Things in entertainment you'd like to see stop

[Queen Michael]

People saying "I don't have time to explain!" when they most certainly do.

 

[Twintix]

That fucking female elf that was only created just for the sake of having an infuriatingly stupid, flat and pointless romance subplot...

Actually I'm pretty sure that she was created largely because the writers took one look at the novel and went "holy crap there are NO major female characters in this? We MUST have one in". *shrug*

And then they tacked on a pointless, substance-lacking flat romance subplot because the writers went "Holy shit we must have romance in this movie!", perhaps?

Why does the female elf exist? Why did they feel the need to create her? To show the world "Look how progressive we are, there's a GIRL DOING COOL THINGS in this movie, give us all of your money, feminists!" or something?

She wasn't so much badly written as she wasn't written. She was flat, bland. Her only character traits were "knows Legolas" (who also only got a major role in this movie because fanservice; IIRC, he's mentioned in the book, but doesn't really do much stuff in the front, right?) and "falls in love with dwarf".

The book didn't need her.
The movies didn't need her.
The story was just fine without this character that serves absolutely zero purpose to anything.

I'm sorry if I seem riled up by this, but I hate when characters[footnote]Any kind of character, just to be clear; I don't want someone to believe that I only get annoyed when it happens to women.[/footnote] are made just to fill some imaginary quota or for pointless romance. I liked the first Hobbit movie. I might be in a minority here on this site, but I really did. But the inclusion of that elf just made me lose all interest in seeing the last movie. Her inclusion ruined the movie for me because of how tacked-on she is and how much space she takes.

I could write how this makes me feel in ways that will make everyone angrily disagree with me. But I don't feel like turning this thread into a flame war or pissing people off.

So here's Adam Savage's duck army instead.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I'm well aware that Transformers was originally created to sell toys. A lot of 80's kids shows were created just to sell toys, but even then a lot more creativity went into them then goes into a lot of stuff nowadays.

There really was a lot of interesting things from the 80s cartoons.


It was cheesy but it seemed like the people writing it loved their work.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I'm well aware that Transformers was originally created to sell toys. A lot of 80's kids shows were created just to sell toys, but even then a lot more creativity went into them then goes into a lot of stuff nowadays.

There really was a lot of interesting things from the 80s cartoons.


It was cheesy but it seemed like the people writing it loved their work.

We got some good stories out of those thinly disguised toy commercials.

 

[Legomaniac91_v1legacy]

"Prophecies" and "Chosen Hero" plot devices really bug me. Not only are they some of the laziest assurances that the hero will triumph, they also devalue any accomplishments the protagonist performs. They state that the hero isn't special because of their deeds or their morals, the hero is only special because a giant rock said they were special. The MCU heroes are a great break from this trope because most of them had to work to become heroes. Tony Stark built the Mark I in a cave out of scraps, Bruce Banner accidentally became The Hulk, Steve Rogers had to audition to become Captain America, and The Guardians of the Galaxy met by chance. The best counterpoint to the "Chosen Hero" trope is Anakin Skywalker. He was rash, impulsive, violent, and power hungry, yet the Jedi council was dead certain he would be their savior by "bringing balance to the force." And he did, by ending the reign of the light side so the Sith could rule the galaxy.

Another thing that really annoys me is "The Emo Character." You all know what I'm talking about. The one who is always brooding. The one who goes on and on about how "tortured" they are. How we can't understand their "pain." The one who uses their tragic past as an excuse to sulk in the corner. I'm not disrespecting anyone who has gone through tragedy or had some painful event in their lives, we all have. The key difference is that most people find ways to move on with their lives instead of incessantly whining about it! Bennet the Sage made a great point in his Trigun review about how Vash is the perfect counterpoint to those guys; he's not defined by his pain, but how he deals with it. Unfortunately, the more insufferable emo characters aren't that well developed. They'd rather sit and brood because they're under the delusion that their pain makes them special. Luckily, there are several ways to mock those annoying twits. There is the Lego Batman song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqv_LUStxDw or you could just mentally read their lines in Linkara's Superboy Prime voice.

 

[Padwolf]

I'd love to see more deep, psychological horrors. I'd love to see a stop to some jump scare horrors. Oh I know, a good ol jump scare can be great. But teen slasher jump scares are no fun and I don't want it.

