Page 1 of 7

Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:38 am
by RJ Badman
For me it's the thing where two characters are clearly attracted to each other but don't want to say anything due to nervousness, professionalism or whatever, and the writer wants to "hint at" it, and so bring in a character - usually a psychic or robot - to (always in front of both of the characters in question because the one who is being talked about has to see) bluntly go "your mind harbours feelings for that character" or "you love them, I can see it in your mind" or "I detect a strong reaction in you when you're around this person". It's been done on everything from The X Files to Starfox Adventures to Metal Gear Solid and it's the most lazy, hamfisted non-technique in media in my book.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:56 am
by Choclet-Milk
"We can't kill them, or we'll be no better than they are"

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 11:59 am
by Balladeer
The Lady bloody hates amnesiac tropes, thinking it’s a bad replacement for good storytelling.

I’m getting annoyed at the fact that every anime seems to take place in a high school. People undergo character development in later life too y’know!

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:06 pm
by Moggy
Chocolate-Milk wrote:"We can't kill them, or we'll be no better than they are"


And that only gets said after they've killed 500 henchmen but want to keep the main bad guy for the sequel.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:36 pm
by Skarjo
After a woman wins a fight;

“Where do you learn how to fight like that?”

“I hAvE A lOt of BRoTheRs”

Or

“I’m a female character, but I have dark, sad, tragic past. I am broken, tragic, worthless as a woman. This is why I fight in the shadows. Because truly, I am the monster”

Infertile, got it.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:43 pm
by shy guy 64
edgey rivals who think theyre better than you for no real reason

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:48 pm
by DML
Balladeer wrote:The Lady bloody hates amnesiac tropes, thinking it’s a bad replacement for good storytelling.

I’m getting annoyed at the fact that every anime seems to take place in a high school. People undergo character development in later life too y’know!


Check out Aggretsuko on Netflix. Its really really great for that.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 12:58 pm
by Imrahil
Modern Hollywood romantic comedy/dramas that have rendered the genre closer to fantasy than any kind of reality.

Perfect woman meets close-to-perfect man who needs to be 'fixed' a little bit. She fixes him and everything is then perfect.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:00 pm
by Skarjo
"I've designed an algorithm that...."

Immediately describes something that has nothing to do with algorithms.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:05 pm
by Victor Mildew
The sexy female assassin.

Our male hero lead gets introduced to a group of normal people to aid him on his journey. All are pretty bland people except for the one absolutely strawberry floating drop dead gorgeous dark haired olive skinned big fitted athletic woman. She's more of a background character. She turns up at his hotel room, he's about to float her! BUT WAIT, SHE'S TRYING TO KILL HIM NOW! SHE'S BOTH SEXY AND DANGEROUS

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:07 pm
by rinks
Hearing one side of a phone call that is so lazily written, they have the person we can hear repeat the other side of the conversation.

...
“You’ve lost your car keys? How?”
...
“A dog stole them?”

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 1:10 pm
by rinks
Joining a scene just in time to hear someone say the punchline of a (non-existent) joke.

One very good exception to this is in Phoenix Nights. *hand dryer roars, then stops* “...covered in piss.”

EDIT:


Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 2:49 pm
by Grumpy David
Balladeer wrote:The Lady bloody hates amnesiac tropes, thinking it’s a bad replacement for good storytelling.


Came in here to post this. Memory loss tropes. :x

I'd need to quickly refresh my tropes knowledge on TVtropes but I can't lose that many hours of my day right now.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 2:53 pm
by Balladeer
Grumpy David wrote:
Balladeer wrote:The Lady bloody hates amnesiac tropes, thinking it’s a bad replacement for good storytelling.


Came in here to post this. Memory loss tropes. :x

I'd need to quickly refresh my tropes knowledge on TVtropes but I can't lose that many hours of my day right now.

You mean to say you’ve forgotten? ;)

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 3:37 pm
by Victor Mildew
So what is it?

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 3:52 pm
by Moggy
Dream sequences that try to fool the audience into thinking it's "real".

That doesn't count for Inception. ;)

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:01 pm
by Tomous
Moggy wrote:Dream sequences that try to fool the audience into thinking it's "real".

That doesn't count for Inception. ;)



I hate these too, they're so irritating.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:09 pm
by Moggy
Tomous wrote:
Moggy wrote:Dream sequences that try to fool the audience into thinking it's "real".

That doesn't count for Inception. ;)



I hate these too, they're so irritating.


On a similar note, TV/movies where the character is in a VR simulation and you are never sure if they are still in the simulation or have made it back to the real world.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:09 pm
by Corazon de Leon
It's worse when it turns out that something like half of a movie was one of these stupid strawberry floating dream sequence/coma dream/delusion tropes.

Re: Your Least Favourite Tropes

Posted: Thu Sep 10, 2020 4:12 pm
by Tomous
Yeah, it's been done way too many times now.