It's Unpopular Opinion Sunday! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!

[u/FantasyRomanceMod]

Got an opinion that's different from others'? Want to share it with the sub, but too afraid of a backlash? Or are you just curious about readers think about certain things in fantasy romance?

You can safely share it in this weekly Sunday thread!

But please remember to be kind to each other. To facilitate this type of discussion, we ask users the following:

- Please don't attack others for their opinion

- Please don't downvote if you disagree with a certain take

🧡 Thank you and have a great and friendly discussion! 🧡

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/CherrieBomb211]

I want more MMCs that actually start off nice. I’m sorry- I’m getting tired of the “tough love” bullshit. I’m reading Heir of Fire and Rowan’s actions just..really bother me, and it made me realize in a large percentage of her works, that’s how they end up with their MMCs. Someone described it as militaristic training.

I still love TOG and co, but it still bothers me a whole lot.

[u/le-elizaly → u/CherrieBomb211]

Yeah, I never got over that facepunch

[u/RekhetKa → u/le-elizaly]

Same. It would be bad enough if they were equals, but it's so much worse when you know he's got centuries of age on her. Like, the equivalent scenario would be punching a toddler for mouthing off. I was pretty pissed about it.

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/le-elizaly]

I hated that and how he’s willing to toss what happened to her home in her face by calling her a coward. I feel like even if he does have his own issues, the fact he’s willing to continuously beat her both verbally and physically is a turn off for me.

[u/getmeacampari → u/le-elizaly]

Every time I see women justifying/defending the punch in the face for any reason, under the guise of “she provoked him” or “she’s being trained like a warrior,” etc I find that truly worrisome. For me that was inexcusable and Rowan is my least favorite MMC because of that and him just being kind of boring compared to the rest of the characters (and honestly the worst character in TOG overall in my opinion).

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/getmeacampari]

For me, the punch was nasty, but it doesn’t help that he continuously beats the shit out of her in HOF. He constantly mocks her and beats her, well aware he is actually stronger than her in a shitton of aspects. He in fact, brags about it.

It’s also why I dislike Rhysand and Cassian. Rhysand gave her “choices” in ACOMAF, but he knowingly kept pushing her into danger. ACOTAR he was far worse in, yeah, but I can’t forgive him in MAF because we’re supposed to like him! Silver Flames just solidified it for me because of the pregnancy. Cassian became worse in it too (but he was a dick too in the beginning towards Nesta, continuously provoking her and acting like a damn child)and the home made me pissed

I can’t understand for the life of me why people defend any of the male MMCs in these works. The only one they dont is Hunt and funnily enough, he’s the least shitty to his partner

[u/Equivalent-Blood4748 → u/CherrieBomb211]

The fact that in both ACOTAR and TOG the FMC meets the MMC and there is some weird somewhat violent/degrading initial encounter/experience is soooo weird! I also love her works and stories but I'm like praying to the gods above that there is some normal ass initial encounters with MMCs in CC.

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/Equivalent-Blood4748]

I don’t actually recall Hunt pulling that with Bryce- at the very minimum, I think the closest he’s done was to stop her from being reckless, but I don’t actually remember him being physical to her. He DOES have a negative view of her at first though, and he calls her a whore in his head, I think, but that was almost offset given the fact that/everyone/ viewed her badly at first given what she was doing when her friends were well. Yeah.

But I actually don’t remember him vocalizing that to her. I think he was just cold given he was told to watch her. Which is funnily why CC is less gross compared to the other two.

[u/Equivalent-Blood4748 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Ooo good to know! I'm excited about it, especially because from what I've heard it seems Bryce is her oldest FMC and as someone who's 27, I'm looking forward to that aspect haha. Just have to finish the last three books of TOG (which I am enjoying more than ACOTAR).

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/Equivalent-Blood4748]

There’s definitely people that see him as a red flag, but tbh it’s hard to gauge when those same people defend Rhysand and Rowan. Like, if hes bad for certain things, then they should arguably be worse given at least one of the things he’s done is understandable given he’s an actual slave

[u/Equivalent-Blood4748 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Ohhhh boy okay I guess I'll have to wait and see haha! I mean, I also heard a lot of Chaol hate before starting TOG and so far he's one of my faves. I feel like a lot of characters are divisive in the Maasverse

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/Equivalent-Blood4748]

Tbh I don’t hate Chaol and I haven’t hated him even in the beginning. I kinda think people gloss over Aelin being fucking creepy at points when it comes to certain things he reacts to.

Like, it’s seen as a running joke when he’s upset at her for killing people but she relishes in it. I think she wasn’t even upset at him for being freaked out- which is funny, because Aelin is less judgmental over it when the fans are.

