These 7 Fantasy Tropes Work Every Time 

Tropes are execution dependant - so refreshing for this to be acknowledged!! Its easy to just blanketly say tropes are bad and unoriginal but theres a reason they are used. They can be very effective for connecting to your reader and quickly establishing expectations

A good example I like of a magical loophole is from Dresden Files book 'Dead Beat'. Zombies have been established, and they become more powerful based on the age of the corpse and how complete it is. So Harry animates a T-rex skeleton and runs over the enemy zombie army.

I particularly like the combo of "loss of mentor" and "redemption arc", where the mentor ends up betraying the protag (maybe becoming the antag) but eventually comes back around after their own soul searching.

One of my favorite campfire character building examples comes from The Odyssey. When Odysseus (in disguise as a beggar) meets his old slave Eumaeus, the slave says: “These nights are magical, with time enough to sleep and to enjoy hearing a tale. You need not sleep too early…let us, you and I, sit in my cottage over food and wine, and take some joy in hearing how much pain we each have suffered.” It’s a poignant reminder of the power of storytelling and sharing drink/food at the close of a wearisome day. Here even grief can be savored if there’s someone to share it with.

Hey, your tip about combining (in video about creation fantasy creatures) make some idea occur to me. It would be interesting if we combine not only creatures features, but plants as well(or any other stuff we see in the world) If you dig into herbology you can find plant called Heracleum. It hurts your skin and make it too vulnerable to sun light. And when injured part of your body gets exposed to sun, it gets blisters. So your creature can spread some liquid that works like Heracleum's poison. Moreover you can put that creature in desert and it will be very dangerous to walk there as you are always under sunlight and if you got attacked by that creature you are going to suffer a lot.

My personal favorite tropes are the worthy opponent and combat compliments. There's just something about sworn enemies that hold a deep respect for one another that really speaks to me

Turns out Frodo’s power was the friends we made along the way.

Great stuff! Good examples of Magic Loopholes, that i liked, were in Avatar: The Last Airbender (spoilers ahead). Each of the elements has a loophole of something else they can interact with which the characters only realise when they are put in a tough position that requires their unique skillset and/or mindset. The best example of this is Toph discovering Metalbending. Her character being blind (often thought of as a disability) is trapped in a metal box, a situation uncommon to most people. Due to how intune she is with sensing earth/rocks, and due to being able to do nothing except kick against the metal box, she is able to detect that metal has miniscule rocks all through it. Thus she is able to discover/create Metalbending from Earthbending (its technically still just earthbending, but at an advanced level), uncovering something that makes sense when you think about it, but until this point most people would have not thought of. The same is true of lightningbending (which also requires Zuko to be willing to sacrifice himself to learn) and bloodbending (which also has a form of corrupting magic/knowledge to it and is expanded on in the Legend of Korra in ANOTHER creative magic loophole).

Magical loopholes is one of the most satisfying. Tell me people, what are some of your favorite examples of it?

Jed you do such a great breakdown! Love your explanations and use of examples to drive the point home. One of my favorite tropes is "with great power comes great responsibility." In my story, the MC is part of the non magic class, and my book opens with "He had no power in this world either." So it's a big part of his arc that, when he discovers magic, he wants to become as powerful as possible. In the second book, he'll hurt someone he loves and have to come to grips with the responsibility he has to use his power for good.

So glad to see you mention the Character Campfire Building trope. I knew it was "tropeish" but still wanted to include it in my novel because, for the reasons you listed, I felt it really helped build relationships between people who were otherwise strangers joining together for a common cause. It felt necessary to include it. I don't see how you can have a group of people going through traumatic events, working together, and not forming bonds afterward.

The training trope is popular, where a main character struggles through formal learning of new skills which are vital to their mission and who they are: Luke in Empire Strikes Back, Arya in A Song of Ice and Fire, Harry Potter, Blood Song by Anthony Ryan, Name of the Wind ( I think, can't recall)

The corrupting item and astral plane are two of my favorite tropes of all time! They're up there with redemption arcs (preferably a villain), loss of sanity, fighting pits, and the seemingly random horror sequence. (The horror might be my #1 😂)

A good magical loophole example is the esper system in Final Fantasy 6. The game begins with some characters that have magical abilities either by birth or by being infused from the essence of espers. However, it’s revealed that magical abilities can be transferred from an esper to anyone using the esper remains of magicite. While it gives the users more powerful abilities, it comes at the cost of the life of an esper.

