Today I want to follow on from a post I made earlier in the week about Bioware's legendary romance subquests that proliferate in their RPGs.
One thing I've noticed about romances in fantasy/science fiction is that we always have a human protagonist getting hitched with a non-human romantic interest. By way of exampl, we have Aragorn and Arwen (Lord of the Rings), Keiichii and Belldandy (Oh My Goddess) Parn and Deedlit (Record of Lodoss War), Sheridan and Delenn (Babylon 5) and Bella Swan having to contend with the attentions of a vampire and a werewolf (not to mention hundreds of jealous fangirls).
And with Bioware it's no different: In Baldur's Gate 2, the male player character has a choice of three elvish ladies whilst Gauss reigns supreme as the most popular option for female player characters in Mass Effect.
I have often found this act of having a human character love a non-human character quite unappealing. Sure it has been done so often that the idea becomes tiresome (and for some reason the Twilight novels spring to mind) but there is always the notion of: What is wrong with your own species?
I guess it's example of escapism at work but it doesn't really say a lot about the race you're born into when the best option is someone outside of it. Or maybe escapism wouldn't be escapism if the humans weren't all complete jerks.
You see, I know some humans and they're not all that bad. Really!
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