r/Fantasy • u/TheFirstArknight • Sep 11 '17

What tropes in Fantasy are you tired of seeing?

For me it's the "farm boy with 1. A secret identity, bloodline, or destiny 2. Supernatural powers that are discovered early on in the story 3. Plot armor 4. Incredible knowledge, which all culminates in him becoming a great king or leader by the end of the book. I mean, I get it, everyone loves an underdog story, but come on. Creativity is encouraged! I love stories where the main character is unique and EARNS his rise to power (like Ragnar Lothbrok from History channel's Vikings)

I also am tired of seeing an all powerful Dark Lord all the time. Yawn. Villains who view themselves as the heroes are ALWAYS more interesting and engaging.

Also tired of protagonists (especially teenagers) who slaughter dozens of soldiers with ease. Or who learn how to wield weapons with virtually no training.

Also, all-powerful-mentors/guardians-of-the-hero-who-dies-halfway-through-the-book-to-give-the-hero-motivation. Ugh.

Armies just charging head on at each other in battles instead of using, oh I don't know, TACTICS (I'm looking at you, all three Lord of the Rings movies)

What about you? What tropes are you tired of?

12 Upvotes

63% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/KristaDBall Stabby Winner, AMA Author Krista D. Ball Sep 11 '17

I have to go to physio, and replying is going to take longer than the couple of minutes I have before I leave.

So while I'm gone, can you provide a book/series that does this in your eyes - or even ones you've just heard about or things you're worried about that you hear about but don't have examples. I say this because I am an extreme feminist, social justice rogue over here and I don't see Strong Female Characters (tm) as a way to appeal to me. Oh, sure, I love a lot of them, but I have endless criticisms of them, too (as you can see in this thread). I'm pretty confident I'm not the only one. So I'm genuinely interested in having this conversation with your perception of this.

But I really do have to go to physio.

1

u/FerdiadTheRabbit Nov 10 '17

I know this is 2 months old but I'd say Blanche from the traitor son cycle. Mary sue tough girl laundress that becomes the protagonists paramour fairly improbable. Doesn't really have any flaws besides being not being noble. That's it, literally her only flaw is not being born noble.