What defines dark fantasy?
Is it just elves that wear black or is there more to it? Maybe a mood or setting? Maybe it’s an antihero thing? Im curious as to what it means and what some of the defining/seminal works of dark fantasy might be.
It’s a combination of mood and setting. The mood should be serious and the world should be harsh. Grimdark fantasy is kind of a subcategory where the world is completely hopeless as opposed to just being a bit harsh.
The most famous dark fantasy (or depending on who you ask grimdark) series that I can think of is The Witcher. You probably know a bit about about it but there really are no proper good guys. Just Geralt who at least cares enough to try sometimes
Another pretty well known (but kinda controversial) one is Goblin Slayer. This one has some… interesting ideas about goblins. It does do a decent job of making them a credible threat though and you can understand why the goblin slayer wants to make them extinct. An interesting thing about this one is that the characters don’t have actual names. This makes them feel disposable to some extent and adds to the general feel of it
The First Law series by Joe Abercrombie is also a great grimdark series. Cannot recommend it enough if you haven’t read them. Also, obligatory shout out to the audio books which are some of the best audio books in existence.
Yeah, a great example.
I agree with this. A combination of mood and settings, and to add @[email protected] 's answer to it, not all good decisions lead to good outcomes. Bad things happen to good people who are trying to do good things.
A combination of this all.
The best definition I’ve heard of Grimdark, which has a certain overlap with dark fantasy, is that morally good decisions lead to bad outcomes. Not every good decision leads to a bad outcome and not every bad outcome is due to a good decision. But as a rule of thumb, doing the right thing is a bad thing.
From an ideological perspective, think of it as a rejection of the uplifting and hope-filled narratives of high fantasy such as JRR Tolkien’s work, where characters like the hobbits exhibit the best humanity has to offer in bravery and fortitude and love. Even the darkest aspects of the mythos of middle-earth is filled with instances of redemption and the light standing against the darkness.
Tough to define really. I think it’s a combination of tone, setting, and outcome. Not much separates walt disney and the grimm fairytales. My go to dark fantasy is the Embers of Illeniel series, which is a prequel to the Mageborn series. Mageborn is a solid fantasy series with a focus on exploring the magic of the setting. Embers is far more brutal. It still has the magic exploration aspect, but it’s dominated by a bleak situation for humanity and explores exceptionally dark ideas in respect to genocide, oppression, sexual assault, and the willingness to use power.
Even the main Mageborn series has parts that seem a bit dark fantasy to me.
Mageborn plot
For example the part where he becomes the soulsucking creature type, or Penny killing the priest and just thinking she’ll do the most before she’s dead. Oh, and suffocating the first bad guy…
There are foundations of brutality in Mageborn, but they are built in Embers. I can’t think of any other series where I’ve liked the prequel so much more than the source material.
