Argh. 
I have spend soooo much time flying across Vvardenfell, constantly being attacked by those flying pests.
Didn’t help that the combat worked so horrible…
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Weapon degradation isn’t so bad if it’s moderate. State of decay takes it to far, but I’ve also found the fallouts decay system usefull, particularly when it comes to not killing members of certain factions in new Vegas when they attack me because I am in an area I am not supposed to be.
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There’s also enough situations where it’s purely meant to screw a player over, such as the old school Fire Emblem games.
While you have limited use of powerful weapons and even legendary weapons generally have too low amount of life to make proper use out of until pretty much the very last chapter, enemies have unlimited uses of as many high power spells and special weapons as they like and absolutely will spam it to their heart’s content.
Likely, you will end up relying on steel swords for good damage with reliable health as opposed to the strong named weapon with the cool design but only about ten uses. This isn’t even conventionally too much of a problem, except when you realize that these old FE games didn’t have ways to farm money or get bonus exp to train units outside of playing through the story. It often leads to recruiting units at about lv.10 of a basic class where your main group are promoted lv.15’s and in some cases, said unit comes so late and underleveled they can’t even damage any units except without a ludicriously powerful weapon that won’t carry them far for much more than one battle and only then you can hope they might gain enough levels to survive and that’s not even guaranteed.
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That I agree with. As a realism element with sufficient pros to balance the cons it has it’s place, but the companies that use it to drain there customers of cash are just assholes.
If they include quality loot that degrades over time there should be a simple way of renewing the time you have.
Despite being a fantasy fan myself I feel like there’s a lot of things in fantasy that I get kind of sick of seeing, either because I never liked the trope or because it’s (imo) overused. Anyone else feel the same?
For me:
- Monolithic races (elves are either flittery, snooty, and magical or super disenfranchised; dwarves are loud, bawdy, and tend to hate magic) except for maybe one or two individual exceptions for flavor
- Almost anything with a ‘chosen one’
- Ignorant/entitled female character who only exists to show how rebellious a main female (usually warrior) character is
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When you say “magical” as it relates to describing the elves what do you mean ?
obsessed with magic/using magic. It’s the part about seemingly every elf feeling the same way about it that makes it a monolithic thing.
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Tying back to their origins or familiar tropes for fantasy races aren’t the thing that bugs me, I mean monolithic in the sense that these behaviors are apparently uniform across the entire race. Like when it’s written that almost every dwarf in a series/game/book is loud, loves drinking, and thinks magic is weird. An outsider might vastly simplify the different belief groups (for example, I really only know “two sides” of political stuff from other countries) but it’s odd when a story implies that everyone feels the exact same way about things.
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To be fair, Wayhaven isn’t just using the ‘Open, Nice Guy’ versus ‘Closed, Stoic’ trope. It is using the Four-Temperament Ensemble trope https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourTemperamentEnsemble for all four of the romanceable options. It’s simple and formulaic but it works well for this story. There is a dominant personality type for each of the characters that I imagine has enough variety readers will find something they like in at least one of them.
The characters match the ensemble trope descriptions to a tee:
The Stoic
Extroverted, short-tempered, and task-oriented. Normally callous and unemotional, but will get angry for personal reasons.
The Nice Guy/Girl
Introverted, quiet, and people-oriented. Kind, sensitive, and empathetic towards others.
The Baby of the Bunch
Extroverted, cheerful, and people-oriented. Can be more or less empathetic and sensitive towards others.
The Jerkass
Introverted, brooding, and task-oriented. Normally highly sensitive and empathetic, but can be blunt and harsh.
It’s possible the author wanted to focus on just a single Love Triangle since creating an LT in every combination to ship different personality traits together (six total) would be a ton of work. Out of these four options, there’s pretty much something in each one that has an opposite counterpart in another. So, likely whoever was part of the LT, they would seem like opposites of each other.
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It took me a little while to think of a trope that really bugs me and I finally figured one out. Apologies if this trope has already been mentioned.
