Kevin's Watch

What kind of cliche are we sick of?

What can we live with?

I guess it depends on who you read.

I think that Donaldson tends to stay away from a lot of the cliche's...I mean it's not uncommon to have somebody transformed into a Magic Realm...and certainly to have a magic talimen is fairly used; but he stays away from a lot of the typical charactors.

Often you see a Sword in the Stone/Return of the King story line in fantasy lit.

Certainly you see some know it all wizard, who keeps on rattling old facts whenever it's relevent.

A kinght, or some other super star, who can do just about anything.

A 'Gandalf' type father figure that sacrifices himself for his young apprentice.

Rubbish prophecies.

Warmark wrote:A 'Gandalf' type father figure that sacrifices himself for his young apprentice.

Rubbish prophecies.

I can't agree more. The Chosen One scenerio just drives me nuts.

Warmark wrote: Rubbish prophecies

Yeah, it's like, "let's just fill any space with Prophecy"

-Mage "What dist thou does behind that tree boy?"

-Knave "I just peed sire."

-Mage "Doesn't though not knowist the Phophecy? 'Whomever pees behind the Golden tree, shall jion with the enemy and destroy us all.'"

-Mage's assistant "Do not forget master, the prophecy also states, 'If he who pees behind the Golden tree shakes it but once, he will redeem himself in due course'"

-Mage "How many times didsnt thou shake boy?"

The siege and rescue. I can only remember one book where the 'goodies' are the besieging force. Just doesn't lend itself to heroism I suppose?

I hate the prophecy cliche. I also cant stand vast armies marching to invade, mages or dragons.

Loremaster blasphemed:

I also cant stand vast armies marching to invade, mages or dragons

DRAGONS???? What's wrong with dragons?????

How about Love interests..when the two can't stand eachother for for the first seven eighths of the book

Invincible characters, i want people to get cut in swordfights.

I like battle scenes, as long as one person doesnt destroy the whole army.

drew wrote:

Warmark wrote: Rubbish prophecies

Yeah, it's like, "let's just fill any space with Prophecy"

-Mage "What dist thou does behind that tree boy?"

-Knave "I just peed sire."

-Mage "Doesn't though not knowist the Phophecy? 'Whomever pees behind the Golden tree, shall jion with the enemy and destroy us all.'"

-Mage's assistant "Do not forget master, the prophecy also states, 'If he who pees behind the Golden tree shakes it but once, he will redeem himself in due course'"

-Mage "How many times didsnt thou shake boy?"

Overpowered super-characters. I don't mind an overpowered super-character who really takes a kicking once things get going, but those who begin, and remain, uber-people just irritate me. As far as I'm concerned, characters must struggle. That was one of the things that appealed to me about Covenant: yes, he possessed the ultimate power, but he had no idea how to make use of it.

I agree on "romances" as well. They're mostly improbable and based on some kind of power/magnetism rather than compatibility between the characters.

I hate thieves who are somehow noble at heart despite their choice of careers. And spoiled beautiful bitchy princesses.

Elves.

Elves can leave at once.

To be fair, this is mainly a result of browsing the NaNoWriMo forum, where all the aspiring fantasy writers say things like "I've decided to do something completely new and original! My Elves are going to live in caves instead of trees!" with a response from someone else saying "Well my Elves are going to be furry! That's original!"

I launched something of an assault at one point. I don't object to Elves in themselves, just give me a good reason for including them. "It's fantasy, there have to be Elves" doesn't count as a good reason. Of course, I had people telling me their Elves were scaly, lived underwater and didn't even resemble Evles at all - in which case they're not Elves, so why call them Elves?! *seethe*

Stonemaybe wrote:Loremaster blasphemed:

I also cant stand vast armies marching to invade, mages or dragons

DRAGONS???? What's wrong with dragons?????

OVERUSED

Dragons are, like Elves, dwarves and goblins, something that is thrown in casually by lazy hacks.

That's not to say all fantasy that features any/all of those is bad, but most of it is.

Spoiler

Hmm, maybe I should try and write a fantasy short story featuring all those cliches, but make it actually good in other ways. Then submit it to the anthology.

duchess of malfi wrote:I hate thieves who are somehow noble at heart despite their choice of careers. .

I came to post this.

The Elf thing bother me too.

Tolkien used them, so go find your own thing; if you need a mythical long lived being, make up your own.; Donaldson did, they were called Elohim and they were pricks..one could also argue that the Giants were Donaldson's elves...but I'd be more inclined to say that the Giants were Donaldson's Giants.

Nobility. I'm tired of kings and princes. What, the common man/woman can't have an adventure without secretly being the lost heir of the kingdom? Or there's nothing to aspire to other than being knighted or recognized in some similar way by royalty?

Agreed. Being recognised as of aristocratic birth is a fairly lame achievement in the scale of human endeavour.

ANYTHING which uses the Dungeons and Dragons-mindset. What I mean are the careers. We always seem to have people who are mages, druids, thieves, warriors, etc.