I’m thinking of being some tweetstorm of like... why I’m bored with “dark” fantasy and a list of media I think people should read instead because I’m sick of poorly executed grimdark dross

Ok blame @NondairyGiant and @anxietywizard but here we go (cracks knuckles) dark fantasy is neither dark nor fantastical nor innovative or unique but is rather a new normal

What I mean is a marketing category that exists to strip away the chivalric gloss from fantasy to have a more “dark” tone—probably a big benchmark is GRRM criticizing the end of LotR emphasizing “Aragon was a good King”

Let’s start by talking about the “High Fantasy” this was supposed to deconstruct—something akin to Dragonlance, LotR or “classic” fantasy—a lot of it is pretty fucking dark

(Puts on her fake nerd girl steampunk goggles) let me start by saying I’m not a scholar of JRRT and never read the elf bible I mean the Simolarion or most of the errata—but read the core trilogy and the Hobbit

JRRT writes about a fallen magical world: elves are a dying race, dwarves strongholds have mostly fallen and there is no king under the mountain anymore, the last human border war with Mordor is a losing trench war, Ents have fucked off and become non interventionists

The War of the Ring is the last war, the elves that stay don’t get to go to heaven/the summer lands/etc and be effete ecologist dicks forever, a concordant with Ghosts is necessary to make a decent offensive and Samwise and Frodo go on a miserable journey and return to Ireland

To find out that industrialism transformed their pastoral home and everything sucks and they have to fix *that* and honestly the book is kinda a slog. Here’s the thing: the establishment of a new kingdom and renaissance is the end of a dark age—the reward for strife

The heroes are pretty uncomplicated, Sam is basically a footsteps mug to Frodo, there is singing, things are pretty twee with Tom Bombadil, etc. but it’s a pretty oppressively dark fallen world—the point is noble people can redeem it which lets criticize hero tropes

So, there are some Gary Sues and they are def pretty angelic—everyone gets a shot at redemption (Gollum) and everyone sacrifices for the greater good. It’s pretty Christian when it comes down to it and JRRT is pretty overt with his christology of fantasy (Moorcock nails it)

So I’ve clearly mad some trope jabs already, but one of the biggest problems with LotR is its fundamental European-centrism—especially with EVERY NON WHITE NATION SERVING SAURON—it also assumes rulership is good and men kinda dominate everything

It’s not (for the easier whipping boy) CS Lewis with his weirdo Christian masochism, his casual misogynistic comments and his fantastical world where Jesus (who is a lion) should rule everything

These get called classic fantasy but they *aren’t* the only fantasy works and there are many derivative “special boy who is also Jesus will save the world and get the girl and is a peasant who will be king” stories: they’re comfort food and have the attendant problems

They also are very old and plenty of works happened in the interim before current dark fantasy—lemme throw out that Lloyd Alexander has some pretty well rounded characters (and the only good bard) in his Celtic tinged mythology, it also is still a very white affair

In a similar vein I think Edith Pattou’s incomplete series (Hero’s Song whose central hero is a healer and never becomes a competent fighter, and Fire Arrow about revenge and how it consumes your life) was doing some cool stuff with classic hero tropes

So I’ve read very little current fantasy but started the Kingkiller Chronicles ( Pygmalion story about a special boy), most of A Song of Ice and Fire (Europe is a backwards hell but DAMN THIS SWORD MAN—never finished the books or show) and Scott Bakers series

Also read like 5 pages of the TERRIBLE AYN RAND WORSHIPPING Wizards First Rule (which I recycled after using it as a dart board)

So my knowledge of Dark Fantasy is largely from video games (like Dragon’s Age) and a few books—also RPGs. So why am I sick of it?

1) it doesn’t challenge Eurocentric storytelling—the scarce exploration of non-central Europe is why I can seem original talking about the Taín. It just takes familiar tropes and makes them more dickish (dwarves are alcoholic xenophobes, elves naturalist xenophobes, etc.)

And there is some really cool fantasy going on that isn’t centered on Europe, an exhaustive list is beyond me but there are easily googled lists. WFRP made a low heroic fantasy with grotesque outcomes but still never developed the larger world much and it suffers for it

I’m taking a break to eat dinner

Ok 2. Dark Fantasy is almost always cynical, this is supposed to be a counter to the “perfect angel does good things” fantasy or to introduce moral complexity and intrigue but mostly winds up being a confusing mess of loathsome people

When every single person is basically an insane idealist/perfectionist or a conniving bastard and backstabber you wind up either endorsing quietism (or do-nothingism) or promote the South Park libertarian position that caring about anything is for idiots

Let’s be clear: some cynicism is good (I’d hold up His Dark Materials as a problematic fave even the weird rant about circumcision in the Subtle Knife because Lyra ultimately has ambitions beyond pier selfishness and accomplished something). Grey grey morality collapses mostly

In ASoI&F I wound up realizing I only liked chapters with Crowseye because he actually got shit done unlike everyone else who blundered about dying and maintaining a stalemate... I shouldn’t like that dude he’s a fundamentally loathsome character

3. Saying “hey ultimately aren’t elves kind of dicks because they’re near immortal and the treat humans with contempt and fuck off to be snooty dendraphilic aesthetes” and then making elves snooty dendraphilic aesthetes doesn’t really criticize something

It’s the same as “showing Deadpool as a spree killer who says lol does no more to deconstruct the adolescent fascistic power fantasies of Supes movies than being the exact same movie liked by the same people and it just says “lol” a lot”

Let me be clear: if you tell me Deadpool is smart critique or deconstruction you are 1) objectively wrong and 2) should just admit you like murderous adolescent power fantasies

GRRM doesn’t really critique “men with swords are terrible at making decisions for wide swathes of people” when he centers the story on which morally compromised man with a sword will rule over Westeros. He just makes morally compromised men with swords rule over people badly

3) ultimately the writing and structure deviate very little, the crux of differentiating the two is that a better world isn’t possible and the characters exhibit more negative behaviors.

4. Ultimately a lot of dark fantasy (cough 2Hands filing the serial numbers off of WFRP cough) focuses on the grossest worst things—detailing Beastmen keeping breeding pits of enslaved humans and their incel style social hierarchy is mostly gross and non gamable

4. Adding real world loathsomeness (I think the MAGA hat stormcloaks and evil dickish imperialist forces in Skyrim are a good example) often just makes fantasy feel less fantastical.

5. Relentless bleakness isn’t punk, it isn’t particularly edgy, it’s really fucking lazy and easy to say “everything is shit it’s stupid to try”—it’s also the position of some of the worst people imaginable

There’s a reason bad people love injecting historical inequality and discrimination into games but without providing any pathos or humanity or aspiration (look at the laziness of bioshock infinate equating slaveholding white nationalists with... people that overthrow them?)

Ultimately (here is the part where I shill for a friend) it’s why the only fantasy I’ve read in the last year that’s close to mainstream is Jess Bullington (under the pseudonym Alex Marshall)’s dope fantasy series and it’s also a lot of how I run my D&D

Characters are prone to making mistakes, miscommunication, selfishness and other fundamentally human traits—they also try hard for others, try to make amends and demonstrate noble traits

It quietly died because it was marketed to nerds while having diverse casting, queer characters (who fucking act on it), main cast trans romance and dope drug use (that’s still cringe inducing in its grot) and big colorful battles where people aren’t invincible overlords

Charles R. Saunders innovated sword and sorcery with soul and sorcery which has some of the best fucking monsters and is Afro-historical inspired, Samuel R Delaney also wrote some really cool fantasy pieces

Ken Liu translated the awesome Three Body problem and has an epic fantasy series I’m excited to delve into soon