 We're shaken my name's cam welcome back to another video. I bet you didn't know this, but I'm I'm a fantasy guy. You might be thinking a but wait, that's not Daniel Green and you're right. I'm not you'd be right. Although I do own Fantasy book. I have seen fantasy movie and you know what? I have enjoyed Fantasy song from time to time. I've done videos about cliches and tropes in fantasy before but today I really wanted to kind of hone in on some of them specifically some of the tropes that make me feel good or bad I just did a video like this on the romance genre So if you want to see me do a video like this on another genre just leave a comment I won't just be giving you a list of the tropes. I like or don't like in fantasy I'll also be talking in a bit more depth about exactly why I think they have that effect on me. Anyway, let's just jump right Almost all of my favorite fantasy stories take place in a medieval Europe type setting and that in itself Isn't a huge problem. That's fine. I don't hate that a lot of fantasy stories I read have a strong Western influence in a lot of ways that makes sense when we're talking about fantasy. That is English written But let's be real It can get a bit boring a lot of the creatures especially when I read fantasy May be described differently, but most of the time they come from the same Small source group Vampires werewolves goblins trolls elves you get my point the same kind of goes for landscapes as well Usually, it's just forests and oceanside villages I remember when I was younger and I watched the first episode of supernatural I had nightmares and wet the bed constant. You know what? That's not really important I was so fascinated by the creatures in the show that I would spend days Browsing the internet for like myths and legends from all over the world And I would write them down in this little notepad. I had one particularly terrifying creature that kind of stuck with me All these years still is a bit of a legend from Japanese folklore. It's called the umibozu It's a dark mysterious almost Cthulhu like creature that lives in the ocean Depending on who you're talking to it could look a bit like a lizard fish creature Or I think more terrifyingly a giant Well, just a giant a giant figure shrouded in shadow Anyway, my point is that there are thousands and thousands of myths and legends cultural power structures and writing designs that fantasy can explore rather than just Knights and princesses I remember I was super excited for black leopard red wolf to come out because it was going to be my first dive into a fantasy That was inspired by African myths and legends. I ended up not liking it but for a whole number of Other reasons I did a whole review talking about why I didn't really like that book But you can check it out up there if you want I suppose what I will say is that I do understand the hesitation from writers to kind of dive into fictional settings that they maybe themselves aren't directly Uh experienced in even though all fantasy pretty much is the author's spin on existing myths and legends I imagine there could be at least some people that might get Angry if you tried putting your own spin on cultural legends that you yourself aren't really accustomed to I don't know that that's a whole other that's a whole other topic that I'm not even going to begin to get into But it is what it is It might seem a bit odd talking about how much I love the wise old wizard trope After just talking about being bored with commonly occurring things in fantasy because of all the fantasy tropes I think an old wizard is something you're probably going to find in almost all of them But I do love it and maybe I have a bit of a bias because I loved the character of Gandalf growing up You know along with Dumbledore I pretty much grew up with two of my favorite fantasy series having a central wise old wizard Here's the thing when referring to Joseph Campbell's hero's journey card up there The mentor is a story device that will almost always come into play when you're talking about adventure stories like this The mentor being a character that brings the protagonist from their life of comfort into more immediate danger in pursuit of a Better status quo or to combat the potential of a worse status quo And you know it makes sense that the mentor would be an old timer That way we can trust them when it comes to being an accurate source of knowledge or experience about What exactly is at stake and when it comes to wizards I feel like they might be a bit of a fallback in fantasy in particular because the mentor Usually isn't meant to be like the brawn because that's more the protagonist's journey becoming the physically stronger one The mentor's job usually and primarily is to be wise enough to get the protagonist from there to there And wizards specifically happen to be quite Scholarly in most fantasy stories wizards had to train for years and years maybe even decades Pouring over books to get stronger rather than swinging a sword That's why I think the wise old wizard trope is as popular as it is anyway and personally I like it I think mostly because one of my favorite things in a fantasy story is reading about this You know wise old grizzly wizard who never quite shows off what they can do They usually sit back in all of the fights You spend