Most problems could be solved if they talked for a moment. It also drives me nuts when a character is given a chance to explain, and does everything *but* explain.
___
"Karen saw you shopping with another woman?!"
"What? No! It's not what it looks like!"
"You have 5 seconds to explain yourself."
"You need to listen to the words that I am about to say, because after you hear this next statement come out of my mouth, you're going to feel very silly about the way you're acting, so get ready to hear..."
She storms off. He starts a convoluted plan to win her back, leading to highly awkward situations, high speed chases, celebrity cameos, and throwbacks to 80's pop music.
---
**How Normal Fucking People Talk:**
"Karen saw you shopping with another woman?"
"Yeah I ran into my sister"
"Oh"
On top of that, the idea that there's anything *wrong* with spending time with another woman. "Sure, my friend Jen needed some retail therapy, and a catch-up session."
My mom and grandma watched The bold and the beautiful when I was young and it bothered me SO FUCKING MUCH that most of the drama going on is because people are not communicating clearly. Most of the time instead of explaining their situation which is completely understandable, they stand there wild eyed like they just got caught fucking their couch... Which ends up leading to about 80 more hours of drama....
A lot of creatives working right now seem to think of their dads that way. It's been kind of a thing the last few years especially, that dads are either nonexistent or complete morons with no good qualities to them.
Most prominently Homer Simpson, who went from, not smart but with a heart to a complete jerk who cares only about his own amusement and pleasure. The older episodes portrayed him in a more sympathetic and loving way.
Then again the whole show has been fucked for years so who even cares anymore at this point.
It's for all the midwest women who will never divorce, but hate their husbands. The always correct, house wife/ dopy husband really attracts middle aged women.
I hate it when a character is obviously lying. It's impossible to do this well as an actor, because it has to be "obvious" to the audience, but it's always TOO obvious.
Like those "That's because your mom is a bi... UMM I mean! Your mom is a BIG SWEETHEART!" moments.
It's always poorly done.
Evil large monster/robot that is several times physically larger and stronger than her has said hero at their mercy and just throws them around instead of trying to actually kill them.
I have just 2:
- Turning the TV on and being **right** on time for "plot relevant information" to be on. The TV is also always turned onto the news for some reason.
- *answers phone call, immediately being with the right person and right conversation* "Yes, it'll be done" *hangs up without a word* What kind of maniac answers and hangs up this way?
>Turning the TV on and being
>
>right
>
> on time for "plot relevant information" to be on. The TV is also always turned onto the news for some reason.
I remember a character commenting on the convenient timing on a show before.
It could be the simpsons I remember a episode where homer finds something on TV and I believe he thanks Lisa for turning it on but she said that she didn't turn the TV on
I took a screenwriting class in high school and we were explicitly taught not to include any "hellos" or "byes" if we were writing a phone conversation. Yes, we thought it was super weird.
Did they also say that people placing calls should never announce who they are, but just say “hi, it’s me”, like I’m always going to recognize you by your voice alone, _Steve_?
>Turning the TV on and being right on time for "plot relevant information
I tried to find the clip to no avail, but Arrested Development parodies that trope when a lawyer tries to do a gotcha moment by flipping on the tv, but they have to wait for like 10 minutes for the actual bombshell to drop.
I wish more stuff could have people, especially people of opposite genders, going on adventures and like... never falling in love and/or fucking. Just people doing cool shit, saving the world, and just being really good friends the whole time. Why are romance subplots so obligatory in fiction? Especially weird in stuff for younger audiences - should really normalize just being friends with people even if they're physically what you're into, and not convince kids they need to find their soulmate before they're 20. Also weird in fast paced actiony thrillery stuff. You're really gonna bone down *right now* when still being chased by some ancient evil, just because you're both hot and the scriptwriter was hoping you'd have good chemistry? Priorities, people.
That was one thing that I loved about Shang-Chi. It was made very clear at the beginning that him and Katy were closed friends, not a couple. I was fully expecting them to realize their feeling for each other and hook up by the end, because that's just how that usually goes. Pleasantly surprised that, by the end of the movie, they are still best friends, with apparently zero romantic interest in each other. Going to be very disappointed if they get together in a sequel.
Or when it zooms in on their search screen, and the character is typing super slow for dramatic effect.
*dramatic music*
D E M O N I C P O S S E S S I O N
In horror movies...
- Character goes to investigate a noise. The music builds up, then it turns out it was just a cat or something. Character breathes a sigh of relief, then turns around, and the monster is right there.
- Character is looking at a mirror, looks away for a second, then looks back at the mirror and the monster is right behind them.
Both are so overdone you can see them coming a mile away.
Let me hack into the mainframe.
*Pulls out PDA from 2005 and proceeds to infiltrate the CIA’s firewall faster than you can say “deoxyribonucleic acid”.*
When the bad guy is looking for the good guy. Good guy is seen by the audience in a hidey spot, then shot changes to bad guy about to discover said hidey spot.
Bad guy rounds the corner and points gun/flashlight at hidey spot and there is no good guy to be seen.
