Video summary
The speaker argues that genuine sexual and romantic tension is increasingly rare in modern romance media, noting that it often feels nonexistent compared to older works. He defines this tension not merely as lust, but as a palpable sense of mutual attraction where the audience anticipates a connection that hasn't yet happened. Using examples like *Gothicana*, he illustrates how many contemporary stories fail because characters meet and immediately act on their feelings, bypassing the necessary period of anticipation. True tension, he explains, functions similarly to suspense in horror or action genres; it requires building up pressure where characters are close but held back by obstacles, creating a desire in the audience for that barrier to be broken. When stories skip this buildup for instant gratification, the eventual payoff feels unsatisfying because the emotional bubble was never inflated enough to make its pop meaningful.
A significant portion of this lack of tension stems from authors' refusal to engage in character development or conflict. The speaker observes that many writers are "allergic" to the idea of characters changing, preferring instead to have protagonists who are perfect and static from the very beginning. In a compelling romance, there should be friction where one character finds another off-putting due to coldness, meanness, or other flaws, requiring time and narrative effort to overcome these barriers. However, in many modern books, love interests are revealed to be secretly nice almost immediately, or their bad behavior is constantly excused by the narration and other characters without logical justification. This approach eliminates the necessary conflict that drives a story forward, leaving the audience with no reason to care about the relationship's progression beyond immediate physical attraction.
The speaker concludes that while some audiences demand smut within the first ten pages, sacrificing narrative depth for this instant gratification results in shallow storytelling that lacks emotional resonance. He contrasts this with books like *Lights Out*, which successfully build tension by allowing characters to slowly understand each other and realize their shared quirks over time. Ultimately, he believes that for romantic subplots to work effectively, authors must commit to showing genuine struggle and growth rather than relying on convenient misunderstandings or static personalities. Without the slow burn of developing conflict and resolution, the resulting relationships feel hollow, leaving readers feeling like they are just waiting impatiently for a scene that lacks the emotional weight to make it satisfying.
Read the full video transcript
Okay, so this video I do not have a
script for it. I didn't write down any
notes for it. I just want to completely
come out here, go off the top of my
head, and see how it goes, cuz this is
something that's been on my mind for a
little while, but I I just haven't done
anything specifically talking about it.
So, I figured, yeah, let's go. So, I
guess the title of this video is pretty
straightforward. Like I think that not
just in like weird smutty romances, but
romance in general, I feel like there is
very rarely actual sexual tension
between the people who are supposed to
be falling in love. And when I say
sexual tension, I don't just mean that
in like a lustfilled way, but I also
mean that to include like romantic
tension where it seems like, okay, yeah,
these people are really into each other.
and it never works for me. Or rather, I
should say it very rarely uh works for
me. And most of the time when it does
work for me, it's with older stuff,
newer stuff that's coming out is
noticeably noticeably worse in this
regard. So, I just wanted to spend a few
minutes talking about it and why I think
that is. So, the most recent romance
book I read was Gothicana, and you can
watch my video on that soon, hopefully.
But it's um not a very good book for a
lot of reasons. But one of the big
reasons why it just didn't work for me
is that I didn't feel much tension
between main character girl and love
interest man. You don't need to know
their names. They're just MC girl and
love interest man. They're they're the
same in all of these types of books. But
like the the problem is that they meet
and she immediately wants him. And I it
just doesn't quite work because
obviously yes, love interest man is
attractive and he's described as being
very attractive. Sure. But what else is
there? You know, sexual tension only
arises the same way other types of
tension do in storytelling where you
have to anticipate that something is
coming.
