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| Americans as royalty--popular trope. |
On Votaries, I discuss royals who transform.
Below is a repost of why romances should avoid "the royal who falls in love with an ordinary person" trope.
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A great many romances tackle the royal personage in love. Several exceedingly popular books have tackled this trope--and succeeded in terms of reader interest.
I generally avoid them. To me, royal life is rather like pioneer life: I fail to see the appeal. Being a member of
the royal family or the aristocracy stinks--as a large number of Americans have discovered. It's a Hollywood-level loss of privacy plus social and political
expectations mixed into one.
And sure, Kate Middletons exist--the significant other who manages to combine exuberance
and natural ability into one strong package. That woman has political and social intelligence coming out her ears.
The
problem in fiction is that the non-royal protagonist is so often
portrayed as an ordinary mortal--the person who doesn't have
super-duper extroverted social and political moxie coming out the ears. There's
an understandable fascination with the idea of just any-old-person
suddenly entering the fantastical world of royalty. It's so glamorous
and high-powered...
And dull...
Oh, wait, my bias is showing.
(Truly, as a lifestyle, I think being royal sounds utterly horrific: horror-movie terrifying and claustrophobic.)
Some writers will have the ordinary mortal lover rise to the
challenge--this is actually more believable than the writers who
determine that the ordinary mortal lover shouldn't have to rise to an acceptable level of social and political obligations. Yeah, we've all seen how well the latter comes across in real
life. No matter how many people want to back Edward or Harry or
Fergie--the fact is, Kate Middleton makes a better impression with the populace.
Because in
the end, the willingness of a royal family member to sacrifice all for
love doesn't really pay off since the royal family member comes off as kind of a jerk or mired in wishful thinking.
Like with the Hollywood romance, I generally leave the genre alone.
Elsewhere I tackle why the JOB of being royal is generally best left alone as well.