Favorite/Least Liked Tropes?

DiegoPalacios 2018-02-04 21:45:31 UTC #21

Mixing those two can make a hillarious parody: "nobody understands my pain because i express it in complex poetry and obscure references from movies nobody watched"

This one is a guilty pleasure to me. In part because they are usually badass and seem to have their shit together, and in part because i love proberbs. But i agree they are pretty prone to cliches, even parodying them is a cliche . (maybe that is why instead of an old master i used a younger one in my comic)

AndromedaS 2018-02-04 21:47:00 UTC #22

OMG! Your "broody emo boys" description is perfect.

Jenny-Toons 2018-02-04 21:56:19 UTC #23

What I Love:

Mama Bear/Papa Wolf: There is nothing I love more than seeing a parent/guardian go to great lengths to keep their children safe from harm. And honestly? I think there's some pretty good development that happens here. It sorta shows "what could you do if someone you loved was threatened?"

What I Dispise:

My Mania Pixie Girl: I've seen too many coming of age movies and books with this type of girl in there. The one who sits in the coffee shop and wears hipster clothes and is "not like the other girls".

Like, of course you're not like the other girls? You're a person? No two people are completely alike?

She's just so bland and egoistic and thinks she's so much better just because she doesn't like "mainstream" stuff. Even worse, her character always plays to the expense of some random guy. She's only there to help build him up while she doesn't really change herself. And, with no effort on his part, she falls for the random guy.

All within the SAME coffee shop.

Average Joe Everyman: You know the one -- the guy that's in every harem and the guy every chick wants to have in said harem. He doesn't have any special talents, any nice qualities to him.

Book smarts, art, music, sports, exercising, cooking, space, adventure, clothing, etc. etc. etc -- this guy never does ANY of this or even hints to being good at any of this. Like he's supposed to fail at all of it.

And we rarely have an development about him, so we don't know his family, his circumstances or his dreams. And if we do, it's this very generic "oh, he has a regular family with average grades and average friends and an average life"

The only one quality he has is this very self-pity like state where he calls himself a loser and thinks everyone around him thinks the same (and they might act like it too), but we never get a reason as to why this is or why he feels this way.

There's rarely ever a reason that shows why he is how he is and why these girls like him other than "he was nice to me that one time" or "He said I should smile when I was feeling down"

IdiotWithPencil 2018-02-04 22:41:13 UTC #24

first thing that came to my mind when you said that T.T (my heart breaks at these kinds of scenes)

another bad trope for me is the will they won't they relationship, it's tolerable with teens or small kids but when it's with adults I just scream "YOU ARE GROWN ASS PEOPLE GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND DATE OR DON'T BUT STOP ACTING LIKE THIS IS YOUR FIRST TIME" is it so hard to believe that 20 to 30 year old already know what love is and can ask out a co-worker or friend out on a date?

indagold 2018-02-05 00:30:37 UTC #25

Tropes I like: fab villains, cute side kicks (I watched a seal mascot anime even though it sucks horribly i'm so pathetic ;-; ), I don't know if this is a trope but surreal stuff for no reason...I liked this stuff as a kid and now, just big lipped alligator moments but probably more crazy.

Tropes I don't like: fanservice...well its kind've a double edged sword for me because it works really well in raunchy comedies but not serious pieces. I can't stand when there's a deep and brooding moment going on but then tits mcgee over there in the corner twisting her nipples. Come on, at least say she's a stripper or raver or anything to make sense plotwise. Forced romance, jumpscares, deus ex machina moments.

Jenny-Toons 2018-02-05 00:35:14 UTC #26

Oh God, and a lot of this is evident in a lot of the horror mangas. Anyone remember High School of the Dead? Yeah, that bad.

hades 2018-02-05 02:29:33 UTC #27

Good thread

my favs

the reluctant guardian
when a character goes from tolerating a child character to becoming a papawolf/mamabear. My heart dies for this.

Chosen One - rewrite
I'm chill with prophecies and chosen one narratives..when spiced up. Show me how this affects the supposed chosen one's life. What negativity and consequences does this create, what positives. How do they feel about this - > why are they willing to go along with it?

Language Barriers
One of my all time favorite manga deals with this. The main characters is portal transported into a fantasy world and guess what, she doesn't know the language! She progressively learns it over the course of the story. [the manga is called From Far Away]

You aren't a monster
I'm a huge loser for a character going berserk and straight up savage/monster and a character that cares for them tries to calm them down.

Nature with a vengeance
nature vs man conflicts will always be a soft spot for me.

Things on my nah list

stupidity for humor
i don't find this funny. People feigning a lack of genius as comedy gold. I also am not a fan of "bodily humor"

There's more...but..im tired

PaulDevers 2018-02-07 03:55:01 UTC #28

Okay, when it comes to writing tropes, I really love amnesia plotlines, especially like people becoming things that they were not before by losing humanity, or discovering their past lives were not nearly as idyllic that they so believed. That, and character death in some degree of an unusual way, such as disintegration or fading away. I also love old people; make more stories about old people and robots. And ghosts. I also love ghosts and zombies and ghosts needing to be guided back to the afterlife.
What I DON'T like is super soldiers and tragic backstories. The fastest way to lose my interest in a character is when it says that they were experimented on, or had a tragic backstory with their parents or yadda yadda. Especially when these characters have big how-to-do's about how terrible it makes them feel, with overly dramatic art of them crying naked in a fetal position in the depths of space. Yes. Specifically that. You don't know how often I've seen that drawing specifically.