Why is LotR the default?

It absolutely isn't.

Bargain bin fantasy novels that are heavily inspired by LotR are the default.

Because it was either that or Elric.

You mean Forgotten Realms? Even that wouldn't be right.

>>54167778
It isnt. D&D, which is approximately Conan+Elric+Various other fantasy works with LotR Races added, is the standard.

LotR was a very popular series that drew together a lot of sources and prior works of European mythology and fantasy fiction, and in doing so inspired a generation of authors after him, whether they were copying it or reacting to/subverting it.

It's familiar enough to those with a basis in European-descended cultural mythology to be relatively easy to understand, fantastical enough to capture the imagine and varied enough that it had broad appeal, whether literature fans reading LotR or younger or more casual people enjoying The Hobbit.

LotR's influence on fantasy isn't absolute, but it's very significant, and it's hard to make fantasy fiction in this era without being compared to it to some degree.

>>54167800
This. LotR is a lot more "exotic" than the colourless, empty, vapid void that is Forgotton Rea- I mean "your generic DnD fantasy setting."

For example:
>All magic is inherently divine
>"Wizard" is a race
>Orcs are smaller and weaker than most humans
>Orcs are more industrious and technologically advanced than pretty much anyone else
>Spiders are descended from extraplanar aliens
>Dragons aren't weirdly associated with different elements
>Dwarves are Small Sized creatures
And so on

>>54167778
>Boromir isn't on the poster except in the wide shot of everyone
>Arwen is larger than Theoden, Elrond, Bilbo, Galadriel, Saruman, and four members of the Fellowship
>Aragorn gets the largest space
What is this?

I wish it was the default.

D&D is the default where everyone and their mum has access to magic , the most powerful fighters in the world are bitches of even the lowest of casters, furry races are the most common thing ever followed by elves , the setting is actually some word Renaissance period where everyone pretends it's still medieval despite everybody having access to magic that would make it far more of a sci fi setting than a fantasy one.

Think that level 1 clerics can cure disease, create water instantly and heal wounds and are ubiquitous within the setting. Extrapolate to population levels and overall quality of life and the entire world should be a metropolis.

>>54168022
>Arwen is larger than Theoden, Elrond, Bilbo, Galadriel, Saruman, and four members of the Fellowship
You have to have a woman on the poster, anon. Otherwise it would be WAY too gay.

>>54167778
because tolkien basically invented the genre?

>>54168281
>way too gay
>a bad thing
did you even read/watch Return of the King

>>54167955
>>Dwarves are Small Sized creatures

They were, on average, about 4'6" (and could be as tall as 5'0" even) and Tolkien described them as being famed for their strength and endurance.

Dwarves were short but they weren't small.

>>54167778

Hippies made it popular. No critic liked it before hand, some even calling it "death of literature itself".

>>54171100
I don't think that's true. The hippies revitalized it, but it was popular beforehand, too, or it would have never been published: Tolkien would have been perfectly happy to hold back the series until he had the whole thing happy. Some people panned it, but we only care about what they thought because it got even more popular later on.

>>54167778
It isn't.

It's the only one that is relatively well known by non-nerds, though. This is what creates the ilusion of LotR being the paradigmatic fantasy world.

>>54173577
it is. almost all modern fantasy, including d&d, despite what gygax claimed, pulls from it. it's the standard most fantasy is drawn against.

>>54168354
holy fuck let this meme burn and die

>>54173658
No. Read the fucking thread.

>>54173704

It's not entirely untrue. Tolkien didn't create most of it, but he did collate, codify and popularise many of what became the defining tropes of fantasy.

>>54173746
It's a huge insult to the genre both before and after Tolkien, to Tolkien himself and to the writers he drew direct inspiration from. The only thing that someone who says that tells me is they've not read much fantasy.

>>54173786

It's an acknowledgement of the popular perception.

I'm not talking about who drew influence from who or the spread of ideas within the literature itself, but the popular perception of it. It might make you angry that all this stuff is attributed to Tolkien, but people do so for a reason- Because his name, his stories and his worlds are the ones that gained the most traction in popular culture.

>>54173746
Except that in becoming the tropes of commercial fantasy, they usually lost all but the most superficial content. The difference between Tolkien and tolkinesque is like the difference between a lake in the mountains and a flooded parking lot.

>>54173658
Just because fantasy pulls from it doesn't mean it's the "default." LotR has elves and dwarfs, sure, but none of the series that pulled those from it made elves semi-immortal beings or dwarfs the first race created on earth. OD&D pulled Hobbits, Balrogs, and Nazgûl. That's it.

>>54173805
I don't disagree with you anon, I'm just ranting. I hate that statement because of how much it cuts you off from (both forwards and backwards of Tolkien).

>>54167778
It used to be, but nowadays "der, muh grimdark" is far more common.

>>54173848

A fair point.

I also think the slow rise of global fantasy is something that deserves some consideration. Western eurofantasy has been dominant, but over the decades Asian style fantasy settings, both ones rooted in Asian mythology and asian reinterpretations of western fantasy, have been becoming more prominent. The increasing presence in the west of Wuxia fiction and cinema, for example, is connecting people with a form of fantasy fiction entirely disconnected from eurofantasy. I'm very curious to see what other new forms can emerge.

We've seen a bit of it here and there, from classics like Lord of Light or rather over the top affairs like Asura's Wrath, but I'd love to see more modern stories taking elements of Hindu mythology. Then again, I suppose the difficulty there is that it's an active religion, so including it in fiction is liable to cause outrage from some sectors.

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>>54167955
>Orcs are more industrious and technologically advanced than pretty much anyone else

No. No no no no. Bad anon. Bad. No biscuit.

>>54174308

This is directly cited in The Hobbit though.

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>>54174325
Sure it is. I'll wait.

>>54174348
>Now goblins are cruel, wicked, and badhearted. They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones. They can tunnel and mine as well as any but the most skilled dwarves, when they take the trouble, though they are usually untidy and dirty. Hammers, axes, swords, daggers, pickaxes, tongs, and also instruments of torture, they make very well, or get other people to make to their design, prisoners and slaves that have to work till they die for want of air and light.

>It is not unlikely that they invented some of the machines that have since troubled the world, especially the ingenious devices for killing large numbers of people at once, for wheels and engines and explosions always delighted them, and also not working with their own hands more than they could help; but in those days and those wild parts they had not advanced (as it is called) so far.

>>54167800
fpbp

>Why is LotR the default?

It isn't. Lord of the Rings was hardly high fantasy, it didn't have groups of wizards wandering around town, adventuring parties, etc.

>>54167867
>reddit spacing
Stop.

>>54174638

Fuck you and fuck that stupid meme. There is nothing wrong with using good formatting, and it's nothing to fucking do with reddit.