#tolkienesque fantasy

[mask131]

About the "Tolkienesque renaissance"

The term "Tolkienesque renaissance" is of my own invention and creation, but it is a name I use to designate a very specific wave of fantasy fiction, or rather a specific phenomenon in the evolution of fantasy in the English-speaking literature.

As we all know, Tolkien's shadow cannot be escaped when doing fantasy. Tolkien's works being published began the modern fantasy genre as we know it today. D&D, the other big "influencer" of fantasy, would not have existed without Tolkien. The Peter Jackson trilogy began the fantasy renewal of the 21st century. Epic fantasy is a sub-genre explicitely designed after Tolkien's work.

And the massive influence of Tolkien over fantasy is the most felt in the second half of the 20th century, in English-speaking literature, through something I would call the "Tolkien cold-war". When you take a look at the fantasy books of the second half of the 20th century, you notice a fundamental clash and divide splitting it all in some sort of silent feud or discreet conflict. On one side, you have the "Tolkien followers" - as in, the authors who walk in Tolkien's footsteps ; on the other side, you have the "counter-Tolkien" offering what is essentially a counter-culture in a Tolkien-dominated fantasy.

We all know that Tolkien's success was huge in the early second half of the 20th century. The success of "The Lord of the Rings" and the "Hobbit" and the "Silmarillion" was especially important during the 60s and 70s - Gandalf for president and all that... People loved Tolkien's fantasy, people WANTED Tolkien's fantasy, and so publishers and others were happy to oblige. This began the "Tolkien followers" movement - but this beginning was a very unfortunate one, because it was one that relied on not just homage, imitation or pastiche... But in pure copy-cat and sometimes complete rip-off. Since people wanted some Tolkien, people were given LITERAL Tolkienesque fantasy. The most famous (or unfamous example of this would be the 1977 's "The Sword of Shannara" novel. This novel was designed to literaly be a simplified "The Lord of the Rings" with only a few details changed here and there. In fact, this is most of what people recall about this book - how blatant of a Tolkien rip-off it is. And yet, this book was a BEST-SELLER of the 70s fantasy, and it was a huge success, and everybody loved it, precisely because it did the same thing Tolkien did, and so you got to enjoy your favorite series all other again. Afterward, Terry Brooks, the author of the novel, expanded it into a complete series moving into much more original and personal directions, as he admitted himself that doing a Tolkien copy-paste was more of a publishing and editorial decision to make sure he would sell and settle himself in the literary landscape rather than an actual artistic project or personal desire. "The Sword of Shannara" got its own sequels, and became its own thing (though VERY reflective of what the 80s American fantasy was in terms of style, tone and content), but nowadays everybody remembers it for being the "Tolkien rip-off" in its first novel.

And yet being a Tolkien rip-off can sell well, and if the "Shannara" series hadn't proved it, "Dungeons and Dragons" did, since its first edition in the late 70s went as far as to just take Tolkien's inventions such as orcs, Balrogs and hobbits, and include it in its game. The same way the Shannara series then found its own tone and content, through the successive editions Dungeons and Dragons then began to build a world of its own... But it confirms what I said: it was the era of the Tolkien rip-offs.

In front of these "Tolkien followers", which were back then "Tolkien imitators", there was another movement that drove fantasy forward - and it was the "counter-Tolkien movement" so to speak. Works of fantasy that willingly chose to depart from Tolkien's formulas and archetypes and tropes, to do their own thing. Sometimes they did it out of an actual dislike of Tolkien's books: for example the "Elric Saga" was created because Moorcock hated the paternalist, moralist tone of The Lord of the Rings, and so he countered Tolkien's world with a protagonist serving the Lords of Chaos, using a soul-sucking evil sword, last remnant of an empire of cruel, decadent and demonic elves, in a tragic world doomed to endless falls and oblivions... (Though, ironically, Moorcock would end up initiating a genre of dark fantasy that Tolkien himself had explored in his unpublished texts...). Others did it not because they disliked Tolkien but wanted to prove you could do something else: for example Ursula Le Guin admired and appreciated Tolkien's works, but she was fed up with all the imitators and pastiches, and so she created her "Earthsea" world. No European setting dominated by white people, but an archepilago of islands with dark-skinned characters. No big war or political manipulations, the stories being about about the life, journeys and evolution of individual people. No sword-wielding hero or horse-riding paladin, but wizards and priestesses as the protagonists. No big prophecy about the end of the world, flashy magical sword or evil overlord ready to destroy the universe (well... almost), but rather philosophical and existential battles doubling as a fight against oneself and one's very existence...

This counter-Tolkien genre definitively peaked with the other big name of "dark fantasy" and what would annonce the "grimdark fantasy" a la Game of Thrones: Glen Cook's The Black Company.

But what about the titular "Tolkienesque renaissance" I speak of?

Well, if the "Tolkien followers" had only done bad rip-offs, it would have never lasted, ad the "counter-Tolkien" movement would have won. In fact in the 80s, it almost did! Tolkienesque fantasy was thought of as cliched and stereotyped and overdone and dead. People had enough of these blatant-rip offs, as the hype of the 60s and 70s had died out, and the 80s folks turned to other forms of fantasy - such as The Black Company (Dark Fantasy), or Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (Sword and Sorcery), or various parodies and humoristic fantasies, but all far from the "epic fantasy". And yet, something happened... The "Tolkien imitators" became "Tolkien followers" or rather "Tolkien reinventors", and began the "Tolkienesque renaissance".

The Tolkienesque renaissance is this group of fantasy authors, most predominant in the 90s though they began their work by the late 80s, that decided they would make the Tolkienesque fantasy live on. Not just by copying it as their predecessors did, a la Shannara, no. But by reinventing it, freshening up the old ways for a modern audience and new times. They took back all the key ingredients, and the famed archetypes and the usual tropes of the epic fantasy a la Tolkien, and they reused them without shame... But in new ways, with twists and turns, playing on the codes of the genre, while carefully avoiding the cliches and stereotypes of the time. Giving what people liked about epic fantasy, while also producing new works that felt fresh and went into opposite directions - taking lessons from the counter-Tolkien movement.

It is commonly agreed that the series that began this renaissance was David Eddings' The Belgariad, published between 1982 and 1984. Just a look at the Wikipedia article mentions this best-selling, very influential fantasy series was the "last gasp of traditional fantasy, and the founding megasaga of modern fantasy"... Now, I actually have to disagree with Wikipedia's words. I do not consider it a "last gasp of traditional fantasy" since it already began the Tolkienesque renaissance and thus a new generation of fantasy ; and the other qualificative is ridiculous since modern fantasy already began with Tolkien, and the Belgariad is not a mega-saga, but just five average-sized books. But the idea of it being a link between an older and a newer generation of fantasy books is very true.

While The Belgariad has to be put first, second comes Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, which probably is the most famous of the Tolkienesque renaissance works of the 90s and became this behemoth of fantasy literature. And to make a trilogy of iconic works, I will add another 90s success: Tad Williams' "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn". Another iconic work of the Tolkienesque renaissance, though lesser known today than the Belgariad or The Wheel of Time - which is a shame, because Williams' work as a huge and heavy influence on a famous fantasy story of today... "A Song of Ice and Fire", which takes a LOT from "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" (I even call this trilogy the "missing link" between LotR and ASoIaF).

The thing with these Tolkienesque renaissance series is that today, to an audience that was nourished by Tolkien and D&D and Pratchett and other things of the sort, a superficial glance might make them seem like "yet other rip-offs, yet other stereotyped, yet other clichéed" fantasy series. You just have to see the reception of the first season of "The Wheel of Time" tv series - here there was a clash between two generatons of fantasy.