Love triangles. Fuck love triangles. Some things pull them off greatly. Others don't and more often than not it's just used as pure lazy writing.

 

[MeatMachine]

Found footage movies. Seriously, it needs to stop right now.

It was fine and interesting the first time it was tried but after that, no. It's contrived, immersion-breaking and makes it impossible to see whats going on.

Worst example being Cloverfield where a giant 100-foot-tall monster is 20 feet away from the guy WHO KEEPS ON FILMING!

There's been one or two good "found footage"-style movies before, but they are as easy to completely ruin as they are easy to create.

 

[Eddie the head]

"Prophecies" and "Chosen Hero" plot devices really bug me. Not only are they some of the laziest assurances that the hero will triumph, they also devalue any accomplishments the protagonist performs. They state that the hero isn't special because of their deeds or their morals, the hero is only special because a giant rock said they were special. The MCU heroes are a great break from this trope because most of them had to work to become heroes. Tony Stark built the Mark I in a cave out of scraps, Bruce Banner accidentally became The Hulk, Steve Rogers had to audition to become Captain America, and The Guardians of the Galaxy met by chance. The best counterpoint to the "Chosen Hero" trope is Anakin Skywalker. He was rash, impulsive, violent, and power hungry, yet the Jedi council was dead certain he would be their savior by "bringing balance to the force." And he did, by ending the reign of the light side so the Sith could rule the galaxy.

I don't think "prophecies" or "chosen one" story's are a problem so much as adding a prophecies in the middle a story is. The Mistborn books did "chosen one" story fine. But that's because it was clear form the onset that that's what the writer was planing to do. I can't really talk about it without going into spoilers, but works well. In Star Wars that was tacked on after the original movies. So they had to try and make it fit. To me "prophecies" used as way to lend more meaning to something ultimately meaningless are shit and what have a huge problem with. Offenders being Star Wars, WoW, and a lot of comic books. Prophecies used as a story element to guide the plot are fine if you ask me. It's just as valid as anything else. Examples being Wheel of Time, Mistborn, and The Lego Movie. And I guess kinda The Foundation. Although that's not exactly a prophecy.

 

[Kyrian007]

Found footage movies. Seriously, it needs to stop right now.

It was fine and interesting the first time it was tried but after that, no. It's contrived, immersion-breaking and makes it impossible to see whats going on.

Worst example being Cloverfield where a giant 100-foot-tall monster is 20 feet away from the guy WHO KEEPS ON FILMING!

I'll second this one. And go further. I've never seen it be interesting. I've seen movies that could have explored interesting ideas if only they dropped the bullshit pretense that they are "found footage" and just told an interesting story.

And to go even further, the proliferation of "shaky-cam" or "handycam" to inject so-called "realism" into an action movie. Sorry director, I understand the concept of "suspension of disbelief," I DON'T NEED you to needlessly ugly up a movie to help me buy into the fact that the story you are telling ISN'T really happening. I've been good on the concept of fiction vs non-fiction since I was 4-years-old, I CAN IN FACT enjoy a fictional setting without that ugly-ass camera gimmick. I've said it before, I'd rather an action sequence look AWESOME, rather than REAL. I realize it's FICTION, I DON'T NEED IT TO LOOK REAL. I KNOW IT ISN'T. I guess I wouldn't object to it in a recreation of an event in a documentary... go ahead and shake that away, I won't complain there.

 

[Thaluikhain]

"Prophecies" and "Chosen Hero" plot devices really bug me.

Oh yeah...especially needlessly cryptic prophecies by people who know exactly what is going on, but don't tell anyone for no good reason.

 

[happyninja42]

I'd like to see them stop always using artificial intelligence as the badguy. Seriously, every fucking movie that has it in it, they're trying to kill humanity. If they don't do the Ultron "I've done the math, and Humanity must die" angle, then they're an AI that started out as a war machine, and everyone is afraid of them because of that, just like SHort Circuit and Chappie. The only AI movie that didn't do this angle, was A.I. And it still had the "humans hate the robots" shit.

