On Fantasy, clichés, TVTropes and Science Fiction.

Oh, and some D&D there too. Sorry I couldn't break it down further.

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D - There's a question though, can Fantasy be taken seriously anymore?
R - You mean in the sense that a lot of it is recycled? A lot of it is the same sort of material all over again? I think so. I think there's definitely something to say with fantasy still. Order of the Stick is in many ways sort of a critique I guess, a spoof of a lot of fantasy cliches, but once you see the cliches, you dodge them. I mean, there's plenty of fantasy writers who don't do the same old "warriors on a quest" thing, which I'm doing but by way of sort of turning it on it's head. I think there's plenty of room in fantasy for unique stories. I think the number one thing people can do to make their fantasy something new and interesting is to not marry it to the same old medieval sort of time period for no apparent reason. I mean, if magic exists in a world, why can't it exist in a different historycal setting. I think there's still plenty to say, and I think there's still plenty for me to make fun of, so, you know, hopefully that will keep going on both sides.
D - Question: We have talked about TVTropes, even mentioned the name (...)
R - (Laughs, interrupts) Sorry, what was the question?
D - The thing is, they have sort of these shorthands, like he's the Chosen One, he'll save us from the Dragon or the Evil Wizard.
R - Yeah, like the next thing that happens would have to be the thing that happens 'cause this thing happened because the trope said so.
D - Yes. I mean, do you think it's possible just to divorce completely, to walk away and do something else?
R - It's hard. There was a point in time a few years back when I felt like every time I put out a strip the number one response to it was "Oh, he's just doing this trope", "he's just doing that trope", you know, and put a link to it, "see, he's just not original at all". And I don't know whether that just became less popular as a way of sort of pidgeonholing things, or whether I've actually broken enough of them now that nobody assumes they know what's gonna happen next. But one way or another that doesn't seem to happen as much anymore. People try to sort of guess what I'm gonna do, and I hopefully kick it in the shins and run away laughing. But I think there's a danger of over simplification of literature, of becoming so wrapped up in these compartments that put every element of the story that you sort of miss the story. It's sort of like a lazy criticism. Criticism in the classic sense of actually doing a critical piece, not in a complaining wait. It let's you churn out an analysis of a work without putting much tought into it. I think it's fun to point to the website and see the diferent ways different works do the same sort of cliches, not in a bad sense, but I do think there's a danger in taking them too seriously as the 'be all, end all' of literary criticism.
D - Yes, indeed. I have read a lot of fantasy, and it's always like "here's the Chosen One, here's the local , here's the obviously evil sorcerer who betrays everyone"
R - Yeah, exactly. I think fantasy is more prone to that than almost any other genre. And that's partly because there have been a few titans of the genre who sort of formed everything that was to come after. And also honestly because of Dungeons and Dragons. I think people playing D&D has reinforced certain stereotypes in their mind (mumbles) RPGs that follow the same tropes and all of these sort of things, has reinforced this sort of monolithic fantasy from which few authors deviate and well so, but there's a lot of the same old same old out there too. So I think fantasy gets probably a lot more of those, those tropes listed, than almost any other genre. You know, Science Fiction, I'm a huge SF fan, SF is, every story you read is esentially a completely different setting, I'm sure, Space Opera stuff tends to be a lot of the same, whatever, but you can just go off and do something wildly different and still be Science Fiction, and I think less people do that with Fantasy these days.