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Limyaael's Fantasy Rants

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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

  • Automaton Horses: "Amazing Mechanical Horses" are regularly mentioned, including Animal rant [67]/[68]
  • Changed My Mind, Kid: In the Rant on slippery-slope plotting. ("We’ve changed our minds! Because it was time for a plot turn!") [69]
  • 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.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Limyaael's rant on dragons notes that if your dragon can breathe fire hot enough to melt solid rock, it's probably going to do more than just "make a hero's jacket smolder" in the process.
  • Counterproductive Propaganda: In the "Propaganda rant" [70]
  • Cult of Personality: By necessity, the issue pops up now and then, such as in "Rant on creating good rulers" [71] and "Rebel rant" (parts first [72] and second [73]).
  • Easy Evangelism: In "Rant on loyalty" [74] and "Avoiding gimmick-worlds" [75]/[76]
  • Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: "(Poor sharks. The authors have them show up, but how often do they feed them? Not often)." [78]
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: Limyaael's rant on D&D gameplay mechanics notes that while many of those rules made perfect sense in a gaming environment, they don't translate well into a narrative environment, if at all. (Seriously, why do those wizards need to keep memorizing the same spells over and over?)
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Almost any rant about elves, demi-humans, non-humans, etc. will invoke a comparison of the non-human species being in complete and utter harmony with their environment while the humans are hellbent on destroying it.
  • Improbable Species Compatibility / Shapeshifting Squick: During her rant about half-human heroes, she says that as much as an author wants to just say "don't think about it" when asked how the "mechanics" of it work, the author is the one person who should be putting more thought into it than anyone else.
  • Masquerade: In urban fantasy rant: [79]/[80]
  • Misapplied Phlebotinum: Here and there, including Propaganda rant [81]
  • No Periods, Period: When discussing full-moon-bound werewolves, Limyaael notes that even a woman's monthly period gets better care than full moon werewolf angst. Assuming the author even bothered to think about that, of course.
  • Realism: Pick a rant, any rant, and odds are it's about adding more realism.
  • Rightful King Returns: In "Stupid plots rant - Last Herald-Mage spoilers" [82]
  • Show, Don't Tell/Informed Attribute: All the time, e.g. the "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."
  • 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

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