Let's do something stupid.

[D-Rider]

With Valentine's Day all but over, I hereby bring Romance Novel Cover Avatar Lovefest 2009 to a close.  A big fat round of "fuck you" to all the snobs who didn't participate.  A tip of the hat to everyone who did; you're all winners in my book.

Of course, some people are more of a winner than others.  As such, it's time to announce the name of the person with the best avatar.  I judged all participants harshly yet fairly, and when all was said and done there was but one person who deserved the title of "best".  And that person is:





















Me.

[Dincrest]

Armpit girl and I regret nothing!  (and thankfully she's just a picture, so she can't put a scimitar to my throat and say, "Quit calling me Armpit Girl!  I have a name, bub!  It's Isa!")

I had fun, almost won, wrote a theme song, ditched a bro for a bra, disqualified myself due to drunken dimwittery, and didn't learn a darn thing.  Best Valentine's Day ever!

[kyuusei]

Gee, and I thought staff members were ineligible for the contest:P 

Oh good thing. I thought about participating for about five minutes (I was gonna do something stupid like use the nauseating main characters from Twilight), but opted for a high rapper instead of cheesy romance. :P

[Sketch]

Me.

I blame Neal. =P

[Dincrest]

On a sidenote about romance and everything, when did modern romance become so... limp, like an old doily?  A lot of male leads in romances are so lame, like they're completely castrated.  They don't say and do things that men would actually say/do or want to say/do.  I think the evidence of this romance novel avatar thread featuring buff yet very effeminate men speaks volumes.

What happened to epic sagas like Gone with the Wind or just classic awesome like Casablanca?  In those movies the leading men were men.  Clark Gable as Rhett was the epitome of a man's man and Rhett's dialogue to Scarlet at the end was something that not only made the ladies flutter but didn't make the guys gag; quite the opposite actually.  Rhett said and did what an uncastrated manly-man would say and do.  And with Casablanca, you hardly get more man's man than Bogart.  Even that famous scene at the end and his classic line, it makes the ladies flutter and the guys go, "man that was so cool."  I don't see guys saying "man that was so cool" at the end of modern romances the way they would for Gable and Bogey in the aforementioned examples. 

Once upon a time, masculinity was desirable, even necessary, in great love stories.  Nowadays, that doesn't seem to hold very true. 

[Ashtrot]

I demand a recount.

[Leo]

I was going to say the exact same thing: Recount please. I got a vote from Dincrest!

*was looking forward to his man love themed member bar as well*