What story/character tropes do you dislike or hate?

[twilitfalchion]

This can apply to any form of entertainment, games, books, anime, etc. We all have our own preferences when it comes to how a story and its characters are written, so what story or character tropes do you dislike or hate?

First one that comes to mind for me is the yandere trope. I especially dislike every yandere character in FE (since that's a series I'm very familiar with) and I can't imagine I'd ever like them in any other entertainment medium. Although I'll give FE15 some props for portraying the trope in a believable way with Faye's character, who didn't act like she was insane per se, but had a moderate obsession with Alm that negatively affected her interactions with both him and his allies.

Another trope I hate is the replacement villain trope, like in Twilight Princess where Zant was hyped up to be the main villain of the game but was switched out with Ganondorf in what felt like a last-minute change that seemed to come out of nowhere. In general, I hate the idea of setting up any character as the expected villain of a story, only to reveal someone higher up as the true villain. It seems nonsensical to put so much effort in developing a character only for them to be replaced.

 

[Fraxinus]

I don't like tsunderes very much because the purpose of the trope is to fake a character development arc that is completely dependent on them falling in love. It makes whatever depth you grant the character completely pointless when their entire purpose is reducing them into being a love interest. Their transition into being all loveydovey is oftentimes very abrupt, fake and over the top, and gives me whiplash. It's especially bad with female tsunderes. The trope does not exist outside of a situation where romance is not present, and that is pretty sickening. Similar to yanderes in that regard, their entire personality depends on another person. There are some okay tsundere characters out there that I don't mind, and it's pretty dependent on their "caring side" or whatever, not actually being too drastic our out of character to how they were before. But overall the trope is really irritating to me as someone who hates cheap and forced romance.

Which brings me to my next one. Forced romance with the main characters. How many times have I watched anything, and knew the main character was going to end up with the only female character in the main cast? It's so bologna and is oftentimes handled in an almost manipulative and abusive fashion. I also have a special layer of criticism for the romance in the Legend of Korra. Makorra was the worst decision ever, the fact that Korra even ended up in a relationship at all was so out of character for her as an independent character. She absolutely wouldn't have changed her personality so abruptly because "man hot, must become weak for him." Glad they broke up. Korrasami has less immediate issues as Korra did become less selfish and egotistical and **** as time went on and probably had some capacity for being in a relationship, but it still feels incredibly shoehorned in--main characters are *required* to end up in a relationship in any media, and it just really bothers me. I blame stuff like this for people irl feeling entitled to relationships with their friends, because being friends isnt good enough for some reason.

I'd like to correct you about Faye though. She was less of a Tharja and more of a Cordelia. She wasn't a yandere, but still creepy nonetheless. People like Cordelia for some reason even though she has Faye problems.

EDIT: Forgot one. I'm not gonna go too much in detail, but stories whose resolutions involve "none of this ever happened" or rewriting the world to prevent the story from happening or whatever. If you're gonna make a story reach such dire and apocalyptic heights, you better keep the momentum and have a better way of finding a way out of it than just giving the main characters power to magically put things back to how they were. Bonus points: no one knows who the main characters are after they reset the world.

 

[twilitfalchion]

I'd like to correct you about Faye though. She was less of a Tharja and more of a Cordelia. She wasn't a yandere, but still creepy nonetheless. People like Cordelia for some reason even though she has Faye problems.

I'd agree that Cordelia's Chrom obsession was overplayed, but with lines like "Now, shall I head back out there and slay more of your enemies for you?!" and "Oh, but don't worry—I drank a bunch of tea, so I'm ready to kill in your name! Just point me at your enemies and watch me go!" it's hard for me to not consider Faye a yandere.

But I understand if you feel differently. Cordelia never seemed to me like her mental stability was in question, whereas Faye always seemed a bit unstable to me.

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

I don't like Mary Sues or Gary Stus in general.

 

[Fraxinus]

Cordelia never seemed to me like her mental stability was in question, whereas Faye always seemed a bit unstable to me.

