Are there any things you're tired of seeing in comics?

[UzukiCheverie]

This vvvvv

I don't like characters that are overly pessimistic and brooding about everything. I don't mind characters that have tragic pasts or feel depressed sometimes, but think they should have some fun in life.

^^^^ is why I hated Lightning from FF 13. I dunno, I didn't play the whole game so I didn't get to learn her entire backstory, but she really wore me out as a character because for most of the time, she appeared to be quiet and depressing and sad just for the sake of being quiet and depressing and sad, because the plot required it.

Brooding and deep characters just aren't "cool" anymore. They're annoying. All they do is whine about shit and basically act like a big douche about everything. Unless you're intentionally trying to make the readers hate that character (ex. Jeoffrey from GoT) a brooding and deep character ends up just being annoying most of the time from their constant brooding and groaning and shoulder shrugging.

[VermillionWorks]

@WintreKitty, I was actually going to say something similar.

Convenient power upgrades. This also goes for anime and manga. I avoid them a lot more than I used to for the same reasons. The themes may be different, but the end results and special powers always...just kind of feel the same to me...

Okay, I used to be a big Dragon Ball Z fan when I was young, but as I've gotten older I've come to acknowledge it's obvious faults and wonder why they heck people insist on reusing these faults over and over. Whatever happened to beating 'em with tactics, huh? I find that much more interesting than the hero must find their special inner rage/bravery/sixth sense/whatever to jump into their next powerful form to win.

[jackieuy127]

SAME. I was really excited about FF 13 because Lightning looked cool and stuff but later on I was falling asleep because she was like you said, sad and depressed the whole time. This trope kind of always reminds me of Katniss from the Hunger Games as well.

[MeridianGray]

I actually don't have an issue with the whole "parents are dead" thing because that's a HUGE catalyst for so many awesome books and hero stories. I can't imagine anything more action provoking than the reality that you don't have a family. But that's just me.

What really irks me is when people introduce their comic as a genre and don't bother to tell you about the story.

"A cute bi lesbian gay trans poc novel!!!!!!"

Like, ok, is there a... plot? I'm tired of seeing these weird comics just like thrown together on the internet that serve no real purpose in terms of storytelling and giving back to your audience. I write to communicate, to move people, not to toot the social justice horn.

[FromFinn]

When a character is introduced as gay/bi/trans before you get to actually learn their friggen name. (Also not a fan of when it's in the description, as I don't need to be 'warned' about a comic that has hetrosexual content, but I guess I can understand when people do that)

Come on people. That's as insulting as someone introducing someone as "This is my gay friend ____" it's like you're giving them a god damn warning, it's insulting, and while we're on the topic

@kurapikasuki I couldn't agree more, every time I see this on any type of medium I notice they carelessly injected into a character(s) without proper backstory or at least giving the common courtesy to ease it in as the story progresses. Then they have the bold audacity to call it rich backstory, like JUST being gay is an all-in-one deep engrossing character trait. Hmph...

As a homosexual I know that I don't speak for everyone, but we're not trophies that you can just boast whenever you receive one as a friend whether we are gay, bi, or trans. You wouldn't say,
"this is my friend ___ , he's black" or rather, "This is my asian friend, ___" would you? No, right? Exactly, we're pretty much as normal as everyone else except for who we want to be in a relationship with. Simple as that. So, if you're writing a character that so happens to be gay/bi/trans try to ease it in and try not to make them too flamboyant or annoyingly brooding all the time--- Just don't be so blunt and blurt them out just for the sake of progression.

---

Transgender characters who are 'discovered' for being transgendered by being 'walked in on while they are changing'

I'll tell ya right now that is not a scenario that 'just happens' usually the people in question are extremely careful in this regard. It's practically a worst nightmare scenario. So stop doing it.

Again I agree with you, pretty annoying.

---

One more thing I like to add, can we drop the whole anime trope about teenage adolescents romance in friggen school of all places. It's not the only place in the world guys and gals.

[jackieuy127]

A game I like to play whenever I read shoujo is SHOUJO BINGO which is just a bunch of cheesy things every shoujo has and my list currently consists of:

-Love Rival
-Maid/Butler Cafe
-Sports Festival
-Ex returns and with a vengeance
-Scene in the Rain
-"P-P-PERVERT!"
-"ba dump, ba dump, my heart is beating so loudly"
-School Trip (usually in hokkaido...)
-Guy pulls girl into his chest
-Guy teases girl
-Scene in infirmary
-One person in couple is class rep
-One person in couple gets shit grades

If anyone has any more to add, feel free to do so!

[ErithEl]

-"P-P-PERVERT!"

