FANTASY CHARACTERS - Terrible Writing Advice 

this makes lord of the rings sounds like the ultimate cliché, until you realise lord of the rings created the cliché.

the Darklord should major in electrical engineering if he wants more power....

I like a Bad Guy who doesn't always discipline his Minions for failing because he realizes his Minions aren't inadequate, but the Heroes are just more competent than expected.

"The protagonist's parents!" *Two Gravestones* God that fucking got me XD

The mascot creature can also become emergency food.

"And for God's sake, Dude, she's your freaking Little Sister." Oh right, Japanese Light Novels where incest is relative...ly common.

Actually the elite minions do have one difference, a single one of them will challenge the entire group of heroes on their first appearance, but on their second appearance they will be as easy as the normal minions to kill.

10:24 "Love Triangle Victory Chances: 0%" The writers of Shrek would like a word with you.

I think for my fantasy characters I just exaggerated my own characteristics until it turned him into a psychopath.

Wizard idea: "Frat boy realizing for the very first time he can't coast on his intelligence alone anymore and crashes hard only to build himself up again into a much better person." Oh wait this is terrible writing advice...

0:43, potatoes didn't exist in medieval Europe. They weren't discovered by Europeans until Spanish conquerors brought them back from the Americas in the late 1500s. Same thing with corn.

So have the "scheming advisor" be the only reason the kingdom hasn't undergone a revolution and keeping the king alive despite all the poisoning attempts because he keeps giving the king the antidote.

Do “cool characters” terrible writing advice because I’ve seen so many bad ideas of “cool” that come off as a failed Devil May Cry knockoff

There’s a reason Tolkien sounds like taken. Stealing all his ideas is something you should be doing by default.

The sponsor subplot is giving me ideas for a story that starts out a a generic “defeat the evil” story, but it’s quickly revealed that there are multiple different evils who are all fighting each other instead of the heroes

"Could i make the guards an actual vompetent faction?" So, the Dai Li?

Hearing you say "truck-kun" made me choke so bad I got isekai'd to a fantasy world

6:34 "Who appoints his horse to the position of chief economic advisor" Glitterhoof does his bloody job better than anyone else ever could don't you dare besmirch her name.

Hey don't diss the horse, sure his tax policy was controversial, but he fixed the economy and for the first time in twenty years we had a surpluss in budget.

As an Isekai fan, I'm ecstatic to see J.P. absolutely tear into Isekai knowing that he had to suffer through the same fate that I had to go through, but that he was strong enough to not fall into the rabbit hole.

"Making a villain right hand with their own agenda". That's called "The Starscream".

Idea for a terrible writing advice video: Redemption Arcs Because when done badly, it's just either a) A character having to learn the exact same lesson over and over, making the protagonists looking stupid for trusting them or b) A complete 180 in personality for little to no reason

PLEASE, if the MC lost his parents as a kid, have their eperiences with them have an impact int the story. Maybe the MC got his moral compass, a quirk or a tradition from his parents. Perhaps he later in the story needs to remember them to get clarity of mind, ask what ould his father/mother do in X situation, just do anything with them beyond mentioning they're dead.

"Difference in branding rather than performance" So pretty much every minor enemy in a game with a slightly better paint job than that small version of them you fought a few hours back?

One trope I noticed lately: If you have fantasy races in your setting - Don't use them. All your important characters NEED to be human. Also be sure to write your elves as being part of magic as a whole, but make all the strongest wizards in the world to be humans (Forgotten Realms) In all seriousness I never heard about a fantasy story where protagonist wouldn't be human and I think it would be refreshing and interesting to read one.

noble hero: "a stark contrast" haha i get it

"At least the snooty nobles don't have checkmarks above their heads." Don't they have exclamation points, instead? How else are you gonna know they have quests for you?

"And for God's sake, she's your freaking little sister." *So true, man. So true.*

I love the addition of "Actual good advice" with each of the characters.

"This enraged his father, who punished him severely."

Ideas for fantasy characters I had: -You know the "Wide-Eyed Young Idealist" trope? Take that and apply it to a Giant. My original idea was a Giant smith's daughter whose adventure starts after her father disappears under mysterious circumstances and she sets off to find him. Her inexperience gets her caught in traps more than once, but her honesty and her empathy earns her the trust of smaller creatures, who help her stand up to threats even bigger than she is. -An unorthodox take on the "fairy companion" trope: a jaded spy stuck in the service of a cruel Faerie lord. The spy's liege torments his subjects and the "lesser races," and is in league with the Big Bad Evil Guy if he isn't already the Big Bad Evil Guy. His liege sets him up as a double agent who's supposed to sabotage the heroes, but he's secretly grown tired of being an accessory to his lord's crimes and legitimately helps the heroes. While he's at it, he passes his liege false information with the end goal of getting a Cold Iron dagger planted in his King's back. As a jaded cynic who is smaller than normal and fights with magic and finesse, this guy would be an excellent foil to Plucky Giant Girl up there. -A ninja who wanted to be a baker, but whose home was destroyed by his tyrannical warlord before he could. To get his vengeance, the ninja mastered a unique combination of culinary arts and ninjutsu. Tremble, ye who are wicked, for when Senpie notices you, your cookie shall crumble! ...yes, this character began as an absurd pun on "Senpai" and an excuse for even more *half-baked* puns, but his backstory means he could legitimately offer serious advice to heroes when he's not being silly (although he would inevitably slip in some bad bread puns because that's how he *rolls*) and the combination of cooking and ninjutsu could offer some unique techniques, both mundane and mystical. Plus, a cooking-themed ninja is something I don't think anyone's done before. At least, I don't think so, though if I am wrong I would very much like to know. ...Ninjabread man doesn't count.

