Avoiding cliched elves and genre crossovers in a Fantasy Project.

[Peat]

Wouldn't Lúthien be considered more important?

She defeated Sauron and lulled Melkor to sleep.

The Tale of Beren and Luthien starts with Beren entering Doriath after the death of his warband and seeing Luthien. He is the prime mover in the tale, he is the Main Character. He's not the most important in the story, but he is the most important to the story.

That's how I see it. YMMV and all that.

 

[MineOwnKing]

Well, isn't the Silmarillion omniscient?

I never thought of it as one character's POV.

Beren was saved by Lúthien so I would say her character is at least more interesting.

She was created with Tolkien's wife in mind so I would think from the author's perspective she was the center piece of the story.

 

[Ireth]

Well, isn't the Silmarillion omniscient?

I never thought of it as one character's POV.

Yes, it's a collection of stories dating from Creation itself, much like the Bible.

Beren was saved by Lúthien so I would say her character is at least more interesting.

She was created with Tolkien's wife in mind so I would think from the author's perspective she was the center piece of the story.

I would think so too. And Beren was based on Tolkien himself, naturally.

 

[Banten]

Please please please please write the 1950's disco elves story. I will read the living heck out of it.

Disco was not really a thing in the fifties...


Buuuut I like disco elves, so I will see what I can do. I'm in the very very early stages of writing this anyway, so why not. Maybe 80's culture could be a counterculture in the futuristic fifties.

 

[Peat]

Having an Omniscient PoV =/= Not Having a Main Character

I am familiar with the creation story of Beren and Luthien (the names are on their tombstones for crying out loud) but that still does not change my opinion that, as written, the story is framed more about Beren and that makes him the MC. I'd agree that Luthien is the more interesting character but then if I had a pound for every time I thought the MC was not the most interesting character in a book I could buy a small Caribbean island.

Fair enough if anyone still disagrees but I suspect we'll continue to do so.

 

[emmarowene]

Everybody's made some pretty good points on here! You can work with cliches-- the fantasy genre sort of thrives off them, really-- but you just have to find a small way to take them and make them your own. If you *do* cross genres, for example, you have elves and science!! That's so cool! How often do we get to see that? Or, if you still feel the need to make your elves different, you can look back to the original Germanic and Nordic mythos Tolkien based his elves off of. There are lots of wikipedia pages about them

 

[Writer 1 Gregory]

Well, thanks; I've been busy getting my debut science fiction novel ready for publication so most of the projects I've been working on have been put on hold but I'm still working on them as I get time.