This. So much. Because, also, a lot of the times this happens is after the couple has already gotten together, which never made sense to me haha!

My biggest pet peeve is mainly from manga, similar to what @VermillionWorks mentioned ("convenient power upgrades"). It's actually kinda the reason I stopped reading manga: Characters who don't die.

I like characters to be realistic, so when I kept coming across characters who could have a hole (yes, one you could see through!) in the middle of their chest, and still be standing and talking and preparing to fight...let's just say it really took me out of the story!

[VermillionWorks]

Okay, I thought of something else. @jackieuy127 kind of brought it up, too.

I guess it's more dialogue bits that I find irritating that often leads into chapters upon chapters of similar irritating dialogue, usually these are found in romance stories. Lines like these -
"What is this feeling?"
"Why is my heart beating so fast?"

I see these lines SO much and often in place of what could be more interesting interaction. Even worse is when this is our first introduction to the main couple. I just would rather see a romance bloom from friendship instead of this instant "Ooh, my heart, it's fate" attraction. Sure, a character can find someone instantly attractive, but I don't think that should necessarily mean the two are made for each other or must end up together.

[jackieuy127]

OMG yeah characters who have a hole in the middle of their chest and give a speech about friendship, i'm like GIRL U NEED MEDICAL ASSISTANCE ACTUALLY NO Y'ALL SHOULD BE DEAD which is basically the whole plot to Bleach ur choice of words on fleek though

like i love shoujo bc i like cheesy stuff, but the same story over and over gets really boring U_U

[Jrej]

Well... I must confess, one of my characters is probaly the sadest person ever, never talks and never cracks a smile but I swear, It does serve the story and he is not really the main character for now... Others bring in some joy!

Hopefully he is mysterious enough that people wanna keep reading... 8-S

[eagle1]

I have a little list.

Exposition before the story. If I need a school course before I read your story, why should I want to read it?

Big reveals that are actually not important to the plot, characters, or theme of the story, but just an excuse for a splash page. Pretty art. Why am I looking at pretty art, instead of reading your story?

Splash pages. A traditional western comic is 22 pages. If there are more than three splash pages, there had better be a damned good reason. If you are putting in a splash page every 2-3 pages, just to show off your drawing skills? Pretty art. Why am I looking at pretty art, instead of reading your story?

If you're going to be late, and you want to let the readers know, do so. Do not stick in a pinup, because then when I am binge-reading your archives, the story gets broken up by a pinup that has nothing to do with the story. Pretty art. Why am I....never mind, you get it by now.

A slow plot. I will read any on-going title to the 20 page mark. By that time, I should have figured out most of the 5 elements of your story. I should know who, how, where, and what. I might not know why yet, but what that means is your characters, your conflict, your setting, and your plot. Your theme might not be apparent yet (although there's that stupid screenwriting formula that says a character should state the theme in the first act. Balderdash) but I should be starting to see it. If I can't, I'm gone. Unsubscribe. No, I will not stick around for pretty art.

Any story that feels like it is being written a page at a time. If I don't feel like you know where your own story is going, why should I trust you to take me there?

Bad art will not kick me out of a comic. I'm here for the story, not the pretty art. However, bad composition, bad page flow, and bad balloon placement (or that sillyness of no tails on the balloons) will. There is a method and set of techniques for those things, and there are plenty of simple tutorials on the web. Please research them and learn them.

By the way, if you have a good story, and pretty art, you have a fan in me.

I don't mind if you use cliches, tropes, stereotypes, or recycled Shakespeare plots. Just put a new spin on it. Make it clever. There are no original stories. We could fill several pages with just the 'new, original' movies and books that were done with a new body, and a stolen engine of Bill Shakespeare. Just rub the serial numbers off, give it a paint job, and people will love it. But please, give it a paint job. Be original in the way you tell that old saw.

Eagle
(Yeah, I'm done. For now)

[AnnaLandin]

YES 1000% on the love-triangles! While I know the path of true love does not run smooth, most authors handle love-triangles really badly. What I dislike the most is when they've already established a good, healthy relationship between two people, and then introduce the third person out of the blue because they need external tension or something. Gah!

But aside from that, the number one thing that will make me drop a comic like it's on fire and never pick it up again is the overused gigantic prologue in narrative text. You know the one; they usually turn up in fantasy comics, or scifi, where you get several pages of seemingly random images (they seem that way because you, as a reader, have no idea of what's going on yet) interspersed with blocks of text explaining stuff that happened a hundred or a thousand years ago, or detailing a vague prophecy, or just explaining exactly how a world works. It's just text, text, text that goes on forever, before you ever see a single character. I read comics for the stories, not for the endless exposition. Give me characters to care about, not vague expositionary text.

