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Heroic Fantasy: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
The exploits of mighty-thewed, sword-wielding heroes and their thiefly, wizardly and/or priestly companions, as they [[In Harm's Way|spend their days]] smiting evil, fighting monsters, recovering treasures and quaffing ale.
Tends to be distinguishable from [[High Fantasy]] by its scale -- the problems are generally those of the hero, not the world -- and moral standards -- absolute evil and absolute good make fewer appearances. (Well, absolute good makes fewer. Absolute evil, in the form of a [[Religion of Evil]] or the like, makes a convenient foe.) Also by its tendency to be an endless series of adventures, partly because the smaller scale makes it more plausible, and partly because the heroes are very prone to ''love'' being [[In Harm's Way]].
Heavily influenced by [[
Sometimes set in a world that looks [[Medieval European Fantasy|an awful lot like medieval Europe]], although it can range all the way back to a "forgotten prehistory" such as in ''[[Conan the Barbarian]]'', or even the "classical" period (ancient Greece, Mesopotamia, etc.), as found in ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' (this variant is sometimes called "[[Sword and Sandal]]" and more burly versions are called "[[Thud and Blunder]]"). May involve [[Mythopoeia]].
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Sometimes it can be found in the future, often in [[After the End]] setting; sometimes it comes close to [[Planetary Romance]]. Also often features [[Medieval Stasis]].
Also known as "Sword and Sorcery", a term coined by [[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser|Fritz Leiber]], one of the genre’s [[Trope Codifier|Trope Codifiers]], in reply to a letter by [[Michael Moorcock]]. There is much debate of the definition of these genres; unkind souls have even described Heroic Fantasy as nothing but an upmarket term for Sword and Sorcery.
Good live-action film and television heroic fantasies can be counted on the fingers of one hand (generally starting with the ''Conan the Barbarian'' movie). Dying is easy. Fantasy is hard! On the other hand, roughly half of all RPGs ever written fall under this genre, if not more. The odd tendency for [[Anime]] to use settings with an [[Medieval European Fantasy|obvious European flavor]] is noted.
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See also [[Two-Fisted Tales]], [[Pulp Magazine]].
Heroic and epic Fantasy of Chinese cultural origin is known as [[Wuxia]].
Contrast [[Sword and Sandal]]. See also [[Medieval European Fantasy]].
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* ''[[Aquaman]]: Sword of Atlantis'' was an attempt to make the titular character's comic this genre.
* ''[[Mouse Guard]]:'' Heroic fantasy with mice soldiers. And it's awsome!
* ''[[Red Sonja]].''
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* Patrick Rothfuss's ''[[The Kingkiller Chronicle]]'' (although the protagonist is leaning toward [[Anti-Hero]] territory and may get worse in the upcoming book 3).
* Norman Spinrad's ''[[The Iron Dream]]'' (a [[Deconstruction]])
* The [[The War Gods|Bahzell]] series by [[David Weber]].
* Michael Moorcock's ''[[The Elric Saga]]'' (another [[Deconstruction]]).
* Fritz Leiber's ''[[Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser]]''
* Karl Edward Wanger's ''Kane.''
* C.L. Moore's ''[[Jirel of Joiry]]'', the first major female character in [[Heroic Fantasy]].
* Charles R. Saunders's ''[[Imaro]]''.
* ''[[The Black Company]]''
* ''[[The Malazan Book of the Fallen]]'', especially during [[Badass|Karsa Orlong]]'s storylines.
* Marion Zimmer Bradley's [[The Mists of Avalon]] is either a [[Darker and Edgier]] or [[Deconstructed Trope]] version (or possibly [[Distaff Counterpart]]) of the [[King Arthur]] story.
* The [[Shadowleague]] trilogy
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