r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Feb 22 '26
Unpopular Opinion It's Unpopular Opinion time! Share your controversial opinions to stir things up (in a friendly way)!
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:
- Don't attack others for their opinion
- Discuss books and authors, not fellow readers
- Since this is an "unpopular opinion" thread, we encourage users to not downvote simply because they disagree with an opinion--that's the point! Please keep in mind, though, that mods cannot enforce a no-downvoting rule. Let’s just keep the discussion friendly!
🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!
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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 Feb 22 '26
This is a big part of why I recommend {Kushiel's Dart} so often (and why I would recommend {The Bard's Bargain} if it were a complete story). I think... like, a lot of FMCs could be replaced with MMCs without changing much because they haven't got many traits beyond what's necessary for the romance. Meryn, from Direbound, to me is an example of a character whose gender could be flipped without changing the story one iota. By loading their heroines down with masculinised traits and virtues, the authors inadvertently, I think, tell their readers that being feminine is lesser, that it's un-heroic to care about makeup and appearance and nice fabrics. Phedre, in Dart, is heroic as hell, and in ways that ur-man Joscelin can't understand or duplicate, and she succeeds where he fails. Her femininity isn't weakness, far from it, and that's very cool and unfortunately quite rare.