7 Fantasy Tropes That Are Done to Death
It’s been a source of endless fascination to me, the way we tell each other stories, and the figures/archetypes that keep popping up over and again.
Every genre has its set of overdone tropes, and how we react to them in itself is a source of fascination ~ one man’s done-to-death enemies-to-lovers trope can be another’s long-lasting fantasy.
So today, I wanted to delve into some of my least favorite tropes in fantasy. And the nominees are..
#1. Antagonists that are Evil Incarnate.
Maybe it’s just something in my brain’s wiring, but I’ve always been drawn to the baddies. I’ll take an antihero’s POV over a traditional hero any day of the week, and enjoy my evil overlords with a little more nuance.
See, I don’t buy into the “this guy is evil just because he is” idea. Because that’s lazy writing, and makes the antagonist difficult to relate to. The truth is, we all have a little (or a lot of) evil in us. We all have the potential to do terrible, dark things, and to me, that potential is way more interesting to explore than a supremely evil lord who’s only interested in power and death.
I want the evil overlord who craves power because he was powerless as a child. That’s what I want.
#2. The Prophecy.
To me, again, this is an example of lazy writing. I wondered, writing this, why we’re so fascinated with the idea of fortune-telling and prophecies. Why do we need some seer to say ‘it is written’ to feel okay?
Because of uncertainty. Because our world is full of it, as is our personal life on a smaller level, and we’re scared. We want to believe there’s someone who knows and oversees how things turn out.
That’s why the ‘prophecy’/’chosen one’ storyline is so prevalent in our fiction. And while that trope can be done really well, it can also kill off more interesting storylines.
I don’t think a lot of this is pre-written. I think our actions determine our fate. I think we make most of it up as we go along. And that’s what I want to see in a character. As above, the potential for evil, the treading the line between saving the world and damning it forever.
#3. Damsel in Distress.
You could argue it’s a feminist urge kicking in, but I don’t think so. In my personal life, I’m very action-oriented. I am not a fan of victim mentality, of chosen powerlessness. I believe in the individual’s ability to take charge, and to change their surroundings/situation.
So, for me, when I see a damsel in distress narrative, I don’t necessarily think “Oh, that’s sexist”. It grates, not because it’s anti-woman, but because it’s anti-human. We all grow when we take responsibility for our actions, and the bad situations we’re in. And I think we need more of that in fiction.
#4. The Secret Heir.
This one just irritates me because it’s been done to death. From King Arthur onward, we’ve had an understandable fascination with simple peasant boys who were actually the heirs to the throne. And it’s logical, because it gave one the impression that, no matter their social level, they could still, through some miracle, rise.
In fiction, I don’t like it because it’s on-the-nose. I know the bastard, or the unassuming cook’s son, or whoever is going to turn out to be the rightful heir, so it’s no longer intriguing to me.
Sadly, in our world, it’s often unprepared, entitled, selfish first-born sons who end up inheriting empires, and wielding power. I want to see stories about those. Maybe X isn’t the rightful heir, but he leads a rebellion against the a-hole true heir, and ends up king, in his stead. To me, that’s more exciting.
#6. The Fated Lovers.
It seems written somewhere that whenever boy hero meets girl hero, they will fall in love. And I get it. We need love, we’re fascinated by love stories. But what I want to see is a story where boy hero meets girl hero and they become really close friends, who show up for each other, and pull each other out of jams.
I want a hero who’s already happily married, but forms a deep platonic connection with his “fated” lover. I mean, why not?
#7. Populations Either Wildly Advanced or Entirely Savage.
To an extent, it’s natural for fantasy and science-fiction to explore realms of existence drastically different from ours. That’s the point of these genres, but I think that’s reductive. In many storylines, the hero either is part of (or ends up in) a super-advanced future society with flying cars or what not, or a jungle tribe that hasn’t yet invented toilet paper.
And sure, these are interesting avenues of thought to explore, but they also detract from the story, in some cases. It’s easy to distract the reader with flying cars to make up for a subpar storyline, but fantasy can be about people just like us. You know, the boring in-betweeners.
Bonus: Overexplained Magic Systems.
I know this is a very divisive one in the fandom, with some people loving the details and the intricately explained magic systems, and others, like me, hating them.
As a writer, I get the fascination, the desire to explain how exactly things work. But as a reader, I also just want to sit down and be transported into a world so drastically different which just is. Sometimes, when an author explains their magic system, it comes off as asking for permission ~ is this okay? This is how my world works, and I need you to understand it, to sanction and follow the story.
But that’s the beauty of this genre. If you tell me you can cause a thunderstorm by chanting over a dark crystal, I’m gonna buy it. Because I want to explore a fantasy, not a rigid reality.
Anyway, these are just some tropes that I could do without in my reader life.
What are your least liked fantasy tropes?
Guess what. I am actually publishing my first novel this fall. Wild, I know. Meanwhile, I’m gonna be documenting my process/journey/slow descent into madness on here, while also dropping the occasional opinion piece.
So if you’re someone who enjoys that kinda writing, well, why not subscribe? It’s free. And I’m desperate. So there, honesty.
