Top 10 Stereotypes in Fantasy?

[Rhi Paille]

Afternoon!

Soooo I have a panel to do at a convention this weekend talking about stereotypes in fantasy. I do remember a handy list of 75 things, but it was pretentious and I'd rather not use something smutty to present my findings.

Instead, I thought I'd ask you fine folks over here what you think is stereotypical in fantasy today.

Any feedback is entirely appreciated.

Namaste,
Rhi

 

[Steerpike]

1. The too-beautiful heroine.
2. Elves are graceful and revering of nature.
3. Dwarves are ale-swilling craftsmen.
4. The powerful villain has one weakness that he inexplicably fails to protect against.
5. Humans are the most destructive race.

Just a few off the top of my head that show up regularly.

 

[Ankari]

Well, nothing official but here is my list:

1. That there are exclusively evil races (orcs, troll, etc)
2. That the "good" side suffer emotional setbacks but are generally immortal.
3. That evil manifests itself physically (ie bent back of a warlock, the blind eye of an evil priest, etc)
4. That the good side seem to lack such deformities.
5. That evil is bent on destroying the world (really? Why? So it can have power over nothing?)
6. That an object is the key to overcoming the great evil (think of King Arthur or Rand)
7. That good characters are free of moral flaws
8. The "Haven." Every protaginist flees to some haven to either heal or increase their strength before the vanquish evil.
9. That the guards who stand in front of any room are really just scarecrows dressed in armor (Why do guards die so fast? Why do they never seem to suspect their eminent death?)
10. That the hero has modest roots, usually as a farmer or shepherd.

 

[Elder the Dwarf]

4. The powerful villain has one weakness that he inexplicably fails to protect against.

This one without a doubt.

 

[Ailith]

1. The young hero who starts out as a whiny inexperienced bumpkin, and ends up a powerful wielder of some power he never knew he possessed.
2. The old eccentric mentor who sets the hero on his path.
3. The initially skeptical damsel, who has super skills, but for some reason will still need to be rescued at some point.
4. The epic bad guy whose name is super scary sounding.
5. The surprise relation. “Luke... I AM your father.”
6. The ancient prophecy that singles out our hero as the only person who can take down epic bad guy.
7. The scary witch/voodoo/swamp lady who scares everyone else but for some reason helps the hero.
8. The somewhat ridiculous bard who is there so the author can slip in some “poetry.”
9. The elf/human romance.
10. The item that the hero thinks is useless, but carries around anyway for 967 pages until he realizes that it’s what he needed all along to save the world! Lucky, that.

 

[Sheilawisz]

1- Good vs Evil.
2- Dark Lord that wants to take over the world.
3- Hero that comes from a low birth and rises to power and legend.
4- Friends of the hero.
5- Old guy with loads of wisdom to help the hero.
6- Elves.
7- Dwarves.
8- The prophecy about the hero that would vanquish all evil.
9- Powerful objects of some kind that are important for the story.
10- Damsels in distress.
11- Tragic love stories.

 

[Ankari]

2. The old eccentric mentor who sets the hero on his path.
6. The ancient prophecy that singles out our hero as the only person who can take down epic bad guy

Man, I forgot those!

10. The item that the hero thinks is useless, but carries around anyway for 967 pages until he realizes that it’s what he needed all along to save the world! Lucky, that.

That one just made me laugh.

 

[Steerpike]

These are all good.

The interesting question is whether any one of them should necessarily be avoided. They're cliches because they appear frequently in popular stories. The stories they appear frequently in are popular because readers like them

 

[Ailith]

The interesting question is whether any one of them should necessarily be avoided. They're cliches because they appear frequently in popular stories. The stories they appear frequently in are popular because readers like them

I agree 100% Of course you don't want to overdo it, or write a story made up of only "cliches," but they are part of our literary vocabulary. You can find most of these in Ancient Greece!

It's similar to composers using basic chord progressions - just because they follow a predictable pattern doesn't mean that the music is not well written. Using a familiar harmonic vocabulary (or NOT using it) is part of what gives music meaning. The listener expects for certain notes and chords to resolve, and readers can also sense what role the various basic "characters" should play.

 

[Steerpike]

I
It's similar to composers using basic chord progressions - just because they follow a predictable pattern doesn't mean that the music is not well written. Using a familiar harmonic vocabulary (or NOT using it) is part of what gives music meaning. The listener expects for certain notes and chords to resolve, and readers can also sense what role the various basic "characters" should play.

Speaking of which:

 

[Ailith]

And... that's a great example of how some cliches (I-IV-V-I) can be overdone.

 

[Devor]

People have mentioned the Chosen One from a poor upbringing, the mooks who can be killed because they don't count as human, and the "invincible, but for...."

