Poor old genre fiction is often maligned- even by me š Too often I talk about the downsides of tropes and themes I donāt like- so today, since Iāve got a lot of my Moaning Minnie opinions out of my system, I thought it would be fun to talk about some fantasy tropes I actually love!
*Magic*- especially if thereās too much of it!! Which may sound weird to everyone- cos either you think like me ācan there BE too much magic?!ā or you think āwelllll there are limitsā. For me there are no limits! Iām always willing to suspend my disbelief for fantasy and this will always make me excited š
Dragons– all the DRAGONS!! Now, I will admit, Iām a bit more discerning when it comes to dragons- as I said in my least favourite fantasy tropes post I wonāt just settle for any old dragon. Still, that comes from a place of love, because I canāt really say it enough: dragons are my favourites!
C
ool gadgets/magical artefacts– similar to the dragons, Iām not always into magical gizmo fixes all the problems/needs to be destroyed in order to save the world. That said, I do get a thrill when little magical objects find their way into the story and are shown off in a James-Bond-gets-his-gadgets kind of scene.Ā
Antagonist turned ally– I just love redemption arcs. So, whether itās an enemies to lovers twist, or an antagonist turned ally, I am super on board for this trope!! At the same time, I wouldnāt say no toā¦Ā
The *just deserts* being served– as much as I love villains learning the error of their ways, I also enjoy them being punished just as much. Especially cos not all villains are created equal and sometimes itās satisfying to see the Walder Freys of stories being served their own sons, Titus Andronicus style š
Quests! A huge part of the fantasy genre is the heroās journey and what better way to get them started than sending them off on a literal journey?! While I think this can easily go wrong or be done badly, I can still be tempted by a jolly jaunt into fantasy land. For me, this will never get old!!
Going into the *wilds* and coming back transformed– this is an age-old trick in folklore, which Tolkien drew on and famously made a part of the genre. Itās very typical to read a fantasy novel where the main character ventures out into the unknown (most often represented as forests) and learns something dark and twisted about the world or themselves. Itās a stalwart part of the genre- and I canāt get enough of it.
Mysterious libraries/castles/schools– naturally, adding magic can make the mundane more special- who knew? š Seriously though, some locations blend better into the fantasy realms. Personally, I really appreciate when buildings are transformed into something creepier and more enigmatic. Speaking of whichā¦
Ghosts and necromancy– blame Garth Nixās Sabriel for cementing my love for this one š Funnily enough, Iām easily creeped out, yet I still firmly believe the ability to bridge the divide between life and death is one of the best things about fantasy. Itās such a great opportunity to explore interesting and unearthly themes. I canāt quite get enough of fantasy books which draw up the veil and dance over this line. Ā
All hope is lostā¦ oh no wait it isnāt! Also known as the āhere comes the cavalryā twist. Maybe Iām a masochist, but I get all jittery when the author makes me truly believe weāve reached the end of the road and then *DADA* reinforcements come at the last second.
And thatās all I have for now! What do you think of these tropes? Do you have any favourite fantasy motifs of your own? Let me know in the comments!
#3 Misunderstandings– okay getting to the first controversial one. Lots of people hate this one- and believe me, I get why- the thing is… I don’t hate it. I think it’s a staple of romance for a reason, partly cos (unfortunately) it’s realistic, but mostly cos it creates tension and reasons for people not to be together, without resorting to making the love interests terrible people (aka indecisiveness, cheating, and basically most of the ingredients for a typical love triangle). Also, it nearly always gets used in one of my favourite ever tropes…
#6 Redemption Arcs– this one can be unpopular, cos some people think it’s overdone… annnd I don’t care. Darth Vader, Snape, any other controversial redemption arc- I am *there* for it. For me, it’s a basic idea that if someone goes into the dark side, there has to be a way they can find their way back and if it’s done well nothing hits me in the gut more. More than that, I enjoy pontificating aboutĀ how far a character can be redeemed (one great copout I totally approve of is for the baddie to redeem themselves and promptly die- yes, I’m sneaking in another trope that I am totally a sucker for š )
#9 
#11 Ridiculously overpowered characters or magic systems– this one’s a weird one for me to include, cos it skirts super close to the 
Dragons that are just giant lizards– or anything that tramples over dragonlore. I donāt know if Iām the only one that gets shirty about the representation of dragons in fantasy- but mannnn Iāve seen some dragons that read as stroppy teenagers (Talon), dragons that are little more than lizard people (Seraphina), dragons that canāt breathe so much as a noxious gasā¦. Okay maybe that last oneās not so important, yet I do have high standards for my dragons, so Iām not particularly crazy about it when they turn out to be lousy (except in discworld, where they are epically lousy). One thing I have learned is that labelling something a dragon does not make it a dragon.
