I have a few:

  • Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It’s eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how “most people are just NPCs” (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
  • Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
  • All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
  • Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
  • StalinStan [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    At one point they go to planet that recreates a 1800s England and there a scene about how unions ruin everything. Also some weird sexual violence so the politics are rough. I seems to me the book isn’t worth going back to but if you feel different I’d hear your assessment.

    • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
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      4 months ago

      At one point they go to planet that recreates a 1800s England and there a scene about how unions ruin everything…

      That sounds like what the “baddies” of this series were doing with their undead soul powers.