#Fantasy tropes

[headspace-hotel]

There is a type of plot that is prevalent in YA books and starting to get into general lit that I do not like. It is a similar trope to the MacGuffin, but instead of the plot being driven by an object, it is driven by the characters being in some sort of situation with formally fixed stakes.

Just as a MacGuffin is an object with no specific properties that affect its importance to the story, the identifying characteristic of this plot is that exact nature of the situation is irrelevant or at least not very important.

A very common example is when characters are involved in some sort of game or competition—for example, the first Throne of Glass book involves the protagonist competing to become the king's assassin, but the plot of the book would need to change very little if the competition was a beauty pageant.

"Gamified" plot lines like this often also include MacGuffins (to drive the "game"), confirming the tropes' similarity in my head.

The other common example is the "magic/superhero/assassin school" plot. The "school" is often just a device that brings the characters together and keeps them on a predetermined track, but there's nothing about what the characters are learning or even the school's specific identity as an educational institution that affects the plot.

#tropes #fantasy #books #writing #ya books #young adult books #young adult tropes #fantasy tropes

[insomniac-arrest]

Entire plot line to an adult fantasy novel in the search bar

#fantasy tropes #lol #would possibly read ngl

[electricalpylon]

#fantasy #fantasy tropes #dwarves #Tolkien

[plotandelegy]

Crafting Future From Ruins: A Writer's Guide to Designing Post-Apocalyptic Technology

Photo: Standard License- Adobe Stock

Crafting post-apocalyptic tech involves blending creativity and realism. This is a guide to help you invent tech for your post-apocalyptic world:

Tinker, Tailor, Writer, Spy: Start with modern tech. Take it apart (conceptually or literally if you're feeling adventurous). Using the basics, think of how your character might put it back together with limited tools and resources.

Master the Fundamentals: Understand the basic principles underlying the tech you're working with. Physics, chemistry, and biology can be your best friends. This understanding can guide your character's resourceful innovations.

Embrace the Scrapyard: The world around you has potential tech components. Appliances, vehicles, infrastructure - how could these be deconstructed and repurposed? Your characters will need to use what's at hand.

Cherishing Old Wisdom: Pre-apocalypse books and manuals are the new internet. A character with access to this knowledge could become a vital asset in tech-building.

Indigo Everly

#writing #writing tips #creative writing #writing inspiration #fiction writing #fantasy writing #world building #character development #magic systems #fantasy tropes #post apocalyptic #dystopian writing #survival stories #wasteland adventures #creativewriting #storytelling #writing advice #writingcommunity #narrative structure #writingtips

[fuzzy-oooze]

steampunk, as a artsyle, is weird because it's very popular and well-known and common but it typically only really shows up in the form of homages and one-offs rather than actually dedicating to it. and whenever it DOES show up as a main aesthetic in something, it's always like the entire identity of the thing, their tends to be very little originality in steampunk media. when it comes to steampunk media that's actually worth talking about it's like... bioshock, dishonored, maybe fallen london? a very small number of things. it's like the DnD of aesthetics.

#original post #tropes #fantasy tropes #steampunk #aesthetic #bioshock #dishonored #fallen london

[thepedanticbohemian]

Break these terrible amateur tropes by thinking outside the box.

#writing #writers #writers on tumblr #writing community #writerscommunity #writer things #writerslife #novel writing #writers and readers #writing tips #writing advice #writing help #writing resources #how to write #writing tools #fanfic #fan fiction #fantasy tropes #tropes #writing tropes #writing stuff #on writing #character tropes

[cripplecharacters]

I would like to know what you think of magical aids for disablilities in a fantasy setting! Things like: A prosthetic that is enchanted to be capable of fine movements. A wheelchair that can levitate. Hearing aids that are powered by a user's innate magic. Blind people with animal familiars that have a magical connection that allows the person to see through the animals eyes. Thank you!

Hi,

I think that magical aids, in general, can be interesting! But the few options you listed point to some issues.

First of all, the blind person magically seeing - don't do this. There's no point in having a disabled character just to make them abled. Consider this post by blindbeta instead, where they go over fantasy/fictional guide animals. Your blind character shouldn't be able to see, that's just disability erasure.

The same point applies to the prosthetic - is magic just the in-universe excuse to give someone a Cool Robot Arm/Leg that is technically a prosthetic but has little in common with the real world equivalent? I recommend going through our #prosthetics tag, but the two important posts you might want to consider: this on upper limb prosthetics, and this on lower limb ones for what people with amputations actually want - and yes, there are major differences between those two kinds of prostheses outside of being different limbs.

