Tropes you are tired of.

[Cicada 5]

Demons are good, Angels/God are evil. The Corrupt Church. Humans are the Real Monsters.

I'm sure it was fine at first, and there are still series that manage those tropes well, but at this point I can't help but feel like it's gotten old.

The problem with that one is that it's attempting to apply subtlety by switching the paradigm in the opposite direction. It's solving a problem with another. I'm more a fan of universes that explore the idea of demons, angels, humans and others being morally and ideologically similar, with "salvation" or "damnation" being job descriptors more than outward indicators of general intent.

Personally, though, I'm annoyed by the idea that visual titillation equals power. Call me SJW if you care that much, but I have tons more respect for Brienne of Tarth than Bayonetta.

"But Protagonist X is so badass he or she doesn't even *need* armor!" is what some people might say. That's fine and is up to personal preference, but all I know is it strikes me as being adolescent.

As someone who likes Bayonetta in spite of her troubling aspects, I completely agree with you.

 

[Syzygy23]

Dragons as final bosses/embodiments of evil, especially if demons are established to exist.

Dragon Age, Dragon's Dogma, Skyrim. Its such a waste and a cop-out. To me dragons are like apex-predators, but completely natural ones. And neutral at that. They'll attack if provoked or hungry, but they should just be giant lizards.

And if we have giant soul-stealing skinless, eyeless, all powerful fuck-me-raw rape demons that can and will torture you for all eternity, having the big bad just being a Blue Dragon is so...lame.

Have both! have Cthulhu-esque outer world super demons AND elder dragons, but if its a game about fighting evil, have the giant rape demon be the final boss. Leave the poor dragon in his keep to horde gold.

Actually Dragons Dogma dragon WASN'T evil. The name of the main Dragon, GRigori, is a hint at it's true nature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(angel)

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

SNIP

Didn't know that actually. But to be fair I have less a problem with dragons as a thing to fight as I do with dragons as the singular embodiment of a thing, and its the final boss.

Like a blue dragon rampaging across the land and we have to kill it is something I can get behind.

But a Guardian Angel descends from on high on the personal order of the Almighty Creator to watch over His most precious creation and said Angel chooses the almighty form of...a Red Dragon...That's kinda lame. There's so much more you can do.

Like...Alexander from the FF series. I want my Almighty Angel of Judgement to look like that!

Spoiler

That's taking the idea in a new direction. A sentient Fortress that rises from the ground to basically Holy Neutron Bomb the entire land is infinitely more interesting a character than simply a fire-breathing Dragon.

 

[BrawlMan]

Demons are good, Angels/God are evil. The Corrupt Church. Humans are the Real Monsters.

I'm sure it was fine at first, and there are still series that manage those tropes well, but at this point I can't help but feel like it's gotten old.

That's why I love Bayonetta and Guardian Heroes. In the former, both Heaven and Hell are assholes, and you end up fighting both in the sequel. Guardian Heroes has it either as Heaven as good, bad, or neutral, and Hell as the same thing depending on the choices the player(s) make. You can actually go through out the whole game without fighting either faction, if you know the story paths or get lucky.

I'll throw my hat in to Humans Are Bastards too. If done right it can work, but for the most part it's ham-fisted, pretentious, and hypocritical. Especially if the story, characters, and plot overall is just badly written.

Anything after Romero's Land of the Dead (or most zombie stories in general), Black Lagoon, that minor part with the spirits where they refused to help Korra in in Season 4 of LoK (doubles as Can't Argue With Elves The spirits refused help Korra because that makes her "like" Kuvira. Fuck that shit, if Korra and her friends died, there would have been nothing to stop the main villain from harvesting more spirit vines. Were the spirits just going to sit on their asses and be cowardly bitches on the sidelines? Fuck you, you're all pricks. I despise this trope when it comes to the Navi.), A Wind Named Amnesia, and Shaman King (manga version).

Also Nietzsche Wannabes as villains. They all start to sound alike, and are not fun to listen to nor entertaining. Usually it just sounds like a mouthpiece for the writers to throw their misanthropic views on the reader/viewers. Hey butt-fucks, I ain't paying for your product if you're just gonna go out of your way to insult the audience; especially if we're suppose to sympathize with your villain even though you wrote him/her as an unintentionally unsympathetic prick that never gets any punishment and supposed to be in the "right", because they lost their loved one. Well it doesn't work like that if they've been slaughtering innocent people with huge smiles on their faces.

