Regular listeners of the show will already know that very few tropes and writing trends are actually new. All of them have come from somewhere and often those origins are surprising. The fridging trope is one that bears a justifiable amount of scorn but it's also one that exists for a reason and has a shockingly long pedigree. This week, Jules and Madeleine travel back to the earliest recorded origins of this trope, before looking at why it exists and how to take the necessary elements of it and use it in your own work in a way that isn't problematic. From Ancient Greece to World War II, from Early Medieval Wales to the Arthurian Cycle, the dragons take a tour through time and storytelling.
Title music: Ecstasy by Smiling Cynic
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 198: Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey - Time Travel in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 197: The Trouble with the Victorians - How a Single Era Influenced Our Opinions
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 196: Tale as Old as Time - Why Fairytales Endure
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 195: Key & Codex - Secret Societies in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 194: Creaky Floorboards & Locked Doors - Learning Tension and Suspense from Gothic Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 193: Tragic Heroes and Unexpected Children - More Tropes We Love in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 192: Fitted Breastplates & Feminine Mystique - Sexist Absurdities in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 191: It's Harder that You Think - Writing Sex Scenes in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 190: Art and Artifice - What Jane Austen has to say to a Modern Readership
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 189: Last One Alive - Final Girl Tropes in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 188: I'm Not Gay, I'm Just Evil - The Queer Coded Villain Trope in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 187: Designer Flu & Superhumans - The Conspiracy Theory Trope in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 186: Going Through Changes - Shapeshifters in Myth and Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 185: This is Not Forgiveness - Redemption Arcs in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 184: Auguries and Omens - Bird Symbolism in Myth and Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 183: The Future We Deserve? - Learning Hope From Science Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 182: Full Immersion Fantasy - the Appeal of RPG
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 181: Of Their Time - the Changing Faces of Diversity and Prejudice in Speculative Fiction
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 180: 10,000 - A Celebration of Dissecting Dragons
Dissecting Dragons: Episode 179: Truth, Lies & the Big Misunderstanding - Honesty and Deception Tropes in Speculative Fiction
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