Take That

Contrived Coincidence. Oh this is gonna take a hit so hard.

Spider Tank and Walking Tank: As a Humongous Mecha fan, be they Super Robot or Real Robot, I am perfectly aware that they run entirely on Rule of Cool and are technically impractical. That said, stripping out all the coolness from the idea just leaves you with a decidedly uncool impractical war machine.

I agree with Gunheart.

• Contrived Coincidence: Highly unrealistic.
• Men Are Uncultured: I take offense to the generalization. Of course, if you're willing to put more Genius Bruiser, that'll please me more.
• Planet of Hats: When it's not subtle enough, it feels like another Anvilicious Author Tract.
• Sugar Bowl: No. Just no.

I second Edmania's hatred of You Need to Get Laid, mostly because I've heard that line a few too many times.

Broken!Aesop is broken and pointless

SNKBoss, whyt does the AI need to be more aggressive after you beat the boss in the first round? In just annoys that I cannot beat a boss for 2 yrs because said boss is that hard.

Idiot Hero, Idiot Ball, Villain Ball, all of the other *Ball tropes... Lawful Stupid, Chaotic Stupid... actually, just Character Alignment period.
Strictly Formula
Pair the Spares
Everything's Better With... anything (except cephalopods... no, the cephalopods have to have a good reason to be there, too)
Good Is Dumb
Who Wants To Be Immortal
Timey-Wimey Ball nearly all the time
Stable Time Loop
Our Vampires Are Different
Our Dwarves Are All the Same
Can't Argue with Elves
Umm... and basically everything Vree, dragon Khorse, and Edmania already said.

I just to be Whatever and all of its tropes, not so much out of hate but out of pity for characters who don't succeed in there goal.

Badass itself is done especially the way this very wiki uses it.

Chaotic Good characters are not that good either.

edited 18th Sep '10 4:41:34 PM by G.G.

I hate the You Bastard! trope. Because, you know, the readers are clearly more responible for the fictional characters suffering than THE CREATORS WHO DETERMINE THEIR EVERY MOVE.

And if you could break the 4th wall now, why couldn't you hear me shout at you "Hey, don't open the closet, the bad guy is in there!"? If you walk into a death trap when somebody tells you not to, it will always be your fault. especially if you know that someone can see your future with the help of a rewind button.

Making works of fiction that insult the audience for reading/watching/interacting with them does not inspire them to stop reading/watching/interacting with fiction and focus on real life, it just makes them feel like shit. and when you feel like shit, do you retreat back to real life? NO! You watch more fucking TV, you read more fucking comic books, and you play more fucking videogames till you stop feeling like shit.

If you want some guy to stop being such a asshat, you cannot just shout at it and expect them to magically change into a better person. You have to remind him/her nicely that it has the potential to be a incredible person, but remind it that arsorbing oneself into fiction all day without contributing to the world won't help anyone. Accussing readers of mass murder when there are a thousound people that are more responible for the events of the story just pisses them off and makes them want to ignore everything you've said.

Bottom line: your audience don't force you to kill off the villian. it's your decision whether or not the hero dies, so don't lash out at them. the executives might force you to kill the hero, but having your fictional characters shout insults at them will only make you look cowardly for not saying them to their faces. DECLARING THE AUDIENCE MURDERERS FOR WATCHING/READING/PLAYING YOUR WORK OF FICTION DOES NOTHING YOU WANT IT TO DO, AND EVERYTHING YOU DON'T WANT IT TO DO.

OK, here's my least favorite tropes: ...

...Unresolved Sexual Tension,

What. Who are you, Christian Weston Chandler?

Lets Get Dangerous, why didn't get dangerous earlier?

edited 29th Sep '10 9:54:31 PM by G.G.

Most of the Fate and Prophecy Tropes, with the obvious exception of Screw Destiny. You're not much of a hero if all you have to do is get in place and say your lines.

Faux Action Girl, because after a while you just want them to get out of the way.

Love at First Sight, because I've never seen it done in a way I didn't think was ridiculous. (Yes, that includes Romeo And Juliet.)

Badass—well, I don't hate it, but I'm beginning to realize that almost every hero I actually like doesn't fit it for one reason or another.

What Measure Is a Mook?, because I keep having to remind myself who to root for. (I walked out of The Matrix during that scene at the security checkpoint.)

A hell of a lot of the things listed under Rape Tropes.

All Men Are Perverts. I find it offensive this is still considered "inoffensive" (or, God help us, "true") when All Women Are Lustful is considered "offensive."

edited 30th Sep '10 12:06:07 AM by FeoTakahari

^ This.

