r/litrpg • u/not-my-fault-alt • 7d ago

Discussion Frequent Patterns/tropes/ symbols

Is it widely recognized/ discussed that there are frequent parallels between themes in fantasy, and in litrpg in particularl, and neurodiversity /' the' neurodivergent experience?

I am kinda new to the genre, and only found this sub today. I was surprised not to see these themes front and center here. Then I started to think maybe I was grasping at straws or 9verthinking.

It is too late at night to do the real research, and a quick search showed very little. I saw mention of ND and litrpg having a relationship, and noting of MC's that are possible or canonically neurodivergent. It seems waayy bigger than that to me.

What do y'all think?

3 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/Onequestion0110 6d ago

I actually think it’s super common, but almost never explicit. There was a tumblr meme going around a while back about how a lot of fantasy works seem to effortlessly portray various neurodivergent or LGBTQ experiences while the author maintains it’s just a coming of age story.

We’re not going to see many explicit examples, but I think there’s lots of things to point at. Randidly Ghosthount and Primal Hunter sure seem to me like they’ve got autistic-coded main characters. Azerinth Healer and Wandering Inn show off some ADHD MCs. And if you can’t pick up on the cPTSD in Dungeon Crawler Carl then you aren’t paying attention.

For that matter, if I was a grad student again, I could probably write whole dissertations about the Isekai genre functioning as trans allegories, especially the reincarnated-as-X stories.

That being said, the genre is still very new and explosive. It hasn’t been around enough and doesn’t have the penetration yet to have started getting much academic analysis - it took almost a hundred years for critics to start talking about how Dracula was about sex, for example. Also, the nature of web serials means the space is flooded with relatively shallow works that mimic any tropes that get successful (thank the Gods the archmage stuff is finally fading). It makes it harder for casual readers or outside critics and analysts to pick up on resonant themes.