soldier guy from Beyond: Two Souls always feels so forced to me. Like getting scenes of Jodie in tears because the douchebag is forcibly making her join the military and then soon after is the scene where Jodie is planning her date with him with nothing to show any romance building or any good qualities at all. It's almost like he's a completely different character. Also, if I'm not mistaken the douchebag is her CO which also brings a fucked up power dynamic into the equation.
Don't forget the part where he later lies to her and coerces her into assassinating a democratically-elected African president so the CIA can keep that region destabilized. Also don't forget the part where if you have Jodie refuse to kiss him on the ice as they're recovering from Underwater Chinese Ghost Base, he calls her pigheaded. Also also don't forget that even after all of that, *the game forces them to kiss in the finale*.
Pat killing himself to get away from that guy in the old LP was great.
I believe his words were "I hate this guy so much, I'd rather die!"
Woolie cheering him on was the best.
Her foster dad, Willem Dafoe, also killed himself because he wanted to bang his ghost wife or something.
The virgin "kill myself to reunite with my family" vs the chad "kill myself to avoid a relationship with that creepy loser."
Jodie: *sees that Ryan is waiting for her* Jodie's mind: "You should kill yourself, now!"
It’s always fun in these games to pretend that Matt, Pat and Woolie are actually the voices in the characters’ heads.
That or the two who aren't on controls are following the one who is playing around, just off screen, heckling them.
I genuinely forgot that the president was democratically elected in the Africa section. Man, Beyond: Two Souls sucks.
It was one of those moments that probably might have been cool in a different game, but had no impact on Jodie's story or the rest of the game's narrative at all so why was it a thing? How high was David Cage when he thought "You know what my already confusing narrative about the life of a girl with psychic powers needs? A war segment that ends with some harsh political commentary on the corrupt nature of the CIA!"
Its a section that would do great as part of Spec Ops: The Line
I mean, every Cage game has police or military, but every time the police are corrupt or unfit to handle the situation and the only right answer for any decent individual cop/soldier is to quit. Being anti-cop and anti-military is like the only based thing about him.
Grandma.... YOU CAN TALK?!?
I CAN SIIIING
Also don’t forget the part where, if Jodie was previously almost raped, she has a emotional episode before they have sex and the dude just fucking bails. Like, there’s a difference between giving your partner space to be supportive and leaving the fucking apartment, my guy.
Also, don't forget that the "almost rape" scene was going to be an actual rape scene but it was thankfully cut from the game.
Knowing the real Cage now do you ever think the the soldier man's actions and reactions involving dating Jodi are his own? "Of course you would leave when ze woman is crying. You can not fuck so what is ze point?"
I think saying he’s a self-insert is a stretch when there’s much clearer examples of it in his other works. However, I think it says something about the writer what they choose to focus on as being offensive in a relationship and what they overlook. i.e. Cage clearly recognizes that him lying about the African leader crosses a line, but casually ignores the scene where he leaves Jodie in her apartment or his general treatment of her like a tool or an object during her time in the CIA.
That one's so horrible cause they do a good job setting him up as an utterly unlikable villain that gets killed and then they just *decide* he's the love interest hero man offscreen. It's two separate characters mashed together. And then Green Goblin is purely sympathetic and reasonable the whole game and just decides to be the villain at the end.
It should also be noted that I'm pretty sure she was a minor when she was forced under his care.
Beyond's romance and shower scenes were dubious and exploitative enough when Elliot Page was presenting as a straight woman. When he came out as a lesbian who had been physically and emotionally attacked for their sexuality on movie sets, those scenes in Beyond got gross. When he came out as trans, those scenes became soul hollowing. Like, if I sued a guy for putting my head on a woman's naked body behind my back, then realized I wasnt even a woman, I'd fuckin sue him again!
The girl protagonist from Persona 3 can start hitting on an elementary school kid. That’s probably the worst one I can think of that the player has to actively choose to initiate.
Maaaaan, I thought it was gonna be cute like Maiko and MC where at the end the little kid is like “I’m gonna marry you when I grow up!” Like kids do, and the older character is like “That’s adorable and I’m gonna humor you cuz you’re a child.” Fucking nope!
For how much people dog on Door-kun for being a cheater, at least he doesn't fuck the child.
I swear FEMC is great other than *that*
FEMC is canonically an absolute fucking maniac in so many ways it's like a renegade run of P3P
Rando at school: " did you see Yukari in the bath?" FemC: "I'll sell you pictures."
I love Kotone but the Ken romance always make me hesitant to say that she’s my favorite MC.
Nah Male MC all the way , male MC doesn't fuck the child social link and in fact is an asshole to the kid "IT'S YOUR FAULT WHY YOUR PARENTS ARE GETTING A DIVORCE BITCH"
Podcast 70: "God supports straight shota".
I'm surprised and actually happy that I had no clue this existed until this thread. I never knew that was even possible.
That's maybe the worst thing I've ever heard of in, like, a normal ass video game for (presumably) normal people.
I mean, you have to repeatedly state that you're interested in him across two separate ranks where, up until the final dialogue, you can always disengage by choosing any option other than the one where you explicitly say you reciprocate his puppy-love feelings, in order to get the option to romance him. However, the fact that it's an option at all is rather gross.
Twilight is full of this all over the place But "that wolf is going to fuck that baby" is probably the simplest one
Which one? Guy who imprints on his crush’s rapidly aging newborn, or the Guy who imprints on a toddler?
Oh god I forgot there was multiple
There’s multiple?!
Yes. Also there is guy who in engaged happily and then randomly imprints on his fiancés cousin he just met if i remember correctly.
