Fantasy readers, what's a trope you just can't stand?

[Umber]

As I'm polishing the plot for my comic, I'm starting to wonder about which tropes and clichés I should avoid.
I feel like this is a trope a lot of people actually like, but personally something that I've disliked for a while is when the main character ends up with one of their friends at the end of the story when there isn't a lot of chemistry between them relationship-wise, and very little foreshadowing towards the romance either.
Anyway, what's your opinion?

[Katzalcoatl]

Fantasy is a huge genre so can you be a bit more specific of the theme? Maybe it is isekai? LitRPG? Slow life reincarnation? Depending on the theme a clear cliché can be seen.

[morganicfoods]

Exposition dumping. Especially at the beginning. There are so many ways you can explain the way your world, magic system, character's backstory, etc without just throwing it all at me.

[HGohwell]

Just to get it out the way, I wouldn't use posts like this to find out what you should avoid. Even the most cliche thing works if executed well. Write the story you want to write and execute it well. Trying to avoid tropes,especailly from posts like this where everyone is going to have different opinions leads to muddled storytelling and a lack of clear vision.

That said, in a more general sense, as someone who loves world building, lazy world building can turn me off so quickly. I'm not asking for every author to have created an entire mythos and world, but basic things. If you have a matriarchal society why do people still take their husband's names? If gods and magic are real, why do people still act like believing in a higher power is dumb? If a certain group is restricted from acess to education, along with everything else, why does you main character from that group know everything about stratergy and politics as well as those in the upper crusts of your distopia? It's just lazy to not even consider the basic logic of your world and it's something that turns me off so quickly. If you didn't care about the world your story is set in, it doesn't bode well for your story. People treat world building like it's something seperate to story and character, but it's really now. Plot, character and world should all impact each other and so should be intertwined. If you world building is lazy, it tells me to expect unbelievable characters and a forced plot.

[NickRowler]

When it comes to webcomics, reincarnation. If you want to do a parallel fantasy world to the real world, maybe find a creative way for the MC to travel there that doesn't involve murdering them.

[Umber]

Fantasy is a huge genre so can you be a bit more specific of the theme? Maybe it is isekai? LitRPG? Slow life reincarnation? Depending on the theme a clear cliché can be seen.

Yeah, sure! I wouldn't exactly say my comic is probably a LitRPG, despite it being based on the lore of Hypixel Skyblock. This is because very few characters are aware that they are "inside a video game," and it is not important to the plot. Specifically, however, the plot structure kinda follows a sort of "hero's journey," where a character accidentally stumbles upon information has to save her kingdom (yeah ik this is pretty cliché by itself lol)

Exposition dumping. Especially at the beginning. There are so many ways you can explain the way your world, magic system, character's backstory, etc without just throwing it all at me.

Oh boy, I admit I am a victim to this one. I made the beginning of my comic with practically no planning and my thought process to the beginning was kinda like.. hmm, how should I start my comic? Ah yes, "once there was a war." Lol I'm currently in the process of rewriting+redrawing the beginning of my comic because I'm sure the lore dumping is scaring quite a few people away.

Just to get it out the way, I wouldn't use posts like this to find out what you should avoid. Even the most cliche thing works if executed well. Write the story you want to write and execute it well. Trying to avoid tropes,especailly from posts like this where everyone is going to have different opinions leads to muddled storytelling and a lack of clear vision.

Yeah, I get it. Thanks lol. I'm a pretty amateur writer and I just wanted to hear people's general opinions about things. One person saying they don't like a trope isn't going to make me completely erase it from my story.

That said, in a more general sense, as someone who loves world building, lazy world building can turn me off so quickly. I'm not asking for every author to have created an entire mythos and world, but basic things. If you have a matriarchal society why do people still take their husband's names? If gods and magic are real, why do people still act like believing in a higher power is dumb? If a certain group is restricted from acess to education, along with everything else, why does you main character from that group know everything about stratergy and politics as well as those in the upper crusts of your distopia? It's just lazy to not even consider the basic logic of your world and it's something that turns me off so quickly. If you didn't care about the world your story is set in, it doesn't bode well for your story. People treat world building like it's something seperate to story and character, but it's really now. Plot, character and world should all impact each other and so should be intertwined. If you world building is lazy, it tells me to expect unbelievable characters and a forced plot.

Yeah, that makes sense, thanks!

[DiegoPalacios]

What trope i can't stand????, poorly executed ones.

[Katzalcoatl]

Besides lore dumping at the start. I would say the harem cliche without explanation.

I like some harem stories but the ones I like usually explains things in an understandable way. But many cliche harem just dump new Harem members without reason or an introduction. Basically the MC getting engaged left and right with everyone for no reason.

I don't like cliche of the MC becoming a god at the super start. And personally the cliche of the "useless" power that turned out to be a super cheat power has become overused.

Now those are my likes but all those cliches are still popular but you have to be careful how you execute them.