Get it? Yeah. You have to anticipate
that something is coming, but you don't
know exactly when it's going to happen
and you just you start feeling like,
"Hey, come on, hurry up. Hurry up." And
this works the same way whether like
someone's walking into the house and we
know there's a monster hiding in the
shadows and we're like, "No, no, don't
go in there." Uh it works the same way
if we know that there's going to be a
big battle coming up like a
confrontation between the forces of the
dark lord and the ragtag group of heroes
who are trying to I don't know defend
the maidens for whatever the point is we
know there's a big battle coming up
tension rises until it reaches a boiling
point and it has to be the exact same
with romantic and sexual tension as well
like if in Gothicana again as an example
uh love interest man and main character
girl met and they were attracted to each
other, but they also felt that they just
couldn't be together for one reason or
another. Like, I mean, he's her a
professor at her school, so he would it
would be kind of unprofessional and
inappropriate for them to be together,
and that does come up in the book a
little bit, but not that much. But if
main character girl and him had both
thought that and occasionally they wound
up in situations where they were close
and they like were about to kiss or
something and then they broke it off,
went, "Nope, nope, we can't do that."
then that's helping to build the tension
because at that point the audience wants
them to, you know, do something uh but
we're not getting it. Whereas the
problem with Gothicana and pretty much
every other book like that is that they
all go for instant gratification. And I
know some of you might be thinking,
well, wait a second, sometimes they take
hundreds of pages before they get to the
sex scenes or anything. And that is
technically true, but there's also no
tension being built because they just
pop the bubble a little too quick. If uh
if that metaphor makes sense, like I I
guess that would be a good metaphor for
it is like building tension means you're
blowing up the bubble bigger and bigger
until eventually it pops and that's when
the tension is released. in something
like Fourth Wing. Yeah, it does
technically take several hundred pages
for the sex scenes to happen, but it's
also very clear that uh main character
girl, I think in that book, her name was
Violet, and Zaden, love interest man,
were still pretty into each other long
before that. Like at first she's
terrified of him because he's his dad
was like the leader of the rebels or
whatever and they forced him to go to
this school where he can kill whoever he
wants with cuz look Fourth Wing is a
stupid book but they forced him to go to
this uh school and main character girl
is thinking like oh no he might actually
try and kill me and it turns out very
quickly very early on that no he wasn't
like that at all like he was perfectly
fine. with her. And in fact, it's pretty
obvious to the audience from the get-go
that he has no problem with her. She's
just being paranoid. So, the bubble was
barely even pretending to be inflated
before it popped. And then we just have
this deflated bubble hanging around
until eventually they start having sex.
So, once they do it, it's not that
satisfying. Uh, Quicksilver was kind of
similar as well. Like it's very clear
that main character girl and love
interest man are going to be a thing
from very very very very very early on
and then we're just kind of sitting
around looking at our watch and like
going okay hurry up then like and then
they get to the sex and it's not that
satisfying because of this. So when I
say instant gratification, it is often
times like again Gothic Hannah where it
does actually happen instantly and
that's really annoying. But in other
cases where it might not happen
instantly, they still don't bother
actually trying to build the tension.
Like it's like they really have no faith
in their audience and they're like, "No,
no, I okay. I know you want instant
gratification. I know you want it. I
know you want it, but like please,
please, just just hang around. just hang
around a little bit longer, please.
Like, I'll I'll do the thing. You see
this? See this? This is the thing. This
is the thing. Look. Look. See? I know
they were supposed to be doing enemies
to lovers, but like they were enemies
for like half a page. They're lovers
now. I promise. I promise. They They
start doing the sex yet. Like, that's
what it feels like. And it's really
really obnoxious. Now, I can't entirely
blame the authors for doing this because
yeah, a lot of the audience is really
like that. like like a lot of people
will immediately put something down if
it doesn't have smut within the first 10
pages or whatever and they are very very
uh I I I don't know the term for it but
like they just they need instant
gratification all the time and it's
really obnoxious and this does tie into
another problem I've spoken about a
little bit where a lot of authors just
seem allergic to the very concept of
character development you know like they
they will have uh a character in the
book or rather or all the characters in
the book and they will just immediately
at the beginning they'll already be good
at doing all the things that they're
going to do throughout the book which a
lot of time that's like warrior stuff or
magic stuff because it's often times
fantasy but like they're already really
good at it at the very beginning so they
don't really need to train or practice
or anything to get better over time and
I'm not saying you can't write stories
like that a lot of them are like that
but whatever is useful for the heroes
there already good at it at the
beginning and whatever beliefs and
behaviors and everything they have at
the beginning are always going to be the
same at the end. Again, you can write
static characters in fiction. I'm not
saying you can never do that, but these
guys are just allergic to the very idea
of characters changing. Like if love
interest man shows up and main character
girl hates him because oh he seems cold
or mean or whatever, he doesn't actually
change and become less mean or less cold
over the course of the story and that's
what makes her fall in love with him. It
turns out no, that was a
misunderstanding. He was always super
nice and always super cool from the
beginning. You were just kind of
ignorant about him, but now you know.
