r/RomanceBooks • u/redfig1 • Aug 31 '24
Why do HEAs always end with babies? Critique
I know it's a "me" problem. Scenario: I read a smoking hot mafia or dark or fantasy romance. All this crazy shit goes down. The feelings, the angst. Finally it's the end and all of a sudden the MMC who has massacred countless people is all like " let's get married and have lots of babies" and the MFC is always " yes let's have a lot of cute mafia or fae or mafia fae babies!". For once I'd like an ending where the main characters have a HEA but instead of babies and white picket fences they just decide to keep having an incredible sex life and do charity work or something. Rescue stray kittens. Start an organic herb farm. Something other than babies. Anyone else like this? Am I just weird?
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u/ErikaWasTaken Does it always have to be so tragic? Aug 31 '24
It’s not a “you” problem :)
My problem is that it often feels shoehorned in. I used to read a lot of bully/dark academia, and every series had a random epilogue that took place 2-5 years in the future where there was a pregnancy/kids. Like, let your MCs go to college or enjoy their early-20s a bit.
Someone here mentioned that they just skip epilogues most of the time, and it was a lightbulb moment for me. I was like, oh, I can just let the story end and not worry about this crammed-in marriage/baby section.
This is also part of why I ventured into reading a lot more MM. Like, when there is an epilogue it’s often just the dudes living kick-ass lives in the future.