Mr Evil– yup one of my least favourite tropes is the obviously evil villain with zero motivations for his/her actions (oh letās face it, itās nearly always male) JUST GIVE THEM A GOOD MOTIVE GAH!! And make them three dimensional for heavenās sake! Also, while weāre on the subject āborn evilā doesnāt work for me- I find the best villains take a dark path by choice and have that possibility of redemption (basically Darth Vader is awesome)
āI think youāre a Nazi baby, are you a Nazi?ā– Basically evil organisations that are supposed to be Nazi-esque yet arenāt all that scary or motivated by the same sort of ideas, but whatever, hereās the paraphernalia, thatāll do. This comes back to me hating lame-ass villains. Iām also not keen on the āeveryone I hate is Hitlerā bandwagon or hanging on the coattails of true evil to imply the baddies really are bad. It’s not good enough to just whip out the “fascist” label like inĀ 
Needless exposition– The āIāve done loads of work on world building so you need to read *ALL OF IT*ā trope. Seriously, if itās not plot expedient, cut it out. Itās just boring and itās why I quit the 
Pointless meandering about– this is what I like to call book travelling syndrome. Annnd I will admit, I coined the phrase specifically because itās something I struggled with early as a writer (and still do to an extent). The problem arises from the simple thought process: ātheyāll wander about, have adventures, itāll be a blastā. What you end up with is not good. There are so few books that manage to pull this off (aka The Neverending Story) and yet itās unreal how often this turns up in fantasy. I will admit, I always sympathise with the writers for this one š (even if itās still boring as eff to read)
Ripping off Tolkien– do I need to explain why this is bad? Before people get mad, I will say that borrowingĀ is a natural part of writing and this is a tricky area to navigate, so take everything I’m about to say with a grain of salt. This is a question ofĀ how much does this resemble Lord of the Rings.Ā I donāt mind the odd elf, but maybe cool it on the orcs, hobbits, dragons, dwarves, ents etc. I’ll *hold my hands up* as guilty writer again- when I first started out I had a fair number of theseĀ (this is unintentionally turning into a what-I-did-as-a-teen writer confession piece š ). But I grew up and realised *whoa I can do other things*. And itās not just the copycat creatures. Iāve read whole books where Iāve genuinely thought cāmon this is just Lord of the Rings. An original plot point or two wouldnāt hurt. Speaking of whichā¦
The *Chosen One*– especially if thereās a prophecy attached. This is something Iām sick of most of all, because it is literally done to death at this point. It was even shoehorned into a Peter Pan movie recently andĀ Throne of GlassĀ looks like it’s headed in that direction.Ā Ironically, any play on the trope and Iām instantly in love with the book (you guys know how much I love Carry On, right?). If it turns up in a serious capacityā¦ *groan*.
