found family tropes. I just think they're dumb and unrealistic.
Isn't a found family just a tight-knit friend group? Maybe with one or two mentor characters. It's not that uncommon, although some stories don't sell the bonding process that well.
@TheLemmaLlama thanks for your reply.
Do you have an example of this one in mind ?
Ah right, that reminds me of something I saw in a previous topic:
This! This is another thing I'm kinda tired of seeing. I feel like this is related to the 'unrealistic found family' thing: everyone overcames their flaws and get along with each other and live happily ever after. And if they are still flawed, they conveniently happen to be flawed in a way that makes them mutually compatible as their own 'messed up little family'.
I want to see a found family that, through the process of bonding, maybe some characters find themselves incompatible with each other, and it's not really portrayed as a 'flaw', they just have mutually incompatible needs and that's just kind of how things are and not everyone can get along.
I want to see characters agree to disagree on actually contentious topics.
I want to see other character struggle with how to deal with the conflict between two incompatible parties in their midst, which is not as simple as talking things through or 'fixing' either of them or kicking one of them out because the narrative isn't painting either of them as 'flawed' or 'evil'. I want the characters to feel like taking sides; to have opinions on who's right or who's wrong, but nevertheless can't completely denounce the party they think is 'wrong', because they're 'family', and they don't want to give up on them.
I want to see times where the differences really are just too great and it's not healthy for everyone to stick together. If 5 characters are introduced as the main cast, it feels unrealistic for all 5 of them to still be sticking together harmoniously by the end because it's a hell of a coincidence for all 5 of those people to be mutually compatible. Give me a 2+3 or a 4+1 or something; let the splintered groups go out and find new people they're actually compatible with. Human compatibility is messy and chaotic; show that!
I want to see the bonds being actually tested; not by outside forces or temporary flaws the characters can overcome but by the inevitable conflicts that arise from who they are fundamentally as people. Conflicts that can't be eliminated without the characters ceasing to be themselves. That's the kind of stuff that sells me on a found family dynamic ^_^
that feel when the historical lore prologue plays a huge part in your story but people will drop off because its historical lore prologue <_<
Tragic backstory characters. Where entire plot points revolve around their backstory but we never actually get to see it depicted aside from a minor flashback. It's like telling your friends about a totally awesome thing that happened but they weren't there so the best they can do is nod and awkwardly smile as they listen.
I'd much rather like to actually see the events taking place in comics become part of the backstory of said characters. If we as the audience are there when said events happen it has much more impact, we were there with the characters we follow and feel for them, as opposed to just being told something happened.
Tl,dr: show backstories, don't tell (if possible)
Found families are super common in the LGBTQ community due to people being disowned by their family when they come out. I have also known people who had neglectful, abusive, or missing parental figures who benefited from found families. I knew this one church lady who people called mom because they lacked a supportive mother and they liked having someone there who cared for them. So I am not sure why you would think that is dumb or unrealistic.
Never really thought about this, but you bring up an insightful point. Found families are often depicted as a be-all and end-all which I'm completely fine with in a story about an individual protagonist finding communal solidarity where it's missing in, say bio family or current social circle.
However, if the found family plays an important role in the plot beyond the end, then it would feel more realistic to give the characters emotional stakes that serve as a serious threat to the current character dynamics (depending on the story's overall tone, of course).
You gave me something to ponder over if I start writing those kinds of plots.
True.
From my own perspective, the people you love can be capable of terrible things, abhorrent things. When people struggle to maintain these bonds in spite of weaknesses and detrimental flaws, that's what feels real to me. Personally i'm not a fan of the mushy gushy let's all slobber over eachother and conveniently ignore extreme misgivings character writing. I have seen real world examples and they aren't what they're cracked up to be, but that's just how it is. It feeds back into what we're talking about here with person to person compatibility. True love is based in overcoming incompatibility, which can even happen to a detriment.
I'm mostly considering this from the standpoint of trying to write vampires, in which I find the ability to keep a found family together to be mostly implausible if we're leaning more towards chaotic, monsterish vampires and not your run of the mill man who happens to have some teeth longer than the other bit.
Taking a look at this thread does make me consider about the flaws in my own comic, tbh.
Such as the "lore intro" things people mentioned above; I admit it's a fault of mine doing such an extended intro to showcase the state of that universe before the main story kicks in, especially since the comic I'm posting is a direct revamp of an older version I had with similarly long intro.
Although I'm proud of having worked on the lore, maybe in the future I could do some alterations so it doesn't take much space and give more focus to the main narrative itself.
So in a weird way, this thread might help me in developing my comic as time goes, so I must give it my thanks for existing.
As for my 50 cents on the convo... I'd argue going the "subvert all expectations at the end" is detrimental to the whole story if the explanations contradict what was previously established - unless given a reason that makes sense in-universe, I'd advise to not go this route for the sake of making everything a complex matter that can't always be solved.
