TO WRITERS, FROM READERS: MALE CHARACTERS

In this 5th wave of internet alpha bro culture, I'm so happy to finally see men telling other men that the true blueprint of an "alpha male" is Aragorn from LotR. He's respectful to everyone, including women, he's patient, kind, confident, and what sets him on his arc is his desire to protect the people who can't protect themselves.

Interesting that the male love interest in mistborn era 1 is often criticised as being a weak character. I always thought he was compelling precisely because he was different from your classic, cliché alpha male romantic lead. Really enjoyed this video! ❤

Elo in Godkiller by Hannah Kaner, was a great baker and a great warrior. The story also involves his love for his male friend and his willingness to sacrifice for his friend. These videos are such a great idea, thanks.

Anyone else zooming in on her bookshelf for books to read? Just me? 😂❤

I don't think Bilbo Baggins gets enough credit as a well-rounded male MC. He's happy with his comfortable life but not immune to adventure, will geek out about maps and poetry if given time, is clever and witty as well as very brave, can be petty and sassy, and can think he knows best on slim evidence. Multidimensional, in other words.
On your tangent of epic fantasy by women, Elizabeth Haydon and Juliet E. McKenna are ones I haven't seen talked about on Booktube. Both series, maybe not coincidentally, start with a focus on a female main character, but expand as they go. For epic fantasy by a woman that centers male main characters, Carol Berg is a favorite of mine.

For fantasy stories with male main characters, look to the classics: The Chronicles of Amber, Lord of the Rings, the Wizard of Earthsea, American Gods, Three Hearts and Three Lions, Thieves World (has both male and female characters), the Witcher, the Belgariad, most of Terry Pratchett, Good Omens, Conan the Barbarian, Silverlock, the Elric Saga, Fafhard and the Grey Mouser, The Way of Shadows, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Dark is Rising, The Shadow of the Torturer, Thomas Covenant, to name just a few. Look for fantasy books published before the year 2000 and you'll find predominantly male characters.

I'm glad you made this video. For as funny and true as the whole "men writing women" thing often is, I really don't think the opposite has much of a leg to stand on.

Possessive behaviour just translates as insecurity to me, whether the person is a man or a woman. Someone like your typical alpha male love interest just seem like he has some attachment issues, maybe separation anxiety, I would love to see a story exploring that for once, the guy recognizes he has some deep issues and strives to be better instead of all the women around him romanticizing his possessiveness.

Beautiful perspective and very appreciated. As a bi guy it's hard not to see the similarities between straight men obsessing over simplistic stereotypes of the very woman they're obsessed with and straight women projecting their stereotypical male fantasies onto men

Check out The Hexoligist by Josiah Bancroft. It has a middle-aged married couple as the main characters. They are happily married and are a detective team solving magical mysteries. Loved seeing a different age and dynamic in a fantasy story.

I recently rewatched Legend of Korra (the sequel to Avatar: The Last Airbender), and one thing that stood out to me was how many dads are in the show! And these dads are really involved in their kids' lives and grow as characters throughout the series. Tenzin, Hiroshi, Tonraq, and a few others (no spoilers here!) give us different perspectives of fatherhood. The show also puts a lot of focus on how parents' relationships with their own parents shape how they raise their kids. It's all about parents making mistakes and learning from them, which is pretty rare in fantasy.

That was great. I like how people participate in these discussions. Awesome series.

My current hero is a thin, bookish and introspective scholarly type. He also carries a five foot long two handed saber.
He will be facing off with the dark sorceress, who turns out to be his long lost older sister.
I expect a very exciting family reunion.

male characters peaked with Kronk from Emperor's New Groove /j

Yeah one of my biggest problems is I love young adult/teen contemporary fantasy or paranormal fiction since I was a teenager and yet there's rarely any male protagonists or perspectives.

On the topic of the gender of publishing, its well studied that men don't read books written by women about women. They have a much stronger preference for books written by men about men than women do for books written by women about women.

This is why you'll see lots of women use gender neutral names (Robin Hobb, V E Schwab, J K Rowling), and write about male characters. "Vicious by Victoria Schwab" about Vicky Vale and Ellie Cardale does not sell as well as "Vicious by V E Schwab" about Victor and Eli. "Harriet Potter by Joanne Rowling" would never have had the success of "Harry Potter by J K Rowling".

It's a trend that shows up across media. Men watch shows and movies about men far more than women watch shows and movies about women. Both men and women prefer listening to music of the same sex as them, but for women it's far closer to 50-50, and men almost exclusively listen to music by men.

What the hell is wrong with smelling like a tree? Trees are awesome

I seem to have missed this community tab, but what I'd like to add to what you touched upon in the video regarding male friendships is that I'd love to see more close friendships between men. I don't know if 'physical' is the right word, but with female friends you see it all the time how they hug each other, hold hands, even kiss and it's purely platonic still. It'd be cool to see this more with men as well instead of viewing it as 'unmanly' or whatever

One statistic i found super interesting was provided by author Pirateaba about her webserial The Wandering Inn (portal fantasy with multiple PoVs). She did a poll a few months back about her readership demographics and it came in something extreme like 85% male. I was honestly stunned by that as I had been sure that if any web serial would have a decent female audience it would be The Wandering Inn.

Anyways, it has made me rather curious about the demographics of fantasy in general. I am well aware that women read fantasy... I just dont know what the ratio is to male readers

One of the best flawed father characters I've read is the main character of Kings of the Wyld by Nicolas Eames 🙂