Are You Writing Serious Fantasy?

[Thinhyandoiel]

Fantasy is made of black and white because reality is shades of grey.

Not true in all cases, but true in most, ne? I believe that in fantasy, you should have the differing levels of villians.

Tolkien has his villians as essences of pure EVIL, made to make your skin crawl when they enter the room. (Or make the walls bleed [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]) You have Morgoth, Sauron, Saruman, Nazgul, Ungoliant, Orcs, Trolls, Dragons, etc. I think it's interesting that there aren't that many sinister, evil, Dark Lord type Men running around Middle-Earth. Do the Nazgul count though? Yes, they were once men, and yes, they are now evil, but they're slaves and not doing anything except for Sauron. I love these sorts of villians, they're so interesting to the story. I like to have that shade of gray in there, because then it makes the fantasy closer to reality.