I think the key difference is Cordelia was aware that Chrom didn't notice her in that way, whereas Faye was not aware Alm had "friendzoned" her. That makes Faye more potentially abusive than Cordelia, but idk if I'd consider her a yandere? If Faye was truly yandere, she'd have harassed Celica for being someone who is in the way of her being with Alm.
Wasn't aware of/don't remember either of those quotes but they seem pretty non differentiable to me without context, and idk if either of those things are straight up yandere. But their core character is the same in being unrequited love, in my opinion though. Which is another annoying trope, haha.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

yeah I'm sick of tsunderes too, tron bonne and tetra were enough for me

the token black/other ethnic character in a friend group, it really just feels like they throw in that bit of diversity b/c they feel like they have to, it works out fine sometimes but other times it just sticks out to me

also when all the girls fawn over the main character, especially if they to make him seem relatable, like nah, I ain't relating to that in the slightest

 

[Azure Sage]

I despise love triangles so much. Pretty much any "relationship drama" where characters can't decide who they like and they get hurt back and forth. Basically what S1 of Legend of Korra did. Star vs The Forces of Evil did it too. Those are the first examples that come to mind. I absolutely loathe that trope. I want to see healthy and happy relationships in media. Miss me with that drama bull****.

Like @Fraxinus I also really hate the trope where the end resolution is to reset the world/go back in time so the main conflict never happened. It completely invalidates all of the growth the characters have gone through. To me, doing that is the same as spitting in the face of your own writing. It makes me really angry.

 

[Spirit]

Amnesia.

I ****ing hate amnesia.

Most media gets amnesia wrong and makes it so that characters are full blanks, which isn't how amnesia actually works.

It feels as if it is used as a get out of jail free card so that you don't have to craft a proper character and just design something reactionary to move the plot along, it bugs me so much.

The only time I've seen amnesia done well was in Tales of the Abyss.

This game made the very worst first impression, it had a main character who had amnesia and was an absolute prick. The game also didn't shut up about his amnesia for the longest time too, and I was so close to putting it down so many times...

But then, because Tales has good writing, the game did something very clever which made everything make more sense and cast everything in a new light, but this is the one and only time where amnesia was used well in anything I've experienced in media, and even then I'm not sure it actually counts.

But yeah, **** amnesia, it's dull and lazy writing. Stop it!

 

[TheGreatCthulhu]

Another one is depicting dinosaurs inaccurately.

I recently changed my major to paleontology, but even before then, I kept up to date with the science on dinosaurs.

Depicting dromaeosaurs (dinosaurs like Velociraptor) without their plumage that we know they had.

Depicting T. rex as smaller and more gracile than it actually was. It was basically solid muscle in reality, had great vision, was a successful predator (being a pure scavenger is a notion that's long been discarded), and basically depicting it as anything less than an apex predator is inaccurate.

Spinosaurs are always depicted wrong. For example Spinosaurus doesn't have its crazy spined tail that in 2020, we recently discovered it had. Also depicting it as a terrestrial carnivore is inaccurate. Recent studies suggest a more semi-aquatic lifestyle, as deduced by the density of its bones, and the oxygen isotope ratios showing something more in line with a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

Pterosaurs are always depicted wrong. Even the Jurassic Park franchise still depicts them as gangly, naked flying reptiles, which is horrifically inaccurate, especially considering the air sacs in their bodies that we now know they had, having lean, powerful muscles for purposes of flight, and being covered in a feather like down called pycnofibers. So they were fluffy.

Basically, I'm always criticizing popular culture's depiction of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, or really any extinct paleo-fauna, because the deeper I get into my major, the worse it gets.

Just not really something I can turn off.

Frankly, it's the same thing with sword fighting. Sword fighting in film always looks ridiculous and silly to me, but don't get me started on that.

 

[Dizzi]

The obvious new character starts evil and then becomes thw nice guy....

