Thoughts on Royalty Stories

Hello :kissing_heart:
I just wanted to open a basic thread about whether or not you enjoy the majority of stories that fit into the “royalty” genre I call it a genre, because, lately, these have been everywhere on the app. From featured stories, to user stories. These stories usually follow the plot of forced marriage to a prince, and being a part of a royal family.

I also decided to make this post now, because the Royal wedding happened very recently, and I thought it would be a fun topic.

Some notable featured stories that fit this genre, are:

  • Marriage By Law, by Kathryn Stanley & N.K. Pockett
  • I Married a Prince, by Earlgreytea
  • Recently Royal, by Tuesday Cross
  • The Royal Baby, by Episode

There’s also a lot of great user stories that follow this genre, so feel free to mention any stories that you have an opinion about.

I’m all for friendly, debate, but as always, try to keep it at that. Friendly. No fighting, drama, or advertising on this thread please :relaxed:

Marriage By Law is more on political, but I suppose that a monarch and a president is nearly the same thing.

I loved Marriage By Law. Wasn’t too generic, the mom was mean, and it was pretty straight forward. I didn’t like it how the guy came in and tried to ruin everything, though…

Something I noticed about all of these is how there is marriage in them. Almost all of them being forced. I didn’t finish I Married a Prince or Recently Royal, but rest aside, Marriage By Law was my favorite of the list so far.

Most royal stories do contain a forced marriage that the MC is trying to get out of, then the MC goes off and runs away and finds her “true love”. I haven’t read many royal stories, but I think I’ll check out I Married a Prince again.

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I’m…honestly not a fan of them on Episode. As you’ve mentioned, these tend to be the plot-

Which is not only unrealistic as an idea, but often portrayed in one of two cliche ways- they fall in love or the MC runs away and surprise surprise she gets to do her own thing now because the guy she was arranged to marry was terrible. I hate these stories because they never explore the spectrum of in-between the unlikely extremes of absolute hate and absolute love.

However, in the rare few that take their focus off that overdone plot with those overdone endings- I’m not sure if Birds of Passage would necessarily count as a royal story per se but I’d count it as an example- when done well, they can be really masterful and the usage of a kingdom/court can be intriguing and hooking.

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I know there’s a lot of stories on this topic in the app, but I’ve never come across one and been like “ooh, I must read that”. Like everyone keeps saying, majority of them revolve around being forced marriages.

And I think it’s just because with the real royal wedding happening, it’s like I don’t really need to see a story about it when it’s actually happening in real life. And also, because of all the hype about the real royal wedding, I’m learning all these fancy rules and regulations that the royals have to abide by… and we all know that rules don’t apply to episode stories. So it would be hard for me to get into these stories when they’re all just such a far stretch from what’s believable.

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I wrote a post (and went off on a tangent) about medieval-themed stories on episode here.

My opinion still stands about these types of stories. I don’t find them very interesting. It doesn’t make that much sense to me, not to mention, I see the plot in almost every royal story (just like the fantasy section is filled with the same abused-werewolf-centered-plot).

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Yeah, I get what everyone means, these types of stories can get repetitive and predictable as more and more are made. Not to mention that there are a handful of movies that follow this same formula. Also, I have to agree with a lot of the points made here. It is certainly unrealistic, for someone to be forced to marry a prince, in modern day society (which is the time in which most of these stories are set in).

However, to agree with @GiGi_is_Me, Marriage By Law is probably my favorite out of the ones that I’ve read.

Overall, I think these types of stories (from only the ones I’ve read) are alright, dependent on how executed. And, in the future, I would love to see a more creative twist on this idea. There’s probably already a story like this out there, somewhere, that I just haven’t found yet. So, If anyone has any suggestions for stories that fit into this genre, I’d love to hear those :kissing_heart:

I’m not a fan of forced marriage stories. Like, really? In this day and age?
Even if they’re set in a medieval fantasy world… I mean, that world is of your own creation. It could be any way you wanted.
It doesn’t HAVE to be a patriarchal world. It doesn’t HAVE to have arranged marriages, and even if it does have them, they don’t have to be binding, they could be the type that ether party could refuse if they felt it wasn’t a good fit :woman_shrugging:

I would prefer more royalty stories about queens and/or princesses going on epic adventures, or fighting to protect their kingdom from invading empires. And less with the low key sexist forced marriage cliche.

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I like royal stories - but most of them revolve around forced marriages, which are not OK. Arranged marriages are fine, many people find love, or at least find friendship. What people need to understand is that forced marriage is against human rights, but arranged marriage is your choice and it may allow you to find someone you would have never found.

To be honest, I rather have less stories revolving around marriage - maybe a Brave princess time story?

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Forced marriages are mainly back from earlier times (unless you are in a different country where that still takes place)
Since a lot of the royalty stories take place decades/ centuries ago, (or have that sort of setting) than forced marriage would be much more common in those times, especially for those of royal status.

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Ruby Tiara would fit in this category because it has Kings and Queens as MCs and supporting characters in the story. And Also Love of War and War of Love (I think that is the title) fits too.

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It depends on how well the story is written, the plot, characters, twists, etc…

For example, I really liked Marriage By Law at first, but then, I didn’t like the part where the ex-boyfriend turned out to be just plain evil. I hate when stories do this! Seriously. Making one of the love interests “evil” to get them out of the way so that the intended main couple can be together is lazy writing, in my opinion.

The Royal Baby— It was really interesting at first, but then I couldn’t stand the fact that the MC claimed to love both of the princes, and couldn’t make up her mind as to which one she wanted. I would have preferred if they let us choose who WE wanted to be with, based on our choices or the points system.

Besides those two, I haven’t read many other royalty stories, but one that I love is Instant Princess by LB. There’s both an INK and a Limelight version, and both are amazing.
I also want to check out The Ruby Tiara, since I’ve heard a lot of good things about it.

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I agree with you on your points. I really dislike it when stories turn another potential love interest into just a jerk, with no real rhyme or reason. The story doesn’t even explain why he was acting like that, to my knowledge. And, I believe at the beginning of the story (when he cheated), he kept on telling the MC that “he can explain”. I thought it was pure BS, but, even his reason is glossed over. There’s just so much wrong with the writing of that character, in my opinion.
And-- I also don’t like it when a story forces you to love [insert love interest(s) here], instead of having, you as the reader decide if you like any of them. However, I do see why writers do this. It’s easier to direct, if they just make love interest choices, not really matter, until the end of the story. So, I can sort of understand where that’s coming from.

I like the genre, except that the characters are typically non-customizable and the choices are limited.

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I love the genre!

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Marriage By Law is by far the best and the gem choices aren’t too jarring

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