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It seems to me that people are constantly complaining about how fantasy creatures – elves, vampires, werewolves, dragons, trolls, goblins, fairies, etc – are “overused” and “cliché”. I think that I’ve discovered the problem and it’s not so much that people are just following a stereotype staple given by certain books and movies (Anne Rice, Tolkien, etc) and not looking for inspiration in other places. The problem is that people aren’t seeing these creatures as people.

Have you ever heard of a cliché and overused “human”? I didn’t think so. Type of human, yes. The human species as a whole? No. Humans are vastly varied and human characters tend to be easier for people to make into original and relatable characters. Not only are fantasy characters rarely original, but they’re also rarely easy to relate to, and it’s not just because they’re not human and lacking in certain human qualities or ways of thinking. It’s that they don’t seem real because they all seem to come out of a certain mold.

We need to think about our fantasy species as people and individuals and not just a fantasy creature that came waltzing out of the same factory as all the rest. They have societies and developed minds able to have cognitive thought and reasoning for the most part – even animals that aren’t as “intelligent” seem to have their own personalities and mannerisms and the only mold they can ever truly fall into is how their particular species looks as a whole.

When you think of making an elven character, don't think "elf". We never think "human" when we're making a human character - we think "person" and work from there without applying stereotypes other than anatomical structure.

I wholeheartedly agree. Like my cat's a lesbian whore. Most cats aren't lesbian whores.

Finally, someone who agrees with me! Couldn't have said it better myself.

I think one of the biggest problem is that people get stuck in the trappings on certain characters.

Oh, vampires are supposed to be dark and angsty and always hungry? I mean, WTF? Any kind of vaguely human-like creature will have some sense of normalcy and will think that way most of the time. Neither humans nor humalike creatures can tolerate being a certain way all the time, most notably upset like how a lot of them seem to be. Even in times of war there's still normalcy for the people involved. Not everything can be pain and misery and woe, or earthy friendliness, or snippyness, or whatever is the trapping for the character.

It's the same with human characters attatched to their pasts, which seems to happen in a lot of fantasy stories, only the mindset supposedly comes from a culture, not a trauma.

I agree with you Ceanothus. ^-^ Too many people don't think of their other races as 'people'. In fact, a lot of people don't even think of their different human cultures as 'people', they just slap on some cultural stereotypes and call it good.