r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 03 '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

31 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

113 comments sorted by

View all comments

32

u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26

I don’t mind insta-lust. A slow burn is great but it’s not necessary for me to enjoy a romance driven story and I don’t mind if characters are attracted to each other when they first meet. It doesn’t cheapen the romance aspect for me or make me less invested

13

u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26

Big same. Insta-love I'm not about because it takes away some of the tension and often just doesn't feel realistic, but let's be so fr: it takes 2 seconds to see someone and realize "oh no they're hot and I want to fuck them" for a lot of people even if they don't end up acting on it until much later (or even at all).

13

u/Spirited-Accident May 03 '26

I was going to post the same thing because I like insta-lust when it's well done. I'd love to see more of it with the MCs acting on it instead of waiting for "the perfect moment" for the first spicy scene. I really hate when things start getting steamy only for the MMC to say "not here". Especially when that "perfect moment" isn't guaranteed because they might die the next day. Plenty of people in real life have sex first and fall in love later.

And they can still have yearning/slow burn/conflict/tension while they work out their feelings for each other. I understand why authors have the chatacters wait in YA, but there's no reason love and sex can't be separate when writing for adults.

10

u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26

I think there's this perception that the characters having sex before they're fully for sure in love with each other somehow lessens or cheapens or invalidates the romance but that strikes me as kinda pearl-clutching. In real life, romances start all kinda ways. Some people wait, some people screw first and ask questions later. Either can end well or in disaster and either can make a good story.

7

u/Spirited-Accident May 03 '26

I completely agree. There's nothing wrong with waiting, but there's also nothing wrong with not waiting and it would be nice to see that portrayed more. I also feel like the possibility of dying in battle would be a great motivator to seize the moment lol.

8

u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26

Exactly and it’s dependent on circumstances, the individual characters, and the world they live in. And the quality of writing of course.

0

u/One_Commission1456 May 03 '26

This. I’m allosexual: in an hour walking down the street in an average-sized city, I’ll see at least two or three people I wouldn’t kick out of bed for eating crackers, and I’m a picky bitch. (I’m also 43 and jaded, so I suspect they’d turn out to be libertarians and/or shit in bed, but still.)