I’d love if you gave more known examples when you do these list videos. I think it would help us newer writers a little more. Love your stuff!

Nice video! Definitely very helpful for me. One thing is if you want to have a mentor character, instead of killing him off you could also have the mentor's powers taken away somehow. Also, I think I would enjoy a video about the 7 worst fantasy tropes.

"Magic that corrupts" trope reminds me of an anime. It's been so long, I don't remember the name or a lot of the details anymore. But essentially, in the story's world, each character has a set number of magic spells they can use before they die. Some people are in the hundreds, some are in the thousands, etc. But the higher the number, the weaker the magic. Main character was born with less than 10 spells he can use before he dies, so he is most often magicless compared to his peers. But his spells are also extremely powerful compared to others.

I learn a lot from your videos but even more so a lot of the elements of my story are reinforced by what you say and that feels good. I feel like I am doing a lot of things the right way. Your knowledge has helped me strengthen everything ten fold on the other hand which has been quite fantastic. So thank you.

I recently searched articles for tropes and I like your approach very much because it's not a rating what's the best or worst trope and practically shaming a special trope. Imo it depends on the writer and how he implements the trope in his story. I could read a dozend of stories with the same initial trope but every story is different and new. Aaahh I absolutely looooove the corruption trope!! One can write so much with it. Have to keep an eye on your work & buy your book when it's published, cause this trope is so fascinating. Also I love your presentation/the mixing of you talking/explaining with the examples.

Something I don't get with the "holy vs unholy" fantasy kind of thing is that popes don't use plants more often In various mythologies and religions, plant based stuff like wood, spices, garlic or wolfsbane have mass effects on stuff considered to be "evil" So why not make fantasy popes botanists? I never really got the whole thing where the protagonist never has garlic on them at all time in world that's constantly in the threat of vampires. And since it's fiction you can make up any variety of magic plants. Or you could say something like "Wendigos are allergic to roses" and have a bunch of spells and weapons that use roses Make. The fantasy. Pope. A BOTANIST!

I love the found family convos. I eat it up every time. 😂 Great video.

I love the trope of “The Collector” and its derivatives. Someone or something whose purpose is to just gathers things magic or otherwise. It gives you a good way to convey lore but also gives your plot an extra step the characters can take to further explore the world but also put the main goal to the side for further development if need be.

Love all these tropes. Glad I watched this while the contest is still ongoing, going to enter tonight!

Tropes are often used for emotional gut punches. That's why they often become overused cliches when gut punches are the only thing that writers choose to care about.

I really love your videos. You always find a way to talk about familiar topics but with an interesting spin on them.

one of my favourite magical corruption stories is the classic W.S Jacobs short story the Monkeys Paw.

My favorite magical loophole is "crossing the streams" in Ghostbusters. We're told early on that crossing the streams is dangerous and possibly disastrous. But in the end, the heroes need to take the risk and break that rule to generate the power they need to defeat the villain.

Regarding the Astral Plane trope, in one story that I am working on, there is a world only accessible through dreams, where the dead reside.

One of my favourite implementations of Corrupted Magical Item is in Dragon Age lore, specifically with Grey Wardens. I probably won't do it justice, but I'll explain what I can. It is established that the leaders of the antagonists' army, the Archdemon(s), can only be killed by a Grey Warden. If that doesn't happen, it is said the world as we know it will end. The Wardens don't get a specific item per se, but they have to go through The Joining, a potentially (and very likely) deadly ritual involving preparing the corruptive blood of the enemy creatures (with a mix of alchemy and magic), drinking it (of which, most people don't survive), and with that be accepted into the order. Doing this gives them the ability to sense when Darkspawn (the bad guys) are near by, and also allows their essense to destroy the soul of an Archdemon should they slay their physical form, or be nearby when it happens. The drawback is that by doing this to the Archdemon's soul, the Warden dies along with the Archdemon. Even if they don't do this, they have a significantly shorter life span, with most wardens not really living to see their 40's. When they get near their time of death, they feel The Calling, which is when they are drawn to the expansive cave system of the enemy and choose to go there and fight until they die a hero's death. I find its implementation in the lore to be one of true sacrifice and it helps establish that even those Grey Wardens that aren't the main character(s) are still heroic in nature, even conscripts as they could (technically) refuse and be executed instead. Probably one of my favourite factions in fiction and certainly in gaming

