Note: This post was supposed to have been published in The Samhellion yesterday. For reasons that aren’t clear to me, it never made it up there. So here it is today where I can make sure it gets posted!

From time to time, I like to examine the criticisms that are aimed at romance by non-romance readers (most frequently, although not always, male). I’ve talked about the whole happy ending requirement. But there’s another one that I hear all too often from the anti-romance guys—“Romance novels [and/or movies] are so predictable. You know from the beginning they’ll end up together. Why bother?”

Well…yeah. That’s sort of the whole point of the romance—it’s about a couple falling in love. So, yes, they’ll end up together. That’s a given. The interest in the story always comes in how they end up together, because no romance writer worth her salt will make it easy for them. Maybe they don’t like each other at first. Maybe one of them thinks he/she is in love with somebody else. Maybe they come from different classes, races, age or ethnic groups and have trouble seeing how they can have a relationship. Maybe one or the other is being threatened by some kind of crisis (anything from a financial problem to a serial killer) that makes any relationship dicey. Within the basic frame of a couple in love who end up together are dozens of possible variations and plot twists that must be overcome before the couple can achieve their goal.

But, says the critic, they’re still going to end up together. You know they will. So what’s the point? It’s too predictable.

Okay, let’s put it this way—when you saw the J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek, were you ever in any doubt that Kirk and Spock would survive? It was predictable, right? Did that make the movie less enjoyable for you? When you read the last Kathy Reichs, did you think the villain was going to kill Temperance before the end? You know she’d triumph. Did that ruin the book for you? When you watched the most recent episode of 24, did you have any doubt that Jack would emerge unscathed? Were you disappointed when he did? Of course not.

Most popular fiction, movies, and television shows are predictable. They work within conventions. Some are more inventive than others, but the conventions are always there. So why should romance be any different—why does romance take a hit that other genres don’t? Yeah, we’re predictable. And most of us wouldn’t have it any other way.