The Dumbledore– every hero needs a mentor- but why-oh-why must some parents/teachers withhold vital plot information because *reasons*- even if knowing it earlier could save the heroās life!! For some reason they figure itās better to hear this from the antagonist or something??? I never understood this one to be honest- it seems like a pointless way to build tension- when really it could be solved by the mentor not knowing all the secrets. (And for older followers, yes, I mentioned this in my 
The *not dead yet* trick– I have a love-hate relationship with this one, because it’s something that can work if done well (all the different narrators in Game of Thrones mean that weāre often on shaky ground when it comes to whoās alive and whoās dead) BUT I feel like this can so easily suck and is something I see overused in YA. The biggest problem is if the character doesnāt matter or if it literally showed they got a ton of arrows to chest Boromir-style and just HOW?!?Ā 
The magical sword or any magical weapon really thatās given too much power– you know, the *special* sword, or the only arrow that can possibly kill a dragon, or the one ring (okay not that last one). I actually feel bad for all the magical swords that are attached to the hero and by proxy make them look good. What gets to me even more is how often these turn up in the most convenient of places, like tombs that for some reason were never raided, even though they stood in a deserted landscape for millennia- someone clearly never looked at archaeological history.
The āoh look savages!ā trope– I debated over whether/how to put this on the list- but thereās no way to sugarcoat it and you all know what Iām talking about anyway. There is some seriously dodgy stuff in old fantasy- particularly from the 80s I believe- where thereās this kind of tribal tourism going on. I want to say, in fairness to the authors, thereās often this āsurprise, theyāre people!ā moment (no shit Sherlock) which always makes me think the authors are seriously trying to be progressiveā¦ only trouble is, it was the eighties, itās about as progressive as a spinning wheel in the 21stĀ century.
Being the second book in a trilogy, not much happens. Obviously, Sallyās all grief stricken and stuff, so cue: cutting off hair to signal character development.
But then bad stuff happens, Sallyās part is revealed anyway, and everyoneās mad at her. Damn it. Now no one likes her anymore and that sucks.Ā Cue: long thoughtful gazes in the mirror to signal more character development/thoughtfulness.
Meet Sally McEveryman. There is absolutely nothing special about her. She is so plain, with her mousy brown hair and ordinary brown eyes. Her hobbies include doing laundry and reading books. No one could ever find her interesting or attractive, because, as I said, thereās nothing special about herā¦ or will they?
Enter Harry the Hottie. Heās an impossibly attractive male. He is just the bestest! He’s one of life’s good guys! Yay!! Obviously, he has an impossibly incredible secret, that he cannot possibly tell anyone about, because that would be bad- because, you know, reasons. But then his eyes meet Sallyās across the room andā¦. *INSTALOVE*!!! Ding ding ding! (Okay you get the idea, stars realign, the whole world stops, yada yada yada).
Sally desperately wants to hate Bad Boy Bob, but the only issue is there is some *insane* chemistry between them (emphasis on the insane). Whatās a girl to do? Treat him like a leper and ignore him or desperately try to prove herself to him and all the generic blond mean girls? You guessed it- she tries to prove herself.
And guess what? She manages to prove that she is the most saviour-y of the saviours. She is the Chosen One! Cue everyoneās amazing gratitude as she saves some tiny children from a burning building. Still, this wonāt solve her problems- because thereās an evil villain prowling about called I-Am-The-Evil-Dark-One-Cower-In-Fear-But-Donāt-Judge-Me-Itās-Not-My-Fault-I-Have-A-Stupid-Name (I. M. Evil for short) who wants to ruin everything! Oh no!
Special Snowflake Main Character– this one often combines two of my least favourite tropes: the Chosen One and the āIām a what?ā tropes. Basically this character is super special, because they have a gift that no one else has, so theyāre gonna save the world. Oh and they had no idea that theyāre special- of course. In fairness, there are rare occasions when this doesnāt suck- but they are few and far between, so authors need to *stop using this trope* (unless youāre writing something like Carry On, then all is forgiven). An example of this is the Essence series- because my-oh-my this character is a special snowflake indeed.
Instalove– Iām gonna try and not let this dissolve into another rant like the last one- but cāmon!! When does this ever happen in real life?!? And letās face it, it wouldnāt even be a good thing if it did- it would be super weird and creepy if your boyfriend of two days started declaring his undying love for you! Thatās when you need to get a restraining order- *not* to start ordering wedding invitations. Iām looking at The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer and so many others!
