[ SECRET POST #2919 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2919 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


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02.
[A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones]


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03.
[Father Ted]


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04.
[Dragon Age]


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05.
[Star Trek: The Next Generation]


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06.
[Sleepy Hollow]


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07.
[Full Moon o Sagashite]


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08.
(Christmas with the Kranks)


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09.
[Cary Elwes]









Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 019 secrets from Secret Submission Post #417.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Jesus, thank you. Calling something "Tolkien-esque" is usually a really shallow interpretation.

[cbrachyrhynchos]

Yeah, I've not played Inquisition but I think Tolkien would have a big problem with the grey morality, theology, and grimdark of DA:O and DA2. Tolkien was just as moralistic as Lewis, if less polemic. The grey morality of the protagonist is D&D referencing Moorcock and the New Wave referencing more pulpy Lieber, Howard, and Burroughs (fun fact, Moorcock got his start doing Tarzan fanfic).

The theology of the fade is an old folklore trope filtered through Lovecraft (Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, if you can tolerate the implicit racism), filtered through Dungeons and Dragons. Bioware previously used the idea of human ambition trespassing into divinity in NWN:SoU, which became a central point of Obsidian's NWN2. DA lacks the everything and the kitchen sink syncretism of D&D that, at one point, treated the gods of Lankhmar and Finland equally as game mechanics. Religion in DA feels a bit shallow all around, both in terms of what characters believe in the game and how you end up interacting with theology as a game mechanic.

Grimdark is the current fashion and also owes a debt to the New Wave.

Tolkien certainly would have a big problem with the last act of DA2 being a shitty allegory for religious/political conflict and terrorism.

[(Anonymous)]

I think there is a distinction, even if it's largely a formal one (especially given the huge roles that in particular Moorcock played in both) between the New Wave and the kind of roguish fantasy adventure you're talking about. And I think the relationship between what you could call mainstream modern fantasy, Tolkien, sword and sorcery, and D&D is slightly more complicated than that.

Modern fantasy I would argue is formed out of the collision between sword & sorcery revival as mediated through D&D, and epic fantasy that was intentionally meant to replicate Tolkien. And I think that's what people are referencing when they talk about Tolkien-esque fantasy, so I'm not sure the term is entirely wrong even if it rarely resembles Tolkien's actual work all that much.

But other than that right on