Dragons is the easy, obvious answer, and frankly, I’m sort of insulted that you’d think it’d be that simple.

I’ll have you know that I’m a very complex individual, and you have no idea what my motives are, thank you very much. But okay, yes, also the dragons. *motions around the site* It’s not only the dragons, though, and that’s an important distinction.

Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is reasons I love [BLANK], and in light of Wyrd & Wonder, I knew fantasy would be the perfect topic.

I actually thought I’d done this topic before, but I guess not? I’m not sure how I overlooked it. I’ve done a very fun You Might Be A Fantasy Bookwyrm If … post, which you should obvious check out just in case you’re in doubt, but I’ve never actually talked about my deep-seated (and clearly random) love for a genre nobody else in my family read while I was growing up. No, it wasn’t just to be rebellious. Okay, maybe a little. I’m sure the fact that my favorite movie at the time had talking dinosaurs also might have had something to do with it, too.

Also, fair warning, I’m going full out geek in my TL;DR. If you get the references, we should be friends. If we’re already friends … you deserve a cookie. And if you don’t want a cookie … what’s wrong with you? Pshaw. Are you sure we’re friends? Who doesn’t like cookies?!

Endless variety of unique worlds to explore.

Every world is different, and there are endless worlds, and that’s the beauty of fantasy. Okay, thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

There are so many different sorts of worlds out there. You want something whimsical and light? Dark and spooky? Bloody and epic? Full of assassins and pirates? Monsters and demons? Magic and mayhem? We’ve got you covered on all fronts.

No matter what kind of book or tropes you like, there’s something in fantasy to fit it, and a world built especially for you waiting to be discovered.

It’s like the doors in the Wayward Children series. When you find a door, the world on the other side will be something specifically suited to the true you, where you can be yourself. You just have to be sure. Thankfully, opening a book and spending some time in a fantasy world is much less hazardous to your health, so there’s that.

TL;DR: Whatever it is you’re looking for, we’ve got it here.

Reality can be so darn limiting.

Seriously. Adulting sucks. Parenting is overrated. There’s not even virtual reality to fall back on. What gives?! There’s a marked lack of dragons, talking swords, hot assassins, and questionable wizards. Reality’s a dud.

The beauty of fantasy is that it can be, quite literally, anything.

I mean, generally, good fantasy has rules, but still … it’s pretty vast. You could scale Caradhras with Frodo and the Fellowship, fall in love with Simon and Baz, learn spellcasting alongside Harry Potter, learn the perils of talking swords with Tatsumi, or meet the Antichrist with Arthur. Even if these things existed in real life, there’s no way I’d be able to afford any of them, so what even would be the point?

TL;DR: Where are all the dragons, yo?!

I want to believe in magic.

Honestly, who doesn’t? Magic is freaking awesome. Sure, it can be terrifying sometimes, too, but that’s half the fun of it. What a boring world it’d be if magic were all sunshine and roses all the time.

When I was little, I wanted so badly to believe in magic that I’d say “open sesame” every time I walked up to an automatic door … and my grandfather wanted me to believe in it so much that he’d walk slightly ahead and hit the pad at just the right time so it’d work.

And that, ladies and gents, is how I officially became a bona fide witch. Yes, I’m amazing. What can I say? I love the idea of the paranormal, of magic, of the thought that anything can happen at any time and set off a totally unexpected chain reaction that sweeps you away into something bigger than yourself. Also, I have a whole list of people I wouldn’t mind turning into frogs, too. Just saying.

TL;DR: ♫ Do you believe in magic … in a young girl’s heart? ♬

There are so many flavors and levels of fantasy.

Fantasy has so many subgenres that the genre as a whole is really a mere shadow of itself. It’s like Voldy with all his horcruxes: spread out so thin that who really knows what the heck fantasy is anymore? Probably, it’ll live forever, but should it? (The answer is yes. This is clearly where the comparison breaks down.)

There’s contemporary fantasy for the readers who want a more firm grounding in reality, the epic fantasy for those prepared to traverse new worlds, and dark fantasy for … the fun people. You know who you are.

Plus the 10,000 other subgenres that shall remain nameless because who has the time. The point is, there’s so much nuance that you’re bound to find some sort of fantasy that you really enjoy, even if it takes a little trial and error. I can read a whole range of books without ever leaving fantasy, to suit my every mood.

TL;DR: Some people have purses to match their outfits; I have fantasy books to match my mood.

It expands my imagination.

Fantasy, by definition, is creative. Authors are either building whole new worlds or scaffolding off of this one. Either way, it’s different and unique and takes a lot of thought and creativity to do well.

The best fantasy books not only pull me into the story and the world, but they make me curious. I constantly find myself wanting to know more.

