Cliches that you hate with a passion.

[TheFarLeft]

The US vs. Russia conflict.
- So annoying. I understand that they're one of the only nations that could pose a significant threat to us, but seriously, we're friends now. The Cold War ended a while ago. Let it go.

America being the center of the universe
- Enough said.

Nuclear Weapons
- Yep, nukes are bad. We get it. But they're overdone. Use chemical weapons, EMP's, or something else instead.

Stopping a bomb at the last .11234 of a second
- Just overdone.

Rail sequence where you're driving away from a helicopter, who is shooting a bajillion rockets at you but somehow missing them all.
- Boring and stupid. That helicopter would have blown you to shit within the first 3 seconds it saw you. Fancy driving can't outperform heat-seeking missiles.

Vehicles, ESPECIALLY jets, with infinite ammo/rockets/missiles.

Infinite spawn of henchman on motorcycles/snowmobiles/trucks chasing along side you, stopping right next to you to shoot at you instead of mowing you down from behind your vehicle (which is usually a dirt bike).

"This is terrible because one child died! Nevermind the 40 adults who died. Think of the children!"
- Uggh. I hate this so much. Yeah children are innocent, but they're going to grow up to be adults; you know, adults who can be violent and evil just like everyone else.

I have no regret for killing hundreds of anonymous henchman just doing their jobs, but i'll feel bad if I kill the bad guy.
- Lame.

Dropship dropping off enemies, but not sticking around to provide air support.

Everything in Anime.

 

[winginson]

In Games:
Bandit 1 "You see that guy dressed in black spikey armour, with a glowing sword?"
Bandit 2 "You mean the one kills dragons for fun? The one who changed his name to Invincible McDeathpunch?
Bandit 1 "Yeah, lets fuck his shit up!"

In General:
Super smart baddie with almost unlimited resources gets beaten easily by the thick as bricks lone hero/rag tag bunch.

"I have just killed many many guards who were just doing their job and just wanted to get home to their families, and didn't realise what their boss does. However I will spare the life of the guy who killed my family, was going to kill millions of people and enslave the rest of world, and is currently kicking puppies and eating kittens. I am such a emotionally fucked-up assholish manboy godamn hero!"

In Life:
"It's always darkest just before the dawn"
Because 1) It isn't and 2)It implies that everything is going to get swiftly better. Improvement is usually a long hard uphill struggle.

 

[Rooster893]

The completely unnecessary romantic sub plot.

*cough cough Journey to the Center of the Earth remake cough cough*

 

[Cowabungaa]

The one that annoys me the most would be this:

And I'm not even talking about the obvious computer illiteracy, oh no, I'm talking about the constant stream of BEEP BLEEP BEEPBEEPBOOP BEEPYBLEEP. It's goddamn everywhere in films and in TV shows. I'd go absolutely mad if my computer would beep at damned everything.

"This guy is big, thus, he is INCREDIBLY stupid." It's okay if someone outsmarts a bigger opponent. But just because someone is stronger than you doesn't mean that you'll make them run head first into a tree while saying "duuuhhh..." Stop it.

I love how Saints Row: The Third deals with that trope.

The US vs. Russia conflict

we're friends now.

Now now, that's pushing it.

 

[Manji187]

Congratulations, even though the evil you fought against is all-powerful and you had seen that its influence and corruption had spread throughout the entire world, you still managed to defeat it, save the world and prevented anything bad from happening anywhere in the world. Ever. All is well. Here, have some sunshine, rainbows and unicorns.

People are suckers for simple and happy, cuz real life is anything but.

Also; games as a medium have some growing up to do...enough with the power fantasies already.

 

[Azrael the Cat]

A sequel or prequel uses a well known line just so fans can go "aahh awesome! a shout out to the series, coooolzzz." It has really started bugging me ever since I saw Rise of The Planet of The Apes.

Spoiler

Stupid douche bag kid is about to get his shit wrecked by Caesar. He just has to say "get off me you damn dirty ape!" I'm like "wtf..." it sounded so forced I nearly got up and left the movie theater. Good thing everything else about the movie was awesome. There is no way that fucking kid would say damn dirty ape, it would be more like get off me dammit!!! or something else. That line just... it doesn't sound like he would of said it.

You DID realise, or check before posting, that that was a shout-out/reference to the 2nd most well-known line from the original Planet of the Apes?

