Current Events > Easily the worst tropes in media (besides time travel BS)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I always hate this because it's the creators trying to have their cake and eat it too; they want the emotional payoff and showing fans how "serious business" shit is right now in the story, but they also still want to use the character in their stories and have more plots for them.

MCU doing both is what really pissed me off and made me hate that iw movie so much.

But I remember disliking it as far back as Angel, my first instance encountering it in something that was not strictly a comedy.

Time travel will always be the worst trope, no doubt. It opens up so many plot holes.

I agree, not a fan of killing off a character only to bring them back.

I really hate the "chosen one" trope too.

It was all a dreeeaaam

multiverse shit while we're at it. its so overdone at this point that i dont care anymore...

and the whole "will they wont they" dynamic that's used in some romantic relationships between characters. just stfu and bang already!! lol

time travel rules

Prophecies.

characters who choose to sacrifice themselves to save others when they could so easily save themselves as well.

Character A is talking to character B. Some shenanigans happen and character C walks in on it. C misunderstands the situation, refuses to listen to an explanation, and leaves. There's usually a "Wait C! I can explain!" statement.

That or a something that has two main characters that are a couple or are friends who end up fighting and breaking up for a while and we go through the routine of them being sad or angry and all that. It's usually in comedies. Only Dumb n Dumber did it right because it lasted like a minute.

saspa posted...

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I always hate this because it's the creators trying to have their cake and eat it too; they want the emotional payoff and showing fans how "serious business" shit is right now in the story, but they also still want to use the character in their stories and have more plots for them.

Never liked that. "Here's the same character, but from a different universe/time. It's the same thing!" It isn't really the same character. Sure they're maybe just alike, but it's still not the same character we watched and grew to like and et cetera.

Multiverses.

Multiverses, yeah. They only ever seem to be used to undo consequences or to act like "woooooaaaah, some things are different, constants and variables, man!" is a compelling narrative.

Maybe not one of the worst tropes, but one of the tropes that I think are symptomatic of lazy writing: absurd fake out jump scares.
You know the kind...
A character who is frightened by a monster/murderer/paranormal entity etc. has their back turned the viewer and conveniently toward the ominous darkness... when a hand very slowly approaches from said darkness... and the scare that ensues is just their friend asking them an innocent question.
Who the hell approaches their friend in that way? Are they physically icnapable of saying hello with a soft voice from a small distance, like any normal person would do?

ROBBAN posted...

It was all a dreeeaaam

This was the first thing that came to mind

the protagonist somehow being, unbeknownst to them, related to an antagonist.

Yep. It was just a matter of knowing the secret of all tv shows. At the end of the episode, everything's always right back to normal.

IDK if it's a trope but I always hated the "twist ending" that every horror movie has where they killed the bad guy/ghost/bugs/possessed toilet and head home wounded, tattered and torn up. But then the camera snaps back and the toilets still there and still clogged. It was probably a fun twist like in 1966 and then a fun homage after thet but now its just so cliche

I agree, if you're not willing to commit don't kill them off.

Southernfatman posted...

Character A is talking to character B. Some shenanigans happen and character C walks in on it. C misunderstands the situation, refuses to listen to an explanation, and leaves. There's usually a "Wait C! I can explain!" statement.

Totally agree. Ive been watching The O.C. and this basically happens every single episode. It's so tiresome

saspa posted...

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I always hate this because it's the creators trying to have their cake and eat it too; they want the emotional payoff and showing fans how "serious business" shit is right now in the story, but they also still want to use the character in their stories and have more plots for them.

MCU doing both is what really pissed me off and made me hate that iw movie so much.

But I remember disliking it as far back as Angel, my first instance encountering it in something that was not strictly a comedy.

Characters coming back to life is beyond common in Marvel Comics. So I am okay with it in MCU.

saspa posted...

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I agree, but will give a pass to the movie Beerfest, since it seemed more of a tongue in cheek making fun of the trope.

saspa posted...