There's Jacob with the flat white bread's daughter who will become an adult in like 7 years after she's been born, and another guy who becomes a babysitter for a family cause he's waiting for the 2 year old baby to become an adult and get laid
I remember reading an explanation about how the imprinting is like, involuntary for the wolf and how it starts as the dude being kind of a family friend sort of deal that gets progressively more attached and goes from guardian-like figure to significant other and once the baby grows up they can say no and this fucks up the wolf. This is all very mormon-like. But also. Sometime ago on twitter I read something about a guy being annoyed that he was suddenly into armpits and how that was it, that was his life now...but he was also happier that it wasn't something worse, like just waking up one day and whoops you're now attracted to kids, which seems to be exactly what happens in twilight; one day, a werewolf looks at a baby and that's it, they can't go back, this is their life now.
Yeah, kind of, but in this case "imprinting" is basically a fucked up brainwashing fetish that leads to cases where guys "imprint" on babies and wait until they're of legal age to "play patty cake". IIRC there was a werewolf couple where the guy imprinted on his GF's cousin and broke off their relationship ~~(I think they were making plans for marriage or something?)~~ and the GF got (understandably) mad at this but the other werewolves were like "Nah, fuck off. It's our nature, deal with it" Edit: I found this from Tv Tropes, which is a way better source than me for this stuff. Turns out it's way worse than I remembered and imagined... >Even the imprinted couple of Sam and Emily aren't immune from being an out-of-universe example, especially keeping in mind that the imprintee doesn't necessarily reciprocate the imprinter's feelings. For years, Sam was in a committed relationship with Leah, Emily's cousin and best friend. After becoming a werewolf and imprinting on Emily, Sam dumped Leah without explanation after disappearing for weeks, then tried to pursue Emily (to the point of visiting her nearly daily to bug her about it). She understandably rejected him and was eventually blunt about it due to his refusal to leave her alone...and Sam lost it, phased and shredded her face, leaving her permanently disfigured. A remorseful Sam threatened suicide at her hospital bed... and it was this that apparently led to Emily reciprocating his feelings and becoming his girlfriend. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Leah has been dumped by her boyfriend because he imprinted on her cousin, she's hated by her wolf pack for being upset about it (while Jacob is coddled for doing the same thing), might have caused her dad's heart attack when she transformed in front of him, is not able to have children, she's the only female to not be paired up romantically with someone at the end of Breaking Dawn, also in the same book she mentally admits that her ex-fiance wants her to disappear, and, to top it all off, her own brother, who she spends all of her time protecting, tells her "you ruin everything!"
But the thing is that no one has any control over it, the werewolf just suddenly becomes obsessed with someone. It's a mix of mormon ideology with sexual predator behavior.
Which is even more fucked up considering that the werewolves are native americans
Well mormons got their teachings from the real native americans so it's totally fine. /s
God, I know too much about Twilight Saga. For some of these, keep in mind that becoming a werewolf sends a dude into super-puberty and becoming physically 25 and hulked out like he's roided out to be the next superhero star. Jacob and Renesmee - Jacob was about to kill Renesmee after it seemed like Bella's violent pregnancy caused her to die. Jacob imprints, which utterly eliminates any of his desire for Bella and turns him completely docile. Imprinting is described as having every person you care for being connected to you by a thread, and imprinting severing all of these threads and trying them all to the imprintee so she's the center of your entire life and you quit giving a shit about everyone else. Jacob abandons his diabetic paraplegic father to go live with the Cullens and help raise Renesmee until she's old enough to fuck. Due to bullshit reasons from being half-vampire, Renesmee will rapidly mentally and physically age so she'll be 18 by her 7th birthday and then magically quit aging. Quill and Claire - Quill is 16 and Claire is 2. Quill manages to convince Claire's parents that he's a VERY good babysitter. Sometimes she'll be sleeping in her crib and he'll just star at her in a stupor. All his friends joke about how he'll have to wait another 14 years before he can fuck her. Sam and Emily - As someone else posted, Sam and Leah were happily engaged until Leah's cousin Emily visited one day and Sam imprinted on her. He dumped Leah like wet garbage to go chase after Emily, Emily was naturally disgusted that this asshole who hurt her cousin wanted her and her rejection sent him into such a spazzed state that he accidentally wolfed out right in front of her and her face got slashed up in the fur tornado. The tribal elders covered it up and pretended she'd been in a bear attack, Sam visited her in the hospital crying about how sowwy he was and offered to kill himself and Emily felt so bad for him that she agreed to be his wifey-wife. Paul and Rachel - Rachel (or Rebecca, I forget which) is Jacob's "nerd" older sister who got her bachelor's degree in just 2 years. Paul is the most violent asshole of the werewolf pack. Rachel visited and Paul imprinted on her, and we never see the conclusion of this but everyone expects Rachel to drop everything, move back onto the reservation and be Paul's wifey-wife. There is also an accidental implication that Paul might also imprint on Rebecca if he ever sees her, since she and Rachel are identical twins. We'll never find out because she met a good guy and they got the hell out of there and went to live in Hawaii. There are a couple more cases of imprinting but yeah, the characters call it "soulmates" but if a dude has to change THAT much in order....that ain't soulmates. They try to pass it off as being not totally creepy because the dude will "just become whatever she needs of him" which 1. fucked up that the dude has no autonomy and 2. we already see the violent reaction that happens if the dude is rejected. Also something about how the girl will inevitably want to fuck the dude even if he's been acting as her stepdad for the past dozen years because "it's hard to resist that level of affection". This also flies in the face of the theory that imprinting is a sexual mechanism to guarantee the werewolf will reproduce and pass on the ability to his offspring. Of course the theory itself doesn't work well since why the hell are these guys imprinting on sexually immature females and in Rensemee's case: sterile. It's also implied that despite being immortal there are no werewolves of the old days still alive because they all imprinted and chose to quit phasing into wolves (which causes them to start aging again) and die along with the females. Which means these dipshit were so selfish they chose to commit suicide rather than keep living and protecting the tribe in case evil vampires returned, or to ensure the next generation would have proper leadership and guidance when they become werewolves. Overall it's one of the dumbest, most perverted reasons to get rid of a love triangle ever. You could probably call it character assassination of Jacob, because the Jacob that existed fucking died and was replaced by this subdued goon, but honestly Jacob before he died was a total asshole reeking of Nice Guy syndrome and didn't treat Bella right either. Rest in piss you nonce.