They would probably have tried to tribute the most well-known line, except that it wouldn't really work given that the characters aren't arguing amongst each other whether they've arrived back on Earth or not, and (unlike the original) don't end the film by raging in despair when they realise that they simply landed back on Earth a while into the future (when Charlton Heston's character recognises the ruins of the statue of liberty).



[yes, I konw, SPOILERS, but the film was released in 1968, so I think most folks who are interested have seen it by now]





Great line, that one- Heston [shouting at the long-deceased politicians and generals who allowed WW3 to happen]: 'You maniacs!!! You blew it up!! Damn you! God Damn You ALL to hell!!! [incomprehensible cry of rage and grief, as the realisation of what must have occurred in their absence is too great for him to put into words]. It kind of needs context - the movie starts with one of the first manned missions into interstellar space, except something goes wrong and they land on an unrecognisable desert of a planet. One of the main character reasons that the autopilot would have taken them home automatically, and that something terrible must have happened to Earth, but Heston's character refuses to believe it.

Then they meet two groups of primates: a civilisation of talking, intelligent Apes (some of whom want to conduct horrible tests on them, the same way we do to chimps, some of whom want to kill them and some who believe that these humans are intelligent beings and should be treated with respect and kindness) and a 'tribe' of creatures that look like humans but who have devolved to the point where they no longer even have language, and are simply dumb animals.

Heston and most of the ship's crew believe that they must have landed on a far-away planet where evolution occurred slightly differently, and that chimps, gorillas and orangatangs developed higher intelligence, whilst humans didn't (i.e. he still thinks that these are all aliens and he is on another planet).

This leads to some more awesome quotes as the ship's crew tries to convince the head chimpanzee scientist, Dr Zaius, that they are capable of intelligence and kindness. E.g. Dr Zaius (revealing to the scientist who, unlike Heston, realises that they are actually on Earth): "[taking from the secret database on the pre-ape human civilisation]: Beware the beast Man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death."

Hence Heston's realisation that he was wrong on both issues - that he IS on Earth, and that humanity IS (or was) the planet-wrecking monstrosity that the ape scientists claim. Awesome, awesome ending. The ending of the new film wasn't bad...but it was nothing compared to the ending of the original, made during the height of the Cold War and shortly following near-nuclear disaster with the Cuban missile crisis,

 

[chris11246]

The obligatory love interest.

Almost every fucking movie has one. ALWAYS. and it is always a thinly masked and banal relationship, unless its the focus of the movie, and even then it can be questionable.

not every movie/videogame/ story in general needs a damn love interest for the main characters! Its like the kiss scene most every movie has. It adds nothing to the plot or the characters and is inconsequential for the most part and I despise it when some vapid romantic subplot which had no firm position in the characters motivations or the general plot somehow dictates the actions of the main characters. It just doesn't need to be there!

Is there no better character motivation for writers to come up with other than "he/she loves her/him so thats why they are doing thus and such"?

I hate this so much. If it fits with the story then fine, but not every movie needs a romantic subplot.

Also I hate the romantic comedy where the main character is in a horrible relationship, he/she meets a great person, and within a few days the main character leaves their spouse/boyfriend/girlfriend, that they've been with for years, to be with the new person.

edit:
I also hate contrived conflicts that if anybody in the movie would actually use their brains they would figure out that the conflict is stupid. This includes things like a character accidentally starts a series of events, out of their control, that does something wrong, sometimes its not even their fault, an they get blamed for it.

These movies are supposed to be romantic, but they just shows that no matter how long you're with someone, if they find someone else they will immediately leave you, even if you're married.

 

[Queen Michael]

The comedy manga/anime series that starts getting too dramatic or romantic or both. I want more comedy manga that keeps the focus on the gags.

 

[Queen Michael]

The double-post. Seriously, it's been done to death.

 

[Boom129]

Also "Science is Evil"

This. It is like people don't want their standard of living improved. Curing diseases? More efficient technology? Where do you think this comes from? The art community?

I think its more that people take modern conveniences for granted.
"All this new-fangled hibber gibber just makes things complicated. The people in the middle ages survived. Why can't we do that?"

 

[Nimcha]

TV shows where a man and a woman have to work together. 'Will they won't they' is the bane of my existence.

Well, when it comes to TV shows anyway.

 

[Queen Michael]

I hate how every time a person is about to die, they have just enough life to say something to the protagonist and die in his/her arms. Seriously, it's been done to death.

(Do you see what I did there?)

I read this comic book where a dying girl was saying something, but she got cut off in the middle. I liked it.

