Apr 13, 2016
Okay but as a result of the stupid “wise old mentor who is actually supremely unhelpful and usually causes more harm than good” trope, we get lots of dangerously uninformed heroes and heroines who are thrown blindly into the Chosen One/Savior/Messiah role
And like
can we fix that?
Can we have instead well-informed young protagonists who know exactly who they are and what their roles are and all the other crucial information that the wizard usually keeps to himself?
That would be incredibly refreshing.
#tropes#pet peeve#old wizard type#hero archetypes#writing#i feel like when people create a messiah story they kind of forget that The Messiah was fully informed of what he had to do#aaaalso#this is another point that will be made in my extensive analysis of how Tolkien set the stage for fantasy in literature and everyone since#has completely and utterly misunderstood what he did#and poorly#and with egregious error#tried to mimic him#case in point for the wizard trope of course is Gandalf#who though admittedly not chatty withheld information only if it was really unnecessary or until he had confirmed it#and for a second example we have both Frodo and Aragorn#whose types are commonly combined for some silly reason#but anyway#Frodo knew precisely what he had to do and what would befall him in the course of doing it#Aragorn knew precisely who he was and what tasks he would have to undertake because of it