And what these people who take a superficial glance will miss is how inventive and fresh and interesting these series felt back then because they played with or subverted the tropes and the codes of the traditional fantasy. They all played by the usual archetypes - you have an everyman young chosen one, a magical mentor who must "die" at one point, an evil overlord in an ominous half-disembodied state, evil black-clad horsemen going after the hero, elves and dwarves and trolls... And yet, these series twisted these same ingredients they used to bring new flavors.

Let us take the Belgariad briefly, to see how the whole Tolkienesque formula was subverted. Like in Tolkien you've got an order of wizards appeared as elderly, bearded men - but here, they are definitively human beings unlike the otherwordly Istari, and their appearance is explained by them being the disciples of a god that likes to take the appearance of a bearded old man, and who by divine influence made them look like him. You've got a dangerous, all-powerful item the big bad is seeking to destroy the world - but here it is no evil, or corrupting thing. It is rather an item dangerous because of the sheer scope and range of its power, and the temptation isn't becaue it is "evil" power, but just because it is a power so massive it can break the world. You've got a missing king with a stewart/regent holding the throne for him until the lost heir returns - but when said heir returns, the stewart/regent is no evil vizir or scheming usurper, and gladly offers back the throne to its legitimate owner. Belgarath, your Gandalf-stand-in, is far from being the dignified guide and noble mentor of Tolkien, as he is a half-werewolf drunkard that hates any kind of official ceremony or garb and prefers running through the woods or rolling under a table in taverns. And while everything is designed as a Tolkienesque setting, you've got no elves or dwarves or orcs - but humans. And that's a big change compared to more traditional 80s fantasy (like D&D or the Krondor series or Shannara). You have your Nazgûl stand-ins, but they're humans. You've got your Istari, but they're humans. You've got your dwarves equivalent, but they're humans. You've got your orcs equivalents, but human too. And it is shown that it is all a human vs human combat, despite being a world of magic and gods, placing some relativism into it all. (Though the fact they decided to subvert the Tolkienesque good vs evil wordlbuilding by having humans on both sides did cause other aspects of the series to age badly but that's another topic).

I can go on and on but I think you see my point - and this same subversion can be found in the other two series I talked about.

The Wheel of Time begins with the chosen one going on a quest... But which chosen one? That's the problem - there are multiple candidates, and so we begin with a guessing game. And the Aes Sedai are clearly an answer to Tolkien's Istari - but all women instead of all men, and much more numerous and pro-active. As for "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" we have benevolent trolls that are actually more akin to Tolkien's dwarves and have some Inuit-influence, while the Tolkienesque-elves turn out to either be the big bads of the series and the evil guys ; or to be sheltered, useless side-characters that are not helping anyone and cause more problems than anything (I'm exaggerating a bit here, but you get the subversion). Spoilers - but the Galadriel equivalent literaly gets murdered during her second actual appearance, to make it very clear what kind of subversion we are into.

Because this was the game of these books - and the reason they were such huge successes. It wasn't about avoiding or setting themselves free from the tropes and code and archetypes of the genre. Rather it was about reappropiating them, reusing them, twisting them and modernizing them in order to get rid of the stale cliches and frozen stereotypes. It was all a game of imitation yes, but also of derailing - a subtle, discreet, derailing so that everybody got on board of the same type of train, but said train took different tracks to another landscape and worked on a different fuel. (If it makes sense?). It is a game of subtle twists - but unfortunately it is often this subtlety that makes these series overlooked, as people just focus too much on what is identical/similar and not much on what is different... Despite the differences being key here in this effort of renewing what was a dying style. Placing back these books in their context highlights even more how "fresh" they felt back then.

I have one specific point that illustrates this, but I'll need to write a whole post for it...

#fantasy books #fantasy literature #tolkienesque renaissance #tolkien #the belgariad #the wheel of time #memory sorrow and thorn #fantasy series #the elric saga #earthsea #the black company #lord of the rings #lotr #tolkienesque fantasy #dark fantasy #epic fantasy #fantasy cliches #fantasy tropes #the evoluton of fantasy

[smreine]

Mishunneki Brinkdelver hadn’t returned to the Warrens a year before he found himself taking the First Knuckle Company into the Underdeep. Two hundred levies comprised their force—all volunteered from different Clans, abandoning their work as miners and blacksmiths to pick up warhammers—and in such a swarm, Mishun was only one more bobbing helmet in a sea of armored Dwarrow astride dire ibex. Yet if the others were the sea, then he was a rock around which they flowed, and they rippled in deference to his every motion.

He was meant to be their guide in the hostile Underdeep frontier. The Phasgal Plains were home to one of the largest outposts defending the Warrens from that which crawled below them, yet the lake was unknowable and untameable. Luminescent beasts swelled in the waters beyond the stronghold, which was built into a natural pillar holding the cavern roof aloft so. 

Between the company and the outpost stood that forest, a well-maintained stone road bisecting it into lobes. The mushrooms there grew thrice as tall as a Dwarrow. Shriveled stipes were gowned in sagging skirts, the pores under broad caps dried into wide mouths. A strange white fuzz climbed the volva. Axes had been abandoned beside felled plumpbells, near which tattered clothing and charred bone rested in heaps. They too were limned by mold.

The sea of the army flowed, and the commander urged his mount near Mishun’s.

“Spidren?” asked Giklech.

“No,” said the Brinkdelver. “They take the bodies whole.” These were signs of a raid by savage creatures. 

“A swift battle,” muttered the commander. The invaders had not taken any casualties. The only corpses belonged to defenders of the outpost. “It was the dead again. We were too late.”

Beyond the forest stood the endpoint of their week-long march. Phasgal Outpost was shut tight. A pair of guard towers flanked a gate tall enough to accommodate the most generous supply caravan.

A pair of Noldórian paladins leaped off the guard towers onto the bridge crossing the gate’s top. They were High Àlvar, so tall that even an imposing Dwarrow face their chests if barefooted. They wore bright colors in silks woven from the animals that crawled the land above, lapels decorated with antler patterns, roc feathers fletching their arrows.

“What brings you to the gates of Fistred Shy Warrens?” asked the lead paladin, Valen, while speaking in Interlingual. He held his longbow in one hand.

Giklech showed his empty hands, palm forward. “We are the First Knuckle Company, tasked to provide military support to our neighbors.” His Interlingual was stilted.

“Under whose authority?”

“The community spoke,” said Giklech, who did not understand the question.

“We have been tasked to guard this gate against all intruders,” said Valen, “and allow no passage. The survivors of this raid will not risk more of Lorkullen’s tricks. For hours they came—ones who looked like you. Dwarrow in form, ragged from travel, hungry for rest. When the gates open they shed their flesh and shred ours.”

Unease spread through the company. The ibexes reacted to their riders by beating indentations into the loam.

“The dead are restless,” said Mishun quietly to his commander. “They are the ones who have fallen before, climbing from their graves to enact unholy deeds. We live still. We must bury the victims of the raid upon sanctified ground so they do not rise again.”

“Notify the administrator,” said Giklech louder, pointing to Valen. “He will know us.”

But the archer would not go, and the other Àlvar spanned the top of the gate to either side, positioning themselves between posts where the view to the road was clear. Hands rested upon quivers. Bows were lifted.

“We will not budge without a direct order from Ambassador Enduriel,” said Valen.

Giklech was agog. “Enduriel controls an outpost?”

“We cannot go back!” said Sengar the bard. He had to shout over the rising discontent in the Company, from the Dwarrow muttering between each other to the uneasy ibexes dancing underneath them. “There is no time!”

