Medieval Fantasy in Popular Culture

Game of Thrones is a book written by George Martin. In this medieval fantasy tale, there are many references to blood and violence. This is because Game of Thrones is a type of fantasy referred to as gritty fantasy. Gritty fantasy is known for its blood, war, violence, grey lines, and rape. Sexual violence is very common and very present throughout the book. In fact, there is a theme of rape as a common thing among some cultures. Specifically, more in the Dothraki culture than in the White culture. Often in fantasy, there is a common theme of “Whiteness.” This is what Helen Young refers to as “Habits of Whiteness.” This idea is that the White race and their traditions and culture are put at the center of the book. In fact, the “Whiteness” is put above all other non-White races. A common theme in fantasy is that the White characters are often the good and well-respected characters and the non-White races are depicted as “savage-like.” For example, in Game of Thro...

Eberron: Reinventing Dungeons and Dragons               In the early 2000’s, Wizards of the Coast decided that they needed to update their most popular and well-known game, Dungeons and Dragons. To that end, in 2002, they ran the Fantasy Setting Search, a competition to establish a new setting and world for Dungeons and Dragons to allow for new styles of play. Out of more than 11,000 entries, game designer Keith Baker’s Eberron campaign setting was chosen as the winner, and the setting was officially released in June 2004 with the publication of the Eberron Campaign Setting hardback book. Since then, the setting was updated for the fourth edition of the game, though only three books were released detailing the new rules and settings info for the new edition of the game, with an unofficial update for the fifth edition being provided in February of 2015 in the online feature “Unearthed Arcana”, but unfortunately, the sett...

As Helen Young describes it, gritty fantasy contains glorified sex and violence (sometimes together), blurred morality, "minimalized" magic, continuing trends of whiteness and a "realistic" medieval setting. As I have in previous posts, I've chosen to use this lens to approach Japanese media, particularly anime and video games.  Today's an anime day. Based on the manga by Norihiro Yagi, "Claymore" is a twenty-six episode series from 2007 that follows the adventures of Clare, a member of a specialized organization of half-monster female warriors known as the titular Claymores, as she slays human-eating monsters known as Yoma. Is it gritty fantasy? We'll examine each part of Young's criteria to find out. Glorified Sex and Violence The craziest thing happened when I started watching "Claymore." I sat down, saw the main character was a woman, and waited for the "boob shots" to ensue. None came. None. Don't ...