Fantasy Tropes that you LOVE

Liosse de Velishaf · May 3, 2013

sohalt said:
But if you add grittiness to Tolkien, don't you arrive at Martin anyway?

"A Tolkienesque fantasy done in a gritty fashion" is how people generally describe A Song of Ice and Fire as it is.

(Or do you mean gritty = gory and rapey instead of gritty = gory, rapey and morally muddled? I'm not sure you can really do gory and rapey without morally muddled, to be perfectly honest)

Martin is low fantasy, whereas Tolkien is high fantasy. There's actually a lot of difference between them besides the grittiness.

sohalt · May 4, 2013

But isn't Westeros pretty much a "completely fictional fantasy world setting with its own set of rules and physical laws" (which, according to Wikipedia should be an indicator for high fantasy)? Maybe not so much in the first couple of books, admittedly, but the magic is getting stronger...Whatever allows for dragons, various forms of resurrection, face-changing, warging, greenseeing and irregular seasons is very probably not some kind of physical law we'd be familiar with.

Liosse de Velishaf · May 4, 2013

sohalt said:
But isn't Westeros pretty much a "completely fictional fantasy world setting with its own set of rules and physical laws" (which, according to Wikipedia should be an indicator for high fantasy)? Maybe not so much in the first couple of books, admittedly, but the magic is getting stronger...Whatever allows for dragons, various forms of resurrection, face-changing, warging, greenseeing and irregular seasons is very probably not some kind of physical law we'd be familiar with.

Yes, to some extant. But it's not nearly as magical, especially in the beginning, as other fantasy books, and wights and greenfolk aside, it really lacks the traditional high fantasy races and such. Most high fantasy is more like WoT than ASoIaF.

JQ377 · May 5, 2013

Not to be repetitive but Quests are the best. Last ditch quests thrust upon people with little to no qualifications especially.

knight_tour · May 6, 2013

sohalt said:
But if you add grittiness to Tolkien, don't you arrive at Martin anyway?

"A Tolkienesque fantasy done in a gritty fashion" is how people generally describe A Song of Ice and Fire as it is.

(Or do you mean gritty = gory and rapey instead of gritty = gory, rapey and morally muddled? I'm not sure you can really do gory and rapey without morally muddled, to be perfectly honest)

No, I meant a Tolkienesque or D&D-type setting, as in with dwarves and elves and trolls and wizards and such, but done in a gritty, realistic manner rather than the typical saccharine high fantasy style.

ECathers · May 9, 2013

OJCade said:
Magic trees of all descriptions, from Ents and evil willows to Yggdrasil. Throw in a magic tree and I'll likely read no matter how much I want it to eat your hero.

Totally. I'm a tree-lover too. In Dark Moon Gates the MC and her brother/sister hide beneath a tree that turns out to have had some sort of magic cast beneath it's branches and thus they are rendered invisible to the evil faeries who come hunting them.

I just love trees. My novel is thickly scattered with them, and my MC has the Willow tree as a totem.

ECathers · May 9, 2013

ClareGreen said:
Any trope done well.

I don't mind the Magical Quest across the Many Nations of Stereotype in search of the Mythical Plot Tokens with the Heroic Assassin, the Doughty Warrior, the Berserker, the Sorceror and the Beautiful Princess as long as it's done well. I'd rather at least one of the Adventurer types was female, and I'd rather the Princess wasn't some gutless, spoilt wench by the end of the tale, but I can cope as long as it all holds together nicely and doesn't feel like a book-by-numbers with characters-by-numbers, plot-by-numbers and Mary-Sue-by-numbers.

*cackle* My princess IS the assassin.

Stilus · May 12, 2013

Loved reading all of the responses. How great wasn't it to see the love people have for the more commonly fantasy-associated tropes. Thank you OP.

Myself, I enjoy all tropes as long as they are done to my evil subjective liking

No, but kidding aside - sometimes I enjoy seeing a trope subverted, other times not so. It all plays into a coherent and congruent whole. And what works for me may not work for someone else.

Generally though, in my current WIP, I try to work around as many tropes as possible and project them not too obviously.

Crayonz · May 12, 2013

jjdebenedictis said:
I love people tromping around the mountains of Lesser Tolkienlandia with swords on. I love thieves and assassins who waft across rooftops in flowing black cloaks and inexplicably have guilds. I love dragons that exist just to be very scary decorative objects and, occasionally, an airborne horse.

Talking swords! What's so bad about a sentient sword, eh? And a prophecy is like a good dream; it's even more fun when it makes no sense.

I have no shame; I like all the dorky stuff.

This.

Maythe said:
Dwarves. Give me Gimli over those other companions any day. Must be the plaits.

And this.

And many other things people have already pointed out, but I felt multi-quoting all of them might be a bit much.

rwm4768 · May 13, 2013

The biggest thing I take away from this thread is that people like tropes that are handled well, or subverted well. It all comes down to a matter of execution and to putting your own twist, even a small one, on the tropes. Many people are attracted to fantasy because of these many tropes, but I think there are those of us who've read a lot of fantasy and want to at least see the tropes handled well.

Fantasy Tropes that you LOVE

Liosse de Velishaf

sohalt

Liosse de Velishaf

JQ377

knight_tour

Fantasy Tourist

ECathers

Amuck! Amuck! Amuck!

ECathers

Amuck! Amuck! Amuck!

Stilus

Crayonz

Tribal Flame Warden Ducky

rwm4768

practical experience, FTW