Cliches in books/movies/videogames that you're tired of

[FFHAuthor]

Not that I like those cliches, but in Bioware's defense, they established that Asari/Asari offspring can end up going insane with power, which likely brought about a stigma against such pairs once it was realized that they could breed with any other species (a process that also expands their gene pool). As to the Batarians, my understanding is that the majority of their civilization is on-and-off at war with the Council races, so any impressions given about them have to be taken with that in account.

Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning that went into the Species and the aspects of them, I just get a little nuts with what they're supporting with them.

There are a lot of cliches in Mass Effect, but the Asari species just feels like a 'space babe' to me. You can make a species that reproduces asexually by getting DNA from other species, but there's no reason to make them into a sexually appealing species that's only different from humans in skin color and the head tentacles. They could have been completely androgynous or neuter and that wouldn't have changed anything in the story...but they made them into sex symbols and the most common profession you see them in is 'Exotic dancer' followed in second place by 'mercenary'.

Batarians...they're like the worst stereotypes of Nazis, Communists and Confederates rolled into one. They're militant invaders who make use of deceitful propaganda, and are deeply involved in slavery. They're crafted to have no redeeming qualities, and just feel like a cardboard cut-out species that are set up to be gunned own with no remorse. Almost every Batarian is a villain. Even the Krogan, a warrior race who are feared by the Galaxy represent more diversity than the Batarians.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

The hero having their arse handed to them only to be inspired by some vague flashback of a friend or mentor and suddenly be too powerful for the villain to handle. It's just so fucking stupid.

 

[Pyramid Head]

You mainly see this in Japanese media, but one thing that pisses me off is stupid and spastic main protagonists. I mean people like Naruto and Luffy are the obvious ones, but then you've got Vincent Brooks from Catherine or Beat from The World Ends with You... you get the idea. America doesn't always have that problem, American protagonists often have no personality at all, people like Master Chief and Marcus Fenix. Why? Why do so many game and animation producers go so far out of there way to make me loathe the protagonist or even the player character?

 

[Torrasque]

Everyone lives.
Everyone dies-LOLJK, they all lived.
The guy that you thought was a bad guy, is actually a pretty cool good guy.
The guy that you thought was a good guy, is actually a huge asshole bad guy.

 

[smearyllama]

You mainly see this in Japanese media, but one thing that pisses me off is stupid and spastic main protagonists. I mean people like Naruto and Luffy are the obvious ones, but then you've got Vincent Brooks from Catherine or Beat from The World Ends with You... you get the idea. America doesn't always have that problem, American protagonists often have no personality at all, people like Master Chief and Marcus Fenix. Why? Why do so many game and animation producers go so far out of there way to make me loathe the protagonist or even the player character?

Sometimes it works, but only if it's for a reason.
Vash from Trigun acts like an idiot so people aren't afraid of him/ to make them feel happy, not just because he's a fool.

 

[AlAaraaf74]

1. When the ending clearly points to a sequel
2. Damsel in Distress
3. Zombies/the Apocalypse
4. Main Character looks at him/her-self in the mirror "Who am I" they think
5. "We only have x amount of time until horrible y things happen!!!"

 

[Duskflamer]

-snip-

Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning that went into the Species and the aspects of them, I just get a little nuts with what they're supporting with them.

While I'll give you that the Asari could have been designed differently, there is the point that if the survival of your species relies on mating with other species, it becomes important to look attractive to said other species. There's also the fact that while young Asari tend to go around dancing and such, the older ones are highly respected and fiercely powerful.

As to the Batarians, you once again have to keep in mind the viewpoint we get. It can be demonstrated that the game feeds you some propaganda (the codex in ME2 refers to Sovereign as a Geth warship, even though Shepard and anyone who played ME1 knows that it's actually a Reaper), so it's not unimaginable that we're just seeing the Council-propaganda version of the Batarians, propaganda which would be focused on making them out to be evil villains because it's much easier to justify a war that way.

