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.

RUSSELL CROWE SAYS 'GLADIATOR II' FAILED BECAUSE IT LACKED ORIGINAL FILM'S 'MORAL CORE' 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.

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.

WE SHOULD TELL REAL AMERICAN ADVENTURE STORIES TO TEACH OUR BOYS ABOUT HEROES The smut is a distraction from the good of fantasy: the imagined worlds, heroes and adventures that call its fans to a higher ethos.