GoT is heavily rooted in European history. Martin draws a lot of the stories from real life events. The Red Wedding is Glencoe. The names of characters are just slight variations of English names like Robb, Caitlyn, Dany, Arya, Jon, etc. That's why it feels like Middle Fantasy, because there are so many touches of real world events and people in them even if they are barely disguised.

World of Warcraft is also a masterful example of High Fantasy with great lore and great universe-building.

This is an interesting perspective. What is called low fantasy here, is often referred to as urban fantasy, which is fantasy elements in a modern setting. Although low fantasy is often simply only a few fantastic elements in general. A sword and sorcery story with barbarians fighting monstrous beasts is also often called low fantasy, because there may be some magic in the background, and it takes place on a different world, but the thrust of the story is at a human level.

I agree with what you said with ASOIAF. I wouldn't class that as high fantasy either. There is a reason why it's so popular. The world feels real and grounded, the magic isn't over the top, the characters are realistic and are always at risk of dying. The world of Game of Thrones is one of the best out there, alongside Middle-Earth. When people bash fantasy, it usually just tells you they lack any kind of imagination. Fantasy is amazing, and is so much more diverse than the same bland thing we see in every day life.

6:06 the thing with the elves is in German there is a difference between "Elfen" and "Elben" both are in most cases translated to "elves" in English. I know Tolkien wrote his books in English, but he had many parts of Germanic/Nordic tales in mind while doing so. For the German translation he insisted to use "Elben" and not "Elfen". And Elben are in old German or Nordic tales far more humanlike in appearence and Elfen are still more like the small creatures. So in German he never redefined what the word Elb in a Fantasy book means. But of course because it was redefined in English often lower quality translations of newer fantasy books from English to German use Elfen where in my opinion Elben would be far more appropriate. EDIT: some spelling mistakes

Funny, these terms are used differently in my country (Czech Republic) or at least I have always understand them differently (I basically grew up on fantasy and sci-fi books). Figh fantasy always meant for me fantasy story focusing on promoting great ideals, moral black and white, etc. example would be LotR where bad characters are pure evil wanting world domination and good characters want's to selflessly save the world. And low fantasy meaning more realistic approach, where all characters have understandable motivations, sometimes intentionally doing bad things to fulfill them, sometimes doing good. Example would be The Witcher.

I think it is somewhat bold to say "my own scale, which is basically on par with how most people divide them up", especially considering that you put the Marvel Cinematic universe in there with dimension travelling world ending magic powers, time travel and spacefaring cyber-wizardry using gods. I think this could potentially work as an alternative scale to the classic dual level scale, but could use a bit more criteria than intuition. Also your particular scale creates a very big overlap between low and urban fantasy, which regardless of whether that's good, bad, intentional or unintentional might be something you want to keep in mind or expand upon at some point. Great video on the technical side from audio to visuals over script! Well done!

I would personally call a Song of Ice and Fire high fantasy with low magic (I'd call LOTR high-high and Harry Potter low-high for reference)

I would personally also put Star Wars into the fantasy category, but in its own subgenre of space fantasy. While many people would label Star Wars as sci-fi after taking a cursory glance, I would argue that the universe has far more fantasy elements (magical wizards, various sapient species, massive lore and history, disregard for scientific laws and realism, epic good vs evil battles, and complex character relationships) than sci-fi ones. After all, Star Wars is set "a long time ago," and the technology acts more like the magical constructs of Lord of the Rings than the scientifically realistic tech of Star Trek. Hell, Star Wars never even explains why gravity exists in their spaceships, and the ships themselves are designed not with practical spaceship design principles in mind, but rather following the rule of cool. IMO, only two Star Wars pieces break from the fantasy genre, and those are Andor and Resistance; however, every other piece falls somewhere along the fantasy spectrum. The Original Trilogy, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and the Book of Boba Fett feel more Middle Fantasy, while the Prequels, the Sequels, The Clone Wars, the Obi-Wan series, The Mandalorian, and ESPECIALLY the Ahsoka series all feel more High Fantasy except mediæval earthlike society is replaced with multiple worlds of a galaxy far far away

I'd consider the Abhorsen series of books to be a good example of Middle Fantasy. Two bordering nations, one like England between the wars, and the other is a High Fantasy world, but both the worlds do have some impact on each other. Magic system is easy enough to understand. Fun series to read.

