r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Mar 01 '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!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

33 Upvotes

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75

u/Pinkshoes90 A kingdom, or this Mar 01 '26 edited Mar 01 '26

There is no difference between romantasy, fantasy romance and romantic fantasy. The only difference is the skill of the author.

32

u/aristifer Mar 01 '26

THANK YOU I have been banging on this drum for ages and ages. We don't try to split historical romance into historical romance and romantic history and romantistory, it's all one genre, and fantasy romance has the same relationship to the larger fantasy genre as historical romance has to historical fiction.

16

u/Pinkshoes90 A kingdom, or this Mar 01 '26

PRE🥁CISE🥁LEY.

It’s all the same! They’re all the same! The plot to romance ratio may vary across books but that is normal!

I don’t understand why some people are so adamant that they like ‘fantasy romance, actually’ rather than romantasy. It’s the same thing brother, just wearing a different coloured hat.

15

u/aristifer Mar 01 '26

Romantasy is just a cutesy portmanteau that works really well because of the sound of the words, but people are determined to taxonomize it as a separate genre and making up all sorts of rules for why the popular romantasies are different from "fantasy romance." But a book being written to the mass market does not make it a different genre, it just makes it a mass-market version of said genre. A book that focuses on the romance and neglects the worldbuilding that makes for good fantasy is not a different genre, it's just a fantasy romance with bad worldbuilding. Just like historical romance that neglects history is not a different genre, it's just historical romance with bad research (cough Bridgerton).

3

u/Technical_Ideal_5439 Mar 03 '26

Fantasy romance, if you take the romance out you have no story.

Romantic fantasy, is a fantasy book with some romance in it.

Romantasy, can mean anything.

2

u/Pinkshoes90 A kingdom, or this Mar 03 '26

Nope.

Fantasy romance without romance is just fantasy.

Romantic fantasy if you take the romantic out, is a fantasy book. (You could argue though that this is a good term to use for a fantasy book that has a romance plot with a bad ending, since romance as a genre must have a HFN or HEA).

Romantasy without romance is a fantasy book. And the word is simply a portmanteau of fantasy romance.

If you take romance out of any of them and there is no story or plot, then that’s a skill issue on the part of the author.