If Princess/Ladyknight pairings are so cliche, why are there few, if any, examples of them in popular fantasy media?

Is this just a roundabout way of fishing for recommendations?

It's not a cliche. You and the person who told you that (if they exist) don't know what you're talking about.

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lesbian cliches are only possible in stories with lesbians

>lesbiens are inherently magical realm fetish fuel

I've just finished the manuscript for my first novel. It features Princess/Ladyknight

Twist: The Princess is FUCKING JACKED and uses a greatsword regularly, saves her ladyknight's life in the end.

Also it's got mecha and airships with tesla death rays.

It's only cliche on Veeky Forums, because neckbeards.
The only single solitary example of a noble having a homosexual relationship with their knight is Renly and Loras in aSoIaF/GoT and in aSoIaF, it was so subtle it had to be confirmed by the author later.

>why are there cliches in the popular media?

It's not common, it's just considered magical realm because most of the people that talk about it do so to get hard.

only example that I can think of, that is.

DM did one where the princess was a dragon and the knight was mostly an interpreter.

Not necessarily, but there's a high chance of it. And as a concept, the fact that we both jumped to lesbians when sex isn't mentioned at all in the OP shows how something like this has a certain 'image' to it.

Because they're stupid too.

It's a simple subversion of a popular cliche, so it isn't an unfamiliar idea to anyone even if it never really comes up.

>a space-princess and power-armored ladyknight scifi opera will never spring fully-formed out of my imagination like Eve from the rib

Lay me down to rest eternal, O merciful Lord

Because no-one really likes it. It smacks of pandering.

To be fair, Brienne is described as ugly as fuck, to the point she'll fail the paper bag test. Also, she likes Jamie.

It's a lot hotter when eventually, one of them has to marry a guy, revealing how male power triumphs over the friendship between women with stark regularity, re-establishing traditional relationships.

It's like how in Japan, psuedo-lesbian feelings are a phase a girl grows out of, once she starts being attracted to guys.

I've actually thought the opposite would be a neat story element. That is, a very strong bond between a male knight and a prince, in a completely platonic way, probably with the male knight sworn to protect the prince. Put big emphasis on the brotherly love that's common in a lot of ancient stories.

The best ancient example I can think of is Achilles and Patroklos, but it's a weird one because the "knight" in question is the weaker of the two, whereas the prince is a killing machine. The best contemporary example I can think of is with the Twin Princes in Dark Souls 3, and that one takes the brotherly love element very literally because they are, in fact, brothers. All the same, I really liked all of the details of Lorian being protective of his crippled brother, even going so far as to cripple himself to take some of the burden of the curse.

A society that has normalized romantic love between men can never enjoy platonic broship again.
All will be subject to yaoi fan interpretation by most of the audience.

It's barely a thing in anime.

Final Fantasy XV.

>tfw I'll never be able to do my idea in-game because my party would just boil it down to gay jokes and miss the intricacy

I just want to have a Paladin who's searching for his best friend and then has his resolve and spirit completely shattered when he finds the prince's dead body.

Yeah. There's actually a bunch of examples I can think of from Japan, at least. I guess they've embraced that the fujoshis are gonna make all of the characters gay, anyways, so there's no reason to shy away from bro stuff.

A better example, since Achilles & Patroklos were actually queer in the text, might be Lancelot & Arthur. Sure, Lance was banging the king's wife, but he also was deeply devoted to his king. Hell, a lot of Arthurian myth is full of this. Cai & Bedivere are the others that come to mind off the top of my head, though that's more in the Welsh tradition than the later stories, since the French romances sort of forget those two exist.

I feel like it's a Veeky Forums cliche, and only a Veeky Forums cliche.

A lot of romance stories had that as a dramatic element. After all, it was expected of a knight that their first "love" was to their liege. Tristan had the same deal where he was devoted to his lord but he was still shacking up with Isolde.

And I know that Achilles and Patroklos and all. But that's just how the Greeks say 'Hello'.

I really don't like the sound of this.

Same. I'm OK with a princess being combat capable, but being stupid buff compared to her own knight is ridiculous. Maybe if there were some context of a long line of inexplicably musclebound royalty, but that's an element of a comedy.

I REALLY like the sound of this.

I REALLY could go either way on this.

>no poofy tassets
What shitty armour. Any well-done dashing swashbuckler has those English pikeman tassets.

Next thing you tell me she doesn't have a codpiece.... Pft.

I really hope you're going for some kind of comical take on this because it sounds terrible....

>sex isn't mentioned at all in the OP

>ladyknight/princess
you sure, champ?

If American
>Total Flop.

If Japanese
>Sells a million copies of the LN, gets an anime, a toy series, and front page in Shonen Jump.

Actually, it was an immortal brain wiped bodyguard and a space princess, but I haven't published it.

>If Princess/Ladyknight pairings are so cliche
It is not. It barely exists to my knowledge, especially in Western media.

The closest to this I can think of confirming to that kind of duo are Katalina and Lyria in Granblue. They're not fucking.

Truly Japan is an advanced nation, far beyond our comprehension.

To be honest, this trope was fairly popular for a few years in the 80's among the more obscure fantasy authors. Silverglass, Shadow and Sorcery, the Oathbound series by Mercedes Lackey, and a few other unremarkable exceptions. There has been a recent resurgence into the genre in the lesbian teen novelist categories.