Yeah, I remember when someone told me Harry Potter is fantasy and I was like "nah, for me Fantasy is like tolkien-fantasy with dragons and orcs, elfs, wizards and.... oh, wait...." Because I tried watching the original Lord of the Rings trilogy like 2 times and both times it didn't click for me. The movies felt very long with little plot, they were just traveling, being chased, traveling, being chased, traveling ect. I wanted more battle tactics or mysteries being investigated or more flashy action with special moves. So I associated that with fantasy, but the seperation to different style of fantasy really clears things up for me. Turns out in the end I ended up liking eastern fantasy the most, which is often less indeph and more inspired by fantasy RPGs and MMOs instead of novels.

bro, vid is so professionally made, got shocked that u have 28 subs. u gained a new one brother, glad to be here from the beginning ❤💪🏽

Although im a big Lotr fan, i gotta say that low fantasy can be pretty awesome as well, as my second favorite saga is the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness by Michelle Paver. An extremely realistic prehistoric setting with just a little shamanism and otherwordly entities, and she managed to write a story that literally changed my life

What's the name of the song playing in the background?

Malazan Book of the Fallen is the greatest fantasy world and story ever developed and I’m a big fantasy geek. Highly recommend

How do you classify the other CS Lewis books, "Out of The Silent Planet", Perelandra , that Hideous Strength ?

This is a great video, with useful information, well done dude! Don't forget that George Lucas considers his Star Wars as fantasy! And what tthe author says is the only thing that defines it. People often misrepresent it as sci-fi, and it has minimal ties to sci-fi, Star Wars is a space fairy tale - a high fantasy. A great genre, old as the human civilisation itself!

Great video mate. I'd deffo watch breakdown style content on the fantasy genre and tropes within in. Glad to have found your channel. Great potential here.

Congrats on getting this video to so many views! I’m glad that KZfaq is getting to spread the content of smaller creators more now

This was an amazing video! You deserve 100x the more amount of subs you’ve got currently

The Raven’s Shadow Trilogy by Anthony Ryan and The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan are current favorites of mine. I would classify them as high fantasy and they’re the kind of books that I consider old friends and will go back and reread over and over again. I would also give the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire a look. These are a series of novellas that would fall under Isekai however they approach it in a different way. There is a school/home for children who have traveled to other worlds and found themselves back in our world. The problem is that they were happier and more suited to the other worlds and never wanted to come back to ours. The worlds are unique and not always nice but the one thing they have in common is that to someone they were more home than our world could ever be.

hiw would you class howls moving caslte? the book combines both the real world and the fictional one of ingary, however sophie has lived her life in ingary. So would that be middle fantasy?

I agreed with your division of high and low fantasy and then immediately went wait what about Narnia then and you introduced a solution to the problem right away. Very well thought out definitely liking this and looking into your account more

Would you consider His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman high fantasy or middle fantasy? The last book of the trilogy does play in part in our world.

4:14 That is such a shallow description though. If you were to ask me why I like Harry Potter, I would probably say the overarching story is good, the characters are really well-written, the mystery writing is gripping, and the themes are good. I think most Harry Potter fans would agree with my opinion.

Would the dark tower series be both?

The Belgariad by David Eddings is by far and away the most underrated fantasy series that very few people know about

Extremely interesting topic. I love fantasy and worldbuilding in general. I myself have done a lot of different projects, in private but I have also shared a lot of my work on reddit and on instagram. I think this sort of escapism, doesn’t matter if through getting immersed in your favorite movies or by creating your own fantasy content, is really important to ones mental wellbeing. It just helps to relax and can even make you more creative.

Great video, you def deserve more subscribers so it's good to see this video's popped off :)

My Friday just got better! Would Dragon Tales be Middle Fantasy?

