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Romantasy has become one of the biggest forces in modern fantasy, bringing millions of new readers into the genre. But when so many books feature enemies-to-lovers tension, morally gray love interests, deadly competitions, hidden powers, and forbidden attraction, when does a genre start becoming a formula?

In the first episode of the revamped Dragons & Spaceships, Brandi tackles one Big Question: Has romantasy made fantasy better, or has it made the genre more repetitive?

To answer it, she looks at three of the biggest examples in the space:

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas
Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros
The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

Brandi explores how each book uses familiar romantasy ingredients differently, why romance can make intimidating fantasy worlds easier to enter, and the important difference between using a trope as a storytelling tool and allowing the trope to become the entire story.

In this episode:
- Why romantasy has become a gateway into fantasy
- Whether familiar tropes actually make a book predictable
- Why ACOTAR became so influential
- How Fourth Wing makes fantasy accessible
- What helps The Serpent and the Wings of Night stand apart
- The difference between a trope and a formula
- Why execution matters more than originality alone
- Whether publishers are leaning too heavily into what already works

Brandi ultimately argues that romantasy has not made fantasy worse. Familiar tropes are not the problem. The question is whether the world, characters, conflict, and relationships give those tropes a meaningful reason to exist.

Then, in Dragon’s Roar, Brandi highlights Rachel Gillig’s The Knave and the Moon, the follow-up to The Knight and the Moth, and looks at how Gillig’s distinctive gothic atmosphere helps her books stand out within an increasingly crowded romantasy space.

What do you think? Has romantasy made fantasy better, or are too many books starting to follow the same formula? And what romantasy trope will you happily read every single time?

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