[ErithEl]

Ha ha yeah Bleach was exactly the one I was thinking of while writing that Oh, your body was just cut in half? No problem! Time to activate your special powers and save the day!

[ErithEl]

I think there was another thread just about this

overused gigantic prologue in narrative text.

I completely agree on that, and honestly if I start reading a comic and this lasts for more than two pages, that is as far as I will go. It's unfortunate, since I'm sure the rest of the comic could be amazing, but it's not the best choice for comic format: If I wanted to read a wall of text, I would just read a book.

[yvettegustafsson]

Unnatural over explaining please go away from the face of the earth and stay there. Much like in the Harry Potter books where Harry and his friends do adventure and danger and afterwards Dumbledore comes in to explain it all. It's starting to irritate me more and more.

Sure, sometimes it could be a thing, like in Wayne's World, but most of the time it's only used for making sure the reader gets it and often they also use language and phrases no one would use. All of this is in the same category as Anna's issue with the prologues.

Show me the good stuff, don't tell me.

[SpavVy]

Characters that are way too hot headed especially if its a female lead or when the girls beat the crap out of the guys all the times for stupid crap. I understand that the author is trying to make it funny but this is really old and I never found it amusing to begin with, it's middle school humor in my opinion, if you need to make a tiny girl beat the crap out of some guy for accidentally walking in on her while changing then you need to seriously watch more comedy cuz this is just not funny at all.
I also hate female characters that are so numb that you wonder how they even function, I simply cannot stand stupid women in general.

I also cannot stand characters that are only there for fan service when the story is supposed to be serious. Yes, I do have a succubus character and she is vary voluptuous but she does play a vary important role in my story and there is a story on why she is like this. I don't mind sexy characters but dammit give them a better role than just being eye candy!

Generic male protagonists also make me cringe as well especially when every girl in the whole goddamn school is after his d**k! -_- makes me want to puke.

Anything with a high school setting also makes me want to to puke.

Huge dialogue is boring especially in the beginning.

When the plot is starting to go somewhere or get serious then all of the sudden the comic relief character ruins it! Grell from Black Butler is a perfect example, GAWD I HATE GRELL! And the rest of Ceil's servants that always screw up I despise them as well (not including Sebastian he's okay I guess.) Yeah I didn't have fun watching that series...

[Raven_C]

Hmm i hate the trope that's especially prevalent in manga/anime where the main protag is a loser/weak guy/incompetent, yet manages to have this harem of sexy girls. Like, who the heck wants a weak-ass guy? Not just physically, but when he's such an unremarkable character (ie. he's boring; a pervert, etc) then I can't really bring myself to like him. I don't like harems in general anyway. Lol

[zelkats]

I can't stand romance stories that have female protagonists pairing up with male protagonists who are big jerks and sometimes also abusive. It's common in shoujo manga and it has leaked its way into English language webcomics. It's even evident in popular novels (50 shades of Twilight fanfic) and movies, for heavens sake. I know it's all fantasy and it doesn't necessarily influences young girls but, I can't help but question it when fan girls drool over those male characters. A jerk is a jerk, whether or not their douchebaggery was caused by some sad past. Stop seeing them as sexy bad boys who are misunderstood souls, please lol

[getsuart]

I'm lucky that the prologue/story exposition of my comic didn't last more than two page then
Joke aside, it's true that very long exposition is tiring. It works better in video game, I suppose... (or not, it has the same problem but nor at the same scale)

I don't like love triangle. It's forced a lot of time, and you can easily guess who the character the girl will choose. And it's usually the one she was at the beginning.
But I must say it's a pleasure when you need to laugh, because "oh my god it's so forced man it's fantastic, love this".

@jackieuy127 Does the school play also works ? I've read some mangas where the main characters have to do the... main characters of the story they play and have to kiss.

One thing I don't like is mostly in mangas : the girl trophy. The girl who has the role of the girl. Which is being cute, being a little bit naive, everyone is attracted by her, sometimes she gets captured, but she's kawai in the end so you forgive her. And she's a good reward for the main character too. God I hate this. Actually, I read a lot of webcomics from young people who have this trope.
Also, the total opposite is the woman with big breasts who is a sort of eye candy (or/and dominatrix) because it's pleasing to have one. Again, it's something I see in comics from young people and mangas. This kind of character has no other purpose.
I have a general problem with women trophies. When I read stories/mangas from young creators (approximatelly 18 years old), they have those clichés, and just say "naaah, it's just the GIRL, she's not the important element of the story". Only a motivator for the main character to save her. And they react like this because they read a lot of manga which have this trope.

[purrlpankras]

Repetitive shounen trash