I love your videos so much, it helped me a lot ✨

Enjoyed it very much, Jed. Thank you.

I think a strangely opposite effect that "The Campfire" trope can have is that is can actually RAISE stakes. It allows not only the characters, but the READER as well to connect even more with other characters. The emotional impact of these events makes the reader more invested, and is a great way to make them actually worried about the safety of their favorite characters

Love this! So useful!

Excellent presentation! I appreciate your insight.

The plot to your book is so cool

I think a campfire isn’t the only place that can invoke that emotion, but really any sort of rest area. In some stories in more modern day places, I feel like club rooms or even just a lunch table can oftentimes give that same vibe as a campfire scene.

My next fantasy novel, Kingdom of Dragons, launches on Kickstarter on November 2nd! Check it out here: bit.ly/kingdom-of-dragons

My favorite corrupting magical item is the berserker armor from Berserk. The physical damage inflicted to hold broken bones together The loss of senses from prolonged use is an interesting one because it's implied that it will slowly consume your body in other ways. My personal favorite is probably why the berserker armor is presented to someone. The armor seeks out the darkness in a person and gives it form. The beast of darkness is one of my favorite antagonists and I just deleted a textwall of why. The armor basically becomes the beast's avatar.

Love this dude

Thank you Jed

Awesome video, really good for Dungeon Masters as well!

This video helped a lot with my story

I really like the idea of sorcery itself being a corruptive force. Im working on something were there is very specific and limited natural magic, but also sorcery as an extremely flexible and versatile power, but it's ultimately not something humans are ment to have access too.

Wonderful channel, Sir 💐👑!

love this channel

Character building Wistful gaze for magical item Magical the death Enemies

Don't know if you know this, but Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino actually had it their contracts that they couldn't act in the same scenes together, that's why that movie clip you showed at 14:25 was shot with only over-the-shoulder angles. They acted out the scene separately, and used body doubles. I just thought it was interesting that you chose that clip while talking about people coming together. And I'm saying people because they weren't enemies, they were just two huge celebrities that didn't want to share the spotlight.

The first one is specific and its actually works!

The corruptable item warden example seems almost exactly like brent weeks lightbringer with the fracturing irises when they use luxon. absolutely love that book

Good Video ..Thanks I followed

I love your thumbnails more than your videos😂 they are so good.

This makes me think of Jack L. Chalker's Dancing Gods series in which the protagonists get transported through to an alternate universe where standard fantasy tropes are written into the laws of the world (both figuratively in that they work organically as part of the natural order of things and literally in that they are actually written down in massive - and ever-expanding - tomes). So you get rules like, "all magical swords must be named" and 'all quests must be undertaken by a party of diverse characters of which at least one must appear untrustworthy" and so on. It's both tremendous fun and works remarkably well as a construct. For magic items that you use at your peril or that come with a price, I tend to look to Terry Brooks' Shannara series which has a number of different powerful artifacts that can't be used lightly (but still need to ultimately be embraced in order to fulfil the quests, often with unforeseen consequences).

Excellent story. Please keep them coming. If a new employee talks like like this, they don't belong there.

I don't have any magical loop holes in my main story, but I figured out that I can have different worlds use the same rules in different ways.

