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
Episode 275: Mean Girls and Internet Trolls -Positive Body Representation in Speculative Fiction Part 2
Episode 274: Mean Girls and Internet Trolls - Positive Body Representation in Speculative Fiction part 1
Episode 273: The Dark Descent into Hell - Tracing the Origins of Persephone and Other Underworld Goddesses
Episode 272: This is Not 1984 - Stopping Dystopia and False Utopia Spilling into Reality
Episode 271: Maintaining the Mood - How to Avoid Misusing Tone in Speculative Fiction
Episode 270: Its Complicated - the Highs and Lows of Relationships in Speculative Fiction
Episode 269: Making Friends and Influencing People - The Heroine's Journey in Speculative Fiction
Episode 268: He Growled, She Ejaculated - Reader Peeves and How to Avoid Them
Episode 267: The Beast Within - Exploring Characters with Darker Sides
Episode 266: That's Not Equality - When Sexism Dresses as Feminism in Speculative Fiction Part 2
Episode 265: That's Not Equality - When Sexism Dresses Up as Feminism in Speculative Fiction: Part 1
Episode 264 Challenging the System - How Magic Helps Us Deconstruct History, Politics and Social Issues
Episode 263: The Blade Itself - the Genesis of the Sword in History, Mythology and Speculative Fiction
Episode 262: Of Liking and Loathing - How to Hook Readers on your Characters
Episode 261: Reading the Classics - Hidden Meaning and Censorship in Stoker, Bronte and Shelley
Episode 260: Links and Linguistics - Why Word Choice Matters in Writing
Episode 259: Taking a Toxicity Reading - Criticism and Compromise in Speculative Fiction
Episode 258: Frills and Flirtations - What Clothing brings to Speculative Fiction
Episode 257: Peacekeepers to Punishers - The Police Force in Speculative Fiction
Episode 256: Assembling the Skeleton - Showing, Telling and Cutting Out Scenes in Speculative Fiction
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Myths and Legends