What cliches and tropes annoy you when it comes to content creation?

[insomniumeye]

Hello all!

I've been writing my sci-fi comic since 2014, given that I grew up on Sci-fi, my favorites being BladeRunner, Alien, StarCraft, Megaman X series, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and many more.
As of only a few years ago, though, I've started to look at sci-fi (and almost any other genre) in a more critical eye. I've found several tropes and cliches that bug me, especially in my preferred field.

My biggest gripe? Humanoid aliens and cultures. It reminds me alot of the Geocentric Model, which to me is incredibly egotistical and inaccurate. The universe is extremely complex, and the only reason we (humans) are the way we are are due to our environment and our genetic makeup, which is completely dependent on circumstance. As of today (September 2nd, 2017) we have not discovered any other life-forms on other planets, or at least that we can detect. For all we know, there may be aliens on this planet that we simply cannot detect, but that's just a hypothetical.

Naturally, due to this, if there is life on other planets (which is likely, given the massive size of the universe), they're likely to look very, very bizarre. Creatures that evolved on other planets with different environments, such as, lets say for this thread's sake, on a planet with sodium-based life forms (given that we're carbon-based life forms), which is why I find it baffling when someone designs aliens to look human, even remotely.

An example of good alien design, in my opinion? The Zerg, from Starcraft. Bad designs? Anything that's bipedal and especially if it's just an actor in a costume.

Anywho, what annoys you within your genre, and why?

[dawgofdawgness]

Oh my god. I hate those generic movies with
1) the cool main protagonist who's intelligent, hip, and unpopular for some reason
2) The love interest. She's a girl. She's probably "cool" and "hip"
3) the FAT KID who has no purpose of being there except to be funny and "supportive" to the main protag and love interest.

It annoys me to no end

[insomniumeye]

Lazy cliches for a lazy audience, I suppose. Sadly these tropes sell, which is why Hollywood (and other industries) continue to make them. The dreadful "Emoji Movie" is considered one of the worst animated films to ever be produced, yet it made a ton of money due to people watching it out of familiarity.

I believe it's rather Orwellian sometimes, the more cynical part of me gets the impression that it's dumbing down society. Which is why good, quality content is so important, to counter all the garbage that's produced to simply make money.

[NaamanBlanco]

"The black guy" who's the comic relief or dies first. He's just a cheap way of establishing diversity in that particular story and is never developed into a strong character. I watched one movie and "the black guy" only had 1 line! It was: "AAAAHHHHH!!!!" If writers want to know how to weave various characters into a stories' narrative tapestry I think they should turn to Spike Lee's "Malcolm X". He introduces characters seamlessly. A lot of biopics fail in that area.

"The two stoner friends" who stumble, fumble and bumble their way to world-saving status by the end of the movie.

"The white guy" who thinks he knows every damn thing and by the end of the movie you realized he knew every damn thing (every Jurassic Park/World movie made)! Or better yet the white guy who's the "savior" of a foreign society, and saves it by joining the society and then demonstrates a better understanding of their culture( Last Samurai, Last of the Mohicans, Pocahontas, etc.), and he gets "the girl" who's really hot, yadda yadda yadda yadda...and he always has a bloody lip like what's up with that?

"The girl" IN EVERY HALLMARK MOVIE!!!

I could really go on and on, but what do you guys think? I think I should be a movie critic lol.

[Sanz]

Love triangles are pretty annoying or when it's like that goofy/big guy/loser who gets the hot chick. thanks to his over the top adorable/sweet antics. That's about it. Every other Cliche is ok in my book i'm easy to please.

[IdiotWithPencil]

since I read a bunch of manga the fricking harem when the guys already has a love intrest, the friggin forced romance in every hollywood movie, the forced happy ending in really sad and gritty movies, and the "EDGY" anti-hero hero (looking at you man of steel) >:C

[insomniumeye]

Cliche's are usually a writer's lazy tactic to speed up the writing process to get a script out. Which is why it's so important to bide your time and write deep characters who aren't just cookie cutters of some existing trope.

I'm glad others agree in this regard

@IdiotWithPencil @Sanz Forced romance in general is annoying to me. Sort of buys into this notion that love is something you can find in an evening if the other person is prince/princess charming. I was watching Iron Fist on Netflix, and the sex scenes felt forced. They came out of nowhere and didn't advance the plot at all. It feels like they just force these scenes in there to fill some kind of quota. It's quite tasteless to me.

[IdiotWithPencil]

since I only see mostly "good" (good for me) movies mostly IE(only recomends from people I actually trust with movies) I think you should really stop whatching
A) Horror movies (the black guy die)
b) Movies from the 90 (the funny black guy as comic relief)
c)Most of hollywood cinema (the white guy thing)
d) Every Hallmark movies

do that and you will never have to see these cliches ever again ;D
also if you want to be a critic get ready to hate every movie ever produced XD

[insomniumeye]

Oh I've given up on cinema almost entirely. I usually only see movies if friends invite me or if I don't have anything to do and I'm too tired to play games or write.

Like you said, most cinema/TV sucks nowadays. It's become more commercial than art. Which is rather tragic to me.

