but the whole noble society does work on the basis of exploiting those underneath them (including among nobles) while still strenghening noble society against everyone else. And although nobles do have much better material conditions than everyone else nobility isn't viewed as good or romanticized.

[–] CriticalResist8@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 2 weeks ago

I know they work for a pittance (I think), but I find it cool how in Japan amateur writers and mangaka can get discovered and their stories published on paper and distributed around the world. Doesn't really seem to happen in the West, the best you can hope for is to self-publish at your cost.

[–] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 8 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I am not saying there aren't good examples of this. But we both know 99% of stories that involve monarchy tropes do it to get to the power fantasy in the shortest possible amount of time. And those also almost universally have an adventurers guild, a walled city with no fields or other visible way to get food around it and an inspect/analysis skill and slavery...