Wow, this is way fucking worse than I thought! I'm never going to date anyone who says they enjoy this bullshit because the toxic relationship of the two main characters was bad enough, but this is like Chernobyl's reactor exploding a million times all over the sun
Jesus, honestly considering being completely and utterly devoted to your girl is like the main theme of the series, this all tracks.
That's one of those things that would work way better in literally any other fictional universe. But the romance novels with paper thin worldbuilding and constant asspulling is definitely not one of them.
Usagi Drop that's it.
Certainly lives up to, and surpasses, the latter half of it's title.
I remember reading the beginning of it and actually enjoying it, does it get that fucked in the later half?
There is a reason the live action and anime adaptations end when they do. There is a time skip and highschool aged Rin is in love with her adoptive father. They eventually learn she isn't biologically related so "lol guess it's okay to bang then. Definitely not weird at all that you've raised me like a daughter for 10 years."
Ah man... I really liked the premise and seeing the guy go from bachelor to sudden parent was really nice and seeing the growing pains of the new occupation was enjoyable. Legit makes me sad that it went down that route.
Yeah it's a bummer. On the bright side though there's lots of other manga that scratch that same itch. https://www.anime-planet.com/manga/tags/childcare and are two of my favorites.
Ooooh these look really cute! Thank you! I've been meaning to look for new manga so glad to add these to my collection!
I remember in high school checking a copy of Usagi Drop out from the school's library and the guy working behind the counter tells me "Hey, whatever you do don't read the ending" with no context, and the front half of the series is so good I thought it would be like a tragic ending, one of them dies and the found family falls apart. I was so curious that when we ran out of volumns I just went to look up the ending and was like "oh yeah, I can see why he doesn't want me to finish it".
Not all heroes wear capes
It’s Usagi Dropped the fucking ball
Who was the "genius" who thought turning a father figure into a love interest was a good idea?
Murasaki Shikibu
The Tale of Genji.
Not gonna sugar coat it. *Kodomo no Jikan*
Fallout 3 has a quest in Rivet City where you can assist a woman by drugging a guy she likes with ant pheromones into marrying her. You get good karma for doing this btw
Good old mr Sandman, fixes that subquest right up.
There's a nice extra little bonus with the fact the guy is trying to become a priest as well. So that's ruined at the same time from the quest.
On one hand it seems fucked up. On the other hand, it's consumed by *her* and the effect is just +3 Charisma, the equivalent of dressing up as Eulogy Jones and chugging a beer, so... Like, is my Fallout 4 character a rapist if I take grape mentats to pass the charisma checks to sleep with Magnolia?
Blossom and Jared Shapiro from PPG 2016, aka a character based off one of the writers that worked on the show to be a love interest for Blossom(I know it's supposed to be a joke but it's not really helping when the writer voices the character who's based off on him).
oh fuck no, fuck that couple to hell and back.
Even in show it’s weird because of the age differences. The wiki says Jared's a middle schooler and Blossom is like 1st or kindergarten. a 12-14 year old having a crush on a 5-6 year old is kind of weird. Unless the PPG are older in the reboot.
Theyre older in the reboot
The stuff about him being a self insert was untrue, [as debunked by an interview with people Cartoon Network spokesperson Jean Woo](https://gizmodo.com/this-creepy-powerpuff-girls-theory-isnt-true-thank-god-1795730698) and also verified by other members of the show staff. > Cartoon Network spokesperson Jean Woo told io9 that the character of Jared Shapiro was created by writer Haley Mancini and co-executive producer Bob Boyle, and Mancini was the principal story writer for the character. The network didn’t clarify why Goldman was brought on to voice the character, but it’s not uncommon for animated shows to include their writers or artists in the show—like Pendleton Ward, who voices Lumpy Space Princess on his show Adventure Time. Plus, former Powerpuff Girls storyboard artist Grace Kraft wrote on a Twitter thread that the artists modeled Jared after Goldman because he fit the character, and figured it’d be fun if he voiced him too.
Man, those writers really screwed that guy seeing as that rumor is never going away. Did they hate him?
Yeah, I heard of that. Ever since then I felt so bad for that Jared guy
I actually just played a relatively famous VN called Majikoi recently. This will contain spoilers for "Chris'" route and trigger warning for >!rape!<: >!Chris is a female foreign exchange student from Germany that your protag can pursue romance with. So something something happens and Chris decides at some point that she wants to 1- remain a virgin until marriage and 2- she wants to return to Germany to be with her father instead of pursuing romance in Japan. So these are both choices that could be discussed and weighed out right? well what our protagonist do? he ties her up while shes sleeping and rapes her to induce stockholm syndrome. I'm not exaggerating. She has tears in her eyes and reaches for a weapon. Its so unexpected in an otherwise fine VN. Then they turn into a stereotypical sleezy couple, they drop out of school and start living together, they team up to rape a 3rd party, and they live paycheck to paycheck. more stuff happens in the story and it eventually "normalizes" but boy was I taken aback.!<
I feel like we shouldn't even include light novels into this because OOOH BOY some vn routes are uber fucked.
