Stupid Fantasy Cliches

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I must protest. Dungeons and Dragons is not cliche, but it is impossible to pretend that the cliches don't exist. Thus, there must be elves, there must be dwarves, there MUST be trolls and dragons (duh). Please do not make this mistake again. It offends almost anyone who plays D&D regularly.

I must also complain that anyone could think that fantasy cliches are 'stupid'. These 'cliches' have been around for hundreds of years, we are not going to give up on them now. A little cliche isn't always a bad thing. Show cliches a little respect!

Hehehe, reminds me of The Grand List of Console Roleplaying Cliches:

http://project-apollo.net/text/rpg.html

I also had my own idea for a mage that revolves around a full-grown woman that can wear the same armor as part of an experiment in order to reduce the casualties a magical faction suffer in battle.

Granted, if not for a lance and knight-samurai hybrid armor, they're no different from other mages; as that magical faction regroup people from different cultures/religions, their suits of armor have parts borrowed from different armorsmithing cultures, and so are their weapons; but I usually regarded traditional mages as being able to hold their own in battle without armor of any kind. I told myself, mages of any tier of power would be very vulnerable to physical damage if pit in a combat environment where both physical and magical damage can be inflicted.

Is that anywhere near cliché?

I think that "destiny" is the cliche to rule them all in fantasy novels. Can't ANYBODY in fantasy literature go on ANY adventures of their own free will?

I totally agree! In my fantasy novels there's never fate, never any prophecies. Or if they are they're always false. XD

Then again, considering that there's all kind of magic in fantasy worlds it's easier to buy the concept of fate in them. I mean, people creating fireballs out of thin air isn't that much different. XD

Of course, if you want to avoid the cliches, maybe the bad guys in your world have read the Evil Overlord List...

Well, it depends on the authors you choose to read(: Some are worse than others...

My problem is that when watching any fantasy movie I'm notorious for blurting out exactly what is going to happen about one minute down the road. I hate it when I'm right, and I usually am. That is what cliche means... something so predictable anyone with half a brain knows what is going to happen next. It's just plain lazy writing.

ive always hated the idea of "dragon riders". that just seems too cheesy. i dont like people who put elves, dwarves, and orcs in their stories just because they feel like they need to, damnit! there should be a backstory for their existence. i hate ad-hoc names. fantasy does pretty much require certain plots, characters, etc. its up to the author to make them not cliche.

Some would have it that Evil = handsome and mean, Good = ugly and kind.

well, we are talking about fantasy...not reality...

I always thought of Postmodernism as a device to put yourself in 'the next big thing', as opposed to what everyone else is looking at right now..

Contructs; could this be linked to Deconstruction? (sample joke - what do you get when you cross a mafia don with a Deconstructionist? an offer you can't understand...

The real trick is to take a cliche`, and do something new with it...

Has anyone here read The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, by Diana Wynne Jones?
It seems to do as good a job as anything at sending up cliches, dramatic conventions,
etc. related to fantasy fiction.

Or is it just me?

anyone have a link to the sci-fi cliches?

Well, "cliche" doesn't mean "bad idea". It means that it was a good idea originally, and everyone liked it so much that they all copied it and did it to death. The elf/dwarf/troll triad is not cliche because it is stupid, but because fantasy writers often just copy the same thing that 1023902384321 other fantasy writers have already done without adding anything new.



I love that book.

you pretty much ruled out all sci-fi/fantasy plots

What about a story whose plot is driven by elven TV shows?

(Elves are often depicted in fantasy/sci-fi as nature lovers; the elves I depict are more like technocratic couch potatoes)