What's Your Pet Peeve Trope?

For me, my Pet-Peeve Trope is the Evil Brit. For the record, I'm Canadian, and I don't have any beef with the British. However, I have seen so many American works featuring bad guys as British so many times that I find myself wondering why.

Personally, I'm convinced that EB in American works may stem from the American Revolution of 1775, where the Americans wanted independence from the British and were determined to prove that they are nothing like them. Also, the British burned down the White House during the War of 1812. So, it could be said that the Americans are anti-British as a result of all that.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind seeing a bad guy with a different nationality once in a while, but when companies like Disney have bad guys as British or British-accented almost every time, that just goes into Unfortunate Implications.

Lampshade Hanging.

While not all examples bug me, it's when the writer has his/her characters lampshade a legitimate flaw with the work that hurts the narrative, followed up with... nothing. The writer lampshades a flaw, the readers chuckle and wink while taking a sip of beer, and nothing changes. There's no improvement.

Everybody Hates Mathematics is a Pet-Peeve Trope in Real Life for me. I see too many (usually female) people around me who seem to think it's cool to be horrible at math.

In fiction, it's probably You Fail Engineering Forever that grinds my gears the most. (I rewrote most of that article some time ago - check it out!) I'm studying to be an engineer myself and I require any machine, fictional or not, to make sense, dammit.

Also, Poor Communication Kills (and on a related note, the "Fawlty Towers" Plot). I hate, hate, hate it when things go wrong because of misunderstandings, both in fiction and in Real Life. Let things go wrong because of the bad guys, because of Finagle's Law, because of plain stupidity or Pride on the main characters' part... but not because of misunderstandings. This is also why I prefer honesty and bluntness over 'respecting someone's feelings' at almost all times.

For related reasons, Guile Heroes tend to annoy me. If there has to be a real "hero" character at all - which I think is definitely not always the case - then I prefer him to be an upright person who is very open and honest about whom and what he is fighting for, not some slick trickster who gets his way through manipulation and deceit. As we Dutch like to say, I want my hero to 'fight with an open visor'.

(And yes, I used masculine pronouns. I prefer male heroes in fiction. Sue me.)

edited 15th Jun '12 7:31:55 AM by MidnightRambler

Humans Are Bastards. YEH WE GET IT, WE'RE MEAN AND SCAWY. AND WE HAVE NO REDEEMING QUALITIES WHATSOEVER, YOU DON'T HAVE TO RUB YOUR COCKS ON OUR FACES AND REMIND US THAT WE ARE THE BIGGEST MONSTERS EVEER!!!!

True Art Is Angsty. NO IT IS NOT YOU CHUCKLEFUCKS.

Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil. No. No it isn't. It's evil, don't get me wrong, but it isn't any more or less evil than torturing or killing a person. I personally think that all of these acts are forgivable, but only if the one who committed the act dedicates themselves fully to atoning for what they did.

Another pet peeve of mine is Black Comedy Rape, particularly the Double Standard surrounding it. I'm of the mindset that "either it's all okay to laugh at, or none of it is", and it really gets on my nerves when people make exceptions and draw little arbitrary lines in the sand over what constitutes black comedy and what constitutes Dude, Not Funny!

Oh, right. Dude, Not Funny! That's another one. Although I guess I can understand that better. Everyone has a personal limit, and I respect that, but don't try to enforce your own limit onto others.

edited 14th Jun '12 8:43:26 PM by Ometta6

Childhood Friend Romance, dear Nidhoggr. It's not so bad if they're introduced as a couple and a childhood friendship is just part of the backstory (ex. Scotty and Elisa from Cold Case), but what really grates me is the pervasive tendency of both writers and fans to treat childhood friendship as the be-all end-all indicator of perfect love. Particularly if it's a Last-Minute Hookup capped off with a speech to the effect of "I've been looking for so long, when the right person for me was right in front of me this whole time!" Ugh...

This is why I can't do anything but lol at the fallout from the Digimon Adventure 02 Distant Finale, wherein the fandom went nuclear after said finale revealed that only four characters grew up to marry people we'd recognize (ie. two couples of people we'd recognize formed). For the record, we first see these characters when they're in seventh grade or so and last see them in their thirties; apparently it hadn't crossed the fandom's collective mind that they could've, I don't know, met someone in the full two-thirds of their lives up to that point that had passed since then...

edited 18th Jun '12 12:15:02 AM by HamburgerTime

MAYBE WE SHOULD COOL DOWN BEFORE THEY SHUT DOWN THIS THREAD!

edited 18th Jun '12 3:50:23 AM by eternalNoob

I'm generally peeved at bullying in media, but a big pet peeve is School Bullying Is Harmless. The 4 different kinds of bullying usually portrayed in kid's shows piss me right off: they could happen, but they're usually 95% horseshit. Kids Are Cruel is a very real trope in a lot of places.