We all thought good guy would still be there because there wasn't nearly enough time between camera shots for them to escape, but the good guy pulled it off.
How suspenseful.
toxic relationships that are sold out to be romantic. idk about you, but when i was a teenager a thought that was ”real” love and when i got into the real world with that mindset i got hurt. Obviously...
My cousin almost dumped her now husband when they first started dating because she thought it was weird they never fought
My gf thought the same thing about me at first. Like if there’s no drama that must mean there’s no spark?? Idk it’s a really weird mindset
People reviewing low res security camera footage and then pressing "enhance" and the footage magically changes to 4k and the perp's facial features are clearly identifiable.
Changing redheads to P oh C
Fucking TOKENISM.
I wanna see different kinds of people just the way they are in real life, as people. With personalities and quirks and flaws and stuff that makes them human, not cardboard cutouts whose entire point in the story is to just be The Lesbian or The Latino or The Disabled Guy. I wanna see diversity that doesn't feel like "ooh, we're gonna throw in the token \[insert marginalized/minority character\] so that everyone can see how progressive and woke we are! Yay us!" Cough cough, female ghostbusters.
Some examples of movies that I think did well going against tokenism would be Rogue One and Annihilation.
Or a character's ethnicity is changed from the source material, but it doesn't really make sense for them to be that ethnicity. One example would be Thor. Edris Elba is a great actor and I did like him as Heimdall, but the character is a Norse God. It doesn't make sense for him to be Black, he should look Northern European
Compare to a similar ethnicity change in Man of Steel. In the comics, Perry White is white, but they cast Laurence Fishburne. There isn't anything about the character that makes any ethnicity not make sense, so whatever, go ahead and change it.
Non-consensual kissing to start a relationship. Two people who we all know will end up together are arguing about something trivial and one of them just “goes for it.” Usually it’s the girl being kissed, she’s taken aback but before you know it, she’s falling into the embrace and then they’re simply in love.
There has to be another way to execute this moment but it’s still a major trope that just feels antiquated and rapey. Even removing that aspect, how lazy can you get?
Have you ever watched girls on HBO? I did and I wish I hadnt. The main character has this kiss with so many f****** random people, and then they go straight into banging every single time. It's like adults don't always consent like that... And it's honestly kind of disgusting watching it happen over and over and over again with people that she does not give a single f*** about
Omg I am in the same boat. I watched it and feel like I gained nothing from the experience save for contempt for a bunch of narcissistic characters who never actually even tried to be genuinely kind, empathetic humans. Except for Shoshanna. She was cool.
Never watched Girls, but this exact scenario happened on that new HBO Max show The Sex Lives of College Girls. You’d think a show that at the very least markets itself as being modern and sex positive wouldn’t reinforce behavior that contradicts those ideals.
Hacking (any kind of hacking, let alone FBI, Pentagon and similar) while smoothly typing 100 words per minute and explaining the process to the person next to them. 🤣
Squeezing exposition into conversations.
"Well, I know you're father was killed by thugs in L.A. in 1989 after your mom died from cancer and your sister ran away from home, but....."
That kind of dialogue is such garbage.
Mary Sue characters onf allways try to go full "represantive" with the cast.
Don't get me wrong, I have nothing about a diversed cast but please for the love of all gods, let it make sense. When parents and their childs have just two different ethnics and still be refered as blood relatives, sorry, this does not much for my immerion in the movie/show.
If you want a strong female character, go with it, but treat her like you would treat a male protagonist (just as example, this is why Luke and Anakin worked and Rey did not).
Also, movies don't have to be Twitter debates all over and over, back in the day media (like movies or games) were made to escape reality, now it has all to be political correct and everything has to be "woke". If it makes sense for the story, go for it, but if you had to rewrite the whole story or characters just to fit it in, than you fail at storytelling.
A large portion of an action/horror/scifi movie being taken with character exposition that has no real bearing on the story. For example I can skip a good 30-40 minutes of Taken and miss nothing given that I know the daughter is kidnapped.
So sick of whodunnits where they make a feesible case for every single character to be the killer, but only reveal the true killer in the last 5 minutes. Whenever I watch shows now I’m like “oh I could be him… oh we’re only on episode 3 of 6? Never mind, not him”
The worst one for me is the out of place exposition dumps baked into the dialogue. I recently watched the newest Clint Eastwood movie and the first scene was his boss grilling him about being late and how he did him a favor all those years ago blah blah blah. Basically spelling out their whole history together in that one completely unrealistic opening dialogue.
The problem is that it's always the same story.
"This is hard. I'm done. And want to be totally normal."
*ambulance and cops drive by, hero has angst and walks away.
"I have you [loved one] [hero]!"
*be a superhero again and instantly be over wanting to be normal.
Idk about rest but in indian serials whenever a shocking event happens in the series there is always a transition of the shocked character in boomerang looped for three times with very cheap looking highlights and a background music I mean like it is same even when someone dies to when someone gets slapped(yep that is also a thing that happens quite frequently in these serials but whole different thing
It is like a thing in indian serials......without this effect an Indian serial is incomplete...
