Trope Talk: Urban Fantasy
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- Опубликовано: 2 апр 2020
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Urban Fantasy! A uniquely versatile and hybridized setting with a lot of fun potential! It's also got some uniquely tricky writing pitfalls, so let's talk about it a little!
Got a favorite urban fantasy story or a least-favorite urban fantasy staple? Drop it in the comments!
Our content is intended for teenage audiences and up.
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The Magic School Bus is Urban Fantasy, Ms. Frizzle is a warlock serving under a fey patron of knowledge, and the Bus is the mystical patron that no one ever acknowledges is sentient. Q.E.D.
thanks for my next d&d character lmao
@@halcyonherascarter7018 ms frizzle is an alien witch
You can't make that sh*t up
This is amazing.
Also, kinda reminds me of back in high school when my group of nerd friends and I crafted the theory that Ms. Frizzle is a Time Lord (Lady) and the Bus is her TARDIS.
@Brandon Quist OMG YOU'RE RIGHT!!
HOT TAKE: Magical Girl anime is Urban Fantasy
Magical girl anime can be because magical girl is a type of fantasy just like how urban fantasy is a type of fantasy so yes it can be if set in a urban fantasy setting
that's not a hot take, that's just TRUTH
Also sometimes a space opera
Not necessarily. If you define magical girl stories as ones where girls unlock their magical powers through transformation and use those powers to defeat evil, setting isn't that critical. You could very well pull off a magical girl story in a high fantasy setting, or even science fantasy.
That is NOT a hot take.
Red: "Your art will hurt people"
Me, making weapons: "Yes."
Lol you're still insufferable
"If I'm lucky."
Me: Trying to figure out the best way to design a weapon that's effective but also legal.
Two people talking about a a father gift to his very young daughter.
-YOU CANT GIVE HER THAT!
~Why not?
-its a SWORD!
~It's educational.
-What if she cuts herself!?
~that will be a very important lesson, won't it?
O.o
Me, making interracial ntr: I am become death.
1:14 "the heros will be handling magic...also drink coffee..." And my first addition was "and the elf side character will pull out a Glock to take out the big bad"
Funnily enough I myself have an elf character who uses guns!
persona 5 ending in a nutshell
Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards
Master has given Dobby a glock
@@CallmeCael neat! Well don't leave us hanging! Tell us!
I have what I call the "Five Minute Rule" for my writing: If I use a subject/topic/theme/creature/ whatever I mus be able to hold a Five Minute conversation about it without looking like a dumbass with someone who actually knows what they're talking about. If I couldn't theoretically manage that, I either don't include it or do more research until I can.
@Gustavo Tellez Thank you. Means a lot of research but I do enjoy it anyways.
The question is, how do you know you’re “looking like a dumbass” or not?
@@ThePa1riot how do you not?
That is a genuinely awesome idea. Good rule to be both polite and creative.
@@TheNumber Thank you! I made it because I know how *I* feel when someone gets something so wrong about physical disabilities and assistive devices that it's clear they have done no research.
“The real world is actually really cool”
I Finally had a reason to not go outside... and you ruined everything...
We just need another Journey to the West vid to keep ourselves indoors!
@@Zenocius we got that on April fools, I mean all the comments said it was cannon soo...
(But actually I agree )
Y'all realize that the inside of your dwelling is also part of "the real world," right?
Alycia Shedd Tell that to the inter dimensional portal in my shower
diceluckyblue if it’s there, it’s real.
I love Rick Riordan so much. He started writing to show his son a positive portrayal of people with ADHD and dyslexia, and his belief that people deserve to have characters they can relate to (be it their race, sexuality, gender identity, ability, or culture) hasn't changed, it's only expanded
I Wholeheartedly agree. Rick Riordan is my favorite author.
He holds true to that idea even to this day. He is fully in support of Aryan Simhadri and Leah Sava Jeffries as Grover and Annabeth respectively.
Here’s to Nico Di Angelo, my goth gay son
I fucking love him. Litterly just got all the percy jackson books on audible to rexperience while at work or whatnot and they feel just as good and magical as I remember
@@cybersearcher1041 I can't wait for the solangelo book to come out
I had a shapeshifter romance dream that was actually super hilarious on account of my asexuality: I was at this bar having a beer and some super hot guy walks up to me. We have an extremely engaging conversation about psychology which is a field I care a lot about and he was fascinating and intelligent. After talking for a while, he hits on me. I politely turn him down and he leaves. A few minutes later a super hot woman with huge knockers walks up to me and has a really interesting conversation with me about anthropology, another topic I care a lot about, and she was super fascinating and intelligent. After a few minutes she hits on me and I turn her down. Then he/she morphs into their real form and is like "Ok what the heck, I used feedback from your brain to make me the most interesting person I could possibly be to you. The first time you turned me down I figured you just weren't in to men but then you turned me down as a woman too, so what's up with that?" I explained my asexuality, the shapeshifter felt better about itself, and it was a really good experience. So I guess I befriended a dream incubus/succubus? Lol.
write that book
That is hilarious!
Damn, the Hidden World category isn't just a trope
I'd read that.
I will use this as evidence that magic is real.
Red: “Where the hell are the Dragons?” The Dragons: *self quarantining*
From the simean parasitic pandemia ;)
SonsOfLorgar lmao that was good
In a box
Rick K 😔
@Rick K F
Now here's the real question we should be asking:
Is "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" urban fantasy?
...this is a genuinely good question
Absolutely, I don't see how that could even be a question.
It is, talking rabbits are definitely fantastical in nature
I think the real question is: If he had such a wife, why is there not an ever-multiplying legion of rabbit furries wracking slapstick in the world?
@@mochibunnyan6556 Or diabolical, depending of whether you see them in a cartoon or you back yard :i
"It contains everything but the kitchen sink" - a world where everything seems normal, and also there are fairytails... But no one ever invented the kitchen sink
specifically the kitchen one. there can be sinks in all other rooms, but no one thought to put one in the kitchen.
So this confirms that Sailor Moon (and most magical girl shows) are urban fantasy
I was living with my boyfriend's rich father in a fancy neighborhood at the off skirts of town, where deer and other animals could be seen frequently moving through peoples yards at night. I was working a bartending job late and became increasing paranoid on my drive home. Physically and emotionally drained drained from work, the last thing I wanted to do was hit a fucking deer with my 2010 KIA in this rich person's neighborhood. I drove at 30 m/hr which is slow as fuck outside of a city, almost white knuckled looking out for any deer that could sprint in front of my poor little car.
Driving through this neighborhood so focused on looking for deer and exasperated from work I saw something as the light of my headlights poured onto it, thin and tall and furry and wearing denim.
I SCREAMED. Literally. I screamed in my car for a full second.
And then my mind started to catch up.... wearing denim?
It was a guy. It was just a fucking guy walking down the street with his dog late at night. Because my mind was so focused on looking for a deer when I saw a person in my headlights my brain blended the expected with the reality so quickly I almost drove off the road imagining a Wendigo.
Anyway, that's why I dont believe urban myths about the mothman or what ever. It's just a fucking owl, dude.
Yup, pretty much this. The human mind can REALLY play tricks on us. :P
... WOW
This story took a turn I wasn't expecting
@@AegixDrakan my bad i completely misunderstood the comment
Or a basking shark.
As a Native American person who really wants to become a writer, and also grew up on a midwest reservation...I really want this quarantine to be over so I can go to my local professors and elders to collect my tribe's mythology and folklore.
I really feel like my community's stories have been unheard of for so long by the outside world, but they're so commonplace here where I grew up.
