10 Worst Fantasy Tropes in Books pt 2

What's crazy is I just watched this as prep work for my DnD world creation 😆
I get what you are saying though and I have no intention on becoming a novelist. Goal is simply to create a world with stories and tropes that are not done to death.

I have, like... the main cast of my book so far that travels is three ladies (one of which is a doctor and a necromancer by accident), and the dude belongs to a secretive group of people. There is, like, one person in that group that has no prejudice towards her, and it's because she is an Inquisitor.

When talking about magical tattoos my mind went directly to penny from the magicians 😂

1 — Writers for this trope can't even hide behind "But that's just how it is in reality!!!" because as it turns out, even monarchies that preferred male heirs still had exceptions where a daughter might inherit if she has no brothers to take the throne. And in those cases, it was usually the woman, the "Queen" who had the royal power, while her husband, the "Consort" (not always considered a "King") was basically a glorified sperm donor. Not to say there WEREN'T monarchies that tried really hard to avoid having women in any sort of power, but usually they just sucked it up and tried to put the queen's first son in power as soon as they could. However, giving power to the Queen's husband wouldn't have been what the royal family wanted, the same way they wouldn't have wanted the King's wife to have any real power (altho in both cases, what they wanted and what they got weren't always aligned.)
4 — Hahahaha. Yeah, it's a good point. Most writers in general take hygiene for granted, so it's kinda understandable how a writer might accidentally write an "outdoors fun" scene that they think is hot in their mind, but the logistics of the whole scene just turn out dirty and gross without realizing.

You have lost your mind.

There is a fun thing with mentoring that I read once in a light novel that had a regression trope to it, the protagonist gets mentored by a guy who dies (trope) but then the protagonist regresses and ends up essentially becoming the mentor to his old mentor before they originally were supposed to meet

In my fantasy novel, everyone is named "Bob", I mean "Roebyrt"!

A court of most and fury: 👁️👄👁️

I just realized I have a mentor character who dies. But I don't think "simply being tired of life and choosing your time to go" is a method that's used often (this character is near-immortal and just done after a few centuries. He goes peacefully).

Mentors usually die in battle, as a plot twist, or "cross over" when "their time comes". In my story, it's narratively known from not long after the MC meets him that he's eventually going to end it, and thus I treat it as more of a ticking clock vs. "no, you can't leave me yet!" MC does come to stand on her own long before then (honestly, the "mentor" figure doesn't so much teach as he does wind her up and let her destroy things for his own amusement. XP), so when they do finally part, it's more like equal friends instead of teacher and student.

I'm a white man approaching 40 years old, should I just stop talking?

English isn't the only language though. Names that are easy to pronounce in englsih can be difficult in context of other languages. Also names from, for example, central asian countries, Portugal, or Greece will be much harder for english speakers to pronouce, but easy for THEM to pronounce. In Russia or Tajikistan, Alexander is commonly spelled Aleksandr. I have a name that is hard to pronounce for others (not my display name), but this doesn't bother me or strangers

The magic tattooa just made me think of Maui from Moana.

“Who’d have dirty sex against the tree??”
…As a vet who’s trying his hand at writing, you’d be surprised at how nasty people can get while you’re out training in the field for the past 20 days with no showers and using a dug up fox hole to do your business in if you didn’t have any porta johns. Im just saying, things that seem gross to you, if I didn’t walk in/ see it with my own eyes, I’d be with you there. Now imagine how them medieval folks got down

oh my god I have a sex-in-snow scene. But there’s magic heat so 😂

Sad to see you're another delusional leftist.

holy shit i never thought you could disqualify yourself that fast but you actually did it, good job jenna ;-) your statements aren't about the actual quality of the writing but make everyhting up about gender. not everythign is about gender roles. if you have a dark fantasy setting, it has usually a backward unjust societal structure. and you reducing everything to that is just poor. it's like you're just seeing black an white when the whole novel is made made of a whole color palette. just because it doesn't have the colors in there that you prefer doesn't make it a bad novel. so i have to discard your expertise on writing because you focus on the wrong things. goodbye

Omg yes the dirty sex one always bothered me… I always think mmh yeah they both stinky. 😂

For the first one (I guess still not original, but...): the princess MAY give throne to a Dude if she marries him. AND she is willing to give the trone away to then run away and pursue other goals. BUT she can't leave the kingdom for someone who is not-good-enough leader, so she puts a lot of effort in choosing the right man... for the kingdom, of course 😅 and then... there can be variants )

How do you make a case for calling someone a misogynist or a dumbass and then make the exact argument for the female version? Not saying you are a misandrist, could just be a dumbass. On top of that some of the writers that have done this are women. So I think your point highly misses the mark. Not to mention most fantasy is older school high fantasy where men tended to leave homes more often based around biology. Even game of thrones shows that most of the women that get out into the world were either those thay were highly skilled or possessed either great power and wealth while the average person that was out doing battle was men. That has nothing to do with women hating. Most of it has to do with the fact that men are willing to kill and die more often because of a very straight forward biological difference. Any man can make seman, no man can actually carry a baby. Men see that as their future, their legacy. So they are willing to die and kill to protect women and children or the potential for children because they see themselves as replaceable. Many of your points were not things about tropes, just your personal philosophy having issues with how other people write. Even your mentor comment carried some weird racist sentiment by consistently mentioning white like saying white things like that means something. That means you also think there are things only black people say.

Old wise white things? I dont know what you mean by that but that sounds weirdly racist. Like imagine saying they say black things... Like wtf were you going for there?