 

[FFHAuthor]

As to the Batarians, you once again have to keep in mind the viewpoint we get. It can be demonstrated that the game feeds you some propaganda (the codex in ME2 refers to Sovereign as a Geth warship, even though Shepard and anyone who played ME1 knows that it's actually a Reaper), so it's not unimaginable that we're just seeing the Council-propaganda version of the Batarians, propaganda which would be focused on making them out to be evil villains because it's much easier to justify a war that way.

My point isn't that the Species don't work well and support the portrayal of the Species. My argument and displeasure isn't with the journey it's with the destination. If you want to create a species who are sex symbols, you couldn't do much better than the Asari...but does having their species be so synonymous with sex and sexuality serve the story and the universe? Does having the Batarians as a whole being portrayed as criminal slavers serve the story?

What do we gain from having the Batarians as being little more than faceless thugs which we feel no remorse in slaughtering by the thousands? Do we gain any depth or diversity for the cast by seeing every stripper in the game as an Asari? It's cliche, and lazy, and coming from Bioware, it's a little disappointing. I won't bring their other works into this, either good or bad, but with the other species you get to see a diversity in them. You see the Multifaceted nature of the Krogan, from being murderous warlords to seeing an office worker reading poetry. We can see the by the book determination and loyalty of the Turians in Executor Pallin, and we see the devious and underhanded actions of a broken heart in General Septimus. It's present in all the other major races, to the point that we have a balance, we know that they're species made up of individuals, with the Batarians, they feel like a monolithic and faceless whole.

With Asari, the exceptions to the space babe feel simple and are glaring because of how sharp a change they are. Only one Asari jumps out at me as not having some aspect of her sexuality injected into the game who isn't an antagonist, the Asari Bartender in ME2. Liara has a nerdy-girl vibe going for her and a romance option, every other non-enemy Asari you can interact with comes up as being primarily a stripper or other sex symbol, the Asari Commando from ME1 if you meet her in ME2 on Ilium actively flirts with you, hell, even Brenezia has sexual innuendo made about her attire when you're casually discussing her on Noveria.

Again, I'm not arguing that it's done poorly, I'm arguing that what they were going for just feels lazy and feels like the worst kind of sci-fi writing.

 

[razor0512]

The 'one man saves the world' type of cliche. That cliche has been the plot of every BioWare game. It gets really old

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

I want the good guy to lose for once and I hate love interests. This isn't a cliche I suppose but when a movie is made about a book for errr people below the age of 20 and because it isn't as big as harry potter or twilight they ruin the movie namely Alex Rider and Percy Jackson. Could have been good but they just made it cartoonish.

im going to go further than your love interests and say shoe horned love interests. Because love interests who are well written and interesting in their own right are fine, its the one dimensional arm candy that add nothing to the film. Thats the actual problem.

Indeed

 

[NotSoLoneWanderer]

As to the Batarians, you once again have to keep in mind the viewpoint we get. It can be demonstrated that the game feeds you some propaganda (the codex in ME2 refers to Sovereign as a Geth warship, even though Shepard and anyone who played ME1 knows that it's actually a Reaper), so it's not unimaginable that we're just seeing the Council-propaganda version of the Batarians, propaganda which would be focused on making them out to be evil villains because it's much easier to justify a war that way.

My point isn't that the Species don't work well and support the portrayal of the Species. My argument and displeasure isn't with the journey it's with the destination. If you want to create a species who are sex symbols, you couldn't do much better than the Asari...but does having their species be so synonymous with sex and sexuality serve the story and the universe? Does having the Batarians as a whole being portrayed as criminal slavers serve the story?