For example, we have an old story about a woman who came to a tribe and taught them how to use tobacco and smoke it as a ceremony, and she could turn into a white buffalo calf. In the story, it's said that she could hear the weird pervy thoughts some guy was thinking of her, so she struck him with lightning and killed him. And now, there's an entire established shelter program in my state that protects displaced and abused women and children called the White Buffalo Calf Women's Society. But no one outside of the reservation areas really know about it.
That does sound extremly interesting, would love to be actually capable of learning those stories because the culture seems fascinating, but aparently i can't because "i'm not a navajo"
someone should do this with Silesian mythology.
Oh wow cool
That is so cool! Thank you for sharing. God knows there is too much violence toward native women in the US and Canada. Those types of shelters are really important especially in communities that they feel safe and represented in!
i want that lady to be a heroine in a novel! i'm excited for when you write it!
Red: starts talking about how a lot of horror is technically Urban fantasy
Me, having just finished The Magnus Archives: oh, neat
Red not 2 minutes later: "go listen to TMA"
I feel vindicated
Oh yeah this video was what made me go and listen to TMA back during lockdown numero uno.
The later points on mythologies and religions reminded me of a conflicting argument I was witness to once. Two people in a server. One was a Norse pagan who didn't have any Norse heritage to my knowledge, the other was someone living in Norway who studied Norse mythology as part of their heritage. I can't remember the specifics as it was years ago, but I think the two came to a disagreement over the characterization of some god that the pagan got very heated over. No hate towards either of them from my part, I just thought it was a very interesting exchange to bear witness to.
I’m actually in the middle of writing my own Urban Fantasy series and incorporate a lot of creatures from around the world, but I started with the idea that no matter the culture human myth is still rooted in Human Bias and Understanding so If these creatures did exist then there was probably a lot more information to them then what Myths and Legends say about them. So I get as much information as I can on a particular creature and carefully go over it, putting the facts into three categories: ones that are True, ones that are Half-Truths, and ones that are False. For example: sunlight is deadly to Vampires, but as they age they gain a resistance to it and can actually walk around for limited periods of time in the daylight, Raw Garlic is toxic to them and once every 30 days they enter a corpse like state of hibernation for a week or so. I have much more but what I’m getting at is to look at these from the standpoint that they’re not going to be entirely the same as what we think they are.
Wait aren't norse pagans usually nazis?
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 Unsure, but I know this particular one was absolutely anti fascist. Like violently against that sort of ideology, complete opposite side of the political spectrum.
@@thepinkestpigglet7529 nazis appropriated norse pagan symbols, like they did with the swastika. The cultures and religions that those symbols actually belong to aren't nazis, the naxis just stole those symbols. Catch anyone displaying those symbols outside of that context though and you've got a pretty strong bet at them being a fascist (of course people can genuinely hold their religious beliefs and still be nazis, there is a fascist problem in neopaganism with "connecting to your culture" i.e. 'bloodlines', meaning racism and all that other nasty stuff, but it's not indicative of norse pagans or pagans as a whole). Basically, nazis have ruined everything for everyone by taking other cultures symbols and turning them into fascist dogwhistles, while those cultures *still exist* and *still use those symbols legitimately*. Fucked up on all accounts, really. In the end, context is key.
That's pretty funny actually.
When your religious fanfic is so good, people believe it's canon
_looking at you dante_
I don't know any christian denomination that belives the Divine Comedy is canon but ok
@@caiawlodarski5339 Denominations are not people
@@caiawlodarski5339 I would like to point out that the bible itself is actually really limited in its descriptions of Hell so most any description you see or hear in regards to the fiery pits is more based on Dante's Inferno. So, yes, the Divine Comedy has more influence in the biblical canon then you'd think.
This also applies to Paradise Lost. Satan/Lucifer barely appears in the Bible, so most of our understanding of the character(s) comes from that book.
"Google says try seducing it?"
OH come on, bard...
Now that be funny to see. A Urban Fantasy Novel with a blend of comedy form DnD memes and What would really go down lol.
"Okay To Fight this....ah..One eye. Wait It's nit even purple or has one Horn. Ha..but really what's it called again?
"Oh wait. *Turns Google Lens on* Google Lens will know. " *Google pulls up the document of a Beholder* "HOLY SHIT... This thing has a Ray of DEATH!? *Finds video of a swarm of Beholders useing Ray of DEATH on a red dragon Killing it* "NOPE FUCK THIS SHIT IM OUT!"
Welp *unzips* it’s showtime
@@guywhochangeshisprofilealo7163 pls stop.
*Flashbacks in Dungeon Master*
@@JohnDoe-ns5su no
That’s why I like Rick Riordan a lot. He apologizes and then adapts his writing to not make the same mistake again.
*glares over at Rowling*
@@harmonetheanimationaddict4419 She heard “adapts their writing” and didn’t understand it was supposed to be the _new_ writing
Please, Riordan’s writing is a knockoff of Rowling and yall eat it up, don’t say shit on her
Gravity Falls is just straight up urban fantasy aesthetic. Like the vibes of the visuals automatically feels urban fantasy~
PSA for people wanting to write about an African culture:
Africa is a continent of many cultures.
These cultures are very different and you can’t just put them all in a blender.
Stop painting Africa as this perfect paradise that was ruined by colonization. Believe it or not, we are people, and people fight with each other. That being said, colonization definitely created a lot of difficulty for the continent. It’s worth looking into the different attitudes of colony- owning countries and how that affected the existing African countries today e.g. the British mostly cared about getting resources, while the French wanted to complete cultural assimilation of the native people.
Today’s land borders are somewhat arbitrary in terms of cultural groups. That being said, countries do have their own culture. We don’t all sound the same and we can definitely tell who’s a foreigner. Even within the same country, a single language can be spoken with different accents and dialects.
"Stop painting Africa as this perfect paradise that was ruined by colonization" You mean Black Panther lied to us?
No one did thay
Watch any film by Djibril Diop Mambety and you'll realize what Africa's really all about
I don’t disagree with anything you say. But to play devil’s advocate, let’s just consider medieval European fantasy for a comparison. How often are those style of stories really culturally accurate to the diverse regions, peoples, languages and time periods of the European Medieval times vs. just throwing in a hodgepodge of easily recognizable exaggerated stock elements into a blender to churn out a setting? Castles, knights, dragons, princesses, popes, Vikings, Holy Wars, bloop, we’re done. I’d say at BEST it’s half and half between those and carefully researched remotely accurately depicted historical fiction. And the thing is, you’re just as likely to see the Middle Ages setting as a pristine saintly Arcadia as you are a festering, backwards plague ridden mud heap. Neither of which is accurate or tells the whole story.
What’s my point? Only this: Yeah, a lot of people write African historical fiction “correctly”, but that’s hardly JUST limited to Africa. What we’re seeing is a piece of a much larger, much more fundamental aspect of storytelling as a whole. Name for me one region or time period with any degree of popularity in fiction that HASN’T been distorted over the years. Stories do a lot of things, they can be made for a myriad of purposes. And sometimes (oftentimes) they distort things. That doesn’t always to be a bad thing. It’s the basis of all fiction.
The above also applies to the various Native American cultures.
Judging by this definition, SCP Universe could technically be the biggest urban fantasy in the world.
ReCommN - SFM SCP?
@@taylorgrech5601 Secure-Contain-Protect - the urban fantasy that's written by Internet users where there is a secret organisation called Foundation that deals with the anomalous beings and tries to contain and hide them from the rest of the normal world - from a toothbrush that cleans anything (including teeth) to eldritch Gods. A good read.