As a cane user, I would enjoy a magical cane that can fit into my pocket when I need it to, or one that I could summon out of thin air when my leg or back decide to make me barely able to walk when I'm out. But to be honest, I'm rather boring and to me, it's important that these fantasy/sci-fi equivalents don't turn a cane unusable in other ways. Prime example, canes with those awful "doorknob" handles... that takes me out of the story more than a teleporting cane. Or those canes with swords hidden in them (opinions heavily differ here, me personally I'm not a fan), like structural stability of the thing aside, if I'm using the cane then I'm definitely not in a condition where I could swing a sword, lol…

A cane that doesn't need changing the damn tip so often, or self-cleans every time I step into something gross would be great too. Or maybe one that is harmless to the user but bites people who touch it without asking!

mod Sasza

I don’t love the idea of a wheelchair that can levitate. Why should disabled people have to change our aids rather than the world becoming more accessible. Don’t get me wrong! There are still fun things you can do with wheelchairs in fantasy. For example a wheelchair with a spell that makes terrain (grass rocks etc.) a typical wheelchair would have trouble navigating flat. A power-chair that doesn’t use a battery but some other form of magic etc. I would challenge you to get creative and think outside of just levitation!

Mod Patch

I love the thought of magic aids. I agree with Sasza of the aspect of aids automatically cleaning themselves or having parts that you don't have to replace constantly. I know for me wiping down my wheelchair was always a hassle and the rubber handles on my breaks wore down constantly (my dog ate them one time) and were very hard to use with wrist that easily subluxed.

Aids that are battery powered running on magic or some other fantasy power source as a sorta battery would be so cool. A Port that magically accesses/de-accesses itself at the person's will? Oxygen Cannulas that never need changing/change themselves? A VP Shunt automatically adjusting its pressures to what the person needs? So many endless things you can do with them!

Mod Virus

I’m not entirely sure what is meant by hearing aids powered by innate magic. If that means never having to deal with replacing the batteries, sign me up! If it means anything other than that, I want more information on what exactly it entails.

Magic aids that function the same as not having a disability at all are erasure, plain and simple.

Mod Rock

#anonymous #mod sasza #mod patch #mod virus #mod rock #disability erasure #fantasy setting #magic aids #fantasy tropes #guide animals #wheelchairs #canes #hearing aids

[unidentifiedseacreature]

Human with diabetes X Vampire partner who can smell their blood glucose levels

#monster lover #monster fucker #monster x human #vampire #fantasy tropes #fantasy #modern fantasy #vampire x human

[druidx]

Saying fantasy grace as a spell to purify food & drink, and stop people becoming unwell or assassinated.

The royal family sits down to dinner. The archbishop says grace to ensure any poisons have been nullified.

The healer of a party of adventurers saying grace as the pottage is being stirred or the roast spitted so no one succumbs to dysentery.

A mother making sure all her children know how and when to say grace as she sends them off to their new homes, in the hope their family line continues.

People of different religions arguing over the wording, not realising that it doesn't matter - it's the faith and intent which makes the magic work.

#fantasy #magic #tropes #fantasy religion #fantasy tropes #'grace' as a magic spell

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Actually, the best part of being a "chosen one" is you don't have to send in a resume and write a coverletter. A magical scroll or mysterious stranger or flock of ravens just show up and give it to you.

#I'd be so good at it too. You really want a boy adventurer when you could have a 35-year-old man who has a bit of sense and life experience? #and you don't have to worry about any of that “refusing the call” nonsense with me. #I'll quit my job and walk through any magical portal you show me #Most Yall don't know me actually but I was quite the adventurer during occupy. If i can handle riot cops I'm sure I can deal w a cave troll #magical girl #Chosen one #Fantasy tropes #Job hunting #post o' mine #You must destroy the talisman and free the king from his ice prison! “Ok but do you do 401k matching?”

[humunanunga]

Commit to one or make your argument for other in the notes. If it depends, make your argument. If it's multiple of the above, make your argument. If it's "op you forgot ___" make your argument. If you wanna "well actually" and get historical or multicultural or multifandom about it, tell us which one or few should be the standard and make your argument.

Have strong opinions. Pick a hill to die on. Give a slideshow presentation for why your take is the right one. Go to war with your mutuals and die in each other's arms on the battlefield over it.

