Power Fantasy Is Not Bad, Fight Me

[unlaumy]

Bit boring, isin't it?

Like why should I really care about a dude who wins all the time? Not that much of a hook. If you REALLY wanna talk about it, let's talk about how a lot of those Power Fantasies/Isekai stories are extremely misogynistic! Using women as a goal to achieve or just a "reward" for the protagonist just being so cool. It's wish fulfillment. Which is fine, but I wish they saw women as... people in those stories.

Unless you're currently trapped in the aura-farming korean webnovel hellscape, most stories aren't like that anymore. I think there are some cultivation stories that are still like that (but hey, it's cultivation stories). But even the most high-school boy targeted LNs barely do it nowadays.

 

[FRWriter]

Bit boring, isin't it?

Like why should I really care about a dude who wins all the time? Not that much of a hook. If you REALLY wanna talk about it, let's talk about how a lot of those Power Fantasies/Isekai stories are extremely misogynistic! Using women as a goal to achieve or just a "reward" for the protagonist just being so cool. It's wish fulfillment. Which is fine, but I wish they saw women as... people in those stories.

Typically, those stories, especially Chinese stories, have the MC collect women like Pokemon.

Almost all of them actually forget the earlier women and "side pieces" after a few hundred chapters, which makes it even dumber.

Though I wouldn't say this alone defines the power fantasy trope.
I think it can be well done, especially if the MC actually earns their progress.
If the MC struggles and has to really earn every single improvement and just doesn't calmly beat up anyone in their way with everyone around him clapping and admirers going crazy over him, it could be a great story.

 

[OtherSlater]

Unless you're currently trapped in the aura-farming korean webnovel hellscape, most stories aren't like that anymore. I think there are some cultivation stories that are still like that (but hey, it's cultivation stories). But even the most high-school boy targeted LNs barely do it nowadays.

Alot of those system stories do that. Go to WebNovel and you'll see "I captured my women harem system maybe my sister too"

 

[unlaumy]

Alot of those system stories do that. Go to WebNovel and you'll see "I captured my women harem system maybe my sister too"

That's Qidian Webnovel, never expect anything there, and praise the god when you find something decent. On Royalroad, they would appear here and there =<2019, but few users are interested on that now. As for SH... well, it always points to smut, and anything is fair in smut.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

Whether a type of fiction is good or bad depends on how it is approached and written. Any idea, even the grandest, newest one can be awful in the wrong hands, and even the most tired and trite ideas can work wonders in the right ones (for an example of how Power Fantasy can work wonders, check out things like One-Punch Man).