I don’t see how that’s irrelevant to the topic at hand though: the construction of a genericized western medieval fantasy setting from a theme-park understanding of history is a “cliche that makes me squirm”.
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here are 2 things i consider cliches
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undead serial killer walks while victim runs/trips over nothing trying to escape but gets killed anyway (scenes from jason movies)
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Woman runs up the stairs and locks herself in a room with no escape routes as killer gives chase (scene from scream)
Note I haven’t watched many horror movies since the 90s (as in, like, any), so I’m a couple decades out of date on how they’re currently being used, and I was young when I did watch them. That said, while I agree with the first because its common use seems to just be making the main lead incompetent at something as basic as walking or looking behind them, the latter at least has some sense. Being chased by a killer doesn’t tend to leave a lot of time to think about escape routes.
A similar one for me though is stories that are supposed to be locked room, but the only ‘locking’ seems to be that no one is competent enough to leave.
Or the “they could have gotten out/worked through it, if only they had worked together” message. It’s a big one in the Saw series IIRC. If only the trapped people worked together from the start, they would have been able to survive. It’s supposed to have the whole ‘humans are assholes’ message, but most stories that go that route end up with just a cast of assholes. So who am I supposed to be identifying with? Am I supposed to be identifying with an asshole? 'Cause in that case, go screw yourself story.
Or occasionally there’s one ‘kind’ character that just gets screwed over by the assholes, in which case the message becomes, ‘because you’re a kind person, you’re going to be screwed over’, in which case, thank you very much story. I’ve been shot at, stabbed and run over because of that, I’m already fully aware.
(Of course in Saw’s case, they entire thing is pretty much just gore porn with a thin veneer of a story to justify it. Doesn’t diminish the fact that it’s a annoying cliche.)
Wow that’s a bit more of a rant than I go on.
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I have to agree with the tripping.
The second one however, reminds me of a story. A family member of mine was home alone. Well, not entirely alone. She had two loving dogs to protect her. At some point while in the house, she hears a sound as if someone was trying to break in. Her first response to this was to run straight up to the second floor and lock herself in the bedroom with both of the dogs. She then took both of the dogs and locked them into a connecting bathroom while she remained in the bedroom defenseless. Her reasoning was that if some serial killer decided to come upstairs and kick down the door to the bedroom and corner her, at least the 100lb Doberman Pinscher and Pitbull wouldn’t be in any immediate danger.
It’s actually kind of funny. Jason actually ran and got hurt when attacked in Friday the 13th two but as the series progressed into self parody he became progressively more silly.
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I’d argue in the case of most horror movies you’re probably not supposed to be rooting or identifying with any of the victims. If anything you’re supposed to be rooting for the monster/killer.
Seriously, nobody watches the Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm Street type stuff to identify with any of the victims regardless of whether they’re kind or assholes, they’re there to see a serial killer (living or undead) gruesomely murder people in various ways.
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All of the above, lol.
Seriously though cliches doesn’t really bother me if done right, like Harry Potter, the chosen one and stuff, but still good with twist here and there, some unexpected dead too.
As for if there any in particular that I hate, well, I would say ‘generic villains’ cliches. They have minions fine, they are evil fine, and they want MC dead fine. But I hate when they generic like ‘I am an overlord, I am going to take over the world so I could…rule it and…stuffs’ see, no real reason for him to do it. Or ‘I am a criminal master mind. This guy kill TEN of my men very easily, so I will sent more blindly until someone come up with a plan.’ See, generic. I also hate when villain being overly evil for no particular reason, they don’t gain anything, they might even lose something, but they still do it anyways because it ‘evil’.
Speaking of cliche I am writing a story about a guy in Japan live his life surrounded by anime cliche character, which for normal person is equal dead sentence.