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I immediately soured on Transformers Prime because they did this. It was fairly obvious when they killed off Breakdown, then they brought him back in two different ways:

1. They brought in a 'new' character that was 'there all along', Hardshell, who functioned with the exact same character and rivalry with a Wrecker
2. They used Breakdown's corpse to make CYLAS (which was arguably the better thing to do)

The problem with 1. is it was VERY obvious the writers weren't done using Breakdown before they killed him off. 2. is also a blatant asset reuse, but done in a more clever way. But in just about every way Breakdown's character arc suddenly ended with no resolution, not even for his partner Knock Out.

So yeah, I became more in tune with how silly this idea was when this happened. And it's always because writers kill off a character before they're done with them.

Chosen one is usually garbage. Especially when you're controlling a player avatar, in which case the game is blowing you so hard that H games blush.

"Just a dream" is a close second.

When the protagonist tries to warn their loved ones that something is trying to kill them, and they refuse to listen and try to have them committed or whatever.

It makes you hate them instead of the enemy.

Hayame_Zero posted...

When the protagonist tries to warn their loved ones that something is trying to kill them, and they refuse to listen and try to have them committed or whatever.

It makes you hate them instead of the enemy.

This is like saying you hate Umbridge more than Voldemort because she and the ministry she represents wouldn't listen to Harry about Voldemort coming back.

saspa posted...

Killing off a character but having them come back (either alternate universe or other stupid shit)

I always hate this because it's the creators trying to have their cake and eat it too; they want the emotional payoff and showing fans how "serious business" shit is right now in the story, but they also still want to use the character in their stories and have more plots for them.

MCU doing both is what really pissed me off and made me hate that iw movie so much.

I think that's just unfamiliarity with the source material. Death in superhero comics is almost never final; as a side effect of the nature of the storytelling.

But I remember disliking it as far back as Angel, my first instance encountering it in something that was not strictly a comedy.

In the realm of fantasy it can be an extremely useful storytelling element. Death itself takes on a different meaning as a force, not just an ending in those instances.

Metal_Gear_Raxis posted...

Multiverses, yeah. They only ever seem to be used to undo consequences or to act like "woooooaaaah, some things are different, constants and variables, man!" is a compelling narrative.

Multiverse is an amazing narrative tool when used well. Most who say this haven't encountered many good multiverse stories. When they are great, they are some of the best ways to pain a portrait of a character by showing you what that character COULD be like in other circumstances.

Id recommend into the spider verse and across the spider verse for starters. But theres many other good ones. Even arcane did a multivrss thing to this effect tho I haven't watched it.

Toonstrack posted...

I think that's just unfamiliarity with the source material. Death in superhero comics is almost never final; as a side effect of the nature of the storytelling

The MCU's advantage used to be how its storytelling
A) Was more easily accessible to get into
B) Avoided many of the main issues from the comics that stemmed from them running for so long/always needing to reset the status quo

People in committed relationships cheating with another love interest and it's justified bc their more "likeable"

mehmeh1 posted...

The MCU's advantage used to be how its storytelling
A) Was more easily accessible to get into
B) Avoided many of the main issues from the comics that stemmed from them running for so long/always needing to reset the status quo

I mean, the first person to "die" and come back in the MCU, was arguably loki in the frist avengers movie(in the thor solo his death is treated as an actual death) unless you wanna count captain americs who comes back from "death" in the same movie.

The first EXPLICT return from actusl on screen death wouldve been coulson, which wasn't long after that.

So they've kinda always been doing this.

HighSeraph posted...

I agree, if you're not willing to commit don't kill them off.

Yeah Oda. Find other ways to convey emotions.

I love the multiverse but right now it's way over used.

mehmeh1 posted...

The MCU's advantage used to be how its storytelling
A) Was more easily accessible to get into
B) Avoided many of the main issues from the comics that stemmed from them running for so long/always needing to reset the status quo

Yeah I thought it went without saying. For us normies who dont care for comic books nor soap opera television, we naturally don't care for trite cliches like undoing lessons a character learned by giving them amnesia (so that they can learn the lessons all over again and provide an extra couple seasons/comic issues) or nonsense involving "oh it wasn't him throughout this entire story you were watching, it was actually a life model LMD robot clone the entire time" or anything in that range.

It's not necessarily as black and white as that, but the idea is that yes, some stories do end and we want them to end, and the nature of such media like comic books not being designed that way is fine, we're just not into them.

"You gotta come see this,"

And...

