Cliches that you hate with a passion.

[chstens]

the sword is the holy weapon, why not a bloodly axe, mace, frail, spear, greathammer, or something other then a sword, really why the sword get so much loving its annoying...

Probably because it can look like a cross, and the act of looking like a cross makes it seem more 'holy' than other weapons.

Let's see, my most detested cliche...

"A powerful, almost-invincible enemy is brought down by the hero."

Well, so much for being fucking almost-invincible...

The swords used during the crusades were actually designed to look like crosses, it's not that they CAN look like crosses, it is that they ARE crosses.

 

[DeathChairOfHell]

When divorced couples get back together because of some sort of disaster that brings them closer. They got divorced for a REASON!

 

[Seagoon]

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?

1. NO NO WAIT YOU GUYS! DERR ALIENS IS DERR GOOD GUYS!! WE US DERR BAD GUYS! HERPA DERPA!!

2. It is your DESTINY!!!

3. Stereotypical English people.. It ruins any movie for me... unless its a comedy.

 

[Quellist]

Any horror or serial killer movie.

The leading lady cold cocks the killer, he's down on the floor and she has a weapon in her hands....then she drops it and runs off allowing him to recover and come after her.

Why the ever loving fuck doesnt she just carry on pounding his head with whatever heavy object she is carrying until she hears a cracking noise and sees brains spill out on the floor?

fucks sake does that ever piss me off

 

[Theo Rob]

Big guy is dumb.
Villain is stupid.
Power of love , friendship or honour.
Deus ex machina.
Romance mess'in with my action.
Tag along kid.
Sudden hero syndrome (girl in trouble? our hero to the rescue).
Entire army may be good but only the abnormal kid with the cool sword can kill Satan.
mare characters being angsty bastards and female characters that don't do much beyond fan service

EDIT: secret family legend: the hero is actually a prince/demon/experimental super-soldier/THE CHOSEN ONE. to me its the most hated of all clichés

I could go on but I wont, I want to see more villains that don't screw around or the power of Science/just having the better weapon saves the day.

 

[IamQ]

"In order to save humanity, we must destroy humanity".

I never got that logic, never will, and will always be bothered by it.

 

[ltbigjohn]

i would have to say the concept of good and evil in general... they really are just words and the truth behind them is generated by a subjective perspective not a global standard. i mean this more for games by the way, i understand it in films being that we all have to watch the same things happen in a film and the more general the larger the net for viewer understanding also the film has no opinion of how we watch it. however in an interactive medium i would like to start seeing a game take some kind of perspective on how i am playing it not just how a chain of individual events plays out on a spectrum, for example just because you do bad things doesn't mean you are pure malice, way of the samurai 3 i think does this the best way i can think of so far.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Spend entire time building up a female character as a feminist don't need no man type, only to have her fall in love with a handsome white dude at the very end - Yeah... Fuck that.

well that does happen in real life, just look at Gloria Steinem and how she originally viewed marriage only later to get married herself. Here is a link to the subject:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=95874&page=1

I'm not saying it doesn't happen in real life. But what i'm saying is that no strong woman ever remains strong, they always fall prey to the sexy white man.

I hate to nitpick, but whats wrong with the men being white? If they were East-Asian, would that make a difference?

Name 5 instances that has happened in all of Hollywood's history?

You didn't answer the question, does the race of the guy matter, or just the concept that a strong women "f[e]ll prey" to a handsome man annoy you?

Well... Yes... Because it's a cliché that I hate with a passion... Isn't that what the thread is about?

Yes what? Yes you have a problem with the characters race?

Well of course... Because it's a cliché... He's always white, muscly, grizzled, rough yet charming, American, and inevitably stronger than the stronger woman.

well I don't agree with what you typed, at least I found out what I wanted to know, thank you.

 

[Theo Rob]

"In order to save humanity, we must destroy humanity".

I never got that logic, never will, and will always be bothered by it.

Here are 3 ways to think about it:

1,In order to stop war caused by overpopulation.
2.To save humanity from "a fate worse than death" (eg. mindless slaves to aliens or zomibie infections.
3. The guys planning to do the killing are just plain nuts.

 

[Kuroneko97]

Ordinary loser guy becomes a hero, and somehow he gets some hot chick and it doesn't matter how terrible he looks.

The example I think of off the top of my head is that Balls of Fury movie. Seriously. The guy looked like he could be a homeless bum, and he almost is. And the love interest girl changes from GTFO-of-my-face to I-want-to-fuck-you-till-the-sun-rises.

snipety snip

Have you ever read the Series of Unfortunate Events? I think it's a great example of what you described. The main characters at first are seen as if they're just "good and evil." Then the kids start committing come crimes to save themselves and others or even with little good intentions, and they find the villains at times doing good things, sometimes for good reasons.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

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

Agreed, why lock them up when they could easily escape to kill you?

Also,I hate the whole "Humans are either the best or evil douches" cliche in sci-fi, and aliens are either "innocent of evil". Not sure where the middle ground there would be, though...