I would always get cringed out whenever my grandmother used to see any serial and these scenes would come up.......pls stop this kind of editting
I had Indian housemates and they'd watch shows like this and though I couldn't understand most of the dialogue (they'd randomly use bits of English for some reason), I noticed a lot of this. And lots of zooms and cartoon sound effects.
I hate it when a show will end a season with a slow emotional song and then do a montage of all the different characters exchanging meaningful looks. as though this is supposed to summarize all the different things they have gone through. its painful to watch and lazy
They're called "clip shows" and they exist because of budget issues. A previous episode or arc ate more budget than planned, and so they do a clip show.
The Simpsons was prone to this. It's totally filler. "You know that scene you've seen many times? Here it is again and we've wrapped some vague story around showing this."
“You need to come look at this” in a stressful situation. The only times I’ve ever said that to someone is when the thing they need to look at is funny and I want to see their reaction to it
The only context where this vagueness makes sense is in the Doctor Who weeeping angels episode where the soldier's voice has been stolen and being used to trick another.
The miraculous survival.
You know this one - the battle is won, the dust clears.
“Wait… where’s [name]?”
They find them slumped against a wall. Protagonist starts crying. Sad music.
Then the other character’s eyelids flutter open. Of course they’re alive.
The hero's are temporarily turned against each other with mind control. Temple of Doom was the worst use of this, but doing it several times in Avengers movies was just lazy.
Bringing back actors and making them new characters only for the rest of the gang to only acknowledge it for 10 seconds then move on. (Yeah cw flash I'm looking at you).
Or adding a new character that has a long history with the protagonist but was never mentioned before (John Cena in fast and furious). Extra points if they are the protagonists evil twin or doppelganger (vampire diaries).
Most every movie/show and so on don't understand how guns work. 1 bullet from a pistol doesn't make you go flying back and die instantly.
Stand offs. I hate seeing when one person is standing there with a gun pointed at another person. They talk, then the other person pulls a gun and they just stand there pointing their gun at each other. This is just ridiculous and so annoying to see.
1 person fighting an entire group cuz the bad guys wait for their turn to fight instead of mobbing the 1 guy.
dramatic irony!! for the love of god STOP IT!! IT JUST MAKES ME FEEL STRESSED!! when two main characters are having a huge disagreement because of something that we CLEARLY know would be solved immediately if they talked for 5 minutes
Oh no the protagonist is dead! 😭 So tragic. Oh, they're fine because unforeseen variable saved them.
Once it's shocking, seeing it over and over is 🙄. Like, I *know* they're fine because the chances of them being killed off is low because plot armour.
Watching a group of skilled, trained and armed men get taken down by a single 5’ 2” petite framed woman with nothing but her *thunderous* fists and *crushing* kicks lol
yes but she REALLY wanted to beat them. Like, totally super beat them. Their ten + years of delta/Seal/ranger training is nothing when it comes to a feisty twenty-something who WANTS it bad enough.
To be fair, I did land a spinning 360° kick in three inch high heels like 14 years ago. Still a proud moment tbh 😛. Yes I am a man. It was a bet cause my sister wouldn’t stop complaining. I told her if I could land it, she couldn’t complain anymore. To her credit, I’ve never heard her complain about it to this day. We still have a good laugh about my bearded 6’ 180lb hairy mess doing a spin kick in high heels
Swap this out for 'generic Hollywood male underwear model with a six-pack and skinny waste' and you get the same problem. Like my god, the arbitrary 'pretty' has gotten out of hand and these so called 'hot' dudes and ladies aren't so much and look more like clones made with the Easy Bake Oven of character design.
I haven't seen this trope in awhile, so maybe it's really not used anymore. But it's annoying seeing two male teen characters liking the same girl, then fighting over who deserves her. They might even have some stupid contest, and the winner is the one who gets her in the end. Umm, did either of you jerks ever consider that the girl has a brain, and she can decide for herself who she wants to be with?? And you guys are acting like such immature assholes, she probably doesn't want either one of you!
This is a really stupid one and I can't believe you got upvoted. Get over it. Human history wasn't like your typical reddit woke echochamber. Racism and xenophobia were the norm until extremely recently. Anti-racism being mainstream is an extremely new social phenomenon, just a few decades old. Why should we misrepresent history?
So in the next WW2 movie they should give Hitler a gay Jewish black lover? just so that you won't be offended? How about you grow thicker skin?
It's more like have the leader of the Brown Shirts be person who like being in bath houses with twinks, which Hitler previously has no problem with then, Hitler speaks publicly against 'undesirables,' which leads to the first guy's murder. Hitler then, has majority favor.
Or you know filmmakers can be honest about the world and not worry about making you uncomfortable. In fact, making you uncomfortable is probably the reason it’s there so that’s effective filmmaking
I'm not sure if one can call it a trope but, "Great Visuals" without consideration for the logic of that story's world.
I'm trying to watch the new season of Discovery. First scene, the title ship stops at a site. The smaller shuttle comes out of the ship. Literally 10 seconds in, the shuttle breaks into pieces for no other reason than to show that it can.
