u/Becca_S_Bee

I don't just mean big, epic fantasy worlds, but worlds that feel emotionally inhabitable. A lot of entertainment now feels very fast:

• short videos
• endless scrolling
• constant updates
• quick dopamine hits

Romantasy does the opposite. People sink into giant emotional ecosystems for weeks.
They learn the politics, relationships, betrayals, rituals, side characters, in-jokes and crave more. I love finding a completed Romantasy series that I've not read - because it means I get to sink into that world and be with those characters for ages (and yes there will be an ending and I will cry - but that's another topic) and I think interactive storytelling taps into the exact same thing. People don’t just want content anymore, they want immersion, participation, emotional continuity, a place to mentally return to or escape too!

That’s probably why fantasy romance communities feel so intense compared to a lot of other genres. People aren’t just consuming the stories. They’re living in them for a while.

What do others think - is the current Romantasy explosion partly escapism from how fragmented everything else online feels lately?

You would term yourself more as a reader than a writer, but when you are reading you can't help but feel maybe you would have done that bit of the story differently or you want more for the character. Sometimes (at least for me) it gives me new ideas for a new story (occasionally maybe a fanfic where I get to know more of what the character does, but I do get a bit obsessed with characters). However there’s something very different about participating in a story instead of just consuming one. Especially when it comes to romance.

Romance is already emotional or should evoke your emotions and a scene hits harder when you helped shape the tension leading up to it and those tiny choices suddenly matter to the story arc of the character. This type of AI relationship is different to what people normally think of when you say AI relationship - it's not wiresexual, it feels closer to collaborative storytelling, rolepay, fandom culture - the common denoimantor of all of these things is that emotional continuity is built over time. Games have been doing versions of this for years, it's why gamers have favourite characters that they invest so much time into or feel deprived when they finish a game and realise there is no more. Fanfic communities play in this emotional field too and really it is the crux of fanfic also - people couldn't bare to not see/read/know more about favourite characters or how a particular relationship would turn out, so they kept it going.

I think the difference now is that the interaction itself feels more fluid, it's easier, but not necessarily less emotional. I wonder if this will lead to even more fanfic and stories full of personal emotions.