Heartwarming story: Little girl doesn’t have to do anything to fund her dad’s surgery because his expenses are covered by his country’s universal healthcare.
Human determination: Man bikes 18 miles to work every morning because he wants to and not because he can’t afford a car and would be fired if he’s late.
Spirit of Brotherhood: Neighbors host housewarming party for elderly resident who doesn’t need help in paying rent because his pension is more than enough.
SO INSPIRING: Local middle school students bake dozens of cupcakes because their home economics class is doing a baking unit. Their school is fully funded with everything they need.
Prepare! For I will go on a tangent why a lot of long romantasy book series suck.
Disclaimer: I am not shaming people who read and enjoy those, you do you. But if you really like this genre and can't handle constructive criticism don't read further for your own good.
Okay so, the problem isn't just that the industry currently pushes authors to release books faster (especially in this genre) which results in bad writing style and a drop of quality when it comes to editing but also the fact that lots of authors don't know how to write an acutal relationship.
The thing is that is fine if you have a stand alone book where they get together towards the end or a duology that is an actual slow burn or something like that. But if your book has four sequels then playing will they won't they with the readers and the characters is about to get boring.
Unlike a contemporary romance the plot doesn't just revolve around the relationship of the main characters, there's a whole fantasy plot going on which oftentimes has got some stakes to it.
Your book can be really bad when it comes to this fantasy plot and worldbuilding and readers can still be intrigued by the character dynamics and relationships. But if you draw out certain things for too long it gets boring and repetitive, there's only so much compelling drama you can get from two people.
When I was about 13-16 years old I read a lot of YA romantasy which had an interesting fantasy plot but the romance was kinda toxic or boring but that wasn't why I kept reading. Now I see this a lot the other way around online, where people complain about plot holes but praise the romance which as I said is fine. But if your series has got 5 books and a very basic fantasy plot and generic world and you're not able to expand that because you lack the ability to actually write fantasy then you gotta step up your romance game. Most authors try to do so by writing more of the explicit scenes or by creating a plot twist along the lines of "this thing happened and now our love is forbidden", the ladder of which you can only pull one or two times until the reader is fed up with it, it is kinda like a 3rd act break up but stretched across multiple books. It will be unsatisfactory if the characters constantly fuck or something but still aren't together and committed. If you take drama too far you risk making the involved characters unlikable.
Authors just don't know how to write the relationship for which they made all the build up. They don't know how to make the struggles of daily life compelling to read and this is why they don't do it but as I said they will lose readers if they draw out the getting together for too long and can't compensate with the fantasy plot.
Example below the cut
This is exclusively what I have heard from multiple sources and not my own opinion since I didn't read the books myself.
The Fourth Wing series fandom has criticised the 3rd book for being filler and having an even messier fantasy plot than the two books prior and for not really developing the relationship. They can't be together because he's been changed but they can't help but lust over one another, there are things happening that could be potentially harmful to their relationship but it is so obvious that they are going to be endgame that you don't by those threats. They also don't have any scenes where they are deepening emotional connections or planning out a future in a meaningful way. All there is to it is lust that never turns into love because love isn't just a feeling but also a behaviour.
Oh man this sooooo reminds me of the problems I had with the series “A Touch of Darkness.”
The first book was a very enjoyable modern Greek myth romantasy retelling, w a slow-burn, semi-daddy billionaire vibes, hot sex scenes, a third act break up, and a happy ending.
However, there are three more books in the series after this, plus an entire companion series told from the other MC’s perspective.
By the second book, even though the plot aside from the romance was pretty solid, it was clear the author had NO idea what to do with the romance element. She defaulted to the MCs fucking. In every. Single. Scene when they’re together. No further development of the relationship. They’re just horny and fucking.
It got to the point where the rest of the plot (which again, was pretty good) would stop cold for like five-10 useless pages just so they could needlessly fuck.
And lemme tell you, I love smut as much as the next person and I was getting ✨annoyed✨. You could have excised every single sex scene from the rest of the books and it would have changed nothing.
I feel like there's a certain type of "ex-evangelical" progressive who obviously supports mandatory progressive causes like abortion access and LGBT rights, but then in practice supports them "so strongly" that they can't compromise on anything. And if that means that they can't vote for candidates who support those issues because they aren't "good enough" and those issues get set back, well... That's a trade-off they're willing to make!
If there's one pro-choice candidate and one anti-choice candidate and you campaign against the pro-choice candidate because you don't think their support is strong enough, knowing that the alternative is the anti-choice candidate... I feel like you're not that pro-choice?
Or if you have one candidate who wants to maintain LGBT rights and one who wants to roll them back, and you oppose the pro-LGBT candidate because they don't want to... add 3 new sex markers to government IDs, but the other candidate wants to make it impossible to change the sex marker on your government ID at all... I don't think you're actually being very supportive of LGBT rights?
People are addicted to trying to find a way out of the trolley problem. Sometimes you do indeed have to decide whether or not to pull the lever and yes, sometimes somebody is going to die because of your choice. Voting is harm reduction
ok I've been waiting for Disney to make another Fantasia forEVER and I need it so here's my suggestions for what pieces they should have in the next movie.
🍃Vivaldi Four Seasons (like, can you imagine the way they'd play with colors and shapes and movement for this?)
🧌Greig Peer Gynt Suite (staying very faithful to the Norwegian stories, ending on Hall of the Mountain King, obviously)
🎻Elgar Enigma Variations (not all, pick and chose but obviously Nimrod is a must).
🖼️Mussagorsky Pictures at an Exhibition (again, not all but this would be SO FUN with Disney animation, esp. The Great Gate of Kyiv)
🪄Sorcerer's Apprentice (with the original animation that has not been fucking digitally remastered or anything bring back hand drawn animation you cowards)
🦢Swan Lake (but, like, animated in a way that's not obviously Swan Lake. Like what they did with Nutcracker in 1940.)
🪐Holst The Planets (Mars, Jupiter, and one other, maybe Saturn).