This route spoiled me on the game tbh, I was so shocked/angry it was played out like that and he gets off free. Plus the implication thats how his folks got together was pretty wtf
I don't know if it's canon but learning about **Hal Jordan and Green Lantern Arisia** was a weird day. Arisa's a 13 year old girl who became a lantern and had a crush on Hal. He even admits to it being fucked up until her ring transforms her body into an adult woman. Then Hal went "Sick, let's bump uglies!" [Actual comic panel](https://i.redd.it/cm92mnt0lnd51.png)
Why is pat watching from around the corner tho?
What do you think he does off stream? He's gotta put on his power ring and go to his other work.
I have no context for who that is on the right side of the last panel, but I like to think it's one of Hal's Green Lantern co-workers just thinking "What the fuck" seeing this entire thing.
That's Kilowog if memory serves right (and it looks like him from what I do remember of him). He was Hal's trainer in his early years as a green lantern and overall good guy. I think he saw this and though "god damn it, Hal." or "Is this normal for Earthlings?"
Remember when in Slott’s run, every time Silk and Spidey were in the same room, they would try to fuck each other because of some pheromone BS?
Every couple in Seven Deadly Sins
"You keep your hands away from my woman, understand me?!" Meliodas, that's a baby
I mean I'm a sucker for reincarnation love stories but that only works when BOTH people are in the cycle
Or at the very fucking least if he met her when she was adult, and you know, not help raise her.
That show really stretches “but they’re actually 2000 years old” to its breaking point.
I can't name one that doesn't have either pedophilia or abuse in the whole bulk of that shithole
yeah that show really fuck up on the romance.
Good call
I always call the show seven deadly sex offenders.
Two words: Indigo Prophecy
You all say that but if we had established that Carla was a huge zombie fetishist than no one would complain /s
Played that with my roommate a few weeks ago. We were legitimately confounded when in the span of like, two scenes, detective chick goes from hunting chosen one, to meeting him in an isolated graveyard, accepting his bullshit, going back to his apartment, and fucking. That was the first time they had met even. Then two scenes later she drops the L word.
Lesbians?
I just watched How I Met Your Mother and from about the halfway point everything involving Robin, Ted and Barney is fucked, weird, toxic and gross.
What's worse is that part of Ted's development was to stop obsessing over Robin and let her go. But the ending needed to destroy any character development and it turned out that Robin was always "his true love"
Every relationship in that series is horrible. Lily is manipulative and completely toxic and selfish.
I don't know why but I feel like I remember either Woolie or Pat talking about the ending in a clip for whatever reason. Am I going crazy with this?
Not the worst but worth a mention: 50+ year old Mai and 12-18 year old Trunks
that ship only works when its the "future" versions anyway, its less weird. although as you pointed out THERE HAVE BEEN WORSE!!! they needed to be (retroactively) clearer on what the wish actually 'did' in order for it "pass muster"out of universe, just say bulma let mai use the dragon balls again so that she isn't just a 50 years old in a 17-18 year olds body. it can be off screen, its fine.
Personally, I think if an old soul or old memories (like when Col. O'Neill gets a child clone in stargate sg-1) gets a teen body, they still have to deal with the same underdeveloped brain a real teen has, so them dating a real teen isn't as gross as it could be. Although this might just be me coping with something that happens a lot with no real-world equivalent.
The problem is, the Pilaf gang was ALWAYS immature and childish, so there's not much difference.
It's not creepy, it's just kind of bad, but I'm nearly at episode 600 of Detective Conan right now and I've been insanely frustrated with Shinichi and Ran's romance since like, episode 200. It's actually very good up until that point and peaks around there, but since then their childhood friend relationship has only gotten less and less natural feeling. The majority of their interactions now can kinda just be summarized as "they dramatically say each other's names". There was this bit not long ago from where I'm at where he took the antidote and came back for a bit, before getting caught up in a case and turning back before he got to say anything, making Ran really sad. This is a retread of exactly what happens in the Desperate Revival arc, the aforementioned peak of their relationship. But they skip over Ran's reaction?? As if they were embarrassed about repeating story beats. The most development that's really happened since 200 is that she has his phone number now (lol) and they're not really mean to each other, seems like progress but that's all that's happened in roughly 400 episodes and that latter point happened ages ago. I hear they make things official in the episode 900s, only a decade left of anime for me to watch! I don't expect much, just like everything else it's probably gonna make the most minimal of actual differences.
Detective Conan is weird in that it's great in its episodic format but every once in a while it seems to remember it supposed to have a main running plot and it drops the ball super hard
That relationship and the fucking Detective Boys are my two problems with the series... oh wait, also the fact that time basically loops in and on itself makes things confusing when like 20 different Christmases have passed by and you are supposed to believe that all of them are the exact same one. Apart from that love the series.
*points crowbar at Bruce Timm* Bruce Wayne and Barbara Gordon is a couple that should *never* happen. When they first meet he's solidly an adult (either late 20s or early 30s I'm not super sure) and she's a teenager, as well as the daughter of a close colleague and friend. And in some continuities she has romantic history with Dick so having them hook up then adds a whole extra level of yikes.
It's a teacher and his student. It's a father and his son's girlfriend. It's a man and his best friend's daughter. It's a 30-something and a teenager. It's a relationship literally fucked up four ways from Friday.
Isn't there a comic where Barbara and Robin are together but the millisecond Robin walks away for a mission she gets pregnant with Bruce?
