“Bakes Muffins Part-Time 3 Days A Week But Lives In A 2500 Sq Ft Loft”: 40 Overdone Film Tropes That Audiences Are Tired Of Seeing
InterviewWhen writing a screenplay, it’s inevitable that some tropes will present themselves. When executed well, audiences can’t help but love a girl next door, a knight in shining armor, or a trusty sidekick. But there are some tropes that viewers have had enough of.
Reddit users have recently been calling out the film and TV tropes that cause them to lose interest, so we’ve gathered some of their thoughts below. From "awkward" girls who look like actual models to former cops who come out of retirement, be sure to upvote the tropes that make you roll your eyes as well. And keep reading to find a conversation we were lucky enough to have with the Reddit user who sparked this discussion in the first place!
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All the men are diverse in age and attractiveness, and the two to three total women are twenty-something bombshells.
With perfect bodies, perfect hair, perfect makeup all the time. And the ones that don't have all of those are usually the comedic side kick
The ex-cop/FBI agent that comes out of retirement because the entire government can't catch a criminal.
The main character bakes muffins part-time 3 days a week but lives in a 2500 sq ft loft penthouse in the chic part of town.
To learn more about how this conversation began, we reached out to Reddit user Fake-And-Gay-Bot, who originally posed the question, “What single trope can cause you to fully lose interest in a movie/show?” They were kind enough to have a chat with Bored Panda about what inspired them to start this discussion in the first place, sharing, "I was talking with my friends Toby, Robin, and Erica, all writers, about what kinds of tropes ticked us off over lunch. Toby, for example, dislikes when fantasy species are designed to be discriminated against (i.e Tieflings).”
She was a busy business lady that only had time for business. He was some jackass womanizer with chlamydia. Will these two incompatible people go through a series of unlikely events, fall in love, have some minor misunderstanding, then get together in the last few minutes? Find out this fall
The "clumsy, nerdy, awkward girl" who are normally played by the hottest actresses out there...
Curly hair with glasses = nerdy, straight hair, no glasses = hot (I have curly hair and I wear glasses, so... 🤣🤣🤣)
We also asked the OP about any tropes that they personally can’t stand. "When disabled characters lose the disability,” they shared. “The mute character was on a vow of silence the whole time. The wheelchair bound character gets 5-second surgery an episode after getting bound to it. The blind character can see using special sunglasses. Why disable the character if they're not actually disabled?"
Fathers that are stupid/literally cannot parent for comedic value. The “useless dad” trope.
This one triggers me badly. I was a SAH dad for 3 years with a new born. I have more time so deal with the kids more. So yeah, I get triggered.
If an entire conundrum can be solved by just someone waiting 1 minute for the other person to explain but chooses not to.
Irritates me to no end and I'd much rather stop watching the movie.
“Often, the character will not have to suffer real consequences while disabled,” the OP went on to note. “The mute will never have to get someone's attention, the wheelchair bound won't arrive at their regular workplace to find there's no accessibility, the blind character won't have to make any kind of lifestyle change to accommodate, even in the meantime between being fixed.”
“Many superhero films, like Daredevil (the titular character, blind) or X-Men (cyclops, pseudo-blind), have a disabled character that can operate just as well as a non-disabled character, as if they don't have the disability,” they added.
"If I kill him I'm no better than him"
Motgerfucker you just smoked 19 of his henchmen and put 5 more in a wheelchair for life, end his a*s.
And of course the bad guy gets let go, but decides at the last second to try to kill the good guy, justifying a bullet between the eyes, usually by either the good guys sidekick, or the bad guys henchmen that he just got done betraying.
Not to mention the occasional car of a working class person that gets hurled into a brick wall, missing the villain.
Presenting casual stalking and the denial of boundaries as romantic. Notebook I'm looking at you. (Not saying all movies that do this are bad, but it really makes me cringe)
Edit:
Yall are right the notebook IS a bad one
Yes I know its an older trope, but it can still be seen in some newer media
Many Bollywood movies (especially the older ones) romanticise being after a girl and harassing her untill she finally caves in. I hate that trope so much that I’m willing to strangle the person who came up with i t
As far as tropes that Fake-And-Gay-Bot actually does appreciate, they told Bored Panda that they’re a fan of “Morally intelligent Anti-Villains”. “The kind of villain that doesn't even need to mind control you, because he's already convinced you,” the OP explained. “The type of villain that has such a good point, you begin to wonder who the villain really is. Death the Wolf, Joker, and Gus Fring are some nice examples.”
