Lost in Space
You might have better luck asking this question in the Writer's Block forum. If you're going for believability, then Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever was discredited the instant someone dreamed it up due to a little thing called the square-cube law. It is still fairly popular in less serious works, though.
"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAyP8k24N0g
Only watch the first minute. I find this one of the better uses of the trope, this was the only hint in the first dozen episodes or so that the main character could actually fight as most of those that he faces are superior to him in raw power and experience.
This helps show the monsters as dangerous and shows that the party members are strong individually.
Maybe you can show the monster in the same way (could be a space shuttle in danger instead if you feel like it) and someone after seeing how the dangerous beast got dealt with decides to recruit the party member character.
edited 21st Feb '15 9:26:31 AM by MagwitchOo
No, the other one.
Basically, it's workable if there's magic involved. Or dragons.
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I shall attempt to keep this brief. I'm outlining a Dark Fantasy story, one that I began years ago but put on the backburner in favor of a Space Opera, since at the time (being a freshman in high school), I declared to myself "fantasy is cliche and boring, most people watch scifi now. If I write a fantasy no one will read it." However, after driving myself mad for five years trying to outline said Space Opera, due to a lack of knowledge in the field of Biochemistry (I'm a perfectionist when it comes to realism), I declared to myself that hard science is boring, and back to the fantasy I went, this time for good. Now to the subject at hand. I wont bore you further with plot details, so Ill get right to it. "Attack of the 50-foot Whatever" is considered a Discredited Trope, presumably due to it's overuse. Does this mean I should avoid this trope like the plague, or is it fine depending on how it is presented and the specific plot details? This trope only applies to a specific quest in the story, not the overall "Main Quest", in fact, it's a recruitment quest for a party member character. Suggestions please?