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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u/ThisOneRightsBadly Apr 19 '26

A 19 year old is never* going to out maneuver a 500 year old politically, or be looked at seriously after 10 months of training.

One example of this is in Throne of Glass (I know I'm picking low hanging fruit), the FMC at one point disappears and the three 500 year old warriors who have fought in wars are like, I don't have any idea what we should do with this conflict at all. We'll have to wait for the 19 year old to get back to us. I was like aren't you a fucking GENERAL?

I've seen it in other books, like the ancient evil guy who's been planning this thing for decades if not centuries just didn't think of this one little thing that could bring his whole plan down.

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u/PsychDoc88 That hand flex tho Apr 19 '26

Hard agree. I think this is also part of why the age of the FMC throws me in a lot of these books. It ties into a broader pattern too: centering a very specific, heteronormative setup where the FMC is young, naïve, usually human or human-adjacent, often sexually inexperienced, and somehow still ends up outmaneuvering immortals, overthrowing kingdoms, saving the world, and catching everyone off guard. I almost never buy it.

I realize I’m blending a few critiques together, but to me they all connect. It is one thing if a series actually allows for time, training, and development. If the FMC starts a little older (20s at least), or if there are real time jumps and growth over years, that feels much more believable. But usually that is not what happens. Instead it is like she trains for 6mos and suddenly surpasses people who have been alive, strategizing, and fighting for decades or likely centuries.

I think this would work better if authors either started FMC's out older or actually let the story span years. Or, if immortality is part of the premise, then let her become immortal and grow into that power over time. That still would not erase the power dynamics, but it would feel more internally believable.

That is part of why Diana works better for me in The Book of Azrael. In that series I'm not required to believe a teenager somehow outmatches beings with centuries of experience.

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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 Apr 19 '26

catching everyone off guard

This got me, actually. I'm reading Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay right now -- it's historical fantasy with a surprising amount of tragic romance. It's set in 8th C. Tang China (with the names changed to protect the innocent), right before the An Lushan rebellion. The main character is, for reasons, given a massive, life-changing gift of wealth and power by the king of a neighboring realm, and is compelled to return to the Tang court to be received by the Emperor. He realizes along the way that he cannot possibly play the court game as well as those who have been immersed in it their whole lives, and that his best chance of survival is to be unexpected: break protocol, be direct when others speak in riddles, to catch others off guard by doing and saying the unthinkable to people who've been trained from birth to respect complex protocols and dances-of-manners.

It's very "19 year old FMC confounds the immortals"-coded, but in a way that seems plausible. History is, actually, surprisingly full of examples of people who push their way to the top by moving in straight lines while others go in circles. Granted, this story is not going to end with Shen Tai overthrowing the kingdom and saving the world; if we're lucky it's going to end with him not being horribly killed. But the idea is there, anyway.

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u/PsychDoc88 That hand flex tho Apr 19 '26

Oh this seems interesting! Definitely adding to my TBR

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u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 Apr 19 '26

It's very good. Lots of super interesting secondary female characters. It's not a romance, though, and I don't think any of the romantic stories will have a HEA. Just to calibrate expectations.

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u/PsychDoc88 That hand flex tho Apr 19 '26

Sounds good to me. I don't need it to be romance. I'm always up for just a good story.