Would you class the Sword & Sorcery genre as a subset of Low Fantasy? Or would you draw a line as two distinct categories?

Great video! Missed hearing about Star Wars or Star Treks role in the fantasy genre.

Thanks for this video, really enjoyed it, it is really well made and paced. One thing I might add, if someone doesnt like reading too much, there are some really good audiobooks for a lot of good fantasy books, either low/middle and high.

How would you classify something like Mount & Blade or Ace Combat, where there there are no supernatural elements, but the world it takes place on isn't Earth, with different landmasses and countries and history? An extreme version of low fantasy, or something else entirely?

Nice video - my understanding is you mean the more fully immersed we are in the alternate reality, the higher the fantasy - this seems a very consistent and straightforward approach, and useful - for my part, I do make a distinction between fantasy and myth - myth seems like us just framing reality as a society in a way to draw out underlying meaning - I think it has something to do w how our minds work, how we use storytelling and metaphor in our thought process - but I think Tolkien was a pioneer in fantasy, a newer genre where the goal is precisely to escape into such a different world - Tolkien was wishing that England had a different mythos than it did, in a way that would tie into England's national identity, and so he set out to create one, like Dr Frankenstein setting out to create his own artificial life form, that would correspond w his ideals - myth and legend are dipping into a shared communal pool, like Mallory and TH White each tapping the Arthurian legends for their own respective generations, or Dante and Milton each feeding into our shared ideas of Heaven and Hell - Tolkien tried this, but seemed unsatisfied, and so instead he constructed his own cosmos from scratch, to bring the readers into a world entirely inside his own mind, informed by his own cosmic rules and lore, modeled on his vast scholarship re how such rules work, which also tied to his language background and his creation of new languages - he created synthetic myths to go w his fictitious languages, and set up a giant frame to house them - I think this is what's different about fantasy as a genre, in a way that intersects w both myth and religion, but is also set apart from them - it frames its reality in mythic terms, but within a context that's cut off from the legacy of heritage, and exists in the mind of its respective author (all the better to copyright? I would also actually include certain space operas like Star Wars among your high fantasy category, since they seem less interested in science, and more in the metaphysical forces that inform fantasy) - and your categorization seems a fine way to consider fantasy on its own terms -

I like how depending on the implementation of dragons, you can also kinda categorize the type of fantasy You have either the really whimsical fantasy world where dragons, are just these magic fantastical animals that exist (Zelda, Harry Potter, LoL, WoW.) Then you have the more grimdark or grounded worlds, where Dragons in lore either used to roam the world or even rule the world. Or have returned from a long absence and are these great beasts, that just terrorize everything and are like the pinnacle fantastical creature (God of War, Berserk, Dark Souls, Lotr, GoT, Skyrim.) It’s a pretty real thing in fantasy, I would say the way dragons are treated either as semi low level eldritch beings or as just oversized animals.

Just subscribed, I am about to watch your skyrim video. You have a great demeanor and I can't wait to see what other fantasy content you have coming!!

Such a well made video! I've been a huge LOTR fan ever since my dad introduced the books to me when I was a kid. But you really explained the difference between some of these famous stories in a way I was unable to. I think I definitely have to get around to reading and watching GoT.

damn bro got blessed by the algo keep it up man

In which catagory would you say does Terry Pratchet's Discworld series belong? Or games like The Witcher or Skyrim? 🙂

I recommend The Butler's Apprentice series by James Michael Orr. It takes place in its own universe, but it really provides that sort of introduction through the eyes of a character realizing just how incredible the world around them really is.

Would Spirited Away be low or middle fantasy? It is similar to the Narnia series in that the main character finds themselves transported from Earth to a parallel universe.

Great video. Agree with your stances. Thanks for the book recommendations! A favorite high fantasy book series of mine has always been Deltora Quest. Read the series way back in elementary school 25 years ago and it’s stuck with me since.

Nice vid mate, really well broken down. Subbed 🫵🏼

Nice video with well thought out discussion points.

One of my favorite high fantasy series is Tamora Pierce's "Protector of the Small" series. "Page" and "Squire" in particular are wonderful.