More about the world. More about the characters. More about what could go wrong with raising the dead, so I get it right on my first try, thanks. I’m pretty sure this is why fanfiction exists: because the best fantasy makes you want to dig deeper into the world or the characters and explore a bit.

TL;DR: “I can’t imagine this will be very hard.” “Well, then I imagine it won’t be.”

It builds empathy without real-world biases.

Sometimes it’s hard to get out of our own head, in a “you’re your own worse enemy” way. You read something that you inherently think is untrue, and you shut down to everything else that follows. Doesn’t matter if the statement is backed up by facts. Doesn’t matter if maybe there’s a nugget of truth in it. You’ve already closed yourself off from the argument.

By removing conflicts from the real-world and extrapolating them to a fantasy setting, where you go in with no preconceived notions, you can sometimes be forced to see a situation from a completely new perspective.

This technique has been used in a lot of ways. The first time I learned about it was studying Animal Farm and allegory in school, but I knew I’d encountered it before in books. I just didn’t know there was officially a name for it. I love the subtlety of it and the way it allows a new dialogue to open, when it’s potentially previously been stagnated.

TL;DR: If you don’t open your mind, we’ll open it for you. Figuratively. Probably. No, you know what? No promises.

Fantasy has the coolest creatures.

No, I’m not going to mention dragons. Oh, wait … well … anyway. Sure, there are the obvious ones, like The Species That Shall Not Be Named and griffins and pegasuses … pegasi … HORSES WITH BIG WINGS, darn it. But there’s a really wide variety of creatures that can exist! Just like characters can be diverse, so can creatures.

How about a squirrel-like creature that has scythes as its forelimbs? Horses made of wind or fire? Creatures that are basically the embodiment of ideas come to life? Bird/human hybrids?

There are so many cultures in the world, all with their own myth, folklore, and paranormal creatures, which means there’s plenty of source material to pull on, on top of just the author’s imagination. I love seeing what people come up with and all the different ways the same creature can be completely different in various books!

TL;DR: You think animals like the pangolin or the axolotl or the platypus are weird and random? They’ve got nothing on fantasy creatures.

Two words: Problematic. Romances.

I’ve previously talked about why I love problematic romances, so I won’t completely rehash it here. Suffice it to say, regular romance doesn’t do it for me. I don’t want some handsome beau or swooning femme or some sordid love affair. Booooring. I want high stakes, witty banter, hate-to-love, and some real “it’s complicated” vibes.

The problem with problematic romances in anything except fantasy is that they’re squicky for me. No, I don’t want to read about women being abused or treated like crap, and that tends to be how it comes across in a lot of other genres.

In fantasy, though? Women have a lot of freaking agency. Also, often knives, magic, and sometimes the urge to kill. I dig it. What fantasy often does right in romance is in creating equals, men and women who are just as strong or just as cunning or just as messed up that somehow manage to find each other and not kill each other long enough to realize, hey, this person’s not so bad and kinda hot.

TL;DR: If you’ve never contemplated homicide, have you ever truly been in love?!

DRAGONS! (And other fantasy tropes).

Fantasy has all these tropes that just plain wouldn’t work in the real world. Super rare quest items? Can’t be stolen without you being shot, shanked, robbed, sued, disappeared, or some other suspicious, likely detrimental thing. There are no animal sidekicks (though dogs can come pretty darn close). Superpowers are a nonstarter (no matter how many times people try to convince you motherhood counts). And as far as romance … one partner threatening to stab the other is just domestic violence and not all that fun to read.

Fantasy tropes are often as big and grand as the genre deserves, from The Chosen One to The Evil One to Good vs. Evil to Here Comes the Cavalry. They make your petty problems and struggles seem … well … petty.

Oh, sure, I may have had a crappy day, but I don’t have an army bearing down on me, threatening to wipe out my world, do I? I don’t have to face some grand evil or die trying. So maybe I’ll just be thankful for what I do have, and root for some epic characters in the meantime.

TL;DR: ♫ Fantasy tropes bring all the boys to the yard, and they’re like, “It’s better than yours.” ♬

The characters are larger than life.

Sometimes figuratively, sometimes literally. In other genres, you’re shackled by all these rules and pesky limitations. Fantasy, you can do pretty much anything you want. Combine an eagle with a jackal with a snake with an elephant? Sure, why not? Give it a badass name and personality and be on your way.

Because the rules in fantasy are basically limitless, the stakes can be exaggerated, the quests nearing epic, and the characters downright unbelievable … and that’s why we love them so much.

Who wouldn’t root for the hero that just took down five thugs on their own because they got so pissed off that they just reacted? We all strive to have that level of anger issue. Wait … what?

TL;DR: ♫ Every time we’re down, you can make it right, and that makes you larger than life.” ♬

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