I have a few:

  • Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It’s eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how “most people are just NPCs” (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
  • Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
  • All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
  • Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
  • Outdoor_Catgirl [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    5 months ago

    I mean, if there was a group of people who were superhuman, they’d probably become the ruling class. If the wizardgoisie could just conjure food from thin air, what’s the need for a peasantry? If they can create magical automata and golems to do their manual labor, what’s the need for a proletariat? Essentially, an upper class with magic could do atlas shrugged and have it actually work instead of instantly fail because there’s no one there to do labor.