What do we gain from having the Batarians as being little more than faceless thugs which we feel no remorse in slaughtering by the thousands? Do we gain any depth or diversity for the cast by seeing every stripper in the game as an Asari? It's cliche, and lazy, and coming from Bioware, it's a little disappointing. I won't bring their other works into this, either good or bad, but with the other species you get to see a diversity in them. You see the Multifaceted nature of the Krogan, from being murderous warlords to seeing an office worker reading poetry. We can see the by the book determination and loyalty of the Turians in Executor Pallin, and we see the devious and underhanded actions of a broken heart in General Septimus. It's present in all the other major races, to the point that we have a balance, we know that they're species made up of individuals, with the Batarians, they feel like a monolithic and faceless whole.

With Asari, the exceptions to the space babe feel simple and are glaring because of how sharp a change they are. Only one Asari jumps out at me as not having some aspect of her sexuality injected into the game who isn't an antagonist, the Asari Bartender in ME2. Liara has a nerdy-girl vibe going for her and a romance option, every other non-enemy Asari you can interact with comes up as being primarily a stripper or other sex symbol, the Asari Commando from ME1 if you meet her in ME2 on Ilium actively flirts with you, hell, even Benezia has sexual innuendo made about her attire when you're casually discussing her on Noveria.

Again, I'm not arguing that it's done poorly, I'm arguing that what they were going for just feels lazy and feels like the worst kind of sci-fi writing.

I know you are thinking on a grander scale but I recall an asari women getting very mad and un-flirty with me in debate over non asari space fairing sentient beings. True Asari are the official unofficial galactic sex symbols but i don't recall every conversation being flirtatious. Also I do recall seeing a human stripper somewhere and turian krogan and batarian strippers may have a more niche appeal then asari so that's why they would be hired as strippers more often. It's like say hiring furrys to dance in a strip club, someones is probably into it but not everyone.

 

[Suicida1 Midget]

Dont know about you guys, but i hate the good guys won uncontested. Like the bad guy's plan b, c, and d was just a cake walk for the hero. It sickens me to be able to guess 1/12 of the way though that he is going to win hands down, without so much as a scratch on his/her (insert easiest place to hit if your choosing here)

 

[The Breadcrab]

"Where am I?" (facepalm) That's just an excuse to lazily ignore setting or character details by telling us "the character doesn't know... why should you?"

A bloody corpse on the ground in an attempt to 'raise the stakes.' Seriously, almost every single shooter or action game will eventually put a bloody corpse on the ground, usually for no reason. Come on guys, There are other ways of conveying danger, suspense, etc.

Furthermore, when a character runs up to you or you walk up to them and they say something along the lines of "dude, it's not safe he-" and then gets killed. Again, lazy and overused suspense-builder.

Stereotypes. Period.

As mentioned, New York. What's so great about it anyways? It's just an urban mess with a mediocre light show going on the middle and so many taxis that if you half-close your eyes it looks like you're taking a piss. Why not set a movie/game/whatever in Kiev? That's a nice-looking city.

Plot being driven by physical tasks rather than character's actions or emotions. Seriously, plot of most games: Activate this. Fix that. Go here. Shoot this. Look at that. Uhm, character says one witty line. Boss fight. End.

"No one has ever successfully (blank)!" or "It's suicide, kid! You'll never make it!" Once again, stupid attempt to raise stakes and create emotion when it can be done by other means. If the narrative is good, I should already know that it's a difficult task that the hero will have a slim chance of accomplishing.

Saving the world/galaxy. Come on, that's too grand in scope for a small group to achieve, let alone one man. The plot could just be saving a city, defeating a group, going to some place, etc and it can still feel like a full-fledged, epic story.

Villains or traitors flat-out explaining their plan to the protagonist. It can completely ruin immersion in a fantastic game. Dead Space, I'm looking at you with the bright, piercing stare of the f*cking sun!

I have many more, but I'll end with that.

 

[Asmundr]

I'm tired of the protagonist in manga and anime being absolutely clueless about pretty much anything. I've never really understood it and their is no real excuse for it either.

I hate the way the Protagonist acts like that in Harem Anime. A lot of girls are literally humping his leg and he's like: "Huh, what do you want from me?"

