Odd things that annoy you from bad works of fiction

[Gordon_4_v1legacy]

As I've mentioned above, two things tend to stick in my craw with fiction.

-Military Portrayals by people who have never actually been in the military and/or bothered to do the research. When you can't even get basic ranks right(Hint: A Naval Officer should never be referred to as "Sergent"), just give up and write something else. Or, you know, read the fucking wikipedia article on basic rank structure for the branch you're showcasing.

-Nuclear Power....pretty much anything. If your nuclear power plant explodes(and it's not a special type of reactor like Liquid sodium), go back and actually read up on how that shit works. Because reactors don't explode. Worst case scenario, they melt. It's called MELTDOWN for a reason. Also, if your reactor has no safeties or cannot be easily shut down, there had better be a damn good reason(like it was operated by Umbrella or something).

This probably has nothing to do with my last job being a Reactor Technician in the US Military.

BTW, CRYSIS, You are so grounded. You failed miserably on both of these.

A) that sounds like fascinating job and B) would you also accept 'Weyland Yutani'?


Anywho one thing that bothers me, with Frozen of all things bringing it to the forefront of my mental list, was intentionally vague advice regarding something highly dangerous. That fucking troll couldn't say something as straight forward as 'The power will grow as she does, and she must learn to accept and control it as a part of herself. Give me a second and I'll get onto my guy in Asgard'. No he's got to dress it up with dramatic licence that preys on the instincts of otherwise decent people and it leads to disaster. Fuck that guy.

Okay that last part is wish fulfillment on my part but the point stands.

 

[Mister K]

Bad works of fiction often make those who consume them become annoyed at one thing or another, but sometimes those things are not exactly what you'd expect. What are some of the odd things that annoyed you when consuming bad works of fiction?

For me, when (trying) to watch GATE, one thing that really annoyed me (in particular, that show was unwatchable) was the ranks and ages just not matching up at all. The protagonist is a 33 year old who due to what happened in the first episode got promoted to Second Lieutenant from Warrant Officer. This is quite odd to see because other episodes make it clear he has been in the force for more then 1-3 years and that is basically how long it takes to get that promotion just by virtue of existing.

Then there are his subordinates. There's Sergeant First Class Akira who has the opposite problem: he's only 27 yet has a job that'll take a good 15 years to reach in rank. This is bad but the one that really took the case was Sergeant Takeo, a 21 year old doing a job that takes a good bloody 9-12 years to reach. Given what was shown in the series, I don't for a second believe he was fast tracked through the ranks due to his abilities.

Given the long, long, loooooooooooooooooooong list of problems that show has from the atrocious animation outside of fight scenes, downright garbage story, lazy framing shots and everything that isn't bad being boring, it's odd how much of an annoyance this one subject had for me.

I too have a few problems with GATE.

Now, when I started watching it, I knew that I was diving into something like "Humanity Fuck Yeah" shlock, but in anime form. But I was fine with that, because it is one of the few kinds of shlock I like.

But there were two things that made me drop it completely, both anime and manga. I don't know how odd they are, but still.

The first one is minor. There is a character whose name I've forgotten, but I'll call her Big Tits. I have never served in the military, I know jack shit about ranks and general rules of behaviour in the army, but even I understand that when commanding officer tells Big Tits to follow his command and be a part of a squad and she jumps into CQC just because whatever it means that she MUST be punished (court-marshaled?) for her disobedience.

But this wasn't what made me drop it, oh no. What made me drop it was the whole "militaristic japanese xenophobia" that started when characters went back to our world. The way that every world power that dares to offend precious japanese feeling of superiority (i.e. USA, RF and PRC) is portrayed as stupid, childish and inferior to oh so mighty and wise wapaneez.

Here is a tip, you dumb pseudo-patriotic moron: if you portray contries that are rivals to yours as ones ruled by stupid, incompetent and weak leaders, And YOUR country isn't in leading positions, then how incompetent must YOUR government be?

 

[Dalisclock]

As I've mentioned above, two things tend to stick in my craw with fiction.

-Military Portrayals by people who have never actually been in the military and/or bothered to do the research. When you can't even get basic ranks right(Hint: A Naval Officer should never be referred to as "Sergent"), just give up and write something else. Or, you know, read the fucking wikipedia article on basic rank structure for the branch you're showcasing.