Damn I feel like this channel would have at least 10k subscribers, really high quality shit bro 🙌

Six of Crows and its sequel and spinoffs and An Ember in the Ashes, and its sequels are good examples of modern high fantasy.

I like to believe that J.R.R Tolkien's world, the world of Arda (Middle earth referes to only a certain region of it) is above high fantay. He created a world with a functional timeline that is full of events from the creation to now (look in his letters.) His world had multiple lanhuaged full of complexity that rivals modern day languages. Almost ALLL fantasy stories wouldn't exist if not for Tolkien's world.

My favorite genre of modern novels is literary RPG. Don't know if it's a genre by itself or just a subgenre of fantasy. It combines classical fantasy with progression of RPG games. I think it started with Chinese web novels. These are mainly based on Taoism and Chinese mythology. The character starts young, usually 15 years old and grows and trains through the story, explores the world, fights for resources and gear, etc. Depending on the novel, by the end of the story the MC can be 30-50 years old, close to 100 or couple of thousand years old. Chinese novels usually feature brutal martial arts based world where strong rule with iron fist while weak are just stepping stones. The Taoist element is training through meditation, or "cultivation" of inner energy which is the foundation of magic system. Everything passively absorbs energy in these novels, so beasts and plants can become extremely strong over the centuries or millennia they survive. They feature hard magic system which differs from novel to novel. These novels are typically huge, thousands of pages long. My favorite among Chinese novels are Combat Continent aka Soul Land, some 4-5k pages long, which is overall quite good. It has a finished 3D anime. Its sequel Unrivaled Tang Sect, some 8k pages long, which is overall quite good too, but has some overdone love drama, and irrational extreme self-sacrifice for romance. It has a newly started ongoing 3D anime. Another good book is Martial World, 13k pages long. The sequel True Martial world I wouldn't recommend due to MC who is an arrogant prick. The series which is absolute best I read in this genre is Cradle by American author Will Wight. I wholeheartedly recommend it. It's a finished series of 12 books, about 1500 pages in total. It takes the best of Chinese Taoist fantasy, but without overlong descriptions of irrelevant characters and events. It features great writing (lost in fan translation of Chinese web novels), interesting story, and charming and memorable characters. Another good example are comic books, fully colored. Finished Chinese Wu Geng Ji, which has an ongoing 3D anime. And Korean Skeleton Soldier couldn't protect the dungeon. It's a great dark fantasy story, very interesting with heavy RPG mechanics.

What an amazing video! Keep up the good work!! :)

Fantasy that I like: Discworld (but only if you have a sense of humor) The Belgariad series (and its successors) The Sparhawk universe series (not called that, but that's what they are, and you can find it this way) The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever (mid-fantasy, but I can't tell if you'll like it or not. The MC believes he's hallucinating, and it's not even clear if he's _wrong_ about that, but he isn't making constant reference to the real world other than things like how he isn't used to walking long distances and such, which has nothing to do with the real world per se, and that MC is an interesting person who isn't a 'purely good guy', but instead someone who is deeply, deeply flawed and does some horrific things) One high-fantasy thing you don't mention: Star Wars. It's high-fantasy with nuts and bolts. You're literally walking around with _space wizards_ who can do... well, whatever the plot needs them to do (every movie the list of things they can do just gets longer and longer, until by the end of the sequel trilogy it's become _utterly_ ridiculous and actually has me no longer caring about the series). What I find interesting about high fantasy being disliked is how much almost all of us were willing to engage with it when we were young. Spongebob Squarepants. My Little Pony. He-Man. Transformers: Beast Wars. Avatar, The Last Airbender. One Piece. These were all _fantastically_ popular fantasy, and definitely _high_ fantasy as the worlds were either not connected _at all,_ or only superficially (like in Spongebob), and yet kids loved them. Maybe it's the split between animation and live-action which drives this idea that we're supposed to take the live action more seriously? Anyway, have a nice day!