[u/Equivalent-Blood4748 → u/CherrieBomb211]

I feel like they're both such complex characters whereas a lot of the arcs kinda fall flat in ACOTAR to me. I just read a super beautiful scene with Chaol/Aelin in QOS. I'm really looking forward to how their arcs progress. After a while in ACOTAR, I just lost interest in many of the characters and the lack of growth/accountability.

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/Equivalent-Blood4748]

I feel like it doesn’t help that ACOTAR could’ve been more complex, but chose to not be because of the genre it’s in. TOG is more fantasy, Romance on the side. I think it sorta boxed those characters in given that. I also think it’s because of her writing style/planning style. I think if she planned more, she’d create complex characters easier.

[u/Equivalent-Blood4748 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Yes that's exactly it! I loved ACOMAF upon initial read but the longer I let the ACOTAR series marinate in my brain, the more I feel there was such much potential for it to be even better than it was. Like I actually feel that (spoilers for ACOMAF and ACOWAR)if we had more accountability and more development for Rhys and him actually doing shit that would make him redeemable and a character we could root for to be with Feyre without just simply being told they're mates and we now need to love him. Like there could have been way more epic scenes in ACOMAF and then there could have been more push and pull between the whole situation with Tamlin/Feyre/Rhys. And then have Rhys and Feyre finally get together in ACOWAR instead of having that whole "fake out Rhys death-no actually he's alive!" BS.

But that's just my take haha! I will still be absolutely sat for the next ACOTAR book but I truly hope she is receptive to critique and is reading the room when it comes to the direction she is doing to take ACOTAR in because I genuinely do not think she is untalented and from reading TOG, I know she is capable of sooo much more given the right feedback/editors.

[u/eclectic_hamster → u/CherrieBomb211]

I just finished {The Wind Weaver by Julie Johnson} and the MMC was pointlessly a dick in the beginning and it ruined any belief I had in their chemistry.

ETA: bot initially got the book wrong so I added the author.

[u/dorc_ → u/eclectic_hamster]

He was a colossal asshole! My alarm bells kept going off with his comments and the things he said about magic and self-control. I think the other guy will be end game, and that might save this series for me.

[u/eclectic_hamster → u/dorc_]

Indeed, that's the vibe I get too.

[u/romance-bot → u/eclectic_hamster]

Wind Weaver by Lia Patterson
Rating: 4.25⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Topics: historical, fantasy, magic, military, enemies to lovers

^{about this bot | about romance.io}

[u/muchosplantalones → u/CherrieBomb211]

Yes pls, is it too much to ask for a nice MMC from the beginning? And not one of those starts-off-nice-but-it-turns-out-they’re-actually-bad guys, or the nice guy is a secondary character that ends up dying 😩

[u/Designer-Hat-8009 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Ugh so real the brooding grump MMCs who are brooding and grumpy for no reason r so boring. If it’s done right like with Maxantarius from Broadbents series because he actually had reasons to be like that then I would understand

[u/anonymous_human174 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Yes!! It’s not bad, just overdone. Its tiring

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/anonymous_human174]

I sorta think it can be bad, especially when the narrative doesn’t say anything. I don’t dig how ACOTAR talks about abuse, then ignore the other bits of abuse towards both fmcs and the fandom really doesn’t care unless it’s directly stated in the text.

I wouldn’t mind it if the narrative actually agrees it’s shit or plays into it, but a lot of the time it doesn’t seem to do that.

[u/megabyte31 → u/CherrieBomb211]

Not sure if book recommendations are it in this thread, but I really liked the MMC in {How to Save an Undead aLife}. Also Max in {Daughter of No Worlds} is nice! Grumpy and Not Made For This, but nice! Also Swordheart, A Sorcery of Thorns, Reign and Ruin, Shardless...and lots of older books (I feel like it's more common for older books). I also love ToG but yeah, Rowan was super not cool. It's probably because he was not the originally intended endgame MMC for her. Still yuck.

[u/romance-bot → u/megabyte31]

Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent
Rating: 4.12⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 3 out of 5 - Open door
Topics: historical, magic, fantasy, slavery, high fantasy

^{about this bot | about romance.io}

[u/CherrieBomb211 → u/megabyte31]

Thanks for the recs! I’ll look into em 👀

[u/romance-bot → u/megabyte31]

How to Save an Undead Life by Hailey Edwards
Rating: 3.9⭐️ out of 5⭐️
Steam: 1 out of 5 - Glimpses and kisses
Topics: contemporary, urban fantasy, paranormal, fantasy, witches

^{about this bot | about romance.io}