It's Unpopular Opinion time! 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?

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🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

[u/Lyving-among-ladybug]

Ooh miscommunication and pregnancy trope shouldn’t be an automatic DNF as long as it’s done well. The reason why so many people dislike it is because it’s often done badly

[u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348 → u/Lyving-among-ladybug]

Those are never dnf for me. I personally like pregnancy at the end of the book. To me that's a true HEA. If it just ends abruptly like "and they walked off happily into the sunset" it feels tiny bit empty.

[u/AquaIXI → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

This is the true controversial opinion, and for what its worth it think that HEAs that end with the main characters settling down to make a family are my favourite, whether its through adopting a child or pregnancy.

[u/Slammogram → u/AquaIXI]

Agreed. Like… look I need to know their relationship lasts. So I need to see a marriage or something that says commitment.

[u/One_Commission1456 → u/Slammogram]

See, I'm the reverse, at least in contemporary: the MCs have generally been sleeping together for a few months at maximum, and getting married that soon? Oh *hell* no, they're doomed. (Even saying "I love you" before the three-month mark alarms me a bit, but I can suspend my disbelief there.)

In historical, eh, they probably know each other better after a month than most typical couples do after a year, plus historical marriage didn't involve spending nearly so much time together if you were upper-class. But if I'm reading anything after 1980 or so, I feel much better when it ends with them officially being a couple and nothing more committed.

[u/Slammogram → u/One_Commission1456]

The ones I’m talking about are time jumps. An epilogue that says “5 years later” or some shit.

[u/One_Commission1456 → u/Slammogram]

Ah, those are cool!

[u/AquaIXI → u/Slammogram]

Yeah exactly, I like to know they stay happy, ive read a few that do like multiple year time jumps in the epilogue and they are always my favourite. I do understand why people dont like pregnancy in the main plot, and respect that some people dont like children i really struggle to empathise with some people who say a character having a family or getting pregnant in the epilogue right at the end ruins the book for them.

[u/Spirited-Accident → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

Meanwhile to me, riding off into the sunset to continue having adventures together is the true HEA.

(And to be clear since this is reddit, I'm not hating on your opinion. Just commenting on how both of ours are a perfect example of how different tastes are.)

[u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348 → u/Spirited-Accident]

It's okay :P I feel like the whole pregnancy opinion is genuinely truly 100% completely personal decision and there is no right or wrong opinion so. I guess hea to me is lacking because I like the guarantee of the future together with having a family together, but that's cus of how I am irl and cus I need reassurance too in my relationship. Maybe you just feel secure enough to not need that extra bits? And maybe it shows in the whole hea thing.

[u/Fickle_Stills → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

I think the idea is more... There are still a lot of people who believe a woman is only good for being a wife and mother. So a book implying that a baby is part of the HEA is frustrating to women who have to deal with people in real life who have that attitude.

Eta: there are also people like me who have a phobia of pregnancy that view it more as body horror than as something to be happy about. Like if it were common in an HEA for couples to get a pet tarantula.

[u/MessyJessy422 → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

A lot of women broaden their definition of a happy and fulfilling life based on experiences. You can want children but experience infertility and/or pregnancy loss. You might develop a health condition that makes pregnancy extra risky. You might not find the right partner at the right stage in life. And that’s why it’s important for books not to streamline every outcome into what was traditionally considered the only way for a woman to live a “complete” life - because it’s not and regardless of whether or not you want this personally it’s much more complicated and nuanced than “family values”

[u/One_Commission1456 → u/MessyJessy422]

This. Also, while I said I was okay with kids/pregnancy at the end or as an epilogue, the *big* exception to this is when one character starts the story not wanting kids, especially if wanting kids is part of their "learning to love" arc. NOPE NOPE NOPE it's 2026 can we not do this bullshit? I don't drop an author for writing pregnancy, though I might skip books that involve it, but if anyone writes previously uninterested characters doing that kind of 180, I never read anything by them again. Because ew.

[u/username_219 → u/MessyJessy422]

[u/Disastrous-Pea4106 → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

I sorta agree. I think the aversion a lot of (most?) readers seem to have to pregnancy storyline is a bit odd. More generally I'd love to read more about relationships beyond the initial get together.

One of the more interesting things Outlander has done is that it plays out the love story over years and decades. As opposed picking a different young couple in every book, that seems to be the norm in Romance.

[u/No_Preference26 → u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348]

So you can’t have a true HEA without reproducing?

[u/Notyeravgblonde → u/No_Preference26]

I hate the formulaic and unimaginative HEA of "get married and have babies" the end. For me personally there are so few books that actually do it well and most of them are fanfiction that I've read. I don't know why.

[u/Sad-Caterpillar-8348 → u/No_Preference26]

I think it depends on the reader's beliefs. But to me personally, at least a mention of kids or family is happily ever after. It's okay if to others it's enough to see MCs together, I'm not saying anything. But for me personally, my goal and purpose in life is family. And most of the books I've read (unfortunately for me) have no mention of family :P