Romantasy is not new. The term is, but the origins aren't. And it's not that difficult to understand: one type of het power fantasy is about the ability to have sexy sex with a sorta bad man, possibly even changing him, because this centers a woman's desire in the plot. Her desire is the plot. It is the thing the sorta bad man wants, and thus his power is tied inextricably (sometimes pun intended) or subsumed entirely (pun absolutely intended) with/by the paired woman. It is the thing the writer wants to explore, as they have all the power to do so; nothing will ever go too far since they are in complete control of the narrative. It is also the thing the reader wants, supposedly, because a woman's desire being centered is still seen as some kind of aberration by ye olde patriarchy, and some women are so exhausted by this reality that a desire-centered romantasy is all they want to think about, in fiction, for a little escapist while.
But still, the bad man cannot be too bad, so he is given reasons for his badness: the cycle of abuse, or being a puppet in a larger game that the pair can then team up to take down, or a it's a badness that waxes and wanes (e.g. the vampire who has moments schtick), or even the OG classic series of misunderstandings. These reasons make the bad man interesting, because stories about flawed characters are interesting and stories about perfect characters are boring. Yet because of the Puritans they can't be too flawed, and because of the plot they can't be too perfect, so then we wind up in lukewarm city where nobody is very very bad but we can still be allowed to enjoy it, maybe, a little, as long as it's done perfectly every time and it never bothers anyone ever, and we definitely shouldn't make jokes as we go, and we should stick to concepts and tropes that sell but not too much because then we are derivative sell-outs, unlike all the other types of flawless narratives with flawless readership, and voila: we have arrived at the extremely fun place where women are conveniently blamed for poor writing as well as reading!
Congratulations, it's all bad! With reasons!
