I've heard a lot of people say modern fantasy aesthetics are uninspired, but I don't really feel like this is the case. If anything, they're overly fantastical to the point where the incessant worldbuilderness fails to provide a grounded reference point and it all comes off as meaningless gibberish

March 26, 2026 - 06:01 UTC

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Handwaving too many things with "magic did it" makes for a setting where you cannot properly anchor yourself to anything, this is especially bad in Forgotten Realms where magic is so prelevant the modern player can not imagine a lot of issues existing because magic really CAN just fix anything.
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tbh I think people just conflate “uninspired” with “uninspiring” a lot

Though your point def stands, a lot of it feels limp because it’s derivative of tropes from games, which derive from tolkein etc.

I think any fantasy that expects you to get the gist of its premise from its tropes is a waste
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I like to call it Generic Regurgitated Fantasy Product myself.

It's just Stuff thrown together with no real sense of rhyme or reason and no explanation for why anything is there . . . AND it's just painfully, awfully generic.
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