I feel i identified with Ash williams,
and i suppose i can add the heroes are alway orphans to mine
@Cataphrak: In my experience, most fantasy writers are not history students; to the extent they’re students of anything, it’s literature. Accordingly, their research levels are slightly above the level that Malory was working at (Gothic plate in post-Roman Britain). And, of course, the standard setting of the fantasy genre, which everyone and their mother has imitated since, is still Gary Gygax’ Grayhawk, which was groundbreaking in a lot of senses but was still drawing inspiration from Malory, Tolkien, Howard and Lieber all at once.
Which brings me to my personal pet peeve: As someone who has a somewhat geeky interest in religion, plastering the trappings of the totally-not-the-Catholic-Church onto totally-not-Greek-polytheism without actually trying to figure out what trappings ought to go where. You get clerical orders based off the Knights Templar serving the Goddess of Love and Fertility, wielding maces just because Odo of Bayeux wielded one in that tapestry (come on, “clerics of a war god are not permitted to use edged weapons?”), and you have an absolute system of morality that looks suspiciously like 20th-century modern ideas without any particular power ordaining same.
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Hello, so I was just wondering what you guys thought about clichés in fantasy interactive fiction. For example, is there one pet peeve that really gets under your skin, or perhaps something you really enjoy and want to see more of in fantasy/adventure/romance books? I’m asking due to the increasing number of fantasy W.I.Ps popping up, and my own ambition to one day write an interactive fantasy choice game.
My pet peeve -which is something I really struggle with- is rereading the same supernatural story trope used til it becomes dull. Sometimes when writing it feels like everything’s already been written ya know… Well, I digress. What do you think?
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Magical Virgin Powers. They are the worst trope.
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o_0 What type of books have you been reading… lol. But, yes I see your point. So… they like shoot butterflies and fairy farts at the villain
I’d like to see some taken to another world type stories, also liked to see some dark fantasy, I don’t think I’m against anything, not to do with fantasy but to do with some choice games, I don’t want it so that if you don’t have a certain stat then you can’t choose option a or you fail when you try it
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Honestly I think the stat thing is supposed to just help with branching -but don’t quote me on that- although it can be annoying when you build a certain character in your head, but then are unable to choose exactly how they would react in a certain situation due to lack of insert random stat here. What do you mean by dark fantasy? Like, having a deeper, psychological meaning dark, or perhaps the overall tone is geared more towards the horror side of things? Because I do agree that the happy-go-lucky fantasy games/books can get on my nerves after awhile.
I had a bit of a think, and not sure if this is a trope, probably more of a consistent theme if you get me? But I feel it gets old all fantasy games being set in a time long, long ago. Why not have a game set in modern times, but with fantasy themes such as magic and such. Wizardry level c kinda did that…but the actual game in my opinion is nowhere near as good as Lucid’s fantasy games…Yeah as I’m typing this I’m thinking of a setting kinda like Blade runner, as in not futuristic, but kinda dark, urban etc.
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Ohhhh, that’s a good one. I mean I can enjoy a good medieval witch storyline, but the idea is just a little too overused for me to really get into now-a-days.
I wouldn’t mind horror, but I’m thinking more psychological
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Well, since the thread is resurrected, might aswell put my boots in as well 
'cuz when fantasy goes futuristic, we’ll have sci-fi 
Although… sci-fi is fantasy as well. But I think ppl are expecting medieval-europe fantasy when you’re referring to the term “fantasy” 
Besides, it’s oddly refreshing when we read/watch/play fantasy stuff, rather than read/watch/play (especially that PLAY) typical Allied vs Soviet bs -_-
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Oh sorry yeah, as I said with regards to the blade runner reference, no would really like a present day fantasy game. But yeah get that people think of certain things when you use the word “fantasy” , but thinking about it, the Harry Potter franchise is set in the present day. True it’s set largely in a castle and other fantastical settings, and definatley is more light hearted than most films I like, but stil…
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Trust me and empires can be a forces of good. An Empires no less evil than a kingdom or any other government.