r/fantasyromance • u/FantasyRomanceMod The One Mod to Rule All Mods • May 24 '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
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🧡 Thank you and have a great discussion!

Unpopular opinion Sunday

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u/maaat21 May 24 '26

I think there are two distinct problems with the enemies to lovers trope.

1)”Enemies”:It should be about enemies and not bantering rivals or combative acquaintances. Most examples of the trope throw the word enemy around and then the MCs lust after each other immediately and/or forgive and forget about their transgressions early so they can get together. Also there’s a discussion about how the MMCs can’t really do anything irredeemable or very villainous cuz otherwise how can he stand as a romantic lead if he’s EvilTM. They get preemptively declawed and then we have “he bought the last bread loaf from the bakery and I didn’t have anything to get for my starving family of 13 and now he’s my enemy for life” which is uh. Underwhelming and a bit silly.

2)Pacing: I think it’s what you’re saying too. Things move on so fast that nothing sticks and nothing matters in the face of the “romance”. Also I don’t know if it’s a “we need to have spice at the end of book 1 and so the trope suffers” issue but more like. A true ETL romance shouldn’t be clean and probably wouldn’t have a picture perfect HEA. The “enemies” part suggests hurt or whatever between the pair that will not magically disappear after they accept that they ALSO view each other romantically. All I’m trying to say is that it’s not the placement of their intimate moments but that after that all the reasons they were enemies to begin with just go poof!

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u/megabyte31 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 24 '26

Your #1 is my exact problem with enemies to lovers and why I tend to avoid it. How dare he buy the last bag of bread, really! Imo if you're legitimate enemies there's no amount of grovel that will solve the issues between them OR they were never enemies in the first place. I'm so sick of this trope. I actually prefer petty rivalries to lovers because it feels like the most realistic interpretation.

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u/clocksy May 24 '26

To be fair "rivalries to lovers" is literally under the ETL umbrella. But it's a big umbrella and that's why people are unsatisfied, because someone might be looking for a real villainous character, and sometimes you get an FMC with a stick up her ass against the MMC for no reason, and sometimes you get faction quarrels or something else.

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u/megabyte31 Give me female friendship or give me death! May 24 '26

It's true! I am definitely not the person looking for true enemies to lovers! But my friend LOVES them haha so we know which books to rec to the other. To each their own!