Common Tropes you Refuse to Believe are Real

[triggrhappy94]

I feel like everyone has something, that when they see it they think "There's no way that's possible!" And yet, that same thing shows up everywhere.

For me, it's when someone decides to hide or escape pursuers by climbing into a drop cielling.
There's no way those flimsy tiles can support any amount of weight.

So, what's your tropes pet peeve?

 

[krazykidd]

There is no way in hell Serial killers catch up to the people they are chasing by walking while their prey is running .

Also , why do people always think it's a good idea to hide rather than run? No way would anyone stop running away from their persuer to hide in a closet or any closed space with one entrance/exit .

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

People climbing in ventilation ducts to bypass security patrols/get away from pursuers.

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how loud crawling around in a ventilation duct would be?! Everyone below you would immediately know that someone is crawling through the air duct because there would be a loud crashing noise every time you moved and the metal bent. Not to mention, most ventilation ducts are not big enough for an average sized person to fit through, nor are they ever clean.

 

[Johnny Impact]

Character Power Levels Fluctuating Solely For Dramatic Effect. First time a villain shows up, he beats the pants off the hero. By the end of the episode, the hero returns that beating in spades. I can make some allowance for training montages but often this happens without any explanation, with the fights just a couple days apart.

There's one from Walking Dead that's been pissing me off lately. I call it Everyone's A Marksman. Perhaps it's a trope already, I'm not sure. It's fairly obvious the characters are not Army, or police (with obvious exceptions), or anyone with formal training in weapons. So how is it they can 1) run pell-mell 2) across broken ground 3) in the dark 4) making headshots 5) on moving targets 6) every time they pull the trigger? World-class marksmen can't do that.

Jumping The Shark. A whole new level....okay, now another whole new level....okay, now another whole new level. Dragonball is the best example of this. Once a villain is strong enough to destroy a planet, you've already jumped the shark. Anything above that is automatically impossible, meaningless, and idiotic. It has to be done exactly right to work, and it usually isn't.

Determinators. There comes a point where all energy is gone and the human body simply fails. You do not magically heal all damage simply because you remember You Are Virtuous (except sometimes you do, see Gurren Lagann). You do not gain the ability to stand up and deliver a thunderous flurry of punches just because your girlfriend yells "I love you" across the venue when you look up from kissing the canvas. Plus, keep in mind the villain might have a girlfriend of his own.

 

[Melon Hunter]

People climbing in ventilation ducts to bypass security patrols/get away from pursuers.

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how loud crawling around in a ventilation duct would be?! Everyone below you would immediately know that someone is crawling through the air duct because there would be a loud crashing noise every time you moved and the metal bent. Not to mention, most ventilation ducts are not big enough for an average sized person to fit through, nor are they ever clean.

Addendum: Ducts that don't go anywhere useful. Any of the ducts in a typical Deus Ex level would do bugger-all for effective ventilation. In fact, there was one duct in Human Revolution that led from the toilets to an office. For that freshly-laid turd smell while you're sorting out the monthly financial spreadsheets, presumably.

OT: Sewers being enormous and even supporting whole societies. Real sewer pipes are rarely wider than 1m wide, and yet a lot of games (including Human Revolution, for that matter) seem to assume that the Cloaca Maxima is sat beneath every city, with massive great tunnels for the protagonists to explore. Even if they were that big, why would anyone willingly go down there with all the toxic fumes and human waste?

 

[Darken12]

Most types of murder and/or injury, particularly in the horror genre.

The human body is not a papier-mache bag of chunky salsa. You can't decapitate someone in a single blow, you can't stab someone in the heart with a single blow (that's why the stereotypical vampire hunter has a stake and a hammer, because the sternum is pretty damn hard to break), you can't stab someone right through the entirety of their skull, you can't cut an entire body in half with a single swing of a bladed implement, you can't tear someone's limbs out with a slight pull, and so on and so forth.

The human body does not work that way.

Also, headshots, unless using special bullets designed to penetrate one layer of bone but not two, will blow out half the craneum on the way out. Entry wounds might look neat and clean, but exit wounds are incredibly messy. Also, shotguns and heavy guns either do too much or too little damage. Also, gun recoil. And how incredibly loud guns are. Also, arrows and crossbow bolts are really deadly! They aren't slight nuisances!

Urgh, I could go on. Don't even get me started on knives, swords, machetes and the like.

 

[Dangit2019]

From my experience as a gun-owning southern good ol' boy, I've always wondered how people in action movies never lose their hearing no matter how many gun shots and explosions happen around them. I mean, just your regular pistol will have your ears ringing in no time. Assault rifles? Gas explosions? No way. Those fuckers Are going to need hearing aids at age 30.

 

[Grach]

Revolvers killing in one shot, while a pistol (or worse yet, an assault rifle) just being barely on the side of lethal. Or when a shotgun kills in 3 hits at a 10 metre distance (with their range being five times that), but magnum bullets killing in either 1 or 2 regardless of distance. It pisses me off to no end.