Controversial, but shows/movies that rely on awkwardness, like the Office or Elf. I get terrible second hand embarrassment and I just can't.
Being mildly impacted by lethal injuries. Likewise, when in subfreezing temperatures, not succumbing to hypothermia when soaking wet. Not always enough to shut it off, but it always stands out and strains the illusion.
We were also curious why this OP thinks film and TV writers continue to use the same tropes over and over. “I believe it's easier to write a story when focusing on archetypes and plot narratives, many of which tend to be very common or something the writer picked up from their favorite media,” they told Bored Panda. “People who grew up with stoic, justice-serving vigilantes might base some characters off of them. Typically, an ensemble is based on an assortment of archetypes who bounce off one another."
They can't figure out how to give their female characters depth without falling back on some kind of rape/sexual assault.
I read a book last week, written by a woman, the main character is a woman, and it STILL included the handsome boyfriend saying 'Don't worry, I'll do the thinking...' And that was it. No snappy comeback, no annoyance, nothing.
The virgin being the chosen girl. Why can’t the blonde s**t save the day for once? They can be smart too. I need my character representation.
I wouldn't call her a s**t though, then again I doubt I'd call anyone that.
Load More Replies...An Idea: Virgin girl is the annoying, preachy secondary character and the blonde girl is like "i f**k people and fight monsters, what's your superpower?" and they get together at the end.
Something I liked about the movie "Jennifer’s Body", where the smart girl had a sex life too
Saw a show where the virgin was going to get sacrificed. They came up with an alternative and she says....if I ever get out of this, I'm going to have so much s#x
That's because dragons think virgins taste better. There is even a Ren Faire song about it.
Lol when I first lost my virginity a friend told me “aw man you can’t tame unicorns anymore….” 😂
Load More Replies...In The Mask, Camaron Diaz seems to be the bad blonde, but she's the hero.
I think we just need to remember these are movies. They are not documentaries. And...if people didn't pay to watch them, they wouldn't be made. Just once I would like Kevin Costner or what's-his-name romance me instead of JLO. (no offense movie stars).
I'm trying to think of a single movie where the kick-a*s heroine was over 15 and was known to be a virgin or behaved sexually shy. I mean possibly Rey from Star Wars sequels just for lack of opportunity? (Let's not go there.) If anything, it's the hair color angle that this hits on correctly. Compare the brunette in Raiders of the Lost Ark to the blonde in Temple of Doom. Buffy, the counter-trope, wasn't presented as a s**t but she sure was blonde.
The OP went on to note that they look for ways to create new ideas, subverting and deconstructing classic archetypes, with their own writing. “The passionate, determined fighter only wants to work hard, not smart, and his potential is lost until he realizes it,” they shared. “The invincible ‘I'm the real hero’ villain can genuinely be reasoned with. The hero is driven by less noble motivations, like fear, trauma, or greed.”
“Think of tropes like cooking ingredients,” they continued. “What goes well on a steak might not fit as well in a cake. Every tool has its use, every trope has its place. Your story is a sculpture, best not to use a giant chisel for every nook and cranny.”
The main character is about to get killed. The antagonist is sitting there pointing a gun at them about to shoot them, but they first have to give a 30 second speech. This gives the love interest/forgotten side kick/child with developing fighting skills to come kill the enemy instead. Follow it up with a quote from them saying “you think I’d miss this party?”.
Something that can be fixed right away with just a conversation
If you think about your favorite films and TV shows, you’re guaranteed to come up with some archetypes and classic tropes that are present in them. But when the writing is done well, you will be so focused on the characters themselves that you won’t be rolling your eyes about them being a classic manic pixie dream girl or anti-hero. Keep upvoting the tropes you’ve seen enough of as well, and let us know in the comments if there are any more that immediately make you lose interest in a film or show. And if you’d like to check out another Bored Panda article discussing this same topic, look no further than right here!