"He/she/they did this!!!"

Just tell them who did the thing! Tell them what the situation is! Aaaargh

Dream sequence

*phone rings*
Person on other end says "turn on the TV"

MC turns tv on exactly as the relevant breaking news story begins.

ai123 posted...

Multiverses.

This. Im so sick of this unimaginative What if this happened? bullshit.

Character you thought was dead turns out to be alive but they end up dying anyway.

Like, WTF is the point.

The only time travel movies I like are:

Timeline
Back to the Future trilogy)
Predestination

IN fact, I tell EVERYONE to watch Predestination. Such a good movie. I sat for at least a few hours trying to figure out what was going on because it felt pretty off topic of the movie but then when all the pieces were fitting together, it made sense.

Then I spent at least a whole day after the movie trying to wrap my head around it. Such a good piece of cinema.

Southernfatman posted...

Character A is talking to character B. Some shenanigans happen and character C walks in on it. C misunderstands the situation, refuses to listen to an explanation, and leaves. There's usually a "Wait C! I can explain!" statement.

That or a something that has two main characters that are a couple or are friends who end up fighting and breaking up for a while and we go through the routine of them being sad or angry and all that. It's usually in comedies. Only Dumb n Dumber did it right because it lasted like a minute.

Pretty much the #1 reason I hate romantic comedies is they would be over in 10 minutes if the characters actually fucking TALKED to each other.
>_>

A_Good_Boy posted...

Yeah Oda. Find other ways to convey emotions.

Oda's thing is freakin weird because while he do revivals (and has said himself he doesn't like them), he DOES write heart-wrenching death scenes and then go "you thought! They actually survived, somehow, don't think about it"

saspa posted...

This is like saying you hate Umbridge more than Voldemort because she and the ministry she represents wouldn't listen to Harry about Voldemort coming back.

I mean, hating Umbridge more than Voldemort is a pretty common reaction to reading book 5.

I hate the "you collected all the MacGuffins and now I, the villain, will steal them all! Hahahaha!!!" trope.

Shotgunnova posted...

I hate the "you collected all the MacGuffins and now I, the villain, will steal them all! Hahahaha!!!" trope.

Ugh, this is easily the biggest flaw in Skies of Arcadia's otherwise excellent narrative.
Made worse by the fact that you could easily whup the main villain's ass at that point if the game only let you.

Shotgunnova posted...

I hate the "you collected all the MacGuffins and now I, the villain, will steal them all! Hahahaha!!!" trope.

Gotta collect all of them and then try to destroy them! Not, you know, get one and try to break that one before going to the next one.

marthsheretoo posted...

I mean, hating Umbridge more than Voldemort is a pretty common reaction to reading book 5.

This. Umbridge is a realistic evil that actually exists and people can easily relate to that hate.

ROBBAN posted...

It was all a dreeeaaam

This can be used to great extent in some cases, like Jacob's Ladder I know, not an actual dream in this case, but technically.

bloodyarts posted...

This can be used to great extent in some cases, like Jacob's Ladder I know, not an actual dream in this case, but technically.

That might be the only good use of it. That and maybe Return to Oz?

Since the liar revealed trope is being shelved nowadays, I'm going to go with the obvious misunderstanding trope. It's always so stupid. The MC in the show has never displayed those kinds of behaviors in the past, so why are you suddenly thinking they're doing it now? Anime is notorious for this.

saspa posted...

Yeah I thought it went without saying. For us normies who dont care for comic books nor soap opera television, we naturally don't care for trite cliches like undoing lessons a character learned by giving them amnesia (so that they can learn the lessons all over again and provide an extra couple seasons/comic issues) or nonsense involving "oh it wasn't him throughout this entire story you were watching, it was actually a life model LMD robot clone the entire time" or anything in that range.

It's not necessarily as black and white as that, but the idea is that yes, some stories do end and we want them to end, and the nature of such media like comic books not being designed that way is fine, we're just not into them.

Id your were into the mcu, then you're into the same storytelling elements as comics. The movies weren't ever doing anything aggressively different. The same storytelling elements were there the whole time.

Reset endings where nobody remembers anything. The worst ending, no different than saying everybody died and here's an unrelated world where nothing bad happened.