Name Sci-fi Tropes/cliches that you HATE

[HGohwell]

Haha I'm the same actually. The "aliens" were created from ancient Humans when another species went "oh they're cute and interesting" took DNA samples and created their own versions, similar to how we have ant farms to study. It can be done really well. Macross is one of my favorites for it, most species we meet are essentially Humans with gills, or cat ears, or elf ears or, my personal favourite, mood ring hair. Because they all come from the same proto-culture and which is the last and therefore the true inheritors of the culture has been a plot point. Or Rinne No Lagrange which has the ancient Humans as an advanced culture that went into space and colonized and the super weapon all the worlds are now fighting over caused a disaster that set us back to the dark ages. But done badly it's just an excuse to do humans is a strange world.

And some more tropes that:

• Why does everyone insist on searching for and using the mega dangerous super weapon that has a history of ruining the civilizations that use it? Why do people think this is a good idea?
• Something causes a disaster. This is a huge scientific disaster/discovery. The world is going to hell because of this disaster. The scientific issue is never mentioned again except and the disaster caused by it seems to solve itself without the help of science? Just by guys running around trying to survive? eg. "the neutrinos have mutated!"
• Society in the future is either perfect or a total hell. There is no in between.
• Specific to mostly cyberpunk but has wandered into other genres, having artificial limbs/senses/whatever by choice upgrade or by necessity is somehow losing a piece of your humanity. You're not longer complete or not fully Human.
• I do love a good cold evil scientist type but they should be balanced out by some nicer dorkier scientists too. But also there seems to be a trend for scientists who are on the good side and are dorkier to then cross into the"loveable pervert" type, which is in most cases a way of going "he's creepy but he's on our side".This one needs to stop before it gets too deep. Nerds who are dorky and don't know who to interact with women (and it is mainly men interacting with women because women scientists are always sexy apparently) and are actually super creepy, no thanks that's not loveable.

[punkarsenic]

Why does everyone insist on searching for and using the mega dangerous super weapon that has a history of ruining the civilizations that use it? Why do people think this is a good idea?

oh this reminds me - the poorly defined world altering macguffin that... tends to just be a cube.

macguffins in general tbh

[HGohwell]

I'd like to believe the shape of these magical techs to actually be related to the fact that most of them as platonic solids which are considered to be perfect shapes. However there's a terribly cynical part of me thinks that's giving people too much credit and they just wanted something simple.

[crayon_witch]

I really dislike colonization and imperialism being romanticized in sci fi (this is where the idea for my comic came from, actually) I think a lot of writers don’t think about it because it’s so ingrained in our culture, but hm

[DiegoPalacios]

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

You got me curious about different definitions of racism, so i will explain mine:

Racism:Hatred and/or prejudice over one or more groups of people of a certain race.

Some clarifications involving that definition:

-This means anyone has the potential to be a racist.

-Some people have been exposed to more racism than others, this definition doesnt deny that.

-Just because anyone can be racist it is still unnacceptable and unethical behavior.

-While no hierarchy and/or social class is neccesarily involved, it doesnt mean it cant be involved. (one can be racist AND clasist, and racism can and have been used as an excuse for elitism)

-White supremacy is bad and any race supremacy is bad.

If you are okay answering:
What is your definition of racism? (dont worry, is not to argue it here, i am just curious)

Also, to stay on topic and curiosity: what is your opinion of the way racism is shown in Star Vs the forces of evil?

[punkarsenic]

i disagree with your definition and understanding of racism but like i said, im not gonna go into it here. itd be long and complicated and derail the thread. to put simply i believe racism is institutional and hierarchical and has far more to do w class politics than ppl like to think, and that reverse racism is bull. ive never seen star vs the forces of evil im afraid

[jurinova]

Personally I'm just really tired of dystopian scifi where everything sucks. This is especially popular in movies in recent years. Ugh.

Another one is the use of low saturation colours in scifi that was really popular for a long time. Now there's more colour again but it's so boring if everything is grey or maybe there's a hint of blue.

I have to say I'm completely guilty of making all my aliens very humanoid but then again, I never tried to hide the fact that my passion for fashion and designing outfits goes over my need to design unique looking aliens. It's much harder to design cool outfits if the aliens have weird anatomy. :'D

[TheBryceKrispy]

I'm just really tired of dystopian scifi where everything sucks

Isn't that the definition of dystopian?

[Jenny-Toons]

I feel what @jurinova is getting at is that when people think of an dystopian society, they're so quick to think of the Apocalypse.

Zombie, Nuclear War, Alien Invasion -- take your pick. But Earth's a lawless, dangerous wasteland. Everyone you run into wants to use and destroy you, resources are depleted. The robots have killed the humans. Stuff like that.

And while that is a good part of the Dystopian societies, it's not all of it. Honestly, it can really depend.

A dystopia is a community or society that is undesirable or frightening. But what does that mean? We can quickly say, the Apocalypse, but you also have people who dream of it happening so that they can do whatever they want.

For me, a dystopic society would be one a robotic, inhumane one. One where things like art and music are not necessary anymore and people allow machines to feel for them. Maybe things are easier, but this is dystopic shown as utopic. What happens to the human drive? Would we lose our meaning at that point?