Also tsunderes! 99% of them can go straight to hell; male or female. A majority of them are copies, of a copy, of a copy, of another copy. Helga Pataki, Lucy (Peanuts), Naru, Asuka Langely, Kagome, and Louise (Familiar of Zero); either be honest with them or don't bother with your "love interests" at all. Stop playing hard to get and straight up fucking tell them! And don't be assholes about it. To be fair, Helga is the nicest compared to all of them, and I still don't like her.

 

[Ryallen]

I hate the trope First Girl Wins [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FirstGirlWins]. It's the whole reason why I don't watch Avatar. Because I knew it from the first instant that Aang and Katara were going to end up together. It seems lazy to me. I understand why. Because they have spent the most time together, they obviously are going to end up together. But what if they have no chemistry? Nope, sorry, they are going to end up together anyways.

Another one that I despise is Belligerent Sexual Tension [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BelligerentSexualTension]. I hate stories that have two characters fight and fight and fight only to have them end up together. If they have nothing in common and do nothing but fight, then why the HELL are they together now?! It makes no sense!

There are so many others that I have gotten sick of, but I can't think of them right now. Just know that these two are the ones that I hate the most.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Demons are good, Angels/God are evil. The Corrupt Church. Humans are the Real Monsters.

I'm sure it was fine at first, and there are still series that manage those tropes well, but at this point I can't help but feel like it's gotten old.

I agree. The first few times I saw this, I'm thinking around the time of Final Fantasy Tactics and Xenogears, it was provocative: "Whoa...they actually WENT there." Now it just seems childish and petulant, like "Yeah, yeah, we get it. You don't like Christianity--specifically the medieval, imperialistic, Roman Catholic kind--what else you got?"

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Women as archers, mages, rogues, glass cannons in general, support, and medics almost always.
It's fucking annoying.
Magical, technological, and good old fashioned metal plate armors protect women just as well as men. Especially when magic, and technology make encumbrance a thing of the past via energy shields. Equipment doesn't just get flimsier when worn by someone regardless of gender.
It's really annoying in futuristic scenarios where people pilot mechs that easily override any gap in physical prowess yet no woman seems willing to take advantage of it! Ask Ripley! She used a mech just fine!
It's even MORE annoying when there's guys out there doing the same roles women are crammed into just as well, PLUS they have access to other roles! The annoyance increases when the guys are also generally better at the roles! Even more annoying when a woman manages to do the job better, but gets nerfed somehow so she's no longer super at her role or worse.

One of few things I really liked about Dragon Age II was the subversion of this trope.

Aveline spends the whole game in full plate mail and is the default tank. And the healer-mage is a guy.

 

[Charli]

Romance. As a theme, as an ending, a motivator, an ultimate goal to aspire to. I think a bit of new media is starting to wake up to the fact that most people are sick to death of it being the all encompassing golden emotion that everyone should experience or your life is meaningless shit.

Because frankly, having it stuffed down your throat as such since the late 80's would make you tired of anything as a concept.

Romance is nice, it's a good ...thing, but I think people need to see more of that. And that boils back to character dynamics as broader field of view. Interesting characters, interacting with other interesting characters, will always be 1000x more interesting than two blank 'hot people' twirling about in a fit of blind manufactured attraction and soaring music. And this ruins some truly great concepts and movies, by ticking a checklist of things that have to be in a movie/tvshow/game/book/etc.

Thank god we're moving off it...

 

[retsupurae yahtsee]

Mysteries in which a very obvious suspect is apparent, but then the criminal turns out to be someone who comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. This intersects with another cliche I hate: The policeman being the criminal.

Blue and orange in movies, brown and grey in games, purple and white in comics. We need large color pallets!

Lack of imagination: Stop making police procedurals, generic shooters, found footage movie and other uncreative shit. I like the DC comics shows and Marvel comics movies these days because they appreciate the weirdness of the comics, and the 1960s Batman movie and show because they were exactly like insane 60s comics.

All forms of censorship. Fuck censorship.

Everyone on the Internet talking racist shit about the Japanese and ignoring the classic games they made over the last 35 years.

Shakycam and out of focus camerawork: I like to see what is happening in my movies. It seems be becoming a lot less common though, so hopefully it is just a fad.

Quick Time Events and button mashing: Those are parlor tricks, not skills. Beating a tough game through my skills is satisfying and fun; mashing buttons until it ends is horrible. Fortunately, these also seem to be going out of style.

