Name Sci-fi Tropes/cliches that you HATE

[scarletshadowcomic]

I hate non-consistency of the rules of the world, for example if you set a set of rules they must be followed until the ned of the story, full metal alchemist or Avatar are good examples of this.

But being more focused on the sci fi stuff
-alien cultures behaving like humans, we know it is for better communicating but some difference would be fun to tackle, for example: why a submarine species would know what a chair is? (this on star wars always bugged me xD)
-aliens looking too much like humans, if you gonna present a different evolutionary process...it must show, we as an audience are kinda tired of seeing weird heads in perfectly human bodies xD
-touching the goo xD when a team of experts is visiting some place and idiot always touches the stuff he isn't supposed to xDD

[crayon_witch]

I feel like Zootopia, while not Sci fi, fell into this issue super hard unfortunately. Using non-humans as a metaphor for race gets....Very messy if done wrong.

[dsandoval3]

surviving explosions

[DiegoPalacios]

The reason the race analogy worked fo Zootopia was because while the different species represented races, the story didn`t favor any race in particular. There wasnt an "evil race" and it pointed that everyone had the potential to be a bigot, even the ones who were previously opressed, making it free of double standards and without portraying any race as superior or inferior, just different.

[JeanGuillet]

the guy who explains a wormhole by punching a hole in a folded piece of paper with a pencil. not a pen. always a pencil...

[baasinsimple]

We don't need a Han Solo or Cad Bane copy with every single Sci-Fi movie. I don't need that. There are different kinds of Scoundrels and Gunslingers not just the Scoundrel with the heart of gold or the Skilled thug.

[DiegoPalacios]

yes, while scoundrels and lovable rogues are a cool archetype, there are many ways to make them to make them memorable characters.

[baasinsimple]

Yeah, seeing a lovable scoundrel who's actually a bad person and just enjoys his job (like the phantom troupe from Hunter X Hunter) would be super cool. Y'know, the unforgivable type, that'd make a cool antagonist.

[DiegoPalacios]

yeah, it would be cool if someone does that. It could give people a break from the evil intergalactic empire/dictator trope.

Evil empires can be interesting too, but they are too overused.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

@HGohwell Hahaha I think 'm guilty for making human alien in my story (it's not SciFi though), they're actually 100% human and originates from ancient earth human, so I don't know what to call them... Extraterrestrial human?.

Also things that kind of irks me are:
* Mutation always do you good
* Making hybrid or genetically engineered organism is so easy just edit some gene like you edit it in typewriter and ta-dah you have Dolly v.02
* Alien blending too well with human, even though they came from very different culture. Not to mention they sometimes can eat human food normally, for something that physically doesn't resemble human at all that came from another kind of environment with different diet etc etc... Aren't they should have different physiology?

[indagold]

• When you create ai/robots they either go full kill smash destroy or become a sexbot, bonus points if they become pure innocent sweet sunshine flowers as third choice.

• Scientists are portrayed as evil or cold and heartless. Like have you ever seen scientists in real life? They are such dorky nerds in love with whatever they're working on. I've never seen a video of scientist acting like some cold, emotionless machine with whatever they're specialized in.

• I guess this goes for the first one but experiments are always cruel and purposeless. Like do these people not understand there exists ethics in performing experiments? You'd think in the sci fi future the ethics would be vastly different and make what we proposed today seem barbaric but nope, science r evuhl

[DiegoPalacios]

Scientists are portrayed as evil or cold and heartless. Like have you ever seen scientists in real life? They are such dorky nerds in love with whatever they're working on. I've never seen a video of scientist acting like some cold, emotionless machine with whatever they're specialized in.

They could at least go for a dorky nerdy villain, this would be fun.

"they said i was crazy when i proposed to make anime real, but now they will see!"

I guess this goes for the first one but experiments are always cruel and purposeless. Like do these people not understand there exists ethics in performing experiments? You'd think in the sci fi future the ethics would be vastly different and make what we proposed today seem barbaric but nope, science r evuhl

yeah, scientific heroes are not as common nowadays. They have potential as proactive characters and their science can generate plot elements, either as a reason for adventure, a theme, a plot point, etc...

[YangKoete]

The "Technobabble" trope.

Just...just say what you're doing in a way that makes sense and don't make up random things as you go. Please.

[vfinnigan]

Radiation as the universal Big Scary Bugaboo.