The Love Triangle– ahh the dreaded love triangle. Twilight made it popular and for some horrendous reason it hasnāt gone anywhere. Why? I have *no idea*. This bloody thing is everywhere and one of the worst offenders of this is Matched. Basically, itās just an easy (and terribly lazy) way for authors to pad their plot with unbearable amounts of angst, as their main character frets over which wonderful person theyāre going to spend the rest of their life with. And while weāre on the subject of the main characterā¦
The Nice-ty Main Character- you know the nice/nasty ones that kill you with kindnessĀ (you know the type). This is basically the main character who is allowed to be a total biatch, just because theyāre so ālovelyā. And we are constantly reminded how sweet and caring they are as they mess around two guys at once, two time and generally act like a whiny cow. And all the while, itās somehow the guyās fault that they canāt figure out their feelings. The perfect example is America in The Selection, because letās face it sheās a right *insert-expletive-here*, but weāre supposed to believe sheās wonderful and completely selfless. Really? Itās totally selfless of her to spend 3 books choosing between two guys, is it?
Douchbag Love Interests– and when we donāt have the horrible female leads, we have the horrible male love interest (sometimes weāre really lucky and get both, *ahem, Twilight*). These, often controlling, usually bullying and always brooding characters somehow steal the heart of the main character (*ahem, Twilight*- I could probably call this āthe Edward Cullen Tropeā after all). Itās like a recipe for domestic abuse. But hey, theyāre good looking, so we shouldnāt worry about any of that. *Face palm*. And while weāre still on the subject of love, this is something that really drives me crazy:
Pretentious Characters That Recite Reams of Poetry– I’ve read a few lists ions ago, but havenāt seen this one about- probably cos most people like this.Ā But honestlyĀ this just does my head in. I have never met anyone that does this in real life, but I swear, if I ever met someone that reciting whole poems was a good idea, Iād probably want to hit them too. Basically, this makes me violent- donāt do it, unless you want a banana aimed at your head. I could think of a ton of examples where this happens- Infernal Devices (although admittedly I like that anyway), The Bronze Horseman (yeuch!) and John Green makes so many pretentious references he may as well do it.
Non-Absentee Absent Parents– okay, moving on from the romance in YA, this one bugs me quite a bit. Iām being fairly specific here, because I donāt mean the dead parents trope, which I donāt actually mind so much- even if it is overused. No, this one bugs me because it just makes the parents look really dumb. Basically, theyāre the parents that are about but theyāre so useless, they canāt tell their children have been entertaining demons in their room. Or even worse, the parents that know something is wrong, but still let their children run off to fight monsters. And cos I’m zonked, the best example I can think of is Aunt Jenna in Vampire Diaries (I know, I know, I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead). This often combines withā¦
The Dumbledore– you know, the parent/teacher figure that withholds information for mysterious *reasons*. Just because the author doesnāt want to reveal stuff too early. Usually, itās parents who knew their child had powers but didnāt tell them. Often, they find out their parents knew all along after they have some near-death experience. Which always makes me wonder why on earth didnāt they tell them sooner- you know, maybe they could have avoided all this. It just makes me think they need parenting lessons, cos there are some secrets- like your fatherās an evil maniac- that parents shouldnāt keep from their children. Much as I love the series, Mortal Instruments is guilty of this.
Stupid Names For Evil Characters– so I donāt always hate this and I can forgive it most of the time (letās be honest, Iām guilty of it too). I mean, I have to allow for the fact that dumb names like the āDark Lordā or āTHE EVIL ONEā will catch on when regular people are naming them. And this is usually okay if the villain has an alternative name (ie Voldemort). *BUT* what I cannot forgive is when the main character cannot tell that the guy with the obviously evil name is evil. And how no one else in the story picks up on it- Iām looking at you āDarklingā- how was that a surprise when he turned out to be evil for crying out loud?
the orang-utan librarian 