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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 3224133" data-attributes="member: 19675">I think part of it (a large part) is a lot of players' taste in fiction- especially the younger ones.If you look back at the history of fiction, particularly the fiction that is the basis for modern sci-fi/fantasy, pulp, and horror, you see 90% of it is heroic.Its not until you get into the 1900s that you start seeing the rise of well written, convincing heroes with a darker edge or true anti-heroes.Since then, the dark hero/anti-heroic archetypes have been increasing in number and popularity pretty steadily.There is nothing wrong with that.The problem is that, while such archetypes are still the minority of the protagonists out there, they seem to be the predominant archetypes in the stuff people are reading.Not that its all about choices made by the consumers, either- I find it hard to find the classic heroic fiction even on the shelves.  If the book on the store shelf isn't Tolkien, its almost a guarantee that its someone new (less than 20 years of professional writing).  You can't buy what you can't find (or didn't even know existed).  I can't send someone to buy the Fafhrd & Grey Mouser books since there is no Fritz Lieber on the shelves...and fewer schools teach the mythological literature and epics (Beowulf, Sir Gawain & the Green Knight, the Illiad, etc.) that helped shape Western culture. Without good, solid, well-written choices in truly heroic fiction, the appeal of the dark or anti-hero has no counterpoint and no competition.</blockquote>

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