“Why would you think that? Because of the lies told by a Dwarrow gone mad in the Underdeep?” asked Valen.

Mishun was summoned by the reference, coaxing his mount to the bottom of the ladder. He faced the willowy Àlvar, so high above them at the top of Dwarrow-built gates, guarding the levers that would permit them to enter safe ground.

He spoke in loud, clear nachī, his voice booming off smooth stone walls. “The Mountainhomes are not the Empire of Trees. We are a nation of people, governed by people, sovereign in our will, united with Ashenna’s body. Our people do not believe I am mad. We flock to help our own. The Àlvar cannot stop us—can they?”

For a moment, all was silent. The shock of hearing the Delver speak was enough to mute every Dwarrow.

“Do you threaten us?” asked Valen.

“You threaten us!” Mishun snarled, and the Company snarled along with him, banging their hammers and axe hilts on the armored flanks of the ibexes. Energy rushed through their forces.

“Walk away,” said the Àlvar, “or this will become a diplomatic incident.”

“Diplomacy can be sundered in Chaos for all I care!” Giklech said.

“Do you think your interference will have no consequence?” demanded Sengar, louder than the others, projecting with all his bardic strength. “If your stalling leads to deaths in Fistred, we will tell the world of your betrayal. We let you into homes, feed you at our hearths—”

The bard took an arrow to the breast and the arrow took the next words from his lips.

Blood sprayed over Mishun’s vambrace. He cried out in surprise, catching Sengar as he slipped from his saddle.

A skeletal bowman leaped from a nearby ridge, nocking another arrow. Dusty shreds of skin swung on his bones when he swung around to aim again, this time at one of the paladins.

Giklech roared, “Dead ones!”

They swept in from all sides.

Hundreds came in the span of time it took for Sengar to stop breathing. Silvery figures melted through the stone walls, as easily as slime molds oozed from cracks in the rock. And once they freed themselves of stone, they accelerated fiercely as water blasting through a dam. They were rotten, fungal, odorous, and swift.

“Rally!” shouted Mishun, thrusting his hammer into the air so others would see.

Another ranger shouted, “Axe-dwarrow! To the rear!”

The Company had been turned to speak to the Àlvar, offering their backs to lake from whence a hundred animate skeletons surged. They did not see the dead phalanx until it broke through the line of specters. They sliced directly through the center of First Knuckle Company, dividing them with a wall of shambling bodies carrying steel blades.

Mishun’s ibex lost its legs beneath him. He slammed to the ground between stomping feet and came up armed, snarling, swinging—as much a berserk creature of the Underdeep as any undead soldier.

The Àlvar were trying to open the gates.

Blinded in the midst of clashing metal and screaming brethren, Mishun sawed his path to the ladder, guided by fifty years of survival instinct, and left a trail of bones and ectoplasm. He had not lost the muscles of a cavern-scaling Dwarrow; he flew up the ladder too quickly for skeletal archers to fire upon him. Arrows struck the stone cutouts beneath him.

The battle was as daunting from above—clutches of frightened farmers separated from one another, divided by walls of skeletons as specters bled them through their armor. But they were rallying. The rangers were taking charge. When Mishun reached the top of the gates, Giklech had claimed their right flank and began to push back.

A paladin raised his bow on Mishun when he rushed toward them.

“What are you doing?” Mishun demanded.

It loosed the arrow. Mishun flinched, but the point sailed over his shoulder to bury in the breastplate of a dead soldier. Its skeleton exploded from the impact. Short sword and shield smashed to the ground.

“Help me open the gates!” Valen cried. He leaned his weight against a lever. It would not open unless someone operated one on the opposite side of the gate, too.

“Don’t open that,” snarled Mishun, yanking the Àlvar down to his eye-level by his collar. “We should have gotten inside before they came!”

“We will die without reinforcements!” said Valen.

“No—Giklech can pin their army against the south wall—if we get up on the stanchions—your archers—”

But other paladins had already cranked the remaining levers. Mighty gears twisted, hydraulics hissed, and the gates lifted. A foul wind blew past the Delver and the paladins. It was more rotten than any stench that came from the Brink. The smell of Creep was new to Dwarrow, but unmistakable: Lorkullen had already taken those inside the Outpost. None but the Àlvar had survived the first raid. And thus the open doors exposed another swarm of rotting dead, crushing the Company between them like hammer and anvil.

#excerpts #writing #high fantasy #tolkienesque fantasy #attbtm #book

[redinthesea]

Random little wizard design. 🧙 I still struggle with classic fantasy type designs rip.

#artists on tumblr #character design #wizard #fantasy design #wizardcore #me art #I dont like generic tolkienesque fantasy tbh so its why I struggle with it #but I think you can see my influences here wrt my last post #it has a more unique take on the fantasy aesthetic haha

[mpregwizard]

if i had a nickle for every time ive seen something where sean astin plays a character who saves his friend dangling off a cliff of some kind after going a long eventful journey with him and accompanying him on his way to return a magical item only he can carry to its origins in order to save the world from an evil power seeking wizard and a firey object in the sky while being followed around by a fucked up little guy and then one of them leaves on a boat at the end id have two nickels

#discworld #lotr #this also funny considering that discworld is a parody of tolkienesque fantasy or whatever the word is #especially the earlier books #maybe he doesnt quite save him but the scene has the same vibes as the volcano scene

[cruelsister-moved2]

having yuri withdrawals

#seriously how are there soooo many 'sapphic' relationships in fantasy books coming out rn and yet none of them are good #i dont ask for much. i just want a literary non-epic fantasy with dragons and no action scenes and non-tolkienesque worldbuilding #and a slow butchfemme romance and a plot on a small scale that doesnt include like armies and huge countries and weird racial implications #and interesting religious symbolism and themes and motifs and narratives and cool soft magic systems

[moonlarking]

Ok SO I haven’t shared anything about this story yet here even though I’ve been working on it for over a year, but I recently commissioned the INCREDIBLE @joleanart to draw one of my OCs and LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL!!!! LOOK AT HER!!!! SHE’S GORGEOUS!

Her name is Bren <3

Seriously, if you want to commission art, @joleanart is wonderful, accommodating, easy to work with, and so so so talented! I can’t recommend her enough!

Image ID: A young woman with pale pink skin and long, wavy dark brown hair that is done in a half-up braided crown. She wears a flowing dark grey-blue dress with sparkling silver accents and long, flowing periwinkle sleeves, and a textured lavender cloak with a mantle of thick white fur. She holds a sword upright in her hands, and it is glowing with a white light. Her expression is challenging, and she looks as if she is ready to fight. She wears a moonstone ring in the shape of a moon with two silver crescent moons on either side of it on her left hand, and surrounding her like a halo is a faint white aurora borealis. End image ID.

#fantasy oc #Brienne Dolan #my oc #oc art #fantasy art #Tolkien #tolkienesque #artists on tumblr #tumblr art #character art

[prokopetz]

Y'all, J R R Tolkien did not invent "race fantasy". His take on it is certainly the most recognisable owing to it having been taken up by fantasy roleplaying games, but fantasy literature using fantastical species as an explicit proxy for race in the modern sense pre-dates Tolkien's literary success by at least several decades.

I'm saying this not to exonerate Tolkien, but to point out that the fact that your fantasy setting isn't doing the standard elf/dwarf/hobbit/orc shit doesn't automatically let it off the hook. There's a long history of species-as-proxy-for-race in fantasy fiction before, after, and entirely apart from the Tolkienesque strand that needs to be reckoned with, and if your thought process stops at "well, I'm not literally imitating Tolkien, so it's fine", you're gonna miss some implications.

