In Shad’s review of an anime called Goblinslayer (I’ve never seen it), he talks about the necessity of showing how monstrous the monsters are in fantasy. The comment is part of a larger discussion on the way that various fantasy authors and writers have managed this in various media. From the entire video, which I’ve included below, the question of ‘What will they do when they win?’ stuck with me.
In Goblinslayer, the consequences for women being captured by hordes of Goblins are particularly horrific – to the point where I’m not going to describe them here. In Lord of the Rings, we’re shown the possible consequences of being captured by orcs when Grishnákh demands to eat Pippin and Merry on the fringes of Fangorn forest; and Frodo sees the Shire destroyed by servants of Sauron when he looks into the mirror of Galadriel. In the Hobbit, Bilbo sees what will become of him at the hands of Golem, the Spiders of Mirkwood and the Trolls.
Why is showing this to the reader important? Well, quite simply, demonstrating the consequences is the easiest way of showing the reader the stakes of a given conflict. I discussed this idea in my short essay, An Essay of Consequence. Essentially, if the monsters win, these bad things will happen.
Dan Abnett, perhaps my favourite author, has a particular technique he uses in his writing to demonstrate what happens when the bad guys win. It is a method shared by many writers, I am sure.
They reached the second ward in minutes. Nagaira stopped at the threshold and put out a warning hand to Malus as he approached. ‘Send another through,’ she said. ‘I don’t care who.’
Malus turned to the first retainer who caught up with them, one of his own druchii named Aricar. ‘Go!’ he commanded, pointing at the doorway, and without hesitation the warrior dived through.
The maelithii pounced on Aricar just on the other side of the door. …
Aricar staggered as the spirits sank their obsidian teeth into his face and neck. He spun, hands lashing at empty air, but Malus could see the skin around where the spirits bit turn bluish-grey, like a corpse left out in the snow.
‘Now!’ Nagaria shouted. ‘While they are feeding! Run!’
The Daemon’s Curse – A tale of Malus Darkblade, by Dan Abnett and Mike Lee, page 106-107
Did you see it? Even in this short passage we see what happens if the monsters, the maelithii, win! Now, read the same passage without the penultimate paragraph and note how much weaker the conflict seems. The stakes make the conflict more compelling.
I recommend watching the video from Shad of the Shadoversity and I’ve dropped it at the bottom of this post. I also highly recommend reading my blog post, An Essay of Consequence and the article that inspired it, How to Write Stakes in Storytelling.
As ever, I would love if you liked, commented, shared or reblogged this.
Imagine Erratically 