-Nuclear Power....pretty much anything. If your nuclear power plant explodes(and it's not a special type of reactor like Liquid sodium), go back and actually read up on how that shit works. Because reactors don't explode. Worst case scenario, they melt. It's called MELTDOWN for a reason. Also, if your reactor has no safeties or cannot be easily shut down, there had better be a damn good reason(like it was operated by Umbrella or something).

This probably has nothing to do with my last job being a Reactor Technician in the US Military.

BTW, CRYSIS, You are so grounded. You failed miserably on both of these.

A) that sounds like fascinating job and B) would you also accept 'Weyland Yutani'?

Yes and it was definitely interesting. PM me if you have questions.

 

[Death Carr]

Hyper-competency without explanation

what I mean by this is a character that is incredibly good at their job (like better than everybody except Joe BadGuy) with no mention of any kind of formal training or prior combat experience or anything that would suggest that they would be good at whatever it is they are super good at
from my experience this seems to apply mostly to mecha anime (but that could just be my biased viewing habits)

and the "not-afraid-to-kill-a-character" trope
like I get it Mr. Author you like to be hip and edgy cause the young people will like it
but if named characters can get offed out of nowhere all it really encourages is for the reader to stop caring about the characters and the narrative as a whole

 

[jurnag12]

I fucking loathed Eragon on many levels, but the thing that kept getting me was how the author not only indulged in telling instead of showing various parts of the setting but also seemed to insist on never actually following through on those exposition dumps.

"Ah, your father, the head of the rebellion, has died. You may follow in his footsteps, but beware, for the Varden contain many factions with their own goals that may not align with one another, so it's a massive political pile-up of bullshit."

No political turmoil proceeds to be seen for the next books and she's unquestionably in command from that point onward, so what could've led to interesting character development is shoved aside so she can go ahead and suck at leading a clandestine organization on her own terms from the start.

 

[Zontar]

Here is a tip, you dumb pseudo-patriotic moron: if you portray contries that are rivals to yours as ones ruled by stupid, incompetent and weak leaders, And YOUR country isn't in leading positions, then how incompetent must YOUR government be?

It gets bonus points because in the case of the US we're talking about not only a country Japan is allied with, where its military presence is widely supported (Okinawan notwithstanding) and its culture idolized. Though if there's one redeeming thing about the US in GATE, it's the fact that the character design for the president resembles Trump. I don't know if that's intentional, but it's funny.

 

[MeatMachine]

As I've mentioned above, two things tend to stick in my craw with fiction.

-Military Portrayals by people who have never actually been in the military and/or bothered to do the research. When you can't even get basic ranks right(Hint: A Naval Officer should never be referred to as "Sergent"), just give up and write something else. Or, you know, read the fucking wikipedia article on basic rank structure for the branch you're showcasing.

-Nuclear Power....pretty much anything. If your nuclear power plant explodes(and it's not a special type of reactor like Liquid sodium), go back and actually read up on how that shit works. Because reactors don't explode. Worst case scenario, they melt. It's called MELTDOWN for a reason. Also, if your reactor has no safeties or cannot be easily shut down, there had better be a damn good reason(like it was operated by Umbrella or something).

This probably has nothing to do with my last job being a Reactor Technician in the US Military.

I remember you making a thread about your job several months ago, and I completely agree with both your points.

A) People wholly unfamiliar with military society and structure but who insist on writing about it anyway is about the equivalent of an American teenage girl writing a romance-noir that takes place in Paris - you can basically guarantee that everything will be wrong in ways that are obvious to the French, and subtle to everyone else.

B) According to all fiction ever, radiation is basically the essence of Jesus Christ, and heavy exposure to gamma rays is a sure-fire way of producing miracles, rather than horrifying problems... at the very least, you will get horrifying miracles.

Hyper-competency without explanation.

I can think of about two dozen characters off the top of my head, but there's one in particular that simply dominates the list.

