Paul Farquhar's latest activity

The idea that "we need a really strong leader to sort people out" is, itself, a problem a really strong leader can't fix. So I'm going...

And exception amongst a huge pile of cosy crime.

Yeah, there is a lot of social class represented in the Shire. Pippin is ancestral gentry, all breading not actually much money or...

Yup, painted into a corner. A good ending would have betrayed the point of writing the novels, a bad ending betrays the audience who has...

The thing he is most grouchy about is literally Medieval French Romantacism. That and British Imperialism, bit for Tolkien the latter...

Doesn’t matter what the motivation was, the aliens sorted out all of Earth’s problems with a big stick. It’s really up there in “we need...

Even Tolkien is only really romantic about pre-WW1 rural England. He may have loved the Saxon period, but I’m pretty sure he didn’t want...

@Clint_L I see your point about The First Law series. It's set in a romanticised past of warriors and kings, wise wizards, and even an...

Actually some Discworld stories do romanticise the past - just not the medieval past. Raising Steam romanticises the age of steam...

My point is, it’s a major everything trope. It’s not specifically fantasy, unless you define fantasy as “LotR and it’s knock-offs”.

Some stories are told as warnings "don't play by the river children or Green Jenny will get you". Some are just told to entertain on...

Mythology is fiction, fiction is mythology. It's all just stories.

Divine magic va.arcane isn't really a thing in D&D at this point, Paladin are not mechanically tied to gods.

I will point out that the original GoT author hasn't been able to adapt the story competently either. The trouble with setting out to...

Have you read any historical crime fiction!? As for "medieval" romance, I would say there is nothing medieval about it. It's just...