the whole story waiting and waiting and they keep teasing and teasing that they are going to Do something big but you never really see the wise old wizard go all out until you do Usually the bit right before that wise old wizard dies, but it's still awesome. That's always a really exciting moment for me Strangely enough. I really do like the chosen one trope. I I like it. I think it's just a Perhaps overused escapist fantasy where the reader imagines that one day they will find out They are more special than they think I enjoy that however I don't really like it when the simple farm hand protagonist is revealed to have been a forgotten prince or princess All along, but you know what's especially embarrassing about the fact that I don't like this trope I've used it in my writing before I kind of I kind of boxed myself into a situation Where I thought the protagonist being revealed as a Forgotten prince was the only way to move forward. It wasn't it wasn't good But that's why I moved on from that series I thought a lot about why I don't like this trope and to be honest I think this might just be a case of it being overused I don't know if there's any actual deep reason I think it just comes down to the fact it's been used so much And maybe because it's such an easy way to make your story seem more interesting The idea of simple little john or sally from the shire finding out they're meant to be on the throne back in the empire Sounds great as a story idea. What a great character arc you could get from that truly But unfortunately the fact of the matter is now that almost all fantasy authors Have taken a stab at this and personally I find it something I kind of actively avoid when I'm looking for a new book to read So the heroes need help from a thief an assassin or a smuggler. Where do they go? crime city population 2000 and falling I really love this trope. I mean usually, you know what you're gonna get You're gonna get shady taverns pick pocketing kids and violent lepers But it's always fun. Nonetheless. I think what makes the crime city trope so great is that You know, there is going to be some kind of big Confrontation soon. There's a conflict or a danger that's about to happen So there's always this feeling while you're in this environment There is a static tension that kind of sits with the reader right up until that conflict happens When written well the atmosphere of these locations in fantasy can end up feeling very Noir and sometimes almost gothic. It's like being dropped into Gotham in the middle of a fantasy book How groovy is that in a lot of cases as well The crime city trope usually leads into some kind of dark backstory for one of the main characters Crime city can be pure anarchy and I love seeing authors have their fun with that and just go wild So the prophecy I know the prophecy is something that's talked about in pretty much any video ever where we talk about Fantasy tropes. I know I'm sorry But I do think it's just another case of an interesting idea being used way too much But maybe more than that. I feel like maybe this trope is just an easy trick for writers Let me explain Hey, uh, hey man, um I was just thinking why does the like, why does the little humble farmhand? Why does he have to be the hero? Oh Good question. First of all, um, you know, it's it's just because um, it's the prophecy really that's Simple as that. Okay. Um, but like what's the deal with the prophecy like Why is it set in stone? Doesn't doesn't really matter. You know, it's just It's just the prophecy. No, no. Yeah. Yeah. No, um, I get that uh, but What I'm asking is Look the thing Just shut up. Okay. How dare you come in here and try to embarrass me that, uh, That wasn't really my intention the prophecy. Okay What do you want me to say? You get my point the prophecy trope in most cases where I've read it Has been used as a bit of a cheap tool for exposition or to create a phone motive for the hero I haven't got a whole lot to say about this trope Just I guess that it's not really to my personal taste the protagonist who grew up in an impoverished area That falls in love with the prince or the princess. I mean, I get it I get that this story device creates a convenient bridge between the social classes in the narrative But I do feel like it relies just a bit too heavily on the royal love interest having a very strict Character arc. Okay. I made that sound way more complicated than it needed to be basically In my personal experience the royal love interest will only have this very particular Character arc they feel smothered by their noble life and also feel bad about the neglect from their kingdom of the peasants In trying to connect with said peasants and make their lives better They will meet the protagonist and by the end of the story They will realize that they had no idea what life is really like outside the walls of the castle That's usually it is all I'm saying Aladdin already did it and no one is going the top Princess jasmine on my disney crushes list. So leave it be There's plenty of other fantasy tropes that I have feelings on but I didn't want to just list them out for you I wanted to actually talk about them a bit. So I did have to keep the list kind of short Hey, um, what tropes do you like or hate in fantasy? 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