 

[starkiller212]

When there are more villains/rebels/bandits/raiders in a world than regular people. World of Warcraft does this most egregiously, with 100 Defias bandits (might be homeless people post-Cataclysm?) for every farmer in Elwynn Forest, for example. How could they possible survive, let alone make a profit? Why does nobody else realize that 99% of the world's population being "evil" seems a lot less likely than the 1% who live indoors just being selfish dicks? This phenomenon can be seen in almost every game I've ever played, unfortunately. I'd much prefer a larger world with more NPCs, even if much of it was randomly generated and non-interactable--at least the interesting stuff would be properly spaced out.

Also, Elves being superior to humans in almost any fantasy world. They're always so pretentious and self-satisfied about their long lives, magic, veganism, pacifism, eyesight, etc, yet they almost inevitably fuck things up when they get any responsibility. To be fair, Skyrim has really brought out the elf-racism in me recently

 

[AlAaraaf74]

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

That samurai quick draw sword thing is an actual practice in real life.

 

[Heaven's Guardian]

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"?

Absolutely agree. An example that really bothered me was Lie to Me. I thought "Hey, for once we could have a protagonist whose defining relationship is with his daughter, and their characters are perfectly suited for doing so!" Nope. Apparently that wasn't enough. I have nothing against romance when it helps the story and it's usually one of the best character development/unveiling techniques, but if you don't have a good reason, don't put it in (pun vaguely intended).

 

[Terminate421]

All Tall people (including me) MUST play basketball. There is no exception.

Ughhh, this thing right here. All the time I get comments about how tall I am. First time meeting someone? Yup. From second family that know full well that I am? Yup. Even my own freaking family that I live with? Yup. And hell, basketball happens to be one of my least favorite sports, even if I wasn't so tall. I wish I could lose a few inches, but that isn't possible at all, so I'm stuck being 6'3, which is pretty much taller than everyone else in my grade and everyone that I know. Being tall is overrated. Fuck being tall.

Lol, I am 6' 6"

Being tall is cool but it's just that stereotype

 

[Zantos]

The fact that there's got to be something mundane that it turns out magically destroys your aliens/zombies/monsters/demons. Yes, it worked for War of the Worlds and Dracula. No, it doesn't make your film/book/game clever if you do it too, we're now not even in the century next to the century when they were written. What's wrong some good old fashioned metal of the fast, sharp, heavy or hot variety?

 

[JMan]

I hate how in almost every horror movie the only one to survive is a woman. Sometimes it works because the woman is strong-willed and smarter than other characters but I've seen quite a few where the stupidest character in the entire movie, the ditzy female, is the only one to survive even though they are typically the second one to die, right after the black character, which is another cliche I hate.

 

[Emperor Nat]

The church being evil. The priest is a gay pedo, and it's always a man. Christians being racist, sexist, narrow-minded people that will kill you on the spot. Same goes for Muslims being terrorist. British guy is usually the bad guy. Atheists are smarter then everyone. Black people being Gs, white people are the uncool evil losers. Big strong dude gets the sexy girl.

Thank you for this. Thank you. You win 10 Internetz

Thanks. Also I would like to see a blind hero or heroine save the day for once.

Well. There is the issue of them not being able to see anything. Barring a macguffin of somesort (like Daredevil's superpower) they probably wouldn't be any good in a fight. :/

 

[MetalDooley]

Rich white girl falls in love with poor(often ethnic minority)guy.Her family/friends disapprove and try to split them up but their love prevails

Clichéd characters in horror movies also piss me off e.g

Slut - probably gonna die(in fact anyone who has sex usually snuffs it)
Jock - probably gonna die(especially if he's a douche)
Cheerleader - probably gonna die(especially if she's a *****)
Stoner - probably gonna die(this can often be expanded to anyone who drinks/takes any form of drugs)
Ethnic minority - probably gonna die

 

[The Funslinger]

I really hate the "trials and tribulations of the main plot contritely brings back divorced couple". It's just so insincere and forced. I think I responded with "Gayngels" in the last version of this thread.

I do normally agree with the divorce thing. However, I think it worked in season 3 of Doctor who, with Martha's parents.

OT: For me

The Redshirt army.

I hate it how (usually in terrible action movies) the hero is being escorted somewhere by a highly trained team of soldiers/SWAT teams who all die insanely fast once the bullets start to fly, thus leaving the protagonist to go on by himself.

Oh god, this! The most unforgivable case of this was in Star Wars: Episode 3. Mace Windu takes his jedi elite team to go and fuck Palpatine's shit up. Focus on the words "Jedi Elite Team". What they were widely recognized as, and these were some damn symbolic jedi if you followed the extended universe pertaining to the prequels. So why THE HELL did he cut all of them bar Mace Windu in fifteen seconds? Mace himself does fine on his own, and while it's arguable he could be, to a degree, better than the others with him, they should at least hold their own.