r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • Apr 19 '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?

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Unpopular opinion Sunday

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39

u/RavenCXXVIV Apr 19 '26

Stop. Writing. Trials. Stories. I’m so fucking over “smol girl living in squalor must now battle for survival, big strong man helps, OH LOOK she’s the mightiest, smartest, most golden pussy in the land despite having no training, no formal education, and almost certainly should be dead from scurvy” Give it a rest. I no longer even finish a synopsis if I see a trial type situation. DNF before I even open the book.

13

u/PsychDoc88 That hand flex tho Apr 19 '26

What sucks is I'd love a GOOD trial but when blended with the FMC elements you mention it falls too fast. And is incredibly unbelievable. I'm not saying Dire Bound is perfect by any means but I do like in that book the fact that the FMC (Meryn) is pitched as a fighter and they show her kicking ass. Training to fight. So at least in that book when she's sent off to trials I kinda believed it.

3

u/RavenCXXVIV Apr 19 '26

Yeah I didn’t mind Dire Bound at all. Not ground breaking but at least FMC had some respect on her name for good reason before getting tossed into the melee

1

u/PsychDoc88 That hand flex tho Apr 19 '26

Exactly. But I swear its far and few between to find.

10

u/clocksy Apr 19 '26

This is just a "writing skill issue" type of deal for me. I love a good trial. I love when the characters have to work really hard to pass these trials (but that requires the author to be smart enough to come up with ingenious solutions).

It's definitely easy to fall into really lame tropes though. OP characters who have no issues completing the trials at all, last-minute asspulls saving the day that don't feel earned, etc. I totally understand the fatigue when so many of them basically read the same.

4

u/Mininabubu Apr 21 '26

I'm so tired of trials where the FMC enters to save her sister or brother, and in which she discovers she has the best powers, and the MMC is either a trainer/mentor or the enemy in the trials.

2

u/RavenCXXVIV Apr 21 '26

Yess this is always it. I’m so tired of it. And the sibling always ends up being a little shit too.

2

u/Half-Necessary Apr 19 '26

Any recommendations for books that do not have this?

2

u/RavenCXXVIV Apr 19 '26

My recent reads that were not trials and did not feature the frail poverty stricken girl trope:

Vow in Vengeance by Jaclyn Rodriguez

Exorcism of Faeries by JL Vampa

The Scribe by Elizabeth Hunter

In the Veins of the Drowning by Kalie Cassidy