Basically, put down the degenerate cannibal lizard man and think about what you're doing, is what I mean to say.

#media #tropes #worldbuilding #racism #swearing

[ailinu]

‘i’ll reread the first volume of die before i loan it to someone just to make sure i still think it’s good’ i said, minutes before crying my eyes out (again) about issue 3

#it's the tolkien issue #it's handled so so well in terms of situating die and its tone with respect to tolkienesque influences on the fantasy genre #but also and more importantly it just *gets* to me #listen to me he can't leave the trenches #it's an orcish mockery of his elvish tale.. #but he calls the eagles anyway to try and bring the message out #anyway. die is still very very good.

[dduane]

The cover for the first book in the Feline Wizards group has just been spiffed up a little (new render, improved magic...). So those of you who've already purchased it through Ebooks Direct are entitled to an upgrade to the version with the new cover, if you want one.

Just email the EBD customer service address quoting your order number, and we'll send you updated download links at no cost.

If you've already got the book as part of the whole-store Give Me Everything You've Got package, TBONWM has been updated there too. The request process to get the package with the re-covered book is the same as above.

And if you've never heard of this Young Wizards-universe book, and want to pick up a copy, you can do that here. The ebook is DRM-free: it can be moved from device to device as you please, and if you ever need a replacement due to file loss or platform change, we'll do that for you for free.

Some cats—the ones who're also wizards—work in the world as the guardians of Gates, maintaining the portals between realities. When an ancient evil threatens to flood through the worldgates hidden in New York's Grand Central Terminal and invade New York with surreal horror from another dimension, four champions—an Upper East Side house pet, a neurotic tortoiseshell, a fearless alley tom, and a feral kitten—are called to defend the Earth. Four small wizards must walk between worlds into the terrible realm of the Children of the Serpent... facing ultimate battle in a war against a Darkness born untold aeons before the creation of mere Man... "Intriguing, with a well-worked backdrop... Fantasy-loving ailurophiles will curl up and purr." -- Kirkus Reviews "Laughter, spellworks, battles, and personal growth all mesh into a Tolkienesque tale." -- San Diego Union-Tribune "Love it? I could not put it down." -- Jane Yolen

#Young Wizards #Feline Wizards #The Book of Night with Moon #Diane Duane

[cipheramnesia]

I just think it's interesting how in 1961 Michael Moorcok created Elric of Melniboné in part for a contrast to the extensively popular Tolkienesque fantasy writing common in that day (still common today), and he was like, "Yeah so this super inbred prince comes from a hyperxenophobic kingdom of an island nation which has fallen into almost total decay, and they think everyone different from themselves are barbarians who they like to torture and enslave. He wants to fuck his cousin so much and he is literally as white as physically possible."

And from there proceeded to give Elric a powerful magic sword of destiny which he uses to win back his kingdom and it goes right back to being terrible so instead of being a king who restores honor to his nation, he literally murders every single person on the island and burns his whole kingdom down.

He fucks off to die but his murder sword won't even let him, and just kills every single person around him constantly like, friendship is magic all right and that magic is evil murder sword food. But he finally murders his way to basically a legendary city of paradise where heroes get to go and rest in their final days except he's done so much murder that a giant fuckoff army tracks him down and razes paradise to the ground.

Then once pretty much every single person and several gods are dead he's like now what murder sword there's no one left to kill and murder sword is like "actually there's one" and fucking stabs Elric to death before transforming into a demon and destroying the entire planet.

And while he didn't exactly invent whole languages I have to admit he sure did some fuckin contrast there and basically created the trope of a scary fantasy murder boy in black armor with a magical black evil sword what is evil, and proceeded to turn this gritty reboot of the Conan sword and sorcery subgenre into this entire other different Eternal Champion thing.

Some thirty or so odd years later the whole drug fueled alcohol soaked lot of those stories ended up in my hands in the guise of cheap used paperbacks with lurid covers, and that's how Elric of Melniboné took the place in my own youth usually occupied by The Hobbit and Lord of The Rings, and never got supplanted by either.

#Michael Moorcok wrote the first Elric stuff at about age 20 so like #imagine the writing of someone barely out of their teens resonating with someone just barely in their teens #really shocking right #anyway thats the gateway drug to jerry cornelius and every single acid dream new wave story ever

[mask131]

The thing that I always found abominably fascinating and insanely mind-blowing with the Earthsea series is that it breaks all the worn-out, over-used, “seen everywhere” cliches of fantasy people complain about today and try to avoid. 

Tired of your typical Europe-setting? Here is a world of islands influenced by a lot of various non-European civilizations!

Tired of having a white-predominant cast? Here is a series where people of color are the dominant ethnicities and the white are the minority and bizarre barbarian foreigners from far away!

Tired of having the heroes go on grand and perilous monster-slaying quest to fight some dark overlord or fetch a magical item? Here are books where the villains are elusive, abstract and philosophical threats, where the quests to defeat them are very down-to-earth, solitary and rely more on self-search and the understanding of human nature rather than great exploits. 

Tired of seeing the same old-worn out fantasy races tropes? None of this here! 

This book series was created with the intention of subverting, avoiding or breaking the new tropes and stereotypes that were rising up with the success of Tolkien’s work. It was made to be different and ground-breaking and stereotype-crushing, and it worked extremely well, becoming a classic of fantasy literature and influencing the genre massively... And yet, people only rediscover it today, and know about it today somehow. (Well a “large” today including the dozen of last years of so).

This series is the perfect example of the “new” fantasy that rises up in the modern era, as an attempt to “break off” from the “traditional” or “cliche” fantasy... And the first book has been sitting there since the END OF THE 60s!!! 

There are more examples I could point out of books that present to us a completely out-there, trope reinventing, stereotype breaking form of fantasy - and that yet have been there since the 70s or the 80s, or even before! As I went back in time to see several of the “classics” of fantasy literature, I came to understand something - a lot of the “cliches” and “stereotypes” and “over-used tropes” of fantasy people complain about today were not at all dominant for a very long time. If you believe the words of many people out there, you imagine fantasy never had black characters or queer characters or non-European settings or non-Tolkienesque plotlines until the 2010s or something... Which is not true. Fantasy was such a varied, bizarre, diverse genre in its literary form all throughout the 20th century, and many “old” works of the first generations of the post-Tolkien fantasy are basically what people want to see today as “pattern-breaking and fresh new fantasy”. 

The Tolkienesque-fantasy and all of its cliches and stereotypes were not so much dominant as just present in a handful of massively popular and widespread works - the case of the Shannara series can be pointed out, as its first book was PRAISED at the time for being able to recreate a Tolkien story in the 70s, and it was because it was mostly a copy of the Lord of the Rings that it got so popular (and why it is not well-liked today). And then the 80s rolled and early D&D reignited the flame of the Tolkien-inspired fantasy. By the 90s, it seemed Tolkien had been used and over-used to death, and people didn’t trust it all anymore... Which is why David Eddings’ Belgariad series was created. Its key point was to take back all the elements of the traditional epic fantasy story, but reassemble them, freshen them up, twist them slightly, all of that to re-create a by-the-book BUT fresh, new and interesting series. It was an attempt at prooving that, with innovation and some twists and modernization, the Tolkienesque fantasy would not die - and it worked massively well. And then in the 2000s, the Lord of the Rings movie sealed the deal. 