A lack of variety: See lack of imagination. I hope No Man's Sky and Star Citizen will resurrect the space simulator genre, and The Flash, Gotham, Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl will make imaginative superhero shows popular.

Stereotyping: Generalizations based on race, religion, tastes--almost as bad and dangerous as censorship.

Microtransactions and D.L.C: I already paid for the fucking game, let me do what I want! Is this even legal?

 

[kuolonen]

It's a fairly safe bet that your sickness of general tropes is in direct correlation with the amount of media and literature entertainment you've consumed. As I've tapped deep into all kinds of genres from anime to movies to books to games to western comics, I can pretty much tick boxes for most stuff that has already been mentioned here. In case of anime, I could just say all the tropes.

If I had to say something about western media, then predictability/plot armor. I know that there are productional reasons why you can't kill any or at least not many of the main characters, but when I am so bloody sure from get go that protagonist faction will have 0.1% mortality rate, at least among faces with names to them, I really struggle to keep my eyes open with action films. And on subject protagonists, having being told they are the relatable people and the good guys, because the movie tells me so.

 

[twistedmic]

Also tsunderes! 99% of them can go straight to hell; male or female. A majority of them are copies, of a copy, of a copy, of another copy. Helga Pataki, Lucy (Peanuts), Naru, Asuka Langely, Kagome, and Louise (Familiar of Zero); either be honest with them or don't bother with your "love interests" at all. Stop playing hard to get and straight up fucking tell them! And don't be assholes about it. To be fair, Helga is the nicest compared to all of them, and I still don't like her.

For some of them, Asuka and Helga from the ones you listed, have a legitimate reason/root cause, though not excuse, for their behavior. In Helga's case, from what I remember, she grew up dealing with emotionally distant and disconnected parents that clearly and vocally preferred their older daughter (Olga) not to mention her father was incredibly competitive constantly pushing her to be like Olga and her mother was an alcoholic (not stated explicitly,but clearly shown). All of that adds up to an insecure kid who would lash out at anyone that made her feel any kind of vulnerability.


As for Asuka, she was mentally traumatized at an early age

Spoiler

she found her mother, having gone insane due to the EVA project, had hung herself and the doll she had believed was the real Asuka when she was five or six (I believe) and was subsequently trained as a child soldier

plus I got the feeling that Asuka was confused(due to psychological trauma, lack of therapy and being a teenager), had no idea what she actually wanted and had little to no idea how to properly express her feelings.

However, most of the time I see the tsundere trope the character in question lacks an sort of root cause/reason for their aggressive behavior and just come across as violent or unstable people.

 

[BrawlMan]

Also tsunderes! 99% of them can go straight to hell; male or female. A majority of them are copies, of a copy, of a copy, of another copy. Helga Pataki, Lucy (Peanuts), Naru, Asuka Langely, Kagome, and Louise (Familiar of Zero); either be honest with them or don't bother with your "love interests" at all. Stop playing hard to get and straight up fucking tell them! And don't be assholes about it. To be fair, Helga is the nicest compared to all of them, and I still don't like her.

For some of them, Asuka and Helga from the ones you listed, have a legitimate reason/root cause, though not excuse, for their behavior. In Helga's case, from what I remember, she grew up dealing with emotionally distant and disconnected parents that clearly and vocally preferred their older daughter (Olga) not to mention her father was incredibly competitive constantly pushing her to be like Olga and her mother was an alcoholic (not stated explicitly,but clearly shown). All of that adds up to an insecure kid who would lash out at anyone that made her feel any kind of vulnerability.


As for Asuka, she was mentally traumatized at an early age

Spoiler

she found her mother, having gone insane due to the EVA project, had hung herself and the doll she had believed was the real Asuka when she was five or six (I believe) and was subsequently trained as a child soldier

plus I got the feeling that Asuka was confused(due to psychological trauma, lack of therapy and being a teenager), had no idea what she actually wanted and had little to no idea how to properly express her feelings.

However, most of the time I see the tsundere trope the character in question lacks an sort of root cause/reason for their aggressive behavior and just come across as violent or unstable people.

I am aware of both backstories, and while I am inclined to give Helga more sympathy, I almost felt nothing for Asuka at that point. It didn't help that she always acted like hot shit, and seemed to hate anyone that did better than her or for being in the same goddamn room with her! By the time they showed Asuka's tragic past, I did not give a shit anymore. Helga at least had character development and time fill that out. Six Seasons will do that ya. Evangelion had 26 episodes, and some movies that retold the whole story a la abridged. And then you got the movies that retold the story to fix the ending, only to mess it up again with the new movie. I have not seen any of the new movies and do not want to, but thanks for being understanding.

