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JustNatsuki Oh, I finally found a kindred spirit. Someone who gets how romance can potentially change things for the worse depending how it's applied.
Although instead of just a parody I believe romance can be fine here if it's only hinted at some point, shows some subtle signs of developemnt way in in the background, and only properly shows up in the epilogue. That's the best way I believe such a theme can be explored in a fantasy/ action/ adventure story like this one.
Romance will shift the tone on this story to either a more positive one and miss it's point, or make it darker with a possible bad ending event. Either way the series will probably lose something in the process. The majority of people will not mind that, but for people who want to read a more serious kind of story, it will change things a lot.