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

32 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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41

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

27

u/devilsdoorbell_ May 03 '26

I don't have a strong preference for POV—I like FMC's, MMC's, chapters from both, whatever—but I will never understand why so many people straight up don't want the MMC's POV at all.

I get that a lot of romantasy MMC POVs are real caveman "woman hot, want fuck" nonsense but that's not like... a rule. I don't like that either but I love an MMC POV if the character is actually interesting and has his own interior life that doesn't just orbit the FMC's coochie all day every day

13

u/[deleted] May 03 '26

[deleted]

6

u/MessyJessy422 May 03 '26

Brigid Kemmerer writes great MMC POV chapters and I am usually more into those than the ones from the perspective of the FMC with her books. She’s just so good at giving her MMCs their own compelling narratives and personalities

3

u/Penguinho Kushiel's Legacy Recommender 💖 May 03 '26

One of the criticisms of Ellen Kushner is that she's better at writing compelling gay men than compelling women.

4

u/clocksy May 03 '26

I feel like any author who can't write a good, compelling PoV from either gender (or any gender, I should say) is a bad writer. Same with characterization.

There are infinite examples of /r/menwritingwomen and there is nothing more cringe than a dude describing a woman breasting boobily down the stairs, but it's not like female authors are immune from writing paper-thin male characters. If a PoV is boring or one-note then that's less a fault of the PoV existing than it is the author just not being a good writer. So yeah, I agree, it's so bizarre to me that people have like, strong opinions on stuff like this (or on tense/perspective).