Forum › Romance Code discussion

Aizawa-san
joined May 25, 2018

Don't Date Robots

last edited at Jul 27, 2024 12:58PM

RadiosAreObsolete
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joined Mar 6, 2021

She deserved that, honestly.
I thought the ending was the best we could hope for in a story with this kind of premise. Their relationship felt uncomfortable from the beginning, since one of them was basically stripped off her free will, but was still a sentient being with arguably real feelings. I'm glad the author attempted to explore the implications of the setup, instead of brushing the problems off and presenting it as normal.

4esenuaj_400x400
joined Sep 16, 2014

She brought this on herself.

I really like the penultimate page in which her memories are being overwritten, who knew code could work as mind control? That gives me some ideas for commissions.

joined May 10, 2021

Holyshit that was so good!
Thanks for the TL!

joined Oct 17, 2016

Guess Im one of the few who enjoyed and liked it. ^^

Image62
joined Feb 28, 2015

cool one shot lame comment section

joined Jul 25, 2022

I feel like this is just School Days with a twisted ending. Tbh, if you could make a robot as realistic as that you may as well brand it as a human make it have nothing to do with you cuz you dont want a programmed dictator to influence your life now do you?

joined Oct 12, 2017

Somehow I both saw that coming and felt myself react viscerally to it at the same time. Trainwreck. XD Great story, though!

Lojsdbe
joined Sep 16, 2019

Well, that was karmic.

Done in by her own creation like a true mad scientist.

done by the author for stupid shock factor at the end, if the author actually had skills to write we will had got a better story but this is just UGH

The hell are you on about? That was built up from page 1. Just because you dislike the story, doesn’t mean it was poorly written.

Honestly I just find the plot fundamentally unbelievable. You're telling me someone who can whip up an intelligent, human-passing synthetic with full sapience couldn't get funding from corps? Techbro investors would be dumping money on her faster than you can say "cheap labor." And that's not even getting into the idea that someone smart enough to make a sapient robot would go "oh you're just a robot, let me edit your mind now that you're obsolete."

Just incredibly contrived for the sake of the "disturbing" ending.

I’m going to disagree on the second part. There are some really stupid intelligent people in the world. All it would take is her being confident enough in her position as the creator, and underestimating just how much the AI has evolved since she created it, to think that her robot wouldn’t harm her if she grew tired of it. People treat other actual humans like crap all the time, why wouldn’t someone do it to a humanlike robot?

Your first complaint makes more sense, although the setting does appear to be a bit more futuristic, so it’s possible that her technology isn’t quite as cutting edge as it would be for us.

last edited at Jul 27, 2024 4:30PM

KatzeDerNacht
08f6612130a20845a480034c0567fbe1d8926209_hq
joined Apr 27, 2014

Hmm, I don't love how easy it was for Kei-san to ditch Marie, robot or not..so the ending is, methinks, befitting! She had it coming!

Images
joined Apr 7, 2021

wow

Itsy Bitsy Spooder
Oh
joined Jan 22, 2024

fuckin hell this took a dark turn

Fzvftbrxoaepy3r%20copy
joined Feb 20, 2022

Loved this SO much I've reread it twice already lol. From the start I was naturally sideeyeing the idea of creating a sentient being just to love you and wondering if it would be handwaved, but of course we slowly see that this was intentional as Kei is revealed to be more selfish and irresponsible. Which is also why she would be foolish enough to discard Marie like that, since she sees her more as a means to an end than a person. The ending is great twisted karmic justice hehehe. And they lived happily ever after, the end. :)

Also on the subject of Kei being dumb enough to tell Marie that her love wasn't real, as she says she wanted to say goodbye, because she does feel sentimental attachment to Marie and their time together in a twisted way. She clearly just wasn't expecting her creation designed to love her to actually be capable of doing violence to her, though she also was going to remotely deactivate her anyway Marie was just faster. We know from early on that Kei is bad with people and it turns out that she's even bad with the person she made lol.

I feel like I didn't read the same comic as some of the people commenting here??

The reason her work is not accepted is outlined in the very first page. Kei is extremely uncharismatic and her work has huge ethical concerns. The latter part is what this entire comic is about. Granted her presentation didn't necessarily involve the romance code, but sentient customizable AI is pretty inherently rough territory.
She gives a breakup speech to a mere robot because she is human and did see Marie as a lover on some level. She questions herself after the fact why she didn't just cut that step out. It's not like the author just forgot she could do that.
I also really don't feel like the comic "suddenly got dark". The setup should be very unnerving if you think about it for even a second. The twist seemed pretty inevitable and like an appropriate exploration of the dynamic to me.

You’re absolutely right. But the visuals of that opening sequence immediately position the MC to arouse the sympathy of the reader—she’s young, wide-eyed, and under duress, while the people she’s talking to, at first unseen, are revealed to be a group of literally faceless bureaucrats who won’t even let her finish speaking. And the ethics concerns are not even first on the list of their objections.

