Ragnarok.Jessikah said:
»Adding to my opinion above: I'm just a really, really boring person. Whether a piece of fiction is high or low fantasy, my brain is always trying to fit the puzzle-pieces together. I sooner fall in love with a story with a really well-established universe than a story with strong characters.
To me, Star Wars and Harry Potter each have really cool ideas that I kinda wish were written by someone like Tolkien. If they sat down and etched in concrete rules for how their magic and technology worked, I'd probably really like them. When part of your drama stems from the limitations of your characters, you had better maintain that limitation henceforth. And none of that Anime bullcrap where you just make up new, arbitrary limitations every episode.
Rant mode activate!
I mostly agree with this sentiment. I'm a big fan of LotR and Middle Earth lore in general, but if I had to play devil's advocate I'd say that it got really tiring trying to muddle through the many, many references to people, places, and events that Tolkien threw into the main novels that seemingly had no bearing on the plot. I remember decades ago trying to find every place that was referenced in the trilogy in the included maps and not being able to locate half of them. It took me many years and a lot of additional study to learn to appreciate the insane depth.
As for more contemporary fantasy, there are two things that grate on me. The first is the magic systems. I'm a weirdo that thinks the magic should at least make some kind of logical sense (I'm looking at you, spells that require magic words). Instead, it often ends up with an arbitrary set of rules that aid as convenient plot devices for every deus ex machina that a writer needs to get their characters out of sticky situation. Even worse is when the magic and/or abilities make absolutely no sense and the author tries to explain in-universe why they do make sense, not only destroying the mystique but also treating the readers/viewers like they're idiots (I had a friend who had me watch some Naruto, which has strong examples of this).
Secondly, why the frick do so many properties use the same fantasy races? Elves, orcs, dwarves, etc.... If you're going to write fantasy and claim it as an original creation then use a little creativity at least. That being said, I know the FF series borrows a
lot from fantasy and mythology (as do many others), but there's a fine line between ripping off and paying homage.