Romantasy: Is It Ruining the Genre?

What is romantasy? When was it created? How did it become popular? Will it ruin the fantasy genre?

Romantasy is a newly found and used literary sub-genre that means romance fantasy. Romantasy blends the traits of fantasy and romance. Romantasy does not have a definite definition since it has become popular for the last couple of years, but it has some distinct traits that can help one understand what a romantic book can look like.

It is essentially a romance book in a fantasy setting. Most claim that romantasy authors do not pay attention to the worldbuilding and the elements of the fantasy part of the book as much as one would do in a fantasy book; the focus of the book is the romance. The main conflict of this genre is not the fantasy part of the book but whether the main couple gets together in the end or not.

However, in the article about Romantasy, Shannon A. Thompson describes romantasy as a romance/fantasy blend, where romance and fantasy elements need to have an equal presence. 

As you can see, people are still not sure what romantasy is.

It is also unclear when the term was found, but it is possible to see the usage of the term ''romance fantasy'' at the beginning of the 21st century. Urban Dictionary also added its definition as early as 2008. However, it is safe to say the term became popular in the past 2 years with social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

Görsel: Goodreads

The History of Romantasy

Writing Team from Hire a Writer gives a timeline and examples of romantasy in their article about romantasy.

They start with mentioning very known fantasy classics like The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Those two important books had some romance elements in them, but it was very light. However, they claim that The Princess Bride by William Goldman was a key for the subgenre, as romance took a bigger place in this book. Then, they mention works like The Twilight Saga by Stephanie Meyer and The Mortal Instruments by Cassandra Clare. These book series had their own magical worlds and supernatural creatures while focusing on romance as well. They were very influential at the beginning of the 2000s and 2010s, when young adult fantasy books with romance plots started to become common.

However, the most influential book series to make romantasy go viral was probably A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Sarah J. Maas sold more than 38 million copies of her works, and A Court of Thorns and Roses is one of her well-known series. The book follows Feyre, a human girl who has to take care of her family while living in a magical world with creatures like Illyrians, faes, and nymphs. The book focuses on Feyre's journey as she makes a mistake and finds herself in the middle of those magical creatures while finding love. 

More books like Fourth Wing and From Blood and Ashes were released and caught the attention of the readers. After more books like those, the romantasy genre became one of the most loved and popular books among readers.

Some Commonly Used Traits of a Romantasy Book:

  • The main character is usually a woman
  • The love interest is a dark, seemingly rude man who changes after falling in love with the main character
  • Comedic relief side characters
  • The main character discovers their power late in their life and has a major change by the end of the book
  • It usually has a positive or hopeful ending
  • Tropes like one bed, love triangle, knife to throat, and forbidden love are often used
  • There are explicit sexual scenes, and readers call those scenes ''spice''


Görsel: Goodreads

Thoughts on Romantasy

I believe romantasy has a lot of positive sides. For example, romantasy books are usually easier to read than most of the popular fantasy books since they do not focus on fantasy as much. If a person who is not familiar with the fantasy genre wants to get into it, romantasy can be a great start for them.

Romantasy also gives women a bigger role. Although the number of female fantasy authors has increased, fantasy is still a male-dominated genre. Many popular fantasy books are written by male writers focusing on male characters and do not have many well-written female characters. Romantasy books usually have a woman character as the protagonist, so giving women a bigger role is beneficial for the representation of women.

It can also be said that romance as a genre is not seen as serious by many people. The author of From Blood and Ashes, as a romantasy author, Armentrout, says, “It's taken a while to get respect for being a fantasy book that is also a romance; I think that is why the new genre term was created. For the longest time, a book was not called fantasy if it contained romantic elements.'' I think this is a really important point to highlight. Fantasy has been seen as a genre too serious for romance and has been dominated by white male authors for a long time. Romantasy can bring this genre this diversity.

Another romantasy author, Georgia Summers, says, “We’re seeing fantasy normalize queer romance, normalize having people of color in fantasy, and have it not be the traditional white male medieval village scenario.” That's why we can say that romantasy gives voices to different kinds of people that have not been taken seriously in this genre for a long time

As for the negative parts of the genre, I can't help but ask myself why many of them feel the same while reading. I feel like most of them have the same type of characters, similar plots, and similar endings. The main guy is a dark-haired man who is a bad person, but then he deeply falls in love with the main girl. After that, we learn that he is actually a good guy. The protagonist of the book and the love interest usually start as enemies but then quickly fall in love. There are tropes like forbidden romance, one bed, and forced proximity in every one of these books, and they all seem to repeat each other.

I feel like the main problem with this genre is that a lot of authors write books with the mindset of how it can sell. What scenes would look appealing in TikTok videos seems to be what many authors care about, and they write with this mindset. When you ask someone about the plot of a romantasy book, they give you the tropes of the book instead. Although I see this as a general problem with Booktok, it is even more common among romantasy readers. Plots stay in the background while people talk about the tropes and the spice level of the book. You want to know about the world of the book, the characters' personalities, and developments throughout the book, but many seem to be focusing on just steamy scenes instead. Since readers focus on those things, authors choose to pay attention to these as well and write books over tropes and steamy scenes instead of creating an actual plot.

This focus on romance and sexual scenes makes it hard to keep up with the actual plot of the book, and most of the time, romantasy only focuses on romance and forgets about its own fantasy world, which creates a lot of plotholes and lazy writing in the book.

Can Romantasy improve as a genre?

Romantasy became popular only in 2023-2024. As it is a new sub-genre, it definitely has a lot of room to grow. I believe if authors can come up with distinct characters and different plots, it can be a good genre to enjoy. If authors do not concentrate on only romance traits but pay attention to blending both fantasy and romance, it can evolve.

Romantasy has its negative and positive sides for me. However, I am excited to see what this new sub-genre will evolve into and what kind of books we will have in the future to enjoy, relate to, and think over.


References:

https://www.hireawriter.us/creative/the-guide-to-romantasy-evolution-archetypes-and-must-read-stories

https://reactormag.com/what-exactly-makes-a-romantasy-and-what-are-your-favorite-examples/

https://shannonathompson.com/2024/02/19/whats-the-difference-between-romantasy-and-romantic-fantasy/

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/feb/02/romantasy-literary-genre-booktok

https://enemiestoloverssource.wordpress.com/2024/01/03/the-trouble-with-romantasy/

https://medium.com/romance-lovers-anonymous/whats-the-deal-with-romantasy-71c8e2930023