All these works make it look like fantasy had always been copying or taking inspiration from Tolkien. But it is false. It is true that most of the classics are tied to Tolkien, but not always in imitation or re-creation - in the case of “Earthsea”, there was a willing attempt at getting away and inverting the Tolkienesque fantasy to create a fantasy that went the very opposite direction. Same thing with the Elric Saga, also designed to be the reverse or opposite of The Lord of the Rings, and which in turn became the classic of another new genre of fantasy: dark fantasy. And Conan in all that? People forget that the Conan the Barbarian series were just as influential for fantasy works as Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings was. The Elric Saga, again, was created to completely reverse and avoid the Conan-like fantasy. A similar thing was done with Leiber for his “Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser” series, which was designed to break away from the Conan “heroic fantasy” style and reinvent the genre in a new direction. 

There are so many “old” and “classic” works of literary fantasy that actually do not feel like a “classic” at all because they have all the vibes, elements and expectations one has from a non-classic, non-traditional fantasy... BUT THEY ARE THE FOUNDATIONS, they are the basis and classics and inspirations of fantasy. And it all shows this huge gap between what people think fantasy is, and what fantasy really was - it is a fascinating case study of how one specific trend somehow got over the entire genre. Imagine a world where people think Gothic novels can only have a vampire or the ghost of a judge, and must be Bram Stokers-inspired, and that everybody points out they are tired to see Dracula-expies everywhere... Only to discover the stories of Edgar Allan Poe and be baffled by them and their “inventivity” and “breaking of patterns”. I’m sorry, that’s the fastest comparison I can make, but this feels just like that. There is this strangely specific idea of what fantasy is today forged on a few items... I think, beyond the massive success of Tolkien and imitators, D&D probably is also to “blame” for how people see fantasy today.

But even then, D&D took inspiration from so many non-conventional works of fantasy... Yes many became “classics” now, though often ignored by the masses - The Elric Saga, and Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser were big influences. But take the Jack Vance series “The Dying Earth”, another big inspiration on early D&D. Take that. This series is from the 50s - FROM THE 50S - and yet it is a unique genre of sci-fi fantasy that I haven’t seen much being done around, and it creates such a weird, whimsical, bizarre, surrealistic fantasy world, it feels completely unique. And again, it is a classic of the 50s and 60s. 

I don’t really know where I try to go with this but the important thing is: when someone wants to read “non-traditional” or “non-Tolkienesque” fantasy, or “non-stereotyped” fantasy, it is possible, instead of searching for every new author nowadays (not a bad thing to do that though), it is possible to just go back in time, look back at the books of the 70s, 60s and 50s, and find there a novelty, a freshness and an inventivity that is lacking in a mass production of modern day fantasy. And that such a thing is possible is truly crazy for me. I don’t know if such a thing happened with other literary genres, but it is insane that sometimes in fantasy, to see “new” things you just have to look back into the past. 

#fantasy #fantasy literature #tolkien #tolkienesque literature #earthsea #ursula le guin #the dying earth #the elric saga #i don't know if I should tag them all #this is really just a random shot here #fantasy stereotypes #fantasy cliches #fantasy tropes

[elbiotipo]

Ryoko Kui isn't afraid to tackle the concepts of "race" in fantasy settings (especially the Tolkienesque, well D&Desque set of dwarves, elves, etc.) which are often brushed over or just unquestioned in other works... and it really gets you thinking the way she portrays racial and interspecies issues not as a result of say, magical backstories (like long lost elf-dwarf wars and such) but as the manifestation of prejudices and bigotry that are used for material profit and oppression (the orcs and the kobolds being displaced from their lands, the 'short-lived' races considered easy to exploit) and the definition of "human" and "the other", as well as interspecies relationships in a world with many kinds of sapient beings.

I am really sorry if you had to find out that Laios and Falin are literally, textually, unambigously racist in canon though.

#cosas mias #dungeon meshi #as in racist for real #sorry if you had to find out like this

[thisisnotthenerd]

ok, i know i put a poll up and that relationship tracking won the poll for what came next on the stats series.

but consider this: relationship tracking takes so goddamn long. i had already started it by the time that i put the poll up, and as of now i'm still not done. granted the list is comprehensive: romantic, platonic, familial, and adversarial relationships, separated by pc-npc and pc-pc. for every season.

anyway, i started tracking character ages in the meantime while i build up the motivation to finish the relationship tracking.

without further ado:

d20 character ages

some of these are listed in the wiki. some of these are based on vibes and more vague indications from the seasons in question. all of them have some element of my commentary. if there isn't an age given i will explain why. it's in the seating chart because that compacts the format into an understandable block and not an infinitely long list.

to be clear, some of these are confirmed with actual numbers, but some aren't, and i'm listing them as unknown and offering my opinion in place of a confirmed number.

fantasy high freshman year: i am convinced that the ages the cast give are vibes based. as someone who did not fit the normal age range of high school, i can tell you that in the US, freshmen are typically 14-15, sophomores 15-16, juniors 16-17, and seniors 17-18. that's not to say that someone can't fall out of those ranges. i did. anyway:

fig faeth: ~15. this is a rough estimate--she'd be born just after fall cutoff for her year to start at 15.

gorgug thistlespring: 14-15. he was confirmed 14 at the start of the season, and presumably turns 15 at some point during the year.

adaine abernant: 14-15. this is based on the fact that she turns 16 before the events of sophomore year

fabian seacaster: 16. a bit older than your average freshman, but i knew people who were 16 freshman year, so it's not that weird.

kristen applebees: 15-16. again a bit older than your average freshman, but younger than fabian.

riz gukgak: 14. this was confirmed in episode 13 iirc. riz is the youngest of the party

escape from the bloodkeep: this party has some major age differences that are very unclear. no real confirmed ages.

maggie: unknown. she and zaul'nazh had been in a relationship for ~100 years, so she's probably got a good couple of centuries under her belt

leiland: unknown. similar deal to maggie--he spent centuries serving zaul'nazh. how many? who knows

efink murderdeath: unknown. she's a tolkienesque high elf. if we go full lotr comparison to arwen, she's over 2000 by the time she marries percival.

sokhbarr: unknown. again, we don't really get confirmation of an age for him--he's just kind of an ageless bog-lord.

lilith: old as time. she ate the stars. definitely the oldest of the party.

markus st. vincent: unknown. human, so he has a human lifespan. i'd pin him in his 30s. given that his closest comparison is probably faramir, who's 35 at the start of the war of the ring, i think 30s tracks.

the unsleeping city: here we have a mix of confirmed ages and some straight up vibes.

ricky matsui: late 20s early 30s. more specifically around 26-31. this is vibes-based. i based this on his career progression.

sofia lee: early-mid 30s. another vibes-based one. again based on career progression. she feels a little older than ricky and pete, but not by much. married to dale for 5 years, so if they got married when she was in her late 20s, this tracks.

kingston brown: 55. thank god a confirmed number.

misty moore: ~400. at least that's how long she's been on earth. this actually comes from tucii. i'd put her misty form in late 70s early 80s, and her rowan form in her mid 20s.

kugrash: ~60, based on his 30 years as a rat druid.

pete conlan: younger than 31. this is based on a reference ally makes in tucii to big business (1988), so i aged him back three years. i would guess mid-late 20s during tuc; he mentions not having seen his dad in 6 years. assuming pete fully transitioned during college/around college age, it would make sense for him to be around 25-28 during the first unsleeping city.

tiny heist: some of these characters just straight up don't age, so they don't really count when evaluating age.

rick diggins: unknown. he's a clicko man. he cannot age except in spirit.

boomer coleoptera: unknown. vaguely middle-aged, though that might just be clint mcelroy's general dad energy

agnes: elderly. no confirmed number, though she's old enough to have a grandma schtick, a reputation, and a terminal illness prognosis of 2 months

ti-83: a teen. and that's all we know. probably younger than bean.