So I agree that the setup should be unsettling if you think about its implications, but the way it’s presented seems to be designed for us to not think about that very much as we focus on learning who this MC is and what she’s about.

From what I know of this author’s other works, I suspect that discrepancy is intentionally part of the story’s narrative dynamic rather than an accidental double message. But it’s only a feeling of mine.

Yeah I think you're meant to see Kei as sympathetic at first but then slowly doubt that first impression as it goes on, until you then go back to read the first page again and are like "oh wait she isn't just awkward but well-meaning, she's actually a pretty horrible person" lol

AngelsDoNotCry
Goat-removebg-preview%20(1)%20(2)
joined May 30, 2022

Really dark ending but I'm also on the "she deserved it" wagon. Went too far with her inventions without thinking about the consequences that come with it.

Midnightgunner
Gt00pn-odpc
joined Sep 30, 2017

Finally. One where the cheater gets fucking! Wonderful!

last edited at Jul 27, 2024 7:04PM

joined Aug 11, 2022

99% total deserved ending...Should have monitor her robot's coding and expressions more and not do stupid sh*t...

The socially awkward (She stutters a lot during her presentation) robot scientist is also a horrible person in the end it seems...Went from loving a robot and being support by her creation to at the end thinking of the love of her creation as fake toy....B*tch...if you created a 99% realistic humanoid robot AI that can think and learn, adapt in ways that you cannot predict (Learn on it own)...That robot is not fake or it's love is fake...

It funny how these robot scientist probably never watch and learn from old robot AI movies like Terminator or M3GAN, and all the other AI movies...

If I was the scientist and I found a human lover then time to modified my robot lover's code to allow and be okay with a polyamorous relationship [Morals of how wrong that is aside] lol...I mean she already input/install a weird [Romance code]- a self-learning code that make the robot learn and feel emotions involved in love (Should have put a if jealous emotion==detected then {delete emotion in jealously section emotion line of code too....) so she can feel love and not be lonely anymore...

Months of emotional neglect while the Scientist is off working and flirting with other women....

99% deserved for being a jerk and stupid (Should have told Robot how much her love and support helped her before quietly terminating her during a check up....Like putting down a old sick pet dog in it's sleep after playing with it one last time...It would been a fked up thing to do but at least Robot-chan would have died happy thinking her creator/Lover really did love her at the end before her Mind/program is deleted instead of the stupid fking choice of telling the robot that she is fake being and that her/it's love is fake...High INT stat but very low WISDOM and Charisma stat lol XD)

I guess I can see some point and issue with the pacing story from the earlier comments some people posted...but eh it's a one-shot story and there are tons of stories that has pacing issues or story-line direction that people might find weird or unbelievable I guess?

Sad thing is....sometimes Reality/Real life is way weird and nonsensical compared to stories lol...The things and laws in IRL sometimes make no sense at all if you think logically and rationally...

last edited at Jul 27, 2024 8:49PM

joined Oct 1, 2022

I really liked this xD

1532187299570
joined Dec 21, 2016

She went from socially inept nerd to normie right after landing a job. She was stealing valour from us working nerds who continue to be socially inept. Totally deserved.

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joined May 8, 2017

I'm glad the author attempted to explore the implications of the setup, instead of brushing the problems off and presenting it as normal.

You're right, that's why I enjoyed it so much. I expected the author to maybe finish with the adultery. It just kept going and going and going. I fucking loved it.

Takasaki Reika
Untitled315
joined Mar 30, 2021

That was interesting

Utenaanthy01
joined Aug 4, 2018

Should have implemented Asimov's 3 laws of robotics.

You now, this the first thing I thought when Marie started turning yanyan.

"Surely, her creator has included safeguards in the code, right? Something in line with the Do No Harm To Your Owner principle? Something to make her incapable of attacking her loved one? Surely there are protective measures affixed to Marie's core programming that will overrule her volition and block her actions if she attempts violence? Surely? Surely?"

Well, bless my soul, nope! The lady never thought of that. And don't call her Shirley.

I guess it's just the inescapable fate of all Victor Frankenstein wannabes to be done in by their own creation... >_<

Froggrill
joined Jan 25, 2021

everyone questioning keis actions/personality/lack of moral compass has clearly never talked to or had to work with silicon valley techbros. this is probably the most realistic work on the site tbh

5688-1340606550
joined May 11, 2013

A bit hamfisted in the execution but I love the premise. What's scarier than knowing the person you're supposed to trust the most can just revoke your personhood and agency on a personal whim at any moment? Peak horror. I think it would've been better if Marie had been a little more self-aware of the power gap in their relationship, but I'm willing to believe this "Romance Code" could override those kinds of thoughts to an extent.

cakeEnthusiast
Capture
joined Mar 2, 2019

I had a feeling she was going off her but I thought that was going to be the end of it. I enjoyed it, not everyday you get a story like this.

Tumblr_p5pa4n7ag21tandono1_400
joined Feb 21, 2019

RIP Bozo

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