[IdiotWithPencil]

yeah It's sooooooo annoying I actually gasped in Pacific Rim cause I was so sure the two mains would kiss at the end I was like at the end, also the first 30 mins of the killing joke was sooooooo cringe inducing >:C

[Kura]

The 'walking in on someone changing and discovering they are cross-dressing or trans' That's a nightmare scenario man, and the worst way to introduce that point of that character to the readers.

And this one is more common in media aimed at younger audiences, but I always hated it as a kid and I continue to hate it to this day. 'Forced comedic relief or cute characters that are constantly interrupting the story or breaking the serious mood to do the funny.'

[IdiotWithPencil]

I usually only see the marvels and DC movies (my family loves them and I like to turn my brain off) and mostly stick to comis and mangas, more mangas since if you know where to look you can find some crazy gems like Feng Shen Ji or 20th Century Boys (these are master pieces man )

@Kura
That's a cliche? since when? I seriously haven't seen that ever done

[insomniumeye]

Marvel and DC are hit or miss for me. Guardians of the Galaxy, while having an excellent plot, has very humanoid aliens, which are quite literally just psychedelic-colored humans with strange accents. Also everyone speaks english.
MARVEL PLEEZ.

Batman's awesome, though.

@Kura I notice this mostly in Japanese media (Anime/Japanese film), not so much in western media. Unless it's Looney toons or something like that. In all I'll try to avoid this trope now that I know it bugs some people. How would you accurately represent a Trans character? I know very little about Trans, so if I ever design a trans character, I'm going to have to do alot of research.

[IdiotWithPencil]

in defence on the english thing they actually adress it in the movie, the scene where their checking them into the prision in the panels it says that Star Lord has a universal translator inplant (it's hard to see but it is there) also the humanoid characters is more that the animation budget would go through the roof if they didn't do that ^-^ dosen't excuse them but puts the problems into context

[Kura]

Yeah it's most prominent in Japanese media for sure, but I had seen it in a few western titles as well (The more obscure gender bending movies kinda deal, I really liked those as a kid for reasons that are obvious to me now) It's also something that I think/hope is being phased out? As I saw it a lot more often as a kid than I do now. Regardless I still hated it every time I saw it.

[insomniumeye]

Thankyou for mentioning it. As stated I'll be sure to avoid this trope in the future.

[Strontium]

This is something I've encountered in a lot of YA books lately, and perhaps not by conincidence these books are all self-pub or indie press pub: the MC is established as a competent, skilled and careful person, and yet in order to start the plot of the book the MC has to do something dumb, clumsy or rash. This annoys me because while people do make mistakes in real life, these characters never make a mistake up until they need to for plot reasons. Therefore the plot feels forced and the MC's characterization is then rendered kinda moot. Their competency becomes what TVTropes calls an "informed attribute."

I also generally don't like easy to guess twists. I like twists but not when they're so obvious. I try to make the twists in my stories not obvious, but then that has in the past made them so oblique that no reader enjoys them. It's hard to strike a balance of a good twist.

[9outofPen]

These are my pet peeves, most are romance tropes since they're everywhere, lol:

1) The main female protagonist who strongly dislikes the guy for no real reason, only to find out "hey, maybe he's not so bad after all!! O.O" Duh. I can understand if he's kinda a jerk, but if he just bumped into you on your way to lunch??

2) That one nosy friend who can't mind their own business. Usually different for males and females, but equally annoying:

Woman: Usually like the bff from a chic-flick who INSISTS that her friend's life is incomplete without love despite her friend already being independent, employed, healthy and otherwise successful and happy.

Man: The seemingly laid-back friend who warns our plucky protagonist that they should back off from their almost-lover because they "live in different worlds" or "will only cause you pain." Who asked you?!!

3) In action movies when the cool hero and the female lead do those horribly clichéd and unoriginal power games to be "coy." Puns may have worked for James Bond, but now it's just cringeworthy! ><

4) When the world is in danger, and our young protagonist is the ONLY one who can save us. Bonus points if they're born with a weird birthmark or mysterious artifact from dead parent. (Why couldn't the parent save us? O.o)

[insomniumeye]

Forcing anything for the sake of the plot is usually lazy writing, I find, something I myself have been guilty of but I'm actively trying to avoid.

For the guess twists, I always try to guess what's going to happen later in a film/game/etc, and if I guessed it correctly, I get a little disappointed. Else the more surprised I am, the better. Which is why I enjoy series like Rick and Morty, given how unpredictable the writers tend to be.

@9outofPen The "Chosen One" cliche has gotten very, very tiring over the last few years. Harry Potter did it well, because there was alot of turmoil due to Harry's birth, but it's a cliche that I think should be avoided. Unfortunately it's a cliche that's -somewhat- present in my graphic novel, but I'm trying to make things interesting by making it so that no one but a few of the villains know of the "Chosen one" , while everyone else just see the protag as another contractor. That's what I get for starting on the plot in my early teens. It's a trope I'll try my best to avoid in future projects, unless I'm making fun of it.

[Heliox14]

This is something I see in the Slice of Life/Romance/Teen Lit genre, where the characters are WAY too perfect. Really, (especially John Green) they seem to have no flaws, and if there are, they are downplayed so bad.
They're human, for f's sake. We're all flawed, and they too should be flawed.
And of course, the issue on plot.
There is almost NO plot in some of the other things I've seen, which is basically just "boy+girl". It gets nowhere.