bean: late teens early 20s. a vague range, but at least it's something.

car-go jones: another ageless toy. at least a decade in human years, if we estimate that max got him at a similar age that he gives him to dylan.

a crown of candy: finally some goddamn numbers.

liam wilhelmina: 17-18. he starts at 17 and turns 18 in ep 15 iirc.

theobald gumbar: ~50. this tracks for him assisting lazuli and being amethar's friend during the war

jet rocks: 18. and she never lived past 18.

saccharina frostwhip: 23-24. this tracks for her being born around the ravening war, before the rocks sisters were killed.

ruby rocks: 18. and she keeps living.

amethar rocks: 48. reasonable. he'd have been in his mid 20s during the ravening war.

lapin cadbury: old man. yes that is the actual entry. i'd say he's probably 10-15 years older than amethar to really be considered old.

cumulous rocks: late 30s early 40s. tracks for being created by lazuli while theo was starting his knighthood under her.

fantasy high sophomore year: i'm halfway convinced that the intrepid heroes just don't know how old high schoolers are. granted, they may be going for general teen, i.e. 13+1d6, so the more batshit stuff they do comes across as a little more normal. it's like having actors in their 20s play teens. except they're actually dnd characters. and they're in their 30s.

fig faeth: 16-17. another rough estimate for fig.

gorgug thistlespring: 17. a little funky, since he was 14 at the start of fhfy. the principle of 13+1d6 comes across here

adaine abernant: 16. her age range for the year is 15-16, which is normal for a high school sophomore.

fabian seacaster: 18. definitely stretching it a bit. the listed current age is 18-19, which i'm assuming is using boy's night as reference.

kristen applebees: 16-17, which tracks with her progression from freshman year

riz gukgak: 16. confirmed in ep 14 iirc. since he was 14 in feb of freshman year, and assuming spring break is ~april, he has a spring birthday.

pirates of leviathan: there's a pretty clear split of age groups in this season--the first to introduce adults in spyre.

sunny biscotto: 18. her first adventure as an independent person, even though it was technically her running away from home.

barbarella sarsaparilla gainglynn: 22. it tracks; she grew up isolated on leviathan and isn't super far into her career, though she has a pretty strong base

cheese stormcrank: 16. the youngest of the party, even though he's his family breadwinner. the left table is the young people in this party.

myrtle: 30. aabria calls her a 'dirty thirty'. so that may not be exact.

jack brakkow: late 50s equivalent. granted he's a ratkin, and middle age starts at 25 for them, with old landing at 40. so he may actually be younger, probably closer to myrtle's age if not a little older.

marcid the typhoon: unknown. he's never given a specific age. given that he's known myrtle for a long time, and at some point was nearly drowned in a shipwreck, i'm going to put him in his 30s as well.

the unsleeping city chapter ii: again, a mix of confirmed ages and vibes.

ricky matsui: early 30s. 29-34. this is just three years aged up from the first unsleeping city.

sofia lee: mid 30s. another age-up from

kingston brown: 58. thank god a confirmed number.

iga lisowski: 45. it feels like she kind of plays up the old lady schtick for her job, bc 45 isn't that old.

rowan berry: ~400. at least that's how long she's been on earth. rowan form in her mid 20s.

cody walsh: 26. this is a 26 year old hot topic manager with 12 swords and extreme mediocrity. truly a character designed to cause chaos.

pete conlan: younger than 34. again based on the reference ally makes in tucii to big business (1988). i'd put him at around 28-31. definitely around cody's age, a little older, but not much.

mice & murder: they are animals using variant human stats, so they're using human ages.

gangie green: 55. he definitely acts younger in certain circumstances.

buckster $ boyd: unknown. probably younger than gangie--late 40s perhaps? we know he's a gemini.

daisy d'umpstaire: almost 60. she's past her prime and wondering if she really wants to do this for the rest of her life

ian prescott: unknown. definitely middle aged, probably around buckster's age.

lars vandenchomp: 18, supposedly in dog years. also a cancer. i don't know how, given that they served in the schnauzer war and supposedly have a business degree.

sylvester cross: 55. another person past his prime, and wondering what's he's doing with the rest of his life.

misfits & magic: the first school season to actually have consistent ages, assuming they're entering as sixth years who were in their junior year in the us.

whitney jammer: 16. born around 2005.

k | dream: 17. born around 2004

sam black: 16. another 2005 baby

evan kelmp: 17. born around 2003. this tracks for him not having formal education-- a little old for the grade.

the seven: the first spyre school season to have the ages be consistent. the ladies know teenagerhood well.

the fact they lost a year or so in the palimpsests makes placing their grades a little fuzzier: we know sam, ostentatia, and zelda get taken during the school year. penny goes missing just before the start of the year, and antiope, katja, and danielle get taken beforehand.

antiope jones: 18. she lost a year in the palimpsest, so she's technically a super senior, making her a junior during fhfy.

katja cleaver: 18. another technical super senior, who was a junior during fhfy.

penny luckstone: 18. again, she lost her junior year during fhfy.

danielle barkstock: 16-17. i'd say 17, because that makes her a sophomore during fhfy--she'd have repeated the year to be a junior during the seven.

ostentatia wallace: 16-17. leaning toward 17 again, but younger than danielle. we don't get full confirmation of how old she is/what grade she's in during fhfy, but given the fact that she's established enough to host a party at her house during fhfy, i'd say she's a sophomore, and that's the year she repeats.

sam nightingale: 18. i'd say close to 19, because she's definitely in penelope's age group if not grade, and i'm pretty sure i recall penelope being a senior during fhfy. she may have been young for her grade initially, but came out on the other end after fhfy.

zelda donovan: 16-17. leaning towards 16 for zelda; she's a freshman with the bad kids during fhfy, and is the last maiden to be captured, at some point during the second semester. she could conceivably retake classes over the summer and catch up in order to be a sophomore the same year as the bad kids.

shriek week: this is a college season, so they're college aged. i don't have that much to say--we know exactly how old they are.

terry talbo: 22

megan mirror: 23

tuti iv: 21

seven: 22

a starstruck odyssey: there's a mix here--some vagueness, some numbers. in-universe their ages would be counted differently anyway, since they work off of 6-month cycles and not 12-month years.

gunnie miggles-rashbax: mid 30s. he's got two PhDs and a master's as well as a cyborg body and years of trying to pay off debt.

riva: unknown. it's reasonable to assume that they're on the younger side, given that they are on their galavant. i'd assume around early-mid 20s for their species.

norman takamori: unknown. based on the art and his general timeline, i'd say ~40s. maybe 50s.

skip | valdrinor: unknown. he's a cerebroslug who was presumably raised somewhere, tried to escape, ended up in space and then in a crate of powdered egg substitute.

margaret encino: 24. a savant who began working at 18. truly a girlboss on a quarter life crisis.

sundry sidney: n/a. she's an android--aging doesn't really apply to her. i think it's only been a year or so since the line was shut down, since it's been revamped as the warfare whitneys.

big barry syx: 38. this also carries over to barry nyne. we know barry bohunk created the barry battalion before anarchera 200 (current=220), but they were born as 25 year old beautiful big boys. in short, barry's age is a little questionable.

coffin run: another age split season, since half of the party is immortal.

aleksandr astrovsky: 41. young to be florina's zayde. also 15 sons? especially when he and marina had not been in contact for ~7 years? insane.

squing: old as time. younger than dracula, but only just. just a squishy headed vampire who eats letters.

wetzel: 26. has not even lived a majority of his lifetime and already wants to be a vampire.

may wong: 24. granted that's because she was turned at 24 so as to be eternally young and hot, so she's a bit older than that probably.

