If you could write your own fantasy....

[DrFaroohk]

This thread for me is about those things in fantasy stories, movies or even video games that I just never cared for, so here's a few things I'd change...

1) The useless wizard. Every story has some kind of god-like magister among them who strangely never lifts a finger to help them. I know there's always a reason why he doesn't, but it really amounts to retconning. In my story, the hero kills the wizard after the first two or three times he doesn't come through.

2) How did you get so strong? The EVIL wizard somehow always manages to outshine the good guys, even though you're left wondering how'd he get so strong? I prefer the manipulators like Benjamin Linus over the tanks like voldemort. In my story, the evil wizard isn't gonna be all that tough.

3) Why are we so shitty? Similar to #2, but it involves the "light" side always being really weak and pathetic. My good guys are gonna be l33t to the max. My heroes are going to be a legion of death knights and paladins. Not level 1 peasants.

4) And while we're at it...no more "last minute" trainee saves the day. I'm tired of that. if you're a 12 year old boy, you do not defeat Ares in a sword fight. If you've been a jedi for a couple of weeks, you do not defeat vader in combat. You do not reflect the evil wizard's wand power. you do not pass go. You do not collect 200 gold coins. You lose, you die, and the veteran comes in to save the day as he should.

Feel free to add on!

[Andara Bledin]

#1) I don't know. I don't use this convention in my writing. Though it could fall under the 'good fairy' clause, where but for the existence of your own good fairy, you could be the hero.

#2) Evil is underhanded, sneaky, and cheats. Plus, they're not hampered by that pesky thing called morality.

#3) Because it gives the reader someone to relate to. If the good guys start out super tough, you kill any of the wish-fulfillment aspect that many fantasies strive for. After all, if some nobody in the story is really a powerful wizard-prince, then the reader can dream that they could be, too.

#4) See #3. Seriously, if no odds are overcome, there's no climax.

I actually write fiction for a hobby and am planning to flesh out one of my stories for a submission to a publisher a bit later this year. There are very valid reasons why certain conventions exist.

If you take #2 and #3 together in your little list, you'd have the most boring story ever. No build up and certainly no climax. Weak bad guy plus strong good guy equals ho-hum story with no surprises. Plus, most uber-strong heroes (even the ones that start out as farmboys) tend to be pathetically blatant Mary Sues. And when they aren't, it's because the 'main character' is actually just some shadow with so little development that nearly any reader could fill in the blanks with themselves to be the object of affection for said powerful character. Hack writing at it's finest.

^-.-^

[HYHYBT]

I don't remember coming across that much of #1. Wizards generally don't just swoop in and fix everything at the snap of a finger (and really, what kind of a story would that make anyway?) but they're generally doing SOMETHING important.

[Kaylyn]

In the classic story structure in fiction writing, you NEED to have a main character that is weaker than the villain in some way, either less powerful, or otherwise somehow prevented from solving the problem. I agree that a Benjamin Linus is often more interesting to read than a Voldemort, at least for my personal tastes, but a key point in fiction is that the bad guy has to look like he's going to win until the hero pulls through near the end of Act III. Often this is easier to do by having a neophyte hero, but I agree that if this is the case, it should be his mind that gets him through, not dumb luck or a deus ex machina plot device (like how his wand just HAPPENS to not work against Voldemort, or how the link between them just HAPPENS to make him nearly impossible to be killed by him).

Ooh, while we're on that subject, anyone else get bugged about the situation in Goblet of Fire where he's fighting the dragon? If he's gonna summon something, why summon a broomstick that's a mile away? Why not summon the freaking DRAGON EGG in front of his face that he's supposed to be getting? Maybe it was enchanted to resist summoning, like the horcruxes, but we'll never know, because he didn't even try! I love the Harry Potter series, but that's one situation that stands out to me just now. I know there are plenty others like it as well, but the story itself is compelling enough for me to keep reading despite the occasional plot hole.

As far as to add to the original topic, my absolute favorite thing to see in a story is a villain that you sympathize with. I adore Loghain in the Dragon Age video game/novel series. What you learn of it in Origins is somewhat generic, but when you read the prequels and understand how he came to be who he was and what makes him tick, you almost feel sorry for him in the endgame of Origins. In the new Batman movie series, I sympathize with Harvey Dent and wish he'd been more of a focus than the Joker, or had his own film, because I found his story endearing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I want to see a heroine who's either butch or plain, and who turned to fighting for a reason other than to get revenge on the evil guy who killed/kidnapped her boyf.

Just seems that a lot of fantasy heroines are moonlighting as beauty queens. If they really were fighting nonstop, they wouldn't look that good.

[Nyoibo]

Just seems that a lot of fantasy heroines are moonlighting as beauty queens. If they really were fighting nonstop, they wouldn't look that good.

Not a main character/heroine, but Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones kind of sums that up pretty well.

[firecat88]

I want to see a heroine who's either butch or plain, and who turned to fighting for a reason other than to get revenge on the evil guy who killed/kidnapped her boyf.

Just seems that a lot of fantasy heroines are moonlighting as beauty queens. If they really were fighting nonstop, they wouldn't look that good.

Allow me to direct you to anything written by Tamora Pierce.

[Andara Bledin]

I think the Valentine Lovelace books by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough feature a pretty heroine, but she's not in the adventuring biz for the usual reasons. The first book is while trying to become a penny dreadful author, and the second is to put the ghost of her father to rest (because he's annoying the heck out of her) and because her aunt stole her royalties.

^-.-^

[gremcint]

I've always wanted to write a huge popular fantasy epic and then have the good guys lose, horribly, and end the story there.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not quite the same thing, but I'd love to see a LOTR fanfiction story that has the heroine fall in love with Gimli. XD Now, that would be interesting and original.

[Parvenu]

I want to see a heroine who's either butch or plain, and who turned to fighting for a reason other than to get revenge on the evil guy who killed/kidnapped her boyf.

Just seems that a lot of fantasy heroines are moonlighting as beauty queens. If they really were fighting nonstop, they wouldn't look that good.

Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion Novels

* Sheepfarmer's Daughter
* Divided Allegiance
* Oath of Gold

The story begins by introducing Paks as a headstrong girl of 18, who leaves her home in Three Firs (fleeing a marriage arranged by her father) to join a mercenary company and through her journeys and hardships comes to realize that she has been gifted as a paladin, if in a rather non-traditional way.

[Andara Bledin]

There are actually a ton of really great "young adult" fantasy books that have some great female protagonists.

Another that comes to mind is Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series.

^-.-^

[Lace Neil Singer]

I like Tanith Lee's books; her female heroines are never the "beauty queen" type. My fave is the "Birthgrave Trilogy". They're rather hard to get hold of, sadly.

[anakhouri]

The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley have excellent heroines.

And Brienne in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire isn't getting revenge for any dead boyfriend. She's just more than 6 feet tall and likes to fight.

And I have written fantasy novels, but nothing like the high fantasy/epic fantasy that is being discussed.

[Nyoibo]

And Brienne in George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire isn't getting revenge for any dead boyfriend. She's just more than 6 feet tall and likes to fight.

And she's damn good at it too.