Favorite comic/story tropes?

[AnnaLandin]

This isn't just for comics, but for fiction in general.

I am a sucker for desperate last stands, unlikely heroes and rag-tag bands of scrappy fighters facing impossible odds. And they don't even have to pull off miraculous victories for me to like it - I'm totally on board for inevitable doom, too. <3

Like, the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep, death-charging right into the army of Uruk-hai? Yeah, that's my cup of tea. Which is probably why I stuck with Steven Erikson's Malazan-books, despite their other flaws. Whatever else he might have gotten up to, he was great at impossible odds, desperate last stands and inevitable doom - with pinches of unlikely success. The Chain of Dogs/Coltain's March is one of my favourite pieces of fiction involving war.

As for more minor tropes... Like you, @epiale, I like size-differences in romance. I can't help it! Tiny and cute x Tall and intimidating is so adorable! I don't care about genders, either; whether it's a same-sex couple or a heterosexual couple, I don't mind. In fact, I think I'd like to see more size-difference straight couples where it's the male character who is small and cute, and the female character who is big and bulky. It'd be a nice change.

Also, villains trying to redeem themselves. People who, through the course of the story, realise that what they've been doing is wrong, and try to better themselves and make amends. Again, it's not important if they actually succeed; all that matters is that they try.

[keii4ii]

The buried/ sunken/ otherwise hidden variation of this trope: Advanced Ancient Acropolis. I am a total sucker for the adventures that transpire from a low-tech, peaceful culture character discovering one of these. This is especially, though not exclusively, for video games, as I really feel like I'm exploring the world and discovering something huge and special.

[Kelty]

I can only really think of romance tropes i like honestly. i like the romance size-difference thing, surprise. i take it a little too damn far though in NL. It's hard drawing panels when your main couple are almost 3ft apart in height difference. #selfhate also a big fan of nonhuman/human romances (another surprise) and "teaching the nonhuman what love is" trope. i'm real big on "firsts" in romances. hot damn. no surprise. u no me lol.

i can't think of any tropes tbh because all my favorite story elements are used so few and far between that they're not even tropes.

[zelkats]

I absolutely adore stories that have couples ultimately separating not because of their incompatibility or death, but the fact that they're from completely different times and space. And they either move on never forgetting/still loving their ex-significant other or they just give up life because things can never be the same.

[SPOILERS]
Examples are The Vision of Escaflowne and Somewhere in Time.

It rips my heart out, throws it into a furnace and it feels despairingly good.

/cries

[Zannen00]

I'm just a sucker for any type of media that use weird tropes like:
Eldritch Abomination, Go Mad from the Revelation, Bizarrchitecture, Alien Geometries, Mind Screw, Body Horror,
I love Junji Ito works, he always manage to incorporate those into his stories.
Anybody can recommend other similar manga??

Also situational tropes like: And I Must Scream, Fate Worse Than Death, Mind Rape.
Guess I just like seeing characters suffer.

But my most favorite trope of all is:
Harem, Ecchi, Accidental Pervert, Fanservice and Gainaxing in anime NOWADAYS!! *Sarcasm *

[GlanceReviver]

I love tropes and trope-subversions, I could probably list hundreds of them if I had all night.

I like a self-fulfilling prophecy, especially when protagonists somehow end up being their own destruction because they tried too hard not to be.

They're all Dead Dave: when you look around and the whole cast is dead. TBH I am just amused by all the tropes that are named by Red Dwarf. Also, More Teeth Than the Osmand Family.

I'm kind of a sucker for a good tsudere character that really wants to love and they don't know how.

Aeris and Bob -- when some of your characters have normal names and other ones have way too many apostrophes and consecutive vowels.

[ashriott]

-I don't care if they can fight in it or not, but I love when characters look fkin awesome in their flashy eye candy costumes. If it gets ripped or torn during battle, who the hell cares? It'll go back to the way it was next ep. Practicality be damned.

-"Love in the time of Cholera", as in when romance blossoms in the middle of some kind of tragedy or warfare situation.Watch how they characters fall in love and the many things that keep them apart... I'm a shipper at heart, it can't be helped.

-Dark pasts, there I said it. Not the mediocre, cliched ones though, it depends...

-Where characters have some sort of "second" or "mascot" that reflects who they are.. kind of? I'm not sure what this trope is called, but a good example would be an old Clamp series Angelic Layer. Each character has a angel which represents who they are (personality etc) I'm a sucker for that shit.

[phoenixrenaissance]

I'm not so well versed on the "names" of the tropes but I really enjoy

The ability of a sweet or loyal character either suddenly betraying someone for the sake of themselves or suddenly committing a horrible act for the sake of someone else.

Tales of Xiilia/Xillia 2 had moments like these in each of them.

In the first a character very nearly kills another part member because he was promised the chance to return to his own world if he did.
And in the second an alternate ending involves killing off all of your teammates in order to save a sibling.

