The discourse around fated mates has become so painfully contradictory that all I can do is laugh.
If you genuinely believe the trope is inherently immoral because it "takes away choice"... why the fuck are you choosing to read books built around that exact trope?
No one is forcing you to read fantasy romance. I don't read dark mafia romance because dub-con and non-con aren't for me. That's called curating your reading. I don't spend a decade demanding those books abandon the very tropes they were written to explore.
SJM has been writing fated mates for well over a decade. It's one of the foundational pillars of her worlds. This didn't suddenly materialize because you got attached to a ship, one that is so painfully obvious a red herring for Elucien.
The author chooses the trope first. Then she builds a narrative to explore it. That's literally how storytelling works.
Some of y'all have self-inserted so hard you've forgotten these are fictional people in a fictional world operating under fictional rules.
SJM has literally explained why she paired certain characters as mates: because she wanted to tell that story. Two people who begin with distance, discomfort, indifference, resentment, and impossible odds discovering whether they can grow into love anyway.
The obstacles aren't proof the mating bond is failing. The obstacles are the story. Complaining that a fated mates romance explores the complications of being fated mates is like complaining a murder mystery has a dead body, enemies-to-lovers starts with conflict, or Game of Thrones has dragons.The trope is the premise. The characters exist to explore it. What's so fucking fake and funny is watching people scream that fated mates are "problematic" while simultaneously insisting their own ship are the real mates. Bitch, pick a fucking lane.
... is the trope immoral, or do you just want it to apply to your favorite couple?
These are fictional characters in a fictional world built around a fictional magical bond. If that isn't your thing, there are thousands upon thousands of romance books built around different relationship dynamics. Go read those.
What I'm tired of is the fake moral outrage over a trope that has been central to SJM's writing for over ten years. Not every book is written for every reader, and authors are under absolutely no obligation to abandon the foundations of their own worlds because a corner of the fandom suddenly decided they don't like one of fantasy romance's most recognizable tropes and we know SJM will never give into fan service, she has continued to write mates as endgame and I can bet she will never change that.
Read it or don't.
But stop acting surprised when a fantasy author writes... fantasy.
Honestly, if I collected half the posts from people suddenly acting morally offended by fated mates and showed them to the fantasy authors I know, they'd laugh. Hell, I think SJM would laugh too. This genre has been playing with magical bonds, destiny, prophecies, soulmates, and fate for decades.
Yes, there are fantasy romances where mates reject or break the bond. And guess what? Nine times out of ten, that's just the setup for a second-chance romance, because the author is still exploring the mate bond as the central narrative device. Spoiler for ZA (Tori HATED Darius, she flat our rejected him, readers were mad and guess what, by the end of the series, they were endgame) Every author uses the trope differently, but they are always endgame because it is what the trope demands.
SJM has been remarkably consistent about how she uses it. She's a HEA writer. Her romances don't end in tragedy or permanent heartbreak, They end with her couples finding their MATE/EQUAL and choosing each other. Whether people like that or not doesn't really matter. It's her story.
Some of y'all aren't even arguing with the text anymore. You're arguing with the genre, the conventions of fantasy romance, and the very storytelling foundation SJM has built her worlds on for over a decade. Then you turn around and act morally superior because you don't like one of the genre's most established tropes. Well... go read another author.
The rest of us are going to keep reading the books the author actually wants to write, not the ones you've rewritten in your head.
