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Fantasy is a Christian Genre, Actually

Ryder the Omniscient

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Modern fantasy borrows from traditional (Christian) fantasy while denying everything that makes it great.

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CHAPTERS:
0:00 - Fantasy has been Christian for 1,300 years
2:55 - The Christian origins of fantasy
6:00 - Four things fantasy borrows from Christianity
11:41 - How modern writers twist the stories we love
15:07 - Christian themes in modern fantasy
17:26 - The core emotion beneath fantasy.

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20 Comments

@rydertheomniscient Creator 11 days ago (edited) Pinned

Hey y'all! What's your favorite fantasy book/movie and why?

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@itstimefortim 11 days ago

Alright... Seeing just that short clip of "I can't carry it for you. But I can carry you!" Is making me realize it's once again time to rewatch the LOTR trilogy...

@Slash_Unknown 3 hours ago

DAWG!!! YOU DROPPED THIS WHILE IM RESEARCHING THIS TOPIC FOR MY RESEARCH ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY DO YOU KNOW HOW PEAK THIS IS!!! PRAISE THE LORD

@TheLostPrimarch2nd 11 days ago

He literally spoke about Beowulf as the beginning of the genre, stating how the ethic baseline of that story was christian.

@TheLordmep 10 days ago

Having worked on my own book for several years, I have a weakness for continually adding in whatever tickles my fancy, rendering the thing pretty dense and bloated. However, where possible, I'd like to find ways to make it more Christian.

@bobjoe1849 9 days ago

Had arthurian literature for hundreds of years which alone is impressive.

@hims00 5 days ago

I deeply appreciate you not shying away from using Christ as a standard for fantasy. This video was a such a refresher to me because you use Christianity in such a casual manner. Like you just talk about it like is a topic you speak of every day. Thank you. This was encouraging to watch

@thebluephanto7655 11 days ago (edited)

my favorite christian genre of writing is the "basic human rights constitution"

Wtf happened on comments

@ignotus_amicus 10 days ago

Bruh, as a Tolkienista I’m here to tell you: you got Dune wrong. Dune is not about mocking Christ. It’s about when Man tries to manipulate his Fate by his command over Nature and how it bites back.

@Liviamusic 6 days ago

But that just makes it a hybrid, which means it belongs to everybody and nobody. That’s how creativity works, people get inspired and then add their own twist. No one can claim ‘ownership’ of it. You can discuss how these things have Christian or Pagan themes in them, but if they are elements of both and in fact other things as well, then it’s a melting pot of everything 🤷‍♀️

@Nullius_ingame 5 days ago

Well Dune is a moralistic story someway, it is a warning against fanaticism and the lust for power, not a glorification of today's standards. What’s more, Galadriel is no saint. Centuries earlier, she had been one of the leaders of the Noldor rebellion against the Valar and had fled Valinor in search of a realm of her own in Middle-earth—which is why she triumphs in the test featured in the first film of the trilogy, redeeming herself from her desire for power.

@marineb9666 8 days ago

6:52 Hello! I am going to keep on watching the video, and the beginning is very interesting, but I need to comment on this: I obviously don't know what Frank Herbert intentions were when he wrote Dune, but I don't believe that it is a mockery of the Christian messiah. It looks more like a tragedy (as in the ancient greek tragedies). And it shows how faith can be used to control people. Does it have something to do with Christianity, though, I am not sure. Though if someone has a different take on this, I would be interested to know why.

@Hard_Boiled_Entertainment 11 days ago

I feel like a lot of the unjust animosity towards Fantasy came from the "Satanic Panic" where Christians flipped out over D&D, and of course eventually the Harry Potter books, because how DARE kids pretend to be mages and wizards? "Wizards BAD!"...except, lest we forget, the Magi ("Mages") or Wise Men ("Wizards," if you will) we know and love from the Christmas story.

@jw6588 11 days ago

I'm curious what you'd make of sword and sorcery stories, like Conan the Barbarian and such.

The sword-and-sorcery genre would seem to be a contrary example.

@nedofranc8979 1 hour ago

This is beautiful, thank you

@eirwulf111 11 days ago

12:27 best rings of power edit

@Kitretsuthetankengine 9 days ago

Dude I get your premise but what about 1001 nights, they are full of fantasy and magic and all the tropes. The title of the video should be How modern fantasy/ sword and sorcery is derived from Christianity or more specifically from Arthurian legends.

@OnlyLiarGameFan 6 days ago

What about eastern fantasy tho?

@calebsalmond2083 10 days ago (edited)

8:50 what part of the books is that quote from, so I can find it in my own copies!

@amandaslough125 11 days ago

I think it's a very good video despite a few nit picks that are good debate topics.

I'd say my only hang up is the Truth is Relative one. I think that's a topic that's always relevant across the history pages. But I also have a project that I'd love to dive into such themes involving it, with the rest of the classic fantasy elements there too. Not as a subversion per say, but at least a reconstruction.