The Wolf Maid Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Oh, just wondering about what are your pet peeves in fantasy? Cliched storylines? Pretty eleves? Lousy plot? Too many damsels in distress? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MeanMrMustard Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Fantasy authors who didn't get laid in high school and write painfully transparent sexual fantasies into their books. Just kidding, that's actually my favorite part! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Girl Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 The woman in the tin brassierre. Also as portrayed by the fantasy artists, not just authors. It's why I stopped reading fantasy in HS and had to be coaxed to try Martin by a friend years later. At least slap some decent armor on her for chrissake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerol Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Well, the callow youth that is more than he appears and will rise up to challenge the dark lord...with the help of a kindly old wizard, of course. Act One, Scene One of every fantasy novel should begin with the callow youth being eviscerated by a servant of the dark lord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BranTheBuilder Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Act One, Scene One of every fantasy novel should begin with the callow youth being eviscerated by a servant of the dark lord. too true! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Multaniette Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 wise uncle/aunt who always has the best interests of the protagonist at heart. trusty and dependable (often military) sidekick who is either the butt of all jokes or a very discrete listener. the staid, efficent castle warden. the haughty princess who suddenly turns over a new leaf after meeting Mr. Nice Guy (aka our protagonist) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Analu Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I can't stand the cliched "boy gets pushed off tower by incestuous royalty and wakes up crippled but with special powers while blondhaired pusher loses sword hand, frees his midget bro who stands accused of killing his son/king, refuses to fuck his sister and gains humility" storyline. It's getting a little old. Actually, I hate the storyline where someone who's never used a weapon in his life can master it in about 6-12 months and take out enemies who have been training their whole lives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MinDonner Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Not so much a cliche, but I really really hate it when characters from a fantasy or other fictional world find some way of coming into the "real" world. Worst cliche's gotta be the bad guy gloating over his victims and explaining his plot. After all the jokes and piss-takes, people STILL write this scene into their books; it beggars belief! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asa Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Elves. Dwarves, and Dark Lords. Oh, and Black Ride clones drive me FRICKIN' INSANE. I read 4 books in a row with Black Rider clones in them, and I wanted to pull out my hair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crazydog7 Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I only have one word to say here Mordsith (and all those other times one author shamlesly rips off another concept) Ok so thats not really a pet peeve so much as it is my statment of belife. My hope that ever single fantasy fan will join in the crusade agianst Terry "I'm really not a racist you just think I am" Goodkind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snuffaluffalee Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 I can't stand the cliched "boy gets pushed off tower by incestuous royalty and wakes up crippled but with special powers while blondhaired pusher loses sword hand, frees his midget bro who stands accused of killing his son/king, refuses to fuck his sister and gains humility" storyline. It's getting a little old. I thought I was the only one! Well it could be worse. I mean, horrid princes that gets what's coming by means of pie (variations on pigeon, pork, and chocolate) is so overplayed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 The Band of Heroes. :cool: A group of varied, and in many cases opposed, characters that join in a quest to achieve something important. Why on Earth destroying your local unfriendly dark lord always involves a long travel through remote areas infested with his minions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maid Sansa Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Word, Agulla. And over every single country on a woefully clichéd map full of geographical impossibilities. Meanwhile, the band of heroes bickers, someone dazzles someone else with their singing and someone finds true love. Ugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Paladin Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 The Band of Heroes. That's still my ASIOAF nightmare. The bastard boy who is really the heir to the throne leads his dragonriding princess, the wisecracking dwarf, the magic using crippled boy and his brooding sister (who just happens to be a master assassin) off into the trackless north to face the great other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hark Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Songs! I hate it when fantasy books contain songs! We don't know what they sound like, so we have to make up our own "medievalish" sounding tune as we read words which are usually barely related/important to the story. The farmer went to market He did! He did! The whore played in his pockets She did! She did! Hey! Ho! The townsfolk looked low For what spilled out o' farmer's pockets They did! They did! I HATE IT!! Tolkien was the WORST at this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Yes, the maps. And look this land wide and plentiful, crossed by rivers and covered by forests, it's empty! Nobody is living there, no farmers no herders, just a bunch of outposts of civilization that nobody knows what are they doing there if nobody is travelling by that road. And of course the most sensible route is closed or watched by the enemy so the Band of Heroes has to go through one far more dangerous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Act One, Scene One of every fantasy novel should begin with the callow youth being eviscerated by a servant of the dark lord. Funnily enough, when I first AGoT for the first time I was pondering if Will was supposed to be the hero of the story. When he was indeed eviscerated by a servant of the dark lord at the end of the prologue, I guessed this wasn't the case. One thing I would like would be for stories where there refreshingly doesn't appear to be a Dark Lord to actually not have a fricking Dark Lord turn up halfway through the series. Malazan Book of the Fallen has done this (with the Crippled God), as has ASoIF (with the Great Other) and the Riftwar Saga (with the Mad God), whilst without even reading Prince of Nothing I know there is a Dark Lord-esque entity known as the No-God. Okay, Feist aside I know all of these writers are approaching the idea differently (and in Martin's case the Great Other may just be a superstition whose existence will never be proved one way or another), but still it would be nice if something else turned out to be the enemy. I harbour fears of getting sucked into Scott Lynch's series only for somewhere around book four a character suddenly reveals the return of the Eldren God of Shadow to destroy the world or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaxom 1974 Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Funnily enough, when I first AGoT for the first time I was pondering if Will was supposed to be the hero of the story. When he was indeed eviscerated by a servant of the dark lord at the end of the prologue, I guessed this wasn't the case. Ah...the very scene that marked this series as being something more than it's makers... As to some of the cliches, I supposed the better question is, "How do you avoid them"? I submit it isn't possible to have good fantasy without some throwback to the age old cliches...ya'll say otherwise, I'm sure, but even Martin contains elements of the cliches, even when he is eviscerating them... Myself? I don't mind the intrepid band of heroes cliche...I just expect more out of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 Now that you name Scott Lynch (I'm just reading The Lies of Locke Lamora) I just add two words to our list: Thieves Guild And I'm enjoying the book, really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 12, 2006 Share Posted June 12, 2006 The exception that proves the rule. The 'thieves guild' in LLL is awesome. I'd also add the 'band of grizzled, veteran but soft-hearted soldiers'. It's kind of okay in isolation, but in Erikson the entire 100,000-strong Malazan army is made up of them, apart from the noble officers who are naturally all incompetent bastards whom their men plot to kill continuously. Erikson does add a lot more depth than that to his credit, but I think the basic idea itself should have been used only occasionally, if at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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