a court of fey and flowers: they are archfey that don't die. blooms are centuries apart. assume these age ranges are going to be like the bloodkeep ranges.

andhera: unknown. younger than most of the fae--he's the current heir to the unseelie, but has had many siblings who died previously in pursuit of the throne. most of the others knew them when they were younger; hob unhorsing him on the field of battle is only one example. so definitely like just of age for this prince.

k.p. hob: unknown. definitely older than andhera and likely binx, he's in the prime of his military career. getting closer to middle age, but still a relatively eligible bachelor, given that the goblin court sought to make a marriage alliance with lady sylmenar.

chirp featherfowl: unknown. i'd put her at the archfey equivalent of late 20s early 30s just based on vibes. she's still getting down at the bloom but has a 4 year old at home on the material plane.

squak airavis: unknown. i'd say slightly younger than chirp, but they've been cousins for so long that the difference is irrelevant. late 20s, getting down and breaking hearts at the bloom. considering marriage but shopping around.

delloso de la rue: unknown. rue is a little tricky--they were brought to the court of wonder as a child and presumably aged normally to that point, but they've been an archfey ever since. closer to hob's age than the lords of the wing.

binx choppley: unknown. the crisis of the court of craft happened relatively recently in fey terms and she was an adult by that point, though not truly the leader at the time. i'd say she's older than andhera, younger than the lords of the wing.

neverafter: some weird age splits in this party; kids, adults, inexplicable trickster spirits.

rosamund du prix: 18. technically 118, but that doesn't really matter.

timothy goose: unknown. he's old enough to have greying hair and an adult son--late 40s-early 50s maybe?

pinocchio: 12. this is based on both him and ylfa being 21 during the epilogue, so i'm assuming they're the same/a similar age.

puss in boots/pib: unknown. we meet him when he's on the older side for a cat, but also he's an eternally reincarnating trickster spirit, so that doesn't really matter.

gerard of greenleigh: 32. the other adult in the party, even though he doesn't have everything figured out.

ylfa snorgelsson: 12. this is confirmed in story, and she and pinocchio are the same age.

the ravening war: this season is a little weird because of the time skip and the fact that some ages are unconfirmed.

delissandro katzon: starts at 19, 21 after the first timeskip, 26 after the second. a young man.

raphaniel charlock: unknown. i'd say he starts in his late 60s and ends the season in his mid-70s. old enough to be deteriorating and have specific signs of age, but still spry enough to pull off a cunning action dash.

karna solara: 14 to start, 16 post-timeskip 1, 21 post-timeskip 2. rotting from a young age.

colin provolone: unknown. i'd place him in his late 20s to start, mid 30s by the end, based on his art and the start of cheese pattern baldness.

amangeaux epiceé du peche: unknown. mid 20s to start, early 30s by the end. she and her husband had been trying for heirs for a while--assuming she married young, she's not past her prime, but not having a kid in her position would be a little sus. also the fact that she must have had a relatively healthy uncomplicated pregnancy points to her still being pretty young to start.

dungeons & drag queens: a lot of variance here as well. mostly vibes-based.

troyánn: 242. she's got a combination of elf and immortal mermaid queen--this is reasonable.

princess foehammer: unknown. probably in her 20-30s.

gertrude: unknown. explicitly immortal--the only sign of age is her hair. she's been around for a while.

twyla: unknown. she's another fairy of unknown age.

mentopolis: some of these characters have stated ages. they are also concepts in a brain.

conrad schintz: 10. his growth has been stunted for years.

anastasia tension: 24. an up and coming journalist running form her rich family? say no more.

hunch curio: unknown. he's a concept in a brain. on vibes? 40s.

imelda pulse: unknown. i'd say she's probably around anastasia's age, given that they demonstrably grew up together.

dan fucks: unknown. another concept in a brain. 20-30s on the vibes alone.

the fix: unknown. concept in a brain. old enough to be a father and a contract killer is all i'll say.

burrow's end: this follows stoat aging--some of these are confirmed, some are guesses.

tula: 1-2 years old, leaning towards 2. old enough to have kids of a reasonable age, if the 1 year mark is adulthood (male stoats achieve sexual maturity at 10-11 months)

jaysohn: somewhere between 6 and 8 months old. growing up fast.

viola: 1-2 years old, same litter as tula. i looked up stoat reproduction against recommendation.

thorn vale: 1-2 years old. in the vague adult range with tula and viola.

ava: 4 years old. potentially could live for 15 more winters. unbelievable.

lila: somewhere between 6 and 8 months old. same litter as jaysohn, but is the elder of the two of them.

and that's all for this time! despite being this long, this is still going to be shorter than the relationship tracking. as always the spreadsheet is available for perusal.

#dimension 20 #dimension 20 meta #thisisnotthenerd's d20 stats #dimension 20 statistics #fantasy high #escape from the bloodkeep #the unsleeping city #tiny heist #fantasy high sophomore year #a crown of candy #pirates of leviathan #the unsleeping city chapter ii #mice & murder #misfits & magic #d20 the seven #shriek week #a starstruck odyssey #coffin run #a court of fey and flowers #neverafter #the ravening war #mentopolis #burrow's end

[storm-and-starlight]

Storm's Fic Recs: Transformers Edition

I was in Transformers fandom from June 2022 to February 2024. Here are the fics that I'll still carry with me, even though I've moved on. (I tried to tag as many people as possible, but I couldn't find everyone -- my apologies to cerkowah, jabberish, & buttface)

Victory Condition and Champion by Astolat (@astolat on Tumblr) Victory Condition more or less rewired my brain, and I don't just mean that it yeeted me into Transformers fandom almost entirely against my will or intention. It... sort of reset the way I saw the world? it's hard to explain. Either way, the poetry is very good. Champion is something of a spiritual predecessor to Victory Condition, but a lot more. just. fun. Ending the war with the power of dance parties. It's great. Victory Condition: Loosely G1, Megop, rated E Champion: Loosely G1, largely gen, rated T

Lonely Signals by Anefi (@anefi on Tumblr) SPACE WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALES god I love a good space whales story, and not only does this have space whales in abundance it also manages to nail down the impact of a four-million year war perfectly, without feeling too small or like it's going too big to be felt. IDW2005, Cosmos/Soundwave, rated T

Rest Easy by Largishcat (@largishcat on Tumblr) I barely ever read Dratchet, but this one... it's not "so good I read it despite the ship", it's so good I read it for the ship. Like Lonely Signals, it's one of very few fics I've found that actually manage to sell the scope of the war, and the Ratchet characterization is on-fucking-point. IDW2005, Dratchet, Megatron/Ratchet, rated E

the triumph of time (series) by oriflamme (@sunderedstar on Tumblr) I read all 400,000 words or so of this series in about four days. It's a rewrite of the end of IDW but make it epic (as in Tolkienesque) (seriously, idk how else to describe it except that I get the same sense of world-weight and cataclysmic events as I do from a lot of LOTR and high fantasy) but add in poetry and melancholy and history and also repairing everything that went wrong in IDW that never really got addressed. IDW2005, mostly rated T, some G. Check the tags for pairings.

