To be fair to Roy, one of the reasons I reasons I like him is that he takes neither more nor less responsibility for events than he should. He spends too little screen time standing about on rooftops, brooding about how it's All About Him, to be a proper king of pain—though he does own a damned fine billowy coat.
It's true and almost certainly a point in his favour that he doesn't pronounce himself as Manpain Man - and I don't dislike him, but for me he is definitely more of a scratchy-interesting part of the ensemble rather than my darling love about whom I could read forever. (I do however quite strongly dislike Edward Elric, it turns out. There's a fairly respectable tradition of me disliking the protagonist in things I like, though, so I'm not worrying about it too much. But oh dear do I find him brittle, flip and selfish. :/ )
Especially when the never-actually-talking is how the author gets her conflict. "Oh, Poohbear, you have betrayed me!" "Actually, no, there's a perfectly legitimate explanation for that thing you saw." "Don't wanna hear it! First we must have eight-and-a-half chapters of angst!"
YES. And then Poohbear and Piglet don't see each other for days/weeks at a time, but are still apparently experiencing the throes of some great romance... How?! This is why I am always in favour of plots with monsters and all that crap - if you concretise your relationship issues then your ship can solve it together, with plenty of conversations along the way, rather than leaving me (if not the general audience) with the impression that you ship your protagonist more with their BFF than with their romantic partner. /end proclaiming
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It's true and almost certainly a point in his favour that he doesn't pronounce himself as Manpain Man - and I don't dislike him, but for me he is definitely more of a scratchy-interesting part of the ensemble rather than my darling love about whom I could read forever. (I do however quite strongly dislike Edward Elric, it turns out. There's a fairly respectable tradition of me disliking the protagonist in things I like, though, so I'm not worrying about it too much. But oh dear do I find him brittle, flip and selfish. :/ )
Especially when the never-actually-talking is how the author gets her conflict. "Oh, Poohbear, you have betrayed me!" "Actually, no, there's a perfectly legitimate explanation for that thing you saw." "Don't wanna hear it! First we must have eight-and-a-half chapters of angst!"
YES. And then Poohbear and Piglet don't see each other for days/weeks at a time, but are still apparently experiencing the throes of some great romance... How?! This is why I am always in favour of plots with monsters and all that crap - if you concretise your relationship issues then your ship can solve it together, with plenty of conversations along the way, rather than leaving me (if not the general audience) with the impression that you ship your protagonist more with their BFF than with their romantic partner. /end proclaiming