[aspiderjonny]

For an alien species to be believable to me it has to eat, drink, and breathe 'cause you know, that's how life works. Hate when one or all of these things are missing. This mostly comes up when characters can just "breathe" in space when that literally makes no sense.
For an example I liked how the 90's Superman show had him wearing a space suit when he went into space. As powerful as he is he still needs to breathe. A strong character holding their breath is still pretty silly but I can live with it. Only god-like characters or robots should be fine in space. I'm also fine if they're like plants, breathe CO2 and don't eat, but water's just impossible not to have.

[themidnightone]

Hah, there's so many that have been listed here that I agree are silly... Here are my contributions.

• All the aliens are humanoid. I mean, what happens to four arms, or different eyes, or entirely different body structures? Heck, what about a blob with no bones? I don't know, I'd like to see a bit of variety.
• Nearly every alien species has hair and eyebrows. What happened to hairless species/or species that have fur on their bodies.
• All powerful substances, usually crystals that give amazing abilities.
• Every single futuristic society has been destroyed by the Apocalypse. The government is a tyrannical menace, and the world is a bleak place. Come on, what about a bit of positivity?
• Every single species has male and female, and the biological differences between them are exactly the same as humans. I mean, surely they wouldn't have developed exactly like humans?
• AI is going to take over the world, they're our overlords, or they're all evil. What about a story where AI/Robots are complex, contradictory beings?
• All the species share the same traits and way of being. Like they're all evil, they all live in trees, they all live underwater. Why aren't there subcultures? Humans aren't their genetics, are they?
• There's usually some kind of evil group/aliens that's trying to take over the planet/galaxy/universe
• No-one eats! What about all the different types of food? You're missing out on a whole dimension of worldbuilding here.

Okay, that's my rant done. Let me know if you agree with any of these.

[AVXP]

These are the times when you hope a writer doesn't show up and explain why they turn to these tropes and how many of them are the reader's fault. The word HATE in the topic is important since we can sit here all day and name every trope in literature and such. So, really, what are the ones you HATE as in, turn you off, not just observed often. lol

When you ask/say, Why are the aliens always humanoid? - ask yourself when was the last time you cared about any kind of alien that wasn't humanoid? In the real world, we have cultures struggling to give a damn about other human races when depicted in media. So who's going to get invested about explorers trying to save to stop a war between tree-creatures or amoebas? That's why aliens HAVE TO LOOK HUMAN so that we, the very narrow-minded[?]-HUMAN-reader can form an attachment.

Some stuff is shortcuts and allow for easy fixes and allow writers to skip past lengthy explanations and complicated world-building. Most of this stuff allows for micro thinking. But most of these tropes exist for an actual reason - that does make sense.

[AVXP]

Long as we're here, I'd like to explain more why I hate the HIVE trope as in - kill the queen and the whole ARMY dies - or kill the queen before she drops the eggs and makes an army or, or...

You get the idea. I know it's easy for writers to skip the entire chain of command and only worry about one commander and also the idea that if you kill the "queen" a new princess wouldn't pop up in a second or the 'second in command' wouldn't then take over and you couldn't have some small set of heroes (or even one main protagonist) WIN THE ENTIRE WAR.

And you get the bonus of killing hordes and hordes of mindless drones that makes war feel okay and you only care when a human dies. Once you dehumanize the enemy you can mow them down guilt-free. These are all the cool things you get.

The bad is not getting a meaningful showdown. That emotional moment or final gunfight. You lose true interaction between the top protagonist and antagonist. In Aliens- there is a real connection between Ripley and the Queen and so much communication passes between them. You get the stare-down and epic battle with meaningful consequences. That's a queen-army-and-drone trope done right.

Once I see the Hive Concept at work, I already know all the cool things I won't be seeing and how there's no way I can be emotionally invested in the final act.

[StellEr]

On the note of aliens being too human I've seen fun ways to in universe get around that. I think this was how Gene Roddenberry explained it in Star Trek but basically an explanation could be that human life on Earth and everywhere else began with a being placing all the species on different M class planets at the "start" of eltheir evolutionary development, so they all end up being of similar genetic make up but going in different directions evolution wise depending on their planets. This implies there are hyper intelligent all powerful brings watching us all develope though which is creepy lol

[jackjonesnga]

Whenever they use obviously fake science & math terms/ completely misuse real ones. Like I get it's fiction, but you can't use an eigenvector on a "time constant". I loved Interstellar because they talked to physicists about this stuff (didn't like the love is the fifth dimension thing though).

[DiegoPalacios]

"if you spin the paradox constraints we can warp the electrolites into a magnetic field"

[jackjonesnga]

God, no, I am in pain.

[Trevor]

diego. p l e a s e. that was painful to read

[azzy-m]

I don't become a fan of many sci-fi things in general, but I've always disliked that hackers were portrayed as all-powerful, omniscient beings and are super intimidating and mysterious

Like, this isn't even specifically just Sci-fi, I've seen this in a fucking horror movie.

[Rodimus13]

I am happy and surprised how few robot ones are here.

happily plays with her bots