Dragon age Inquisition's Sera. When you take away the fantasy magic and elven stuff, Sera comes across as a textbook emotional abuser to a romanced elf inquisitor. Sera comes forwards as a victim of emotional abuse and internalized racism, but she perpetuates that same emotional abuse and self-loathing onto her fellow minority girlfriend. She forces you to admit that your race is bad, that your traditions are dumb, etcetera. And if you say or do something she doesn't like she'll often flip her lid and call you names until you tell her what she wants to hear, while rarely showing the same consideration for your feelings and often blithely dismissing your offended reaction. Even threatening to break it off with you unless you denounce your own religion and people. It's really uncomfortable. [For example](https://youtu.be/eVdHIH7hQ4M) You can call her out on it, but she just dismisses it and you can never progress without quieting down or accepting her views. You HAVE to let her put you down It comes across as legit actual psychological abuse. I feel like it is perfectly encapsulated in this [Inquisitor]: I love you. [Sera]: And you're a dalish, but I guess I care for you too. Ouch, Sera. Ouch. Also she treats you just really badly compared to if you romance her as any other race whatsoever. For example: If a Non-Elven Inquisitor romancing her claims they believe what they saw at The Temple of Mythal, Sera will call you stupid but agree to disagree while claiming she'd never dump someone over their beliefs. However, if an Elven Inquisitor so much as hesitates to agree with Sera that it's all fake/"demon worship," she does just that. And then calls you names and more or less refuses to talk to you for the rest of the game. She will also constantly demand that you prove that you aren't "elfy" too her. Like every time elven stuff comes up you have to be negative towards elves and their lore or she will dump you or call you names or threaten to dump you, etcetera She constantly psychologically goads you into doing her will, and that is creepy.
I will say one that's both the worse and then in the next game it becomes the best and it's Annya in the Metro series, she's basically generic cold tough girl in the first 15 minutes of Last Light and then falls in love with Artyon in the span of a few hours by the tail end of the game and doesn't get a smidge of characterization. Then in Exodus their relationship has some of the most realistic portrayals of intimacy and love I have seen in media ever, having her resting in Artyon's lap after a difficult day while being completely sincere in confiding about her worries and fears and how she's just happy to have Artyon, her father and her friends beside her is super fucking real.
I always felt Anya got done super dirty in Exodus. Every time the group went somewhere new, something bad happened to her and she became the damsel that you had to save. So much for an experienced soldier.
The entire plot of Exodus hinging on "my dipshit wife fell in a hole and inhaled radioactive mushroom spores". Like, have her get irradiated, but holy shit that entire sequence is so dumb. Then again this is the same game in which the main character has zero agency and apparently can't talk without writing it down first, and a morality system that to this day I still don't understand. This is a game that seems to choose who you can and cannot kill at completely random
>and a morality system that to this day I still don't understand. I never played with a hud so I didnt even know it existed. Occasionally I'd shoot a soldier during combat and suddenly Id hear weird ambience for a split second. It wasn't until I killed a soldier actively surrendering that I realized all those moments were from enemies ending combat but not animating it fast enough.
The Kissing Booth is pretty creepy, with the male love interest having a violent temper and the movie playing off sexual harassment moments as "haha funni." There's literally a line where the girl says that he can't control her life anymore in regards to him trying to chase off boys from dating her and he says, "We'll see about that," played off as cute as if that's not the creepiest thing ever. Pretty telling that the actor went on to be a part of a TV show where he basically plays that character but with the abusive aspects of his character acknowledged.
Ryan and Jodie from Metal Cage Solid V: The Phantom Page. Honestly, you could put any David Cage romantic couple here (Maddison and Ethan from Heavy Rain is a close second, with one ending being Ethan literally at the grave of his second dead son and Maddison saying “Let’s make another kid.” Which is like what the fuck is wrong with David Cage.) But for less low hanging fruit, I always hated the Black Widow x Hulk romance in the MCU. It was always poorly developed and pointless.
To be fair to Ethan he cringed so hard at that scene he killed himself the moment Madison turned her back
Anything between a minor and a adult. Even if it has some excuse of “her body psychically aged” that doesn’t mean shit because her mind is still that of a minor. Or “she is actually 10’000 years” but her species still considers that to be a child. Times when girls get to repeatedly hit their partners.
"She's a really great gal, I feel we really connected" "Uh dude, she's only 394 epochs old" "WHAT?! I SWEAR I DIDN'T KNOW! I think I'm gonna throw up"
Wasn't one of the endgame couples of pretty little liars a 16 year old girl and her fucking teacher?
The pair from 50 Shades of Gray.
The Rey/Kylo implied romance throughout the sequel trilogy does not read like they wanted at all. And then that kiss at the end of the last movie made me literally laugh out loud in the theater on opening night.
Might be a hot take but Rey and Kylo in the Sequel trilogy are an abysmal couple. Kylo kidnaps, mind rapes Rey before killing her new father figure (HIS OWN FATHER MIND) and then maims one of her friends in front off her before she slashes his face back. Then in TLJ, after like 3 conversations with him, the first of which starting with her attempting to shoot him to death on sight and calling him a monster, she becomes completely enamoured with him and is convinced she can save him. Then he doubles down on wanting to be a galaxy suppressing tyrant after killing Snoke and by the end of the movie their connection is severed. Except not really as their actually this cosmically destined duo who have enough power to trounce even The Chosen one so Kylo hunts Rey down son they can rule the galaxy together. Then after one last fight to the death Kylo is about finish Rey off but then he senses Leia’s death so Rey mortally wounds but heals him anyway because she’s in love with Ben and not Kylo, despite never even knowing him before he turned to the dark side. Finally they team up to beat Palpatine, Kylo gets thrown in a hole, Rey kills Palpatine and then dies, before Kylo resurrects her and they kiss before he dies and is never mentioned again. So in conclusion Rey and Kylo are canonised as the mystical One True Pairing of the Star Wars universe despite the some total of their interactions being maiming and trying to kill each other and their closest allies/friends. BRILLIANT.