Clear My Name is irritating also, because it can really stretch one's Willing Suspension of Disbelief. Super Mario Sunshine's example is pretty disgusting, as is Avatar The Last Airbender's oneshot episode "Avatar Day" which uses this trope. It seems people have to be either narrowminded or just plain stupid in a show so they can become an obstacle.

Specific cases of Improbable Aiming Skills.

As in when it's with something like a non-rifled matchlock or musket. I just find it blatantly ridiculous that you could pull off something like that with such an inaccurate gun.

edited 18th Jun '12 8:25:45 AM by Olivetree

My pet peeve is racial stereotypes. Actually, that's more than just a pet peeve; it really annoys me.

All Double Standard tropes.

Good Flaws, Bad Flaws. Can't write a round character? Don't worry, just give him some 'good' flaws so you don't have to consider the consequences of his character traits. What a lazy cop-out.

Also, Fish out of Water when it's Played for Laughs (as in Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis, L'Auberge Espagnole etc.) I despise these kind of stories.

edited 19th Jun '12 5:18:55 AM by Fresison

Scary Black Man and You Are a Credit to Your Race in fiction. In Real Life, Eaglelander Type 2, both when people assume it and when I run into "real" type 2's, and Hypocritical Fandom.

Ditto.

edited 19th Jun '12 8:25:12 AM by TheStarshipMaxima

Yeah, Double Standard tropes really do not make that much sense.

For example, Would Hit a Girl. This is used to establish a male character as a Complete Monster because he hurts, or worse, kills female characters. Logically, a male character hurting or killing male characters should be just as bad. Legacy Of The Force, for me, stands out with using this trope one time too many. Karen Traviss had one too many confrontations between Jacen and a female character and how he stuffs her into the fridge, sometimes in front of other people. A better way should have been found to show Jacen going to the Dark Side.

Moral Guardians and Think of the Children! kind of carry-on. By and large, they can all fuck off.

Same goes for anyone and anything that gets a hang up about something being "Family Friendly" or not. I hate that phrase and the majority of the people who use it.

edited 19th Jun '12 2:53:37 PM by TheBatPencil

Type 1 Eagleland.

Oh, that and Black-and-White Morality.

edited 19th Jun '12 11:26:15 PM by Sarkastique

Conflict Ball irritates me to no end.

Harem Hero

There almost all the same to me espeically in some fanfics.

Ambition Is Evil is another Pet-Peeve Trope of mine. As the page itself notes, media seems to have an "ambition = backstabbing, jerkish, monstrous psychopath" mentality.

First, I'd like to direct you to this Wiktionary entry here on "ambition". As you can see, "ambition" is more about trying to improve your lot in life. Why should that automatically make you a backstabbing, jerkish, monstrous psychopath?

I think a Deconstruction should be applied to the trope, where you have characters trying to avoid this trope by simply never getting up and out of bed. A Real Life fact you need to know is that everybody needs to have some ambition, because without it, you would never even get out of bed!

Although I can be a patient person and enjoy any work regardless, I agree with Mr Mallard on the subject of Clear My Name. Super Mario Sunshine is an outstanding example of how illogical it can be because Mario was not given a fair trial for one thing and he does not have the paintbrush that caused the mess. Also, during the first chase scene with the doppleganger, these people should see the difference between Mario and the faker. I still think the game is quite enjoyable in other aspects, though.

Also, Everybody Hates Mathematics. I major in Applied Mathematics and I can understand that people can have trouble on the subject, but trying to say you're horrible at it and just giving up is not a beneficial option because math has a role in many things, whether minor or major.

Finally, Poor Communication Kills can be quite irksome because of misunderstanding, especially if it is one minor mistake. And one more thing, No Sympathy.

edited 20th Jul '12 3:19:54 PM by SMsoldier

The Pollyana always bothers me,maybe it's because I'm a Cynical person,but something about them always looking up even when things are down and probably are never gonna be up,instead of facing it,...that just bothers me.

Although the next worst offender would be Flanderization,unless of course they change that name to mean everything takes place in Northern Belgium. Its sad to see a deep character become shallower

Protagonist-Centered Morality and A Million Is a Statistic.

edited 27th Jun '12 2:40:10 PM by Wheezy

Humiliation Conga

I really hate how some character just get humiliated like that even though they did it to themselves.

Drill Sergeant Nasty

The trope itself is not bad but the fact they even exist makes me cringe. I know they are molding civilians into soldiers but still damn.

Break The Haughty

I really hate how some characters get to arrogant and get broken in the worse possible ways.

Badass and Villain Decay

I really hate how some legitmately badass characters get turned into a shell of their former selves after character development. Isn't there a way to make a character still badass and get cahracter development?

Tsundere is another trope I hate when it's played completely straight (rhyme).