Fantasy Should be Weird
I think what separates fantasy from most other genres is its ability to be weird. Some fantasy such as Terry Pratchett's Discworld take this to its extreme going so far as to make absurdist comedy out of them (I will never forget the hydrophobic wizards). A lot of recent fantasy tries to make the world feel gritty and realistic though, the most well known of the probably being Game of Thrones. I think there is a place for these sorts of settings but I think they also lose something for being too realistic in places.
That isn't to say I don't like cohesion. Game of Thrones is very cohesive for the most part but that is not because of its realism. The Lord of the Rings is, almost definitely, more cohesive but has its weird elements like Tom Bombadil, Pipin and Merry growing from drinking Entwash and magic that has no clear rules. I think these aspects add to the story making it both more enjoyable and lighthearted.
What made me fall in love with fantasy was when my dad read me The Hobbit and The Edge Chronicles as a child and then later playing Oblivion and Skyrim. These all in-stilled a feeling of wonder in me. The feeling that their worlds had long and weird histories that I was only glimpsing.
The moment with the trolls arguing in The Hobbit still really stands out to me. The idea that these big scary monsters could lose because they argued for too long causing them to turn to stone is unusual but brilliant. Trolls turn to stone in the light in Middle Earth but they are also a bit dim and Gandalf uses this perfectly. My take away from this is, to have rules, but have you characters be able to exploit them or interact with them in unusual ways.
The Edge Chronicles have Rook navigate the Deepwoods, a dark and unknown forest, and along the way he encounters many unusual creatures and peoples. I think what made these wonderful to me as a child was that nothing is ever what it first seems. To do examples for this justice I think I need to re-read these books, but I remember Rook meeting a tribe of people he at first thought were monsters. These people then turned out to be friendly and help him make great progress on his quest.
The Elder Scrolls games initially inspired me because of their scale and the feeling that I could go anywhere and do anything, but the thing that I like the most is the Deadra, the gods of the world. Most of the games have quests which you can go on to aid these Deadra to enact their will on the mortal world. These can result in the player needing to do anything from killing a person possessed by a sword called umbra who now calls herself umbra to stealing cheese and poisoning sheep in a village to sow confusion and chaos. The Deadra feel like they have unknowable reasons for these unusual deeds because the player is never told the full story. Being unknown helps the weirdness, but also the unusual things that the player is required to do amplify this.
So as a whole, I think weirdness adds to fantasy rather than taking from it. It can create wonder and add to the escapism of these worlds. Recently I think fantasy has become bogged down by its need to be realistic and too believable.
Bellow is a summary of the ways I think you can make fantasy weird.
Ways to Make Fantasy Weird
- Have rules, but have you characters be able to exploit them or interact with them in unusual ways.
- Have things that aren't what they appear to be at first glance.
- Keep somethings unknown to the audience.
- Just have unusual things (e.g rules, creatures, settings).