Current Events > Worst fiction cliches.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I've always hated you!

Bonus points if it's followed up with that weird conversation about how the other person still considers them a friend and the traitor doesn't understand why.

Heroic sacrifice

Animals/Aliens/Monster/whatevers that are shown constantly dispatching non-main characters with ruthless efficiency become slow, fumbling idiots when they run up against the main character.

HighSeraph posted...

Heroic sacrifice

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5f144c51.png

Villain is secretly related or connected otherwise to protagonist. It works sometimes, but 90% of the time it's very contrived and just lame.

When drama is driven by a misunderstanding rather than an actual conflict involving people with opposing goals or viewpoints.

Southernfatman posted...

Villain is secretly related or connected otherwise to protagonist. It works sometimes, but 90% of the time it's very contrived and just lame.

Also, he's the only one who tells you the truth even though at least one of your friends know. Sure, he's trying to blow up the universe or whatever but at least he's not a filthy liar like your friend is.

Southernfatman posted...

Villain is secretly related or connected otherwise to protagonist. It works sometimes, but 90% of the time it's very contrived and just lame.

i hate this one

Romance subplot for no reason other than to check a box

*Kills 5,000 Henchmen*
*Gets to the main villain*
"No I won't kill you."

___

*Hero to the villain* "If I do [thing] then I'll just be just as bad as you are."

____

*Ridiculous misunderstanding where 2 heroes think they hate each other because of moon logic or insanely obtuse dialogue.

___

And this is just video games but:

*Destroys everyone with ease in gameplay*
*Loses on the spot in cutscene*

UnsteadyOwl posted...

When drama is driven by a misunderstanding rather than an actual conflict involving people with opposing goals or viewpoints.

This is fine for comedy.

HighSeraph posted...

Heroic sacrifice

This, but only when it's completely pointless. If someone sacrifices themselves and actually allows everyone to get away that can be great. But if you do the whole thing and the giant monster just snaps their neck and keeps walking I guess you just didn't like that character.

specialkid8 posted...

This, but only when it's completely pointless. If someone sacrifices themselves and actually allows everyone to get away that can be great. But if you do the whole thing and the giant monster just snaps their neck and keeps walking I guess you just didn't like that character.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b76acd0a.jpg

when the villain has a point how fucked up the world is with it's racism and the hero's counter is ''we can understand if we talk things thru'' the worst version is sadly from tales of rebirth i love the game and the theme but god that scene really made me boil how stupid it was

Good all along. Honestly it's at the point where if a character(whose not the main villains) is portrayed as obviously evil I expect them to actually be a good guy.

Characters making uncharacteristically stupid choices to make the plot happen.

Also, problems that the readers/audiences could have solved so damn easily.

UnfairRepresent posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/b76acd0a.jpg

Quite possibly the dumbest scene I've ever seen. Clark has about 190 billion resolutions to this that make his dad happy and also not have him die. Or freaking, why doesn't Jonathan just get in the damn car?

gikos posted...

when the villain has a point how fucked up the world is with it's racism and the hero's counter is ''we can understand if we talk things thru'' the worst version is sadly from tales of rebirth i love the game and the theme but god that scene really made me boil how stupid it was

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/276feeaf.jpg

UnsteadyOwl posted...

When drama is driven by a misunderstanding rather than an actual conflict involving people with opposing goals or viewpoints.

This is what I hated in Shrek. If Shrek and Fiona had talked for more than a few seconds, they wouldve easily realized that she wasnt talking about him and that it was just a big misunderstanding <_<

Common man hero is revealed to actually be in possession of special blood, descended from royalty, or of a heroic lineage, because only people with special blood can be heroes.

The chosen one.

"They hate us because of how awesome we are." If magic was real, magic users would be the top rung of society not oppressed by the masses. If one mage can take out 50 regular soldiers then a tyrant is going to want mages in their army.

bfslick50 posted...

