Fashion
A 481-Year Age Difference? For Some Readers, That’s Hot.
Disappointed by swipe culture and, perhaps, reality, some readers pine for the much (much) older “shadow daddies” of romantasy novels.
Girl meets boy, girl falls in love, girl finds out boy is 500 years old.
Sound inappropriate? Icky? Creepy? Weird? Not for fans of romantasy novels, a subgenre that combines fantasy and romance, for whom an age gap of hundreds of years between a main character and a love interest is the norm.
With the arrival of megahits like “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” a series by Sarah J. Maas, romantasy has garnered a huge fan base. Many readers dissect characters like Feyre Archeron, the protagonist in “A Court of Thorns and Roses,” who is about 19 when she meets her 500-year-old “mate,” a mysterious faerie; they swap theories; and they rate sex scenes on a “spiciness” scale. Among them, there has been a recurring point of debate: Is it acceptable for a 19-year-old to date a 500-year-old?
Some say it is not only acceptable — it’s aspirational.
“I’ve made poor decisions with regular men,” said Asvini Ravindran, 31, a social media specialist who lives in Toronto and has a TikTok about books, including romantasy. “Why not make them with an immortal man with magical powers?”
Fans of the genre refer to such ancient love interests as “shadow daddies.”
Typically, the male creatures — vampires, faeries, gods, angels — possess dark and mysterious powers. They can be centuries old internally, but externally, they’re always young-presenting and, well, hot.
And these shadow daddies are desperate to be saved from their tortured pasts by the love of aspunky and yes, younger, female main character.
But what’s the appeal of a 500-year-old boyfriend, exactly?
Maybe real life. “It’s about the idea of someone who’d be mature and experienced enough to share the mental load with you,” said Elisabeth Wheatley, 29, a romance author and romantasy fan who lives in Austin.