 

[Sheikah_Witch]

I'm getting sick of the "all along" plot twits. Like "The murderer was the bachelor, ALL ALONG.". Metal Gear does this in every single game, the first game pulled it off well, but Ocelot being Liquid ALL ALONG was sooooo forced. Not saying the trope can't be done well, but I've personally experienced far too many stories like that now.

Ps the new Star Wars trilogy contains a lot of things mentioned in this thread, hehe.

 

[GoronGainz]

Bad guy doesn't kill good guy because:

a. it's not worth their time
b. they're no threat to them clearly
c. out of time & can't spare 2 seconds to finish them off because.......reasons

Good guy comes back later & beats bad guy with the power of friendship & manages to conveniently stop the bad guys evil plans that's been years in the making.

Bad guy: "If only I'd killed you when I had the chance......"

yeah, if only

 

[Dizzi]

Bad guy explains his whole plan instead of killing good guy thereby letting good guy foil that plan....

 

[Deleted member 90890]

When a former enemy becomes your ally and they get nerfed.

 

[Mamono101]

Happy Endings:

Happy Endings very often feel unrealistic to most stories. I find that they can often feel forced or out place which makes them jarring compared to the rest of the story. Sometimes characters just don’t deserve happiness, and other times serious traumatic events don’t just fade into nothingness where the main character is absolutely fine and was psychologically unaffected by their ordeal. Happy endings are touted too much as the way things should be in a perfectly constructed version of reality, and they just don’t always work or feel right to me a lot of the time. They often feel like they’re lazy. shoehorned in endings because that’s the way the author thinks the audience wants the story to end. Happy doesn’t automatically equal a satisfying ending. Sometimes things just need to be sad or linger. A happy ending needs to be earned by the characters’ actions, motivations, and the actual plot. It needs to come about in a way that feels natural to the sum of the parts of the plot. Not just because a happy ending is what people expect.

Breaking The Tension With Comedy:

People who know me really well know that this is a huge pet peeve of mine in film and TV. Not every serious or dramatic moment needs to be broken and undercut with a joke, a one liner or a snarky comment. When tension is undercut by comedy, I feel that any drama that the scene had been building up has been invalidated by the joke. What was the point in building that sad moment if you’re going to play it for a laugh anyway? An audience doesn’t constantly need to be pandered to and protected from sadness in media. Comedy has its place and I don’t think undercutting dramatic tension is it. Stan Lee cameos are a great example of this. I don’t particularly like most of the Marvel films, and those cameos became more intrusive to the films as they became expected. As a result, the cameos detract from the actual tension and action going on in those scenes and is often played for an unnecessary amount of time just for a laugh at a moment that feels out of place to the plot.

The Happy Family:

For reasons I’m not going into, this is often played to the point where it feels sickeningly unrealistic. I’m sure there are plenty of you out there who are content with your family units, and that’s absolutely OK if you are. This trope has been slowly changing but it’s not changing fast enough for my liking. Horror films and dramatic films very often will have portrayals I find more favourable. Familial relationships such as in the film The Squid and the Whale speak to me on a spiritual level.

If You Have ASD You’re Either Incapable Of Taking Care Of Yourself, Or You Have Savant Syndrome:

I feel like this one’s pretty self-explanatory as to why I dislike it. While shows like The A Word are a step in the right direction, they are few and far between.

People With Disabilities Can’t Be The Hero Unless They’re Inspirational:

This is a very under-represented group of people in literature and film. While there have been some recent films that have attempted to correct this, there are almost no depictions of people with disabilities as regular people in films. This is to say films where the disability is not in some way used as story manipulation for “an inspirational story” (I have a disability I am sad. I overcome my disability I am happy.). The character’s disability, whether mental or physical should be treated as an intrinsic part of their person. Not something to overcome, but just a part of that particular character’s life. (On a side note, if anyone knows a film, book or TV show with representation in line with what I’ve written, please PM me.)