I think it's a blend between urban fantasy and sci-fi, since everything it's technically explained, and written as a scientific report.
It fits extremely well with the “secret world” style of urban fantasy
The amount of intersect between the real and the fantastical is...variable between individual stories, anomalies, and so on, but tends to be fairly low. It's probably closer to slasher flicks than Dresden Files in terms of urban-fantasy-ness...though that comparison applies to basically nothing else.
The magic treehouse being shown to me categorically fitting in a setting I've loved hit me like a fucking truck
I remember when the videogame Smite had a Hindu goddess as a character. Some people complained about the design of the character being too sexualised because they wore some sexy armour. Though, when you look up historical artwork of the goddess, they were always topless or naked.
Yeah, Indian people get angry about literally everything. You should have seen the ridiculous backlash to the Bollywood movie Bajirao Mastaani because it showed this one historical character singing and dancing. Like, it's a Bollywood movie, what were you guys expecting? And don't get me started on the movie Padmavat. They had to change the name from Padmavati, because people got mad about them making a movie about her.
@The Phantom the midriff thing just makes me think of the Victorians and the ankle thing
portrayals of deities with still practiced religions is always a bit iffy, especially when diehard people get a whiff of a "wrong" interpretation, but in some cases like this i could see the other side, there's a thin line between having a goddess be fully sensual in representation and having sensual elements that are just a part of her "character", for fertility related goddesses its not uncommon to see them naked and topless given that breasts in many cultures represent fertility, but say the Egyptian goddess Taurt (of pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing) while portrayed naked all the time is not treated in anyway sensually given what we know, and due to the very specific natures of many Hindu deities i wouldn't be surprised if cases like this happen/ed as well
Honestly, as a Hindu I think its kinda disgusting to see gods/goddesses used in media like that at all. The amount of times the myths that my family has passed down and revered have been turned into gimmicks to be used in video games is sad. Yes, this goddess is freaking awesome, but you could've also just come up with your own badass female warrior-character instead of ripping off of my culture. At the end of the day, I don't even worship those gods/goddesses (they're all facets of the universal energy I believe in- Santana Dharma is weird like that), but it still makes me uncomfortable to come across it randomly in some Final Fantasy game.
@@everythingoes4956 Because it's window-dressing and is not meaningfully engaged with by the story/mechanic-makers
"Baristas and Bosses"
Someone make this into a tabletop RPG
An elf, a halfling, a human and a half-orc gather one night in a dimmed-lit inn, to play a game of "Offices and Bosses".
I'm part of a discord server devoted to front-desk workers, and there's an ongoing joke that we should write a hotelier-oriented TTRPG called "Clerks and Karens"
B&B
getting a coffee for the boss involvs travelling through a labyrinthine dungeon and fighting monsters and thwating the schemes of a lower level employee attempting to summon a dangerous elder god to supplant the higher ups of the company in order to get a pay raise
If you can still find it, go look up th3 biter barista, have fun.
Beginning Red: Urban fantasy is not a genre, it's a setting
Ending Red: Its my favorite genre
We saw that red!
Isn't setting and genre somewhat the same?
@@wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus good grief, *_NO!_*
I know this is an old comment but I want to answer in case someone else reads this and wants to know. The setting is where and when the story takes place. It tells the reader what to expect, even before the rules of the world are laid down in the book. Different settings tend to have a bias towards certain genres, but it isn’t a guarantee. For example, 1920s New York sounds like it’s probably a mystery, but it could be historical fantasy.
The genre tells the reader what is going to happen, a mystery will invoke solving a puzzle/crime, an adventure will have heroes on a journey to defeat the Big Bad, romance will have a whole lot of pining and/or kissing.
So the setting and genre tend to pair up a lot, like fantasy and adventure, or urban fantasy and romance, but they are distinct and you can mix and match them as much as you want.
I'll never get over how much I love the concept of bribing pixies with pizza, in the Dresden Files: "In the name of the Pizza Lord. Charge!"
Hell yeah! Just finished Summer Knight.
if i ever had supernatural bodyguards id want the Za Lords Guard
Harry provides....
16:27 what's even weirder about Joanne's specific misuse of the word there, is that her response implies the Navajo created the legend to make wizards in general appear as evil - but the reason the term is used distinctly to refer to an especially evil wizard bc there are good magicians who are greatly valued and praised. like in many cultures, including for example voodoo, the distinction is made based on how magic practitioners use their powers, marking some as evil. Zombies, poppets used to harm, and other things associated with Hollywood hoodoo stem from the practices of evil witches in voodoo.
I just realised that some parts of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure may qualify as Historical Fantasy. Some is definitely urban fantasy.
...Fuck...
It transitioned from one to another. It starts off with gothic era vampires which fits, and the Aztec god Kars and ancient artifact stand arrows fit with the Indiana Jones/Mummy era of Historical Fantasy. But once we get to the 80's and beyond they are just kind of there established and have to be dealt with.
@@coolgreenbug7551 but then you get to part 7 and shit gets wild
@@fangsabre Balls... Balls everywhere...
@@thesymbiotenation.4552 I know this horse race is important, but jesus told me we need to kill the president
"The real world is actually cool"
Except during a pandemic. Stay safe, peeps.
I mean, depending on your outlook, that might make things cooler...
You too
Remember to wash your hands.
@@eddiespeight8103 If I don't want to, are you going to report me to local authorities?
@@dirtypure2023 yesh
You really could just say, "Niel Gaiman does 'this' very well."
This, being just about anything, even just apparently being an awesome human being.
I don't think I would describe Odin as a "cool dude" 😅 the guy was paranoid and scared. Threw a lot of people under the bus to gain knowledge that only made what he was scared of happen faster
This is why so many modern stories portray him as a villain.
@@ElvenRaptor except Marvel
To an extent
You couldvargue it was even a fullfilling prophecy, it probably wpuldn't had happened if Odin didn't go to extreme lengths to make it not happen
“Google says try seducing it?”
Was that Google entry written by a lonely werewolf?
Or by a bard. Maybe both.
@@olafgurke4699 or a furry
yes
A bard
Actually werewolves are so rare that most of them are lonely...
"The love triangle is the absolute, most critical component of any urban fantasy story, and would drive even the world building."
"But does a story really need a love triangle? Of course not, when we can have a love dodecahedron".
Terrible Writing Advice
I see you are a person of culture as well.
A terrible writing advice x overly sarcastic production crossover would be cool
@@carso1500 it's about time that this happens
Bleh, the triangle is bad enough
Yes
I think one of the worst examples of not doing their research in an Urban Fantasy setting is Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. Just as an example in Season 3 the villians are a Group of Pagan Witch that are Creatures from Greek Mythology that worship a Figure from English Folklore and pray in Gaelic
You'd get a kick out of what Friendly Space Ninja thinks of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and how it's all the fault of He Who Shall Not Be Named..
and the CW.
@@jaivu.r ohhhh I have seen it and I love it
And used a copyrighted statue of Baphomet as their dark lord, and they did get sued, and it was VERY funny z
Well it’s actually not TOO far off from history(ish). Yes, if they were going for ancient Greek paganism, they’d be really off. But if what they’re going for was a like an old school wicca/“witch cult theory”/ 1600s interpretation of paganism type of witch, it’s not too far off. I mean Wicca, a real world pagan group, also appropriates from Celtic and Greek mythology.