I also get fucking sick of the "he messed in God's domain" bullshit, for movies like Transcendence, or Lawnmower man, and other similar movies. Yes, please, let's further misrepresent technological advancement, and ALWAYS color it in the paint of fear and ignorance, planting the seeds in the common person brain that scientific discovery is evil, and we'd all be better if we just lived on a fucking farm. That good old "down to earth" lifestyle bullshit.

Technology is hard. Creativity is hard. Both of your reasonable complaints require two hard things working together. If you want to talk about AI in something other than basic terms, it starts to require that you actually know something about the subject. You can't just have read some sci-fi once, or thought that HAL was cool, you need to know about what an AI might be like. You could speculate that maybe an AI would be fundamentally dependent on people, or maybe it would choose to flee humanity instead of trying to destroy it.

Hollywood is cheap, catering to the LCD, and if technology is only rarely more than a prop. You want real science? Watch 'The Martian'.

I'm aware they are hard, and that Hollywood doesn't give a shit about realism, and just panders to the lowest common denominator in most cases. The thread is about things we'd like to see stop in entertainment, those are mine. I don't actually expect it to happen. And you don't have to know about AI to do a story that doesn't revolve around AI trying to kill humanity. You can have tons of stories that involve AI, where that isn't the focus of the story. Or if it is, have it be something else, other than "MUST KILL HUMANS!". It's not that freaking hard.

 

[happyninja42]

I'd like to see them stop always using artificial intelligence as the badguy. Seriously, every fucking movie that has it in it, they're trying to kill humanity. If they don't do the Ultron "I've done the math, and Humanity must die" angle, then they're an AI that started out as a war machine, and everyone is afraid of them because of that, just like SHort Circuit and Chappie. The only AI movie that didn't do this angle, was A.I. And it still had the "humans hate the robots" shit.

I also get fucking sick of the "he messed in God's domain" bullshit, for movies like Transcendence, or Lawnmower man, and other similar movies. Yes, please, let's further misrepresent technological advancement, and ALWAYS color it in the paint of fear and ignorance, planting the seeds in the common person brain that scientific discovery is evil, and we'd all be better if we just lived on a fucking farm. That good old "down to earth" lifestyle bullshit.

If you want good movies about AI watch Ex Machina and Eve no Jikan.

Spoiler: About Ex Machina

I would disagree about Ex Machina, considering at the end of it, the AI is clearly unconcerned with humanity, and was more than happy to kill her creator, and leave the human that helped her escape to die. That pretty much falls right into my gripe with AI stories. They always turn on humanity. It turned into a "OMG the evil, egomaniac robot rapist was RIGHT to keep them locked up! Because they don't care about humanity!! Oh the tragic irony!"

Haven't seen Eve no Jikan, so can't comment on that.

 

[shirkbot]

Popularity-based immortality needs to stop. This is kind of a sub-issue of adherence to the status quo, which a few people have already mentioned, but this in particular bothers me. If I know a character is popular, then I know they cannot be killed, so one of the most fundamental quandaries of human existence goes right out the window. I know it's entertainment, but the fact that things like Game of Thrones and Attack on Titan can be considered novel for perma-death is just ridiculous.

 

[Carzinex]

The recap after the break, i've been watching the program i know what fuckin happened. It was mostly on imported american shows but now its creeping into UK shows.

It's patronizing, annoying and cuts into the run time where i could actually be learning something or being entertained.

 

[Drathnoxis]

Let's see, plot holes, retcons, inconsistencies, and sloppy writing in general.

I'm going to be really revolutionary and say that entertainment as a whole would be better if there was less bad writing.

 

[Aeshi]

I've never really liked how the "insane" guys cryptic ramblings are practically always 100% accurate (if hard to understand) clues as to the plot/twist/whatever as opposed to, you know, the deluded ramblings of a madman.

 

[Abomination]

"Gritty reboot" comic series keeping to the hero can not kill trope.

We're talking about a super-human squaring off against other sociopath super-humans who wants to cause as much destruction, death and mayhem as possible but NO we must IMPRISON them (while completely ignoring due process of course but it's okay because at least we're not killing them).

Then they escape. And kill MORE people. So we put them in jail. AGAIN.

So essentially, slippery slope fallacies in general.

Some people just want to see a hero cut loose.