I guess I just really love seeing what desperation does to a person.

[winglesscomic]

Oh gosh I f...f...fucking love love interests with insane height differences...it's the only way romance is bearable for me. Gamagoori x Mako make me go AAAAAAAHHHHHHNNAAAGHHGHGH

Also, I'm madly in love with righteous zealots who think they're doing the right thing and inevitably fuck EVERYTHING up with their gigantic boners for justice. I don't give a shit how many times that happens, if something involves a zealot whose downfall is their own belief of righteousness I'm already sold.

[ghostnxs]

righteous zealots who think they're doing the right thing and inevitably fuck EVERYTHING up with their gigantic boners for justice.

I always love your wording.

Not sure if its a trope but I love sneaky smart characters similar to Light from Death Note. I'm still reading it. I just finished volume 8, that boy is a devious as hell. I love devious characters, other examples are Izaya from Durarara, those who plot in the darkness. I also love it when characters can actually die.

Also I love cute androgynous appearance characters like Saika Totsuka.

Isn't he adorable.

The only trope I dislike is the clueless love that goes on forever...ewww

[ghostnxs]

I forgot I have one more, any story like Clannad or Plastic Memories, that just overflows with sadness.

[DynamoToon]

Something I love is an epic final battle. All of your allies next to you to face off against the enemy's last desperate onslaught. You just feel so amazing, dude its awesome.

[HNLEE]

I didn't really intend to like this trope but I'm such a sucker for couples where the more social one is overly enthusiastic over the other whose kind of an indifferent (but actually cares) awkward nerd
don't really know what trope this is exactly but that it. On a side note... I notice lots of people love height difference trope o.o which is weird for me cause it's my least fav... maybe bc im short af

[Jelw]

I love it when there's a part of a story where one person gets sick……
Aside from that I'm a sucker for characters overcoming language barriers and understanding one another ultimately and being friends. Characters who somehow loose the ability to speak and have to learn to cope with it (weird and oddly specific, I know. Actually this probably isn't common enough to be a trope) I second size differences. I also have a bias for relationships with one more cheery and whimsical characters with more serious counterparts. With heterosexual relationships for whatever reason I really like the guys essentially head-over-heels with a cute innocent infactuation. (Gumshoe and Tateyuki from Ace Attorney fit this, and Junpei from Persona 3…)
There are a ton more but.

[maximumthemokona]

I don't know why but I always like the Sweet Polly Oliver trope (for the link phobic: "A female character dresses up as a man to accomplish some end"). That's probably why my favorite manga are Rose of Versailles, Utena and Princess Knight.
I've never used it in my stories, though.

[Zanreo]

First of all, "tropes" in themselves or something being "trope-y" aren't always bad - they're just storytelling tools, and maybe except for the extremely overused ones and some "unfortunate implications" ones I don't have anything against tropes.

I tend to be fond of tropes like Crazy Enough To Work, Noodle Implements, Cloudcuckoolander, Crazy Awesome, Zany Scheme

[Cielle]

My favorite tropes are almost always tropes that involve "monsters". Like "tomato in the mirror"(character was a monster all along! surprise), "and then John was a zombie"(character becomes a monster), The Killer in Me/Amnesiac Killer (character doesn't realize they kill people), Super-powered evil side. The more heartbreaking it is, the better. I guess I'm a sadist haha.

On a lighter side, I love brick jokes. They always feel like a reward for sticking around. "Badass and Baby" is always fun too. Also, anything with swords. Gun fights can be cool (helllloo Trigun), but I guess I'm a sucker for the slowed down battle aesthetic of a sword fight.

[epiale]

Oh god, monster tropes can be amazing. I'm also a massive fan of the character was a monster all along thing. : D

Another favorite monster trope is the monstrous looking character not being the actual monster in the end. Not sure how to describe it better, but I love twists and plays on the genre when it comes to monsters.

[mannykat8x]

I'm a huge fan of the Time Travel tropes, specifically Groundhog Day Loop. Even more interesting is when you're seeing the Looper from the perspective of someone else who's unaware of just how many times the Looper's seen the same exact conversation and almost the same events over and over again
Too bad I won't be able to play with those time ones for a while. Not until the only Time powered cat in Fighting Dreamers finally becomes one of the main characters

Ghost related tropes are also pretty fun to work with, along with cat ones. And I don't know what it is but I've always liked seeing a show's/series's perspective on I Can Still Fight and some of the sub tropes related to it. Like Post Victory Collapse

[noctuidae]

i love twin tropes... its probably pretty annoying for actual, rl twins for the media to be portraying them like that, but standing at the end of a hallway with your best bud whispering creepy shit in unison is my idea of a good time.

and i have a soft spot for protective older siblings, or generally just the dynamic of a tough character living alongside a smaller, more defenseless character.