@@mypantsarefilledwithbeans6508 if they were just an amalgamation of different Pagan beliefs I'd be a little more ok with that but they're literally creatures from Greek Mythology, Pan, Circe, A Gorgon and also a Hobgoblin(I know not Greek but he slipped my mind)
I had this idea for a setting where there's a magical world that only children can see and interact with. So while all the kids go on magical adventures the adults just think it's a case of "overactive imagination"
That better be a new development or that's gonna fall apart when the protagonists grow up and have kids
Daring* today, aren't we?
So kinda like Rise of the Guardians?
KnD?
Red: STOP TWISTING PEOPLES RELIGION AND MYTHS FOR YOUR OWN TWISTED GAME!
Fate Series: NEVER!!!
Fate series: In fact, we're going to double down and also make Thomas Edison a weirdly swole lion headed superhero dude that shoots lightning!
@@Enixon869 i want to clarfiy that is more iskander things
@@bizarreelementals1230 Are they calling Alexander Iskander?
@@axeltenveils6816 well techinaly in fate the iskander and Alexander the great are two different servent but are still the same just at diffrent ponits in their lives
@@axeltenveils6816 at the very least that's what they call him in the mobile game, that's also where I saw the whole "Lion Headed Superhero" Thomas Edison, I'm not sure how canon the depictions in the Grand Order are to the rest of the series, since well, mobile gatchapon game and all.
I love urban fantasy where the magic is just there. You just see a gorgon texting her girlfriend on the phone, and their girlfriend just casually has dragon wings, horns and a tail. Stuff like that, where a wizard needs to fetch a pen so instead of standing up to get it they flick their hand and it flies to them. Where it's utterly 100% normal, and having them separated would be a weird concept to them
I'm actually planning a story that kinda turns into this later on lol: at first both the future scifi world (which I want to make feel very modern and familiar first and foremost, despite the hundred-plus-year gap and the crazy tech) and the fantasy world are entirely different, with the fantasy world being a vr-based mmorpg sandbox type thing focused on realism and player choice, and the big central event of the first arc is that they made it so damn real it starts overlapping reality, by the second arc the problems that caused have been mostly patched up and this world born from what was basically dungeons and dragons has been fully integrated into a world that, for the most part, looks identical to our own, and once everything's over people more or less accept it as is and move on.
Honestly, I feel that writing a fantasy world that's supposed to be "secret" from our world almost comes across as lazy to me. I know the worlds are sometimes really well built in their own right and that might not seem fair, but to me, it comes across like the writer wanted to have a magical fantasy world and wanted to have a character from the real world, but didn't want to hammer out the worldbuilding for melding the two together and would rather just paste a "shh... don't tell anyone" sticker on the fantasy stuff. I absolutely love the kind of story you're talking about though.
@@yahboisquishy5561 well you can do a lot of intresting worldbuilding around this separation. how is it enforced, and by whom? And why?
Who benefits from the separation,a nd who would benefit from its overthrow?
If you’re looking for what humanoid/ other creatures would integrate in modern society, I recommend taking a look at Zootopia. They make a great deal of changes in order to help the size/ food needs difference between species. Things like smoothie stands with elevators for giraffes and lil towns for mice and water dry off stations for hippos make for a great inspo if you wanna make a species smaller than everyone else or taller than everyone else or amphibious.
What you're describing is more "Social media and sorcery " than Urban Fantasy(so as Red said Harry Dresden and Percy Jackson). And I'd love to hear of a good book series in the former category - I hope Minimum Wage Magic is actually good
Did she say that Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz was “not all that stressed” about trying to get back home? Isn’t that basically the MAIN thing she was always trying to do?
Start: What is Urban Fantasy?
End: It’s impossible to exist without hurting someone.... :(
So either exist and hurt people or die. YOU CHOOSE, SPIDERMAN!
me: huh i wonder if Magnus Archives qualifies as urban fantasy"
Red: Also Magnus Archives is really good horror urban fantasy
me: YYEEEEAHHHHHH
Op how did you like the new episode :)
Omg I was literally gonna make this comment. I was on tje edge of my sit wanting for her to mention the magnus archives
My exact reaction when she talked about Over the Garden Wall
@@mossthemage9948 I thought it was a bit recapy (though I honestly kind of needed it) and I can't wait to see what comes next, (no I am not the op but I felt like replying)
@@noabsolutelynot4587 Honestly same. Nothing really happened but I still wanted to cry.
Legends of Tomorrow did one of my favorite examples of this. They established that the Greek Gods were actual immortals that drew their power from having human worshipers / followers. Over time as the number of followers diminished they simply died out.
Except Dionysus who, when the characters encountered him, ended up as an "Eternal Frat Bro" in an American college. Instead of being worshiped as a God he gains followers by being the most popular guy on campus and throwing the best parties.
Dionysus will always have a cult (heh) following, because (to quote Red) Wine and Parties and Sticking it to the Man, yo, will never die
Legends of Tomorrow is quirky fun and deserves more love. The Gods losing their power over time makes way more sense than Ares being able singlehandedly wipe out the entire pantheon in Wonder Woman.
If Riordan wasn't writing for middle and high schoolers, he would have written Mr. D. like this.
I love the idea of frat bro Dionysus
It's funny because, in actual Greek mythology, the Gods don't need our worship or offerings; They are immortal and powerful because they eat ambrosia (food so delicious it renews power) and nectar (drink so delicious it renews youth), aka more-or-less what we would call "honey."
As a Hellenic polytheist, we give to the Gods because we want to, because we love and revere Them, because They might of aided us when we really needed that job or when we survive from a car crash.
Isn't Goosebumps technically a "Magic yes, Pathos no" universe? There isn't any real world building in it, the monsters just show up.
So as a Goosebumps nerd, this is best seen in the revival series: Goosebumps Horrorland. Horrorland, think scary Disneyland, is actually a refuge and job opportunity for monsters. The series compounds this by bringing together old and new protagonists to create a larger world. (I just want a tv series based on this book series, please)
@@christiangarza8122 I have also read parts of that series
Dimension 20s Fantasy High is actually a great twist on this trope. Instead of it being a normal world that contains fantastical elements, it is a fantasy world where one country is significantly more technologically advanced and so the familiar is what invades the world.
Red: Urban Fantasy is more of a setting than a genre to be honest
Red at the end: Urban fantasy is still my favorite GENRE
Ah so we meet again
@@billcipher826 from one legend to another, it's nice to see you here
What happend here
@@xs303is7 old gods meeting
"The animation GENRE. GENRE.. ANIMATION ISN'T A GENRE YOU STUPID BITCH"
-some guy
I feel like the SCP Foundation fits this EXTREMELY well and in most cathegories.
The mix of clean, cold and clinical terms trying to rationalize and explain items and entities of sometimes fantastical nature and eldricht nightmare is really captivating and gives a stark constrast of fantasy anchored in reality surounded by a familliar setting.
Yes, SCP is brilliant.
yes, also it's written by a whole bunch of different people and there is canonically no canon
Aside from the fact that the familiar setting is rarely _present_ in any meaningful way (unless you dissect aliens in Area 51 for a living, I guess), and often _not_ familiar (see the aforementioned no-canon point). As far as urban-fantasy-ness goes, the SCP universe tends to be closer to slasher movies than the Dresden Files.
@Hanachii
I think that’s part of what makes it great. You can literally ignore anything you don’t like.
@@CoreyFrost-theAwesomeOne That's a self contradictory statement
I love urban fantasy settings like Kiki's Delivery Service or Good Omens where the fantasy element isn't public knowledge, but the "normal" people have almost no reaction to any of the magical elements they're presented with. There's always just something inherently funny and weirdly... homey (?) about a place seemingly just like ours but so open and flexible with its world view
Just wanted to mention "My babysitter's a vampire"
Leans towards "all monsters are real" archetype.