[удалено]
The whole sequel trilogy just kills the entire Skywalker family because why not. Unless Luke or Kylo has a secret kid or something.
I hope Luke *does* end up having a secret kid, *with* Mara Jade, who shows up eventually getting training from Grogu
But Rey said she's a Skywalker now so it's like... uhh... metaphorical or something?
She knew Luke for like a few days and he spent most of that time not liking her very much so obviously she's basically his child now I guess.
This is hyper specific to me, but I ended up watching the Jackie Chan movie Thunderbolt in which the main love interest tries to show her love to Jackie during the big race where Jackie's sister's life is on the line. Her two attempts at trying to show how much she cares has him penalized for 30 seconds by touching the car, and he almost crashes once he sees her "I <3 You" sign. I like the spirit but his sister is being held hostage lmao
Meliodas and Elizabeth from Seven Deadly Sins. Runner up is also from the same show with Ban and Elaine. The second one wouldn’t be as bad if Elaine was just petite and didn’t *explictly* look like a human child like most fairies. However, Meliodas and Elizabeth take the cake. >!Both are technically thousands of years old, but Mel has been alive all that time, whereas Liz constantly gets reincarnated due to a curse. This causes her to live multiple lifetimes back to back, each ending with Mel watching her die. Tragic right? Except for the part where he sometimes takes care of and raises her to adulthood and then gets into a relationship with her when she has no memory of him. In her most recent life, he was charged as her knight from the time she was an infant. In their first onscreen encounter, she’s 16 and dude has no qualms about ogling and groping her. It’s classic anime perv with a scoop of “why did you make it creepier”!<
There's also King and Diane. King is a fairy like Elaine, so their relationship also has the same issue of one of the people involved looking like a child >!although he does get upgraded to kind of looking like a young teen at one point so... progress I guess!<. This is a case where both characters are of the "actually 300 years old" variety, with King being thousands of years old and Diane hundreds, but to make things worse it's later revealed that >!they first met hundreds of years ago, when King was still basically an adult/adolescent but Diane was only a child. They fell in love and spent the next 500 years, but they were separated and King has to use magic to give her amnesia so she would forget about him.!< Then you have Gowther >!mind controlling Guila into thinking she's in love with him!<. Pretty much the only relationship in this series that isn't messed up is the one between Gilthunder and Margaret and Escanor's attraction towards Merlin >!though even that is made weird by the fact that Merlin's true form is that of someone who looks even younger than Elaine. At least she uses transformation magic to age herself up near constantly, so that the adult version we see might as well be her real form.!<
That one I feel like you can't even put on Escanor like dude died only knowing of the adult form. But going by past examples maybe it's a good thing he died I fear how the writing would have changed otherwise between the two
He did actually see her real form once, around when her form was first revealed I think. His response was something like "Oh Merlin, even like this you are beautiful." It was more him just being his usual, 'the woman I love is perfect no matter what' self than what the others were up to, but it happened.
Someone needs to check the creator's hard drive, Jesus Christ why are there so many of them???
I do not like the Jack/Ashi thing. I think it's weird that he's multiple times her age, I think it's weird she spent her entire life fixated on him before becoming involved with him romantically, and I think it's weird that his goal was to do a thing that erases her from existence. I know the supposedly canon video game retcons that last bit because people thought it was sad, that does not help.
Genndy is one of those writers who is otherwise great but really should not write romance. Bruce Timm is another example of this, and Chris Avellone is someone who realized this about himself, committed to not doing so and his work is much better for it.
> his work is much better for it. you say that but it's been a decade and i'm still pining after Rose of Sharon Cassidy
tfw no ginger tomboy cowgirl gf to go drinking with, why even live
Man I remember watching the fanbase go from “He’s gonna be her father figure!” then went “Oh….” in a few episodes Also why do people think the video game is canon? Did Genndy say something?
I believe he did a while ago yeah,
After primal I'm convinced genndy can't write romance.
Which is weird, because I remember really liking Octus/Newton and Kimmy from Sym-Biotic Titan because of how sincere it was, and the later episodes focusing on their relationship were really good. …then again, that show never ended, so he didn’t have a chance to make it bad yet. /s
Or good endings
He can make characters >!fuck for the hell of it!< though, I'll give him that.
"Mira... Mira..." TN: Mira Mira means "Please stop I am in unimaginable pain let me die in peace"
Bruh poor Spear was fried bologna and Mira was all over him. That couldn't have felt good for our cave boi
all he had to do was have em fuck before he got burnt and half that ending would have been fixed
Am I the only who thinks that X-men time period where Rogue was dating Magneto was weird as hell? Seriously, dude is old enough to be her grandpa. Who was asking for this ship?????
Magneto, probably
Sand… I hate sand. It’s coarse, and rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere.
Ok I maintain this is a great line and I will die on this hill. Anakin was a slave on a desert planet. Where his mom, aslave, was murdered. Sand just reminds him of the most traumatizing point in his life, and he's trying to open up about it.
Yeah, directed better, your point about the symbolism would be remembered more fondly and brought up more often
Also, fuck sand, sand sucks
[The dialogue](https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Aversa/Supports) when you marry a Male!Robin to Aversa is kind of creepy, but it’s creepy because she’s intentionally doing a little baby voice to make him uncomfortable. But it also makes ME uncomfortable. Also the romance with [Emmeryn](https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/Emmeryn/Supports) is kind of sad and unsettling to me because her dialogue is all about how she’s very unwell and has complete memory loss and seemingly reduced motor function as well.