I hate the ‘Catapult Nightmare’ trope of being startled and shooting straight up in bed after a nightmare, sometimes followed by screaming or lashing out.
This is not how our bodies work. Our bodies are still under sleep paralysis after waking from a nightmare so most people just look around in confusion and get reoriented then fall back asleep, while still lying down.
Sometimes there are cases of shooting upright during sleep but this is usually due to an outside source like a loud noise, not from an internal source like a nightmare. And, of course, there are people with a rare neurological disorder that prevents their bodies from ever entering sleep paralysis, but that’s never what this trope is about.
I blame this trope on Hollywood using it in movies so often we think it’s normal. There are more creative ways to show ‘it was just a dream’. Just showing someone wake up and reorient themselves would be fine, too.
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It was in this thread, a couple years ago, that I learned about anime girls and toast. I still, to this day, wish I hadn’t.
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I could not agree more on this one. Some authors don’t understand that strong females aren’t necessarily bitches with chips on their shoulders and that, sometimes, strong females still accept or need help from others (and, OMG, sometimes those others can be men without the fucking world falling apart!). Accepting or needing help doesn’t make one weak, even if it’s a StrongFemale 
. StrongFemales can also fall in love and act like big doofuses about it without it hindering their strength–it’s called being human (or humanoid, if you’re going fantasy). I get so sick of this that I could puke.
Other tropes I hate:
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The “kiss at the end” for romances: Yes, build-up is part of the romance, but I want to see the relationship. Relationships are messy, take work, and there are often external forces that cause stress. That is what truly makes a romance for me. I’ve seen and played the slow get-togethers (or too fast get-togethers, which is what happens in games that try to shoehorn in a romance so they can check off the box) enough times that I know how it goes. You can write the characters getting to know each other and growing closer without it taking the whole damned book. Let me see the relationship, and how things change once that is cemented, please. The kiss/bang at the end is done ad nauseam.
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The hero dies. Yeah, this trope can just go eff off. It’s overused and, typically, exists because the author either is “done with” the hero, doesn’t want a happy ending, or figures the hero couldn’t adjust to the world after they win/lose. It’s lame, as far as I’m concerned. I want happy, not depressing, which leads me to…
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Crapsack/bad guy wins endings: Everything sucks, the good guys lost, the lovers are split forever, and someone shat on my new boots. No thanks. This is why I read the last two chapters of a book before I buy it. If there’s a crapsack ending, they can keep the damned thing.
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Cliffhangers: Just… if you’re going to end a book or series this way (without having a follow-up immediately available), then I hope someone pisses in your froot loops and you don’t realize it till you eat the whole bowl and drink every last drop of liquid.
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MarySue/GaryStu: All characters have flaws and there should be consequences for actions. Other characters should not get a personality transplant simply because MS or GS walk into the room. If you can’t make a character smart without dumbing everyone else down, then you’re doing it wrong. I could keep going, but basically, no freaking MS/GS characters. And it’s not just about power–you can make someone powerful enough to crush the world and still make them a deep character with flaws–it just takes a little effort.
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This is something I thankfully haven’t seen in IF, but is sadly common in some romance: Not Like Other Girls. Making a female character unique or interesting by putting down other women, particularly women with traditionally feminine coded interests. This often brings in slutshaming too, which I also hate. These can both be explicit by the characters themselves, or implicit from the way the author sets up the plot.
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Defrosting the Ice Queen/King where after defrosting all is immediately forgiven. Sometimes an asshole is an asshole. Sometimes that asshole can decide to be less of an asshole. That doesn’t mean MC should be amnesiac. And just because they decide to chill it doesn’t mean their entire personality should change.
Pairing the Spares - but only if it’s forced. Still, even if it isn’t sometimes it’s just cringy. I don’t mind ROs finding love but it often looks like an afterthought.
Gayngst - I avoid gayangst stories and coming of age. If that helps someone that’s great but I’m personally burned out by the subject. I like confident ROs with all that stuff resolved. Especially if they are vampires, dragons, or other incredibly old fantasy creatures. This shouldn’t be your go-to way to introduce conflict in a relationship.