Hazard Light by EatYourSparkOut, Emporianne, & cerkowah (@eatyoursparkout & @emporianne on Tumblr) This one's mostly on here for two things: 1.) doing hanahaki in a way that is like. actually thoughtful and not weird about love or unrequited love or anything like that, and 2.) doing hanahaki with robots. It's an absolutely brilliant setup that's brilliantly executed, and also Brainstorm and Percy are cute and pining and very dumb about it. MTMTE, Brainstorm/Perceptor, rated M

I'm All Full Up on Yesterdays, Don't Sing Me No More Blues by DesdemonaKaylose (@desdemonakaylose on Tumblr) Look, I know I say this a lot, but this fic has got the vibes down. It's exactly the take on Jazz that I've been looking for, all music and motion and city lights. Loosely Transformers: Prime, Jazz/Prowl, rated M

Send us a Blindfold, Send us a Blade by Trinary (@trinarysuns on tumblr) This was the first non-Astolat fic I read in this fandom that actually had an impact on me, and what an impact it was. One of the things that I love most about Transformers fic (especially IDW fic) is the sense of the... the timescale of the war? The weight of looking back and seeing how much has changed, and this fic really nails that specific sort of nostalgia. (Same kinda thing with how Lonely Signals/Rest Easy handle the war, but this one handles the revolution.) IDW2005, Starscream/Thundercracker, Starscream/Thundercracker/Skywarp, rated M

Attaque Composée (series) by neveralarch (@neveralarch on Tumblr) It's a fencing AU, but also they're all still robots, but also it's one of the most heartwrenching takes on IDW Starscream that I've seen (and that's saying something). The twisting of canon to fit the AU is masterfully done. IDW2005, Starscream/Wheeljack, mostly rated G, one T, one M.

Mistakes on Mistakes Until- by jabberish This one's an excellent sci-fi epic with everything that Jazz lends himself really well to in fic? Intrique and plot twists and General Shenaniganery. It's really fun. Transformers - All Media Types, Jazz/Prowl, rated M, currently incomplete but updating

Fathomless by Sroloc_Elbisivni (@sroloc--elbisivni on Tumblr) This is exactly the kind of vaguely-fairytale-magical-realism sort of tragedy-with-a-happy-ending that I live for, and it's especially notable in that that is not, precisely, the vibe that Transformers lends itself to and yet this fic pulls it off so well. Loosely G1, Jazz/Prowl, rated T

Your Own Hands by SatelliteSoundwave (@satellitesoundwave on Tumblr) An absolutely incredible example of non-linear storytelling. Not only is the actual order of scenes non-linear, it's tightly tied to the story itself. Wreckers Trilogy, Taraprowl, rated M

the only thing left out in the light by buttface Literally the only fic I've found that deals with the whole "Rodimus died on the alternate Lost Light and Drift held his funeral" thing, and it does it so beautifully. MTMTE, Driftrod, rated T

#fic recs #transformers #maccadam #leaving the fandom fic recs #Transformers fic

[rohirric-hunter]

A phrase that basically revolutionized my online interactions is, "It's the Lord of the Rings to them."

Let me explain. The Lord of the Rings is very important to me. So important, in fact, that I've kind of lost my sense of humor about it. Satire that plays off of it is at best uninteresting and at worst offensive; congratulations, you noticed the low-hanging fruit and bad pun that is Bored of the Rings, a pair of smarmy comedians long since beat you to it and their sense of humor sucked too, let me block you real quick. A lot of jokes regarding it strike me as distasteful, when in reality they're just jokes made by someone who casually enjoyed it, instead of shaping their entire personality around it like I did. Often when I express these frustrations people mistake this as me perceiving these people to not like it; this is not strictly true. I understand that they like it, but am bothered that they don't like it enough, or in the right way. "Tolkienesque" is a terrible word, as are other words that are on the surface level based on ideas from Tolkien's work but actually describe very different concepts from the ones they claim, such as "treant."

I'm working on my behavior with regards to these perceptions but that's not the point of this post. The point of this post is that the root cause of these perceptions is an overwhelming obsession with LotR that ends up inserting rather absurd bias into the most innocuous of interactions surrounding it. Mind that by "the most innocuous" I do not mean all interactions. I mean the most incidental interactions. Ones that involve low-effort jokes, questions about the story's logic that indicate a surface-level reading of it, dumb parodies, and people borrowing concepts from it simply because it's a behemoth in fantasy that most people are at least passingly familiar with.

A number of years ago I encountered a series of posts on here wherein someone was ranting about Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (a book they had, by their own admission, not read). They tore apart the whole concept, swore up and down that it was the most disrespectful thing ever to disgrace Jane Austen, it was horrible, trashy, disrespectful that anyone would ever even think of turning such a great novel into a cheap horror story like that. (It's actually a genre comedy but I digress.)

I actually started to type up a response to them, that went something along the lines of: Hold up. You're taking this way too personally. You haven't even read it. Yes, it's overbearing and dumb in the first few chapters but let's be fair, so is Pride and Prejudice. It doesn't really pick up until after the Gardener's ball. You can't judge any book by the first few chapters. And the genre shift is actually really well done and emotionally satisfying as well as funny; the characters remain well characterized throughout and the different situation they find themselves in just shines a different spotlight on the themes of the story. As you get well into it you can really see how the author loved the original, and yeah it started an annoying fad of P&P genreshifts, but you can't blame it for that any more than you can blame the Hunger Games for modern YA. Sure, it has a few more dick jokes than I would like, but --"

And that's where I stopped, because suddenly it occurred to me that whoever this person was, they weren't going to care about any of those arguments. Nothing I could say would persuade them that it wasn't a big deal, actually, because to them it was. It was the Lord of the Rings to them. Pride and Prejudice, or perhaps Jane Austen's work in general, meant to them the same thing that the Lord of the Rings meant to me, and some idiot on the internet who read and enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, of all things, was never ever going to convince them of anything at all with regards to those works. And, like, I disagree of course, but I get it. Where the thought is coming from. How can you improve on perfection? Why would you want to? The actual disconnect is whether or not any individual thinks of Pride and Prejudice (or the Lord of the Rings) as "perfection," but, like, why would you even want to get into that argument? Best case scenario, you're being annoying. Worst case scenario, you're actively trying to make someone hate something that they live and breathe.

So I deleted my response and moved on with my day and honestly I wasn't even mad about it. Sure, whoever this was could probably do with a little bit more self-awareness with regards to their own bias, but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to give them that. They'll come to it on their own. Or they won't. Either way, I can only make the situation worse by engaging. And since then I honestly try to live by that every time I see someone online taking something way too personally. I don't always succeed, but I try. It's stupid, it's bizarre, they're making mountains out of molehills, whatever, who cares. Take a deep breath. It's the Lord of the Rings to them. Let them have it, move on.

#i think a lot of people could stand to learn this #just see someone being annoying and taking everything personally and just repeat it like a mantra #'its [whatever hobby or interest forms the most foundational aspect of who you are] to them. let them have it'

[thydungeongal]

any suggestions for rpgs that are similar to d&d in the Tolkeinesque world but less heavy on the mathy bits and without the alignment chart? I want to play more interesting racea but the stats seem to bind you to one class before you've even started and they're almost all locked into the evil alignments.

Hmmm okay, so still fantasy, less mathy, no alignment, also without stat modifiers from race/species discouraging specific character archetypes?

I think you might like Quest, but it comes with some caveats:

You can make any kind of weird character but it won't be mechanically distinct in any way. This is a conscious design decision to allow players to determine character style and ancestry in a unique way but without introducing all the various problems it comes with.

It's rules light compared to D&D, literally requiring just one d20. That satisfies the less mathy part.

No alignment. Incredibly good.

It may or may not satisfy the Tolkienesque requirement (I think D&D isn't very Tolkienesque but let's not dwell on that) because it is fantasy of a very similar stripe as D&D to me. Just not locked into purely that.

You can get a pdf version of the game book completely for free. I at least suggest checking it out. If that doesn't feel like your bag don't hesitate to contact me again, maybe getting down to some more specifics. :)

#thydungeongal answers