Disliked Elements, Mechanics, and Tropes

Elves suck. They are just gentrified eco humans.

*most of the time

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Do not compare humans to those knife-eared, tree-hugging sap gobblers.

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I forgot to mention I hate mages.
image

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I don’t tend to hate people superior to me but you do you (^:
Fighters cope, mages rock.

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That’s my secret, sagg, I’m always hateful

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I’m getting really tired of stories where there’s a big plan to like, resurrect a lost nation or golden age or something, and the message is always some kind of “let go of the past” message. It’s predictable and boring. It’s fine if it’s like, a commentary on reactionary politics (like Mussolini trying to restore the Roman Empire, an allegory for that is perfectly justified) but if it’s like “the continent is plunged into chaos when it used to be united, I want to bring that back so we can stop the fighting and work towards the future”, don’t try and tell me that’s the same thing. Resurrecting the old empire sound cool half the time, the “let go of the past” message often offers only tepid solutions in response. It’d be like if someone wanted to rediscover how to build aqueducts or resolve a long civil war without splitting the countries permanently and people treat that as hopeless and insane.

I also hate it when there’s this lost technology, but it’s just used as a throwaway super weapon or “we thought we’d rediscover tons of lost technology but all we found was horrors, you never get to see any actual cool tech improve the world”. I’m fine with rediscovering anchient evils but accident but I also want to see some actual reverse engineering and societal implementation.

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Something that I’m sick of is all these people talkin’ out their heads.
I’ve never understood a damn thing that they said.
From words to actions never knowing what they’re about.
I guess I’ll have to chew them up and spit them out.

And I’ll say!

I WALK FOR MILES INSIDE THIS PIT OF DANGER!

Okay but for real though I hate when there’s a shifty character and you can’t call ‘em out for being shifty until they reveal they’re actually a bad dude.

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Ah, yes, the “you must hold the idiot ball for plot reasons” ‘twist’.
“Haha, I was evil all along!”
“No shit, sherlock, your name is literally Cruel McEvil and you kicked a puppy.”
“This is totally a surprise!”
“It’s really not.”
“My devious plan has worked!”
“It wasn’t that devious.”
“You didn’t know until now!”
“I most definitely totally did.”
“Then how come you didn’t call me out before?”
waves in the direction of the available choices, none of which is “Cruel McEvil is totally evil scum.”

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So this basically

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and in some cases, even after they reveal that you still don’t get to rat them out or do anything about it. This bring back that damn Quest in Kotor 1, the ‘Promised Land’ peoples were seeking…imagine seeing that douche who wanted to sabotage this whole thing at the front lines? The 1st to get the prize he tried to destroy…URGHHHHHHHHHH!

Still piss me off after all these years, lol I swore…if I could mod…I’ll make a mod just to deal with him and never see him in the cutscene like that in the end.

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Eh, @Havenstone 's XoR seems poised to tackle a lot of these themes in its later installments (the fourth and fifth planned games, in particular).

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Sidekicks, particularly sidekicks the author apparently loves and really wants you to love, too. It only makes me dislike them more.

One game I played this year, I think it was Relics 2, let’s you tell the sidekick to stay the f#@k home while you go out adventuring, and it was absolutely glorious. I’d buy that dev a drink for that if we ever met.

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This isn’t really something I hate, but I’ve noticed that most games here don’t have a strong, noticeable villain. They’re mostly focused more on character relationships and kissy faces. But where’s my bombastic charletans? My window-to-dark-to-see throughs? My Jake Roberts Incarnate? And where’s my super suit?

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I’m not a big fan of being the only human in a very heavily supernatural world. I don’t know, just not a big fan of those, because usually you’re also the only human in a supernatural team too, and quite often end up as the ‘weak link’. Just a small dislike.

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One of my other least favorite tropes is when some character has a goal that’s like “alter a really unfair rule in the setting through magical means” or (from Dungeon Meshi) “make everyone have the same long lifespan” or something, and the story just goes out of its way to say seeking this can only lead to ruin. That’s boring and depressing. I’m fed up with this “accept reality” shit.

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Referred as being “unique” or odd one out of the group doesn’t make it special at all, plus the human lifespan is shorter than the supernatural one and it’s sad if said human have romantic relationship with them.

Yeah, I’m not a biggest fan of being the weakest link, let’s face it, human mc literally are the living definition of damsel in distress among the more powerful supernatural because humans are easily snapped like a twig, no matter how many equipment, weapons or resources we have.

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I don’t know if this is a trope as much as it is a thing, but all these forced love interests; as if a man and a woman can’t be platonic friends. I don’t end up mouth to mouth with every single female friend I have… And I love platonic friendships in fiction! It usually warms my heart more than romantic ones. It’s gone so far that a) when I saw a movie a while ago with a single man and a single woman as main characters I was (pleasantly) surprised that they didn’t smooch at the end, since I almost took for granted that this woman was there to be a love interest to the man, and b) I think it’s comfortable in a certain way when a piece of fiction has an all-male or all-female cast. Usually no forced love interest… And if there is a love interest, it’s at least a same-gender one. (I know, I certainly sound hypocritical, but it’s not as over-saturated as “a man and a woman can’t be platonic friends. Smooches must be had before the credits roll.”)

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Really? Happens to me all the time. Had to stop buying bananas so I’d stop tripping into awkward positions that increased sexual tension. Where will I get my potassium now?

In all seriousness, this does get pretty irritating. I’m alright with lots of pairings if it just happens to make sense in context, writing goes that way sometimes, but sometimes I see characters getting paired up with people who I just never got any romantic vibe from at all. Like, these two people were seen laughing together at a work function, so now they’re married. Half the time I only remember one of the characters exists at all.

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But yes, of course! I’m just saying that to be contrary; I’m walking around the grocery shop looking for avocados… there’s a lady, and suddenly we’re all over one another. Sure, it’s rather amusing, but it’s getting somewhat old. Sometimes I’m just hungry and want to go home to eat some avocado, but no. I guess I’ll go to my local falafel place instead to get some nutrients.

Ah, yes, that I agree with! Sometimes it makes all the sense and enhances the story, but… yes. That.

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