Oddly enough, the version of Arachne's tale that I read in High School was quite different.
Athena in that version revived Arachne (who hung herself to die on her terms), basically seeing her death as a waste of talent, and *then* turned her into a spider.
Basically in that iteration Athena was a MUCH better sport.
There's quite a few takes on the nature of the contest, who was better, whether or not suicide is featured, why if it is featured, and what Athena's reasoning was for turning Arachne into a spider. Most myths tend to have multiple iterations, which makes sense since for most of history they would have spread primarily by word of mouth. Arachne being well known enough that it generally crops up in at least two or three places in the public education system probably adds to the variety, as it's often cleaned up for younger readers.
@@willieoelkers5568 i have since made similar comments to exactly this in later (and sometimes earlier) videos in the 7 months after posting the original comment, dude.
My favorite version of the tale is that when the competition starts, Zeus says whoever loses can never weave again, and so after Arachne looses, Athena turns her into a spider so she can still weave, instead of loosing her ability.
@@Athena963 Hadn't heard that one. Interesting take on it. Interesting angle.
I'm familiar with three versions of the story:
-Athena wins, depressed Arachne kills herself, Athena feels bad and revives her as a spider
-Arachne wins, Athena gets pissed and turns her into a spider
-Arachne wins, Athena gets pissed and kills her, Athena then feels bad about it, so she revives Arachne as a spider
There's also an interesting difference in the meaning of the transformation in those stories. Number 2 sees it as a straightforward punishment, while numbers 1 and 3 see it more as something, in a way, benevolent - Arachne can now weave to her heart's content without endangering herself by offending anyone
Percy Jackson is one of my old comfort reads. It got me through some rough times.
Didn't seem that good
@@seankrkovich2869 hissssss
;-;
How do you if that books is good for you!?
That’s my OoOoPpPpIiInNnIiIiIiOooOooNnNNnnNn
@@seankrkovich2869 I was a young adhd kid with low self esteem
For anyone looking for historical fantasy, I recommend the Temeraire books by Naomi Novik!
They're basically
"The Napoleonic Wars but with dragons"
His Majesty’s Dragon! I loved those books growing up! They bring up a lot of questions about honor as it pertains to politics and warfare, and the bonds forged in service.
Since the word wendigo occurs in some form in like 30 different languages, it's pronounced a lot of ways.
I have a feeling that a lot of internet linguists will be very upset if u tell them that.
I really wanna know how she thinks it's supposed to be pronounced, cause everywhere I've seen says wen-di-go with the occasional wen-dee-go. But if it's that tiny of a shit why didn't she just say it that way?
Last time I was this early, Carthage was still the powerhouse of Mediterranean trade and naval might.
Germany can into Empire can poland in space ¿
@@aihsonavais769 Poland: Look Niemcy, I can into space!
Germany: Nein Poland, you can't, sorry friend.
Poland: I know i can into space! *ignites a rocket*
*rocket explodes*
Poland: KURWA!
(Generic historical archive of Polandball memes; meme #002)
I can tell country balls have the best inside jokes, but I can't laugh since I don't understand them.
This is the second time I've seen this comment...
Also, Carthage must be destroyed
“...the only guaranteed way to not upset anybody is to never have existed.” That’s going in my quote book.
Seriously though as someone with very low self esteem and self worth that’s something I need to remember.
Bonus points if your parents would've been upset by not being able to have that kid, making you not existing directly upset somebody.
Sarcastically: Non-existent people offend me because why should they not get to suffer the existence of life like everybody else! What, are they too GOOD for us people in the real world?! What a bunch of wankers!
Seriously though, it is a great quote, lol.
To be honest, that's a quote I live by, with my problematic interests and all...
Really makes you wish we all just get snapped out of existence, then pain wouldn't be a thing. No matter your crimes no matter your deeds.
The mercy of death would come for all, then no one has to be hurt by anyone ever again.
Dude, don’t worry, you’re gonna be ok. The people that doubt you are just communist nerds. Be an epic gamer and ignore them 👍
Don't let the threat of existence keep you from remembering how sexy Danny Davido is.
"They don't talk about them with non-Navaho"
Well somebody clearly did at least once
Might have written it down?
I'd love to see an urban fantasy where the rules of skinwalkers are actually followed, like it gets closer every time you say it's name
@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong The game "Until Dawn" has skinwalkers as a threat, with cannibalism as a core theme. You can watch a playthrough like a long movie
@@trafalgarlaw8373 nope. those are wendigo
@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong oh right mb
The part about culture and it's context is very true. I often tell people that culture changes based on how society evolves. Without people using your legends in stories, they would eventually die out. This doesn't mean you should blatantly use the legend wrongly or poorly, but rather the objective is to tell the story as it's meant to be told.
Wendigos are meant to be associated with human greed and our need for survival. Telling it in this context pays respect to the origins of the story.
Yet many people who scream 'Cultural Appropriation' stating no white person or anyone none native should tell these stories. Which we've found in history to be ways cultures and societies die.
The point of sharing culture is making sure you are not forgotten. And as seen in history, the meaning and faces will always change from person to person. Till eventually, we find the myths, stories, legends, and even gods we know are different from when they started.
It's a very hard line to make, there is no clean way to be respectful of culture while also still making sure it's remembered. Eventually, stories will be bastardized. And no, it's not a white people's problem, it's a world thing. Everyone will make assumptions, associations, and concepts of your stories that are familiar to them. No one story or god is the same.
I'm a firm believer you can write whatever you want and use whatever you want in the world. But how you approach it and how you write it is up to you, if you are disrespectful to the idea of the story you're telling, don't be shocked when people get upset. But if you're trying to be respectful and tell a good story, then you can go on knowing you did your best.
Remember, no one story is the 100% truth of the legend you making, and everyone will always say 'That's not correct' because of how different we are in telling them. Hence why history is so messy.
An excellent interpretation that I think has helped me better understand the issue. Thanks for that
As an Austrian, I found that the Krampus film didn't quite get what Krampus is about. But at the same time, I do like that this part of our local culture has moved more into the mainstream.
Imo the best solution is to not give any flying fuck what they think x y and z should be. Its your story. The world youre building isn't ours. Only based on it. If you wanna call the weird cannibal deer thing a windego you can. If you wanna make it something else entirely. You can.
There's no point in worrying about how certain people view it because at the end of the day even when those folktales were very commonly shared they were not unanimous in their usage and aspects. There's no single "This is a windego." There's 50 different versions of things that as groups talked eventually started referring to as a windego. You could be perfectly accurate to a native descendants story of it and someone would still claim you did it completely wrong. There's no point in worrying about it.
I imagine that if I asked whether or not the big W's revolve around greed or hunger you'd not be too helpful.@@thegoldenatlas753
As a person of Native American decent, I believe everyone has full permission to call a monster creature a wendigo as long as it used to be a human who became that way because it ate other humans
you ever play Until Dawn?
TYLER ourada Yes, and I’m perfectly fine with how they display the wendigos
@@arteriop8910 good game too
@@arteriop8910 I agree, as long as they keep the original intent of the wendigo or whatever else they're portraying, I don't see any problem with it.
So that one Supernatural episode was.. okay?
And the No Evil cartoon seems good too
Red: "Where are the dragons?"
Shadiversity: *approves this message*
Jake Long, dragon maid, if you count my hero it has the dragoon hero Ryukyu, modern mo gals a web comic has dragon people... Just saying
(angry Kaiba noises)
WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS????
I see you too are a man of culture.