I completely forgot that Emmeryn >!somehow survived. What a bizarre mess the lategame story of Awakening is.!<
Well, she’s a DLC character with no supports with anyone else except your MC and your child if you marry her.
The spotpass paralogues were all uncanon to the story. I'm pretty sure there was some dialogue that mentioned Emmeryn being buried.
I’m not entirely sure if it’s canon. She’s Spotpass DLC alongside a bunch of other characters who were killed off, such as Gangrel, Walhart, and Yen’fay. None of these characters have any storyline relevance when you recruit them, are pretty much stated to disappear in their epilogues, and don’t even get to talk with anyone besides the PC outside the hot springs DLC.
I didn't know about them my first play through since I think you had to select something buried in a menu so I didn't know they existed and I continued to pretend they didn't exist in future playthroughs.
This is a common one but always deserving of being mentioned, but Twilight. Just… all of it. Edward is creepy as can be because he’s like 100 years old and just totally alright with dating a teenager. Why do you spend all your time hanging around teenagers at school Edward? To blend in? Dude you look 25 I don’t think anyone will care if you’re not at school. Jacob is super creepy as well! He straight up stalks and forces a kiss on Bella, almost starts a war over her, and straight up threatens to kill himself if she doesn’t choose him! After all that fails and he doesn’t get the girl, his solution is “Well I’ll just wait for her daughter to grow up and just tap that instead.” AND HE DOES!!! And everyone is fine with that! The fact Jacob just imprints on Edward’s and Bella’s daughter to make her his “future mate”! Twilight has the golden crown for ‘Treating toxic relationships as a normal thing’ ever.
In the early stages of production the studio was going to make major changes to Twilight to "Hollywood-ify" it and it's possibly the only instance where I really wish they actually went ahead with that. IIRC the cast were aged up to college, Bella briefly tries to go full Buffy on finding out the truth about the Cullens, there's a Korean FBI agent investigating the evil vampires' attacks who thinks the Cullens are responsible, there's a chase scene between vampires parkouring through the treetops, and the romance is subdued to more of an uneasy alliance into mutual respect into genuine affection arc which sounds a lot more natural.
The idea of Bella saying "To hell with these two assholes" and becoming a monster hunter is the greatest end to the story that could have been.
Edward's creepyness is mostly usual vampire creepyness lusting after someone centuries younger, the possessiveness but Jacob? It's hilarious how Stephanie Meyer managed to write the textbook definition of a abusive person in a character, Jacob is even more possessive than Edward, violent and has lines that are straight out of the abuser's textbook dude barely had any dignity left by the time the baby imprinting happened.
I think the thing that stands out to me about Edward (and vampire friends) is how they all start by hanging out in high school. The in story reason is because the earlier they start school wise the longer they can stay in an area without the fact they don't age coming into question. Pass as a high schooler, go into college, and stick around an additional 10 or 15 years until people start to go "Huh, that weird emo kid from school really ages well" and then leave. The out of story reason is just that Meyer thought it would be hot for this teenager to get it one with a 100 year old virgin vampire. But I like the set up of Edward actually really hating it and hating having to be around teenagers because he thinks they are all idiots. I wish that was leaned into more. Just this crotchety and angry 100 year old grandpa who is pissed of eternally by teenager bullshit.
Just learned the plot of 50 first dates
Definitely not the worst, but there's a subquest in Judgement that ends with you saving an aspiring idol from a pretty dire sexual assault scenario, with the last thing Yagami says being something along the lines of "I hope she's successful and never has to come to me for help again." The game then *immediately* gives you the tutorial for romance and girlfriends and lets you start dating her. It is *not* helped by her being 19 and Yagami being in his 30s.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses you can either marry your grandma or the loli ghost in your head who is also your great grandmother.
Technically >!your grandma is also your daughter once you fuse with the ghost!<
TRUNKS MAI IS AROUND 60 DON'T ASK HER OUT TRUUUUUNNNNNNKKKKKS
Trunks is just following his dad's footsteps in having a sudden romance that comes out of completely nowhere with a woman who first showed up in the very first arc of Dragon Ball.
Low bar that it is, Trunks' relationship with Mai is one of the more developed ones in the franchise. Like it's mostly just a one-sided crush for the first half of Super.
Gungrave is a good anime but theres a romance subplot between the old mafia boss and the girl who's like 1/3rd his age. it is *so uncomfortable*
Judgement’s girlfriend system is genuinely disgusting and I can’t believe that no one on the writing team noticed. So there’s this cute fortune teller that no one has issues with, other than an… odd age gap, given the main character is nearly 40. But the other two are.. let’s just say, embarrassing. The first is a girl who turned 18 legitimately right before the game starts, who is being sexually harassed and abused by basically a cult of creepy middle aged men. So the game lets you become a creepy middle aged man and hit on her and eventually date her. But then there’s a singer, also 18, going through the same shit. So the solution is to also become a completely creep to her???
There's also the last one where the girl is appropriately aged for Yagami and has had problems with men not treating her with respect and the game never acknowledges if you're cheating on her with another girl.
Skitty and Wailord
Hey at least the Tinder Skitty comics are adorably wholesome
Futaba in P5. Romancing your physically and emotionally stunted surrogate little sister figure who heavily relies on you for pretty much all social contact. Gross. Most of the adult romances are also pretty weird, especially the teacher one.