Only thing you're missing is "THE PRINCESS" Best Features: Pretty and beloved by all, but only has eyes for the Hero no matter how bland he is and will be married off to him after his victory like a trophy... In spite of originally wanting to escape another arranged marriage in the first place. Strengths: Claims to be "strong and independent". Weaknesses: Often needs to be rescued in spite of previous claims. Love Triangle Victory Chances: Almost 100% because she is usually the focus of said triangle. Avoid: Giving her a character arc independent of supporting the hero. Showing her actually engaging in politics and helping rule the Kingdom.

“My lords, whom shall I choose in the redundant and unnecessary love triangle the author has forced upon me?!”

I love the % data for love triangle victory

I laughed so hard when he said "the protagonist parents:" and u see just gravestones. Too real.

"Autocracy is always good, and it's experts that are evil!" "Schemey von Knifenback" 😂

"And for God's sake, dude, she's your freaking little sister!" ...been watching a lot of Isekai while in quarantine, I take it?

I want a mascot character with a deep voice, extremely unenthusiastic attitude, and is very unreliable

Funny thing, one of my heroes is both a farmboy _and_ a noble: His parents are the prince of one kingdom and the princess of another who eloped together. They've never hidden from him or his seven siblings their royal heritage, they just don't want any visitors from their extended families. Part of this is because he was a prince of the elves and she was a princess of the dwarves (beard and all). So when this hero meets a couple other royal heroes (a female elf princess and a half-dwarf warrior prince) he's aware that they're his cousins before they are. By the time he's done vanquishing the Dark Lord, both kingdoms want to put him in the line of succession but he just wants to go back to herding sheep. Oh, and one of his party members is a young wizard. How young? Five years old (though that's the equivalent of 15 in his own short-lived race of pixies). This would also make him a mascot character, yes? Roughly two feet tall, covered in pink fur, tail like a fox and wings like a bat, suitably high-pitched voice for his size.

Gonna have to remember two ideas from here in particular: - The manipulative vizier being the only thing holding the government together - One of the minions being part of the love triangle This second one could work with a project I'm beginning. I mean, one of the love interests is a royal bodyguard who went rogue to save the crown prince after a coup. I mean, that's a good setup for this character to have already had something with one of the minions before the plot brings the two halves of the OTP together.

An episode on pacing a story would be good advice. That is the one thing which I can never seem to grasp or understand, in writing. I'm always just told story X's pacing is amazing or Y's is terrible. There's never really any kind of constitution of what makes pacing an effective part of writing.

“The Farm Boy” Eragon: **sweats**

"Plucky YA Teen: [...] contrast their superior skill with their lack of recognition due to their inability to navigate school politics." Kim Possible?

Plot twist: the sponsorship segments are actually the plot of JP's next book

2:52 Strength: not related by blood Weakness: lacking eyes / Eyes fully covered by Hair

Shoutout to every twelve-year-old fantasy writer's playbook. This is a call-out for our old middle school notebooks lol

"Or in Anime-speak... 'Truck-kun'" I'm weak!!! 😂🤣

I feel like the City Guard doesn't really need to be that strong since they're just common soldiers. However, the ROYAL Guard should be really powerful, especially in a High Fantasy setting where some characters can wipe out whole armies and punch through steel walls. As the most important soldiers in the land, the Royal Guards should represent the absolute apex of power except for the Chosen One, his allies, and the Dark Lord, and be able to give even them a difficult fight.

"Isekai is on my list as well" Yes! YES! YEEEEES!

Given the low mortality rate of most medieval battles, I imagine a knight from that era would be horrified to see our depictions of heroes as highly efficient mass-murderers. Then again, I imagine not.

The thing, I think, our so unreliable narrator missed is, the other fantasy races characters. You know every race should be known for one main trait pack : elves are immortal, speak with posh brit accents, arrogant and live in forest dwarfs - only mine, smith, drink, speak in Scottish accent etc. Absolutely in no condition should we provide any individuality to any non main cast member of race that is not human, that will make the audience think that some effort was put in the world building and maybe some of the focus group members will dislike it.

11:17 WOW! The blue check marks actually aged well better than expected. Thanks Elon.

Why do the bad guys always have the coolest designs?