In a very very extrapolated way you could consider eagles and birds of prey dragons. Hence they are dinosaurs or related somehow to dinosaurs. If you squint you can kind of see the draconic features in a bird of prey
"I recommend it give it a shot" she says about the Magnus archives, it's good she says.
Me two months later: *crying in a corner because my comfort podcast ended* Look it's horror, it's amazing...but I'm queer and half of these characters are also queer and they all need hugs.
asdfghjk SAME!
I just wanna give Martin some good happy tea 🥺
@@EricaEE1 yep ;-; and then the ending happened Bzh
I've barely know anything about The Magnus Archives, but I assume you've been freaking out for the past couple of weeks over the potential revival?
Also, nice pastel+goth sapphic couple.
@@DragonbIaze052 yeah there's been a lot of freaking out
One thing also to point out with mythologies: don't look at how media uses certain characters PLEASE. Odin is a HUGE example with this and how he is used. All these writers want to use Odin as this epitome hero who helps the protagonists along the way, but in reality when you look at his myths ... he was kind of a shitty dude. Like, he legitimately hung himself from a tree to gain knowledge, then because he saw the future decided to lock up the wolf that did it which people read about and took Fenrir = evil, when the reality was I'm pretty sure the only reason Fenrir eats Odin during Ragnarok is because Odin was being a paranoid wreck treating the guy like actual garbage.
i cant actually recall any god that could be considered to be a decent person. like antiheros in fiction antihero gods have always been found to be more interesting by humans. which says a lot more about humans than it does gods or heros.
@@scottmcshannon6821 maybe Baldur counts? But baldur also spends most of his time dead or prophesied to be dead so I might be wrong.
@@scottmcshannon6821 Hades, maybe Prometheus? I think Iris is a good person. God. And um... _maybe_ Hephaestus?
@@potentpotassium5776 I wouldn't categorize god as a decent person. If anything he's the villain of his own story.
@@potentpotassium5776 No, I think Hephaestus did try to rape Athena at one point. But Hades is a surprisingly okay guy. I mean the worst thing he did was to kidnap Persephone but even that was after he talked to her father about it. (nobody should take dating advice from Zeus though. Ever)
"It's not a genre"
*20 minutes later*
"It's my favourite genre"
As a fate fan hearing the “messing with others cultures” bit made me laugh because how much that series messes with EVERYTHING
Fate writer: See this cool mythological figure?
Fan: yeah?
Fate writer: well now she is a hot anime girl.
Fan: wait, I'm pretty sure they are always depicted male?
Fate writer: oh that's not a problem, we can just have her grow a dick.
Fan: wh-what???
Fate writer: oh and her son is also a hot anime girl too.
@@Maid_of_Spiders lmao thats so true. at least for Saber they give a explanation for why shes gender swapped. BUT NERO HOWEVER WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
tbh the fate/nasuverse is somehow both horrible and amazing world building and both horrible and amazing interpretations of characters
@Tin Watchman yeah maybe
Correction its just called marketing by making viewers confused and insane
+Tin Watchman But they also take ideas from Native American (Geronimo having magic shaman powers) and Jewish (Avicebron being a golem master) history and folklore, so it clearly has nothing to do with “punching down”.
I would love to see Red do a trope talk on the "magic school." A school that usually takes place in urban fantasy stories where characters who are unfamiliar to the magical world learn about the world and how to use magic alongside the reader.
I loved how ones story I read did feature a wendigo among much less spicy things like vampires and werewolves. They treated as it was a thing, but you did not engage with it. Your mentor went to talk to it, you were told to hang back and be good. Short of just name dropping it, I thought that was clever.
“Where the hell are the dragons?!”
Red once again sums up my entire existence in one sentence
@ULGROTHA I feel personally offended by this slander 0_0
Machicolations?
@ULGROTHA Even so where are the dragons
@ULGROTHA who hurt you
@ULGROTHA You're only talking about western dragons. What about Eastern dragons?
"fundamentally we know how the basics of this world works" Speak for yourself, I'm utterly lost and confused by our world
Same dude. Like, I just now found out that a light switch can go either up or down to be turned on. I thought it was always up.
Yay! I'm not alone!
@@MahouShoujo-Studios just wait til you see a light switch that connects to anything other than a light, I walked into a friend's house flipped a switch and instead of a light, it turned on all the outlets in the room like a circuit breaker, turns out his light just didn't work and he had a lamp, but to turn it on I had to flip a different switch that turned on another set of outlets. 10 years later and I still don't understand how that house was wired up
@@HovektheArtist Holy crap. I think I'm grateful that I at least know that my light switch doesn't control the shower lol. I convinced that a wizard cursed your friend's house or some shit.
@@MahouShoujo-Studios lol I wouldnt doubt it was some mountain wizard that he got on the wrong side of, it was in West Virginia after all
I think the most realistic "hidden magic world" I've seen is The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series, as in the first book there is basically only one person who can control access between the two worlds, which makes it seem much more sensible for it to still be a secret.
>starts the video with "urban fantasy is not a genre, but a setting"
>ends the video with "my favorite genre"
thanks red 😂
“Most people probably default to Twilight instead of the endless amount of shapeshifter romance novels”
me, someone who knows way more about those books than I ever wanted: _how lucky for them_
The great and underrated comedian John Finnemore wrote a piece where he explains why his sketches draw from Christian mythology but never Islamic our Jewish. He basically says that because he grew up in a Christian country, learning the Christian stories, he has a connection to and understanding of these stories that he doesn't have to others, even as an atheist. He highlights this by saying that he knows how church services work and what happens but he "wouldn't know what a funny rabbi would sound like" because he never regularly went to a synagogue in his youth.
Dara Ó Briain has a similar explanation for he doesn't do Islamic jokes.
But there is something charming about a person writing from mythological stuff of a thing they don't know shitte that leads to an increasing level of meta comedy, like when the japanese take all the christian symbolism and just put it there "cuz iz cul".
It's like in one comment I read of a person who was frustrated that American made shows only dealt with the political landscape in America and the person was tired of it, not realizing that it's less probable than the creators are less likely to know the details of political landscapes in other countries as well as the American one
I love John Finnemore so damn much! Cabin Pressure was amazing, but everything he does is done with gentle strokes, never heavy handed! The man is a genius
I don’t know, that still kind of strikes me as stepping out of your lane. Plenty of Jewish people here in the States and even Muslims. As someone “raised in x” it’s not the same thing as an ethnicity since he can, and has, chosen to leave it. Therefore anything he says is from the perspective of a well informed outsider.
The Dresden Files are my favorite book series of all time and if nobody's had the chance to read them you absolutely should I recommend them highly
Dresden Files is one of the best-known of the genre for a reason - it's really good! Granted, the first couple of books do show the fact that they were the author's first published books, but even they are an enjoyable read with great ideas, and they do start setting things up for stuff that happens farther down the line. If you want to jump in after he's gotten more experience, "Dead Beat" is, in some ways, designed to introduce new readers, since it was the first hardback. Plus, it has, well, don't want to spoil, but it is *awesome*!
Ah, the shapeshifter romance subgenre, with such classic titles as, "Pounded in the Butt by my Own Butt" by acclaimed novelist Chuck Tingle.
I see we have a fellow Grump of the field. How is the day serving you my good fellow!
Wouldn't that be more sci-fi tho? With it being a lab mishap
if the content is half as entertaining as those titles, I'm actually interested in his ocean of books.
Wait, would that be gay, or masturbation?
12:33 SWEAR ALERT, WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP
When Red said "Assasin's Creed" I was half expecting Blue to pop out
Popping his head through a hole in the ceiling: "Did someone say Assassin's Creed?"
