Sheesh, people have been traumatized by this development so much before that they forget that it can absolutely have merits. A new character, heck even a rival character, can bring in something that is needed to move the plot/relationship along. Often only being confronted with a third party really gets the main characters to realize their true feelings.
As always with any narrative device, the execution is all that matters.
It's lazy writing,instead of the main characters resolving their own issues and moving forward in the plot a new character gets conveniently introduced to move the plot forwards for them
It's not inherently lazy. Any plot device used to move forward could be called lazy then. If a pair is not immediately aware of their feelings they will always need a trigger to get there. If a new character can actually add layers to the main characters through their past or through a new dynamic that brings out different aspects in them, then that's far from a bad thing. The important thing is that it shouldn't feel like a detour, but that it would not have moved any faster without them.
Now, introducing them as new fuel that comes out of nowhere certainly lessens the believability, rather than having them be introduced over a long time without any direct interference until needed (basically Izumi's role right now).... but that's also going to be critisized. People are never satisfied. Anything that could potentially threaten or interfere with the direct romantic entanglement of the main pairing is shunned to death. It's kind of sad.
last edited at Mar 4, 2019 7:13AM