5 Pitfalls of Writing Political Fantasy and how to fix them

Political fantasy is a complicated genre. Avoid these 5 common pitfalls in crafting your fantasy plots and learn how to create a compelling and realistic political world in your fantasy story.

Chapters
0:00 Political Fantasy has Problems
1:26 Fantasy Sprawl
8:31 Lack of Realistic Governance
15:39 Binary Narratives
20:23 Worldbuilding vs Charaters
25:39 Endings are Hard

#justintimeworlds #mariemullany #worldbuilding #government #fantasy #fantasyworldbuilding #politicalfantasy

[SickegalAlien]

Ironically, Tolkien was of the opinion that "black and white" morals are _the point_ of fantasy.
It doesn't mean that the conflict is "simple" or lacks facets and nuance, but it does provide an inspirational story that can teach us to be better people.

[douglasphillips]

I read a short story about the rightful heir who was trying to reclaim his thrown from a usurper who overthrew his family in his childhood. He sought the aid of a witch who pointed out that while the prince was learning to fight, the usurper had been managing the kingdom for the past decade. If the prince with no managerial skills won he would only put the kingdom in trouble while he learned how to manage it properly

[SickegalAlien]

To make the writing of believable governance easier, I follow the following rules of thumb:
1. Vector of legitimacy: how does the ruler keep power? Through military/magic force? Consensus? Popularity?
2. The vector of information: how aware is the ruler of the lives and opinions of the population? Who tells them about possible threats from within and without?
3. The vector of enforcement: who carries out the ruler's decrees? Are they loyal? Are they competent? Are they well equipped? Do they have conflicts of interest?
4. Vector of personality: how does the ruler interact with their system? Do they enjoy having and exercising power? Do they have an agenda beyond politics? Do their desires clash with their duties?

[Theonlywatchman]

I hypothesize people put too much empathizes on the monarch, and the rightful heir, comes from the influence of the Age of Absolutism in which monarchies highly centralized political power and often became the sole authority (I'm looking at you Louis XIV). However, people transpose the ideas of Absolutism onto a medieval feudal setting. Forgetting, perhaps taking for granted, that level of political centralization around a monarch only came about due to agricultural, administrative, economic, and technological developments which allowed the king to extract wealth and resources directly from his subjects. Not to mention being able directly employ/conscript soldiers in the creation of professional standing armies, i.e. creating a true monopoly on the use of force. Monarchs no longer needed middle men to manage his lands for them as it were. Even then, in the Age of Absolutism there were monarchies that weren't absolutist. The United Kingdom developed into a Constitutional Monarchy where the King shared power with Parliament for example.

[mi]

I disagree, sometimes a simple, unsophisticated political fantasy can be good. I mean, look at the A Song of Ice and Fire series. You have the handsome, charming prince Joffrey, a brave lion against his dark, never smiling, power hungry uncle Stannis who has a foreign witch as his lover and advisor, performs ritual burnings, summons shadowy monsters to slay his own brother, enlists pirates into his employ etc, etc. trying to usurp the throne from his own nephew.

[robertgronewold]

This makes me much more confident in the story I am about to start writing. It's about the political struggles of a city ruled by vampires. For one, the catalyst for the struggle is an entire ruling clan being wiped out, leaving a vacuum, but also everyone is a bit of a monster.

[nicholasrova]

I tend to like stories where it begins with political maneuvering, but eventually huge existential problems arise and (realistically) overshadow the petty political machinations the story began with. If an author wants to focus on the political stuff then they're better served by just not introducing world shattering problems. Also, I like complexity and nuance when I'm in the mood for it, but binary good vs evil stories will always have a place. Sometimes people just want simple. And sometimes things are just evil.

[immortaljanus]

The key to defining factions is, I think, to think about the resources that these factions control. In a pre-industrial setting, nobility often holds the most arable land which means they control the food production. In an industrial world, those that built and own the factories are the decision makers. In a more mercantile world, whoever controls (and maintains) the ports is important.

[shareneanorak]

As a general advice for everyone, go watch some chinese dramas! They might not be super good overall, but they give an interesting template for the governing system, one in which usually both nobles and common people can hold power, and the emperor is not a figure with absolute power. The template they use gives space for a lot of political conflict, that is not necessarily super complex, but can work as a really good background for your actual story. They vary the levels and amounts of fantasy, but overall they can give a pretty good idea for an interesting political system that feels alive

[joaoferreira]

To avoid the ending pitfall you can also use the classic GRRM strategy: Just don't finish the books. hehehehe

[keirapendragon]

Canonically, Season 8 is a myth. Didn't happen. It was a mass delusion triggered by HBO canceling the series because it wasn't profitable enough (like has been happening these days with video games like "Life By You").

