Oooh, what a fun question! A couple of thoughts, based on what I find so compelling in Long Live Evil (have not gotten my library hold of All Hail Chaos 😭):
1. While there is plenty of fuel for romantic shipping, the plot in LLE is significantly - primarily? - driven by sibling relationships. Rae’s wish to get back to Alice is the most prominent one, but Rahela and Lia’s changing relationship also pushes many of the story’s events (and heavily shapes Emer’s views of Rahela/willingness to help her). At a secondary level, we come to understand the Nemeths largely through their sibling dynamics. I’d even argue that many of Marius’ actions towards Lia are informed by his relationship with Caracalla; much of Rae and Eric’s failure to understand his changed response to Lia stems from their inability to see this.
2. So many romance/fantasy/romantasy novels operate with a kind of frustrating logic of “he was hot, she was hot, you can fill in the blanks about where this is going” (with alternate variations of “he was hot, he was hot,” etc). LLE directly undercuts this at so many points. The juxtaposition of Octavian/Lia and Fabianus/Vasilisa at the Queen’s Ball is an especially good example. We are told that Octavian and Lia look like a perfect storybook couple, even tho we know that they both have their own reasons for performing (and only performing) being into each other. Fabianus and Vasilisa, on the other hand, don’t look like a main character couple, but we’ve also seen their relationship develop and understand why they might be into each other. It’s really refreshing that none of the primary romantic relationships are built on a foundation of “well, I was struck dumb with lust sooo…🤷.”
3. Less fully developed thought - I really appreciate that we see so many different shapes and kinds of sexual relationships. You might have sex/imply openness to sex to secure power or security for yourself or others (the ladies in waiting). You might have sex to blow off steam (the Golden Cobra). You might have sex for money (Amelia and her colleagues). You might have sex because you’re an insecure tyrant who needs to exercise power over others (Octavian). With the exception of the last, none of these are judged negatively by the reader. With that plurality, there’s also a strong decoupling of the idea that attraction = desire for romance = desire for sex, and that sex marks the pinnacle of emotional intimacy. All of those parts can operate separately!
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