Name Sci-fi Tropes/cliches that you HATE

[TheBryceKrispy]

I thought it would be fun to name Sci-fi Tropes/Cliches that you hate in this thread.

[thomassayle]

It was earth all along, probably not a trope but it does appear often enough times that it bugs me. If the premise is that they have traveled far in time or cant find earth etc then its pretty obvious where its going.

When a clone also has the same memories, does that count?

[TheBryceKrispy]

When a clone also has the same memories, does that count?

I think that a clone having the same memories does count as a trope.

[unknown_user]

LOL I hate when:

• Programmers and hackers in sci-fi movies are typing code on the keyboard extremely quickly and writing mega-complicated programs in minutes.I believed in it when I was a child and am so disappointed now about how slowly actually programs are written... (but it maybe okay if they are quickly using already written programs)
• "Scientists" tell "explanations" which are made from a bunch of "scientific" words, which are mixed the way to form syntactically correct but totally meaningless sentences. I mean, it is annoying when anyone who knows these words instantly see what a bullshit these "scientific" speeches are. I think that script writers should spend at least a bit time on consulting with people who know particular scientific topic to insert more plausible, meaningful scientific speeches about it into their creation (or they can just avoid making this kind of speeches if they are too lazy for it).
• Radiation endows people with super-abilities (but it is ok for parody or comedy)

[thomassayle]

ah yes, that's a just stupid science

[Azifri]

• researchers wearing lab coats everywhere and for no reason
• alien species that look and/or feel just like humans
• radiation/chemicals give you superpowers, not cancer. Like seriously, I've worked for almost 10 years in a lab and still no superpowers of any kind
• no effort to base the science-fiction part of the story on some actual scientific base. Even if it's just an imaginary concept, I love when those things are well described
• super complex lab work done overnight. Like the programming situation mentioned in a post above. But then, in my comic I made a character do lab work and to make it realistic I put in some time skips because research takes time. And people complained about the time skips 🤦‍♀️
• silly and not functional clothes

[Raven_C]

I hate the trope Born Sexy Yesterday. If you don’t know what that is, i suggest watching the link below since it explains this better than I would have. It basically involves a male character teaching an innocent/childlike but ~super sexy~ (often too sexualized) female character, as if she was born yesterday — and oftentimes that’s actually the case in Sci-fi because the female character is an alien who needs the guidance of the much smarter male character. BUT there’s more details to the trope than that:

[paperwren]

Oh my god ok boobs on reptile people. Or bug people. Like I get it you wanna make a sexy alien but they ARE NOT MAMMALS.

Edit: Also this is very specific to me, but creatures that are so big that their bones would break under earth's gravity because I know the physics of that now and can never go back ):

[KuroXue]

You just made me realize that for my novel with regards to the lab coats, thanks LMAO

[HGohwell]

• I don't mind completely made up tech, but the story can at least be consistent with it's made up tech please. It drives me insane when suddenly "this tech can actually be used to do this" when it's plot convenient but that would have solved a truck load of other plot points before they even came up if you'd mentioned it earlier. Or saying it can't do something only to decide it can later on for no reason (these apply to magic too).
• Why does the supposedly alien world have a 24hour day and measure time in hours and years in years? Why does the alien world have Earth times and seasons and ages? (This is more something that just really pleases me when people have put thought into it rather than something I actually hate.)
• Human aliens for no reason. I don't mind a basically Human alien, it works for budget reasons when live action and helps with instant connects, but if you're going to have Human aliens, have a backstory. Why are they basically Human? (Cliche as it is, I love a good proto-culture/creator race when it's done well)
• All aliens are aggressive. Obviously. We must attack and kill them before they kill us. (And for some reason we usually win ignoring any alien capable of space travel is almost certainly able to destroy our entire planet at current tech levels with one ship). It's just ridiculous. Less trigger happy alien hating Humans please.
• Artificial gravity. Not so much the thing itself but if you have artificial gravity using if to hold people to the floor of your spaceship is kinda the most uncreative basic use of it. There are soooo many applications for it but we're only using it to make people walk on the floor?

[DestPantheros]

Hi just joined tapas what are we talking about?

[darkone4587]

The use of the word Quantum like just having it explains everything and technobable in general.

[rmdooley]

I can never buy into that one either

Genetic Memory - TV Tropes

[Azifri]

I know it's not that extreme, but in real world we have epigenetics, which is something like a genetic memory

[punkarsenic]

this applies to fantasy as well, but the oppression analogy

not metaphor, not oppression as story/plot, but specifically 'oh, these robots are black people. thats what this analogy is. that robot? thats robot rosa parks. this is robot civil rights. wait what did that one robot blowing up represent???' coughdetroitbecomehumancough coughbrightcough coughalsodistrictninebutifuckinglikedistrictninesoignorethatone (this also applies to cleverman, where the hairypeople are like. literally aboriginal but cleverman did it right imo by integrating all of it into Actual Real aboriginal rights in australia. tho it was still very 'this thing happening to the hairypeople? this thing happened to Actual Real aboriginal people')

its a weird paint-by-numbers approach to social commentary that i see more often in reader interpretation than in the actual work. you can create a story that explores how society as-is would integrate smth fictional into their world - a la in the flesh or district nine or, idk, the x-men - and then people can start trying to figure out if youre talking abt race or homophobia or disability. i think a better way to read and write these stories as a unique exploration of how a culture categorises and treats the other without tacking it to any one realworld example.

also a lot of these stories - like the x-men - have a prevalence of people who dont experience much realworld oppression, being mostly straight white people, which makes the entire thing flimsy.

also, robot tiddies.

[skicoak]

When the entire crew of a spaceship sleeps at the same time.

This is NOT how crews on a vessel work.

[DiegoPalacios]

when the driver is sleeping, everyone should be concerned.

[skicoak]

when the driver is sleeping, everyone should be concerned.

Ha! That too but I'm talking about the larger vessels that have clear duty stations
...but for some reason, things happen while EVERYONE is sleeping in their bunks.

[Fridgewriter]

"A typical human only uses 10-15% of their brains"

Sci-fi word salad and they expect us to take it seriously.

Anything pertaining to computers on shows like NCIS.

While not exactly pertaining to sci-fi, I see it often enough there - you have a team of skilled professionals, and they can't seem to even follow or bother with basic protocols that any basic rookie would know by heart. English teachers who wouldn't know what might be a morse code signal, Animal biologists who don't understand threat displays or that being close to animal babies in the wild might piss off the parents. Security teams not shutting doors behind them while looking for a loose creature.

[paperwren]

My theory about where the 10% of their brains thing came from was somebody misinterpreting some stats about brain activity moment to moment as only having access to part of your brain all the time. I don't know the exact numbers but we do actually only use a small portion of our brains in any given moment, because if all your neurons are firing at the same time that is called having a seizure and is bad.