Should The Fated Hour be tagged Romance? · 1:34am Jul 29th, 2016
Question for those who read The Fated Hour:
In my last blog post, someone brought up the question of whether The Fated Hour should have the Romance tag on it, and whether or not it was appealing to the correct audience.
On the one hand, the story is definitely not a story of the romance genre; the story is, at its heart, a comedy.
On the other hand, the primary purpose of tagging a story is to help people know whether or not they want to read it - and while the story is not a romance, it is about Twilight using a spell and thinking that she will meet her True Love (TM) by doing so, so it certainly touches on romantic themes (and a bit of ship teasing).
So, I open the question to those of you who read it:
Should The Fated Hour be tagged romance?
I put a comment down in the comments; upvote it if you think that The Fated Hour should be tagged Romance, and downvote it if you think it shouldn't.
Upvote this comment if you think that The Fated Hour should be tagged Romance.
Downvote this comment if you think it shouldn't.
I'm gonna go with no. Because, even though the story is unquestionably about romance, no romance actually occurs. And FIMFic's guideline for using the romance tag calls for an actual relationship.
4119186
What, read the actual site guidelines?
What kind of monster are you?
*cough*
I mean, uh... of course I read the tagging guidelines! I read them all the time! I definitely didn't read them just the last time they were updated, no sir!
I think it should.
Oh, I have to explain why, right?
Well, in fact, I'm in a maybe but leaning to it should.
I think it sould, because I don't think the Romance tag should mean "a consumated ship" tag. A fic with Romance could perfectly be a story about somepony exploring her feelings about somepony without actually confessing them, a fic about somepony wanting to have a relationship with someponye without succes, etc etc. If "romantic feelings" it's something central to the fic, I think it should have the Romance tag.
In the other way, I did a little exercise; what if you look at it bakwards?, how would the fic feel if it didn't have the Romance tag and only had the Comedy tag?.
Well, I think some people may complain asking for the Romance tag, but in the end, I don't think it would such a great loss. The R tag doesn't feel so essential to the fic (as the comedy tag does).
PD: Damn, I didn't know how to write this without using so many tames the words "tag", "fic", "romance" and "romantic"
(I'm joking)
PPD: Also, tell the truth, you only did this post so you could openly advertise your fic again
PPPD: Also, it was a really cool fic
4119200
The Romance tag certainly sets up for a subversion, as people are likely expecting by the end for her to end up in a relationship, and she does not. And the start of the story looks like it is leading into a Romance... until it doesn't.
That said, the tag might also disappoint people that Twilight doesn't end up nuzzling at least one of the tagged ponies (though there's certainly ample shipping fuel in there).
Or all of them, judging by some comments on the fic.
And no, I didn't just put this up to re-advertise the story; I really am curious what people thought.
I already advertised the story in my review post today, after all.
You're right that the story is definitely a comedy, and it losing the comedy tag would be... weird.
I'm just not sure if the Romance tag is appropriate or not. Though 4119186 's post certainly seems to lean towards "it isn't supposed to be used that way", even though a number of stories I can think of have used it in precisely the same way I did here.
Though in all fairness, I'm sure they have forgotten about the tagging guidelines as well.
I'm glad you liked it!
4119186
Well, this awesome fic is undoubtedly romance, it's enterily about a character explaining how much she loves another, and yet it doesn't have any actual relationship. If you published that fic without a Romance tag, people, for example, who doesn't like shipping or romance, would be totaly outraged, because it IS romantic.
4119214 One character reflecting on their feelings for another character is still a relationship. Thus it can still be a romance. But in TD's story there is no relationship. Sure there's some ship teasing, but none of the ponies involved actually consider the possibility of a relationship with one another. The topic of romance is considered only at its most theoretical levels.
I voted no. For me, I think, the story isn't actually about romance. Not the emotions of it, not the struggles of it, not the relationship of it. In fact, I thought a really great thing about the story was that the spell didn't actually seek out romance, just love. (Hence the word "agapic" in the spell, rather than "romantic" or "erotic.") I guess I've always thought a critical part of romance was the other side of the equation, even if the love was unrequited. But in this story, the "other side" doesn't exist.
My 2 bits: Being about the search for love an happiness doesn't make it a romance. The story doesn't explore any romantic dynamic between Twilight and anypony else. If Twilight had found somepony, and you'd had her explore the possibility of a relationship from there, then it would be solidly in the direction of romance.
4119059
I voted "yes" becuase not only was Twilight Sparkle looking to find love with her soulmate, she finds both of them. She just didn't realize what she'd found, because the clock's time was off.
This story has little if any of the features people would be looking for when they're looking for a romance story. It has most of the features people would be looking for when looking for a short comedy starring Twilight Sparkle. Thus, it should be tagged as a comedy and not a romance.
If I was into romance and looking for romance and found this story tagged romance, I'd think you were making fun of me.
4119059 Negative. It's not a romance.
Yes, because the entire premise is Twilight seeking romance, which is her understanding of the spell's function. Even if the spell finds all kinds of love (not just eros), that's not what Twilight was seeking. Without the Romance tag, it's just another "Twilight casts a spell she doesn't fully understand, shenanigans ensue" SoL story, which I'd never have read. I'm in this for the shipping (potential or actual), ya know.
Followup: if your goal in this story was to highlight Twilight’s odd ideas about finding love ("there's a spell for that!") then a Romance tag is more appropriate. But if your goal was pointing out that there are more kinds of love than merely romance, then you could leave it off. So is the author dead?
I don't think it should be. The focus is really on the comedic aspect of Twilight's freakout, not any actual romance or chemistry between characters.
4119196 The thing is, the story DOES NOT HAVE any relationship in it at the start, nor does it grow one during the course of the story. Yes, it IMPLIES AJ and RD are Sparklebutt's true loves but at no point are any of those characters actually involved in a relationship beyond their already existing friendships. Nor is there any action in the story to imply that any of them actually intends to go for a relationship beyond their existing friendship. So no, the Romance tag is unneeded.