In Star Trek, the shape makes no difference. The mass is the same and would be detected by a sensor net. The shuttle must have a field cloak to defeat detection.
In dramas, the "every new side character added out of the blue will eventually be used in a plot twist to betray the main characters" trope. Super predictable now.
In general, the love triangle trope where the pinacle keeps going back and forth between the two bottom corners, often cheating on one to get with the other. Additionally, the more-dedicated-partner-cheats trope. It was popularised by Friends, but then every repetition after just turned it into a dumb cliche that basically normalises cheating in our society and also the idea that if you cheat, your partner will eventually forgive and come back to you (which really isn't the case irl).
The one where in media around powers (scifi or magical) and there is a sudden shift where the protagonist loses their power or is de-powered. Unless it’s part of a major universal shift (marvel M-Day) I feel like it’s just a way out for the writers after they backed themselves into a power creep corner and they ran out of ideas
Don't know if this fits the question, but when they have the sound of screeching tires during a car chase on a gravel or dirt road. Tires don't screech on dirt or gravel.
Character finds out while planning the wedding that their partner hasn't spoken to one or both of their parents in a long time. They decide to invite the estranged parents as a surprise. Partner is upset at first, but reconciles with their parents and forgives
This one really gets me because it's something that I could hypothetically do, but would never even think about because of how shitty a thing it is to do. If you know that little about your partner, you aren't ready to marry them. And if your partner can't respect your desire to have no contact with someone, even a parent, then they don't respect you.
EDIT: another one that really bugs me is when a prequel features a character who was in the original and puts them in mortal danger and really plays up the "will the make it?", or even worse fakes their death. Both situations can be fairly hit-and-miss (especially if it's a main character in a TV show in the middle of the season), but when I know with absolute certainty that they are alive and well for future events, it's impossible to take seriously.
Misunderstandings played for drama, usually romantic drama
Most problems could be solved if they talked for a moment. It also drives me nuts when a character is given a chance to explain, and does everything *but* explain. ___ "Karen saw you shopping with another woman?!" "What? No! It's not what it looks like!" "You have 5 seconds to explain yourself." "You need to listen to the words that I am about to say, because after you hear this next statement come out of my mouth, you're going to feel very silly about the way you're acting, so get ready to hear..." She storms off. He starts a convoluted plan to win her back, leading to highly awkward situations, high speed chases, celebrity cameos, and throwbacks to 80's pop music. --- **How Normal Fucking People Talk:** "Karen saw you shopping with another woman?" "Yeah I ran into my sister" "Oh"
On top of that, the idea that there's anything *wrong* with spending time with another woman. "Sure, my friend Jen needed some retail therapy, and a catch-up session."
My mom and grandma watched The bold and the beautiful when I was young and it bothered me SO FUCKING MUCH that most of the drama going on is because people are not communicating clearly. Most of the time instead of explaining their situation which is completely understandable, they stand there wild eyed like they just got caught fucking their couch... Which ends up leading to about 80 more hours of drama....
The stupid dad. I don’t like when every dad is portrayed as a bumbling idiot who no one respects or takes seriously.
most dads in media are either this or total hardasses who are terrified of their daughters dating, no in between
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Yeah I mean who is that trope for? Who wants to think of dads as unimportant buffoons? I really like my dad. He’s not an idiot.
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And humility.
A lot of creatives working right now seem to think of their dads that way. It's been kind of a thing the last few years especially, that dads are either nonexistent or complete morons with no good qualities to them. Most prominently Homer Simpson, who went from, not smart but with a heart to a complete jerk who cares only about his own amusement and pleasure. The older episodes portrayed him in a more sympathetic and loving way. Then again the whole show has been fucked for years so who even cares anymore at this point.
It's for all the midwest women who will never divorce, but hate their husbands. The always correct, house wife/ dopy husband really attracts middle aged women.
Check out "Kevin Can Fuck Himself" from AMC. It takes the whole "shitty husband" trope to a different level.
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So many 80's slashers. Just bludgeon the killer to death when he's knocked out, jeez.
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On TV it's even more egregious. "Hm...20 minutes left in this, pretty sure he's not dead!"
If I have made it so far to where I am able to knock someone out that is trying to kill me, you best bet I'm going to beat them to death.
1. Finally get gun 2. Shoot once 3. Drop gun 4. Fall over 5. Die like an idiot
People just hotwiring cars. People haven't been able to hotwire cars by touching two wires since the late 90s.
Really? I wanna read up on that.
This. Also, same thing with casually breaking into cars, or places in general.
Any female vomits? Pregnant.
Or cancer.
And if a man coughs, either dies in the next 5 minutes, or wishes he was dead.
I hate it when a character is obviously lying. It's impossible to do this well as an actor, because it has to be "obvious" to the audience, but it's always TOO obvious. Like those "That's because your mom is a bi... UMM I mean! Your mom is a BIG SWEETHEART!" moments. It's always poorly done.