#you_guys_wanna_start_a_fight.gif #poll #vampire #vampirism #tropes #fantasy tropes #sci-fi tropes #horror tropes #monsters #musings

[mask131]

The thing that I always found abominably fascinating and insanely mind-blowing with the Earthsea series is that it breaks all the worn-out, over-used, “seen everywhere” cliches of fantasy people complain about today and try to avoid. 

Tired of your typical Europe-setting? Here is a world of islands influenced by a lot of various non-European civilizations!

Tired of having a white-predominant cast? Here is a series where people of color are the dominant ethnicities and the white are the minority and bizarre barbarian foreigners from far away!

Tired of having the heroes go on grand and perilous monster-slaying quest to fight some dark overlord or fetch a magical item? Here are books where the villains are elusive, abstract and philosophical threats, where the quests to defeat them are very down-to-earth, solitary and rely more on self-search and the understanding of human nature rather than great exploits. 

Tired of seeing the same old-worn out fantasy races tropes? None of this here! 

This book series was created with the intention of subverting, avoiding or breaking the new tropes and stereotypes that were rising up with the success of Tolkien’s work. It was made to be different and ground-breaking and stereotype-crushing, and it worked extremely well, becoming a classic of fantasy literature and influencing the genre massively... And yet, people only rediscover it today, and know about it today somehow. (Well a “large” today including the dozen of last years of so).

This series is the perfect example of the “new” fantasy that rises up in the modern era, as an attempt to “break off” from the “traditional” or “cliche” fantasy... And the first book has been sitting there since the END OF THE 60s!!! 

There are more examples I could point out of books that present to us a completely out-there, trope reinventing, stereotype breaking form of fantasy - and that yet have been there since the 70s or the 80s, or even before! As I went back in time to see several of the “classics” of fantasy literature, I came to understand something - a lot of the “cliches” and “stereotypes” and “over-used tropes” of fantasy people complain about today were not at all dominant for a very long time. If you believe the words of many people out there, you imagine fantasy never had black characters or queer characters or non-European settings or non-Tolkienesque plotlines until the 2010s or something... Which is not true. Fantasy was such a varied, bizarre, diverse genre in its literary form all throughout the 20th century, and many “old” works of the first generations of the post-Tolkien fantasy are basically what people want to see today as “pattern-breaking and fresh new fantasy”. 

The Tolkienesque-fantasy and all of its cliches and stereotypes were not so much dominant as just present in a handful of massively popular and widespread works - the case of the Shannara series can be pointed out, as its first book was PRAISED at the time for being able to recreate a Tolkien story in the 70s, and it was because it was mostly a copy of the Lord of the Rings that it got so popular (and why it is not well-liked today). And then the 80s rolled and early D&D reignited the flame of the Tolkien-inspired fantasy. By the 90s, it seemed Tolkien had been used and over-used to death, and people didn’t trust it all anymore... Which is why David Eddings’ Belgariad series was created. Its key point was to take back all the elements of the traditional epic fantasy story, but reassemble them, freshen them up, twist them slightly, all of that to re-create a by-the-book BUT fresh, new and interesting series. It was an attempt at prooving that, with innovation and some twists and modernization, the Tolkienesque fantasy would not die - and it worked massively well. And then in the 2000s, the Lord of the Rings movie sealed the deal. 

All these works make it look like fantasy had always been copying or taking inspiration from Tolkien. But it is false. It is true that most of the classics are tied to Tolkien, but not always in imitation or re-creation - in the case of “Earthsea”, there was a willing attempt at getting away and inverting the Tolkienesque fantasy to create a fantasy that went the very opposite direction. Same thing with the Elric Saga, also designed to be the reverse or opposite of The Lord of the Rings, and which in turn became the classic of another new genre of fantasy: dark fantasy. And Conan in all that? People forget that the Conan the Barbarian series were just as influential for fantasy works as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was. The Elric Saga, again, was created to completely reverse and avoid the Conan-like fantasy. A similar thing was done with Leiber for his “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” series, which was designed to break away from the Conan “heroic fantasy” style and reinvent the genre in a new direction. 

There are so many “old” and “classic” works of literary fantasy that actually do not feel like a “classic” at all because they have all the vibes, elements and expectations one has from a non-classic, non-traditional fantasy... BUT THEY ARE THE FOUNDATIONS, they are the basis and classics and inspirations of fantasy. And it all shows this huge gap between what people think fantasy is, and what fantasy really was - it is a fascinating case study of how one specific trend somehow got over the entire genre. Imagine a world where people think Gothic novels can only have a vampire or the ghost of a judge, and must be Bram Stokers-inspired, and that everybody points out they are tired to see Dracula-expies everywhere... Only to discover the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and be baffled by them and their “inventivity” and “breaking of patterns”. I’m sorry, that’s the fastest comparison I can make, but this feels just like that. There is this strangely specific idea of what fantasy is today forged on a few items... I think, beyond the massive success of Tolkien and imitators, D&D probably is also to “blame” for how people see fantasy today.