Abuse of men getting downplayed as a joke
yeah. man slaps a woman, he's satan incarnate (true, never hit your partner). woman slaps a man, what did he do to deserve it? or haha funny! it is never okay to hit your partner, no matter your or their gender.
kill animal or pet for cheap shock value
This is the one that actually makes me turn off movies or stop watching tv shows nowadays. Looking at you ‘The Silence’. >:(
Cutting the palm of their hand in order to use their blood for some goofy b******t like it’s not one of the worse possible places to cut.
One of the ones that never fails to make me laugh however is something insane happening in front of a lone hobo, then the guy looks at the bottle he was drinking and tosses it over his shoulder
The fat "comedic relief" character.
Or the fat character who is obsessed with food. Luckily a little less common nowadays.
Refuses to solve the problem because one person may die so instead they risk the lives of millions
Shaky cam, I hate shaky cam
I've quit watching more than one movie because of shaky cam. There's no way I'm going to sit through two hours of shaky cam.
There might be a monster/ghost/demon in the basement, I better go check it out.
Without turning the lights on first too. It is obligatory to search all basements carrying just a candle
When a character is repeatedly hyped as being insanely intelligent, but then they just have a decent vocabulary and aren't particularly insightful or clever.
It's probably because the writer's estimation of "super smart" is someone being the same level of intelligence as themselves. Which means more than one writer has accidentally outed themselves as not too bright. It's particularly telling if the "genius" just magically knows the answer all the time even though the lead-up to them figuring it out either doesn't exist or makes no sense.
The a*****e teenager that talks s**t to their parents because "teenagers are moody". I didn't know anyone like that growing up.
I didn’t know any parents that let their kids get away with that growing up
Uptight woman, subversive insubordinate man, they hate each other... but there's sexual tension.
F**k all of that, it just encourages creeps.
You're not dangerous and different Rodney, you're just a loud, incompetent d**k.
I don't love/hate you I just hate you.
We will not end up together, and it you keep bothering me ~~my foot is going to end up kicking your a**e~~ I will contact HR
Bad geography throws me every time. Like when a movie says its happening in some specific city but the skyline is clearly a different city, even when the location has no particular relevance to the plot. Like, okay? Why say your characters live in New York when they're clearly in Vancouver? Why not just say Vancouver or not say the name of the city at all?
Also stuff like in Captain America Civil War where there's a bombing in Vienna and the authorities catch up with him in Bucharest and he's pursued by German police. Like... what? Why would Romania allow a bunch of German police to operate in their borders? And why would German police be the ones pursuing him for a terrorist act in **Austria**? Bucky gets apprehended and brought to Germany, where he's imprisoned by Americans. Why???
The ugly girl (or guy) is made pretty (or handsome) for some douchebag who makes a bet. The ugly girl/guy is actually not at all ugly.
Just once, I want to see a character try on a pair of glasses, stunning everyone around them with how smart they now look.
I can’t stand seeing specialists being cast as masters of multiple highly specialized skill sets or areas of study. I understand that it’s a popular action movie trope, but you also see this in the medical and academic fields.
The hacking scene in ncis where two of them are typing frantically on the same keyboard. One of the stupidest things I've ever seen
faked reactions by judges on America's Got Talent.
You have the magician who is clearly intentionally fumbling around and messing up the trick. Even a 3 year old can see it is an act, but the judges are sitting there faking disgust that they can't believe this talentless hack made it to the live show.
Or you have a stage magician with some very basic illusions yet the judges act like this guy has actual magic powers and cant even conceive of how it might be a staged illusion.
They are supposed to be experts in performing arts, have some class and act like it.
Honestly, American talent shows and reality shows are off putting to me. The emotions are always so over the top, the hosts can never act but they pretend to never the less. Everything is just so blown up.
Smart people making dumb decisions for drama. I have stopped watching several shows because of this
Smart people make dumb decisions too, not everything they do is smart. We're human, we're faulty.
Watching the first episode of Suits with my roommate ages ago. Early in the episode the main character just puts a baseball cap on another random person and walks away. The random person just walks with this new random baseball cap until the prof pursuer takes it off him in the hopes of finding the main character.
