I have discussed epic fantasy in depth on this blog and one of the basic themes of the genre is that is strongly relates to meaning in life and the search for meaning. The heroes of epic fantasy always embark on a quest to find something or to overcome the difficulties in their life and their world. Even though some of these stories are literally thousands of years old the theme still hold true today. We are still human beings and no matter what period of time we come from we are all still searching for the same things.
But there is one aspect of Epic Fantasy that just doesn’t hold up to the reality of our lives and this aspect of it is not the creatiion of fantasy worlds. It is not unicorns, dragons, magic, demons, dark lords, gremlins, goblins, orcs, magic swords or any of these things at all!These things are all of course creations of fantasy and that is why it is called Epic “Fantasy”.All of these things and worlds are accepted replacements for the wonders that we have in the world we currently live in. It is very easy to see our world with new eyes when an author paints a world of wonder. After all, we do live in a wondrous world full of magical things.
No, no. The only one true failing of epic fantasy is this:
The story always has a mentor that knows what to do and what is right.
Let’s take The Lord of the Rings as an example. The mentor in this story is Gandalf. He has lived for hundreds of years and he knows all. He knows about the troubles in the land and he knows how to fix them. He is the guide of our main characters and is almost omnipotent. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a mentor in this world -one that knew all the answers and what to do?
It is a bit of a shame that epic fantasy resorts to the presence of a mentor to answer all the questions. It is a parallel that can’t be drawn to our world. We don’t have any mentors in this world. We are all in this boat together and none of us has any more of a clue than any other.
-