I'm going to add:

1) Fights that are waved aside: The blade flashed or three quick strokes and they fell.
2) Group members who are weirdly balanced, as if nobody else can be of use if their "stats/dps" don't add to the same number.
3) Wizards who are all-powerful and immensely rare, but only seem to use their magic for combat, and only for fire at that.
4) Magic Swords which play some great big unique role in the world.
5) The useful magical items which always seem to consolidate around our hero, and nobody else (or in some cases, see 2).
6) Only the bad guys get to use their army, even if the good guys have one on paper.
7) Societies based on real-world cultures instead of their own quasi-historic adaptations to the world.
8) The magical races whose personalities are either completely human or else extremely stereotyped. (Funny how the personalities of elves and dwarves have kind of simplified in most books since Tolkein.)
9) The monster who's bland, but happens to be "immune to you."
10) Character relationships and attitudes which appear very modern.

 

[Ankari]

10) Character relationships and attitudes which appear very modern.

So true. That is why I enjoy reading some Conan novels. I also wonder why authors haven't, until Martin, modeled their societies after the true middle ages. They take the swords, the armor, the castles, the dress and the food, but never social norms such as relationships and such.

 

[Christopher Wright]

I don't get the modern thing. Why do people read stories? So they can be impressed with your grasp of middle-english sexual mores? Well, some, maybe, but for the most part people are reading fantasy to be entertained, and "fantasy" being "not real" can be a mishmash of any thing you like. Anything at all. So what's the problem of showing a society set in some kind of primitive world, yet displaying some modern attitudes and beliefs?

 

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

So true. That is why I enjoy reading some Conan novels. I also wonder why authors haven't, until Martin, modeled their societies after the true middle ages. They take the swords, the armor, the castles, the dress and the food, but never social norms such as relationships and such.

Yeah weird, if I put my story in the middle ages then I would make sure to research how they perform their daily lives in that setting.

This kind of post thread that I revel in because I need sterotypes to make fun of when I write my comic fantasy.

 

[Devor]

I don't get the modern thing. Why do people read stories? So they can be impressed with your grasp of middle-english sexual mores? Well, some, maybe, but for the most part people are reading fantasy to be entertained, and "fantasy" being "not real" can be a mishmash of any thing you like. Anything at all. So what's the problem of showing a society set in some kind of primitive world, yet displaying some modern attitudes and beliefs?

It's not the "modern" thing that's necessarily the problem, it's that the character's personality isn't really derived from his life in your world. It stalls your character's development if you don't understand where his personality came from, and eventually the character will appear shallow in comparison to a work which can show a full understanding of the character's development.

 

[Ailith]

I also wonder why authors haven't, until Martin, modeled their societies after the true middle ages. They take the swords, the armor, the castles, the dress and the food, but never social norms such as relationships and such.

Are you saying that Martin's characters are realistic, or historically accurate? I would agree that they act in a very realistic human way (sometimes even too much... do I really need to know every time someone drips bacon grease on their chin?), but I would not say that his characters are always socially or relationally accurate to a Medieval setting.

 

[Ankari]

I don't get the modern thing. Why do people read stories? So they can be impressed with your grasp of middle-english sexual mores? Well, some, maybe, but for the most part people are reading fantasy to be entertained, and "fantasy" being "not real" can be a mishmash of any thing you like. Anything at all. So what's the problem of showing a society set in some kind of primitive world, yet displaying some modern attitudes and beliefs?

There is nothing wrong with it, but to assume that all societies function with the same security as the modern day is too hard to grasp. There is all this danger in the world, all this evil yet no one is paranoid of that hulking man with the unwashed and unshaved face, a great sword, and armor that looks like a tiger used him as a scratch post? Have modern day sexual norms, but have a reason why they exist. Isn't that one of the problems with bad authors? They force something into their story just for the sake of having it in their story?

Also, I think authors are afraid of being flagged as inappropriate if they dare to write about a social sexual attitudes that are not found in the reader's modern society. I am in no way asking for authors to go into graphic detail concerning sexual interactions. I would rather just have it alluded to, or have the genders acknowledge their intentions or paranoia.

You can take the example of The Wheel of Time. In all respects, the Two Rivers is like any picturesque village of the middle ages. Yet they don't blink an eye when three unmarried men and three unmarried women leave their village? No chaperon? I understand that fantasy is completely make believe, but a story that sounds fake is fake. Justify why the genders feel so confident in how they interact, don't just state it.

 

[Kenneth Logan Jr.]

Are you saying that Martin's characters are realistic, or historically accurate? I would agree that they act in a very realistic human way (sometimes even too much... do I really need to know every time someone drips bacon grease on their chin?), but I would not say that his characters are always socially or relationally accurate to a Medieval setting.

I guess I should have said historically accurate, because yeah its not always accurate to the Medieval setting.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't mind the modern sensibilities if that's what an author wants to include. I like the other sensibilities (e.g. Conan) as well. I don't think you really need an explanation for the modern actions and sensibilities of the characters. I think you'd get bogged down in a needless aside trying to pinpoint exactly how all that arises in a medieval setting, and it would also end up being framed in the context of the real medieval setting on earth and how the fantasy setting differs in a way that allows modern sensibilities. But a fantasy world, even one having a medieval level of technology, does not have to reflect to sensibilities or morals of that of earth's history to begin with, so if it deviates from it I don't think it has to be justified.

Just a thought or two.