Plot device that most annoys you

[Acidwell]

My problem is the wheel of time books. I love them, they are well written but the series doesnt need to be as long as it is. The one thing that happens in every book between 2 and 9 is that right at the start about 4 random "bad things" happen sending the characters off trying to fix them for the majority of the book while the proper advancement of the plot is left to the sideline until near the end where everything comes together and all is well...till the start of the next book

 

[Vrex360]

The Deus Ex Machina, where some powerful unstoppable thing is just quickly and easily defeated by some X factor. I mean it's good in some cases like War of the Worlds but othertimes it gets increasingly bullshitty and hard to shallow.
I also dislike villains who are just one hundred percent evil without any remeding characteristics or anything likeable or human.
Finally I really hate epilouges at the end of horror movies where the final monster/killer/ghost has seemed defeated only to return and kill the protagonists anyway. It simply means that everything prior to that was a complete waste of time that didn't go anywhere, endings like this get way too predictable. It's practically a requirement, I wish we could have a horror film where the protagonist actually WINS for once.

 

[simmeh]

It's funny that you should mention the Wheel of Time, because that reminds me of something else Robert Jordan tends to do.

Having just finished reading his Fallon trilogy, I noticed a startling similarity between it and the Wheel of Time series: he creates all these characters and then makes a whole bunch of absolutely ridiculously contrived and coincidental links between them all.

Example (without spoiling too much): In the Fallon Legacy, the daughter of a friend of one of the main characters runs away, and then just so happens to meet up with and marry the best friend of that main character's bastard son.

I realize that all fiction requires some coincidences to drive the plot (if this one guy doesn't save the world, someone else will and the story will be about the other guy instead), but I find Robert Jordan just flat out abused the whole concept. The example above isn't even really key to the plot - the subplot of that girl could have ended at "she ran away", and the story would have been no different. Instead, Mr. Jordan decided to write another tenuous link between characters, seemingly out of thin air.

 

[Jedoro]

"Luke, I am your overused plot device."

That is all

 

[RebelRising]

Female love interests. Suffice it say, one of my favorite parts of The Dark Knight was when Maggie Gyllenhall got blown to smithereens.

I'm serious; they're almost always unnecessary, and even when they are essential to the plot, it doesn't stop them from being annoying.

 

[Kiutu]

The Deus Ex Machina, where some powerful unstoppable thing is just quickly and easily defeated by some X factor. I mean it's good in some cases like War of the Worlds but othertimes it gets increasingly bullshitty and hard to shallow.
I also dislike villains who are just one hundred percent evil without any remeding characteristics or anything likeable or human.
Finally I really hate epilouges at the end of horror movies where the final monster/killer/ghost has seemed defeated only to return and kill the protagonists anyway. It simply means that everything prior to that was a complete waste of time that didn't go anywhere, endings like this get way too predictable. It's practically a requirement, I wish we could have a horror film where the protagonist actually WINS for once.

Sequals. Thats really it. If Jason or Michael are defeated, then no more money.
I also am guessing you dont like the Final Destination movies? Though thats more for the sake of a point I guess...and sequals >.> (like 4 which surprised me since I thought 3 would be it)

 

[Blurbl]

Memory loss, and how the character 'rediscovers' them throughout the plot. Overused and rarely done well anymore.

 

[Proteus214]

The "Hey look at this seemingly irrelevant piece of information, it may be *winkwinknudgenudge* useful later on." It just screams "HEY! WE'RE BEING PREDICTABLE HERE!"

 

[ghalkhsdkssakgh]

Cliffhangers. Beyond Good and Evil! You *****.

 

[AgentNein]

As much as I've enjoyed it in the past, 'lone hero who moves from place to place, saving people and winning the girl but never getting tied down' is sort of overdone for me. Maybe because I'm no longer a kid, and that's a very adolescent dream to have.

 

[Proteus214]

Memory loss, and how the character 'rediscovers' them throughout the plot. Overused and rarely done well anymore.

I find this one to be really annoying. It's basically a cop out by the author because they can't write reasonable exposition for a first person narrative.

 

[Crimsane]

On second thought, when a useless item suddenly turns into the most powerful thing in the universe.

 

[Pandalisk]

The Sonic screwdriver allows for all "Impossible to escape" moments become escapable, it is essentially a writers "Get out of a hopeless situation Card" and kicks down the wall that was blocking the rest of the plot which the writer wrote.

 

[lewism247]

and it was all a dream, god i hate that

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

and it was all a dream, god i hate that

Thanks Link's Awakening, the world hates you.

One note villains who are evil for no apparent reason. Venom was bad enough, then someone had to start a dick waving contest and create Carnage. Oh dear.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Female love interests. Suffice it say, one of my favorite parts of The Dark Knight was when Maggie Gyllenhall got blown to smithereens.

I'm serious; they're almost always unnecessary, and even when they are essential to the plot, it doesn't stop them from being annoying.

Yes, crowbarred in love interests annoy me to no end. To the point where I see a film that doesn't have one and I am thoroughly impressed.

 

[Puzzles]

As was said, you can't go past deus ex machina. It basically says that the author wrote him/herself into a hole or didn't plan the story before finishing it in prose.

As yet another random person one day aiming to be published, I feel that you should know where your story is going before you dive into getting it written or published. Maybe that is just me, but my teachers always told me if you fail to plan, you plan to fail and I suppose that makes sense.

 

[Knonsense]

and it was all a dream, god i hate that

It's perhaps even worse when they try to shove some sort of twist into it. Like, it's a dream, but we're going to make a feeble attempt at mindfucking you by introducing some remnant of the dream into the real world.

 

[lewism247]

and it was all a dream, god i hate that

It's perhaps even worse when they try to shove some sort of twist into it. Like, it's a dream, but we're going to make a feeble attempt at mindfucking you by introducing some remnant of the dream into the real world.

oh my god that's infuriating

 

[JaredXE]

In order:

Amnesia
Time Travel (to fix all mistakes)
Parallel Universes
Shoehorned in love interests (especially in JRPGs, the protagonist is what, 12? 13?)
Conveniently forgetting powers/abilities that could solve the problem at hand(Cloud/Aerith, I am looking at you two)

Basically, nothing is original, so nothing surprises me anymore. I can gather the plot to any movie, game or book within a few chapters at most and be able to plan out how things are going to happen....and they nearly always do.


Oh, and parallel dimensions are the lazy writer's cop out for the inability to come up with something original.