Humans are the real monsters - just got stale. Especially if the monsters are angelic and never done anything and if you think so well, that’s just a misunderstanding or self-defense. Yes I’m thinking of Avatar
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I’ve personally become pretty disillusioned with the way authors implement straight romance tropes in general. There’s nothing wrong with the tropes themselves, but overwhelmingly often the man and woman are put in the same roles every time, which gets very stale.
Gruff, stoic leader and bubbly newcomer? Yeah, you can guess who’s who. Arrogant player who finally meets “the one”? Same deal. Bonus points if he likes her because she (initially) resisted his magical manly man womanizing panty-dropping sex powers. If one of them’s consistently a damsel in distress type, god forbid it be the man. The trope is literally called “damsel in distress,” and it’s just one example of the typical male protector/female protectee dynamic.
Even if the woman is a capable fighter in her own right, most of the time the man is still stronger than her. And of course he has to be taller, look more physically imposing, and be sexually dominant. I’d love to see more reversals of the kind of het relationship dynamics we normally get in fiction.
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Tropes and stories I hate? I think I would have an easier time pointing out the ones I actually enjoy.
I prefer dark, mature and complex stories that aren’t afraid of being unconventional and pushing people’s buttons. The reader must be left in uncertainty, wondering what is going to happen next and how it all ends. Characters that act and think like real people, who have real, consequential flaws. My favorite genres are horror and mystery, for a reason.
The main issue for me is that a lot authors are obviously going for positive escapism; nice, wholesome, cozy. Those “coming of age” tales, “chosen ones”, “teen saves the world”, “average individual is suddenly the center of the world”, etc… the generic jargon. They add a dash of struggle and woe to give it a more “authentic feeling”, but we already know how it’s going to end. And that’s boring. Life is filled with good and bad - it shapes us, gives us meaning. A story that exists solely for the cozy feelings is nice, but it’s like eating a snack - it doesn’t fill you. (At least to me it doesn’t.)
I’ve played a lot of games and read plenty of stories; not all of them have romance but I found out that of those who do, many fall unto the trap of using the most clichéd and (overused) tropes ever. Someone above mentioned the “Four Temperament Ensemble” and that’s exactly what it is (also the “-dere” anime personalities.) Basically, the stoic, cold and handsome leader, the flirty and rebellious outcast, the long-standing childhood friend (also with a crush on the MC), the shy, kind and insecure individual, etc. There are so many games like this that it all blends together; you play one, you’ve played them all.
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I hate any sort of ‘high school’ story where the mc gets whisked away to a superhero/mutant/whatever school and kidnapped and the mc is all a-okay with this; and its full of generic trope american movie teenage clique characters with generic bullies who would get bullied themselves if it was real life. extra points if its a magical harry potter rip off.
Mostly because I went to an English all girls only secondary school ( and this was just a normal public school, not a rich private school or boarding school) so any sort of american high school system just feels fake to me. Also maybe because im in my late 20s now and playing a teenage character reminds me of my childhood cringeyness.
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I do not like this trope. Not all disabled characters/people are jerks, and being disabled is no excuse for being a jerk too.
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I hate that some force mc to be a good, selfless person. I don’t want to be good person!
It is boring! What wrong with thinking about myself first before some minor character in the story!
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I hate the “pair the spares” trope,
Don’t mind me quoting this in 2021 but GOD it made me think of a manga, Hirunaka no Ryuusei. I love it, still do, got a few untranslated volumes too. But it annoyed me that the friends squads of Mamora and Suzume all got paired up together. Like uh wHY? WHEN WAS THERE ANY INDICATION???
there might be some I don’t remember because it’s been a while, and sure, I thought their little stories were cute, but I just didn’t see a need for them to be told and done. Yuka and her guy (can’t remember his name) got together, and I think there were hints here and there of something being done.
Still, I found it unnecessary no matter how cute. Just focus on the main love triangle please-
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