Yeah. I guess the mangaka/ writer (whatever you call it) thinks it wouldn't make sense if the protagonist was genre savvy. Then again, the prevalence of idiot hero's in todays media...I think we could do with something fresh like a guy who knows whats going on.

I'm gonna also add that its somewhat tiering to see the Villains be bad for some pretty arbitrary reasons. Ok their the bad guy, but just to top it off lets also make them a jerk ass and pool all the bad guy hammy-ness into them :/

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

Every movie featuring a duo seemingly has to have them get mad and split up just before the final act. Then of course they always forgive each other and come back. Have writers really become so lazy that they can't think of ANY other kind of conflict for these movies?

 

[The Wykydtron]

I can forgive basically anything as long as there's enough melodrama, that's why i like anime so much(speed lines everywhere).

Ok time to rip on Clannad, too much angst per episode goddangit! You can't go for a fuckton of angst and light hearted comedy at the same time it just makes the entire series look bipolar.

Oh and obvious foreshadowing of character deaths, seriously Clannad Afterstory i knew she (can't remember names atm) was gonna die during childbirth from fucking minute one and i stopped watching just before that episode simply because i didn't need to see it cuz the foreshadowing was like a big neon sign on her head saying "death in 5 episodes"

Oh yeah and whenever villains get too powerful, it's always a magical mcguffin/newly learned attack that can defeat them (Bleach looking at you)

 

[rosemystica]

1) The Prophecy/The Chosen One. So you get to be a hero with chicks hanging off his arm day and night, and tons of food and money and respect, just for not doing anything? I prefer the hero whose life has made him what he is. This is why I prefer Neville Longbottom to Harry Potter. Harry doesn't have to do any work, because he's the chosen one; he sits around and wangsts while everyone else does his research and elbow-work for him. Neville decided to become an ass-kicker because times got tough and no one else would.

2) Ditzy braindead girl gives the world/hero hope. Can't we have someone smart, or with some connection to *reality*, give the world/hero hope? I love the Sailor Moon series, but I like how she evolved to an ass-kicking warrior princess in the manga, while still remaining powered by her love and faith in her friends. She defeated Chaos with the power of hope, but had kicked ass to get there. In the anime, she was a ditzy idiot the whole way through and grated on every nerve.

3) Romantic comedies. From beginning to end. I despise romantic comedies because they are built on nothing but cliche, with rare exceptions.

4) You haven't heard this one in awhile, but "Wherever we go, there we are." What does that even MEAN?

 

[Harlemura]

How come everything ever always involves relationships or romance to some extent or another?

Who here can name a piece of fiction where everyone might as well have been asexual?

The first Skulduggery Pleasant book is kinda like that. Well, there's a character that has everyone temporarily fall in love with her when they meet her, but that's more of a quirky power than being relevant to the plot.
Though having no relationships could be down to the fact the main character's a 12 year old...

Though this is where my nag comes in. Romances being wiggled in where romances do not need to be wiggled. The later Skulduggery Pleasant books touch on some characters sort of maybe having a kind of little thing for that other one but maybe not really.
That's fine.
Then they throw in a full-blown love triangle, one person involved being a vampire, no less. That's not fine.

But hey, at least the wise-cracking skeleton detective everyone actually reads the books for doesn't get loved-up.

 

[hazabaza1]

EVERYONE IS DEAAAAAAAAAAAD
Whoopslolnope.

Unless it has a good excuse keep them fucking dead.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

stupid villians. you've got the good guy where you want him, just, effing, kill him... -_-

This would be the ultimate one. All the times I've found myself screaming "just shoot him, he's tied to a fucking chair!" at movie screens.

My particular worst one is in the film Goldfinger. You know that giant cutting laser table they strap Bond to? Yeah, who decided killing him that way would be a good idea? You have a building full of guys with guns, you have a midget with a sharp hat!

I'm baffled that a criminal mastermind considered that to be his Plan A. I'd have to see Plan B:

"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No, I expect you to eat this bacon until your arteries clog!"