I liked this video and in particular appreciated your reference to loving fantasy being a healthy escapist practice. I’m not a fan of how you divided up the low, middle, and high fantasies but I can see your logic. I think that being in a different world is just one element, there are also elements of different people and different time. The further one moves away from the ‘real world’ in any or all three of those elements the greater our imagination needs to stretch. …a long time ago in a galaxy far far away… says it all. Time, place, and people and how far away they are from us, here and now, is what ultimately determines how low to high the fantasy is.

Can we get the backgroung music please 🙏

Thanks for your recommendation at the end of the video that many more people could and should get interested in fantasy. That's very apt! Maybe I'll pick up a series and start reading! I haven't read a fiction book even in maybe 10 years, but I love stories. Thanks!

where would you place "He who fights with monsters"

The thing with the MCU is that it shows that SF, especially Soft Science Fiction and Fantasy are basically the same thing just presented differently and the distinction between it is ultimately arbitrary.

Another reference of Middle Fantasy could be Patrick Rothfuss' book series Kingkiller : a stro,gly built world, but explored step by step through the chronicles of a protagonist. And of course Robin Hobb's Farsseer Trilogy and its sequels

Well said. Other Middle Fantasy; Kathrine Kurtz Deryni Series. Placed in a middle ages setting, with Christianity, etc, but with an entirely different map of the world. Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover Series. Technically science fiction but set on a lost colony world where physic powers (basically magick) are cultivated in a feudal society where very different customs and ideas have emerged. The other one I can think of is the amazing Amber series by Zelazny that is set in a multiverse where the only true wold is Amber. The royalty of Amber can walk the shadows (worlds like our Earth) and travel through at the alternative possibilities.

Great explanation video, thanks so much for the clarity! :)

I love both high and low fantasy! A recent series that I liked a lot was The Portal Wars Saga. They were super great!

One key of Tolkien success is the fact that the hobbit society is very close to the English one of Tolkien’s time. The first chapters of LOTR are low fantasy in many ways as they mainly describe normal people lifes. And during all the story, Tolkien keep reminding us this normal life, from Merry and Pippin smoking in Isengard or Sam preparing rabbits not far from Minas Morgul. Tolkien was well aware of the effort needed to enter his world and made everything possible to help his readers. He opposed to the publication of the Silmarillon for that reason : the lack of hobbits of equivalent made it too hard to read to be published as a good story.

I found two definitions on low fantasy in Wikipedia. The first one, which you used for this video: "Low fantasy, or intrusion fantasy, is a subgenre of fantasy fiction in which magical events intrude on an otherwise-normal world." The second one reads: "An alternative definition, rests on the story and characters being more realistic and less mythic in scope." I much more prefer the second one. By the first definition GoT, a world where the everyday life of mostly every inhabitant is like the life of a medieval person, is said to be high fantasy. And Harry Potter puts us in such a fantastical world where simple things like eating, reading the newspaper and transportation are magical, and that should be classified as magical? I find this distinction by the first definition not even corresponding with the name of the low/high fantasy genre. I prefer the term intrusion fantasy to describe the first and high/low to describe the second.

There's one high fantasy setting people forget to put into the genre: Star Wars. It's got -fantasy- alien races, -samurai templar space wizards- Jedi, -magical powers- the force and everything. It's not sci-fi, like the Interstellar, Star Trek or the Expanse, but high fantasy shoved into space. Another example of this genre would be Warhammer. It's a high fantasy setting, and when the authors put it in space, it became way more popular. Space fantasy definitely is a genre separate from sci-fi.

Thank you for this video. I am thrilled that the algorithm brought me here. I appreciated the examples you gave for Low fantasy (not to be mistaken with urban fantasy, which is a subgenre of Low fantasy) and High fantasy; the Middle fantasy category is a good one. I have some observations to make to the introductory remarks: as a classical philologist by profession, I would say that one cannot apply the label of fantasy to myths and legends-or even epic poems-of the past for the simple reason that they were not meant to be considered fantastical. Take the Iliad: it takes itself to be a historical account of what happened. It is of little importance that later generations of Greeks-since the Vth century-and Romans took it to be 'fantastical,' the text is not built as such. If one wants to find the 'fantasy' spirit in antiquity, one has to look at later periods and at works such as Lucian's True History or the novels (especially, in Latin, Apuleius' Golden Ass). On the other hand, I really appreciated the brief analysis of the famous quote by Tolkien on escapism: it is a very sharp point that he made, even though the deserter's flight today does not speak as powerfully as it did in his times. Keep up the excellent work!

