this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
89 points (98.9% liked)

askchapo

22766 readers
186 users here now

Ask Hexbear is the place to ask and answer ~~thought-provoking~~ questions.

Rules:

  1. Posts must ask a question.

  2. If the question asked is serious, answer seriously.

  3. Questions where you want to learn more about socialism are allowed, but questions in bad faith are not.

  4. Try !feedback@hexbear.net if you're having questions about regarding moderation, site policy, the site itself, development, volunteering or the mod team.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
 

I have a few:

  • Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It's eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how "most people are just NPCs" (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
  • Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
  • All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
  • Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They can't even have gentry-on-aristocracy violence. We have to care about some shitty inbred royal family.

[–] Pisha@hexbear.net 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Exactly! I think part of it is a, in my view, mistaken historical realism where authors think fantasy should be based on the middle ages when, in reality, the better part of our modern fantasy genre derives from post-1600 literature. Like, the rise of the bourgeoisie and decline of feudalism is the primary social context for all of this, I think.

[–] Frank@hexbear.net 14 points 4 months ago

Word. PAthfinder is starting to lean in to this and moving the fantasy pasiche forward with settings that explicitly deal with colonialisms is reasonably non-crnge ways, a french revolutioon adventure country, magic gunslingers, robot land, and similar stuff.