Current Events > most annoying story trope

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YellowSUV posted...

Here is another usually bad trope: the main character has amnesia.

It's a convenient way to keep the audience clueless, but that's about it

It's usually the hero who comes across some waif of a girl who has no memory of who she is and of course she's some sort of goddess or other supernatural being.

HylianFox posted...

Chosen Ones who aren't Mary Sues and are even doubted by the other characters usually work well enough

This also happens in Zelda a lot. How many times has Link been called a scrawny wimp by his detractors? More than a few...

I like metal gear solid on this. Snake was supposed to be the weak one but liquid was lied to and told he was the weak one. This made him power hungry to prove he can still be the best. In the end he was the better of the two but still died. I think it's fair to point out snake woulda shoulda lost that fight had someone not snuck a hidden "weapon" in him that even he wasn't aware of. But later games he goes on being the best soldier there is despite he was designed to be the weaker one.

Oh, also:

McGuffins
Prophecies

That classic character you remember, but he's nothing at all like you remember, until the last five minutes or so.

Sufferedphoneix posted...

Yeah I like multiverse cause it's a easy tool to reimagine characters without changing the original. You can have all sorts of stories that would otherwise cause plotholes

That's what I don't like about it. It's often used just to lazily handwave away plot inconsistencies because "hey, multiverse! Anything can happen!" In a sense, it's similar to deus ex machina but I actually appreciate those slightly more since deus ex machina at least doesn't have to invent an entirely fantastical concept and dimension.
The main thing about multiverses is that I don't like how the protags are considered so special that we need to have characters that are different versions of them... rather than just have different characters.
It's honestly a worse Isekai since while Isekai is also about another world at least the world is unique and not just a slightly altered copy because the writers didn't want to come up with new characters and backstories for them.

ForsakenHermit posted...

I really wish there was a jrpg where at the end of the game the party seals the evil entity away and makes it someone else's problem.

Skyrim prequel ayy lmao

epik_fail1 posted...

I don't remember "it was all a dream" being done well. I guess Super Mario bros 2 was ok, but that's not a story heavy game is it?

Not to beat the Zelda horse to death, but Link's Awakening did it pretty well, especially since you learn it's all a dream like halfway through the game rather than being some stupid twist at the very end.

It also causes the player to question whether they're really doing the right thing

YellowSUV posted...

Here is another usually bad trope: the main character has amnesia.

Something that actually makes good use of the trope : Disco Elysium.

Another amnesia one I like is Planescape, but I'm with ya. I normally haaate this trope, too.

HylianFox posted...

Not to beat the Zelda horse to death, but Link's Awakening did it pretty well, especially since you learn it's all a dream like halfway through the game rather than being some stupid twist at the very end.

It also causes the player to question whether they're really doing the right thing

It was and wasn't a dream though. Everything link did was real. The island is technically real in that it's tangible. It was more magic I guess than dream as iirc whatever the wind fish dreamed of became real. It justvwould cease to exist if woken up

Amnesia is okay as long as people aren't forgetting that they're literally the chosen one or some other bullshit.

Lost Odyssey is the worst example of this trope I can think of.

FF7 has a really interesting take on amnesia.

Tyranthraxus posted...

Amnesia is okay as long as people aren't forgetting that they're literally the chosen one or some other bullshit.

Lost Odyssey is the worst example of this trope I can think of.

FF7 has a really interesting take on amnesia.

I liked lost odyssey. I feel it was amnesia done right. Like it made sense. Amnesia wasn't just a conventional tool for the plot. It was the plot.

mary sue is a story already completed
thats why its boring af for 98% of audiences entertained by surprises
especially when its a sequel of something that was the complete opposite loaded with unexpected events

theres no suspense or relatable moments of growth when everyone knows the central character will never fail at anything
theres no real adversity, just speedbumps that are a waste of time to watch and could have been summed up in less than 5 minutes

and as a minority i can firmly say if there was ever a type of character we sure as hell dont find relatable its a fuckin mary sue rollin through life on easy mode, them havin the same ethnicity and stereotypical speech doesnt make them relatable lol, it makes them look like a freakish commercialized joke compared to the reality my people actually know

Sufferedphoneix posted...

It was and wasn't a dream though. Everything link did was real. The island is technically real in that it's tangible. It was more magic I guess than dream as iirc whatever the wind fish dreamed of became real. It justvwould cease to exist if woken up

Except that it wasn't really real or tangible, and it's made clear that Link can only leave the island by waking the Wind Fish. The real twist at the end is that Link was unconscious the whole time as well.

That's why it's called "Link's Awakening" and not "The Wind Fish's Awakening"

Sufferedphoneix posted...

I liked lost odyssey. I feel it was amnesia done right. Like it made sense. Amnesia wasn't just a conventional tool for the plot. It was the plot.

It was the plot and the plot was also stupid as shit. Like, okay, hear me out.

Early in the game, Gongora gives Jansen this stupid marble. Tells him to throw it at Kaim if he starts remembering anything. And what does the marble do? It gives people amnesia. Okay right? No big deal everything making sense so far.

Then later in the game we get flashbacks of how Kaim & friends got amnesia in the first place. Gongora went through some pretty extreme lengths to cause severe emotional distress to the other immortals so that they could seal away their memories. He holds the entire country of Numara hostage with a giant stone monster to seal away Ming. He fucking murders Kaim's family in cold blood. And then he also orchestrates Oneira's death. All this to seal away memories.

Except he didn't have to fucking do any of that shit. All he needed to do was throw a fucking marble at them. A marble so worthless he was willing to trust a random mortal mercenary with it. He could have made dozens of those things easily.

And that's just the problems with the amnesia in the story.

When the guy gets his super powers become a hot female farted in a jar and sold it online.

HylianFox posted...

You can't keep a good Ganon down.

Well to be fair, Ganondorf is LONG dead by the time of Breath of the Wild and except for a tease in Tears of the Kingdom, has actually stayed dead. Anything still wreaking havoc is Demise's doing.

Should Mary Sue and Chosen one be the same option?

epik_fail1 posted...

I know this is kind of a overdone clich, but I feel like it often help players being introduced to a new world.

Why i prefer tutorials that aren't integrated into the story. People bitched about final fantasy 13 but I prefer it that way treated like you already know everything but giving a data base so you can learn the lore if you are interested.

Amnesia is cliche as you say but I hate when characters who should know things are talked to by npcs like they don't.