My roommate just lost his s**t at that. Like what kind of person just lets someone else puts a baseball cap on him and keeps it there instead of immediately taking it off and going "WTF". He refused to watch the rest of the episode after that, he was f*****g livid. I wish I took his warning because that show really was bad and I should have not bothered watching it after that too.
Stupid parents. Smart kids.
It's transparent wish fulfilment for kids, naturally, but just as naturally it's annoying to adults.
“Wait! I can explain this very obvious and easy to explain scenario”
“Nope. You’re dead to me. Now stare speechless as I’m meander my way out of your life slowly.”
Or when someone literally dying and trying to say something and the others are just "oh he's in so much distress, let me put his mask back"
Character dies at the end of story for no reason just because of shock value and they "Needed" to kill someone
Disobedient stupid children who ultimately end up getting their parents killed or put them in danger
Or the mirror : Parents doing s**t because they refuse to listen to/believe children
Cop with family problems. Yeah, we get it. The job's soo important that they've sacrificed family time and regret it. And now they want to be the parent they failed to be in the past, but... this new case is so important.
Well cops do have abnormally high rates of DV in their relationships...
"Will they won't they". I liked watching New Girl, but when they completely restarted the main characters' relationship I was like, "Oh, so it's going to be like that."
Dear producers,
Please let your characters grow.
New Girl got me too. Like, instead of celebrating the growth of two characters with a wedding it became time to watch the main character realize they have feelings for a person for the 15th time.
The plot twist where the seemingly innocent character is revealed to be the villain behind the stages and goes into a monologue as to why he / she had their motives, bringing up a boring backstory about how their efforts were never appreciated or how they spent time in secrets learning skills to outwit the hero.
I actually like this. I don't care for the monologue but the surprise baddie is always interesting for me. I actually quite enjoy trying to guess it. As far as I know, one clue is they never use apple products. Apparently apple won't let you.
Pregnancy plotline!
I don't care who it is, or even if I love the show. I stop watching. It's sooo boring.
I hate it when the story ends with “it was just a dream.” It feels like you wasted your time and energy getting invested in the characters and relationships only for it to turn out to be not real. The story never mattered and there were zero consequences the whole time so you’re just better off not reading the book/ watching the movie
understandable but inception was cool in my view because it just wasn't clear at the end if it WAS just a dream.
Load More Replies...Here are mine: 1. If the whole plot is about a wedding, I'm out. Can't think of a more mundane topic to spend time and money on. 2. Rape jokes when it comes to male prisons. I don't think rape is funny at all, regardless of the gender of the victims
For me it's "Virtue Signaling" without any second thought about the quality of the product. I don't mean every thing that has a woman / LGBQT or in other form diverse protagonist with that - there is content that does it very well. But if the only selling point is "Look, we made this but with an all female cast / different skin tone character" and not good character development, good visuals or overall good writting it's basically worthless or just does more harm to the represented group.
I don't think I've seen a movie like that. Can you give examples? Don't say the ghostbusters with women, I really liked it and found Hemsworth a believable bimbo.
Load More Replies...the "male genius" scientist, with the female adoring grad student. Barf. As a female scientist, the idea of male genius is a farce. Women were not allowed access to education for millennia. Now, even women geniuses are never described as such because we've grown up believing that only men are geniuses.
Disregard ... it's probably rare enough that "never" fits.
Load More Replies...Bad guys with rifles can't hit anything, but good guys with pistols are super accurate at range. Not how firearms work. At all
I totally agree!! BTW, really like your screen name...lol
Load More Replies...The trope I hate is car chases. Please just stop. I don't care if it's a horse, or a starwars speeder, or a Chevy, or a fighter jet. Please stop with the damn chases. I won't watch fast and furious for this reason. They're unrealistic and would result in huge numbers of accidents and death. They also never add to the plot. The only one I actually liked was this one because it so obviously satirised the form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB7ZWNlF8DY
I hate when a car is chasing a person down a road and the person just keeps running straight.