Tropes are only cliché when they are done poorly. A well-executed trope can change the dynamic of a story and create a memorable moment that will be talked about for many years by fans. One of my favorite tropes is the sacrifical hero trope. There are many stories in which this trope is done, some good, some awful. An awful example of the sacrificial is The Last Jedi. I won't get into why this example is bad, as many other people have done it better than me, but this is a good example of poor trope execution. My favorite example of this trope comes from the book StarCraft: Speed of Darkness. Anyone who hasn't read this, I recommend it. Spoilers follow. . . . . . The story begins with Ardo, a young country man from a backwater planet. His life is peaceful and simple, but all that changes when an alien invasion, the Zerg, wrecks his world. The Confederacy swoops in and scoops up as many people as possible, and he becomes "resocialized" into the Space Marines. He is sent on his first mission, where he goes on to learn the Zerg invasion never happened, that it was all part of the resocialization process to keep him loyal to the Confederacy. When he learned his mission was to find a device so it can be nuked, along with his team, and this device was designed to lure the Zerg to planets and the nuke was to cover up their crimes, he finally realizes he had been fighting for the wrong cause this whole time. Stuck in a bad place between returning to the Confederacy who sent him to die, or dying to save a colony that is about to be overrun by the Zerg, he opts for the latter. It is so well written and executed, it made me fall in love with the trope. I can only dream of being able to write that well, but I certainly will try. This could easily have been poorly executed, but the author really makes the characters, and the reader, earn it.

I really have to learn how to set up my story better. I'm working on a 3d fantasy/sci fi animated series and I really need to refine my idea more.

Nice. Thanks

And every RU-vid author channel I have viewed has said the same thing (in Mister Mackey's voice): "Tropes are bad, m'kay?"

6:50 i actually took this trope for novel and made the (almost) entire magic system around it. The characters have to break their very soul to make magical items and not only they lose crucial emotions of the user like empathy, faith or love, but it's also a exchange because the magic items require to feed from a natural source of "mana", and the more items you craft,the less "mana" you can drain from it.

I was wondering what is your opinion on the Story Grid approach to storytelling? I personally find it instructive, but very tedious, and to an extent, it makes me feel like my writing will never be good enough when trying to keep in mind all these notions about storytelling and the like.

I dont read many books or watch any movies, but one I have read is the thief who sings storms (or smthg along those lines) I'm going to put this far down for spoilers! Where decently early on in the story, there's smthg similar to the mentor death- The main character's only parent gets kidnapped because of her greed to take more while stealing, and the entire plot is revolved around getting her dad back- It's fun because the take on it made you both feel bad for the main character, because you can see why they stole the extra stuff because of the situation they're all in in the story, but you also feel angry at her because her dad was such a nice chill guy just tryna be the best he can for his daughter- It's a fun read

The way i was picturing the stand by me scene before it came onto the screen 😊

Supposedly, building a campfire in a cave can be deadly since the heat from the fire can cause the rock above to fracture and cause a cave in. I was given to understand there is a minimum height of the cave ceiling to fire size one wants to maintain to be safe.

I have a great idea for a fantasy novel. It is going to be written entirely in blackletter. The most fantastic font there is.

Great examples! If only the TV and movie writers would take this to heart so they can stop making all of these mistakes.

I'm pretty sure I saw another video that mentioned the death of the mentor as an overused fantasy trope that the videomaker was tired of seeing, which shows that good/bad tropes are a personal preference. I don't mind the trope to be honest, but it's usually coupled with the "farmboy meant for greatness" trope which I am tired of, but to each their own of course.

11:53 Technoblade: I'm not gonna be a side character, I'm gonna be the cool sensei that, WAIT, BUT THE SENSI ALWAYS DIES, NOO! And he was right.

Bro, the corrupting magical item immediately made me think of an idea i had for my novel. Essentially, it's a grimoire that a mage can use to magnify their magical prowess by a f*ckton, but it slowly corrupts the wielder and causes all sorts of things like madness. I haven't fully fleshed the idea out, but I love that you mentioned it.

I ADORE campfire scenes! They are my favorite thing about honestly any adventure fiction as a creator or a consumer. Even in sci-fi it can be done really well when technology fails the characters temporarily or even sometimes if it doesn't (Can ya say Darmok?). But campfire scenes or any other quiet moment where everything is removed other than the characters and the weight of the situation settling practically define fantasy and adventure fiction for me. It's when you can really get into the characters' minds and hearts which anchors investment in their trials, failures, and victories. They are, bar none, my favorite thing about movies, books, and even TTRPGs, and it's so cool to hear how much it can resonate with other people. Okay, nowe I should go watch the rest of the video.