"They hate us because of how awesome we are." If magic was real, magic users would be the top wrung of society not oppressed by the masses. If one mage can take out 50 regular soldiers then a tyrant is going to want mages in their army.

I mean this is pretty much the plot of Dragon Age and it did NOT end well.

another one is when the villain has the protag cornered or about to kill they ether gloat about long enough for table turns to some BS things happens that they get the upper hand

gikos posted...

another one is when the villain has the protag cornered or about to kill they ether gloat about long enough for table turns to some BS things happens that they get the upper hand

Also twined the villain casually assuming the captured hero will die in their overly elaborate, easily escapable, unsupervised death trap.

Instead of... just shooting them in the fucking head

UnfairRepresent posted...

I mean this is pretty much the plot of Dragon Age and it did NOT end well.

I'm unfamiliar with that one. No 4th grader is getting bullied for being too capable at beating everyone else up. That's the kid liable to become the bully. The majority of stories where magic users fear non-magic users is not how that would play out if witches actually had magical powers.

UnfairRepresent posted...

Also twined the villain casually assuming the capture hero will die in their overly elaborate, easily escapable, unsupervised death trap.

Instead of... just shooting them in the fucking head

tbf there ones that are so funny i will allow it like this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnbK58jlg6M
rip his laugh was the best villain laugh of all time imo

"if i kill the villain, i'll be just as bad as they are!"

bfslick50 posted...

I'm unfamiliar with that one. No 4th grader is getting bullied for being too capable at beating everyone else up. That's the kid liable to become the bully. The majority of stories where magic users fear non-magic users is not how that would play out if witches actually had magical powers.

The plot of Dragon Age in a nutshell is that Mages are a minority of the population and OP as balls. (In both lore and gameplay funnily enough)

So they pretty much ruled the world but fucked everything up so bad that they were overthrown and now no one is entirely sure what to do with them. Mages are too powerful not to have, plus morals and shit, you can't just outright kill kids for being mages. So each culture/religion handles the "Mage Problem" differently but near universally with harsh discrimination.

Mages get mad about that and do a little terrorism so everything is fucked up again.

Basically

"Hey you're jerks!"
"Yeah but we're powerful jerks!"
"Well fuck you then!"
"Well if you're gonna be like that then we're gonan fuck shit up."
"Hey you're jerks!"

On repeat.

It's actually a pretty believable representation of how a minority group can be simutaniously stupidly powerful and actively discriminated against by almost everyone.

"Boy this is such a cliched thing, look at how cliched it is"

*story does the cliched thing anyway*

UnfairRepresent posted...

And this is just video games but:

*Destroys everyone with ease in gameplay*
*Loses on the spot in cutscene*

This is sooooo bad in warriors games where you mow down thousands. Then the 8 soldiers in cutscenes are too much.

Rika_Furude posted...

"if i kill the villain, i'll be just as bad as they are!"

This literally sounds like some bullshit a villain would make up to save their own asses.

Obligatory:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ccc78876.jpg

if we adding games they i hate fetch quest and escort missions

Rika_Furude posted...

"if i kill the villain, i'll be just as bad as they are!"

most do this badly but i still hold batman as the best use of the no kill rule cuz bruce know's he is broadline insane and if he kills one then he won't stop at just that one
same with the punisher people look up to him but damn that isn't the point and frank hates people even entertaining looking at his action as heroic

McmadnessV3 posted...

"Boy this is such a cliched thing, look at how cliched it is"

*story does the cliched thing anyway*

Related, I hate when it's an adaptation and they always have to be like "this is what the thing is called, which is STUPID AS HELL but anyway that's what we're going with."

Drives me nuts. Why didn't you choose a source material you're not ashamed of? Oh, I know why, because you're just trying to lend legitimacy to sticks in the mud who hate everything. You think if you criticize yourself first, nobody can repeat that criticism.

I just hate when critical plot information is revealed at purely convenient times to advance the story, and it renders it impossible for the viewer to guess what actually happened.