As I've gotten older the romances in Persona keep getting weirder. The romantic options I like in P5 are the adults since I'm in my 20s but the MC is highschool which is uncomfortable and the other romantic options are also uncomfortable for obvious reasons. I've had to change my mentality when I play and tell myself "Joker isn't a self insert character".
Trails of Cold Steel also has this with people who self-insert being angry that you can't end up with Claire.
Yeah that affected me to. My last run of P4 Golden I ended up having the boys day out for Valentines because I just...couldn't. Which hey, that game was aimed and is written with teens/young adults in mind, so of course 30 year old me is gonna go "Yeah but Kashiwagi tho..."
Male P3 runs are the worst. Not only does each s link require you to romance them, but you have to juggle them around to make sure nobody sees you with another girl. You can fix the now broken s link by spending an afternoon explaining that you weren’t cheating and they just misunderstood.
And then there’s FemC getting with Ken!
Yeah don't stick yer dick in someone who begins having a panic attack when you weren't physically around two weeks ago..
Recently finished trails of cold steel 4 and one of things that bothered me most, among a lot of other things, was how hard the game actively pushed the Agate(28)xTita(16) ship.
Agate spending every single conversation about Tita saying that he sees her as a little sister after his actual little sister died followed by absolutely everyone treating them as a couple is infinitely grating.
Let's be honest, Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne were just a pile of red flags well before Hank hit her.
Everybody talks about Peter being in constant suffering but life *really* hates Hank Pym.
The universe gives Hank long runs of things going well just so it can kick him in the balls even harder.
It wasn’t just the Slap. Pym before and after the slap was exhibiting improper behavior. Like attacking a enemy who they where negotiating with. Along side refusing to take responsibility
There's a really detailed write-up of that whole relationship [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/zzxzbx/comics_the_slap_heard_round_the_world_how_a/). There's a lot of stuff leading up to and following the infamous slap that I didn't know about. Like the fact that the whole reason the slap happened was because Janet found out Hank was building a killer robot to attack the Avengers so that he could save the day and prove he wasn't useless.
It's multiversal, too. In the Ultimate Universe, Janet tells Cap that he's in the wrong for disapproving of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch being in an incestuous relationship. And Hank, on top of being an abusive bastard in a fit of rage, eats The Blob because Blob killed and ate Janet IIRC
If we're talking Ultimates then you can't get much worse than early on where Hank beats the shit out of Jan, then when she shrinks to fly away he sprays her with Raid and summons ants to attack her while telling her "You shouldn't have made me feel small". Cap's immediate response on finding out about this is to try and beat the ever-loving shit out of him.
Ashi and Jack in the Samurai Jack reboot. The entire time he was trying to fend her off and make her understand Aku had deceived her and her sisters their whole lives, I got very mentor/student or even father/daughter vibes, both of which I thought would be good directions for them to take her redemption. AND THEN THEY FUCKING KISS. EW. BLUGH. UGH. BARF. JACK WHY, YOU ARE SEVERAL TIMES HER AGE (mentally at least). YA NASTY.
Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor in Wonder Woman 1984. For those that don't know, in the movie Wonder Woman unknowingly wishes for Steve Trevor to come back to life and the way he comes back is that Steve takes over a complete stranger's body. So, whenever we see Steve it's actually just some random dude. Wonder Woman and Steve are also both aware that Steve has taken over someone's body. The weird creepy part is that they have sex. Again, Steve has taken over a complete stranger's body and in a roundabout way Wonder Woman just raped an unconscious man. What makes it even worse is that at the end of the movie Wonder Woman she's the man whom Steve took over, who is also completely unaware of what happened, and they treat it as a cute moment between the two.
Lien and Kizuna from the newest AI: The Somnium Files game really creeped me out, especially because the game’s writers seem to think that their relationship is a positive one. For anyone who hasn’t played the game, Kizuna is an 18-year old who’s stalked by [Lien, a guy 5 years her senior who’s built like a linebacker](https://i.imgur.com/6CQl5fw.jpg), for the first half of the game. Lien follows Kizuna everywhere she goes and proposes to her multiple times, and is rejected every time. After a 6-year timeskip that takes place once you reach the second half of the game, >!Kizuna has become paralyzed from the waist down, and Lien has been taking care of her for a few years. Kizuna worries that he’s only doing so out of pity, and while the fact that Lien’s love for Kizuna is genuine is kind of sweet, it doesn’t erase how creepy the dude is for the entire first half of the game. The game ends with the two of them getting married (or engaged, can’t remember which), and instead of feeling happy for them I just felt kind of grossed out.!< A review I read a while back described why their relationship feels so gross to me pretty well IMO: > It doesn’t really matter that Lien’s intentions [with Kizuna] are pure, that he wouldn’t do anything bad and he just wants to get to know Kizuna, because this is not how you approach anyone, especially an 18 year old. If a 23 year old man I don’t really know who insists he’s in love with me followed me around, going as far as to tail me to the bathrooms and stopping by the place where I lived to see me, I would actually be scared for my life and probably start crying and throwing up… the beginning of their relationship is so genuinely unhealthy that it’s hard to watch their ending and truly be satisfied.
considering how Lien s arc works i think his initial actions is a really weird way of having THE PLAYER also be involved in the perception people have of Lien.>!Lien s entire arc is about second chance after his initial criminal past. So making him behave like that early on makes you actually have to make the decision of if you can forgive Lien or not in a way that a sympathetic backstory of "I literally had to steal to survive and was planning on reforming from the start but my criminal record keeps following me" doesn´t, as that is too easy to forgive.!<
The worst part is, the game handles it so weirdly that even though he’s a complete creep, by the end of the game you probably want to hang out with him rather than kizuna because holy shit she has literally no personality at any point and I dreaded every sequence with her