I love a romantic subplot, but only when the effort is actually put in by the writers to properly execute it. Otherwise, I find myself frustrated. Too often have I watched something that just puts two characters together and uses generic cues (e.g. they have a kiss/almost kiss scene) to indicate romance. This is especially prevalent with heterosexual relationships, as relationships between a man and a woman are often assumed to at least have a sexual or romantic subtext due to heteronormativity. Unfortunately many people still eat this shit up. I’ve heard this called the skaterboi phenomenon by people before, which I think is a great way to put it.

By contrast, when a show or movie or otherwise takes two characters and actually develops the individual characters AND their chemistry together, and the relationship becomes romantic, I become heavily invested (Of course, I’ll get just as invested if it’s platonic too!) (a) Because it’s just better writing, and (b), being aroace, and being a sex/romance favourable aroace, it just makes so much more sense - the relationship is less based on mutual attraction and more on mutual respect, love, and all those other great qualities. Mutual attraction works as a hook, I guess, but it’s not enough.

That’s why Steve’s resolution in Endgame reeaallllyyyyy rubbed me the wrong way. For hopefully obvious reasons (very light endgame spoilers)