Your hubris point can have a variant - the wise old teacher is the one who falls as a result of a moral failure. Protag discovers the teacher wasn't practicing what they preached. Imho that can be a more wicked "death", it can outright feel like betrayal.

Just something personal I'd like to share: I feel as though a great sign of a great fantasy book is when you have to remind yourself that the main character has plot armor and that they're going to make it out just fine. Whenever you feel like you need to remind yourself of it, you're never really truly convinced by the words---it just shows that suspension of disbelief is working just as it's supposed to.

Enemies forced together in peace... "Holy ground, Highlander."

The corrupting magical item is what i did with liches in my fantasy world, at first it is has you gaining power from eating souls, you're perfectly conscious and you gain magical abilities, but the more souls you consume the more insane you go, and a lich must constantly consume souls else it dies. One of my characters is a king who wants to keep his kingdom safe forever, so he turns himself into a lich and fends off attackers and an evil mage one time and shit, but as he continues he becomes this hunger focused beast that has an only goal of protecting a kingdom that no longer exists, and he eventually dies of hunger after killing everything in the region

Apropos of nothing: CC translates at 4:00 in a humorous way. I think "Wistful Gays for Adventure" should be a book now.

I'm hoping for some of these to happen during my DND campaign. Watching all this content has been to supplement my world building, sadly I can't use any of the protagonist stuff

At 9:55 the book in the background changing into a face while you talk about the hand of God, freaked me out.

Do you have any one on one writing courses? I want to get my novel, A Tale of Two Brothers, written, but I am having some trouble with the transitions... I have the story planned and outlined, and wanna get it ready to be published.. It's a story very close to my heart that I REALLY want to get out there, but I don't have the professional training behind me

these popular tropes surprisingly gave me a much better insight to one of my favorite anime - Puella Magi Madoka Magica - a deconstruction of the magical girl genre. Spoilers at your own risk: 1. Character Campfire Building: Madoka's and Sayaka's junior high school days bonding 2. Wistful Gaze for Adventure: Madoka's selfless desire to help people using magic, and in contrast, Sayaka's more selfish desire to use magic as a means to get a boy to like her 3. Corrupting Magic Item: Kyuubey, or more specifically, Soul Gems. Short-term happiness results in long-term suffering for these girls, indeed. 4. Magical Loopholes: Madoka's wish to rewrite the rules of the current hope-to-despair/magical girl-to-witch system. Admittedly not the most imaginative loophole out there 5. The Mentor's Death: Mami Tomoe in episode 3. 6. Enemies Forced Together in Peace: Kyouko invites Sayaka to her father's broken down church. They weren't forced to be peaceful so much as Kyouko was extending an olive branch, but it's one of my favorite scenes in the anime. 7. Astral Plane: Witches' Labyrinths.

The best magic system is actually to have almost no system at all. Very little rules. Simple and mystical. Mysterious and unexplainable in most cases. Difficult or easy to attain, depending on the situation.

Another trope that I tend to always like is the buffoon character that is usually hilarious, sarcastic, ironic and witty. He speaks in riddles and you can't figure him out. You know he knows something regarding the grand schemes of things. For example, Witz in Stormlight Archive, Patchface in ASOIAF, Cicero from the Dark brotherhood of Skyrim, the clown from the assasin trilogy

The first 2 moments that come to mind for the campfire situation are power rangers 2017 and the bar scene in suicide squad

A great example of corrupting magical items I can think of is the Old Blood in Bloodborne the videogame. You have this miraculous substance that can heal any illness, utilized by a Church that holds great power in the city of Yharnam, but the side-effect is turning those who use them get turned into blood-crazed beasts. Imagine a city becoming so powerful off of a substance like this that people would come from all over to have it ministered to them, and the Church becomes so corrupt that it tries to hide the beastly scourge from the populace, and their true goals are revealed to be to commune with Lovecraftian Gods rather than healing those in need. The scary part is, your player character uses this exact same blood as a healing item as you go around hunting beasts that were once people.