 

[popa_qwerty]

Mine is a Manga/Anime trope where both parent just wake up one day and split. That cant be true right I have seen like 30 Manga where the parents just left for no reason and if there is a reason it is the most ass backwards reason.

 

[Gormech]

Anything involving blades doing more damage with a glancing blow than a high powered rifle. Really. Especially in roleplaying games. Arrows have the same issue. Another thing is that silence spells making people unable to cast magic when they never seem to be speaking any other time and it works just fine without the encantation.

 

[Agayek]

Most types of murder and/or injury, particularly in the horror genre.

The human body is not a papier-mache bag of chunky salsa. You can't decapitate someone in a single blow, you can't stab someone in the heart with a single blow (that's why the stereotypical vampire hunter has a stake and a hammer, because the sternum is pretty damn hard to break), you can't stab someone right through the entirety of their skull, you can't cut an entire body in half with a single swing of a bladed implement, you can't tear someone's limbs out with a slight pull, and so on and so forth.

The human body does not work that way.

Actually, most of those are entirely possible, depending on placement, the weapon, and the strength and skill of the wielder.

For example, it is entirely possible to decapitate someone in a single, clean stroke if you have a good blade and are reasonably strong. It's also possible to stab someone in the heart if you have a thin enough weapon and are smart enough to not try and go through bone. There's plenty of small holes a knife or similar weapon can get through. Etc etc.

Now, none of it is terribly likely, especially not in the kind of chaotic frenzy most combat occurs in, but it's certainly possible.

 

[Yuuki]

Anything involving blades doing more damage with a glancing blow than a high powered rifle. Really. Especially in roleplaying games. Arrows have the same issue. Another thing is that silence spells making people unable to cast magic when they never seem to be speaking any other time and it works just fine without the encantation.

They should really start calling them "brain freeze" or something...hmm, but then said ability should also be able to stop melee attackers in their paths lol.

We have now concluded that there is no possible way to shut-down an attacker who uses magic other than shoving a blade/arrow into his skull, or getting another magician toast him. Take that, fantasy MMO/RPG's!

Character Power Levels Fluctuating Solely For Dramatic Effect. First time a villain shows up, he beats the pants off the hero. By the end of the episode, the hero returns that beating in spades. I can make some allowance for training montages but often this happens without any explanation, with the fights just a couple days apart.

Couple of days? In some animes try couple of MINUTES lol, there's a running joke that if you keep pissing-off and taunting the typical anime protagonist enough (without actually killing him) then he will very shortly become more powerful than GOD with all that reality-bending determination and proceed to annihilate you. Urgh.
Bleach is a good example, there is a part where the guy spends several hours (or days, who knows) fighting a series of "minibosses". Every fight starts off with the protagonist getting his ass kicked by a miniboss who gloats about their vastly superior power/skill keeps taunting the hero about how he stands no chance (because at the beginning he really doesn't)....aaaaand by the end of the episode the protagonist has his foot squarely up the miniboss's ass with new-found powers and/or speed caused by anger and/or determination. .
You would think these dumbass villains would learn to just KILL the guy as soon as he arrived on the set. They need to step up their communication, at least send messages around saying "kill this ************ on sight, don't say a word, just kill him. Every minute you spend dragging/delaying the fight he will get 5x stronger." Sigh.

 

[The]

The trope of one lone character who doesn't get killed. To me, it doesn't matter how skilled you are, you can't fight off a small army and expect to beat them, let alone live.

 

[starslasher]

Mine is a Manga/Anime trope where both parent just wake up one day and split. That cant be true right I have seen like 30 Manga where the parents just left for no reason and if there is a reason it is the most ass backwards reason.

Or one in comics, but anime/manga are especially guilty of, where a person can think clearly in the time of a swing or a punch/ sword or the shot of a gun. Heck, it might not even be thinking, character can go through monologues when falling, or just about to be hit by something, when we all know that in real life, the best a regular person could conjure in such situations would be one image in their heads, or one word from their mouths.

 

[octafish]

People climbing in ventilation ducts to bypass security patrols/get away from pursuers.

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how loud crawling around in a ventilation duct would be?! Everyone below you would immediately know that someone is crawling through the air duct because there would be a loud crashing noise every time you moved and the metal bent. Not to mention, most ventilation ducts are not big enough for an average sized person to fit through, nor are they ever clean.

Addendum: Ducts that don't go anywhere useful. Any of the ducts in a typical Deus Ex level would do bugger-all for effective ventilation. In fact, there was one duct in Human Revolution that led from the toilets to an office. For that freshly-laid turd smell while you're sorting out the monthly financial spreadsheets, presumably.

OT: Sewers being enormous and even supporting whole societies. Real sewer pipes are rarely wider than 1m wide, and yet a lot of games (including Human Revolution, for that matter) seem to assume that the Cloaca Maxima is sat beneath every city, with massive great tunnels for the protagonists to explore. Even if they were that big, why would anyone willingly go down there with all the toxic fumes and human waste?