 

[RRAAKK]

all of them. i hate when writers have no originality. cant anyone think of something new?

 

[Jamieson 90]

Putting a kid in a dangerous situation only to have them be rescued/survive/escape at the last moment. It doens't even get a reaction out of me any more. I'm just like yep.... someones going to save them any second and oh look here they come now. You know what would be a change? If the kid actually died for once. I'd be like HOLY SHIT, they actually had the bal to kill them! Well done! - The Ending to The Mist was great for that reason, movie had balls.

 

[Queen Michael]

That whole samurai quick draw sword thing. Never understood it, never liked it. So terribly, inefficient.

But Samurai quick drawing is what they did, it was pretty much how they dealt with anyone who threatened there master.

It was the most efficient way to dispatch of someone in the quickest way possible.

What's samurai quick-drawing?

 

[RJ Dalton]

The Disney death. You know, the one where they make you think the hero has died, only to bring him back at the very end so they can jerk tears from you even though they don't have the balls for a genuine tragedy.

Yeah, I fucking hate that one.

Also, he inevitable romantic subplot.

 

[Cowabungaa]

What's samurai quick-drawing?

Trying to end the fight with a single stroke, to kill with the same stroke as you pull your blade with. Katana's aren't dueling swords like, say, rapiers, they're meant to cut through meat like a butcher's knife. Hence why killing with the first stroke is the highest attainable goal in a katana fight.

 

[Alssadar]

My annoyances:
-Male characters who have no emotion. Good thing I have no problems with killing twenty thousand people.
-Male characters who have emotions, which consists only of angst and sadness
-Hm, main char meets a girl... herpa derpa they love each other with little development between the two
-Amnesia. It's rather lazy.
-No back story- It sometimes works as it is not needed
-Single level characters that are blatant stereotypes - Token Cole Train? I want a black mathematician who got conscripted, dammit!
-Shooters with no humor or friendship-At least give the guy who lasts the entire game a fist bump with the MC
-Like everyone else,

"We can't kill him, then we're no better than they are!"

^ Solution: "Regulations be damned, he's the cause of XXX,XXX,XXX lives, he's gonna pay with my fist before he's sent to military trial." Some guys can't really care about morality-me included-- when this guy has shot the player twenty times. Revenge feels bloody good.
-Religion as a bad thing - I'm agnostic and I can recognize the blessings, conscience and morality inspired by religions -each of which are not the same monotheistic or polytheistic.

 

[PunkRex]

Almost every fucking movie has one. ALWAYS. and it is always a thinly masked and banal relationship, unless its the focus of the movie, and even then it can be questionable.

not every movie/videogame/ story in general needs a damn love interest for the main characters! Its like the kiss scene most every movie has. It adds nothing to the plot or the characters and is inconsequential for the most part and I despise it when some vapid romantic subplot which had no firm position in the characters motivations or the general plot somehow dictates the actions of the main characters. It just doesn't need to be there!

Is there no better character motivation for writers to come up with other than "he/she loves her/him so thats why they are doing thus and such"?

Related: "Love conquers all!"

Yeah, it's supposed to be optimistic, but it might be less disappointing when it proves untrue for someone if they'd stop cramming it down our throats at every single opportunity.

I didn't say that... where did I say that? I agree but I didn't say it... are you a alien?

 

[trophykiller]

Quite simply, this thread is a list of things they do in all sorts fictional stories, from games to books to movies, that irritate you when repeated. Example:

Quote from Yahtzee: "why is it that after any sort of apocalypse, people rush to strap severed animal heads to pots and pans? I mean how hard would it be to loot your local walmart or mall for clothes".

See where this is going?

Nevermind that. Why does EVERY post apocalyptic setting have to be so BROWN, I mean seriously, the bandits survive (despite nobody liking them or wanting to trade with them, there is more bandits than non-criminals) and yet no PLANTS survive the great offscreen war.

Would it kill devs to not make the entire world a fucking desert for once?!

Thank you, this is a very good point. Why is it that if zombies or robots hit, we expect all plants to die as well as people. Perfect examples: Resident Evil Extinction and Terminator Salvation.

Also, another cliche: ragtag group of maybe 6 suvivors(at most) survives whilst the military gets owned. Perpetrators: Nearly every zombie movie in the history of man. Forgive me if I think a squad of trained soldiers with assault rifles will fare better than a clean-cut teenager with a double-barrel shotgun.