As much a Fantasy one as a Sci-Fi one: Humans being either weaker than or average to other races. The "average human" being more the leaning of fantasy as the jack of all trades with a reproduction rate usually second only to the worlds orcs with Sci-Fi being more guilty of humans being weak with regard to other races in one way or another, usually physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually or intellectually.
Queen Michael said:
When certain things really show their age when it comes to diversity. Like in old SF especialy, where there are way more male scientists and leaders than female ones. This isn't a social justice thing; it's the lack of realism in the idea that people hundreds or thousands of years in the future still wouldn't have decreased racial and gender discrimination a bit since the book was written, even though it was written in a time when that kind of discrimination was steadily decreasing.
I don't find it an issue of realism at all and has more to do with your perceptions of the progress of society being linear.
While this may be the way the world is going presently, when dealing with speculative fiction you're open to a wide range of things, and yes, a more "old fashion" outlook is a possibility due to environment and social pressures.
What if Mankind gets reduced to only a few tens of thousands and maximizing childbirth goes from an imperative to a moral virtue and any which gets in the way of that is looked on as a social evil, like homosexuality, long after the need for such a view has passed because necessity turned into tradition.
Or, for a revival of racism one could have Mankind (or certain ethnic groups) be so decimated that the surviving groups are so small that the fear of losing their identity and literally their appearance makes people coalesce into tight knit groups which avoid others and again look on miscegenation as social evil.
Given the ebb and flow history these possibilities are just as likely, if not more so likely given human nature, than a future with little to no racial, sexual or gender discrimination.
1) when completely alien species are both a) sexually attracted to humans and b) can FUCKING MAKE BABIES WITH THE HUMANS. Like... jesus christ guys, just because it's got 2 legs doesn't mean we are in any way, shape or form genetically compatible and capable of breeding with a species that evolved a billion light years away from us.
I loath this one.
A human being would have a better chance of reproducing with a plant or fungus than it would have with an alien.
Another thing that annoyed me about Star Wars, every planet is one specific thing. Tattooine is a Desert. The Moon of Dagoba is a swampy forest. The Moon of Endor is a Forest-Forest. Planets don't work that way dammit! Then again...Star Wars was sci-fantasy more than anything...and I just complained about there not being enough of that...
The thing is, this isn't limited to just Star Wars.
The only Sci-Fi world which had a rational reason for a single dominant ecosystem to encompass a planet was Dune and that was entirely due to the Sandtrout and their instinctive obsession collect and horde water deep beneath the ground because it was a necessary component to their lifecycle.
if we are talking about overused sci-fi tropes im pretty sick of seeing the ancient and highly advanced race of aliens that mysteriously vanished leaving only their ruins full of advanced technology
The Xel naga from Starcraft
The Protheans from Mass Effect
The Forerunners from Halo
The Precursors from Jak and Daxter (im reaching with this one)
It's become so silly I find the sheer number of franchises who use the name Precursor to be hilarious.
It's the Sci-Fi race equivalent of general movie/game titles like Revolution and Revelations.
I don't know if the Protheans count - we later learn why they vanished.
How does that change things?
They remain the stereotypical super old, super advanced race whose technological level is and seemingly will never be surpassed by younger races, technology in ruins that usually take the shape of massive space stations and superweapons.
Basically any movie that presents itself as sci-fi these days. It always has to be a class war. The trope 'good sci-fi is sci-fi that is analogous to current culture', basically. I hate it.
Another one I loath, one that is also in a lot of popular fantasy, like Warcraft 3 making it the orcs being herded into camps being something of a bad thing when they were nothing but mindless, bloodthirsty warmongers to humans.
I'm all together sick of present social issues being the focus Sci-Fi. Either look towards a future where different circumstances will create new and different ones or back off from it and create a new world focused more around a historical perspective where cultures and civilizations come and go.
