Mythic Scribes Fantasy Survey Part 3

[teacup]

I think cliches can be a good thing to play on in fantasy.
For one example, my story takes place after the Chosen Hero has defeated the evil overlord. 28 years after the hero's death, to be exact.

So for this reason I don't hate any of them (except Tolkien ripoffs and women being only love interests/support characters, which, done right, even those could probably be played with to make something good.)

 

[Chilari]

It is telling that "European settings" is the only one without a vote yet. I wonder why that is? I think part of it might be the scope allowed by "European settings" - from prehistory, through Greek and Roman civilisations, dark ages, medieval, rennaissance, Napoleonic, Victorian to modern, there's a lot of time periods to draw from. Plus many of us are either European of or European descent and we're all communicating in a language from north western Europe. We have this context and this shared history we're drawing upon. It is nice to see the odd book using a culture which does not obviously draw upon some form of European culture (I'm reading one now, in fact), but I don't see a problem with books that do.

What I have a problem with is underdeveloped worlds created by people who don't understand the cultures they are drawing upon. And that can happen for any culture the writer chooses to draw upon.

 

[Darkblade]

I voted other because I can't choose between the options listed. I take issue with everything on that list except Chosen Ones, Evil Overlords and Farm Boy Heroes, those three are classics for a reason. I don't really care for odd spellings but it's not a hot button issue for me I can take it or leave it.

Everything else most of the time comes from lazy writers never straying too far from a comfort zone that has over time become something of an impenetrable wall within the genre limiting it's overall potential to be anything it pleases in favour of retreading the same kinds of stories over and over again.

 

[Feo Takahari]

It is telling that "European settings" is the only one without a vote yet. I wonder why that is? I think part of it might be the scope allowed by "European settings" - from prehistory, through Greek and Roman civilisations, dark ages, medieval, rennaissance, Napoleonic, Victorian to modern, there's a lot of time periods to draw from. Plus many of us are either European of or European descent and we're all communicating in a language from north western Europe. We have this context and this shared history we're drawing upon. It is nice to see the odd book using a culture which does not obviously draw upon some form of European culture (I'm reading one now, in fact), but I don't see a problem with books that do.

What I have a problem with is underdeveloped worlds created by people who don't understand the cultures they are drawing upon. And that can happen for any culture the writer chooses to draw upon.

I suppose there's room for a complaint about fantasy Europe not feeling like real Europe. (In particular, writers often leave out the influence regions outside of Europe had upon Europeans--the Silk Road, the Moorish invasion, even the Crusades.)

 

[Feo Takahari]

He was chosen by the world they live in. The world is kind of like their god. It doesn't talk or anything but in a sense it's "alive". It chooses everyone's fate. It's one of those stories where you have to put the puzzle pieces together so you don't realize that he is blessed until the end unless you can figure it out.

Sorry I missed this earlier.

This still invites the question, what does the world want? If it chooses everyone's fate, why did it fate there to be a villain in the first place? In other words, why is there a story, discounting the fact that you need a story? (I don't mean to be harsh, but the more you can explain the existence of the story in in-universe terms--the more you can make it so that, from an in-universe perspective, it was necessary that the story had to proceed the way it did--the more alive and real your story will feel.)

 

[Lohengrin]

I understand the argument about how cliches can be a good thing, but I just voted for the ones I am tired of reading. The Chosen One... oh please not again, when I read something among these lines I roll my eyes and skip the book. The Perfect elves too, I'm so tired of the blonde bright and high skinny guys who have all the wisdom in the world, are perfect soldiers and have magic...