Your Most Hated Tropes

[Jackarandajam]

Evil Corvids. The crows, the ravens and magpies all end up being evil, helping evil and such. And they are such clever birdies. True, I get why they've gotten the bearers of ill omens and death, being carrion eaters amongst other things. Plus, they're really good at plucking out eyes.

100%. Vultures should replace owls as the birds of wisdom. Owls are just googly-eyed nocturnal raptor chickens, vultures figured out how to literally transcend the food chain.
I've got tons of black and turkey vultures around and they are my Stink Eagles and I love them.

 

[Jackarandajam]

The dragon should save the knight from the princess. I always wanted to be rescued by a dragon.

Ha, I had that thought while I was writing my earlier comment.

***Dragon flying away into the moonlight, holding a struggling knight:

Knight: "Let me go, you bat lizard! She's supposed to me meeting me in the garden by the fountain in a quarter of an hour!"

Dragon: "This is for your own good, kid. I've been around for 200 years and trust me, I know a man-eater when I see one."

 

[pmmg]

100%. Vultures should replace owls as the birds of wisdom. Owls are just googly-eyed nocturnal raptor chickens, vultures figured out how to literally transcend the food chain.
I've got tons of black and turkey vultures around and they are my Stink Eagles and I love them.

Says the man with the raven on his shoulder...

 

[Gurkhal]

100%. Vultures should replace owls as the birds of wisdom. Owls are just googly-eyed nocturnal raptor chickens, vultures figured out how to literally transcend the food chain.
I've got tons of black and turkey vultures around and they are my Stink Eagles and I love them.

Given that I titled a villain in a story as the "Vulture King" I think I am quilty of giving vultures a bad name.

 

[Dylan]

I love this kind of deep dive into tropes and animal stereotypes! It’s so true, crows, ravens, and magpies get such a bad rap in stories, even though they’re insanely smart and fascinating creatures. Like, sure, they’re opportunistic and have that eerie vibe, but they’re also problem-solving geniuses! And yeah, the whole "evil corvid" thing probably stems from their association with death and their knack for survival, but it’s kind of unfair to paint them as villains all the time. Same with hyenas, they’re such misunderstood animals! People always frame them as cowardly scavengers, but they’re actually skilled hunters and have this incredibly complex social structure. Plus, the lion vs. hyena rivalry is way more nuanced than "brave lions vs. sneaky hyenas." It’s more like two apex predators competing for resources, but lions always get the hero edit, lol.

And the "Evil Matriarchy" trope? Yeah, that’s a whole can of worms. It’s such an overused and often lazy way to create conflict, especially when it plays into outdated stereotypes about women in power. Like, sure, matriarchies can be flawed (just like any system), but reducing them to "evil" feels reductive and, honestly, a bit tired.

 

[PhilyG123]

I hate love triangles with the fury of a thousand suns. Always have, even as a tween and they start trying to impress on our fragile little minds that bullshit angst builds character. It's just always so sanctimonious. When I come for your feels, I will have them. Just not like this.

I hate them too!!!!

 

[PhilyG123]

I've got a whole bunch.

Not Like Other Girls
Damsel in Distress
Yanderes
Anything that Romanticizes Toxic Relationships
Love Redeems
Hurt To Protect
I Will Wait For You
Miscommunications
Love Triangles
Love at First Sight
Last Minute Romantic Pair-Ups [Strangled By The Red String]
Love Is Forbidden
Fake-Out Deaths
New Powers As The Plot Demands
Planet of the Hats
Medieval Stasis
Always Chaotic Evil
Balance Between Good and Evil
Because Destiny Says So
Divine Right To Rule
Deus/Diablos ex Machina
The Magic Goes Away
Villain Has A Point But Status Quo Rules [not sure if this has an actual name]
Grimdark
Fate Worse Than Death
Body Horror
Humans Are The Real Monsters
As Long As There is Evil

You must HATE A Song of Ice and Fire

 

[PhilyG123]

▪︎ The goofball male sidekick, the naive but wise beyond his years hero and the beautiful, level-headed female sidekick who save the world.

This made me think of Harry Potter at first but Harry and Ron are both dumb goofballs.

▪︎ Anything that's based upon the Bible or Tolkien.

Would you mind explaining? According to LotR fanboys every fantasy series out there copied Tokien and is therefore bad and its author a fraud. I don't want to get mad making up a scenario where you have said exactly this

Also, what do you think of the Narnia books?

 

[PhilyG123]

I have never hated any trope except maybe one. Of course it would be nice if the rest were all well written.
The one trope I dislike is the Love Triangle or the Love Corner. Call it what you want. It's used in a lot of YA books and since I am almost 30 years old I just can't be bothered with that, even though I still sometimes enjoy reading YA. There's a lot of miscommunication even though it would probably make everyone feel better if they communicated their feelings better to each other. Would probably solve some other problems as well.
Also, makes me a bit jealous . Imagine having 2 people interested in you at the same time.