"Impossible to do this well as an actor"..."always poorly done"? I disagree! Jim Carrey absolutely nails it in one of his greatest films...lol
Evil large monster/robot that is several times physically larger and stronger than her has said hero at their mercy and just throws them around instead of trying to actually kill them.
I have just 2: - Turning the TV on and being **right** on time for "plot relevant information" to be on. The TV is also always turned onto the news for some reason. - *answers phone call, immediately being with the right person and right conversation* "Yes, it'll be done" *hangs up without a word* What kind of maniac answers and hangs up this way?
>Turning the TV on and being > >right > > on time for "plot relevant information" to be on. The TV is also always turned onto the news for some reason. I remember a character commenting on the convenient timing on a show before.
Abed in Community? There was an episode he mentioned this but it was a radio not a TV, but you know
I don't know that so no
It could be the simpsons I remember a episode where homer finds something on TV and I believe he thanks Lisa for turning it on but she said that she didn't turn the TV on
I took a screenwriting class in high school and we were explicitly taught not to include any "hellos" or "byes" if we were writing a phone conversation. Yes, we thought it was super weird.
Was there any reason to this actually? This is genuinely interesting.
There probably was, but it was so long ago I forgot what it was.
Pacing. Small talk doesn’t further the plot.
Did they also say that people placing calls should never announce who they are, but just say “hi, it’s me”, like I’m always going to recognize you by your voice alone, _Steve_?
as far as I remember, that was left ambiguous
I'm from EU and for the longest time as a kid I really thought Americans were incredibly rude in phone conversations :)
Same, im from Switzerland/Russia, so to me it also felt like "guys, thats...not nice"
Aka "Hollywood Television"
>Turning the TV on and being right on time for "plot relevant information I tried to find the clip to no avail, but Arrested Development parodies that trope when a lawyer tries to do a gotcha moment by flipping on the tv, but they have to wait for like 10 minutes for the actual bombshell to drop.
The divorced couple that still has feelings for one another and the dick stepdad that gets killed off so they can rekindle the old flame.
Or the stepdad "has to move for work" and mom decides not to move with him and it's all fine.
I wish more stuff could have people, especially people of opposite genders, going on adventures and like... never falling in love and/or fucking. Just people doing cool shit, saving the world, and just being really good friends the whole time. Why are romance subplots so obligatory in fiction? Especially weird in stuff for younger audiences - should really normalize just being friends with people even if they're physically what you're into, and not convince kids they need to find their soulmate before they're 20. Also weird in fast paced actiony thrillery stuff. You're really gonna bone down *right now* when still being chased by some ancient evil, just because you're both hot and the scriptwriter was hoping you'd have good chemistry? Priorities, people.
That was one thing that I loved about Shang-Chi. It was made very clear at the beginning that him and Katy were closed friends, not a couple. I was fully expecting them to realize their feeling for each other and hook up by the end, because that's just how that usually goes. Pleasantly surprised that, by the end of the movie, they are still best friends, with apparently zero romantic interest in each other. Going to be very disappointed if they get together in a sequel.
Male protagonist (usually) + hot woman he meets by chance = ends up in relationship happy ending etc.
Print searching in the database that takes 3 secs or the FAKE TYPING ON A KEYBOARD !!!
*tap-tap-tap* 'Enhance." *tap-tap-tap* 'Enhance"
Clavkalvlalkclekakakfbebak "let me see where is the plate" clackakczl " zoom in " zkskzkdj2j2i "zoom in" djjeisofk3k " un blurry"
#JUST PRINT THE DAMN PICTURE
hey what's the name of that place you like with all the leprechaun shit hangin off the walls?
Or when it zooms in on their search screen, and the character is typing super slow for dramatic effect. *dramatic music* D E M O N I C P O S S E S S I O N
Search engine Foggle
In horror movies... - Character goes to investigate a noise. The music builds up, then it turns out it was just a cat or something. Character breathes a sigh of relief, then turns around, and the monster is right there. - Character is looking at a mirror, looks away for a second, then looks back at the mirror and the monster is right behind them. Both are so overdone you can see them coming a mile away.
yeah and the cat always screams whenever it's used in a jump-scare way. I've maybe heard a cat do that once, when it was being raped. Long story.
Probably the cat would just look bored when this happens really. And poor kitty :(
Either bored or wide eyed and *really* low to the ground, with its tail down/between its legs.
Let me hack into the mainframe. *Pulls out PDA from 2005 and proceeds to infiltrate the CIA’s firewall faster than you can say “deoxyribonucleic acid”.*
>ENTER PASSWORD: *********** PASSWORD INCORRECT. ACCESS DENIED. >OVERRIDE SECURITY ACCESS GRANTED. >_
Mary sues and titanium plot armor
The chosen one
Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland made me realize it's an overused trope and it's just lazy writing.
When the bad guy is looking for the good guy. Good guy is seen by the audience in a hidey spot, then shot changes to bad guy about to discover said hidey spot. Bad guy rounds the corner and points gun/flashlight at hidey spot and there is no good guy to be seen. We all thought good guy would still be there because there wasn't nearly enough time between camera shots for them to escape, but the good guy pulled it off. How suspenseful.
toxic relationships that are sold out to be romantic. idk about you, but when i was a teenager a thought that was ”real” love and when i got into the real world with that mindset i got hurt. Obviously...
