2.10 Rant on Prophecy in Fantasy
Disclaimer: This rant is probably going to be a
sore topic for some writers, apologies ahead of time if I touch a nerve.
These are my opinions only, as a reader and a writer.
I’ve been meaning to write this rant for some time,
in fact I have written it many times in the past, over and over. Anyone
who’s talked with me at-length on genre novels knows how I feel about
prophecies, destiny and fate.
I’ve ranted about my intense dislike of these
tropes (primarily in fantasy but sci-fi is no less guilty in many
experiences) from mountaintops. If I manage to convince just one person
not to use these words in their manuscript at all, I’ll
feel like I’ve achieved making them a better writer.
Recently I hungered for my favourite genre of
anime- magical girl- and went cruising through the lists and dark
shadows of people’s opinions. For someone who devours this genre as
much as I do, it’s not easy to find something new that
I haven’t watched. But I found one that I had initially dumped after
the first five minutes due to being ‘samey’- one review said ‘it’s very
genre-breaking’ which is code for ‘dark magical girl’ – an enchanting
promise for me, since I love dark magical girl.
Day Break Illusion brought this rant back to me as I
got to episode two and then three. Without spoiling too much, there’s a
big emphasis on tarot cards in this series and characters do a fair
amount of talking about what their fate is
based on these readings and cards.
For a change, it’s actually done well.
This may be the first time I have looked at someone
harping on about this-or-that being their destiny and not thought ‘this
prophecy is a waste of space.’ There is a strong narrative reason for
belief in things being set before us- there
is evidence of what happens when it is subverted and what happens when
it is followed, the fate has a direct and indirect consequence. This may
be the first time I’ve ever seen it ‘pulled off’. That said, there is
still plenty of time for everything to go
stupid, but given the psychological horror themes, I think something
else will happen. Characters are shown empirical evidence of their
beliefs and when they try to buck against it, the consequences are dire.
That, right there, is how to do ‘fate, prophecy and
destiny’ as a character, as a narrative tool, as a core principal of
your work. It is the only example I have ever seen that carries the
logical consequences and conclusions that these
things need. The impact of these repercussions and realities hit and
conflict with the characters, beyond the surface scratching of ‘I don’t
believe in predestined anything’ that most folk fall back on.
What tends to happen, however, is about as far from
this as you can get. Characters are too often pushed into actions that
are totally against their nature because ‘they feel it is their destiny’
or ‘somehow, they knew XYZ’. This is usually
short-hand for lazy writing. If a character needs to go on a quest to
save his town, because destiny demands it and no other reasonable
motivation exists, the character has just lost all personal agency. The
protagonist is no longer your hero, it’s the prophecy.
I’m not saying this can’t be done well, or that books with great
prophecy tropes don’t exist. I’ve just never read one.
- If the bad guy can’t be killed because of a prophecy protecting him, the characters who do succeed need a really good reason as to how and why. I think this is done roundabout with Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart—though there is no prophecy, the main villain cannot be harmed, he’s invulnerable and the protagonists are trying to work out what his weakness is. This book shows how to do this issue right. The villain has a weakness, we know he does, we have proof of it, the characters have clues and are working toward it. They also have seen what happens when people got the weakness wrong. We have dire consequences for failure. Relying on a prophecy to protect yourself, as an antagonist, needs to work the same way. We need to see what happens when people who don’t fit the mould try to buck it. The villain also needs to be evil for their own reasons; evil because of ‘destiny’ is not an answer. (though Evil because Evil is its own rant for me, we’ll revisit later)
- Obscure stone tablets with the fate of the world of them being believed are a problem. Remember when the ancient Mayan Calendar ran out in 2012? No? Let me refresh your mind: we made jokes about how ‘oh no, the world might be about to end.’ Very few people were worried about this actually happening. Just as the last few predicted raptures in the bible had a dozen or so folk running scared, and the majority forgetting about the prediction as soon as it had made gag-news headlines.
- So, why, in soooooo many series, do people who otherwise scoff at the will of the gods, and buck their ‘fate’ all suddenly believe that this stone tablet is legitimate?
- Good world-building demands you answer this question with more than just ‘oh, because this one is real’- the average Joe doesn’t know it’s real. Not without legitimate proof. Now, for a serf in his mud house, maybe a glowing sword is all the convincing he needs to believe what the characters say is true, but for a merchant? A princess? Nope. Going to need some empirical evidence if-you-please.
- Destiny is not an excuse for poor characterization, gaping plot-holes, deus-ex-machina and other ill-conceived quick ‘fixes’. Prophecies and ‘fate’ as a character have been systemically abused for so long that the words now make me shudder with irritation. They are almost guaranteed to make me put down an otherwise promising book. Too many fantasy authors seem to think that they are essential ingredients in writing a good novel because of the pulp that became popular in the mid 40s-90s. Breaking down a lot of those old novels creates a sort of checklist or ‘paint-by-cliché’ for the new author. Just because other authors have done it, doesn’t mean you have to. Think about what purpose a prophecy serves in your story. If you’ve just shoved it in there because it ‘seemed like the popular thing every fantasy story does’ then you’re failing to recognize why it became such a cliché in the first place. If your narrative would be otherwise unchanged by removing the prophecy, then remove it. Cut it fast.
- A very modern example of a prophecy that was sort of tacted on as an afterthought and removing it would have required only the smallest of tweaks and changed essentially nothing in the story; Harry Potter. Imagine; Voldermort killing folk because they opposed him, going after Harry’s parents because they were in the Order, and generally murder-spreeing because he liked to murder-spree. Now, we know that the wizarding world believes in prophecies and we have empirical proof they are legitimate in this universe, ergo, there’s nothing majorly wrong with the inclusion of a destiny element in the series. But it would have changed a few paragraphs to remove it.
I can list on forever where prophecy serves no
purpose or should be cut out entirely from a book; Brent Weeks is a
fantastic author who lured me in with his Night Angel and then, once
hooked; threw a prophecy in that contributed nothing
but two otherwise interesting characters to the end of the first book.
This brings me to: prophecies need to pay-off.
- Not later. Not in six books time. But from day-dot. If you have a prophecy or Fate is running around in a skimpy leotard ‘manipulating forces for Fate’s whim’ it needs to pay off in the short term as well as long term. If it has no pay-off, no obvious importance, or the wording is vague enough there’s a lot of confusion, or the characters are just driven around by it, then it’s probably chewing up words it could not be chewing up.
Phew, after all that, I feel really relieved.
Anyway, I hope this was informative and evocative for getting the
writing spirits going.
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