Ring Around the Rose: Fantasy Worlds
Hello and welcome to the first week of "Ring Around the Rose" - a game of tag to help you get to know the Five Enchanted Roses authors a bit better. For the next six weeks, each of us will post our own answer to that week's question, and then we tag the next author on the list. If you would like to play, please feel free! The rules are simple: Answer the given question in a post on your own blog and post the link the comments of any of our blogs. Don't have a blog? No problem! Just answer the question in the comments. Feel free to use the banner below as well! Easy, right?
This week's topic is fantasy realms. You may have already seen Kaycee's and Savannah's posts earlier this week.If you could live in any fantasy world, which one would you choose (and why)?This is a tough one. I love fantasy, many of you know it's my favorite genre. However, a lot of the fantasy worlds are very dangerous, and I'm not sure I'd want to live anywhere too perilous. My first thoughts were Narnia and Middle-Earth. Who wouldn't want to live in the Shire where they eat multiple breakfasts and enjoy gardening? And Narnia would definitely be in the running. To meet Aslan face-to-face! That would be spectacular! However, I don't know that I'd like to live in either of those worlds. Partially because they're dangerous, but partially because in a lot of fantasy worlds, it seems that you need to be born into a certain kind of family, or have friends in high places, or have some sort of tragic backstory in order to go on an adventure. And I'm far too ordinary to be picked for the kinds of adventure that Frodo, the Pevensies, or Harry Potter end up on.But if I had to choose a fantasy realm of residence, I think I'd have to choose the Enchanted Forest from Patricia C. Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles. You see, I would definitely want to live somewhere with dragons... good dragons. I love dragons, and while Smaug is quintessentially THE dragon of fantasy, he's evil. I wouldn't want to live somewhere where the only dragon was an evil one. There would have to at least be the possibility of friendly dragons, and a ride on one of their backs!
I just enjoy the way that world works. I love that magic is a skill anyone can learn, like baking and sword-fighting. I like that wizards can be melted with soapy water, and that fairy tales exist but don't always follow the correct "rules."I like that there are villains, but that they are not terrifying evil villains - they're just selfish and unkind, but it's not terribly difficult to get rid of them, so it definitely passes the "not too dangerous" test.I like that the world seems to revolve around the necessity of using common sense, and that if you can be pragmatic, you can avoid many of the dangers that exist in this realm. I'm a big fan of common sense, so I think I would get along well with a lot of the people in that world (well, some of them would drive me up the wall, but there seem to be others of like mind if you look hard enough!)But I think my favorite thing about the realm of the Enchanted Forest is that you don't have to be special to have an adventure. It might help to be a princess, but you don't have to be one. Adventure awaits, and you can go out and make your own story as exciting as you choose, no matter who you are.So, if I had to choose... I would love to VISIT Middle Earth, Narnia, Earthsea, and so many others. But I'd want to LIVE in or near the Enchanted Forest!
Of course, then Savannah mentioned the Star Wars universe, which I completely forgot about (probably because I always think of it as more sci-fi than fantasy, but it is very fantasy, too)... I would love to live in the Star Wars universe. I'll build my summer home there. :)Which fantasy realm would YOU choose as your primary residence?Make sure you visit Dorian's blog tomorrow to find out which fantasy realm she would choose to live in!