Everybody knows the magical journey most characters make in Fantasy stories. We can all come up with a few we remember. But what were the things in these that you hated?
I personally hate when they get to the end of a long journey to do a physical activity, it doesn’t work, and then they realize the plot’s problem was fixed by ‘friendship’ or something like that.
I love a long journey but at the same time it can make me want the end badly.
If there is no clear goal or direction then I wouldn’t like it.
For example: Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece is searching for the fabled treasure One Piece in order to be King of the Pirates. However, as he travels the world, he stops at different locations trying get stronger by battling different enemies. He has a clear direction which is to become the King of Pirates and know what the One Piece really is.
If the protagonist doesn’t have a real true goal or direction and is just wandering around aimlessly then I suppose I wouldn’t like it.
I hate the bit where the mentor dies dramatically after they’ve taught everything and then the MC says that all of their motivation is revenge or some other thing that’s emotionally connected to the mentor. Especially if they barely even knew each other.
An aimless journey is just god awful. Just like if there’s nothing going on in the journey except filler until the journey ends.
I’ve made some changes and I do apologize.
Also, that makes sense. You can’t feel much for a stranger even if that stranger was kind towards you.
It is. I am writing an adventure where this character name Ryker is searching for famous object, but must hide his true identity because he lives in a world where Mages and Machina(androids) are highly racist towards each other.
Ryker will travel on a long journey, but he will do other things while on the journey.
So, Ryker isn’t and won’t be wandering around with no clear direction or goal. His goal is to search for something that can prevent more problems in the world.
I am sorry for rambling. LOL!
No no don’t worry about it. I love hearing about people’s stories!
I have a journey in my story too! It takes up a lot of the book and it’s basically to another world where he follows directions from someone he meets and they go three different areas to get to a secret location that could possibly help solve a murder. While it’s mostly about just getting through the dangerous areas filled with fae and monsters, it’s also an emotional journey where the MC learns about a horrible history of a genocide connected to his own magical bloodline.
Sounds amazing.
It’s a huge project! But there’s some free chapters up on my Wattpad for anyone interested when it’s finished Majesty: Royal Vying - Liberty - Wattpad
But no pressure to read or anything!! Just in case
What are some of your favorite things about journeys in fantasy books?
Just the whole adventure aspect of it where the character travels around searching for something or a certain longing to have for themselves.
They make friends and enemies along the way and get a sense of thrill as they a strive to complete their goal.
I love long quest and how sometimes things differ in each location the character set foot on.
I love getting the description of all the new places, especially the creepy ones.
I don’t like it that the hero is always related to someone from the past or have some super special origin. It drove me nuts in Tolkien.
I’ve never seen any of their movies or read the books. I just couldn’t get into it.
Well, come back to it some time, when you feel up to it. They are often copied, but never quite replicated.
“Maybe the real treasure is the friends we made along the way”
I like this one when it’s satire, not when its the actual storyline 
Depends on which fantasies:
“Hot tub episodes”: a whole chapter dedicated to down time that serves nothing to the plot. Find some tie-ins. Get a heart-felt conversation between a couple before one of them dies, something, shoot.
Scanty armor for BOOBS without explanation. I’ve dealt with things like this, in various forms, but I’ve never just blindly didn’t explain what was going on.
Doing something to make the character unique and interesting and after bringing in the character doing this unique thing, it disappears from the story “like a vaporous life”.
Yes, dwarves like gold and long contracts with beards and axes, I get it, but if that’s all there is to your dwarf of importance, please just let me give up. Caricatures are fine for background characters. But anything that has time spent on it should have some time spent on the personal traits of the being.
Those are all so true. I hate when someone gets something ‘quirky’ then it never comes up again
Honestly, nothing. I really love a good journey story, and I honestly don’t mind if they discover that whatever they were searching for ‘was there all along’. It’s a little cheesy, and ofc there’s bad executions, but when done well I could care less. My problems usually lay with the characters, or over-use of plot armor, but you can find those in any story genre.
I don’t like it when the journey never really ends at the end of the book. I read the book to see the end of the journey, not be given an open ending where even the journey isn’t finished. And I know said book will never get a sequel. At least, I haven’t heard of one.
I don’t know if any of my characters plain journeyed. I used to mix up journey and quest a lot. Are you talking about a journey or a quest? I think all the ones I have are quests. The characters are not going from point A to point B to just go from point A to point B while going along their character arc. They need to get to a destination to do a thing or get a thing or fight someone or save someone.
To add to this, I hate when there’s a beloved pet whatever and then there’s a war, and readers never find out what happened to said beloved pet whatever. I want to know! 