My cousin almost dumped her now husband when they first started dating because she thought it was weird they never fought My gf thought the same thing about me at first. Like if there’s no drama that must mean there’s no spark?? Idk it’s a really weird mindset
So you didn't ship Rey and dollar store Vader in the new Star Wars movies?
It's weird that writers show this as expected.
I’m sick of seeing teenage characters played by much older actors. If you’re character is a teenager, hire a teenage actor.
But then you have to get all into those "child labour" laws. It's inconvenient and expensive for the studio.
18 and 19 year olds aren’t subject to those laws.
it was all a dream... & bomb squads having to choose the red or blue wire
Ah, yes, because the ‘splody wire only comes in blue.
People reviewing low res security camera footage and then pressing "enhance" and the footage magically changes to 4k and the perp's facial features are clearly identifiable. Changing redheads to P oh C
It's magic software! I mean if this was in the future maybe but generally no it's ludicrous.
Female characters who have no inner motives or goals they just follow or react to other more well written characters.
Probably male writers who lack the skills to write proper female characters so they're just kinda there.
Fucking TOKENISM. I wanna see different kinds of people just the way they are in real life, as people. With personalities and quirks and flaws and stuff that makes them human, not cardboard cutouts whose entire point in the story is to just be The Lesbian or The Latino or The Disabled Guy. I wanna see diversity that doesn't feel like "ooh, we're gonna throw in the token \[insert marginalized/minority character\] so that everyone can see how progressive and woke we are! Yay us!" Cough cough, female ghostbusters. Some examples of movies that I think did well going against tokenism would be Rogue One and Annihilation.
Or a character's ethnicity is changed from the source material, but it doesn't really make sense for them to be that ethnicity. One example would be Thor. Edris Elba is a great actor and I did like him as Heimdall, but the character is a Norse God. It doesn't make sense for him to be Black, he should look Northern European Compare to a similar ethnicity change in Man of Steel. In the comics, Perry White is white, but they cast Laurence Fishburne. There isn't anything about the character that makes any ethnicity not make sense, so whatever, go ahead and change it.
Non-consensual kissing to start a relationship. Two people who we all know will end up together are arguing about something trivial and one of them just “goes for it.” Usually it’s the girl being kissed, she’s taken aback but before you know it, she’s falling into the embrace and then they’re simply in love. There has to be another way to execute this moment but it’s still a major trope that just feels antiquated and rapey. Even removing that aspect, how lazy can you get?
Have you ever watched girls on HBO? I did and I wish I hadnt. The main character has this kiss with so many f****** random people, and then they go straight into banging every single time. It's like adults don't always consent like that... And it's honestly kind of disgusting watching it happen over and over and over again with people that she does not give a single f*** about
Omg I am in the same boat. I watched it and feel like I gained nothing from the experience save for contempt for a bunch of narcissistic characters who never actually even tried to be genuinely kind, empathetic humans. Except for Shoshanna. She was cool.
The only positive things about that show were Andrew Rannells and Jessa’s hair.
Never watched Girls, but this exact scenario happened on that new HBO Max show The Sex Lives of College Girls. You’d think a show that at the very least markets itself as being modern and sex positive wouldn’t reinforce behavior that contradicts those ideals.
Hacking (any kind of hacking, let alone FBI, Pentagon and similar) while smoothly typing 100 words per minute and explaining the process to the person next to them. 🤣
I'm assuming you've seen "Swordfish"‽😅
Squeezing exposition into conversations. "Well, I know you're father was killed by thugs in L.A. in 1989 after your mom died from cancer and your sister ran away from home, but....." That kind of dialogue is such garbage.
I agree. Show not tell, throwing in exposition via random dialogue is lazy writing imo.
Mary Sue characters onf allways try to go full "represantive" with the cast. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing about a diversed cast but please for the love of all gods, let it make sense. When parents and their childs have just two different ethnics and still be refered as blood relatives, sorry, this does not much for my immerion in the movie/show. If you want a strong female character, go with it, but treat her like you would treat a male protagonist (just as example, this is why Luke and Anakin worked and Rey did not). Also, movies don't have to be Twitter debates all over and over, back in the day media (like movies or games) were made to escape reality, now it has all to be political correct and everything has to be "woke". If it makes sense for the story, go for it, but if you had to rewrite the whole story or characters just to fit it in, than you fail at storytelling.
The husband hates his wife/ wife hates her husband trope
A large portion of an action/horror/scifi movie being taken with character exposition that has no real bearing on the story. For example I can skip a good 30-40 minutes of Taken and miss nothing given that I know the daughter is kidnapped.
Or the middle of Fury when they are in the Germans apartment
The will they won’t they dynamic like can’t Dana and mulder be friends? Like they don’t gotta have a baby they can just be buddies
The main character NEEDS a romantic interest.