The one that annoys me is when a character wakes, blinks a few times, then the eyes open wide as they realize that they are not alone in the bed. If you were so drunk and/or high that you forgot that you f**ked someone and that said someone stayed the night, then a) you need rehab...pronto and b) you were either the victim or the perpetrator of a sex crime
For me, it's the pre-teen/early teen who is way too mentally mature and seems to know all music from decades ago. Also, conveniently have all the answers/one-liners. Never met anyone like this in real life.
Okay, my 17 yo son is not way too mentally mature, but he does know a lot of music from decades ago, movies as well, does not have all the answers, but always has a great one-liner at the ready.
Load More Replies...Character emerges from a river or lake fully clothed and soaking wet, and in the next scene (taking place seconds or minutes later) they are completely dry.
A million bullets are shot from all around and none hit any of the good guys. But one careless shot from the main good guy and maims the head bad guy.
Medical shows/dramas - doctors can do everything! Same people doing blood tests, radiology, surgeries, etc
A person lives in an ordinary home like most people do, and this indicates that they are a pathetic failure.
I can't stand when a character is afraid to kill someone trying to murder them. Or they shoot them then can't get over the guilt. You are or were going to die! Shoot the Mo Fo. Relief is the appropriate feeling here. Relief. You're not some horrible person if you're thrilled your stalker is dead.
I like this trope, because in real life the survivor's guilt is not silenced by logic. But I do hate the trope of "getting over it" rather than accepting what happened after years of therapy.
Load More Replies...The person with no obvious skill/talent nor training in something, practices for like one month and is suddenly a master. Even if you practice every day, there is no way you’re going from zero to black belt/virtuoso/Michelin star chef that quickly.
whenever a chick throws up, it means she's pregnant. no food poisoning, no stomach flu, she's pregnant. every. single. time.
I see this pregnancy comment all the time, and nope, not true at all. The past two weeks alone I've see fear, exhaustion, emotional upset, hangover, and food poisoning. Maybe give romances a pass?
Load More Replies...A lot of these are just folks unnecessarily demanding that fiction perfectly reflect reality ... which would just be boring.
When a lead female character has no flaws and can do no wrong. Captain Marvel is an example she has so much power once the limiter is gone she really can't be beat. She show up at the end of End Game and beats up Thanos so the rest can do their thing to get the stones. Also putting a character into a timeline they were never in. I know Captain Marvel was made after the first Avengers movie, but they never explain why she was not there. I think this is why she doesn't show up much the writers left a large plot hole and rather than explain they just have her leaving all the time.
Don't they explain her absence in End Game? I believe she tells (Iron Man maybe, or Cap?) that there are other places in the Galaxy that needed her help and don't have the Avengers like Earth does? Idk, End Game is def not a fav of mine.
Load More Replies...@katie can you give an example of the evil enemy race story which is an overt case of racial stereotyping/referencing of existing real racial stereotypes? I can only think of two cases, specifically in star wars episode 1. If you do not know what I mean, google "star wars episode 1 racism". Putting that aside, the trope of tribes fighting occurs in literature since time immemorial. Think of say Beowulf or Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth or the Illiad/Troy war, etc etc. This is ancient. Not saying it's good but it is how humans are. Stupid and racist. Now, if you look at sci-fi it's the same. Humans gonna human, and be racist. That's the whole point of e.g. Avatar. And I think it makes the point well. Ditto the Prawns in District 9, a thinly-disguised satire of apartheid in SA. You think aliens visiting us are going to be friendly? I doubt it.
I think she's talking about fantasy movies, games and stories where Orc, Trolls and Goblins are evil simply because their whole species is evil. D&D has been moving away from this for a bit, and to be honest, I've always found it boring and simplistic. I play D&D, and I've always enjoyed imagining Orcs and Goblins and Bugbears as just regular people with regular lives who tend to get stereotyped because they're green or furry or have less human traits than the "main" races, like Elves, Dwarves and Humans. Not sure why poor Katie's getting downvoted. This has been a discussion for awhile in fantasy.
Load More Replies...The protagonist always having financial and/or family issues. Soooo. Effing. Boring.
family issues is almost always a spielberg giveaway. I am trying to think of a spielberg movie that did not involve it.