Regarding 100% evil races: What about demons and devils? Can they be 100% evil? (Although I could see an interesting story being written around a demon with quirky limits about how evil they're willing to be.)

Full of hate. And Just keeps saying fuck all the time. Delete.

Have you read Wheel of Time?
#5 Moiraine really?
You will like Wheel of Time series because it isnt #10

Magic tattoos started with D&D in the 90s I think, first time I remember it was planescape, it was a big part. Two strikes at once

Haha the dog thing

I actually really enjoy how The Owl House handled the mentor trope. Eda starts off as Luz's mentor, introducing her to how magic functions. However, because Luz isn't a witch, she has to learn how to wield magic in a different way with a series of runes. By the end of season 1, Eda's curse completely strips her of her magic, meaning she has to start learning how to use runes like Luz does. In other words, Luz and Eda's dynamic as student and mentor completely flips on its head.

You got me inspired. J have this one female character who is smart, and DON'T want to things "the old way". She is trying to change that from the inside. I will make her a mentor for my other character (magic). Btw, she is in her 50s and is one of the Youngest from the Old Ones 😁

Jaxon i have no defense for, but Faythe is the old English version of the word. i could see that in a book where they are trying to be old English.

I'm giving you thumbs up for the ordinary names spelled differently or a bit changed like Peeta(Peter), Dannyl(Daniel), Katniss(Kathrine). This is so lazy.

It takes the "sex" out of "sexy", leaving you asking "y".

Normally, I totally agree with you on what you had to say about using the term mate, as it sounds very dehumanizing, but in the Sci-Fi Horror stories I am writing, the main antagonist is a girl who was born a human-spider hybrid, who thinks & behaves as a spider would. She sees things as a spider does, & views any male she deems genetically acceptable as her mate. She will take as many mates as she needs to in order to ensure survival of the species. Since she knows that she cannot bear offspring by copulating with another female, her mate must always be male, because, like a spider, she sees mating as only having a single purpose, to produce offspring, in order to ensure survival of her kind, not for sexual pleasure or gratification. Humans she doesn't see as potential mates, she views only as prey, to be fed upon. She views sex & reproduction the way a spider would. In fact, all her behavior is based on that of spiders. I think this should serve as a suitable exception to not using the term mate.

Alright, Jenna - I just bought the book in hc because my novel development is floundering. Thanks!

im laughing at this comment section full of angry men lol

salty

Depending on the timeline, in my fantasy kingdom (one of them) there's a royal family, but the oldest child is the heir, not just the males. And later on, the country is ruled by a council instead. I never really thought of it as being "modern" but apparently is it.

To be fair, it wouldn’t be that difficult for a man to stay erect in the snow. I could be in the snow, with the flu, bleeding from two gunshot wounds and I’d still be able to perform if she’s down lol

My name isn’t Stephanie it’s Cdefuhneigh

I'm writing a story about dogs and even then I still refuse to use the word mate

yaaaaaaaay so glad i dont have any of these and therefore wont have to change anything!!!!

“Save the insanity for your magic system.” Lulz!

I'm getting sick of female characters who don't seem to have anything to do during the day except maybe a hobby like write or paint, while the male love interest is in "meetings", or "patrolling the border". Feels so, empty.

My setting is a republic. I figured dictatorial power through conquest and occupation would be near impossible when a significant percentage of the general population can do magic

I simply had to refer to Chaol as "Cowl" in my head and now I'm too afraid to ask how to actually say it.

It's like forking at a music fest

I really don't like how enamored fantasy tends to be with the "one true king," or "rightful heir," acting like totalitarian regimes are only bad when the wrong person is in power.

Also, relatedly, fantasy authors need to stop treating anyone who isn't a big bad or a chosen one as subhuman and unimportant enough to be guiltlessly mowed down.

"How come all of these deamons from literal abyss can be all evil? How can a race be evil totally? There must be some good demons and devils."

The only one of these tropes I'm guilty of (so far, only half way through book 1), is the names... got a character called Aless (pronounced like Alice). I like it and I'm keeping it, dagnabit!

#6 The entire fantasy race is evil. Somehow this one has me trying to picture a good Dementor.

I have two characters who grew up not knowing they were magic.

Because until the reveal, they had zero reason to even think it. The first one has a 'hereditary' ability that she only gets when her mother is killed, and the man who ends up mentoring her is angry on her behalf for her parents never informing her about her heritage. The second one has a magical ability that makes her pass for non-magical, and yet, as soon as it becomes apparent she is magical, she resists only for a day because of personal bias, but sucks it up when it's shown to be reality.

I also have a character with magical tattoos. But it's Shadowrun fanfic, and they exist within the ruleset. She's a type of magic user who's magic is innate to her body (adept) and so having specially-created tattoos can confer additional abilities. Since her mentor is lyrebird (homebrew), she has the iconic lyrebird tail feathers along her collarbones... she also has some of the basic tail feathers on her ankles, but they're in white so don't really show. Then again, the others rarely show, either, as she typically doesn't show a lot of clavicle when dressed.

I love D&D, but I could never turn one of my campaigns into a novel. Sessions are sometimes frustrating when someone decides to do something stupid, just because they can. It doesn't make it good storytelling. It's fun when being played, but story wise, I'm not going to make my characters take turns or anything of the sorts, and end up stalling my own story. Also, that's something I do with a group of people. It would be unfair to write it into a book and expect them to give me permission. Sounds lazy.

A matriarchy could be cause "we gotta make sure the heir is actually the heir" cause in a lot of era's of history, royals slept around A-LOT