Misha Burnett asked me a question on my ‘Ask and Be Answered’ page. The question was:
“If you could make one trope of speculative fiction (fantasy, science fiction, horror) magically vanish, what would it be? For example, just wave your hand and *poof*, no more bio-engineered plague that turns people into zombies, or no more elvish archers or whatever. What do you think has been done to death and should be allowed to rest in peace?”
First, my experience with horror is extremely limited and I don’t understand the point of most of its trends. Sex gets you killed, the kid is always under attack by the monster, the villain can walk faster than an athlete can sprint, etc. So, I’m going to leave that genre alone.
For science-fiction it would be nice if we would leave Mars alone for a while. 9 times out of 10 it’s Mars that we go to or the enemies come from. I get that we’re obsessed with Mars, but there are other planets out there. Other galaxies too. Give the red planet a break before somebody is dumb enough to make ‘Mars Needs Moms 2’.
Here’s the big genre though. My genre. The one I’ve spent most of my life playing in and enjoying more than reality. What would I get rid of from Fantasy?
I thought about this all day, mostly to drown out the screaming toddler. I think almost everything can be kept solely because there could be a twist that I could see. Elven archers can be used, but they’re ghost-like because they’ve been alive for so long. Dragons are cowardly creatures that live on a single island or something. The fun about fantasy is that you can twist everything at some point. Yet, there is one thing that I find personally annoying with fantasy and it’s something that not a lot of people would notice.
STOP MAKING MAGIC A WONDER IN ITS OWN DAMN WORLD!
Let me explain. You live in a world where elves live forever, dragons roam the land, demons can be summoned, monsters are added into the ecosystem, and fairies exist. A magic item is uncommon, but you know they exist. All of this wonder and fascination around you would be the equivalent of airplanes, cars, and microwaves to us. Yes, a guy from the suburbs would be amazed by an elephant in the wild. That’s because it isn’t found everywhere. In many fantasy worlds, magic is everywhere, but the guy able to light a candle with a snap of his fingers STILL gets more awe than the pointed-eared immortal playing darts in the corner.
I’ve read so many books where a character is amazed by another character that can cast magic. Then, I remember that the amazed character is carrying a magic sword or a magic ring. Why be surprised about the fireball flinger when your sword can coat itself in lightning and move on its own? I know the reader is supposed to be in awe of the magic, but I’m tired of characters from a magical world being surprised by magic when there is no basis in the book that magic is rare. It would be like Luke Skywalker being fascinated and amazed by Droids.
Magic is a very delicate part of fantasy and it can be misused very easily. I know those of us in reality would be in awe of a real spellcaster, but that’s us. You can get away with common peasants being like that too. This doesn’t fly for the King of your kingdom acting like he hasn’t seen magic before even though he’s fought wars against undead, has a Magic School in his territory, rides a griffin, and owns a Crown of Telepathy.
So, I would get rid of the trend of spellcasters always being looked at in awe. Maybe it’s just a job that they have the natural talent for.
Legends of Windemere 
Well, there’s being amazed that something is possible, and then there is being amazed that the person next to you is actually doing it, if that makes any sense.
For example, I used to do a lot of lock work for the Sheriff’s department, evictions and repossessions. Now, obviously, they expected me to be able to pick locks, that’s what they called me out to do. Still, I got a lot of comments along the lines of “Wow, that’s so amazing how you do that.” So I can see a non-mage knowing what mages can do, but still being impressed at seeing the skill in action.
(As an aside, it’s always the easy stuff that impresses people who don’t know the business. I can see a mage throwing off a minor cantrip to light some candles and wowing everyone, and then doing some major casting to break an enchantment and having people say, “What took you so long–I thought you were supposed to be a wizard?”)
It depends on how rare and how valuable spellcasting is in the world. Is meeting a wizard like meeting a tradesman like an electrician, or is it more like meeting a movie star?
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My issue is that it’s always like that. Every fantasy world has people in awe of wizards. Doesn’t matter if the town is built around a Wizard Academy or there is magical items all over the place. It seems that in fantasy, a wizard must always be looked at in awe and wonder. I can get behind impressed in a way that translates to ‘that’s really cool what you did there’. When it constantly comes off as ‘OMG! You are a God! You rock! I fear the ground you walk on!’, the trend gets tiring.
I think many times the awe of wizards is nothing more than the author trying to foist the emotion on the reader. The main hero is in awe, so you should be too. A friend of mine explained it with some characters as ‘forced coolness’. The character is supposed to be seen as cool and unique even if in their own world, they would be tradesman-like.
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I see “forced coolness” in speculative fiction a lot, actually. That’s one of the reasons that I like the Dresden Files series so much, actually–Harry Dresden isn’t impressed by anyone (even people he really should be impressed by.)
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I saw a bit of the tv series and keep meaning to get to the book series. How many books is it?
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At this point, I think it’s up to 15 or so. I didn’t care for the TV show, myself. I’d advise checking out the first one “Storm Front” and seeing if you like it–the series is very consistent.
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Thanks. I’ll definitely give it a look when I pare down my writing list.