But even then, D&D took inspiration from so many non-conventional works of fantasy... Yes many became “classics” now, though often ignored by the masses - The Elric Saga, and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were big influences. But take the Jack Vance series “The Dying Earth”, another big inspiration on early D&D. Take that. This series is from the 50s - FROM THE 50S - and yet it is a unique genre of sci-fi fantasy that I haven’t seen much being done around, and it creates such a weird, whimsical, bizarre, surrealistic fantasy world, it feels completely unique. And again, it is a classic of the 50s and 60s. 

I don’t really know where I try to go with this but the important thing is: when someone wants to read “non-traditional” or “non-Tolkienesque” fantasy, or “non-stereotyped” fantasy, it is possible, instead of searching for every new author nowadays (not a bad thing to do that though), it is possible to just go back in time, look back at the books of the 70s, 60s and 50s, and find there a novelty, a freshness and an inventivity that is lacking in a mass production of modern day fantasy. And that such a thing is possible is truly crazy for me. I don’t know if such a thing happened with other literary genres, but it is insane that sometimes in fantasy, to see “new” things you just have to look back into the past. 

#fantasy #fantasy literature #tolkien #tolkienesque literature #earthsea #ursula le guin #the dying earth #the elric saga #i don't know if I should tag them all #this is really just a random shot here #fantasy stereotypes #fantasy cliches #fantasy tropes

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

When taking in the common fantasy trope of "gods need prayer badly to increase their power" combined with the fantasy trope of "gods as people" the concept of prayer being central to a god's power is really fascinating. In settings where gods need prayer, the type of prayer is often a petitionary prayer, asking for something from a god. It's purely transactional.

But what must it be like, if a god is a person? If a god is a person, a god can get lonely. A god can desire companionship. A god might want to be remembered for something other than what they can give. A god has to see all the prayers and deny some because they contradict, or because it would cause greater harm. Yes, stopping the rain would make your day easier, but it would make you hungrier. Yes, you don't want this much traffic, but if everyone wants less traffic and drives at the same time, it creates the same problem. So they do the best they can for as many worshippers as they can, and are rewarded by snubbing, being called fickle, and even louder demands.

To a god like that, they give their worshippers everything they can, and the only thing they get in return is demands for even more. And to add insult to injury, some humans act as though even the act of praying is an offense, as though even the small energy expended by asking is too much to ask and the gods should just give them freely. Is it any wonder, that they go mad?

#fantasy tropes #fantasy gods #like...how happy would you be #if the only reason anyone cared about you or visited you or spoke to you was because they wanted something

[littleevil0ne1]

Phoenix

"Sorry, Was that suppose to kill me?"

Drew this last year for the Drawlloween prompt Undead. I was aiming for that fantasy trope where they try to kill someone in a way where they should DEFINITELY BE DEAD but WHOOPS turns out THEY'RE IMMORTAL OH SHIT and Now they're glaring at you and you should probably run

#phoenix #ow #not dead yet #what doesn't kill you #fantasy tropes #why wont you die #die already #stab wound #sword #reincarnation #kill #murder #immortal #fantasy art #undead #digital art #digital painting #fire #burning #littleevil0ne #art #artists on tumblr #painting

[fuzzy-oooze]

mad scientists are always biologists, geneticists, or engineers which is stupid and bad, we need more diversity for mad scientists, I'll even list some disciplines you can use here:

-taxonomy -cartography -meteorology -linguistics -hematology -algedonics -bryology

I'm sure you can think of more but these are just to get your brain thinkin'

#original post #writing #fantasy #writing ideas #writing prompt #tropes #fantasy tropes #horror tropes #mad scientist #mad science

[marietheran]

ok - but imo, dramatic place-names in fantasy books aren't that unrealistic. we named a desert "death valley" after all. if there were car-sized (and larger) spiders living there, we might have actually called it "the valley of dreadful death". (see: nan durgotheb in the silmarillion)

#original post #fantasy #fantasy tropes #tropes #the professor's mythopoeia #fantasy names #fantasy naming conventions #toponymy #place names #nan durgotheb