 

[lionsprey]

people with powers that dont use them in a logical/smart way. now i get it if the character isn't meant to be able to have control over their power and them learning is part of the show.
but when a character thats shown to have control of their power cant use it in a smart way because the plot demands they do nothing for 10 minutes it just annoys me. a good example of this is the flash tv show.
i mean jesus give me the flashes power a syringe of tranqs or even a rope and half of the shows villans would be captured before the 5 minute mark

 

[the December King]

I can think of about two dozen characters off the top of my head, but there's one in particular that simply dominates the list.

Funny, I was thinking that Mikasa was the better candidate for topping the list.

EDIT: Though to be fair, I didn't actively dislike Attack on Titan, I was just left scratching my head about several things.

 

[Queen Michael]

You may want to look into Lawrence Venuti's concept of the "invisible translator." In short, translations that assimilate the source language on the basis of target language fluency give the impression that the translator has somehow "tapped in" to the "essence" of the source text, and therefore give the translator authority to speak for the source text author... except such assimilation inevitably represents the source text poorly.

I'm afraid that my English isn't great; I'll have to ask you to say that again in simpler language.

 

[Mister K]

Here is a tip, you dumb pseudo-patriotic moron: if you portray contries that are rivals to yours as ones ruled by stupid, incompetent and weak leaders, And YOUR country isn't in leading positions, then how incompetent must YOUR government be?

It gets bonus points because in the case of the US we're talking about not only a country Japan is allied with, where its military presence is widely supported (Okinawan notwithstanding) and its culture idolized.

Huh, I thought that for the last few years there has been a huge rise of anti-americian (specifically anti-amierican military) movement(s) in Japan. Or is it just a minority thing?

 

[Zontar]

Here is a tip, you dumb pseudo-patriotic moron: if you portray contries that are rivals to yours as ones ruled by stupid, incompetent and weak leaders, And YOUR country isn't in leading positions, then how incompetent must YOUR government be?

It gets bonus points because in the case of the US we're talking about not only a country Japan is allied with, where its military presence is widely supported (Okinawan notwithstanding) and its culture idolized.

Huh, I thought that for the last few years there has been a huge rise of anti-americian (specifically anti-amierican military) movement(s) in Japan. Or is it just a minority thing?

It's a minority thing. While plenty of people would probably like for it to be the case, due to the fact the cost would be burdened on the Japanese government that already can't afford because of the economy, and with China's expansionism that's not something they want to deal with alone.

Things are basically like this: some don't care, some don't want them there but don't want to deal with the price of them not being there even more, and some don't want them there period. Outside of Okinawa, the "we don't want you here period" group is a vocal minority.

 

[twistedmic]

I don't know if this has a proper name, but I loathe whenever a bunch of people doing random tasks (silverware clinking, ice rattling, drinks being poured, shoes scuffing) evolves into a impromptu concert/song. It bugs the living fuck out of me and is annoying enough to make me consider turning off the show or movie when I see it.

 

[Kalikin]

You may want to look into Lawrence Venuti's concept of the "invisible translator." In short, translations that assimilate the source language on the basis of target language fluency give the impression that the translator has somehow "tapped in" to the "essence" of the source text, and therefore give the translator authority to speak for the source text author... except such assimilation inevitably represents the source text poorly.

I'm afraid that my English isn't great; I'll have to ask you to say that again in simpler language.

Sorry, I had spent all day reading translation studies stuff, and hadn't switched back when I jumped on your comment...

Basically, you made a strong statement about how if a translation doesn't read naturally (its tone comes off as awkward), then it isn't preserving the same experience that a reader in the original language would have had, which therefore means that the translated text isn't "faithful."
This seems, to me, to be buying into the attitude that translations that read fluently are the best translations. This is a habit that the translation scholar Venuti has (famously) described in terms of the translator becoming "invisible" - the assumption is that a fluent translation is somehow representing the original author's intent best by preserving the natural reading experience. The reality of translation, especially in incompatible language pairs like Japanese and English, is that naturalness is only achieved by ignoring or glossing over information that is in the original text. Additionally, translators are often praised for changing aspects of the original text like names and setting because they are afraid of turning off mass audience readers. This becomes an ethical problem when such translations are taken as authoritatively speaking on behalf of the original author (and by extension the culture that the author comes from).

I just wanted to point out that it is not necessarily the case that a translated text that reads as though it were originally written in its new language is being "faithful."