7 Fantasy Tropes That Readers Are Tired of
How to prevent your new novel from being a dime a dozen.
Who doesn’t like a good fantasy trope? A damsel in distress, dragons swooping out of the sky, and the wise old man who instructs our hero until they're off on their own. These tried and true methods of storytelling have become so synonymous with the genre that you’d have a hard time finding fantasy novels without ’em.
Tropes are simply recurring literary devices, characters, plot, etc. used to the point of cliche. If you’re an avid reader or fantasy writer, I promise you would have bounced upon some of them.
Though they can be done quite well, they tend to be a bit overplayed. While they can be a great assist to a story, it takes away from its originality and bores a good deal of readers. Writers should thrive to bring something new to the table and present their stories in a unique and interesting way.
From the chosen one to Fantasy jargon, these are some fantasy tropes you should avoid in your writing.
1. The Chosen One
I confess! I’m a “chosen one” hater. Don’t come at me Potterheads! I’m a little scared you guys can actually cast spells if I’m being honest.
In all seriousness, the chosen one trope is one of the most used and abused in all of fantasy history. Your protagonist, usually an unsuspecting underdog, finds out they’re the only one who can save the world from their arch-nemesis, Mr. Mustache Twirling Monacle Man! They go through a quick training sequence and save the world by the end of the story. Isn’t that such a great ending? Well, it can be.
The thing about this trope is that it places all the importance on the main character. It’s hard to care about the world and those in it when everyone else is collateral damage for the hero’s story.
It's also unearned. Whenever I see the chosen one win, I simply don’t care. If prophecy foretold that this would happen, then, of course, the good guy would win! It’s hard to care for a character who you know is just going to win either way. It makes the plot flimsy and a little boring.
2. Evil for Evil’s sake
Oh no! Mr. Mustache Twirling Monacle man is out to destroy the universe! He’s enacted an evil plan to wipe out all living things because… because… well because he’s evil of course! There’s no need to worry though. Mr. Good Guy Chosen One will come to the rescue and defeat evil because… because… because he’s good, and good always trumps evil! Why is he good? We don’t know. Why is Mr. Mustache Twirling Monacle Man evil? Who cares? Good always wins!
I get so tired of these good vs. evil stories. We get it! The main character is good just because, and the main villain is evil just because. Is it too much to ask for a villain to have some form of reasoning for why what they think is right, or even why they know they’re wrong but don’t care?
In “The Dark Knight Returns” The Joker doesn’t think his actions are good or just, and he isn’t driven by money or greed. Instead, he is driven by the ideology that under the right circumstances, anyone could be just like him. The Joker didn’t need some somber back story ( though we did get three) he just needed some explanation as to why he kept blowing buildings up!
Writers need to remember that characters who are just evil for the sake of being evil are uninteresting. Give me a villain who commits terrible deeds because it’s the only way he sees the ghost of his dead child. Give me a villain who does terrible things because they fit their perception of good. Give me anything other than evil for evil’s sake.
3. Medieval Europe
Gee, it’s a good thing Mr. Good Guy McChosen One lives in a giant castle in the middle of medieval England! It’s such a fresh and interesting way to take on the fantasy genre. It’s not like every single fantasy book has taken place somewhere similar. No, go right ahead. Maintain the same monarchy while you’re at it!
Okay, but in all seriousness, I am so tired of every fantasy novel taking place in Medieval Europe! Hello, Authors? There are more places in the world than Europe before they invented toilets!
I get the temptation to write in Europe. It’s a beautiful continent with a rich history, but sticking to this location totally limits your creativity.
Take ‘Avatar the Last Airbender’ for example. The whole story is derived from various Asian cultures and takes place in a world where the four nations take up the map. This made for one of the greatest stories ever told with amazing lore and locations.
So authors, please. Please write somewhere else. I beg of you.
4. Fantasy Jargon
Seeing as I’m already making a lot of writers mad, I’ll just add that I hate fantasy Jargon. I can’t tell if it's supposed to be old English or a new way of speaking entirely, but nothing turns me off from fantasy books faster than fantasy jargon.
“We shall venture upon the forest at noon,” Mr. Good Guy Prince informed the royal advisor, his silver armor glimmering in the pale moonlight.
“But it will be too traitorous my liege,” contested Fabrizio.
I get it. It sounds fancy, but we’re tired of it. The pattern of speech is all too overdone. As readers, we’d love to see and twist and character to a world’s language.
The way a character speaks should be unique to them. A servant should not use the same vocabulary and speech as a king (unless the story has a cause for it). Likewise, a character from one town should use a different dialect or slang than a character from another town.
5. Not Like Other Girls
My sister and I have a joke about “strong female characters”. Basically, we joke about how every time they want to present their female characters as strong, they make some strong guy act like a jerk, and have the woman beat them up.
These female characters will go on to be perfect in every way, possess mostly “masculine” traits, and be presented to us as being “not like other girls”.
As authors, we need to make an effort not to write perfect female characters who simply fight to show their strength. Stop presenting the female characters as “one of the guys” to prove she’s worthy of approval, respect, and the male love interest.
Stop presenting strength as only physical. Working to protect a family is strong. Being selfless is strong. Putting everything on the line for your cause is strong. Women’s strength doesn’t have to tie into how “masculine” they seem to be (though female characters can have masculine traits when written correctly).
6. Raising the Dead
Oh no! A side character was just tragically killed! It’s a good thing Mr. Good Guy McChosen One and his gang of misfits have conveniently found a way to raise the dead. It’s amazing that it only takes one adventure to the underworld to undermine the gravity and permanence of death.
In all fairness, an adventure to reanimate a dead loved one can be a very engaging story. It tells the story of the hardships of losing someone you love, portrays the yearning for something you’ve lost, and plays on our natural fear of death. However, too often, this plot device is misused as an easy way to add shock value to a story while circumventing the seriousness of death.
Death is an opportunity for character growth. How do your characters handle the grief of losing a loved one? What role does death play in the grander scheme of the story? What do your characters believe happens after they die?
Very often, we allow the resurrection of these characters to undermine the severity of death and eliminate the possibility for growth. Next time, try to add some depth to the death of a character. Let us feel it with them.
7. The Mentor
Lastly, can we all just agree that the mentor trope is well overdone? I mean, of course, Mr. Good Guy McChosen One has an elderly, wise, man as his mentor. God forbid he was mentored by a child, or a woman, or a fish for all I care. No, only an old man can teach our chosen one.
I’ve seen many cases where this trope is very well done. For instance, Uncle Iroh in “Avatar the Last Airbender” fits this trope to a “T”, yet, his presence in the show was just as refreshing as it was entertaining.
However, not every mentor needs to be a repeat of Merlin from the “King Arthur” stories. Sometimes the mentor can be Toph (again from Avatar as it is one of the best shows ever made), or Katara, or the badger moles. There are so many variations to this trope that repeating the same old sage, elderly man in a robe trope can seem a bit repetitive.
Writing is Hard Work
I know a lot of writers have these tropes in their books, and that’s alright. The point isn’t to make you feel bad about your writing or like you can never use these tropes (I use quite a few of them myself). It’s to help you recognize shortcomings or overdone tropes which you can make your work less unique.
Writing is hard, trust me I get it, and these tropes are so overdone because they work. However, as writers, it’s important that we don’t just rely on these tropes to produce work. We should always remember that the best books are born out of creativity, passion, and just a hint of cliche.