Most of the CBS cop drama shows like NCIS and Criminal Minds were like this and it bugged the hell out of me, but there are still plenty of shows that do it, too (like High Potential)

"I think Character X is a moron."

(Character X secretly overheads this and quietly walks away sad)

"lol jk Character X is awesome!"

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

It's IDW transformers but I have no idea what issue.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

Related, I hate when it's an adaptation and they always have to be like "this is what the thing is called, which is STUPID AS HELL but anyway that's what we're going with."

Drives me nuts. Why didn't you choose a source material you're not ashamed of? Oh, I know why, because you're just trying to lend legitimately to sticks in the mud who hate everything. You think if you criticize yourself first, nobody can repeat that criticism.

I actually do that with my own material sometimes because some of this stuff I came up with when I was like ten years old, so the names are sometimes silly, but I have too much attachment to them to change them.

UnfairRepresent posted...

The plot of Dragon Age in a nutshell is that Mages are a minority of the population and OP as balls. (In both lore and gameplay funnily enough)

So they pretty much ruled the world but fucked everything up so bad that they were overthrown and now no one is entirely sure what to do with them. Mages are too powerful not to have, plus morals and shit, you can't just outright kill kids for being mages. So each culture/religion handles the "Mage Problem" differently but near universally with harsh discrimination.

Mages get mad about that and do a little terrorism so everything is fucked up again.

Basically

"Hey you're jerks!"
"Yeah but we're powerful jerks!"
"Well fuck you then!"
"Well if you're gonna be like that then we're gonan fuck shit up."
"Hey you're jerks!"

On repeat.

It's actually a pretty believable representation of how a minority group can be simutaniously stupidly powerful and actively discriminated against by almost everyone.

It'd be very surprising if in no nation were mages able to use their power to take back control and if in no nation were mages so useful that they naturally rose to the top rung of society. Slave labor generally relies on individual slaves being replaceable. Once a person's skills reach the point where they are irreplaceable then they get a lot more societal perks.

bfslick50 posted...

"They hate us because of how awesome we are." If magic was real, magic users would be the top rung of society not oppressed by the masses. If one mage can take out 50 regular soldiers then a tyrant is going to want mages in their army.

i can see it in the sense of how (almost) everyone agreed that mustard gas, personnel mines and indiscriminate nukes is a big no no

ROBBAN posted...

i can see it in the sense of how (almost) everyone agreed that mustard gas, personnel mines and indiscriminate nukes is a big no no

But in no nation did we persecute people with knowledge on how to make nukes. More and more nations want nukes as a just in case. More and more nations would want pampered mages invested in the country willing to answer the call to action if necessary.

Maybe not the worst, but when someone has to tell a pet "get away, I don't want you anymore!" for their own good.

• you have a subordinate who's loyal and has served you well for who knows how long
• unfortunately, that subordinate fails to stop a highly capable individual
• you decide it's best to kill that subordinate

one of the worst bad guy cliches ever.

I can't find the panel, but I think it was between two robot-like characters from an anime, I think.

I remember liking it because the guy's subordinate failed a task and apologized, saying he was ready to accept his punishment, and his boss (presumably a villain) asked why he would do that, saying that the subordinate had served him loyally and was an inspiration to his men.

"Boss, ya gotta come see this,"

God I despise that.

*looks off screen*

"You!"

this isn't really something i hate, i just find it odd

when protagonist is looking at something, camera shifts to the thing, then back to protagonist, then back to the thing, but the thing is gone. or camera moves temporarily behind a tree, with same effect.

sure, for the audience it's this "how did it disappear?" mystery vibe thing, but the protagonist was looking at it the whole time

Realistic oppressed mages would be Star Wars where the most powerful mage is killing rivals and Highlander where their powers are too weak to turn the tide of a battle and too weak to make the ruling class richer.

If mages are your nukes then they are your warrior class who are not always the top rung but have never been the bottom rung.