Legends Of Tomorrow: Please, No More Romantic Subplots

Legends of Tomorrow’s forays into romance have only proven to slow down its fast-paced, humorous narrative.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow‘s “Turncoat” episode was turning out to be one of the series’ strongest episodes—until the writers decided to awkwardly insert a budding romance between Nate Heywood and Amaya Jiwe.

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Look, I get it. The writers want to explore “cabin fever” with a bunch of misfits on a timeship who have no real contact with the outside world other than each other. But there are much more eloquent ways of doing so—and much better topics to dwell on.

In “Turncoat,” the romance between Nate and Amaya was hinted during the first few scenes: the two making breakfast, with Nate getting a spot of flour on his nose, and Maya wiping it off for him.

A quick timequake is all that’s needed to throw Amaya—who’s always nimble and agile except for this instance—into the arms of Nate. The two share a moment, staring into each others’ eyes (and I was already rolling my eyes at this point), before Ray interrupts them with some emergency information.

As the two head out on their mission to track General George Washington, they’re attacked by Hessian soldiers. Nate, fighting one of them, is thrown into the freezing river below. Amaya, calling on the abilities of a seal, dives in after him and pulls him to safety.

The two then happen upon the abandoned camp of the Hessian (whose tent interior looks like some spa retreat), and Nate starts to exhibit signs of extreme hypothermia. It isn’t long before Amaya comes up with the solution of using her body to warm his. And yes, it involves both of them getting naked—how convenient.

When Nate finally recovers, he starts his smooth courtship. He uses the “when in Rome” type of line to get Amaya to kiss him. Strangely, she agrees. At this point, I thought Nate was still suffering from the effects of hypothermia—hallucinating his desires.

The two are later seen in bed together, forgetting how much time has passed, and finally remembering that they’re on a mission. When they do remember, one of them has to be forced to get out of bed. Yes, this happened. And it was the most awkward and strangely scripted scenes in, perhaps, the entire series to-date.

First, how can you forget about your mission? Especially one that involves saving the founding father of the United States? Second, when you do remember it, do you need that much convincing to get back to the task at hand? This romance was completely forced and came out of nowhere.

Legends of Tomorrow‘s strong points have always been the humorous dynamics between clashing personalities and ridiculous suspension-of-disbelief action sequences. The show suffers the most when the writers try to become Cupid. Remember the Season 1 subplot involving Ray Palmer and Kendra Saunders? It was one of the most annoying and awkward storylines across all of The CW’s DC television universe.

Please, Legends of Tomorrow, I implore you to stop with your romance experiments. It serves to only slow the show down and destroy the characters’ integrity. If you can’t resist creating a romantic subplot, make it as organic as possible with better, subtle development across a series of episodes. And throw some humor into it.

A Mick and Amaya pair-up would’ve been better. Heck, you had Amaya encouraging Mick to embrace his inner animal in “Outlaw Country.” That would’ve been a better launching pad, especially given the fact that she was about to kill him when she erroneously thought he murdered Rex Tyler (“Shogun“).

However, I suggest that going forward, the show ends any avenues that will lead to romance. There’s just no need for it. There are much more compelling topics for a band of time-travelers. Don’t become a cliche and ruin an entertaining series that thrives on big ideas and wacky characters with an equally wacky, but great chemistry.

Next: Catch up with a recap of 'Turncoat'

Also, on theStream.tv, our friends will be doing Legends of Tomorrow After Shows. The excitement continues on Fridays as theStream.tv also gives fans a weekly round-up of The CW’s superhero universe—Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow, and DC’s Legends of Tomorrow—with their DC TV Universe special.

DC’s Legends of Tomorrow airs on The CW on Tuesdays at 9:00 p.m. EST.

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