Romance as a genre

My expectations is the story should be centered around the leads' relationship, regardless of whatever else is happening genre/plot wise, and good chemistry. I don't necessarily expect a happy ending (although I always hope for one). A good example to me would be The Princess' Man...there's so much going on with court politics, revenge, supporting characters' stories, but at all times the leads' relationship is what drives the story.

My expectation for romance as main genre is that more than half of the drama spends on the two leads interacting with each other; talking about the moon and the scenery, all their preferences and childhood stories, their aspirations and goals in life, love confession and gazing at their lovers with love and affection, praising and nagging at each other - showing care.

For ending, depending on the characters and the plot, I could wish for happy ending, ambiguous ending or bad ending. If it's already clear that the two leads are not a match, it's better for them to separate as a twisted melon is not sweet. Drama like Then You Try Making It! is perfect imo as both leads are clearly will only torturing each others if they're back together. I'm praying for them to never going back together for the whole time. Sometimes I wish for different ending for the romance drama I completed, but most of the drama I watch ended exactly like how I want it to end. I think the scripwriters could see clearly how their drama supposed to end (realistically). But I'm dodging a lot of drama reading the comments (especially the one saying "the ending is rubbish, sucks, unexpected and so on," but no spoiler please).

And if the misunderstandings or mistakes between the two leads are too much or too big, let's end it ambiguously like with the side couple in To the Moon and Back and main couple in That Winter, The Wind Blows or The Innocent Man and maybe My Love From the Star (I mean there's no bad things that ML did in the drama iirc, but it's a fantasy so...) which could be freely interpreted according to the viewers' preference.

 autumn iris:

My expectation for romance as main genre is that more than half of the drama spends on the two leads interacting with each other;

You posted this while I was writing, or probably while I was answering the door =D

That's a really interesting and pragmatic criteria. It would rule "Romance" out as a genre for one of the specific titles which got me thinking about this. In that one, the love story, all of those sorts of things you wrote about, happened *before* the drama starts with only a few small flashbacks.

But it does rule out lovers separated (unless there's close to 50% flashback) and I have mixed feelings about saying some of those aren't Romance - I could argue for both sides and can see both points.

What's the percentage of time given to showing the main (non-platonic, non-familial) relationship in some of the epic court intrigue c-dramas? I don't watch enough to know.

 autumn iris:

bad ending. If it's already clear that the two leads are not a match, it's better for them to separate

I agree. Though I'd rather we got away from calling this a 'bad ending'. It's sometimes very much the best ending and can be presented as hope for the future while still being honest about any sadness.

I didn't think the ending for the 2 couple in Matalada was ambiguous - Paeng ends whatever was going on with Trai, they were never really a couple, and then he helped her when the gossips were looking down on her, which let them end on an amicable note. And there were pretty strong hints towards the end that something was going to happen between Riri and Trai in NY. What did you find ambiguous?

 autumn iris:

It's only what they called. Bad ending is for separated lovers.

But words like 'good' and 'bad' have such strong value judgements, at least in English, even if they are nominally repurposed to mean something else. There's no need to do that when we have better words available like 'bittersweet' and 'sad'.

If a relationship, whether real life or fictional, isn't working, it's not 'bad' for them to part. That's a good ending even if it's sad.

Recognising that should be normalised through the words we choose to describe it, not undermined by lumping it in with truly bad things like abuse or cheating.

On Matalada, well there's always some possibility, if both parties are still alive. Just very very unlikely in this case I think. Oh well, doesn't matter, just something we see very differently. Though if Trai dated both Paeng and Riri, he wouldn't have changed, at least not enough, so your second hypothetical would thwart your first. Riri would skin him alive if he tried it too and Paeng would help. =D

 autumn iris:

But isn't when an ex change, you feel that there's hope to reconcile, especially when they're still in contact?

No. Especially when they're showing one of them being mutually interested in someone else. Even more so when he's going to be moving to another country for an indefinite period of time, his mum is already there and he helped the new interest follow her dream and get into journalism school in the same city. In another country.

The writers weren't just omitting to show hints of a proper relationship starting between Trai and Paeng, they were actively dropping hint after hint towards something else.

I'm also not keen on the fairy tale of reconciling exes, however popular a trope it may be. Sometimes it may happen, though returning to someone because they're a comfort zone isn't a great reason to go back IMO (so easy to fall back into old patterns even if some have changed), but mostly that hope is a phase of grief following a break-up. The 'good' ending is letting go, not clinging onto a possibility. Especially when it leads to not recognising that the other has moved on.

That's how I see it. You disagree. Your opinion is the more popular one, at least in terms of tropes. So be it.