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I agree with you when it comes to basic spell casting and some magic items… but I think even your mentioned King might be a little in awe of a forms of magic (item, or very powerful spell) that he has not previously encountered… and at that point in the story he might not be able to counter the effects of said magic… and depending how vast your world their may be regions untouched by magic in the traditional sense… but I see your point there probably isn’t much awe for your typical acolyte or disciple of the arcane arts… in fact they would probably be taken very lightly and their powers would generally be perceived as just trickery… watch me pull the coin from your ear… it amuses us as children, but once we realize the slight of hand aspect it is nothing more than a cheap parlour trick… even if we ourselves can’t do it… an astute observation Charles… never gave it much thought…
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Thanks. Of course some magic you have to be in awe of. That much I understand. Yet, even a fireball has to lose it’s wonder after you’ve seen it a few times. I ‘love’ when a warrior sees the same combat spell for the 10th time in a series and is still staring with his mouth open at it. Maybe he’ll get bored with it on the 11th time. Or maybe the warrior has a short memory and it’s like he’s seeing the spell for the first time again.
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I myself prefer worlds where magic is relatively scarce… including the number of Magic users… I find in a lot of stories along the fantasy genre there is too much use of magic, an over reliance upon magic if you will… I think myself Tolkien struck a perfect balance in this sense,,, relative isolation between the races… Very few wizards… and by the Third Age magical items were generally very old with almost no one left who practiced the craft of their manufacture… and hence very very rare… also I find not many stories in the genre deal with the debilitating and recuperative aspects of spells… seldom do stories mention the negative effect upon the spell caster in casting a spell… also spell failure… this is an aspect that seldom ever happens in stories…
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I read a lot of books where magic was scarce or consolidated to certain areas. I never really liked the spell failure aspect at times. I remember in the D&D games that it was used as punishment for using magic. So, it felt more like magic was a tool that had too much danger to using it. That could be a reason why people rarely learned it. A big trend now seems to be cutting magic out entirely or replacing it with mind control only.
The magic in my world is very high-powered and everywhere. I went in the opposite direction and made it mundane. Spells do go wrong and there is spell exhaustion at times. There is also a risk of trauma causing a caster to lose his or her magic for a certain amount of time. So, great power, but you can lose it if you’re not careful.
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So true, though I never thought of it that way. I have a character who’s amazed by magic (even the little things), but the poor girl has been living in a country where magic is illegal and has never actually witnessed it, so I think she could be forgiven for that. As for the people who use magic every day,though, they’re thoroughly unimpressed when someone changes forms, lights a fire with his bare hands, etc. They might get freaked out if it’s something disturbing like mind-control (as there are major ethical issues in this world surrounding that), but it’s not surprising. Just disgusting.
I think what you said about twists on tropes can apply to horror, too. There are things that have been done to death, but I’m sure someone could put a spin on them and make them interesting again.
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Any trope can be twisted. I’m not much of a horror reader, so I leave that one alone.
The ethical issue is a good twist on the magic trope. I like it. For my world, I made magic rather commonplace and more of a trade. There are some combat casters with unique abilities that get some praise and a little awe at first. For the most part, people in Windemere don’t look at magic as something unique. It’s part of their lives and some people just happen to be better at it than others.
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That is a really good answer! And an excellent point! I’ve never looked at it that way before, but now that you’ve pointed it out, that is such a silly thing to add to a fantasy book!
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It really is and it’s done so haphazardly. At least make magic a lost art or something to explain the awe.
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I whole-heartedly agree! (Speaking of, I think I might need to go change some things in my fantasy book!) lol
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Now I’m curious.
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Well, I’ll have to do some serious reading, but I might just have some ‘awe’ regarding magical items/beings in a fansasy world. Although it might not be bad since the main character is a peasant boy who doesn’t know he’s desined to be a king and that his true father is a werewolf. (I have a thing about werewolves, if you haven’t noticed!)
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If he’s a peasant that doesn’t know magic then it makes sense. My issue isn’t with awe in general, but with it being used in worlds and by characters that shouldn’t be in awe. For example, if Harry Potter was still in awe of simple magic by the time of the final book, I’d have issues.
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Well, then I should be good to go! Lane (the main character) doesn’t know anything about magic and is awed by the new world he’s thrust in to. 🙂
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I’ll keep Nyx away from him. That might be too much. 😉
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That’s a good idea. He’s a bit nervous right now, besides, he’s used to plain ol’ everyday country girls.
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I’ll send Sari his way then. 😛
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That might just work out! Hmm….
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Keep thinking that after you meet her in the third book. 😛 You might prefer I send Mab over.
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Ooo, new character? Mab, as in Queen of the Fairies?
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I agree 100 percent with your post. I love a good read or film where there is magic being used. It does add a sense of mystery and amazement to the experience. However, it gets carried away sometimes because they use it as a scapegoat to get out of impossible situations. They get all the praise, when the mere mortal who fought through hell and back to survive barely gets any credit. It’s a shame.
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It really is. Give the magic user credit when they deserve it, but the warriors should get some praise too. I really do hate the excuse ‘A Wizard Did It’.
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Cheers to that 🙂
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A lot of tropes to choose from in fantasy, but fair point Charles. Though I’ll always be a sucker for the Gandalf archetype, it’s definitely overused. 🙂
I think I’d pick the flawless-hero archetype. It’s difficult to relate to heroes who show no signs of relatable weakness, and grounded relatability is an important advent in modern story telling. Though there are always exceptions to any rule. ^^
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Very true. I think the flawless hero is starting to fade away slowly. Many authors think that over-confidence or ego are acceptable trade-offs for a character that never loses or rarely gets hit. That’s why I like it when my hero gets a small beating even if he wins.
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