Sometimes simple explanations, regardless of being predictable, can be better than subverting expectations in favor of complexity.
all of you who commented above...
for years now i have kept silent... i have bit my lip...
I AM TIRED OF...
ALL THESE COMIC ARTISTS IN TAPAS...
NOT getting the LIKES, SUBS, attention and admiration they deserve for their hard work!
all of you who shed sweat, blood and tears making comics for nothing!
the sacrifices you make, like only eating noodles everyday for a month just to save money to buy art materials!
I salute you... HEART OF THE MANGAKA!
I think evil superman expys actually "died out" a bit ago... the two biggest examples, the boys and invincible are adaptations of comics that came out almost two decades ago.. so I think you're very right when you say that it seems to be dying out
I used to be huge anti prologue/exposition years back, and initially I did one but later chose to scrap it... until I realized I needed it again. Sometimes the worldbuilding is too big not to have something. I think the thing is, if you're using it to set the stage, then you should be able to effortlessly internalize the information instead of fighting to remember it. You've got about 3 pages to hook a reader. If you're using it to set the theme, maybe the tone and general setting of the story I think that can work great. But given the chance I prefer to start stories without them.
Yeah in my case my character Eric Stanford had a rough background but he leaves some parts out. In the story he is In present day experiencing something way more tragic, he is basically a slave in a sense but he was manipulated to stay in England. He doesn’t explain it like an explanation dump. I don’t want to give any spoilers.
Anyway on your topic I fell for that cliche. I had a character with a very traumatic childhood but it never built up to anything at all. I learned what NOT to do from that story. I learned to show not tell but also don’t share every single detail otherwise it adds more questions and sort of wastes time for me as a writer as well as the reader. So there’s my thoughts on that. I think these tropes don’t just to comics but television shows and movies and novels as well.
Ohh also kind of related to that; in a lot of the more mainstream anime-looking stuff, even with guys and girls who do look the same age the guys always have narrower eyes than the girls, who get big wide moe eyes. idk it's always kind of bugged me -- feels almost like a different art style tbh XD I think I've been putting a disproportionate amount of time trying to figure out how to make guys still look masculine with big eyes since forever, just out of spite 
I don't think it's ever completely necessary to have an exposition dump unless you want the plot to kick off as soon as possible. Which I get why people feel the need to do; you need to hook the reader quickly and if you take too long to set up, you're afraid they'd get bored and leave. We're always told as writers to get to the point as soon as possible.
But I feel like if the worldbuilding is big, then the worldbuilding kind of counts as 'the point' in and of itself? I guess with worldbuilding-heavy stories, I prefer the lore to be introduced in an organic, non-crammed way even if it does mean it take a while for the main plot to happen, so when the plot does kick off, I can "effortlessly internalize the information instead of fighting to remember it", as you put it.
With the worldbuilding-heavy series I'm planning, my approach is to start off with simpler, episodic plots that doesn't require as much lore to understand as the main plot, and introduce the lore to readers that way. I believe it's possible to introduce worldbuilding in an interesting way, so that people don't get bored even if it takes a while :]
Artwork that is too goddamn detailed. This is just a personal thing, but it can be really difficult to follow a scene depending on super detailed an image, especially if I have to draw it (visual dyslexia is what I like to call it). It looks good but like...what the fuck am I looking at. It makes following stuff like action scenes really difficult following actions scenes, especially if its in greyscale. By that point it just becomes inaudible noise.
Also creators who set super expectations for their work. This has less to do with comics and just social media as a whole. Its more prevalent amongst my generation who saw kids their age blowing up on youtube and tik tok getting famous for doing literally anything and get it into their had that they can do it to. So they have this delusion of gradure and get really really disappointed whenever they dont met their super expectations. Just set your expectations immensely low or at the very least, at a reasonable level. Dont expect Jesus to come down from heaven and smack your across the goddamn face because you thought you would be the next Logan Paul XD
My character from Cracking Eggs Eric Stanford also came out as gay in his background. Winston is also gay but he never admitted it. He was just a kind uncle with a double life. Anyway back to Eric he had a mother and grandmother who accepted him for who he was. I never had a found family trope I am slightly familiar with it but maybe it’s a variation but it’s not present in my story. I believe we need more examples of family members who are accepting their children regardless of sexual orientation. So therefore I am happy to represent family members showing kindness rather than rejection and abandonment in my story. It’s really what people who feel like outsiders really need in this divisive and cruel world.
I haven't seen this much in webcomics, but holy poo poo, I'm not the only one who has this problem 
This was why I could never get into manga 
Artwork that is too goddamn detailed. This is just a personal thing, but it can be really difficult to follow a scene depending on super detailed an image,
Same!!!
The villainness titles are a giant headache for me because while I can appreciate that the art is beautiful and the artist spent a lot of time on it, there's so many details in the clothes or backgrounds that it impacts my reading comprehension and attention span.