Pop out and yell about historical inaccuracy, would be my guess.
Blue: my history sense is tingling
I didn't expect the assasin's...
In the set of "Christian Urban Fantasy" ((or really, more specifically, Roman Catholic), there's Dogma--which, for all its irreverent tone and often deeply satiric jabs, still did a fairly fantastic job of researching how various bits of RCC lore came about and what their context was.
It also starts with a disclaimer apologizing in advance to hard-core Christians.
I really should thank you for recommending the magnus archives. I absolutely fell in love with it and I’m just sobbing right now cuz I already finished the series.
"Messing with people’s religious beliefs might piss them off"
ARTHUR, KING OF THE BRITONS!
I've been toying with writing in that setting and quickly learned that Morgana and her sisters got royally screwed over. Not to mention that half the knights got replaced by Lancelot; who got folded into canon with Guinevere.
It would be like Twilight suddenly being a part Marvel and the Cullens replacing the Avengers. (Not quite the same as comics aren't a religion.)
Historical Folk lore = Religion?
@@Wanttowrite Well Morgana is different in a lot of a versions of the story (wasn't she not human in a couple?} and Lancelot was a fanfiction character of a French author that got slotted into the series when he wrote about it. Sooooo......
@@Nostripe361 From what I could tell, the earliest of Morgana and Avalon had her and her sisters ruling over a Celtic version of Themyscira with them focusing more on knowledge. Imagine founding out that in a thousand years people only know Wonder Woman as an evil conqueror trying to steal the throne from her half brother Bruce Wayne, it completely changes how you see the character.
Sorry, comics are my go to to explain my thoughts on stories.
@@Wanttowrite Where did you read that? It sounds interesting.
Good Omens is such a good example to the whole religio-
"The divine comedy...good omes...etc"
Ah...yeah, Red knows lol
Soo, the Discworld saga would be an urban fantasy?
@agnat86 I feel that all conflict is due to the lack of humor in ppl or lack of understanding each other
@agnat86 That will always depend on who you ask the question to. I have no doubt there are people who already find "Good Omens" unacceptable as it is and think it's very existence an unforgivable offense. I'm of the opinion that any religion, cult or belief can be taken and used for literature in any shape and form the author wants. Offending people is no crime and people being offended means nothing to the quality of the writing (unless readers are outright offended by the terrible quality of the writing itself).
@@inakimendiberri2226
I agree but add the caveat that in some countries and with some religions you can be killed legally for writing such fiction. The USA has its problems, and its religious fanatics, but you usually don't have to worry about being murdered by a mob or the state for something you write anymore. Although it has still happened, such cases are exceptions rather than norms.
About the good omens thing, I think the problem most people had is that personified embodiments of good and evil were turned into this weird buddy cop dynamic, where in the Devine Comedy and Paradise Lost, the bad guys stayed bad and the good guys, even as antagonists in Milton's works, stayed good.
Hell yeah I LOVE the Magnus Archives. This is literally the first time I've heard anyone talk about it, I was feeling so lonely...
this video introduced me to the Magnus archives and I am immensely grateful for that because it is now one of my favorite things of all time. holy shit it was so good and that ENDING. heart wrenching. every single setup and payoff was glorious
Coming from a religious person, I actually tend to enjoy magical fantasy depictions of christianity, for the most part. As long as it's not mean spirited or deliberately offensive, I have a good time flipping my brain off and just enjoying the wacky things people yanked outta my religion.
I love the netflix show Lucifer, and it's fun and interesting to see something I'm very familiar with reimagined and made fun and cool.
Seconded. The only issue I have is when people take those depictions and treat them as if they're an accurate portrayal of Christianity.
For example, I'd find it rather annoying if someone thought Good Omens was an accurate depiction of Christianity, and thus told me I shouldn't respect angels when they're just as bad as demons. Luckily, I think most people understand that those depictions aren't accurate.
I kinda miss the days when Hulu had facebook integrated as their comment system. Reading some of the comments for Lucifer was almost as much fun as watching the show. Some folks just couldn't understand that the show was based on a comic book that was, in turn, based based on one of those biblical fan-fic stories. Hilarious.
I've been working on idea of a fantasy where different regions if the world are their mythology. For evangelical regions like Christianity I was thinking of going off the more wild interpretations like the gospel of Nicodemus. That way it fits better with other mythologies. Would that work?
That's kind of the thing - Christianity is a big, thriving religion that isn't really under any kind of threat, isn't marginalized and so on. When poking at it, you aren't "punching down", but drawing from one of the biggest religions out there.
Which is very different from a situation where a white guy decides to write a fantasy depiction of, say, Maasai religion/folklore.
Same here with Good Omens. I watched it with my parents, who are way more strict about religion than me, and they also liked it. Not because it was an accurate representation of Christianity, but because it was a well made and enjoyable fictional piece of entertainment. I think this is the difference between someone who believes in a particular religion and a religious nutjob.
So technically American Dragon: Jake Long is an Urban Fantasy with a kitchen sink approach? Neat!
So is the Adventures of Juniper Lee.
And Grimm.
Omggg yess it is
So like Danny phantom aswell ?
@@sarahthomas8670 Danny Phantom I think it does fit, at least in part, with urban fantasy
Does Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy count? There's plenty of overlap for the urban and the fantastical but it's often for the sake of comedy.
Critical Role, The Magnus Archives, and the Dresden Files all mentioned in one video...You're awesome.
Oof, the "Magic struggles to adapt" one hit kinda hard. One of my storylines is about a creature that comes from a Magical Otherworld and got stranded on Earth, and so she's struggling to adapt (It takes her a while to believe things like electricity and computers aren't just magic, and she's mostly at the "I believe YOU believe it" level) while taking on a human form, but using her normal form to fight crime (because she's good at fighting, so it's one of the first things she's found where she can feel useful and competent). With the barrier between the worlds starting to falter, magic and such is creeping into Earth more and more, she's just one recent example.
Combined with she was created in a mage's workshop to be a new type of golem, she's also struggling to adapt to the idea that she's actually a person because she's used to not thinking of herself as one. Or others thinking of her like that. So she gets to struggle with the juggling of a "human life" where she has people who are calling her a friend and treating her like an equal, even though she has no idea what she's doing and only feels like she's actually contributing when she's running around as a horse/rabbit hybrid beating people up with her super strength, but she can't take credit for that as a human.
...I like urban fantasy and magical otherworlds, I guess.
“My only question is, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE DRAGONS?!!!”
My girl Red asking the real questions
Here be the dragons
@@joejoeington6899 i felt that one.
Invisible and very quiet
"There were dragons, when I was a boy..."
@@SomeRandomDude821 The feels man, the feels
and always remember: "the magnus archives is a podcast distributed by rusty quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution noncommercial sharealike 4.0 international license "
The magnus archives is a podcast distributed by rusty quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution non commercial sharealike 4.0 international license...
The magnus archives is a podcast distributed by rusty quill and licensed under a creative commons attribution non commercial sharealike 4.0 international license...
The mangus archives is a podcast distributed by rusty quill and licensed under creative commons attribution noncommercial sharealike 4.0 international license....
It sounds similar to SCP concept-wise. SCP is better though.
@@wasserruebenvergilbungsvirus there are certainly grounds for comparison, but I think there's definitely room for both. Personally I prefer the unified story and setting of Magnus, but I've also had some great times scrolling through SCP's and ultimately I'm glad to have both of them.
