Fantasy doesn’t need another 'Game of Thrones.' It needs what Tolkien understood

Tales of dragons, noble kings, evil empires, heroic quests and the battle between light and darkness have captured imaginations across cultures for years. We’re drawn to the adventure of legends and lore because something deep inside us longs to be filled with wonder. Our hearts ache to know that courage still means something, that love is worth fighting for and that the world holds more mystery than the mundanity of our daily routines.

Tolkien and Lewis understood this and built Middle-earth and Narnia as entire worlds where wonder and danger were intertwined, and courage was meaningful because it came at a cost. Their books are still adored generations later because they never confused darkness with goodness.

Today, the epic fantasy genre is more popular than ever, with audiences spending billions annually consuming comics, toys, books, movies and video games. But much of it betrays what made it great.

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Somewhere in recent years, creators began to confuse being mature with being explicit, turning the industry into a clickbait factory pumping out gratuitous sex and violence to lure eyeballs and dollars. Even worse, the industry seems to be trying to sneak it all in under parents’ noses.

Ian McKellen, seen here in a still from "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring," played Gandalf opposite Elijah Wood's Frodo, based on the book by J.R.R. Tolkien. (New Line/WireImage/Getty Images)

Pick up one of the best-selling fantasy series of the last few years and you will likely find yourself in a world the cover never warned you about. "A Court of Thorns and Roses" and "Fourth Wing" are marketed as young adult fiction in stores and school libraries despite graphic content throughout — part of the trend toward darker and more explicit YA publishing. The "Game of Thrones" universe shows where that trajectory ends. The book series alone portrays 214 separate acts of rape across 117 named victims, and a survey of the show’s own viewers concluded its pervasive sexual violence served no purpose in the story at all.

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The smut is a distraction from the good of fantasy: the imagined worlds, heroes and adventures that call its fans to a higher ethos.

The question, then, is not whether evil exists, but whether fantasy creators ask their video game players to fight it or practice it, whether fantasy authors craft stories that expose darkness or train an audience to enjoy it.

Lena Headey and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau in a scene from Season 7 of "Game of Thrones." (Hbo/Kobal / Shutterstock)

This does not mean every creature, battle, or supernatural power is evil. The Bible is full of supernatural events. It contains war, betrayal, demons, giants, dragons, sorcery and miracles. "The Lord of the Rings" depicts monsters, magic, death, corruption and the temptation of power. But these stories make clear that evil has consequences, courage matters and darkness is never confused with goodness. Children who read the "Chronicles of Narnia" must confront serious themes of deception, sacrifice and death, yet come to understand that goodness is worth dying for.

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And these are some of the best-selling titles of all time. Clearly, fantasy fans want danger, powerful enemies, imperfect characters, adventure, wonder, humor and hope. But do we really want our 15-year-olds engrossed in pornography, vulgarity, hopelessness or stories that present evil as good?

It would be easy to hear all of this and assume the answer is to steer strictly toward faith-based and conservative entertainment. Yet conservative or Christian creators must also do better. Audiences expect excellent writing, acting, music, visuals and production. Traditional or even Christian values cannot save a boring story, uninspiring characters, unconvincing worlds or bad gameplay.

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Tolkien and Lewis did not build Middle Earth or Narnia as a sermon in disguise. The truth inside their worlds came alive because the craft came first. That is the standard worth chasing. Not just a cleaner version of what already exists, but a new golden age of fantasy, written by authors, filmmakers and studios — Christian and secular alike — willing to do the harder work of making something genuinely good.

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To every storyteller reading this: the desire for wonder without wreckage is enormous. We need to craft worlds worth losing ourselves in for an afternoon, with heroes worth following into the dark because we trust they’re going to lead us back into the light. We need to remember what made fantasy worth loving in the first place and go write it again.