#amm list: aro negative

[aggressivelyarospec]

Aro-Negative

Isaacinspace submitted:

“Good Omens” season two torpedoes the QPR two major characters had going and makes it explicitly romantic. Very disappointing, as originally I read the book and saw the first season because of this QPR rep. The book is worth reading, but skip the tv show if you can’t resist the temptation to watch season two. I used to think the first season was a beautiful adaptation, but after season two now get triggered into deep sadness even seeing the “Good Omens” poster. Neil Gaiman declared that Aziraphael and Crowley’s “identities can be interpreted as asexual, romantic, or even transcendent of traditional gender norms.” Season two is basically only here to say ‘just kidding, Aziraphael and Crowley are obviously in romantic love amatanormativity forever haha’

Additional Information: TV-MA | Comedy, Fantasy Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (1910) as an aro unfriendly book.

I’m not very familiar with the various adaptations over the years, so I can’t speak much on the aro-friendliness of those. But the main story is about romance - sometimes romanticized, sometimes properly shown as toxic and unhealthy, and often a mix of both of these. So if romance stories and/or toxic relationship stories aren’t for you, then you likely won’t enjoy any version of this story.

As for the original 1910 book, which I am specifically warning for…

(Mild spoilers below!)

The lead female character Christine declares towards the start of the book that she doesn’t want to marry, nor will she ever marry. Only for it to be revealed later that she was lying when she said this. The only reason she said it, was because she was being blackmailed and was not allowed to marry. She does fall in love, and desire to marry, and end up marrying at the end.

(That said, her quote is still badass: “I am mistress of my own actions, M. de Chagny: you have no right to control them, and I will beg you to desist henceforth. As to what I have done during the last fortnight, there is only one man in the world who has the right to demand an account of me: my husband! Well, I have no husband and I never mean to marry!”)

The book also contains a love interest that spies on Christine without her knowing, and is violently jealous of what he perceives as competition for her affections. He refuses to believe her when she says that he misunderstands the situation, and refuses to back down despite her asking him to. He acts extremely entitled to her, just because they were childhood friends and because he now romantically loves her. He does this all in the name of “protecting” and “loving” her, and these actions are never called out. He’s shown as the healthier option (and indeed the other option is worse, but the story does condemn the other’s actions and entitlement, while not doing so for this love interest) To make things worse, his hatred of the other love interest turns out to be warranted, as the other love interest is dangerous, but his hatred only came from petty jealousy and not any actual knowledge of the dangers the other man posed to Christine.

Christine ends up in a requited romantic relationship with the less-toxic love interest at the end of the story, despite him never apologizing or making up for his toxic thoughts and actions.

The book is good in its own right and has many good things about it (For example, Christine is an excellent example of a well-written damsel in distress) but these elements are major negatives to it, and make the story quite aro-unfriendly.

Additional Information: Fiction, Horror, Romance Trailer: N/A

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[aggressivelyarospec]

dontthinkwedontnoticeyou submitted:

[For Aro Movies Monday]

Peter Pan (2003) is aro-negative. It’s full of tension and unspoken suggestions between Peter and Wendy, glaring and pining, and what not. Even though at one point Hook directly says that Peter cannot love and that’s a part of the riddle of his being (which is, well, true for the concept of Peter Pan, I feel), he then describes him as incomplete. And Peter himself says he does not know love and the mere sound of that word offends him (which, in a different movie, would be a cool thing to say for an Aro), but the overall vibe of this movie presents his attitude is faulty. Aaaaand of course Peter and Wendy kissed eventually and it literally blew Peter’s mind.

All in all, waste of time and obsolete CGI. Jeremy Sumpter as Peter Pan did his best, but the whole thing was soooo poorly written…

Additional Information: PG | Adventure, Family, Fantasy Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

Aro-Negative film

Isaacinspace submitted:

“When Harry Met Sally” (1989) is definitely aro-negative in that the message of it is ‘it is impossible for men and women to be friends because it will always turn romantic.’

Additional Information: R | Comedy, Drama, Romance Trailer:   

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[aggressivelyarospec]

The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid is an aro UNsafe book. It features the main character “proving” her humanity and deserving of respect via falling in romantic love

Additional Information: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dystopia Trailer: N/A

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[aggressivelyarospec]

[@anarchylurker: The Society (2019, tv show) - have to say aro negative, as much as I personally enjoy most of it. It's YA, so a lot is focused on relationships in general, but what made me feel icky in the aro vein was the "breakdown" one character has in e3 about not having anyone to be with...]

Additional Information: TV-MA | Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

Free Guy (2021)

@kyanitedragon submitted:

Free Guy (2021) admittedly falls into both aro-friendly and aro-negative categories, and so your mileage will vary, although as a whole I think it has enough good things about it to lean more aro-friendly.

The "humanity is proven by romantic love" trope may technically apply to this movie, but its neither the main theme of the movie nor even the main prerequisite of proving the humanity of the non-human character. That character feeling romantic love is actually something that's discovered AFTER they have already been considered to be a sentient being. It becomes the main focus of the story since its a romance, but its never treated as anything that proves his sentience.

There's also lines that mention the idea that people are inherently lonely unless they have a romantic partner. This is again never a main theme (and gets lowkey subverted in the end) but it IS brought up a few times in the movie by the characters about themselves.

And unfortunetly there's a lot of virgin jokes about it being a bad and sad thing to be a virgin.

The movie IS a romance, but its slow burn and is quite well-written and with a lot of respect given to the female characters.

There's also a scene where a female character who is pressured to be in relationships questions if she should even date men, and she is encouraged that she shouldn't need to, and so she immediately decides that she won't force herself into relationships any longer.

There's also an endearing male / male friendship, which includes one man telling another man that he platonically loves him, and this stays true to the very end.

