#stakes

[at-weeb96]

Another wonderful AT art commission order from the amazing @ango-aleman

[demilypyro]

if i had a nickel for every time adventure time symbolically used the Hanged Man tarot card pose to relate to a character's arc i'd have two nickels and that's not a lot but it's weird that it happened twice

[fixyourwritinghabits]

Not to harp again on cosy fantasy, but something that struck me recently is that none of these characters ever have to care about money and resources.

I recently read one where the main character is banished from her village. Great, could be conflict there... except she still goes to the market and pays for things, seemingly without worry. Another one had a penniless MC welcomed with open arms wherever she went. A third had a stowaway character instantly forgiven by a supposed desperate crew, who - again! - seemed to have no problem putting food on the table.

And like, I get it. Not having to think about characters paying rent or worrying about when they can eat next is a relief these days. Everyone likes chosen family. But there is a huge lack of conflict to these stories that also results in a lack of character development. No one faces a hardship that is both the result of the environment around them and their own personal flaws. Bad choices don't have negative consequences characters have to learn from, because there are no consequences at all. Endings just kind of peter out or feel unearned. There is no real stress in the environment that feeds into stakes at all.

Think of the Murderbot Diaries, which I have bafflingly seen people refer to as cosy. Murderbot doesn't have to worry about feeding itself. Murderbot would rather watch its shows, but it repeatedly has to get involved in situations it doesn't want to instead. Murderbot would like to pretend it doesn't have to deal with icky emotions, but the driving core of the books are its attachment to its human friends (and ART). Murderbot makes choices that have positive and negative consequences, and has to learn how to deal with its own emotions and anxiety while also learning to accept that other people like it. While you might not be writing science fiction, it's a great study on how a character tells you one thing about themselves while their actions tell you another.

Another series I liked a lot is Daniel M Ford's Warden books, which take a lot of the dressing you see in cosy fantasies - generic DnD tropes, found family aspects, and romance - and injects it with mystery, plot, and stakes. Aelis de Lenti is rich, powerful, and connected, but she steps on toes, insults other characters on accident, and is locked out of the great path she believes she deserves. Throughout the first book, she learns and grows, and carries that forward into the next books.

Okay, stepping off my ranting box here. If you love cosy fantasy, great. If you love to write cosy fantasy, also great! But I really do think these stories can benefit by turning up the conflict dial a little bit. You don't need your character have to deal with real world hardships to still have stakes. You can have your elf open a coffee shop, have a whirlwind romance, and resolve some internal flaw that's holding them back. You can tackle a tough subject in cosy setting (Kay Synclaire's House of Frank is my favorite "cosy" book!) and still carry through a theme. Saving the world and facing down the grimdark bad can get exhausting, but I think there's a solid middle that will benefit everyone to take more advantage of.

[kingofooo]

by character designer Delfina Pérez Adán

[bongwaterwiz]

some adventure time art I made into risograph prints

[sabertoothwalrus]

this was such an insane lore drop that they never revisited. tell us more about simon's servent era

[skeksis98]