Ahem. Storm water drains. There are storm water drains in Melbourne that are big enough. Not all sewers carry shit you know.

 

[Darken12]

Actually, most of those are entirely possible, depending on placement, the weapon, and the strength and skill of the wielder.

For example, it is entirely possible to decapitate someone in a single, clean stroke if you have a good blade and are reasonably strong. It's also possible to stab someone in the heart if you have a thin enough weapon and are smart enough to not try and go through bone. There's plenty of small holes a knife or similar weapon can get through. Etc etc.

Now, none of it is terribly likely, especially not in the kind of chaotic frenzy most combat occurs in, but it's certainly possible.

In order to decapitate someone in a single stroke, the amount of force you need will send the entire body flying (and even then, it's almost impossible to completely sever all the tough sinew and tendons in the neck (much less go easily through the spine)), because the force of the blow will move the body along with the blade (that's why the guillotine, or medieval decapitations via giant axe, had the victim placed on the floor, a slab or some other hard surface, so that the body wouldn't move along with the blade. And even then, it wasn't uncommon for the executioner to need more than one blow). Even if you have an amazing amount of coincidences (absurdly sharp blade, with the proper shape (such as a sickle), and which goes RIGHT between two vertebrae), the force you need to exert (and the collision between the blade and the body) will at the very least shove the body in the direction of the blow. Most movie decapitations send the head flying off while the body remains perfectly still and gracefully slumps to the floor a few seconds later.

Yes, you can stab the heart if you go between the ribs. That is common forensic knowledge. But the angle of entry needs to be upward (because of the shape of both the ribs and the entire ribcage), and never downward. Most movie cases of heart-stabbing go A) directly through the sternum, or B) downward.

 

[Yuuki]

Mine is a Manga/Anime trope where both parent just wake up one day and split. That cant be true right I have seen like 30 Manga where the parents just left for no reason and if there is a reason it is the most ass backwards reason.

Or one in comics, but anime/manga are especially guilty of, where a person can think clearly in the time of a swing or a punch/ sword or the shot of a gun. Heck, it might not even be thinking, character can go through monologues when falling, or just about to be hit by something, when we all know that in real life, the best a regular person could conjure in such situations would be one image in their heads, or one word from their mouths.

(charging at the target with a sword faster than the speed of sound)
> "You're too slow, and now this final move will be the end of you!"
> "Don't underestimate me fool, who the hell do you think I am anyway?"
(still charging)
> "RISING DRAGON SLASH!"
> "Too slow! You will never reach me in time!"
(seemingly dodges, still gets a huge gash with blood everywhere)
> "Nani?!" (what?!)
> "There is more to my move than you think!"
> "Hayai! (he's fast!) Looks like I'll have to get serious!"

Guys that whole scene supposedly happened in 0.2 seconds, how the hell did so much dialog happen?

 

[Something Amyss]

People climbing in ventilation ducts to bypass security patrols/get away from pursuers.

Are you fucking kidding me? Do you know how loud crawling around in a ventilation duct would be?! Everyone below you would immediately know that someone is crawling through the air duct because there would be a loud crashing noise every time you moved and the metal bent. Not to mention, most ventilation ducts are not big enough for an average sized person to fit through, nor are they ever clean.

Nor are they designed to bear the weight of a human, so even if you can fit, you're probably going to do a number on it. This is especially bad with the free-hanging vents so popular in movies and the like.

 

[spartan231490]

I feel like everyone has something, that when they see it they think "There's no way that's possible!" And yet, that same thing shows up everywhere.

For me, it's when someone decides to hide or escape pursuers by climbing into a drop cielling.
There's no way those flimsy tiles can support any amount of weight.

So, what's your tropes pet peeve?

Where have you seen people hide in a drop ceiling?

For me, a trope I can't really understand would be the abysmal accuracy of bad guys. Seriously, they should be able to hit the good guys if they don't even know where they are.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

The trope of one lone character who doesn't get killed. To me, it doesn't matter how skilled you are, you can't fight off a small army and expect to beat them, let alone live.

Kind of in the same vein of that, running through a firefight and having the luck not to get hit once. I suppose it's possible, even though it's got to be one of, if not the most improbable thing to happen in the history of the world.
There's actually a pretty cool article about such luck in Bond movies.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140189/You-live-4-662-times-youre-James-Bond--Eagle-eyed-fan-calculates-times-007-shot.html

"He [Gordon Stanger] then estimated there was a 5 per cent chance of the spy being fatally wounded on each occasion. Expressed mathematically, this means the chance of Bond not getting killed is 1.4 x 10 to the power of minus 104, or in Mr Stanger?s words, ?as close to zero as makes no difference?."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2140189/You-live-4-662-times-youre-James-Bond--Eagle-eyed-fan-calculates-times-007-shot.html#ixzz2QybdbIih
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To be fair, this doesn't kill the drama for me, nothing really does, but know when I'm supposed to be suspending my disbelief.