Load More Replies...I've stopped watching shows after the writers kill off a main character just.for.the.drama. After all the effort spent in making you care about the character, you kill 'em. No thank you. And I won't watch any other shows that show runner makes in the future.
I would say when the main characters go to the bar and always reach over and grab a bottle and and glasses. As an ex-bartender totally illegal. Also when people are so crazy black out drunk, then sober up 30 minutes later.
The one for me is in those cheap thriller movies when the bad guy finally attacks the protagonist and then stops in the middle to monologue and is just standing there not doing anything and the protagonist or some other random character jumps up with their hidden weapon and stabs/ shoots/smashes head of bad guy. Then they call the cops and apparently explain away how they killed a person in "self defense"that was just standing there unarmed, talking, and the movie ends with the typical "happy ending ". This one just bugs me because people who have done this to their attackers irl have literally gotten felonies and gone to prison for manslaughter. Shooting someone six times usually isn't considered self defense!
Morgan to Hotchner "you need to see this", Geordie to Picard "you need to see this for yourself". No, I am in charge here I am busy, just tell me what I need to know
I hate it when the story ends with “it was just a dream.” It feels like you wasted your time and energy getting invested in the characters and relationships only for it to turn out to be not real. The story never mattered and there were zero consequences the whole time so you’re just better off not reading the book/ watching the movie
understandable but inception was cool in my view because it just wasn't clear at the end if it WAS just a dream.
Load More Replies...Here are mine: 1. If the whole plot is about a wedding, I'm out. Can't think of a more mundane topic to spend time and money on. 2. Rape jokes when it comes to male prisons. I don't think rape is funny at all, regardless of the gender of the victims
For me it's "Virtue Signaling" without any second thought about the quality of the product. I don't mean every thing that has a woman / LGBQT or in other form diverse protagonist with that - there is content that does it very well. But if the only selling point is "Look, we made this but with an all female cast / different skin tone character" and not good character development, good visuals or overall good writting it's basically worthless or just does more harm to the represented group.
I don't think I've seen a movie like that. Can you give examples? Don't say the ghostbusters with women, I really liked it and found Hemsworth a believable bimbo.
Load More Replies...the "male genius" scientist, with the female adoring grad student. Barf. As a female scientist, the idea of male genius is a farce. Women were not allowed access to education for millennia. Now, even women geniuses are never described as such because we've grown up believing that only men are geniuses.
Disregard ... it's probably rare enough that "never" fits.
Load More Replies...Bad guys with rifles can't hit anything, but good guys with pistols are super accurate at range. Not how firearms work. At all
I totally agree!! BTW, really like your screen name...lol
Load More Replies...The trope I hate is car chases. Please just stop. I don't care if it's a horse, or a starwars speeder, or a Chevy, or a fighter jet. Please stop with the damn chases. I won't watch fast and furious for this reason. They're unrealistic and would result in huge numbers of accidents and death. They also never add to the plot. The only one I actually liked was this one because it so obviously satirised the form. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB7ZWNlF8DY
I hate when a car is chasing a person down a road and the person just keeps running straight.
The one that annoys me is when a character wakes, blinks a few times, then the eyes open wide as they realize that they are not alone in the bed. If you were so drunk and/or high that you forgot that you f**ked someone and that said someone stayed the night, then a) you need rehab...pronto and b) you were either the victim or the perpetrator of a sex crime
For me, it's the pre-teen/early teen who is way too mentally mature and seems to know all music from decades ago. Also, conveniently have all the answers/one-liners. Never met anyone like this in real life.
Okay, my 17 yo son is not way too mentally mature, but he does know a lot of music from decades ago, movies as well, does not have all the answers, but always has a great one-liner at the ready.
Load More Replies...Character emerges from a river or lake fully clothed and soaking wet, and in the next scene (taking place seconds or minutes later) they are completely dry.
A million bullets are shot from all around and none hit any of the good guys. But one careless shot from the main good guy and maims the head bad guy.
Medical shows/dramas - doctors can do everything! Same people doing blood tests, radiology, surgeries, etc
A person lives in an ordinary home like most people do, and this indicates that they are a pathetic failure.
