{"id":35997,"date":"2018-09-17T06:30:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-16T18:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=35997"},"modified":"2018-09-10T21:58:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T09:58:58","slug":"having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-tropes-wrapping-up-entries-1-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2018\/09\/17\/having-fun-with-epic-fantasy-tropes-wrapping-up-entries-1-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: Wrapping Up Entries #1 – #10"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Where the fun started, back in 2011…<\/p><\/div>\n

Way back on April 30<\/a>, I said that I might write a few posts on Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes<\/strong>, building on a mini-series of three that were featured on SF Signal<\/strong> in December of 2011.<\/p>\n

(Close on seven years now —gulp!—but seven<\/em>: the alchemy of numbers<\/a> would suggest there’s something significant in that! \ud83d\ude09 )<\/p>\n

I can tell you now that I had no idea that it would turn into a marathon ten posts, spanning over a third of the year. As I said at the beginning, though, the tropes are “part of what I love about these kind of stories”<\/em> so I had quite a bit of fun along the way, not least of which was calling up cherished memories of “all the books I’ve loved before.”<\/em> (With apologies to Willie Nelson.)<\/p>\n

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Han Solo, the quintessential “lovable rogue”<\/p><\/div>\n

My muster of tropes in Posts 1 to 10 is not exhaustive: I’m aware there’s still a reasonable number of others out there, as yet unexplored (at least by me), such as “the lovable rogue” and “the sidekick”, which are sometimes one and the same person (Han Solo, anyone?)\u00a0 I may return to them later, but for the moment I feel that ten posts is a nice round number and a reasonable place to hang up my hat.<\/p>\n

Also, all exploration of tropes need not be on my blog alone. Aside from those initial three posts on SF Signal, I also post on the Supernatural Underground (on the first day of every month.) My current post there is checking out Fantastic Creatures and Companion Animals<\/a>. The latter, at least (or so I strongly suspect), qualify as another trope.<\/p>\n

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Fantastic creatures<\/p><\/div>\n

As I said last week<\/a>, we’re not quite done yet, because I want to take a look at a few examples of when the tropes have been deliberately inverted or undermined.\u00a0 And then there’s that final post, also promised last week, which harks back to one of my opening remarks:<\/p>\n

“I would argue, of course, that it\u2019s not the presence or absence of these classic elements…[aka tropes]…that define the story, but what you do with them\u2026But that\u00a0is\u00a0another story!”<\/em><\/p>\n

A story we will come to yet, all going well.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, here is the Compleat List of the Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes\u00a0<\/strong>posts #1 – 10 (including the introductory post):<\/p>\n

Introduction:\u00a0Having Fun With Epic Fantasy\u2014Meet the Tropes<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 1:\u00a0Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes: A Farm Boy\/Gal Goes On A Journey\u2026<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment\u00a0\u00a02:\u00a0A Prince\/Princess Finds A Destiny<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 3:\u00a0Dreams and Portents, Prophecy and Destiny<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 4:\u00a0\u201cApocalypse Now\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 5:\u00a0Meet The Big Bad<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 6:\u00a0The Sweep Of Time & Its Twin, War Without End<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 7:\u00a0Fortunately There was A Portal<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 8:\u00a0We\u2019re All Going On A MacGuffin Hunt<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 9:\u00a0Artefacts of Power\u2014And Doom\u2014And Where To Find Them<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Instalment 10: The Alchemy Of Numbers<\/a><\/span>
\n.<\/span><\/p>\n

On SF Signal: The\u00a0\u201cHaving Fun With Epic Fantasy\u201d Series<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1. \u201cMaking the Grand Tour<\/a>\u201d (aka the Road Journey);<\/span><\/p>\n

2. \u201cThe \u201cBand of Brothers<\/a>\u201d; and\u00a0the<\/span><\/p>\n

3. \u201cSoul-Sucking Sword<\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

---<\/pre>\n
All \u00a9 Helen Lowe<\/em><\/pre>\n
 <\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Way back on April 30, I said that I might write a few posts on Having Fun With Epic Fantasy Tropes, building on a mini-series of three that were featured on SF Signal in December of 2011. (Close on seven years now —gulp!—but seven: the alchemy of numbers would suggest there’s something significant in that! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-epicfantasy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35997"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36013,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35997\/revisions\/36013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}