Fantasy tropes and conventions

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There are many elements that show up throughout the fantasy genre in different guises. Worldbuilding in particular has many common conventions, as do, to a lesser extent, plot and characterization.

Many works of fantasy operate with these tropes; many others use them in a revisionist manner, making the tropes over, for reasons from comic effect, to creating something fresh (a method that often generates new clichés), to objections to the effect of the old tropes.^[1]

[edit] Good vs. evil

The conflict of good against evil is a common trope in the most popular forms of fantasy, such as high fantasy; normally, evil characters erupt from their lands to invade and disrupt the good characters' lands. J.R.R. Tolkien delved into the nature of good and evil in The Lord of the Rings, but many of his imitators use the conflict as a plot device and often do not distinguish the sides by their actual behavior.^[2]

In some works, mostly notable in sword and sorcery, evil is not opposed by the unambiguously good but by the morally unreliable.^[3]

[edit] Dark Lord

The forces of evil often are personified in a Dark Lord. He is often depicted as a diabolical force, and may, indeed, be more a force than a personality. The effects of his rule often assert malign effects on the land as well as his subjects. Besides his usual magical abilities, he often controls great armies. ^[4] A Dark Lord is usually depicted as the ultimate personification of evil, and often commit atrocities that make common people afraid to speak their very names (such with Lord of the Rings's Sauron and Harry Potter's Voldemort). Other notable Dark Lords include Darth Vader and Palpatine from Star Wars, Brona the Warlock Lord from The Sword of Shannara and Morgoth from The Silmarillion.

[edit] Quest

Main article: Quest

Quests, an immemorial trope in literature, are a common trope in fantasy. They can run from the quest to locate the plot coupons necessary to save the world, to an internal quest of self-realization.^[5]

[edit] Hero

Main article: Hero

Heroic characters are a mainstay of fantasy, particularly high fantasy and sword and sorcery. Such characters are capable of more than ordinary behavior, physically or morally, or both.^[6] While they may at first be less than the role required, they grow into it.^[7] This may take the form of maturation.^[8]

Many protagonists are, unknown even to themselves, of royal blood. Even so fanciful a tale as Through the Looking Glass, Alice is made a queen in the end; this can serve as a symbolic recognition of the inner worth of the hero.^[9] Commonly, the tale revolves about the maltreated hero coming into his own. This can reflect a wish-fulfillment dream, or symbolically embody a profound transformation. ^[10]

[edit] Magic

Main article: Magic (fantasy)

In a fantasy, magic is overwhelming present, but its precise nature is delineated in the book in which it appears. It can appear in a fantasy world, or in a fantasy land that is part of reality but insulated from the mundane lands, or as a hidden element in real life.^[11]

A common trope is that the ability to work it is innate and rare. As a consequence, the person who work magic, who may be described as a magician, a wizard, a sorcerer, or many other titles, is a common figure in fantasy.^[12]

Another feature is the magic item, which can endow characters with magical abilities not innate, or enhance the abilities of the innately powerful. Among the most common are magic swords and magic rings.

Prophecies are among the commonest forms of magic, because they are an often used plot device. Often the very effort undertaken to avert them bring them about, and drive the story. It is very rare for a prophecy in fantasy to be simply false, although usually their significiance is clear only with hindsight. Quibbles can undermine the clearest appearing prophecies.^[13]

Magic is not always referred to as Magic however. In The Lord of the Rings JRR Tolkien deliberately avoided use of the word magic and his characters usually refered to it as "the Deeper Arts". In Star Wars, the Jedi employ the use of the Force, an essentially magical power that grants mystical abilities and hightened senses and skills to whomsoever wields it.

[edit] Medievalism

While the folklore that fantasy draws on for its magic and monsters was not exclusively medieval, many creatures were drawn from medieval folklore and romance. Dragons and unicorns are among the most common monsters, and rarer creatures, such as gryphons also appear. Races of beings such as elves and dwarves also often reflect medieval sources.

Perhaps even more important was setting. Such earlier writers as William Morris (in The Well at the World's End) and Lord Dunsany (in The King of Elfland's Daughter) set their tales in fantasy worlds clearly derived from medieval sources, though often filtered through later views. J.R.R. Tolkien set the type even more clearly for high fantasy, normally based in such a pseudo-medieval setting. Other fantasy writers have emulated him, and role-playing and computer games also took up this tradition.

The full width and breadth of the medieval era is seldom drawn upon. Governments, for instance, tend to be feudalism, evil empires, and oligarchies, usually corrupt, while there was far more variety in the actual Middle Ages.^[14]

It also tends be medieval in economy; fantasy worlds are disproportionately pastoral.^[15]

There are breaks in this trend however. A recent and particularly notable example of a fantasy not set in Medieval times is The Sword of Shannara, a cyberpunk fantasy set in the far future where magic and highly sophisticated technology intertwine.

[edit] References