What Geek Media Do You Refuse To Partake In?

[Belen]

Romantasy. I find it to be complete flaming garbage.

I enjoy romantic fantasy like Valdemar or Rhapsody but romantasy is awful.

 

[Zardnaar]

Love those movies, watched them many times.


I didn't actually mind the movies I got them and a bunch of other movies from a friend which helped distract me from study back in my uni days, though never got around to seeing the last one. Won't be watching the series that's being made, don't really see the point.

The hunger games is another one that I just can't be bothered with, I think they're doing more movies, or a series, or something.

I watched the hunger games movies somewhat recently. Wouldn't rave about them but mindless fun. Otherwise dont care.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Watch the last half of season 1 or just s1 finale into season 2.

The first few episodes could be slow but overall, one of best series of all time.

Just watched that new animated movie. Interesting, but unnecessary from my point of view. It felt like a bit of a back door pilot for the proposed reboot, given how it ended.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Ever hear of “drapetomania”?

Drapetomania - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Yes I'm well aware of it sadly.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I enjoy romantic fantasy like Valdemar or Rhapsody but romantasy is awful.

That's a bit like saying "dark fantasy is awful" or "epic fantasy is awful" or whatever though, because it's such a broad sweeping claim about an extremely diverse genre that it just shows you're basically unfamiliar with the genre.

There's certainly a lot of romantasy that is both trashy and tropey, just bodice-rippers or wish-fulfilment with fantasy settings instead of historical ones, but there's also stuff which certainly gets categorized as "romantasy", like, say, some of T. Kingfisher's fantasy novels, which is a great deal better written and frankly more mature in the true sense (not "lol boobies" as "mature" means to a lot of people), as in emotionally complex, involving serious relationships, complex issues, and so on than the vast bulk of well-regarded non-romantasy SF/F. Like I guarantee you've read and enjoyed fantasy novels which were way trope-ier and dumber than hers.

Also for the sake of clarity to people reading this, there's no relationship between "romantic fantasy" and "romantasy", and basically no overlap in terms of authors or subject matter. Romantic fantasy was just a somewhat sexist term for a subgenre of fantasy largely written by women, that had some other genre characteristics (magic was often more like psionics, for example, they tended to be a bit more LGBT-friendly, they were often about a specific organisation who were good guys, etc.) that really didn't even need a genre term, and romantic was certainly the wrong one, given they had more in common with Star Trek than romanticism as a movement - indeed, they often roundly rejected the principles of romanticism, and also frankly didn't feature any more romance-qua-romance than other fantasy!

So like, if you generally dislike romantasy, I totally get that - a lot of has a very specific deal which is not necessarily interesting in the exact same way a lot of power-trip fantasy (which is less common these days but not unheard-of) is basically uninteresting to a lot of people. But there's good stuff in there too because the term is very broad.

(There's also a lot of stuff which escaped that categorization solely by when it was published. I don't doubt that Shadow and Bone would get called "romantasy" by a lot of people if it came out today, because the first book was basically "1700s fantasy Twilight", though perhaps the sheer lack of sex might hold the categorization off -it'd be the only thing though! And anyway, the books after that went in a very different direction, basically totally abandoning the Twilight angle and going "Nah that guy is actually definitely 100% bad, not a hottie".)

 

[Zardnaar]

Forgot one. MCU. Liked about 5 movies. Rest were eh they're there.

I'm not really into superhero stuff to begin with.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

One place (though not anime) where characters being able to see their own stats and abilities really works well is the two Jumanji movies with Jack Black-Karen Gillan-The Rock-etc. Those are great entertainment!

Yeah it's one of those ideas which is neat, but can very rapidly wear out its welcome. Two movies playing it for laughs, fun! Dozens of episodes of an anime taking it mostly seriously (as even the ones with comedic-seeming premises do in practice)? Not so great.

 

[Belen]

That's a bit like saying "dark fantasy is awful" or "epic fantasy is awful" or whatever though, because it's such a broad sweeping claim about an extremely diverse genre that it just shows you're basically unfamiliar with the genre.

I detest romantasy. You’re not going to convince me to try it again. I purchased multiple books and hated it.

Loved Maas’s Throne of Glass but her later works were terrible. Fourth Wing was poorly written with awful dialogue.

I am not going to delve into anything more that is tagged as romantasy. I am sad that it is killing other fantasy subgenres like the tie-in novels did for most science fiction.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I am sad that it is killing other fantasy subgenres

Is it? What do you base this on? Do you mean re: other stuff getting called "romantasy"?

You’re not going to convince me to try it again.

???

I'm not trying to - I'm pointing out that plenty of good works get labelled "romantasy" right now (because the genre is very fashionable) so suggesting the whole thing is "trash" in a broader sense rather merely "not for me" is unfortunate, especially because it aligns with some sexist stereotypes (not suggesting you hold these, to be clear).

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'm pointing out that plenty of good works get labelled "romantasy" right now

It might be more accurate to say Romantasy is assimilating pulp fantasy, not killing it.

I’m always suspicious of genre labels. Sometimes they can help you find something you like, but just as often they cause you to overlook something great.