I can't stand when a character is afraid to kill someone trying to murder them. Or they shoot them then can't get over the guilt. You are or were going to die! Shoot the Mo Fo. Relief is the appropriate feeling here. Relief. You're not some horrible person if you're thrilled your stalker is dead.
I like this trope, because in real life the survivor's guilt is not silenced by logic. But I do hate the trope of "getting over it" rather than accepting what happened after years of therapy.
Load More Replies...The person with no obvious skill/talent nor training in something, practices for like one month and is suddenly a master. Even if you practice every day, there is no way you’re going from zero to black belt/virtuoso/Michelin star chef that quickly.
whenever a chick throws up, it means she's pregnant. no food poisoning, no stomach flu, she's pregnant. every. single. time.
I see this pregnancy comment all the time, and nope, not true at all. The past two weeks alone I've see fear, exhaustion, emotional upset, hangover, and food poisoning. Maybe give romances a pass?
Load More Replies...A lot of these are just folks unnecessarily demanding that fiction perfectly reflect reality ... which would just be boring.
When a lead female character has no flaws and can do no wrong. Captain Marvel is an example she has so much power once the limiter is gone she really can't be beat. She show up at the end of End Game and beats up Thanos so the rest can do their thing to get the stones. Also putting a character into a timeline they were never in. I know Captain Marvel was made after the first Avengers movie, but they never explain why she was not there. I think this is why she doesn't show up much the writers left a large plot hole and rather than explain they just have her leaving all the time.
Don't they explain her absence in End Game? I believe she tells (Iron Man maybe, or Cap?) that there are other places in the Galaxy that needed her help and don't have the Avengers like Earth does? Idk, End Game is def not a fav of mine.
Load More Replies...@katie can you give an example of the evil enemy race story which is an overt case of racial stereotyping/referencing of existing real racial stereotypes? I can only think of two cases, specifically in star wars episode 1. If you do not know what I mean, google "star wars episode 1 racism". Putting that aside, the trope of tribes fighting occurs in literature since time immemorial. Think of say Beowulf or Romeo and Juliet or Macbeth or the Illiad/Troy war, etc etc. This is ancient. Not saying it's good but it is how humans are. Stupid and racist. Now, if you look at sci-fi it's the same. Humans gonna human, and be racist. That's the whole point of e.g. Avatar. And I think it makes the point well. Ditto the Prawns in District 9, a thinly-disguised satire of apartheid in SA. You think aliens visiting us are going to be friendly? I doubt it.
I think she's talking about fantasy movies, games and stories where Orc, Trolls and Goblins are evil simply because their whole species is evil. D&D has been moving away from this for a bit, and to be honest, I've always found it boring and simplistic. I play D&D, and I've always enjoyed imagining Orcs and Goblins and Bugbears as just regular people with regular lives who tend to get stereotyped because they're green or furry or have less human traits than the "main" races, like Elves, Dwarves and Humans. Not sure why poor Katie's getting downvoted. This has been a discussion for awhile in fantasy.
Load More Replies...The protagonist always having financial and/or family issues. Soooo. Effing. Boring.
family issues is almost always a spielberg giveaway. I am trying to think of a spielberg movie that did not involve it.
Load More Replies...I've stopped watching shows after the writers kill off a main character just.for.the.drama. After all the effort spent in making you care about the character, you kill 'em. No thank you. And I won't watch any other shows that show runner makes in the future.
I would say when the main characters go to the bar and always reach over and grab a bottle and and glasses. As an ex-bartender totally illegal. Also when people are so crazy black out drunk, then sober up 30 minutes later.
The one for me is in those cheap thriller movies when the bad guy finally attacks the protagonist and then stops in the middle to monologue and is just standing there not doing anything and the protagonist or some other random character jumps up with their hidden weapon and stabs/ shoots/smashes head of bad guy. Then they call the cops and apparently explain away how they killed a person in "self defense"that was just standing there unarmed, talking, and the movie ends with the typical "happy ending ". This one just bugs me because people who have done this to their attackers irl have literally gotten felonies and gone to prison for manslaughter. Shooting someone six times usually isn't considered self defense!
Morgan to Hotchner "you need to see this", Geordie to Picard "you need to see this for yourself". No, I am in charge here I am busy, just tell me what I need to know