 

[CyanCat47_v1legacy]

I'm going to offer a bit of insight into the swords thing. Basically my contention is that heroes have sword because swords are versatile and allow of defensive actions that most other hand-held weapons don't. The other main issue is that you can kill someone witha sword without making it look really brutal. You can't really have a hero with a blunt weapon (mace, hammer, etc) because when he kills the bad guy instead of a clean stab through the chest he ends up having his chest or skull caved in making a crunchy gelationous mess of flesh and splintered bone.

It's still a lazy default to always give the hero a sword though but there are some good reasons why that's the default.

To add to that, while knives can be just as versatile and sharp as swords, if not more so, they typically do not kill as quickly or cleanly as swords. Most kills with a knife are just as brutal and messy as kills with blunt weapons, and either involve cutting the throat, stabbing the head (typically through the eye, temple or roof of the mouth) or throat or stabbing multiple (at least three or four) times. All reasons why a character that voluntarily uses knives as a main weapon come across as dangerous psychopaths more often than heroes.

Cultural iconography is the main reason. between excalibur, masamune, damascus swords, and in some contexts even the christian cross (referred to as "the sword of christ" by some) the sword is surrounded by cultural legend. swords are one of those "evolutionary inventions" like currency and trousers. if a civilisation has mastered metal-casting swords are a logical next step. their association with authority also meant they were way more talked about in sagas and myths despite the spear being the weapon of the commoner. only the wealthy and powerful could write and they wrote mostly about the wealthy and powerful. duels were also common both as a part of upper-class life and the subject of popular culture and swords are some of the best duelling weapons since they are easy to carry around constantly. Louis XIV actualy had to ban dueling in france because so many nobles and courtiers died from them

 

[Quellist]

How in any cop show when a hacker/cybercriminal is being interrogated and learning their password is vital it's always 1)Blindingly obvious and 2)A single word

Fucks sake, a professional criminal, a hacker no less would take a bit more care with something that can be the difference between their freedom and convicion!

 

[K12]

Finally getting round to playing Alien Isolation and I have a new suggestion.

Air vents! Fuck those things!

 

[Benny Blanco]

millenials as written by members of generation-X. games like life is strange are borderline torture to e because of the bad dialouge and characters based entirely on stereotypes. these characters are always addicted to weed or some other fucking stupid narcotic substance, aleways hate on their parents despite them only wanting to help them, have some kind of stupid hipster style and overuse dialectic nonsense like "hella" all the time. they also take "selfies", sacrifice all friends or loved ones for personal gain, lash out at anyone trying to get them to stop acting like suicidal idiots simply because "ermagerd, nuun understendz meh"

Honestly look at how teenagers/young adults are portrayed in the 90s, 80s, 70s, 60s, and fifties and ask yourself if there is any real difference in how they are portrayed. The answer is of course that there is none. (This is of course barring the obvious technological/cultural differences). In every single portrayal of how young people act there is always ALWAYS going to be a rebellious character who bucks the norms and does different/deviant things. That is because it is a cultural truth that at some point a teenager/young adult will engage in reckless and dangerous/self destructive behavior. The manner, implementation and degree of the rebellion is different from person to person. However, there is also always the teenager/young adult who does not engage in those acts and is nice to their parents by gum! For every Chloe Price there is a Alyssa Anderson or Daniel DaCosta. For every Will Smith there is a Carlton Banks. For every Jeff Spicoli and Mark Ratner there is a Brad Hamilton or Mike Damone. For every Fonzie there is a Richie Cunningham.
I mean hell for every Romeo and Mercutio there is a Benvolio.

CyanCat, I am pretty sure "dialectic" doesn't mean what you think it means.

As Jack says, every generation misunderstands those above and below it... Subcultures misunderstand each other and the mainstream misunderstands them all. There is a distinct air of "How do you do, fellow kids?" about a lot of media, in part because most people writing and producing media are college graduates with several years of work experience so in their mid 20s at least. Slang changes constantly, and even 2 people of the same age, from the same city might have contextually different understandings of the same term.

It would tickle me, however, to see a film/game/TV show where the villain used the goldfish-like attention span of millenials to escape capture, identity politick their way out of trouble...