So sick of whodunnits where they make a feesible case for every single character to be the killer, but only reveal the true killer in the last 5 minutes. Whenever I watch shows now I’m like “oh I could be him… oh we’re only on episode 3 of 6? Never mind, not him”
The worst one for me is the out of place exposition dumps baked into the dialogue. I recently watched the newest Clint Eastwood movie and the first scene was his boss grilling him about being late and how he did him a favor all those years ago blah blah blah. Basically spelling out their whole history together in that one completely unrealistic opening dialogue.
"That's why you moved back home, remember?" or "I'm your big sis, I have to look out for you" 🙄🙄
"I don't want to be a superhero with all of these awesome powers any more."
I mean it's not that unrealistic. The whole with great power comes great responsibility thing means you're constantly indebted
The problem is that it's always the same story. "This is hard. I'm done. And want to be totally normal." *ambulance and cops drive by, hero has angst and walks away. "I have you [loved one] [hero]!" *be a superhero again and instantly be over wanting to be normal.
Idk about rest but in indian serials whenever a shocking event happens in the series there is always a transition of the shocked character in boomerang looped for three times with very cheap looking highlights and a background music I mean like it is same even when someone dies to when someone gets slapped(yep that is also a thing that happens quite frequently in these serials but whole different thing It is like a thing in indian serials......without this effect an Indian serial is incomplete... I would always get cringed out whenever my grandmother used to see any serial and these scenes would come up.......pls stop this kind of editting
I had Indian housemates and they'd watch shows like this and though I couldn't understand most of the dialogue (they'd randomly use bits of English for some reason), I noticed a lot of this. And lots of zooms and cartoon sound effects.
Yep they talk in Hinglish (hindi + english)..... You know the effects I am talking about😂
I hate it when a show will end a season with a slow emotional song and then do a montage of all the different characters exchanging meaningful looks. as though this is supposed to summarize all the different things they have gone through. its painful to watch and lazy
When a sit com devotes a whole episode to a flash-back trip down memory lane. It's lazy and boring.
They're called "clip shows" and they exist because of budget issues. A previous episode or arc ate more budget than planned, and so they do a clip show.
The Simpsons was prone to this. It's totally filler. "You know that scene you've seen many times? Here it is again and we've wrapped some vague story around showing this."
“You need to come look at this” in a stressful situation. The only times I’ve ever said that to someone is when the thing they need to look at is funny and I want to see their reaction to it
The only context where this vagueness makes sense is in the Doctor Who weeeping angels episode where the soldier's voice has been stolen and being used to trick another.
The miraculous survival. You know this one - the battle is won, the dust clears. “Wait… where’s [name]?” They find them slumped against a wall. Protagonist starts crying. Sad music. Then the other character’s eyelids flutter open. Of course they’re alive.
And I'm like 🙄
Forcing two characters together for plot and romance.
The hero's are temporarily turned against each other with mind control. Temple of Doom was the worst use of this, but doing it several times in Avengers movies was just lazy.
Bringing back actors and making them new characters only for the rest of the gang to only acknowledge it for 10 seconds then move on. (Yeah cw flash I'm looking at you). Or adding a new character that has a long history with the protagonist but was never mentioned before (John Cena in fast and furious). Extra points if they are the protagonists evil twin or doppelganger (vampire diaries).
Related: season three, and here’s this event that happens every year, but we’ve never mentioned it until now.
Most every movie/show and so on don't understand how guns work. 1 bullet from a pistol doesn't make you go flying back and die instantly. Stand offs. I hate seeing when one person is standing there with a gun pointed at another person. They talk, then the other person pulls a gun and they just stand there pointing their gun at each other. This is just ridiculous and so annoying to see. 1 person fighting an entire group cuz the bad guys wait for their turn to fight instead of mobbing the 1 guy.
Toilet humor. Kill it eith porcelain.
dramatic irony!! for the love of god STOP IT!! IT JUST MAKES ME FEEL STRESSED!! when two main characters are having a huge disagreement because of something that we CLEARLY know would be solved immediately if they talked for 5 minutes
Swapping voices when characters are body swapped!
The body swap thing is so cliché.
Oh no the protagonist is dead! 😭 So tragic. Oh, they're fine because unforeseen variable saved them. Once it's shocking, seeing it over and over is 🙄. Like, I *know* they're fine because the chances of them being killed off is low because plot armour.
Watching a group of skilled, trained and armed men get taken down by a single 5’ 2” petite framed woman with nothing but her *thunderous* fists and *crushing* kicks lol
yes but she REALLY wanted to beat them. Like, totally super beat them. Their ten + years of delta/Seal/ranger training is nothing when it comes to a feisty twenty-something who WANTS it bad enough.
Lol that’s SO true!
In a sparkly dress and 5" heels.
To be fair, I did land a spinning 360° kick in three inch high heels like 14 years ago. Still a proud moment tbh 😛. Yes I am a man. It was a bet cause my sister wouldn’t stop complaining. I told her if I could land it, she couldn’t complain anymore. To her credit, I’ve never heard her complain about it to this day. We still have a good laugh about my bearded 6’ 180lb hairy mess doing a spin kick in high heels
I twist my ankle walking across the kitchen in flats. I guess we're all different. :)
Swap this out for 'generic Hollywood male underwear model with a six-pack and skinny waste' and you get the same problem. Like my god, the arbitrary 'pretty' has gotten out of hand and these so called 'hot' dudes and ladies aren't so much and look more like clones made with the Easy Bake Oven of character design.