>lesbian teen novelist categories
That's a thing?!

350 books says yes.

goodreads.com/list/show/16326.Lesbian_teen_fiction

If I click that link will Chris Handsome come to my door?

Yeah really. I have actually played that sort of thing out several times.

Not exactly the same thing, but one of the ONLY fucking elements with Joffrey that had any nuance at all was the way The Hound was both minion and father surrogate to Joff. That sort of dynamic is as weird as the relationship his parents had.

No. It's a list of books that are published and they're about teens (though some are written by teens). Goodreads has a list of books of any category you can think of, though Chuck Tingle isn't among them....last I checked.

The flood of "fantasy" books written by women has me unnerved. Anything tagged as romance seems to be smut of the worst kind.

They're not cliché. They can be interesting. Even with lesbian aspects.

The thing is, most het dudes I wouldn't trust with writing this kind of relationship well. I'd fear the "They're both GIRLS and it's HAWT" aspect would seep through too easily. Maybe disguised as "They're both GIRLS and it's CUTE" for the animefags.
The same way I wouldn't trust most het women with writing a convincing bromance between two guys.

It just seems to take a lot of effort to move away from what's hot from your point of view and get to what's a deep and interesting relationship. All the more regarding lesbian relationships, because lesbians are usually seen as a male fantasy, and are not expected to end as something serious.

But then again, writing good relationships is always difficult, whatever the components are. It's always tempting to jump up to whatever conclusion you've got in mind, instead of carefully building up things so the reader really feels implicated.

Pretty much anything "Urban Fantasy" is "porn for women" nowadays.

Preach it.

It is a mark of how far Veeky Forums has fallen when in times past you would have actual stories, plots, and situations as well as drawfags and writefags helping build entire words off of this crappy thread.

We HAD all those things, a long time ago.

Wow OP, you got nothing going on in there.

But they're both girls, and it's hot.

I'm pretty okay with this.

Dat taunting.
Dat mordhau.
Dat proper maile.

>the magical lesbians meme
Lesbians are no more special a class of human beings than any other, and it is possible for a man to write a homosexual woman in a relationship without "making it sexy." And it can be sexy as well I suppose, nothing wrong with that.

And while lesbians in real life may be as boring as anyone else, in fiction they can be as attractive and lascivious as any other person.

I personally think you're misreading what he wrote.

>yuri
>magical realm

I never said lesbians were magical or in any way special. You'll notice I mentioned bromances too; same thing.
But that's the thing. They're not special. Their relationships are going to have problems, and if it's their first homosexual relationship it's probably going to be extremely awkward. They're persons, and my point what that getting to the "juicy" parts before taking that into account is more tempting if lady on lady gets you going.
Nothing wrong with making them sexy either. But we're talking about writing relationships, and you've got to have the relationship before you get the sexy. If you even have to have the sexy. I'm having a hard time finding more than a few examples of deep, well-written female/female friendships.

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friend, you need a better play group. Your paladin's quest is exactly the sort of thing my DM likes working into games. If there's an important NPC in your backstory, you can bet your ass they'll either betray you or die.

>Sansa and Brienne
Never met.

Sound logic.

how popular would you call hentai?

you dont really see it outside of that

They did in the show.

>the show

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Is there a version of this with half decent text?

why the fuck does the princess have a cavalry lance?

anime

Meanwhile, in the season finale.
It's neither a dick nor a tentacle, it's technically SFW.

It's not hard to make one in paint

>some kind of unholy amalgamation of sugarloaf and a bascinet
bitch should have a sallet, sallet are the best

>elaborately carved dildo poking into mouth

Salletfags in a nutshell.

They are not a cliche in normal media.

They're a cliche for shitty perverted neckbeard campaigns.

I could REALLY use a title

everything that's been done once is cliche. nothing is original anymore, everything has been thought about

This reminds me of something that's been bugging me a while now.

Why is it that japanese series inexplicably have the royal family, or any other leader, be massively more powerful than their guards?

Like, what's the point in having 12 highly trained knight bodyguards when you can evaporate a mountain range with one finger?

I made that one!

The books don't matter.

You did a shit job of typesetting and should feel bad.

But the only ones that lose to cock are faggots like you

>it's got mecha and airships with tesla death rays

every epic bacon science fuck yeah guy like you needs to be fed through a wheat thresher

I think it comes from their ideas about monarchy. The Emperor was not only chosen by God like in Europe, but is an actual descendent of a God. It only makes sense for them to be stronger than a normal person

Gotta have someone to keep the enemy goons off your back while you duel your brother for the throne or whatever

wait, what is this from?

Okay.

In a fantasy setting, divine right to rule actually exists and comes with divine power. Can't keep the throne if any schmuck with a pointy wizard hat could steal it out from under you by wiggling their fingers.

Thanks. Here's a jpg version so nobody has to upload a static gif.

There is literally nothing wrong with static gifs.

>There is literally nothing wrong with static gifs

Chill bro it's just soft sci fi

You think any self-respecting princess is going to cart around a dame that could compete for a suitor's attention? Female knights and princesses don't mix unless the knight is disfigured.