The avarage modern dude : almost every single isekai character ever

I love how for the minions love triangle success chance it’s “0% but it would be funny to see them try to compete”

The Twitter checkmark joke before the sponsor aged so perfectly

Is it just me or is JP getting more cynical

I would love to see a story where the minions/city guard inexpectably usurp power for themselves when they realize their leader is incompetant...

As someone who once played Grima Wormtongue in a stage production of LotR, I felt the scheming advisor bit. What I think would be great is if all his plans and machinations are actually very benign and beneficial to the court. It's just that he has a naturally evil laugh and has a tendency to say "Excellent, just as planned!" every time he does something.

8:09 Guards! Guards! Was such a good book RIP Terry Pratchett.

J.P has blessed us with more sarcasm

4:27 And I just realized how Yuffie from FFVII is actually a well-written plucky thief character.

The Farm Boy is Luke, the Noble Hero is AOTC Anakin, the plucky YA teen is Rey

Watch these videos back and count every time a done-to-death trope was a diet version of something in either Tolkien’s works or Star Wars.

The Guardian Beast > Love Triangle Victory Chances: 0%. Hm, I think I've been reading some different stuff than you....

You know what a never understood, that There are Potato in middle medieval Time. It should be turnip.

"Don't worry....I S E K A I is on my list as well..." Hell yeah.

Does anyone know any stories where the "Scheming Advisor" is actually the good guy? That actually looks like a cool concept that I'm not sure if I have seen.

5:05 "Love Triangle Victory Chances: 0%, just ask Tinkerbell". I'm not saying she's had her own spin-off series and has a bunch of rule 34 drawn of her, but she's had her own spin-off series and has a bunch of rule 34 drawn of her.

**Breaks down door** "DID SOMEONE SAY ✨ *F A N T A S Y* ✨?!"

You can just hear his sanity slowly leave as he reads his own script writing

7:30 - Jokes on you, Everybody loves Gatekeeper-kun.

A fun twist on a Wizard character is making them talented at magic, but still green enough to not really know restraint. You can have your wizard doing all sorts of cool things, but also causing all sorts of problems due to their lack of restraint until they gain character development through the consequences of their own actions. Of course it does work a bit better if your protagonist is the magic-user.

Weakness: Yes ah poor minions

“The Plucky YA Teen” So every anime protagonist?

Right when I was thinking about watching TWA, I get a notification. Godspeed.

The world sucks right now. At least we have this channel.

9:58 Look, it's the Knights of Ren!

9:55 My mind sees nothing but Captain Phasma for this category. That’s literally just describing her.

2:45 "...she's your freaking little sister!" Eromanga Sensei: *Imma pretend I didn't see that*

I made a référence to TWA in my graphic novel ! One of the heroes confuses reality & fiction and wants his life to be a fantasy story. He has JP's "best story ever" book where he looks what to do according to the book's good advices.

I've been reading The Way of Kings from the Stormlight Archive series and it subverts each and every one of this tropes, i highly recommend it for anyone looking for some easy to read, good modern fantasy literature which also has an identity of its own

I miss the honest thoughts section of his blog (where he gives real advice.) He hasn’t updated in a year.

4:30 "Connections to the criminal underground that are never used!" Truly Beutifull. Funnily enought, i builded a character around that "criminal underground" thing, Just to realize its never going to be used, ever.

The Guards: "Avoid taking any cues from the Discworld Novels" aww man, I was gonna write something inspired by that. Guess I know now that it's a bad idea!

“Isekai is on my list as well” Hoo boy a storm is comin.

Thank you for using the chapter feature. It just feels right.

I'm just sitting here, thinking about my fandoms and favorite characters, desperately hoping they won't match any of the advice in this

0:16 J.J. Abrams in a nutshell.

Counterexample: Harry Potter was a young male wizard protagonist, and he lost the love triangle. He and Hermione wound up more like brother and sister, and Hermione married Ron.

I actually like how Order of the Stick did their one royal. The king more or less acted like he was mentally challenged, stupid, and easily swayed. It was all an act, as it helped him do what he felt was right for the kingdom, while his opponents would just roll his eyes and just assume it was one of his mad fits, along with pink pony appreciation day and the like

"And for God's sake, dude, she's your freaking little sister!". The funniest shit I ever read.

The chosen one, TWA, awakens! Sit down now, we wouldn't want you to walk away from the next few hours of exposition.

On the good king trope, that's one of the many things I love about the Dragon Prince. King Harrow's holier than thou attitude bites him the ass, and his advisor isn't really evil at the start, just ambitious, and he's genuinely loyal for the most part. Again, at first, by Season Three Viren's a complete monster

8:17 "Rejected Dark Souls concept art" just killed me

No damsels in distress? I thought they were a staple of fantasy. Granted, I routinely roll my eyes so hard that they pop out of my head when one shows up, so maybe it was good to exclude them.

2:36 Ha, calling out terrible isekai. Love it.

The Elite Minions are very pivotal to the writing process, you see, unlike other minions... They get to have *names*

The quote of the day: "Easy as making orphans!"

The guide to writing the best RU-vid comment is to be sure to post FIRST because that never gets old!