Iâve realised that what I miss about fantasy is it being truly escapist. I miss it depicting places where I would actually want to go.
Every dang kid I knew waited for their Hogwarts acceptance letter. Reading the books and seeing it on screen gave you this warm, fuzzy feeling and a feeling of longing, even when they were in danger and fighting monsters and evil wizards, you want to be there.
You want to go to Middle Earth, see hobbits and elves and dwarves and run through this land of incredible beauty, mysticism and magic.
You want to be in the TARDIS, seeing the universe.
The more recent trend of fantasy is this gritty, dark realism and places where you would just never want to go. I donât want to go to Westeros. I donât want to be in The Hunger Games, I donât particularly want to be in The Witcher universe. Iâm living in the world of Black Mirror and I hate it.
Fantasy used to say âhey our world kinda sucks but hereâs a cooler oneâ, but now it says âhey our world kinda sucks, but hereâs an even worse one.â
That isnât to say that the above are bad. Theyâre not.Â
But I miss beautiful, escapist fantasy that gives me a break. That takes me somewhere magical, somewhere otherworldly and gives me messages of hope and optimism in the face of darkness. I really, really miss that.