Very good video, it got me thinking

Some really great points Aidan, I agree that high fantasy can be a lot to process but I guess that makes it rewarding as well. I wrote a book that is high fantasy but I worked really hard on its readablity so it's easier to get into. It's called The Goodness Potion and its Side-Effects if you want to check it out. Thanks for the video! :)

I'm personally rather fond of portal fantasy stories (or "isekai" if you will) since they practically always feature fish-out-of-water type main characters. That gives you a reason to explain stuff without blatantly info-dumping a lot of exposition, as the protagonist will be just as clueless about the setting as the reader. That way they can both learn everything they need to know together in a way that seems natural.

I like to recommend the Riftwar Cycle by Raymond Feist. It keeps constantly shifting between middle fantasy (much of the story is very real war and politics) and high fantasy (powerful magic users, and demon hordes).

Never heard of this kind of terminology, but this was interesting.

Great breakdown! Keep up the good work! 😊

I thought a pretty clear distinction is that high fantasy takes place in a non-Earth setting, which is pretty objective (although I guess there are weird gray lines like LotR)

My three favorite High Fantasy franchises are the Dominaria Series (over 100 books all covering the same in game MTG universe. The Ice Age Cycle is very good), The War of the Spider Queen (from D&D), and The Sword of Truth series.

Will always stand by the opinion that star wars is high fantasy.

Cool Video! Interesting suggestion including Middle Fantasy :))

You classified Avatar: The Last Airbender as being High Fantasy, and I wholeheartedly agree with that, but what about Legend of Korra? It is obviously set on the same planet as ATLA, but its 1920s-inspired aesthetic brings in many more elements that make it feel more similar to the real world-cars, radios, movies, telephones, etc. Would that maybe be another example of Middle Fantasy?

So would you say Outlander would also be middle fantasy?

Where does the nasuverse fall in this scale? While aspects are set in "our world" , thats just parts of it.

GoT delivers elements of high fantasy in a Trojan horse disguised as middle or low fantasy. The further into the series, the more magic is brought back into the world, and before you know it you have wights and white walkers, dragons, blood magic, children of the forest, warging, warlocks at The House of the Undying, the Faceless Men, etc

There's the Rivers of London series, which is Low Fantasy (sort of what if Harry Potter became a London detective), and the roots of LOTR come from the Norse Sagas as well as the Prose and Poetic Eddas.

Is The Dark Crystal or Gormenghast trilogy High Fantasy?

Where would place Philp Pullman's "dark metalis" ?

change my mind: Star Wars is high fantasy you get a complete new world/universe, different laws of physics, magicians (Jedi & Sith), different invented societies, monsters etc

Would Star Wars be considered (high) fantasy?

Redwall is a high fantasy novel that I would HIGHLY recomend. Adults and children will enjoy it to the same level however it can be quite dark, brutal and sometimes quite gorry with the character deaths. Important characters are sometimes brutally killed. It can depict darker themes like slavery and famin. Although it can be quite mature the darker themes in redwall are presented in a 12+ manner and would probablly be okay for most children. It can also be quite hard to understand at some points because of the complicated vocabulary and complicated plot. If you are planing on introducing a younger child to it consider reading it to or with them. SUMMARY: It is set in a medieval world ruled by british woodland animals. In each books there is usually a primary protagonist and main villain. There are 22 books with the first one of course being redwall. Once again highly recomend!

Great video, very informative any also entertaining!

The Dragonlance Chronicles are a favorite high fantasy series of mine. There are dozens of books set in that universe, but I think the original two trilogies (six books) are the best.

