I suspect it’s copycats trying to catch the same lightning that struck ArcaneCadence tbh. There’ll be a ton of them over the next 6 months then people will stop and try and write a new version of the next big success.

I think it's less a swing and more a different genre splice. Think less progression fantasy, more Reacher with stats. Competency porn and cutting away the stakes of whether nameless mook #5 will stop our hero (no, they won't).

LitRPG is a weirdly defined genre, like fantasy in general, and I think we'll see more offshoots/splices (like how Mistborn's largely a heist, Harry Potter is mystery, etc.).

That implies the pendulum ever swung OFF it. Which it kind of hasn't. Like regression stories have been popular pretty consistently for years, they just aren't always the absolute top of the heap. It's a subgenre people like that gets pretty decent attention at most times. To cite the manwha industry (or manhua, because CNs have just as much crossover as KRs if not more with this genre) 'A returner's magic should be special' and "The beginning after the end" were both massively popular when they came out like a decade ago and recently got animes. Reborn Apocalypse is a more western PF pull, and honestly I think the only reason its not way more successful is because the author is just SO inconsistent that it drives a lot of people away.

I think the action manhwa industry is basically a more mature version of western litrpgs and they went through this same sort of transformation. A ton of current manhwa are less “Solo Leveling” and more “Leveling with the Gods”.

Frankly it reeks of wanting to “skip to the good part” personally, though I think it can be an interesting way to tell some stories. Especially stories where regret and catharsis are thematically central, beyond just being what the protagonist feels.

But it doesn’t work as well for power fantasies. Like you mentioned, we lose a lot of the progression, a lot of early character development (told through choppy flashbacks), and we lose the opportunity to grow into a world with the MC. In practice, you don’t really get as in-depth of a look into the power systems/world-building/magic as you would with a naive protagonist. It also can contribute to styles of storytelling that I find annoying, like when information is frequently withheld from the reader by the MC for seemingly no reason. At least it doesn’t work for me, obviously this kind of story is doing really well so audiences seems receptive.

I'm not up to date on what the 'Archmage trope' is.

However, I'll take a guess that it's based on what I'm going to call a 'Start Strong' ('Start Weak' being more common) writing premise. Can be in the form of soft power (political connections, money, time, insight, knowledge) Or Hard power (Physical/Magical power).

I don't think it's a pendulum, as I'm sure these stories were being written already. Maybe they were just not found by people or didn't have enough 'pull' to get a wider audience.

What will probably happen is the 'Start Strong' will branch out more. And the 'Same World' and 'Different World' writing premises will get even more subtypes.

Alot of it's gonna be not good, just like how most creative writing tends to be.

Personally, I would like a 'Start Strong' premise more. It can just do away with the illusion of progression a lot of stories do. And take all that time and focus more on character development. Or even focus on writing a group of people versus just one person.

Its the OP MC genre, its kinda different

I'm just confused how it took so long for this trope to become more popular.litrpg most often take inspiration from eastern light novels. Overlord is one of the most popular Japanese light novels in both Japan and in the west and the archmage trope is basically a copy of it. Personally, I loved overlord so I'm enjoying this.

I don't think it's a pendulum swing. I'm sure the fans of "grind from zero..." are still fans of that trope and will still read it. I think the Archmage trope gaining popularity is simply because it's different.

After you've read several series using the same trope, something different will surely catch your eye. If not, you'll just burn yourself out.

I've read several series utilizing both tropes and I do not have a preference. But the Archmage trope better allows for the use of the Regression and Reincarnation tropes. And I enjoy those very much. And now that I'm reading various "Healer" series, again, the Archmage, Reincarnation or Regression trope facilitates most of these stories (the ones by Russian authors anyway).

Also, with most of the "Grind From Zero..." series that I enjoy, I'm currently waiting for the next book. So it allows me to check out other avenues.

Yes, they're distilled aura farming, they're going to be a regular occurrence I think.

I think its people branching out in power fantasy development; from the 'we'll get there someday, imagine yourself on this journey' to the 'we're fuckin here guys, this power is ours and its awesome'

I feel like Overlord really set the curve for this

Authors started copying japanese stories instead of chinese.

In cultivation novels you have a noob mc, he gets a cheat, then rises in every story arc.

In japanese novels, you have a noob mc, he gets a cheat, becomes the stonrgest character in the whole book in chapter 1. Different anime series made this much more popular.

It's not really a swing, but I do feel it's a natural branch from progression fantasy (and yes I know what sub I'm in but the two have a very heavy overlap). Progression fantasy is about starting weak and getting strong, but some people prefer the strong part and would rather skip the rest, so it makes sense that stories filling that desire would show up. All it took then was for one to hit it big, in this case New Life As A Max Level Archmage, and the trend-chasers pile on and suddenly that branch has become a distinct sub-genre.

Not a fan of OP anything so I probably won't be reading anything in that trend.