[rhanak]

Bless the youtube gods for randomly recommending this channel, right as I'm finally getting serious about getting books written! Subbed and ready for more!

(I had a laugh when you vented about Robert Jordan getting lost in the worldbuilding weeds, because that's the same reason I gave up on the series: he completely lost sight of the plot in favor of touring every character and their remotest cousin through endless iterations of fantasy Battle of the Sexes.)

[falconknight]

The final GoT season really was frustrating, your ranting was pretty cathartic, thank you though for the vid!

[TheMichaellathrop]

So when you were doing your intro I immediately started imagining someone saying something equivalent in a tavern but it's a bard or a jangler who had been paid by one of the noble factions to demonize their political rivals, and sure the boy king may in fact be in the borderlands of the empire but rather than being in exile he's been sent away from the capital to spend a few years in the military training and touring the possessions of the empire. Heck the "evil" faction led by the cardinal or regent could have done that to keep him from being assassinated before he could ascend to the throne at say age 30.

I also really liked the setup for one of the side stories in the first dragon age game to keep the fantasy from overshadowing the politics, in essence the church had decreed that mages couldn't inherit noble titles. So you got stories about a noble finding out that their child was a mage and hiring a rouge mage in secret to train them.

[jonathanlopez]

As a world builder, I learned that characters matter over world building. Literally, the fall of Star Wars and the fall of Extending stories in the Wizarding World is a lack of character. We follow Luke Skywalker, we follow Harry Potter not the world building of this story. Compelling characters over world building.

[cupidsfavouritecherub]

Your last point annoys me so much lol. I hate it when a political fantasy ends with the rebels winning and characters establishing representative democracy lol literally laughable. Especially as someone with a pol sci degree it completely ruins the story for me, knowing how this usually goes irl. You should read Joe Abercrombie's Age of Madness trilogy if you haven't already, it shows really well how chaotic changing a governmental system can be, based on the french revolution

[testedTransgressor]

I love these videos and I'm so glad you popped up on my suggestions again. I struggle with many fantasy writing advice presenters but I don't know if its your accent, the way you intonate things so variably, or the way you emphasise specific words as you speak, but i can listen to you all day and absorb this info ten times better than any other advice channels I've seen. Thank you for making these videos, and thank you for giving me so much to think about when I'm working on my fantasy projects 💜

[isaacstovell]

I've just discovered your channel and have already ploughed through about half a dozen videos! your channel should be so much bigger for how much content you've produced & how brilliant your world-building advice is - as someone who's working on a fantasy series myself I've found loads of your insight incredibly helpful already. thank you for running such a great channel so brilliantly!

[KisaraVera]

The only character in A Game of Thrones show that had a satisfying ending was THEON!!! Every single other character had an unsatisfying ending to their character arc.

[Rynewulf]

Its not fantasy and its loosely based on history so it has sources to follow, but Romance of The Three Kingdoms and its many adaptations always struck me as a brilliant political epic that ends conclusively.
We mainly follow Liu Bei, cousin of the Han Emperors living in hiding during an increasingly chaotic time.
We see as he becomes blood brother to two famous warriors, and for the sake of the people of their new home get involved in the massive rebellions and civil wars.
At first they see success, gaining a castle and a safe permanent home for the people gathered around them but are then ousted by stronger warlords and turn to old but ruthless friend Cao Cao for help.
They eventually win but Cao Cao sees them as a threat, they scatter until Cao Cao has unified the north and starts hunting them down, chasing them to the lands of the Sun and starting the wars that would define the era.
At first Liu Bei and the Sun's fight Cao Cao together, and even after Liu Bei sets up a kingdom of his own in the west and marries Sun Quan's sister things begin to fall apart.
Liu's kingdom of Shu with famous leaders cant oust Cao Cao from the north and cant hold him off forever.
Sun Quan and his generals see the weakness and stop fighting Cao Cao to turn on Liu Bei, leading to the deaths of Bei and his famous blood brothers.
By this point Cao and Quan are also old, and soon all the original leaders die as the fighting is so endless and long.
The new generation cant keep it up, the Jin family of generals lead Cao's kingdom of Wei to victory over Bei's Shu, as they were stuck in a cycle of vengeance with Sun's Wu.
The Jin coup the Cao's and finally reunify China after beating the last of Sun Wu.
All the characters we loved died tragically, whether as betrayed heroes or unfulfilled warlords, and the upstarts overtook them just as they once overtook the Han.
Maybe it has the benefit of being historical, but its so dramatised over the centuries that its criminal there doesnt seem to be anything that cribs from it