Most common tropes/cliches in fantasy writing

Ihe said:
That is usually true for most adults, but in YA the characters aren't necessarily well-versed in matters of love--they aren't old enough to have lived through several significant relationships. The love triangle makes more sense in YA than it does outside that subgenre IMO.
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I dunno, seems like in high school kids gain and drop relationships as fast as video games. I think the main point is that the love triangle has simply been overdone. But I do also find it unrealistic. So I don't see it being helpful for so much YA to contain it, convincing teens that it's normal, when it's not. What is the utility with that?
 
The warrior hero with a cursed magical sword.
 
Since the discussion seems to have moved from "What crops up a lot" to "What you don't like", I'd say that what I don’t like to read (apart from bad writing) are books where the story hangs on a subversion of a tired stereotype. It’s one thing to say that you’re going to do something different, but to make that the crux of the novel isn’t necessarily as smart as some writers seem to think it is. A fantasy novel where the prince doesn’t rescue the princess and they don’t live happily ever after isn’t inherently cleverer than a story where he does and they do: it’s just different, and in quite an obvious way.

Sometimes, I think what novels (perhaps fantasy in particular) are kicking against is pretty weak. I don't think it's especially subversive to point out that living in a dictatorship/forced marriage/medieval hellhole/colonial empire is not actually unceasing fun, because almost nobody really thinks that it is. Besides, people aren't naive just because they read slightly naive stories: they usually want to read books where the good guys live happily ever after not because they are dupes, but because they like that, or maybe because they want a change from a real world where that often doesn't happen.
 
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Why is fantasy always medieval? Why is steampunk always Victorian? Why is scifi always a far future?

They don't need to be but I'd argue the majority of readers are quite happy to accept the basics.

To step outside these boundaries in a bloody minded state of 'just because' could alienate a potential large fan base.

I'll give an example. I recently read Railsea by China Mielville. You could say it's steampunk, you could say it's fantasy, you could say it's post apocalyptic scifi. My issue is that it didn't know what it truly was which impacted on me trying to understand the basic plot.

I'm not saying don't try and be unique, just remember your target audience and what they're looking for.

Edit : I've given a negative example. Here's a positive to explain what I mean. Kings of the Wyld is at its heart a standard medieval fantasy. As a reader you accept all the things that go on, you expect them to occur. What made it stand out for me was the simple premise of mercenary bands being medieval fantasy versions of modern rock music bands. Such a simple change to the genre that made it such a fun read.
 
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DelActivisto said:
The most disliked at this point is probably the Chosen One cliche due to how contrived, common, and conceited it often feels. Especially if there is a Prophecy involved.

Not that any cliche necessarily weakens the story. Eragon was arguably the Chosen One in the Inheritance Cycle, but it worked all right. Mostly he was special just the only young dude with a dragon. Rand al'Thor was definitely the chosen one in the WoT series, which was also fine, but has now made people really tired of it.

Grand List of Fantasy Cliches | Silver Blade Magazine

What's your least favorite and which ones do you use anyway? And to be fair, this list is super inclusive, to the point of basically describing the entire fantasy genre. And you have to have a glowing sword in your story, or you're just not writing fantasy. :D
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I printed the list. I can use it to create tangent ideas...maybe?
 
The warrior hero with a cursed magical sword and defective magical armor ?:whistle:
 
allmywires said:
The Chosen One.....erghhhh. Done to death and ultimately, I think, one of the least rewarding character journeys you can offer a reader (bland boring Big Hero Joe has everything handed to him, no particular skills/skills far beyond level of training, everyone for some reason worships the ground he walks on and is willing to sacrifice their infinitely more interesting lives for him to succeed... I could go on). Similar to Jo's point, I like a hero with grey areas, a bit rough round the edges. Chosen One just doesn't tick any boxes for me at all.

My second least favourite fantasy cliche is definitely the medieval setting -- Tolkien can be blamed for a lot of this, of course. If I look at a book's blurb and the world is set in yet another pseudo-mediaeval, feudal world, I won't even start reading it.
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Part of the problem is the attempt to make them "medieval" is usually generic and not all that realistic. It becomes more of a parody than anything. You have a focus on Britain and little else. Places like Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, as well as eastern Europe all have their own cultural aspects that don't really get much representation. There are also places like northern Africa that played a significant role in certain parts of Europe during this time as well, as well as the middle east and Asia.

You can make a medieval setting more interesting when you show the impact of cultures that exist outside of the generic representation of feudal era Britain.
 
CryptOfCthulhu said:
Part of the problem is the attempt to make them "medieval" is usually generic and not all that realistic. It becomes more of a parody than anything. You have a focus on Britain and little else. Places like Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, as well as eastern Europe all have their own cultural aspects that don't really get much representation. There are also places like northern Africa that played a significant role in certain parts of Europe during this time as well, as well as the middle east and Asia.

You can make a medieval setting more interesting when you show the impact of cultures that exist outside of the generic representation of feudal era Britain.
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I'm so glad to hear someone else saying this aloud - and welcome to the chrons forums @CryptOfCthulhu . :)
 
I never liked the feudal British fantasy pieces.

Unless we're going down the Holy Grail route. Then by all means grab your coconuts and figure out the velocity of a fleeting sparrow.

I think when you show a different culture or properly a different world, it can be rewarding.

Like the Nordic areas would be interesting to see touched on, or even Eastern when you go into the. Russe kingdoms.

But generic medieval just doesn't work.

But that requires a person actually studying a bit of history to see the causes and effects of things. You know actual research, but why bother opening up those history books when they make great coffee mug rests!
 
Epic fantasy always set in the past. It used to be exciting and interesting to read but now it's getting harder to find a story that is original in setting and feels fresh.

I set mine in a modernish world and created my own races (except for fairies which are called Less Bigs and what happens when an insect shifter encounters an insect). However, I have retained the idea of an absolute monarchy.
 
Unless you set your "epic fantasy" on earth, the time period is not necessarily "the past", present or future.
 
AnyaKimlin said:
Epic fantasy always set in the past. It used to be exciting and interesting to read but now it's getting harder to find a story that is original in setting and feels fresh.

I set mine in a modernish world and created my own races (except for fairies which are called Less Bigs and what happens when an insect shifter encounters an insect). However, I have retained the idea of an absolute monarchy.
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I start off in a medieval world, but I imagine more social progress than we found during the Dark Ages, which were a pretty sucky time to be alive mostly due to a constant barrage of religious warfare. I imagine one country having an advanced university system, for instance. Another country, though tiny, has an economy almost entirely surrounding a university system. Another country is a monarchy, another country is socialist-lite like Denmark, and so on. However, this medieval period is temporary, and extensive research is quickly resulting in strange thing being invented. Further, the world used to be extremely advanced and super high tech, but the creation of the magic system caused society to collapse because of how unstable it made people. No one knows this now because all the technology was destroyed and the continent basically leveled.
 
That girl often turns up in fantasy novels. The sword maiden in leather.
Usually an expert in combat who can defeat four grown men before breakfast (these men have grown up in the same harsh society but aren't as good at fighting as her - plus they have bad breath and the bald one only has one eye)
 
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