So, romance on the Hall...

Liz says its declining, and she's right, obviously. But, I think it's because we're all growing up. Some of us are married, and we're not the sex-crazed teens and young adults we used to be.

As we get older, we've started exploring other topics. And, I'm glad Liz picked up on the potential tragedy of Marten remembering that he's Moon Dancer. If he does after they've developed a relationship, what comes of it? It was something I wanted to explore, and a good part of why I started that vein of this story.

And yes, that does make this a romance of sorts. And something deeper, too.

Tell me what you think? Are we getting older, more mature? Or are we just happily involved with people outside of the Hall, so we don't bother to explore romance on the Hall anymore?

-- Brazzo (braz@mac.com), March 26, 2000

Answers

Response to Roamnce on the Hall

If those are your only criteria, Braz, it's definitely not that. Personally, I remain happily UNinvolved, and while I may be growing older, I refuse to be more mature. (so nyah.)

Hmmmm....seriously though, I wouldn't say there's been any sort of "decline of romance on the Hall." It's not as though characters were dropping left and right, felled by Cupid's deadly arrows, in the Hall's first incarnation. Yes, there was romance, a number of characters were (at least for a time) happily paired off, or mooning after one another (no pun intended...okay, maybe just a little bit), but it wasn't any more central to the Hall's roleplaying (at least, not to my memory) than in the "new" Hall. In a setting like ours, character interrelationships are key, and if the characters are male and female, that's often going to have certain implications.

Let's look at the recent track record, hmm? Jaret and Michelle, Jel and Tyl, Marta and Yousef, Zoya and Marten (c'mon, you can't deny it!)...and who knows what sorts of escapades Jaret has been up to? I remember a certain sea elf princess....and then, of course, there's Glossaria's recent (ahem) experimentation, with Vallel's introduction. Drat, I *know* I'm forgetting another one...ack...KT, help, I know one of your characters was involved...

So how can you say romance on the Hall is declining, hmmm? ::grin:: All you married people are the worst culprits!

-- Karen O. (Lisl_1@yahoo.com), March 27, 2000.

Response to Roamnce on the Hall

Well, Karen, I don't disagree about the fact that there are romantic stories on the Hall; I guess what I remember were clouded by poor roleplaying on my part, and a vested interest in whomever I was currently dating (the ill-advised on-Hall overtures toward Lini still give me the willies). But now?

I don't know if it's so much romance for me, at least, as it is exploring other types of story themes where romance plays a part in setting up the larger whole. ::shrug:: And, I guess the whole bit between Marten and Zoya is weighing heavily on my mind right now.

Sure, there's a romantic aspect to their story. Of course there is. But, for me at least, the romance is a means to an end. I don't know where it'll go, and whether or not it'll survive the entire story. But, it's not the central theme of this story, either.

I remember times where the romance was the central theme, where character love interests were as varied as those of the players who brought the characters to life were; when every time one of us changed a Significant Other, their character changed their love interests as well. Now, things seem tamer.

I don't mean to speak for you, Karen. I'm mostly working from my experiences and memories of the Hall. That's why I'm looking for input from everyone else.

And no, I don't plan on growing up. Just getting older. ::grin::

-- Brazzo (braz@mac.com), March 27, 2000.

Response to Roamnce on the Hall

Romance on the Hall...COLLEEN GET BACK HERE!!!! Sorry, had to get that out of my system. :)

I really don't have much to say on the subject. It seems like every time we get a good romance going something happens and one or both of the characters disappear, leaving me wondering how the story ended.

I do have to agree with both Karen and Braz though. I think we've got as many romances as before, but I think we've managed to stop reflecting our own romances in the Hall romances.

::blink, blink:: I'm really too tired to think coherently about this right now. I'll try to remember to respond in more detail later.

-- Jeff (koros@usit.net), March 27, 2000.

Response to Roamnce on the Hall

Think back to the Hall as it existed on TM, back oh-so-many years ago. See how many plot threads you can remember that didn't have a romance of some sort at their core. Off the top of my head, I can think of only one: Havok. I'm sure there must be others, but I think this is the key for me.

It's not that there's been a decline in romance on the Hall - as Karen pointed out, there have been any number of pairings in the couple of years we've been back online. What's different is that they're no longer a primary focus. We create plots for our characters that seem to be interesting to us, and if a romance would fit well into that plot, then it does so. For the most part, romances are a side-effect or complication of the plot, rather than the core motivation for the plot.

There is also, as Braz pointed out, the fact that we no longer feel obligated to force our characters to match our own personal lives, and - as an extension of that maturity - we no longer feel obligated to end everything on a happy note. (I know there were unhappy endings in the previous incarnation, but they tended to coincide with real-world breakups.) As an example - Michelle and Jaret were moving smoothly along toward a happy fling (if not something more substantial) when Michelle's nature was revealed by Jelarthna's tangle with the underworld, and Jaret was very definitely put off.

Okay, so there aren't a lot of unhappy examples - somewhat naturally, we want our characters to be happy in the long run. But I think we've moved into a space where the most important thing about our characters is, well, their character, and we're not going to compromise that just to make things turn out all rosy.

(Just as a side note, Zoya's figured that the odds of her relationship with Marten turning out happily are about 2:5, and she's already preparing to take a short "vacation" in case it turns out especially badly - of which the odds are also 2:5.)

-- Liz (brooksliz@hotmail.com), March 27, 2000.