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Limyaael is an English graduate student studying for her Ph.D. In 2003, she finally got fed up with different novels repeating the same story with just the names changed and decided to express her views in a rant entitled
Why I get impatient with clichéd fantasy.
Since then, she has written more rants about clichés prevalent in fantasy on her online journal. Though titled “Rants”, they are a collection of essays that evolved from a rant style, and the name stuck.
Despite the name, Limyaael’s rants are not just for fantasy writers. She also has covered topics that are not limited to fantasy, like dialogue and romance, as well as more general topics like plotting and characterization. One of the features of the journal format is that Limyaael’s commenters also have much to say, from additional facts to opposing viewpoints.
Limyaael is very opinionated and delves into topics that might be considered offensive, including sex, sexual orientation, swearing, and
unkind book reviews. She prefers the
cynical and the
serious. Despite that, she does not
Accentuate The Negative. She will willingly say what she dislikes about a certain trope, but will then give alternatives or suggestions to make it new and fresh.
The Rants used to be posted on
LiveJournal, but Limyaael has moved to
InsaneJournal because she is not happy about LJ’s ban-happy policy. The Rants originally posted on LJ can still be accessed there, though.
Limyaael’s Fantasy Rants are updated
here. The archive of Rants can be accessed
here, and
here, or
here.
Limyaael's rants were
not updated for a while starting around April 2008. In
this post she explains the reasons, and the Rants will not be updated until she has more free time.
For the curious, Limyaael is
pronounced like “leem-yah-ALE”
limya meaning “laughter” and
ael meaning “lady” in her
Con Lang.
Tropes Limyaael has ranted about:
Tropes used in the rants themselves
- Atheism: Limyaael herself.
- Dissimile/NOT: Usually in the form of: "That's totally original. Only not."
- Genre Savvy: Very.
- Real Women Never Wear Dresses: Averted.
I prefer strong female characters anyway, by which I mean “female characters who have their own minds and do not spend the whole time obsessed with men, either pining for them or putting them down.” They don’t have to be warriors for me to empathize with them. They can certainly be mothers who love their children fiercely. The most important relationships in their lives can certainly be with men.
- Sliding Scale Of Idealism Vs Cynicism: She's on the cynical end.
- Take That: see above.
- Third Person Person