Ryuji: something positive from you that's new

15:51 im using this trope in the comic im writing, though it’s not a fantasy comic. It’s a cyberpunk samurai space-western with a synthwave aesthetic called cyberscape ronin. The titular cyberscape is a dimension where everything looks like an 80’s neon wireframe landscape version of the real world. The main character, who is the other part of the title, is the titular ronin who sometimes phases between the real word and the cyberscape. Edit: the “comune with spirits” thing you mentioned also exists in the cyberscape because there are these digital wireframe dragons (the long asian dragons not the European ones) that live in the cyberscape

Fantasy tropes I enjoy include; 1. Enemies to lovers. 2. Resurrection of the disgraced - in LOTR the Army of the dead are recruited by Aragorn to fight for the King of Gondor. 3. HFN 'Happy For Now' ending - a common trope in Romance. Everything is resolved but... there is the promise or threat of further adventure in the future. Not sure where I have seen this but when Conan the Barbarian became King Conan he subsequently had more adventures so becoming King was not the end of his story.

Should video be horizontal or vertical? Yeah, questions about contest even here, sorry 😝

On the menor character death trope, How suitable is it for their death to be peaceful, or from old age, instead of it being the MCs fault or the Villains fault? (An Example off the top of my head would be like Yoda in ROTJ)

The story I'm writing has a lot to do with necromancy, the undead and the avoidance of death by magical means.

Conquish?

Kyojuro Rengoku, my favorite mentor of all time.

Me reading the title of the video while not having seen the video yet: Citation needed

The Living Library: An ancient library that is alive, with books that whisper secrets or move locations. It's a rich setting for quests involving the search for knowledge, with the library itself posing challenges or offering assistance. Echoes of the Past: Where characters or settings are haunted by unresolved events from history, requiring the protagonists to confront these echoes to prevent history from repeating itself. This can add depth to the world-building and narrative layers. The Magic of Mundane Objects: Finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, this device imbues everyday objects with magical properties or significance, turning the familiar into a source of wonder and exploration. The Unseen Realm: A dimension that coexists with the known world but is invisible to most, inhabited by creatures or forces that influence the material world in subtle ways. This can add an element of mystery and the supernatural to the story. Forgotten Gods: Deities who have lost their worshippers and power, lurking in the shadows of the world. Their quest for relevance or redemption can intertwine with the protagonists' journey, adding layers of myth and legend.

How about what I call the shamanic dream, where a mentor appears and gives the hero sage advice? I'm working on a story where goblins are an oppressed minority. The hero is a young orphan girl who will have to stop a goblin uprising to save both the kingdom and the goblins. After several chapters of adventure and education, she wakes up and finds that it was all just a dream. And you were there, and Aunt Em was there, and Margaret Hamilton was there. Her parents are still alive. Her mother is making breakfast while her father sets the table. She goes downstairs and tells them about the dream she has, and her father asks if she remembered what they taught her. Hard work and integrity will see her through. Then her mother comments on her lovely dress, which is a goblin outfit. She wakes up for real in a goblin village. She's with the goblins from that point to the end of the book.

I'm not going to go on about tropes, even though this video is really good, but I was rather intrigued by your mentioning of your novella. If you'd allow my prying, how would one go about publishing a novella? I have one in the works currently and would appreciate it if you could shed some light on it.

Türkçe altyazı ekleyebilir misin ?

Conquer + vanquish = conquish? 0:18

OUAT - magic comes with a price to pay!

What if we kill the Protagnist and the mentor has to live with it and become the Protagnist. His mistake was the main characters death to bait and switch the audience

You should watch Mushoku Tensei

Here’s a thing not to do. You know how you mentioned the mentors death? You’re right. This trope is useful and if you’d shown how connected and helpful the mentor had been to the MC, it will work perfectly. The readers can feel that. In fact, there’s an author I know who did that. It was effective. Until she revealed the mentor had a hidden, secret twin who basically replaced the mentor and already knew everything the old mentor knew and there was basically no difference between them. The consequences of death and effects of the death were removed immediately .Sigh.