Not really a fan of stories about greek mythology unless it’s about Kratos slaughtering ‘em all.
Sometimes I miss cartoonish rage Kratos.
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Having recently played a story that frequently, almost non-stop invoked this trope, I feel like I have to mention it. So you know when there’s a scene between two characters and they’re either having a confrontation about some unresolved conflict between them (or its them about to reveal their true feelings for each other, whichever) and THEN, right as they’re about to say something really important, someone else interrupts the scene and the issue in question remains stagnant for several more chapters? I absolutely hate that.
Its a tiresome, frustrating cliche. And while I’m sure it might’ve once been a way to build up anticipation, nowadays its simply used as way for the writer to either weasel their way out of changing up the status quo too early or to just drag out a certain plot point as a hook to force the reader to keep reading.
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I hate it when new weapons and the creation of new weapons is portrayed as evil, and the good guys destroy these weapons without thinking about how to use them. Ace Combat: The Unsung War did it with drones for example. It’s like, the idea that simply making better weapons is inherently bad and we need to stick to the status quo.
Similarly, the idea that any brilliant scientists who are willing to let the military use their tech are evil and greedy, and any generals who are interested in the weapons are evil jingoists even though building new kinds of weapons is objectively in the nation’s best interest.
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It goes without saying, but I can’t stand Mary Sue (the perfect girl) or, in some cases, Marty Stu (the perfect boy) MCs. These MCs are oh so perfect that all boys/girls/people love/worship them. It’s even worse when the Mary Sue or Marty Stu has a very “imperfect” antagonist/rival that the MS constantly outshines in everything they do just to show how perfect/amazing the MS is.
Another one would be the savior-of-another-race trope, which originated from the classic “White Saviour” narratives.
Same. Platonic friendship can be more beautiful than romantic relationship. In fact, I have a few female friends, and one of them is my best friend. She and I are like family. People say adult men and women can’t be friends, well guess what? We can.
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This is an oddly specific answer, but I think one of my least favorite tropes in any fiction (and one that is, sadly, a pitfall that’s more common than I like) is the equating of traditionally masculine traits to competence: specifically in regards to female characters – especially how a lot of female characters seem like they have more to prove simply by virtue of being female.
It’s not to say there’s anything wrong with gals who are “one of the boys” so to speak, I love a compelling tomboy as much as the next person, but in regards to this topic in particular, it’s often comorbid with this sense that being feminine is somehow “lesser”.
I hope I’m being coherent. It’s hard to put into words! I’m not even sure if I can put it quite to words properly, just that certain depictions of characters like this strike me as far more sexist than others.
Characters can be strong, independent, competent, without having to kill every part of them that makes them feminine – and I think there’s definitely a level of male gazeyness that plays into how guilty a character is of this. Black Widow (Marvel) is absolutely the first that comes to my mind as guilty of this. She’s strong, she’s sexy, she’s “one of the boys” but in a catsuit. She fulfills a particular male fantasy. She’s a woman written with men in mind.
On the flip side, you’ve got a character like Youko from 12 Kingdoms who is one of my absolute favorite female characters of all time. She starts off weak and timid, but truly grows into her own person over the course of her journey. Her own sense of femininity is neither a detriment nor a tool, it simply IS. She is never treated as lesser because of it, nor do people have higher expectations of competence from her because of it (they have higher expectations of her for other reasons, but there’s never been a sense that she has more to prove simply by virtue of being a woman in the narrative).
That was very long and rambling and I hope it made sense haha!
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I dislike that humans equals to bad and supernaturals equals to tragedy and jerks with heart of gold. It basically put the burden of recognising these supernaturals as equals onto the shoulders of a single or group of human protagonists all because their kind were cruel to a handful of these supernaturals. Never mind the fact that some of these fantasy beings are power hungry and will do anything to become the most powerful. But a single human being cruel to one of the supernaturals equates to everyone of them being the villains and having to work to prove that they can be trusted.
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When High-fantasy crash with science fiction
Imagine reading lotr and a space ship just lands in the shire
It’s just so wrong
Counterpoint: the Might and Magic series was great.
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Heroes of might and magic?
No, the original series, Might and Magic:
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That sounds dope af.
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That’s just Numeria.
You are entitled to your opinion but that looks badass to me and it can help explore some interesting themes.
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Sheltem!
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Man, Clouds and Darkside were bonkers. “These two games are actually three!”
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I miss those games, didn’t care for the new ones…after 4 it all went downhill.
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Heroes of might and magic 2 was a gem
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I really hate this trope in the Interactive Fiction genre of Stoic being the “bad” side of a comparison for stats. Being Stoic is not a bad thing, it’s literally just the opposite of expressive. I keep seeing things like the attached screenshot popup, and I just wonder why the authors think that being stoic is “bad”. I can be Kind and Stoic. I can be Friendly and Stoic. I can be Compassionate and Stoic. I don’t like seeing stoic as a “negative” trait.
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Yeah, that is a wrong comparison for stoic. The opposite stat for stoic should be expressive and the opposite stat for compassion should be cruel. If they are not the native english speaker they can ask their readers who is fluent but if the author can read/write english and just being stubborn to their readers when they ask the stat to be corrected? 
disappointing.
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where does it say stoic is bad though? The fact you can play as one, mean you can be stoic.
I think it’s the placement of the stat, because it is being used as the opposite for compassion which should be cruel. Maybe the author misplaced the stat? Or think that stoic means you don’t give shit to other people, when stoic just means you don’t have an expressive face/attitude.
Like @TheDiamondTyrant said :
And vice-versa if the stoic stat are paired with cruel stat.
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