An interesting note about context as it relates to Ovid and the Arachne story. This variant comes from the book Metamorphosis which was explicitly written to turn the well known myths on its head. Portraying Athena as spiteful and vindictive displays both his feelings about women and authority while completely twisting the narrative along with its moral implications.
I just want you to know that I watched this a few months ago but stopped when you brought up The Magnus Archives. I immediately started listening and oh my god I just finished it. Thank you so much for indirectly introducing me to it. 100% worth the listen for anyone wondering.
And now, after 6 months, I shall finally finish this video from where I left off 😅
I’m genuinely surprised more urban fantasy isn’t set in Ireland
right?
There's Artemis Fowl, but I don't know of anything else. It does seem like a natural setting, with tons of folklore and a landscape that already looks high fantasy.
Funny enough, I’m working on a fanfiction that starts in Ireland.
It’s a ‘The Hobbit’ fanfiction were the main character is a Faerie from Middle Earth,
But since Ireland has a plethora of portals into the Island of Faeries in Middle Earth, she was raised in our Earth for her protection until she’s old enough to return.
Artemis Fowl and Skulldugery Pleasant are both UF set in Ireland
@@sayerglasgow115 I never read Artemis Fowl as a kid, and now I'm 22 sort of wishing that I had. Do you think I'm too old to still enjoy it, or is the writing complex enough to still be liked by adults?
this video was an excuse for Red to talk about every Neil Gaiman story she could squeeze into one video and i am INTO IT
Made me happy too. Too bad she didn't mention Neverwhere, though. I love Neverwhere. But Good Omens is my favorite, and I'm reading American Gods currently, so I'm happy.
@@lovetolovefairytales Neverwhere needs more appreciation.
@@merrittanimation7721 it really does! It's a gorgeous story with an amazing message. Not to mention the best fantastical depiction of depression I've ever read! It's a beautiful piece of work.
lovetolovefairytales Presumably, she didn’t bring up Neverwhere because the fantastic parts aren’t, um, as fantastic-AL as with American Gods or Good Omens (or, hell, Sandman or even Coraline) It definitely has Urban Fantasy trappings, but the biggest problems don’t feel grounded in the fantastic elements (Richard’s focus on things like food or getting from one place to another, for example). It feels almost like the aesthetic, rather than the setting.
@@lovetolovefairytales Good omens is SO GOOD
An amazing urban fantasy I think is criminally underrated is skullduggery pleasant, it has some really cool ideas and execution of those ideas! One of my favourite comfort reads and I love the ending.
I'm wondering now... with the wendigo's mythological association with greed & selfishness to the point of monstrosity, is there a culturally sensitive way to write a story wherein the wendigo is allegorical for modern capitalism? 'Cos I feel like something like a billionaire space-race while countless millions of people are fighting just to meet their base needs would be the exact sort of thing this myth was originally meant to caution against.
As someone who is a member of a tribe with windigo stories my personal view on a "culturally sensitive" depiction of a windigo in a modern urban fantasy setting is exactly what you just described.
@@Some_Average_Joe kinda loses the visceral feel of the wendigo tho. more existential, less intimate. totally could work
@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong Are you talking about the windigo from Native American folklore or the versions other people made up?
@@Some_Average_Joe both? there were many versions. like no ONE country made dragons
@@thisgoddamusernamestoodamnlong Except that Native American folklore really only had 2 versions. One was essentially indistinguishable from a regular human unless someone figured out what they were or they revealed themselves. And the other was an emaciated giant that got bigger the more it ate and could never feel full from eating. Both are allegories for greed in that it can be hard to identify someone who would stab you in the back for food and that it cannot be satisfied.
Interpretations outside of Native American folklore, such as them having antlers, are just exotic werewolves that have been stripping of any assigned meaning other than being a monster.
Additionally, they are nothing like dragon myths. Dragons myths are spread across many cultures whereas the windigo legends are pretty much limited to tribes of the Algonquin language family.
PLEASE DO A TROPE TALK ON GODS AND DIETIES
OH MY GOD THAT WOULD BE SUCH A GOOD TOPIC!!!
I've been waiting FOREVER for one of those!!!!
That last one could be Deities or Diets, and I would accept a Trope Talk on either
Amen
The Xenoblade Chronicles fan in me just screamed
Rick riordan’s greater univers is really one of the “everything is real” because EVERY pantheon exists in harmony somehow
Sometimes I forget that he made crossovers between Percy Jackson and The Kane Chronicles. Though, I wonder how exactly it works in terms of how Norse, Roman, Greek, and Egyptian mythology all coexist in the same universe.
Can’t forget Christianity, Thor canonically challenged Jesus to what I think was a drinking contest.
I think it's mostly because all the pantheons kind of agreed to just mind their own buisness
In the very first Kane Chronicle, Amos states that they stay on their side of the river because the other has "other gods." Remember that the other side of the river holds the Empire State Building.
It really is a case of the different regions having their own afterlifes for their believers and anything on Earth should be kept separated unless it is required not to be. For example, when Greek and Egyptian magic is explicitly uniting together. And Roman explicitly remodeled the Greek gods, so the Greek gods just swap between their personalities. Which is why it is so devastating to gods like Athena, who was basically destroyed by Roman transitioning.
As for the Jesus comment, yeah, Christianity is in there too, but with it surviving outside its secret world, it's unlikely the Father has to do much besides help priests with real exorcisms when it comes to his side of bad guys.
I think that earth is the common ground due to worshippers, and the gods are relegated to separate sections or dimensions of reality.
So to a normal person, you tunnel a hole beneath Rome, and you'll find rock and magma.
To a Greco-Roman or to one perceptible to the Mist, you'll might be unfortunate enough to be dragged down to Tartarus.
And to an Egyptian Magician, you'll just end up in the Duat again.
The Magnus Archives is a great podcast. 200 episodes and it's a finished story. Very human characters contrasting nicely with the non-human stuff. Also steeped in English mannerisms.
Lucifer is a great example of completely reimaging a living religion for your own purposes. That show turned a lot of things on its head to include completely changing the roles of certain characters in canonical stories. I noticed that it never one actually touched on jesus, or at least I didn't notice it due to the person I was watching it with going on without me, but some of the 'less spicy' bits like the burning bush got some fun edits. It ultimately worked in the end because they didn't actually change much, just played things like the mortals honestly didn't know the full story. I think it still got a lot of kick back though for staring the devil as it lead sympathetic protagonist.
Agreed. The background lore was basically "a lot of stuff technically happened, but then humans gradually changed or messed up retelling the stories." And you're right about Jesus (that's an odd thing to say); I don't believe they actually touched on the New Testament at all, which makes sense from the perspective of religion being the telephone game and getting mixed up or changed over time, as the New Testament could be argued as an unofficial sequel or fanfiction (to non-Christians).
It might interest you to know, the Lucifer in the show is from the Constantine DC comics
Which are very cool imo
“Where the hell are the dragons?”
... you get me, spiritually, I have yelled that from the rooftops all on my own and now I SHALL HAVE VINDICATION... or at least some company
Unless the company eats you ;)
Scp 1762
I will join you on the rooftops.
SonsOfLorgar I would make a delightful meal,
@@pabloa8102 oh
Percy Jackson was my childhood and nothing can change that
Percy Jackson deserves a cinematic reboot
How do you feel about the movies?
We don't talk about the movies
@@Mr.Starpop Not a fan
Movies don’t exist
Ghostbusters is Urban Fantasy. Come at me.
I cannot thank this video enough for leading me to Magnus Archives, what a fantastic series, and coming back to rewatch reminded me that it was one of your many brilliant recommendations. Thank you!