I don't want to spoil how, but the movie actually ends in a romance while also subverting the "you need romance to not have a lonely / meaningless life" trope with a friendship, while also giving platonic relationships just as much worth as romantic ones.

And as some who is kiss-repulsed, I appreciate how the movie ends right on a cut, so that you know that the two characters kissed as their final scene but don't actually see the kiss itself. Most other movies would take the opportunity to show a long and drawn-out romantic kiss.

(Also, as an aegoromantic who crushes on fictional characters, I liked that aspect of the movie :) even if it was from a very alloromantic point of view)

In summary, if you're sensitive to amatonormative and aromisiac tropes, then you're probably better off skipping this movie. But if you can look past those lines, then you might really enjoy the movie for the platonic relationships.

If you're heavily romance repulsed or quite tired of romance, then you'll probably want to skip it since it is mainly a romance movie. But if you're romance-favorable or willing to give a well-written slow burn respectful m/f romance a shot, then you might enjoy it.

As for the plot, I feel like its kind of a combination of the movies Ready Player One and Wreck-It Ralph. It's a bit predictable, but I still enjoyed it a lot. And if you're a gamer, you'll probably like and appreciate the little references and jokes about video games.

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Additional Information: PG-13 | Action, Adventure, Comedy Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

For the aro movies Monday, I want to add Single All the Way released in 2021 by Netflix.

The whole film is aro negative (despite their title (or just my English is bad, who knows)) because it just pushed the whole idea of needing a partner to be happy, especially during Christmas. The whole plot is about getting a boyfriend for the protagonist and show love by making grand gestures.

I liked the film, despite the entire plot being, let's get the main character a boyfriend because it's an LGBT film. Plus, the main characters had such a deep connection with his best friend/roommate that I read as qpr at first.

I hope I did this correctly is the first time I did it

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Additional Information: PG | Comedy, Drama, Romance Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

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Additional Information: C | Comedy, Drama, Romance   Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

Aro-negative: the fantastic fiction Netflix original series just released (2020) Shadow and Bones.

Now, I don't know how much of the books are on the series but on the source material the main character says a lot of arophobic shit again and again, also a whole lot of female rivalry because of love interest, girlie legit learn she has powers but is too busy hating on the chick who's standing close to her crush.

The visuals of the series are great but I can't bring myself to even look at it. Would love if someone who watched it could say if it's still aro-negative but I couldn't just not warn other people about it. It was an extremely uncomfortable read, not because the book itself was bad, but even from the point of view of an aromantic who enjoys romance a lot it everything about it was hard to go through because I'm aro.

================================= Additional Information: 2021 | Action, Adventure, Drama Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

================================= Additional Information: TV-MA | Drama, Romance Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

In my opinion, Yesterday (2019) is aro-negative. A lot of the plot is centered around romance between the main character and his love interest. Much of the conflict is related to romantic attraction, jealousy, and misunderstandings. (Spoiler!) at the end of the film, he declares that he’s giving up his current career and then immediately does a public confession of his love for Ellie.

It’s another one of those movies that makes conflict between a romantic relationship and career success. Also, when the characters think that romance between them won’t happen, their friendship is extremely awkward and kind of falls apart. 2/5 for aro-friendliness.

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Additional Information: B | Comedy, Fantasy, Music  Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

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Additional Information: PG-13 | Drama, Fantasy, Romance   Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

Ponyo (2008)

@ottiwottiamy submitted:

Name: Ponyo Release year: 2008 Does it contain romance? How important is it to the story?: There isn’t really romance involved, but sadly still a heavy emphasis on “True Love” and many incidents of characters saying the two protagonists are “made for each other” and will be “a wonderful couple” - which can be especially jarring considering both are at most four years old and have also known each other for less than a week.

How many stars do you rate it with from 1 to 5?: 1 Commentary: Visually and musically it is another stunning Ghibli movie, but storywise it is obvious it is mostly targeted at very little kids and therefore maybe not the best for older audiences.

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Additional Information: G | Animation, Adventure, Comedy  Trailer: 

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[aggressivelyarospec]

AAM - The Old Guard (2020)

@punxbarton submitted

Movie title: The Old Guard Release Year: 2020 Romantic content: There’s a little romantic content but it’s an established relationship and doesn’t play a big role in the movie. Rating: 3/5 Commentary: If it makes any sense at all, I would classify The Old Guard as both aro-friendly and aro-negative? The storyline isn’t focused on romance AT ALL, which is quite nice. It’s very action-driven with nice character interactions and very independent female leads. So, overall, pretty aro-friendly. However, there is ONE scene that just… left a really bad taste in my mouth. Without spoiling too much, one character basically implies that life isn’t worth living if you don’t have a romantic partner. And the character says that in front of close friends who share their life. It’s only one scene in the whole movie, but it is one very aro-negative one, and I thought I might as well use this event to warn others about it, because it surprised me a lot when I watched the movie. If you can get over that, it’s a good movie though. The hype around it on Tumblr made me expect a little bit more and I do feel like a lot of things are left undeveloped and go too fast, but I had a nice time watching it, except for the one scene.

Content warning for quite a lot of violence, deaths, blood,…

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Additional Information: R | Action, Adventure, Fantasy Trailer:

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[aggressivelyarospec]

And because it's been awhile since you've had an aro negative film, I'm submitting Night at the Museum 2 as aro negative. While it's actually my favorite film in the series due to how silly and creative it gets, it has this frustrating running gag where every time the two lead characters are in the same scene together, people will comment on what a cute romantic couple they are (despite them only knowing each other for less than a day). Like people can't be friends w/o it also being a romance :/

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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Additional Information: 2009 | PG | Adventure, Comedy, Family  Trailer:

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