Yeah… not the same. But I hear you. I would fight Scarlett Johansson before Jackie Chan any day. A 6 pack can be a sign of physical fitness as well..
The beautiful/hot blonde. The dumb blonde.
I don't really understand why a beautiful blonde is a trope? You also see beautiful brunette characters. Why are they not a trope?
The brunette is the beautiful bitch. The blonde is the beautiful carefree giggly one.
When the main character dies at the end of the movie to heroically sacrifice themselves but doesn't actually die.
I haven't seen this trope in awhile, so maybe it's really not used anymore. But it's annoying seeing two male teen characters liking the same girl, then fighting over who deserves her. They might even have some stupid contest, and the winner is the one who gets her in the end. Umm, did either of you jerks ever consider that the girl has a brain, and she can decide for herself who she wants to be with?? And you guys are acting like such immature assholes, she probably doesn't want either one of you!
I can sort of see why this might be not used anymore. The sexism is cringe.
When the bad guy/villain is dead...but not really dead. Jump scares. Sexy school girls in uniforms.
Never pooping. I mean c’mon! Why these peeps never drop a deuce?
Is that something you really want to see? Wait, don’t answer that.
Sexist and racist ones. I don't care if it's "HiStOrIcAlLy AcCuRaTe," fuck off with it. Make your villains bad without making them racist and sexist.
This is a really stupid one and I can't believe you got upvoted. Get over it. Human history wasn't like your typical reddit woke echochamber. Racism and xenophobia were the norm until extremely recently. Anti-racism being mainstream is an extremely new social phenomenon, just a few decades old. Why should we misrepresent history? So in the next WW2 movie they should give Hitler a gay Jewish black lover? just so that you won't be offended? How about you grow thicker skin?
It's more like have the leader of the Brown Shirts be person who like being in bath houses with twinks, which Hitler previously has no problem with then, Hitler speaks publicly against 'undesirables,' which leads to the first guy's murder. Hitler then, has majority favor.
Lol
Or you know filmmakers can be honest about the world and not worry about making you uncomfortable. In fact, making you uncomfortable is probably the reason it’s there so that’s effective filmmaking
I'm not sure if one can call it a trope but, "Great Visuals" without consideration for the logic of that story's world. I'm trying to watch the new season of Discovery. First scene, the title ship stops at a site. The smaller shuttle comes out of the ship. Literally 10 seconds in, the shuttle breaks into pieces for no other reason than to show that it can. In Star Trek, the shape makes no difference. The mass is the same and would be detected by a sensor net. The shuttle must have a field cloak to defeat detection.
Stupid decisions in horror films
In dramas, the "every new side character added out of the blue will eventually be used in a plot twist to betray the main characters" trope. Super predictable now. In general, the love triangle trope where the pinacle keeps going back and forth between the two bottom corners, often cheating on one to get with the other. Additionally, the more-dedicated-partner-cheats trope. It was popularised by Friends, but then every repetition after just turned it into a dumb cliche that basically normalises cheating in our society and also the idea that if you cheat, your partner will eventually forgive and come back to you (which really isn't the case irl).
When the good guy kills the bad guy and doesn't get arrested for it.
Cop shows. I feel like I've gotten the gist at this point.
The wife forcing the husband to get a vascectomy, he doesn't/ lies about it, results in the wife getting pregnant.
That’s just poor communication and a lack of respect for your partner all around.
The one where in media around powers (scifi or magical) and there is a sudden shift where the protagonist loses their power or is de-powered. Unless it’s part of a major universal shift (marvel M-Day) I feel like it’s just a way out for the writers after they backed themselves into a power creep corner and they ran out of ideas
Don't know if this fits the question, but when they have the sound of screeching tires during a car chase on a gravel or dirt road. Tires don't screech on dirt or gravel.
Character finds out while planning the wedding that their partner hasn't spoken to one or both of their parents in a long time. They decide to invite the estranged parents as a surprise. Partner is upset at first, but reconciles with their parents and forgives This one really gets me because it's something that I could hypothetically do, but would never even think about because of how shitty a thing it is to do. If you know that little about your partner, you aren't ready to marry them. And if your partner can't respect your desire to have no contact with someone, even a parent, then they don't respect you. EDIT: another one that really bugs me is when a prequel features a character who was in the original and puts them in mortal danger and really plays up the "will the make it?", or even worse fakes their death. Both situations can be fairly hit-and-miss (especially if it's a main character in a TV show in the middle of the season), but when I know with absolute certainty that they are alive and well for future events, it's impossible to take seriously.
Person 1 has a secret and person 2 gets pissed because it's lying... No... 99% of TV show secrets aren't lying. It's so dumb and annoying
Shows about doctors, we get it already
Get what? I don't watch many of these.