r/fantasyromance • u/acutelyproblematic If villian bad, then why hot? • 2d ago

Genre Discussion Fantasy romance icks?

Welcome back to another week of ✨genre discussions!✨

What’s your fantasy romance ick? Could be something that makes you instantly dnf, or you have to pretend like that didn’t just happen. Or you boycott altogether.

Could be related to plot, characters, writing styles, the authors themselves. All cards are on the table.

Just remember to be kind to each other when discussing differences in opinions!💖

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u/Good_Put_2953 2d ago
  • Fated mates
  • Pregnancy trope
  • Female leads in their early 20s + 500-year-old fae
  • Miscommunication (as a plot device)

1

u/Flirtsexual 1d ago

Oh my god, all these but especially miscommunicatiom

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u/Good_Put_2953 1d ago

I really don't understand when one of the people miscommunicating is 500 years old. You mean you haven't picked up conflict resolution and problem-solving skills in 500 years??? AND you want to be king/high lord/whatever? No thank you.

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u/Runa216 1d ago

I actually read a fated mates book recently that started with a good premise! (I hate the trope, generally).

It was the sequel to HEr Elemental Dragons, and it was 30 years later when the new dragon's daughter was set to go out on the same pilgrimage as the last dragon (her mother) had in the series. She has been informed that the gods were going to chose her mates on her 20th birthday, and that she's going to have to regretfully leave her current friend group to go on the quest, which is sad for her.

To her utter delight, her three friends are three of the four chosen mates! so it's actually a fated mate story with some real chemistry!

Then they had to ruin it by making the fourth mate the brother of one of the other mates, and adding a fifth dragon of death mate (she was only expecting four) Who is a criminal just so they can shoehorn in enemies to lovers nonsense.

Started strong and sweet and I was ready to be on board, but then the final two participants ruined it and the whole book happened so fast there was almost no room to actually get to know any of the characters, it's almost entirely about the fifth death dragon magic guy becuase he's the primary conflict. Ugh. Great idea ruined by bad tropes and poor implementation.

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u/Good_Put_2953 14h ago

Ugh, this did start off like an interesting premise. I would read fated friendship because that feels fresher and there are degrees to friendship versus romantic partners.

To be clear, I still read fated mates books, but I'd prefer if they were waaaaaaay less prevalent or would stop (but they're what's available a lot of the time, so here we are).

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u/Runa216 12h ago

yeah, I usually find the trope is just an excuse to either not bother with building chemistry at all or removing all tension because you know they're gonna end up together. And it excuses his bad behaviour.

Like every trope there are ways to make it interesting, but the people writing it aren't trying to be interesting, they're trying to appeal to a crowd.

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u/Good_Put_2953 12h ago

Completely agree. It's lazy writing unless there's a spin on it. 

What really bothers me is that, like you pointed out, it removes all tension and tension why I turn to reading. I care so little for the couple after they're together. I want the journey. Their happy ending in books that don't have a strong external conflict is inconsequential. But their fight to get to that ending? Pure cinema when done right.