Is genre just a fantasy?

Ok, so I’m being slightly fastidious with the title as the genre I’ve been contemplating is indeed Fantasy. About a year and a half ago I had a discussion that took me off guard as the ones I talked to claimed that fantasy isn’t medieval. To me, the genre is primarily defined by the works of J. R. R. Tolkien and later developed into a more fantastical interpretation by such media as Dungeons & Dragons. Professor Tolkien very explicitly takes inspiration from northern and western medieval Europe, and those following in his footsteps has stayed close to that idea. Swords and castles are at the core of classic fantasy, even when the cultural basis shifts such as in the Daughter of the Empire book series.

So why is it that the others disagreed with me? From what I could tell, it’s a combination of two things. First of all, they associated the genre explicitly only with visual media. The prevalence of magic and the fantastical in fantasy meant that glow effects and overly dramatic armour had stuck in their minds more than the fact that characters tended wo wield swords or that buildings were far from modern. Secondly, fantasy has evolved into many subgenres and for those not into any of it it might be easier to just think of it all as “fantasy.” Some subgenres include steampunk technology, some has no corresponding time period at all, and urban fantasy takes place in a modern one. Visually, the only things all of them have in common are the things the other people thought of as “fantasy.” It wasn’t until I pointed it out that they noticed just how prevalent swords are.

Next post, I’m going to gush about how well League of Legends combines different subgenres of fantasy in worldbuilding.