[TheFireDragon]

Saying "Quantum" before every word. Although Quantum Coffee sounds tasty...

[paperwren]

Yeah but that still falls into the problem that there also was with the movie Bright (although Bright was much worse), where the basic idea was these different groups are taken to represent different races in real life (prooooobably ok so far) and there are legitimate differences between the races to establish reasons why people discriminate against them (this is a problem). So zootopia it was predator and prey groups, which there is a clear reason the audience instantly understood for prey to be afraid of predators or prey to be seen as likely to be less good at violent jobs than predators. But in real life between different groups of people there aren't actual differences that justify people being racist initially, racism is a system that has been constructed to maintain power over other people. So in zootopia its like, we have to learn that these ideas are not true and predators can be gentle and prey can be violent/evil, but it's kinda based on something real. If you carry that message into real life, you get "yes some people because of their race might be scarier and more dangerous because of stuff they can't help, but they can control themselves and be good people so we shouldn't stereotype" which is hella dicey and not based on actual differences between people. And people actually think like this? Like people talk about black men being more inherently violent or strong or aggressive, which isn't true, and then it's like, "well that's where racism comes from, some people just seem more violent so we decided to be racist, but if we just unlearn that it'll be solved", when racism as an institution is much harder to dismantle because its how people maintain power over others.

Anyway that was a really fragmented explication, but yeah zootopia is a fun movie but that underlying idea is kind of incideous, even if I don't think it was intentional on the creators part.

If you wanna hear someone talk better about this than me using Bright as an example (which is way less subtle than zootopia) it's talked about in this video, although it isn't the main theme:

[DasIstWunderblyat]

One thing that I forgot to mention is that how easy they make virus as biological weapon. Even if the target is non-human, there's still need to be cautions taken... Not to mention how fucking fast they mutate... They might backfire, even if the creator has vaccine.

[punkarsenic]

oh my DAYS is zootopia the perfect example of this - it was very 'wait... the prey are the poc? oh no the predators are? what?? what is happening???' bc they did so much to clearly try and make it a Direct Analogy, but the actual story showed such little understanding of racism that... none of it made any damn sense

[DiegoPalacios]

The point was that it wasn`t a direct analogy of the situation of the world. It was a criticism to prejudice in general and a criticism to ANYONE who is racist, not only racists of a certain race.

There wasnt something like "the tigers are the black people", because representing implicitly or explicitly people of certain races would just get them defensive towards the message. The message wasnt "fuck the opresive racist", the message was "dont be a dick to each other just because of the differences and that everyone can have prejudices they have to overcome". That is why Judy had to come in terms with her own bias, even if she had been part of the "prey" category and dealt with the bias of others.

"reverse racism" is not flipping the roles and turning the ones who were opressors into opressed. Reversing racism is reaching peace and stop using race as an excuse to fight each other.

[punkarsenic]

The point was that it wasn`t a direct analogy of the situation of the world.

i feel like this is debatable for zootopia. its debatable for most oppression metaphor media, but i feel like zootopia includes enough direct references to real life racism (like the touching sheep hair thing) that its trying to communicate some kind of direct analogy, but an extremely muddled one.

it is obviously talking about racism specifically - even if not in a 'the predators &/ prey are the poc' way, it cannot be confused for talking about homophobia or misogyny or ableism or classism (well, actually, a marxist analysis of zootopia would be interesting but thats besides the point) or a combination or unique thing. imo the worldbulding isnt developed or nuanced enough to break free from its realworld racism analogy and be its own thing, and the writers' understanding of racism doesnt go deep enough to explore that in a way that feels organic to me

to ANYONE who is racist, not only racists of a certain race.

you and i seem to disagree on the definition of racism as a phenomenon and framework. im not gonna debate it though, thats too long

the message was "dont be a dick to each other just because of the differences and that everyone can have prejudices they have to overcome".

well yeah, thats the other problem with zootopia - analogy or none, it fails to understand racism as hierarchy and class oppression. again, this is another place where we just disagree on the nature of racism and im not gonna debate that

anyway, i dont really care about the message of zootopia? i was just talking abt a pet peeve of mine in scifi, which is also smth thats been on my mind lately. regardless of your opinions on the message of zootopia or that messages correctness, its still undeniably an example of oppression metaphor if not analogy in fiction