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Hannah's avatar

I don’t venture far in the genre of romance. That said, this entire article is such an ignorant and uneducated look at romance, and genre writing, in general.

Of course The Princess Bride is a romance. And of course it’s a fantasy. And of course it’s a comedy.

Criteria for romance: 1) Conflict or obstacle to romantic relationship (ie believing your romantic partner to be dead and/or not being free to marry your “true love”). 2) Happily Ever After *or* an emotionally satisfying ending (this is a bit controversial; there are a lot of people who would categorize love stories with sad endings as a romance. Examples include books like The Notebook).

Any way you look at it, The Princess Bride meets the criteria to be a romance. While most romance stories are not my cup of tea (The Princess Bride being very much an exception for me), I have found that many people who generally minimize the value of a particular genre will find a book of movie that falls into that genre and, in order to not feel inferior, will claim that really, it doesn’t belong in that genre anyway. I’ve seen people do it with horror, science fiction, fantasy, etc. Every genre has books or movies of quality that are objectively good. Don’t dismiss the entire genre of romance because you might be ashamed to admit you like something that falls within that genre. The Princess Bride is an excellent film and an excellent book. It’s also, by every possible definition of romance, a romance.

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