I was gonna post something myself, but the above post literally hits every trope I hate. So... wow.

Maybe you're my long lost twin?!? :d

• Accidental Pervert - Makes me wonder if every female character happens to hold a Pervert Ball or something similar which negates their ability to realise that it WAS an accident.
• Kudzu Plot - Sure, it gives people a reason to write fanfiction, but unless you happen to fall into Author Existence Failure, don't leave all of these subplots everywhere.
• Everyone Is Bi - DOES NOT MEAN EVERYONE IS A SEX-DEPRAVED HOROMONAL NYMPHOMANIAC.
• Yandere - For some reason I can never see Yanderes used in a serious context anymore, they are made overly cute and unrealistically psychotic. Most of the time it's just implied psychosis. and most likely it's just a variation of an over-protective girl.
• Green Aesop - Overblown by writers to the point where it feels more like a Take That! than an aesop.

edited 30th Sep '10 10:10:18 AM by Tnophelia

• Deus ex Machina: Please. Dont Ass Pull the climax.
• Dumb Is Good: No, Dumb is careless.
• Human Aliens: Unless its A Form You Are Comfortable With, it just spews lack of imagination.
• Wangst: TAKE YOUR LUMPS LIKE A MAN, PRIVATE TWINLETOES
• Idiot Hero: The main reson I find most shonen unappealing
• Standardized Leader: No wonder I like The Lancer more than this guy.

edited 30th Sep '10 10:18:31 AM by heartlessmushroom

I don't like this thread, because Tropes Are Tools. Also, it seems like it doesn't belong in writers block...more like IJBM.

^Of course. However, many people dislike the trope regardless of how it's used. I am sure they are mostly referring to the common straightly used version of them.

Also, this is about what WE plan on hitting, not what tropes bug us.

^^ I agree.

^ Just a question... How does this thread help writers? It is in the Writer's Block Forum, so I think it should help writers somehow or else there would be no point for it to be here.

edited 30th Sep '10 1:05:03 PM by EldritchBlueRose

^^Ohh, the tropes we're going to deconstruct or play with in our writing, I see. I guess I got the wrong impression from the posts thus far. Or am I misunderstanding again?

Lets see, the only one I remember deliberately deciding to deconstruct was Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead / Keystone Army.

I won't say more, in case I ever get around to actually writing it (it's next up after the one I'm on, sort of a prequel to it), but the perspective generally follows the prototypical "diverse band on a last ditch quest"...to a point. And then it goes somewhere more interesting.

edited 30th Sep '10 12:52:28 PM by deathjavu

@Eldritch: You're right. When put next to the threads 'Your BLAM s' 'Favorite Lines from your own writing' 'who would voice your character' and 'The Guilty Pleasure Writing Thread' it really sticks out like a sore thumb.

@Death: Some, like myself (see page topper) are probably writing deconstructions because they dislike the way the trope is played straight. So yes, that is a valid interpretation.

edited 30th Sep '10 1:10:07 PM by A_H_R

A hell of a lot of the things listed under Rape Tropes.

I thought you were the sort who considers death/killing/etc. as worse.

^ I wouldn't say that. Rape is one of those easy Writer Cop Outs to make "flaws" in a character.

The Chosen One

Stable Time Loop

Both of these need to be disappeared in a big way.

Don't have a problem with any other tropes really aside from the blatently obvious double standards.

Crazy Awesome, I don't like this trope especially when certain characters rub off on me the wrong way wioth their antics.

Why don't Idiot Heroes get called out on their 'idiocy'? Or why don't make idiot heroes with an emphasis on the idiot part?

• Anvilicious. No anvils need to be dropped.
• Can't Argue with Elves. Though that overlaps with the above.
• Screw Destiny. Kind of an odd one to dislike, but it just seems so overused. Why bother with the prophecy at all if it's ultimately irrelevant?
• Puny Earthlings. I can think of plenty of places where I can be lectured on how much I suck for free. I'm not going to pay you for it.
• Hard Work Hardly Works. I don't mind if the hard work happened offscreen, just when someone gets something for nothing.

Although I'm probably the type that would, I don't mind Dumb Is Good. Probably because then Smart People are Evil, and as we all know, Evil Is Cool.

I also notice quite a bit of hatred for Humans Are Special, and related tropes. Maybe I'm alone in this, but I like people. Misanthropy annoys me, especially since it tends to smack of people trying to be cool and edgy. Not to mention elevate themselves above others.

edited 19th Jan '11 10:36:07 PM by petrie911