 

[Erttheking]

Breast plates and fanservice armor in a story where the men get regular armor. Forget sexism IT LOOKS FUCKING STUPID! Either go the way of Loren the Amazon Princess and have the guys walking around showing off their perfectly chiseled abs, or give the women some decent armor! This picture I found for a Skyrim mod illustrates the point perfectly

Spoiler

https://staticdelivery.nexusmods.com/mods/110/images/48160-2-1389552998.jpg

All I ask for is consistency! I like world building! I like to feel like the game I'm playing was a carefully constructed world. I get angry when consistency is shat on for cheap fanservice in a game where the graphics make it look unappealing anyway, so what was the fucking point of it all?

Everyone on the Internet talking racist shit about the Japanese and ignoring the classic games they made over the last 35 years.

Could you clarify racist? Because I can enjoy classic Japanese games and still point out the flaws in Japanese culture.

 

[CyanCat47_v1legacy]

I hate the trope First Girl Wins [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FirstGirlWins]. It's the whole reason why I don't watch Avatar. Because I knew it from the first instant that Aang and Katara were going to end up together. It seems lazy to me. I understand why. Because they have spent the most time together, they obviously are going to end up together. But what if they have no chemistry? Nope, sorry, they are going to end up together anyways.

Another one that I despise is Belligerent Sexual Tension [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BelligerentSexualTension]. I hate stories that have two characters fight and fight and fight only to have them end up together. If they have nothing in common and do nothing but fight, then why the HELL are they together now?! It makes no sense!

There are so many others that I have gotten sick of, but I can't think of them right now. Just know that these two are the ones that I hate the most.

I would say that "first love interest wins" depends on how it is set up. in some cases like fairy tail they start of simply as friedns and co-workers but then slowly build on it based on them being close ot eachother in difficult situations and developing a respect aand admiration for one another. in other setups it can be utterly infuriating. for example: 1) the main character meets the first love interest. 2) the main character meets one or more other love interests. almost all of them are more interesting characters than the first. 3) the main character finds some arbitrary reason for choosing the first just because. This is basically writer self-sabotage.

 

[cojo965]

Dragons as final bosses/embodiments of evil, especially if demons are established to exist.

Dragon Age, Dragon's Dogma, Skyrim. Its such a waste and a cop-out. To me dragons are like apex-predators, but completely natural ones. And neutral at that. They'll attack if provoked or hungry, but they should just be giant lizards.

And if we have giant soul-stealing skinless, eyeless, all powerful fuck-me-raw rape demons that can and will torture you for all eternity, having the big bad just being a Blue Dragon is so...lame.

Have both! have Cthulhu-esque outer world super demons AND elder dragons, but if its a game about fighting evil, have the giant rape demon be the final boss. Leave the poor dragon in his keep to horde gold.

There's a bit more to Dragon's Dogma's dragons than that.

[spoilers]They are basically angels in service to the equivalent of God in Dragon's Dogma's world. This is indicated by the final boss dragon using Holy elemental magic and the drakes, wyverns, and wyrms uttering in Latin, "Am I to die? The seat of God lies beyond." The only reason they are believed to be the ultimate evil is because they cause a lot of damage to find someone strong of will that they can make an Arisen, and that monsters move out of the mountains when the dragon takes roost. On top of that, the dragon itself is not involved with the cults that spring up whenever one shows up and in fact the dragon find these cults distasteful and tiresome to listen to.[/spoilers]

 

[Spakko]

Romance. As a theme, as an ending, a motivator, an ultimate goal to aspire to. I think a bit of new media is starting to wake up to the fact that most people are sick to death of it being the all encompassing golden emotion that everyone should experience or your life is meaningless shit.

Because frankly, having it stuffed down your throat as such since the late 80's would make you tired of anything as a concept.

Romance is nice, it's a good ...thing, but I think people need to see more of that. And that boils back to character dynamics as broader field of view. Interesting characters, interacting with other interesting characters, will always be 1000x more interesting than two blank 'hot people' twirling about in a fit of blind manufactured attraction and soaring music. And this ruins some truly great concepts and movies, by ticking a checklist of things that have to be in a movie/tvshow/game/book/etc.

Thank god we're moving off it...

Weeeeeeell... did you watch "Warm Bodies"? It was pretty bad in this regard. How bad? Well...

Spoiler

Love could bring Zombies back to life because... Because!

And yes, i'm aware that "Warm Bodies" was a ("romantic")comedy (or at least partially) but that was just... ugh!