 

[pmmg]

Imagine having 2 people interested in you at the same time.

I have had two people interested in me at the same time and its was hell actually.

 

[minta]

I don’t like, when characters avoid talking about something that could solve the problem right away.

 

[Incanus]

According to LotR fanboys every fantasy series out there copied Tokien and is therefore bad and its author a fraud.

As a lifelong fan of Tolkien, I can't say I've ever encountered this attitude before. No Tolkien fan I know thinks like this. This sounds suspiciously like a Strawman argument.

Maybe I'm just a fan, and not a fanboy?

 

[pmmg]

Yeah, the attitude does seem a little extreme....

It is hard to escape the shadow of Tolkien on fantasy, but its certainly not fair to call everything after a rip-off.

Maybe those had not noticed, that the world is one of standing on the shoulder of giants, not ripping off and being a fraud. Tolkien made a mark, but he too had others before him. The type of story he told may have sparked a lot of imaginations, but I don't think he has any exclusive claim to things. Perhaps it was that Tolkien grabbed a lot of the low hanging fruit, and those that followed found it easy to grab for as well. And perhaps the process of thinking through the direction and meaning of many issues a fantasy world brings up, just lent themselves to being answered in a similar way. Such that, if Tolkien had not done it, another would have.

Would it be fair to say, just cause your world has a history of humanoid races having wars with elves and humans, that the whole concept of the history belongs to Tolkien? Or maybe, it just makes sense that a world with warring races would have a history?

I don't know....the works stand on their own. If some wish to say my story is like Tolkien, I appreciate being in his company, but I can assure...I did not look to him as a model for the tale.

 

[Incanus]

I would say that fantasy fiction was always going to be popular with plenty of people. In another universe, it could easily have been someone besides Tolkien who lit the flame, perhaps earlier, perhaps later on.

But in THIS universe, Tolkien is who did it. I doubt he himself would have made an 'exclusive claim' on anything--he seems to have been rather humble.

I don't know what is meant by low-hanging fruit. Is there an example of what that might be? Tolkien was aiming rather high for the most part.

 

[pmmg]

Sure....

Tolkien produces Sauron, his dark lord. Now everyone who has a dark lord owes something to Tolkien?

Seems to me like, many writers would have come up with dark lords whether there was a Tolkien or not.

That was a pretty easy grab.

 

[Penpilot]

As a lifelong fan of Tolkien, I can't say I've ever encountered this attitude before. No Tolkien fan I know thinks like this. This sounds suspiciously like a Strawman argument.

Maybe I'm just a fan, and not a fanboy?

IMHO, people who loved Tolkien wanted more stuff like LOTR. Though I've never read it, I've heard people say that's why Sword of Shannara was popular. It's supposed to be a lift of LOTR.

People who love X tend to look for other things that are similar to X. I'm like that, and I don't outright dismiss something just because it's similar to something else. If it's good, then great I got more of X. If it's bad, then it's a bad "rip off." Good "rip offs" are fine for me.

I think some mistake (unique = good) all too much and (been done before = bad) all too much.

 

[Incanus]

Tolkien produces Sauron, his dark lord. Now everyone who has a dark lord owes something to Tolkien?

I have no idea where this idea comes from, but certainly not me.

I'm not really seeing any low-hanging fruit here. Sauron is a single element in a vast construction. The ring and the nature of evil in Middle-earth is anything but simple or easy.

 

[pmmg]

Well... I just made it up... Ideas have to come from somewhere?

Write a fantasy story with a dark lord and see if you are not called a Tolkien clone.

 

[Incanus]

IMHO, people who loved Tolkien wanted more stuff like LOTR. Though I've never read it, I've heard people say that's why Sword of Shannara was popular. It's supposed to be a lift of LOTR.

People who love X tend to look for other things that are similar to X. I'm like that, and I don't outright dismiss something just because it's similar to something else. If it's good, then great I got more of X. If it's bad, then it's a bad "rip off." Good "rip offs" are fine for me.

I think some mistake (unique = good) all too much and (been done before = bad) all too much.

I would dearly love to find another book like LotR, but I've never seen one, though I've looked for decades. Something like Sword of Shannara hardly counts (I have read it) since it falls so utterly short.

Views on originality are largely a matter of opinion. I don't consider unique=good, been done before=bad. Rather, original creations get extra credit and tend to be better than the emulators far more often than not.

 

[pmmg]

I'll go on record and say, if those thinking everything fantasy is a Tolkien clone, were thinking primarily of Sword of Shannara, well...I'll have to give it to them.