1) I'm not the sole arbiter of who is romanced, it's very true. The leads on the project, however, are well aware that there's some demand to romance anyone. If they overruled me based purely on the fact that some folks might want to have a romance with a particular character, we'd have to romance everyone.
And this makes me think of the time Mr. Gaider talked about a conversation in the writers pit, about how he didn't want boys romancing/touching this character because PROTECTIVE feels and 'boys are nasty', and then one of the other writers chimed in with 'now you know how fathers feel about their daughters dating'.
I can't quite remember the context, though. I think he was talking about how that gave him a bit of a new perspective... either that, or it was all light hearted. Or both. Either way, made me think of it!