Last Updated on June 1, 2020 by ThoughtsStained
Hello, lovelies!
It’s been a while since I wrote my post about tropes that I absolutely love within the fantasy genre, which included your classic tropes like chosen one stories to romance staples like only one bed. Today, I want to switch the focus to ideas I’d like to either become so common, they become tropes or just tropes I’d love to see more of.
Mothers who do both: mothers currently only exist as dead characters who never get page time or those left behind to mind the children as their husbands go off to have adventures. I want to see mothers with babes on their hips after they travel off to war, who wish their husbands goodbye as they leave for battle, who train their daughters on the art of adventuring.
Chosen Ones from Non-Western Cultures: Just because something is considered cliche in white book culture doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve a chance to be written and appreciated by ownvoices from non-western cultures. Give me chosen ones with brown skin or wearing hijabs, from African-inspired lore to Asian heritage. There are still so many cultures that deserve the chance that whites have dominated within published for so long. I want to hear their stories.
Questioning characters: I’d love to see more characters in fantasy questioning their sexuality. And more societies where heterosexuality isn’t the norm or varying sexuality isn’t considered othering or something to be incorrectly frowned upon.
Characters with depression or anxiety: I know we see some of this, but I’d love to see more of this in adult fantasy.
Sickness: I think it’d be really interesting to not only see how different fantasy worlds and cultures deal with the common cold, but what other types of sickness do they encounter on their quest across the continent to defeat the dark lord that we don’t encounter here?
Generational stories: This may be just me personally, but I’d love to read a trilogy or longer series that follows each generation of a family as they live through life. Not necessarily each is in a chosen one situation, but just how the previous generation’s choices impact the next’s.
More steampunk and cyberpunk genres: I just want more of these settings, especially within the romance genre (I’m a sucker for a good steampunk romance).
Periods: Obviously I want to see periods more normalized, without the taboo attached, as well as seeing a wide range of experiences related to period experiences (since, you know, I’m writing a duology about this very topic).
Chosen ones who fail: I’d love to see (and plan to write) a story about a chosen one who tries and fails and what the world looks like in the aftermath of the dark lord or villain who won.
Those are just a few things I’d love to see more within the fantasy genre. What sort of tropes would you like to see more of? Let me know in the comments!
Cheers.
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Yes to all of the above! Excellent list of tropes. 😀
I’m writing a hella queer contemp-turned-litRPG right now and the main character has Big Anxiety and is autistic and fat and basically everything I wish I got to see on the page.
Also your period one made me realise I don’t think I’ve ever read a book where periods were an important part of the story? Tamora Pierce comes to mind as basically always mentioning characters dealing with periods, but that’s part of a more general growing up story rather than important in some way to the plot. I would definitely be interested to see more periods in fiction (esp fantasy) yet it’s not something that had occurred to me. Good call!
Um, you ARE going to let me know when you’re done writing that book and it’s ready to buy, right? Fat, autistic protag with anxiety?! I’m here for this.
Right!? Sure, sometimes they are mentioned–for like, a sentence or two. I want to see it normalized and accepted! That’s why I had to go and write an entire duology about it. *facepalm* Thank you so much!
*hugs* Yes, I will absolutely let you know! This has me smiling so widely, thank you!
Also: it’s a whole duology! :O Nicole I am so hype to see these books.
YES, THANK YOU. <3 <3 Eeeep, I am so excited!
Ah, yes! It was supposed to be a standalone, but I have a problem and can't wait anything short, so duology here we are! 😛
I am in love with some of these ideas! I’ve never even considered some of them before, which shows how ingrained the old tropes are. Can’t wait to see this written.
Aww, thank you so much, Beth!!
Questioning characters is one that stood out to me. I would be happy to see more of them as well. I think the book community has work to do in moving away from viewing certain queer stories/experiences as ‘problematic’ when actually those are real experiences people go through. I think questioning sexuality is a good example of that and having more stories about characters who do question would be very helpful.
Right?! I would LOVE to see that in stories, too, to show that is a valid experience that many people go through!
We definitely need to see more of these tropes in the Fantasy genre for sure. 😀
As for the subject of periods in Fantasy, I haven’t gone as far as to do that but I have figured out how species in my stories reproduce differently from humans. So I got into a very complicated way that it works…And I should say this was inspired by how Star Trek does it. So it does involve periods slightly, I’m just not sure how I’m going to bring this up into the story. XD
And for sure for different types of Chosen Ones and even Chosen Ones that fail too! I’m currently world-building a series involving reincarnation, so the heroes in some of their past incarnations definitely fail or get killed by the villain.
This post was fun to read. 🙂
-Quinley
Thank you so much for commenting, Quinley! It’ll be interesting to see how you bring up your reproductive methodology in your story, as it certainly sounds interesting; as does the reincarnation theme you have going! That’s so cool you’re exploring different themes!
Thank you so much for reading and good luck on your books!