Imagine the most derivative, generic, uncreative fantasy novel you can.
Did you do it?
What traditions does it draw on, in what proportions?
Did you do it?
What traditions does it draw on, in what proportions?
Comments
There's a bunch of Tolkien and DnD in there, but filtered through layers of derivatives.
“Only YOU can save the princess from the Dark Lord, Jon! Buy first you must find the Holy Garil!”
“But I’m just a farm boy!”
“No, you are better than other people.”
-poor farmer is secretly a destined knight/prince/king
-Mysterious powerful Wizard (who isn't actually that helpful)
-Evil unworthy ruler
-Some big monster that needs to be slayed.
See the "Oh John Ringo No!" LiveJournal entry where the author himself chimes in to agree. https://hradzka.livejournal.com/194753.html
Possibly a villager
Probably finds a neat sword
Either leaves home peacefully on a journey OR has it burned down around him, either way - same result
Maybe picks up one or two friends along the way, possibly a pig and horse or monkey
Slays a dragon - literal or figurative
And I'm only 34 years old.
The medieval part is mostly window dressing.
There will be at least one narrative arc dealing with 'the bad noble' that has to be replaced by 'the good noble'.
One instance of "girl power" to balance out the female lead being in constant need of rescuing.
Looking at you, Every Magic System
Just check any Disney or Bond property.
Knight sent by a king to rescue a princess from a fire breathing dragon, but she falls in love with the knight...
So... Basically Shrek, but he's a human knight instead of an ogre, she isn't cursed, and Lord Fawkwad is an actual king instead of a lord.
20% twilight-ish tropey romance
10% hentai
MC is either aloof dark past type or had family murdered.
I'm almost tempted to introduce you to the wide world of Isekai Light Novels.
Most of these are exactly what you just described.
* Overpowered hero that uses underestimated (and yet fairly common) skill? ☑
* Hero suddenly brought into the world after:
* […]
Novel by Tracy Deonn. Medieval mixed with the culture/magic/ancestors of Black slaves. It has been such a unique read. Highly recommend.
Main character has a video game skillscreen they pull up despite the fantasy world they just reincarnated into canonically not being a video game or otherwise video game related.
I wouldn't exactly call any part of that good or generic.
They were later books in the series and I haven't read (or have any desire to read) the early books where the
There's not a whole lot of fiction using that name, if I was to pick a generic villain name I'd just call the villain Satan (aka the devil) because of how often that's overused.
I'm not seeing a whole lot of series with Ra'zac in them, for example.
Draw on Slavic mythology in the most surface-level fashion.
Add faux-Mongolian horseback-riders.
Cataclysmic magical event could have torn the world apart, perhaps.
Is this what you wanted?
Castle – Medieval European
Dragon – Medieval European but especially England
Some Weird School™ – mostly English
Some Weird Headteacher™ – mostly English
Not the AD&D novelizations, but stuff by people who skimmed those and have no clue about any of the source material.
Chainmail bikini barbarian princess, wielding a huge skull-incrusted double-headed war axe, riding an ultra-dire wolf. Elf-maiden sorceress, with clothing consisting mostly of hair and leaves. That sort.
OR
Tolkien knockoff (as described elsewhere here)
OR
Magic school Harry Potter knockoff.
25% 1880s-era British Medievalist nostalgia (agrarian idealism)
15% Colonialist-era racial essentialism (orcs are evil)
10% 20th-century patriarchal values (men are fighters, women are healers)
But there was the same old shoot-'em-up and the same old rodeo."
Leiber and Stoller
Are there any other series you know of which have cover art like this?
Also a chosen one, although that's not particularly Tolkien or D&D.