Now you can be attracted to him and not
feel weird about it. and there's no
problems in your relationship at all.
And that's just not very satisfying.
Like, if we're supposed to be watching
these characters fall in love, then
that's supposed to imply that there's
some sort of conflict. Like, that's the
point of storytelling is for there to be
some sort of conflict. It doesn't
necessarily have to be a violent
conflict, but there has to be something
there. And characters have to realize at
some point that like, okay, yeah, I I
need to change or I need to accept this
part of them that I found off-putting
before or they need to change or, you
know, something like there needs to be
something going on for there to be some
sort of conflict and therefore some sort
of drama and therefore some sort of
story. And when all of the characters
all the time are always static and never
changing,
well, where's the conflict there? It
gets even worse in stuff like uh The
Mortal Instruments is coming to mind
right now where Jace in those books is a
jerk. Now, it's kind of understandable
why he would be a jerk given some of the
circumstances surrounding his his life
and everything that's gone on. It does
make sense why he would be kind of a
jerk, but they never really show that,
okay, he has a heart of gold underneath
that. you know, he never really goes out
of his way to make it clear that he is a
kind person and that he's using his
like, I don't know, sassy, sarcastic
exterior as kind of a shield. But at the
same time, a lot of characters and the
narrators or and the narration will just
come out and say that that's what he's
doing. And obviously, this falls into
the problem of like, hey, you should
show rather than tell, stuff like that.
But also, if you're you have to have
what you're telling match what you're
showing because in the Mortal
Instruments specifically, it really does
feel like the author was just making
excuses for Jace and the other
characters are just making excuses for
Jace so that they can continue being his
friend, but it just doesn't make sense
for them to want to associate with him
or be his friend under these
circumstances. So, I I kind of forget
where I was going with this, but
basically, a lot of love interests are,
you know, bad boys or whatever, but the
author and other characters just cannot
help but make constant excuses for them.
And that is going to lead to
I I don't know, not tension. Justosition
isn't the right word either, but
dissonance. There we go. That's the
word. that leads to dissonance for the
audience because like, okay, we're
supposed to like this guy, but we don't
have any reason to like him. Like again,
if you're going to have somebody be a
jerk, you got to just kind of commit to
it. And then that ties into my issue
earlier about there never being any
character development. Like, yeah, they
need to be willing to change. Like, if
they start off as a jerk, they need to
at some point go, "Okay, you know what?
I need to be less of a jerk. I need to
be better and that will make me worthy
of being with main character girl who
doesn't have a personality and she looks
really plain and is sexually
inexperienced, but I'm just obsessed
with her and only her for some reason.
And I know a lot of this seems like very
basic romantic subplot writing or
romantic plotline writing, but I see it
all pretty rarely and it's been getting
more and more rare in recent years. So,
I just I I don't really know. I I just
wanted to spend a couple minutes talking
about this. Uh if this helps anybody,
great, I guess. But mostly, I was just
ranting because like the sexual and
romantic tension is never there. And I
think that's a big part of the reason
why so many romantic subplots just don't
work for me. Like, you know, like if if
they actually committed to there being
tension and stuff, then I I think it
could work. Okay. like um I don't love
the book Lights Out, but I did read it a
couple of months ago and I thought it
was okay and I think it does a pretty
good job of actually building the
tension between the leads because like
sure they do kind of is know each other
at the beginning, but the book spends a
long time with them getting to know each
other and getting to realize like, okay,
this person's just as freaky as I am.
And then they, you know, you know where
it goes from there. I don't need to
elaborate, but I don't know. This one
was just like a weird rant idea I had.
Let me know if you want more of these or
not. I This was just kind of something I
wanted to do off the top of my head and
decided to finally commit to it. Uh,
that's all. Thank you for watching this
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