What do you consider to be generic Isekai Fantasy?

[Pixytokisaki14]

don't disrespecc the elves
then maybe, just maybe you'll get your toes lick positively

 

[CarburetorThompson]

Basic ass nobility structure. Every society is just feudal europe but somehow even more boring. The country either has a ‘good‘ king who’s undermined by evil nobles or attendants, or a blood thirsty warmongering king.

Bonus points if the world has ship mounted cannons for naval battles, but no cannons or gunpowder weapons used anywhere else.

 

[Premier]

There's many flavours!

Character with OP Power acts like complete jackass, but world bends to always make them right somehow. This story will go on forever or until the Patreon money dries up.

Author realises Character with OP Power makes their story impossible to have conflict. Character refuses to use the power to full effect for arbitrary and silly reasons "fixing" this problem. Agonizing to read. Insanely popular due to people theorizing what they could do, somehow not understanding that they won't.

Character with "Weak" power is bullied. But it turns out it was actually super overpowered all along! The story can't go anywhere from here, so these stories die on their ass really fast.

Story is 90% text boxes, grinding and making numbers go up. The numbers don't mean anything, but everyone acts like they do. Nothing ever actually happens. Will end when the author gets bored of people complaining that their math doesn't make sense.

Character with OP Power is in a relationship drama. This drama will take up 90% of the story and go absolutely nowhere, and it will die before it's resolved.

An actually good Isekai story (Theoretical, never witnessed in reality)

 

[ConansWitchBaby]

Supremus Couch Potaticus being able to 1v1 anyone at all instead of getting their face caved in in a first encounter.

 

[BouncyCactus]

I considered isekai as, well, escapism media. It is a trope in and of itself, and the commonly associated with Isekai can belong to other genres as well. It is just that most isekai are rather low-effort and full of self-insert or badly executed. OP MC is not that new of an invention, Journey to the West is one of the most recognized ones in literature, and well, they are still entertaining to read.

 

[lilwriter]

Like the title says, what do you consider to be the common staples of Isekai? What is so generic you see it so often? Do you hate the generic stuff altogether or are there some exceptions? What tropes do you see done right generally and which poorly?

TBH I love isekai tropes because I can turn my brain off. I also don’t read stories with male main characters.

Best tropes:
- Hot ML who is OP but blushes a lot
- Villain FL with hopes and dreams
- Cutie best female friend that you want the FL to end up with
- Will they/won’t they end up together??
- Fun banter
- Yandere creeps doing creepy yandere things
- Batshit crazy characters. No one is in their right mind! What is happening?!?
- Dumb yet loveable side characters
- That one best friend who is always horrified but tags along
- Side characters getting love stories too
- sword fighting!
- Contract marriages
- FL’s who don’t know what novel they’re in
- FL/ML grow from experiences and are not perfect

Worst tropes:
- Everyone loves MC no matter who they are
- “Hunting competition”
- Slaves
- “I helped one poor person; praise me”
- Endless politics/4D chess bs
- R*pe
- “Oh no I changed the story”
- magic/monsters that add nothing to the plot; idk I’m fatigued
- maids/servants acting like they have power
- “she has freckles; she’s hideous”
- “wow your skin is lily white”
- “barbarians”
- “remember that time you told me I was nice when we were 5? lets get married”
- “I remember the entire story word for word and every action I take is correct”

There's many flavours!

Character with OP Power acts like complete jackass, but world bends to always make them right somehow. This story will go on forever or until the Patreon money dries up.

Wait but these are my favorite kind lmao. Well as long as there is romance which leads me to…

Character with OP Power is in a relationship drama. This drama will take up 90% of the story and go absolutely nowhere, and it will die before it's resolved.

All the comments are “PLEASE TALK TO EACH OTHER PLEASE”

 

[RepresentingEnvy]

As for what I consider generic: 98% of my story, the last 2% is something original added by mistake.

That is exactly what I am reading it for.

 

[greyliliy]

Any Portal Fantasy, really. "Person from real world goes to a fantasy world of some kind."

While the newer Isekai genres can be fun (in a video game, reincarnated, etc), I'm still a sucker for the classics like The Wizard of Oz. :D

 

[FebyA]

Do you hate the generic stuff altogether or are there some exceptions? What tropes do you see done right generally and which poorly?

I don't hate the generics. Elf, dragon, and stuffs are nice and makes it easy for the readers to understand. If being unique is not necessary, then it's fine to use templates.

If I, for example, write about a new race called, "Sun Child". Then the readers have to be introduced, learn, and basically scratch their head trying to understand all of this cool new stuff before they can focus on the plot. It's distracting if done wrong.

What tropes do you see done right generally and which poorly?

For novels that is a slow life/slice of life/or focus heavily on developing relationship, I think the dating part could be better. Even just going to another country sounds exciting, but another world? There's a lot to be explored.