Medieval Fantasy MMMDCIXII

Again & again & again & again
Do it again, do it again
Again & again & again & again
Do it again, do it again, again & again

Rawr.

People love to complain about zombie games. After all, they do seem to be all the rage these days. There's kind of a hipster pleasure to dismissing zombies. Why do people love those moaning, shambling masses, anyway? Is it the ability to kill people without guilt, or perhaps it is sheer hopelessness of it all? Is it the idea that one intelligent person can outsmart an entire army of mindless drones?

I dunno. I'm not talking about that today though. I'm talking about something way more overused than zombies, bald space marines, regenerating health, and maybe even jumping. I'm talking about something many may consider too broad a trope to compare to these things. I'm talking about medieval fantasy.

But wait, Aya! What do you mean by medieval fantasy? Do you mean Tolkien-style fantasy, or Game of Thrones style fantasy? Are you talking about settings with magic, settings with Dwarves and Elves, or just settings with swords and armor?

Yes.

"Nooooo!"

Let me set something straight right off the bat. I love Lord of the Rings. I put more than 100 hours into Skyrim. When I was a kid, I had that Fisher Price castle playset, and I came up with all kinds of scenarios involving the king, his guards, the knights, the theives, and their swordplay. My last post was about a queen simulator. Even my favorite video game franchise of all time, The Legend of Zelda, is shamelessly perpetuating most of these elements.

But come on, guys, enough already. I know that those old something-something Fantasy games sold a lot and had lots of successful sequels. I know that the Lord of the what-have-you is a long-running franchise that has piqued the interests of many cultures since its inception. Everybody knows what an elf is, and who hasn't wanted to wield a sword to vanquish their enemies?

Skyrim

This stuff is all tried and true, but if anything else had shown such a high level of emergence in every artistic medium the way that medieval fantasy has, we would all laugh and shame those who perpetuated it. Why has this style become synonymous with "fantasy?" Is this really all people fantasize about? (I know I don't) What is it that makes this genre so special?

To me, they are beginning to look like sequels. Every time I'm watching E3 and I hear a deep, British accent speaking in old English, see a castle, hear the clanging of swords, witness a group of horseback warriors, or watch rain disturb the waters of a mote near a drawbridge, I think, oh boy, here's another sequel to the last generic Tolkien ripoff. Why don't they just call it what it is: Medieval Fantasy: Retribution - The Beginning Returns 211.

You attack me, I attack you, I win, I get gold,
I go to the castle town and buy better armor.

Obviously, my opinion isn't popular. These games/movies/books/HBO shows/toys sell like hotcakes, and my own friends and family revel in their fantasies of donning chainmail and striking their enemies down with a spiked flail from atop their noble steed. I don't want this trope to disappear completely. I just want it to stop hogging the spotlight.

Twilight Princess is great, but it's just another
run-of-the-mill fantasy setting.

Most of my favorite games take place either in alternate realities or the future. I don't think history is particularly boring, but it's not really where I want to go when I start up my gaming machine. Some of the best settings are created, not copy-pasted, and I think that if more storytellers realized that, we could get some really solid, fun, original art. Until then, I'll just keep ranting about it here, and you will keep reading it, and perhaps getting angry enough to write nasty comments down there.↓ Bring it on. I obviously don't understand, so somebody should just explain it, right?