Limyaael's Fantasy Rants: Difference between revisions

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Content added Content deleted
VisualWikitext
No edit summary
No edit summary
Line 85: Line 85:
** [[Thirsty Desert]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/166686.html Out of the frying pan and into the desert.]
** [[Thirsty Desert]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/166686.html Out of the frying pan and into the desert.]
** [[Hungry Jungle]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/167123.html Sounds of the jungle.]
** [[Hungry Jungle]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/167123.html Sounds of the jungle.]
** [[Ocean Punk]]/[[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/167876.html Yo ho ho and a bottle of...something.]
** [[Ocean Punk]]/[[Wooden Ships and Iron Men]]: "[http://limyaael.livejournal.com/167876.html Yo ho ho and a bottle of...something.]" and "[http://limyaael.livejournal.com/328250.html Rant on island life]"
* [[Sex Tropes]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/178737.html Sex in fantasy novels]
* [[Sex Tropes]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/178737.html Sex in fantasy novels]
* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/377262.html Designated Love Interest rant]
* [[Shallow Love Interest]]: [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/377262.html Designated Love Interest rant]
Line 108: Line 108:


== Tropes that have been mentioned or discussed on the side while ranting about any of the above topics ==
== Tropes that have been mentioned or discussed on the side while ranting about any of the above topics ==
* [[Automaton Horses]]: "Amazing Mechanical Horses" are regularly mentioned, including Animal rant [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/133540.html]/[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/123428.html]
* [[Automaton Horses]]: "Amazing Mechanical Horses" are regularly mentioned, including Animal rant [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/133540.html]/[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/123428.html] and "Rant on fantasy travel" http://limyaael.livejournal.com/327352.html]/[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/291352.html] starts with "Animals are not machine".
* [[Changed My Mind, Kid]]: In the Rant on slippery-slope plotting. ("We’ve changed our minds! Because it was time for a plot turn!") [http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/283798.html]
* [[Changed My Mind, Kid]]: In the Rant on slippery-slope plotting. ("We’ve changed our minds! Because it was time for a plot turn!") [http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/283798.html]
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Though she didn't use the term, her rant on subtle foreshadowing favors elements that aren't supposed to be noticed the first time around.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Though she didn't use the term, her rant on subtle foreshadowing favors elements that aren't supposed to be noticed the first time around.
Line 127: Line 127:
* [[Show, Don't Tell]]/[[Informed Attribute]]: All the time, e.g. the "[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/293840.html Rant on creating good rulers]" starts with this.
* [[Show, Don't Tell]]/[[Informed Attribute]]: All the time, e.g. the "[http://limyaael.insanejournal.com/293840.html Rant on creating good rulers]" starts with this.
* [[Tail Slap]]: When discussing dragons, Limyaael notes that the whip of a crocodile's tail packs enough brute force to kill an average human being. So what would a dragon's tail do? "Probably ''not'' cause light wounds."
* [[Tail Slap]]: When discussing dragons, Limyaael notes that the whip of a crocodile's tail packs enough brute force to kill an average human being. So what would a dragon's tail do? "Probably ''not'' cause light wounds."
* [[Unnecessarily Large Interior]]: Both rants on sea. [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/167876.html], [http://limyaael.livejournal.com/328250.html].
{{quote|Take the amount of knowledge most fantasy authors have about horses, as discussed in the last rant. Now take half that knowledge. Now halve the half. This seems to be about the amount the average fantasy author knows about ocean-going, pre-twentieth century ships without doing research.
I mean, at least most fantasists know the approximate size of a horse. They know that writing a horse as squeezing into a gopher hole is insane. Yet they write about roomy ships that apparently have dozens of cabins for rich passengers, and all the room for horses that those passengers’ hearts could desire, while the crew turns invisible when not needed and violates the law of conservation of mass when present.}}
* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: During her rant about "telcoms", Limyaael wonders how a character can just waltz into a town with a telepathic wolf/dragon/whatever by their side and ''nobody'' even bats an eye at it, much less try to chase it out of town or kill it. ''Especially'' when the creature being a telepathic companion is kept secret, and "the hunters have no reason ''not'' to shoot a dangerous beast who shows little fear of humans and is lurking around the village."
* [[Unusually Uninteresting Sight]]: During her rant about "telcoms", Limyaael wonders how a character can just waltz into a town with a telepathic wolf/dragon/whatever by their side and ''nobody'' even bats an eye at it, much less try to chase it out of town or kill it. ''Especially'' when the creature being a telepathic companion is kept secret, and "the hunters have no reason ''not'' to shoot a dangerous beast who shows little fear of humans and is lurking around the village."


Revision as of 15:32, 7 March 2017

Limyaael is an English graduate student studying for her Ph.D. In 2003, she decided to express her views on fantasy literature in a rant entitled Why I get impatient with clichéd fantasy. Since then, she has written more rants on her online journal.

Despite the name, Limyaael’s rants are not just for fantasy writers. She also has covered topics that are not limited to fantasy, like dialogue and romance, as well as more general topics like plotting and characterization. One of the features of the journal format is that Limyaael’s commenters also have much to say, from additional facts to opposing viewpoints.

The Rants used to be posted on Live Journal, but Limyaael has moved to InsaneJournal. The Rants originally posted on LJ can still be accessed there, though.

Limyaael’s Fantasy Rants are updated here. The archive of Rants can be accessed here, or by tag, and here, or here [1]. (warning: some of tag links in both journals are dead, but posts are there)

Limyaael's rants were scarcely updated for a while starting around April 2008. In this post she explained the reasons, and the Rants were not updated until she had more free time. They started back up for a little while, then stopped again (the last was May 28th, 2010). They have yet to resume (as of February 2017).

Tropes relevant to Limyaael's Fantasy Rants

Tropes Limyaael has specifically ranted about


Tropes that have been mentioned or discussed on the side while ranting about any of the above topics

Take the amount of knowledge most fantasy authors have about horses, as discussed in the last rant. Now take half that knowledge. Now halve the half. This seems to be about the amount the average fantasy author knows about ocean-going, pre-twentieth century ships without doing research.
I mean, at least most fantasists know the approximate size of a horse. They know that writing a horse as squeezing into a gopher hole is insane. Yet they write about roomy ships that apparently have dozens of cabins for rich passengers, and all the room for horses that those passengers’ hearts could desire, while the crew turns invisible when not needed and violates the law of conservation of mass when present.

  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: During her rant about "telcoms", Limyaael wonders how a character can just waltz into a town with a telepathic wolf/dragon/whatever by their side and nobody even bats an eye at it, much less try to chase it out of town or kill it. Especially when the creature being a telepathic companion is kept secret, and "the hunters have no reason not to shoot a dangerous beast who shows little fear of humans and is lurking around the village."


Tropes that manifest in the rants themselves

Retrieved from "https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Limyaael%27s_Fantasy_Rants?oldid=1475309"