Great video, really enjoyed this

For a few years, I have been developing and writing some stories for a world that would have to be considered fantasy, but has less fantastical elements than low fantasy. There are no magic systems, or active deities, or fantastical races. It is based heavily on the real world but with entirely different geography which heavily influences cultures, and a very different history. Some plants and animals are real, others are extinct in real life, and others are made up, including dragons. Some of these differences are more realistic or fantastical than others. I can think of a few other fantasy series with similarly minimal fantastical elements apart from being in a different world, such as Redwall and Ranger's Apprentice. I read both of these from a rather young age. All the characters in Redwall are small animals, sure, but in the dozen or so books I read, I don't really remember anything explicitly magical or otherworldly on a different level. In the Ranger's Apprentice series, there are a couple of fantastical races in the first two books, but they never appear again and from that point on, the whole series scrupulously avoids anything fantastical. The realistic sense is even furthered in the eleventh book anthology, which contains a section following archeologists recovering centuries old documents pertaining to the lives of the series' main characters. I also read the Warriors series, which is set in an apparently contemporary world following cats, with some mythology, making it more like low fantasy, perhaps, though it is still very grounded feeling. I'm not sure what to call this kind of fantasy, perhaps just extra-low fantasy, or alternative universe fiction in a historically inspired setting, or fantasy by technicality. This is not to say that I don't like higher fantasy. I have long enjoyed Tolkien's works, had enjoyed Harry Potter, and more recently have read other fantasy series, including the Cosmere, the First Law, and ASoIaF. I developed a magic system some years ago, but haven't come up with a story to pair it with.

A great Isekai series is the Beyonders series by Brandon Mull. A kid named Jason falls into a fully fantasy world and its so much fun

Garth Nix's books in his "Abhorsen" or "North Kingdom" series are some of my favorite fantasy books of all time, they feel so different than any other piece of fantasy content. You should check out at least the first book in the series "Sabriel".

I'd beg to differ. From my point of view, the level of fantasy is more about how grand and other worldly the magic system and creatures are, rather than whether or not it takes place in another world. Now, there's some merit to the idea of needing to learn a lot of history and lore and rules that apply to a different world, but I'd argue that something like Harry Potter, despite taking place on Earth, is actually a quite high level of fantasy, just because of how abundant and physics-defying the magic is. In a certain sense LOTR is actually more grounded in reality than Harry Potter

What would you say Redwall is? Basically Middle Fantasy if we accept talking animals as normal characters?

Is The NeverEnding Story middle fantasy or isekai?

Great video. Have long said I don’t care for fantasy but I enjoy Harry Potter to a crazy degree and love game of thrones. In both cases I realise I love the depth of the characters (as I do with so many movies) and the genre can be anything,in those cases the fantasy just being icing on the themes and premise.

You should definitely check out the Wind Singer trilogy. They’re definitely some of the most unique modern fantasy works you can read, and are totally readable.

Definitely check out RA Salvatore's Legend of Drizzt series. It's set in The forgotten realms of D&D.

So glad you mentioned Prydain! Besides Tolkien's legendarium those are my favorite. The Black Cauldron movie was disappointing but still a little fun, but nothing like the books

I do agree with your points on Isekai/people transported to the fantasy world issue despite being a big fan of the trope. Personally unless you are making a comedy where the point is making fun of the absurdity of the world, its important for immersion for the characters to get used to the world and accept what is happening to them. Basically be shocked and confused by the world at first but be accepting of the new reality by the end of the prologue with the only questioning of it being for explanation of material that the reader needs exposition for. AN interesting discussion I have seen with this type of story telling is whether it is even necessary in some stories. there are many stories, especially in manga or JRPGs, where the person is reincarnated or transported to the new world but after the "prologue" the character barely acknowledges the fact that they have been transported to a new world or anything about their old life. Leading to some feeling that the story could have just been written with the character being a normal denizen of the world and the writer is just using this as a crutch to explain why the character needs exposition dumps in the beginning of the story.

Nice video. I recently read The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu. It is Asian inspired fantasy and it reads very much like a fictional folklore/history and not like a typical novel. It not filled with magical races and wizards. It may fit nicely into your “middle fantasy” category.