5 Story Tropes That I’m Not Fond Of
I’m an author, reader, movie viewer, and huge critic. I love watching and reading things but I always find myself tearing it apart at some point because of something in it. Whether it be some stupid thing the hero inevitably did that messed up the story and caused the mentor/ally to be killed or just some obvious plot hole.
Here are my top 5 least favourite things that people do in stories.
5. I’m a hero and heroes don’t kill.
Obviously, it’s not the fact that the hero doesn’t kill people that bothers me, that’s perfectly okay. In my dystopian story idea, the main character is a pacifist lawyer. The problem is what we see in every action movie ever. The hero, believing themselves to be on some kind of moral high ground, kill all the little minions and then leave the big bad guy alive. Just so that they can come back later and kill someone the hero loves, making them realize that they should have done away with them when they had the chance. Of course, they then spare them again at the and, but not before they’ve slaughtered hundreds more minions, all while under the guise of ‘not killing’.
4. The mentor who knows everything but never divulges anything important.
We all know what I’m talking about here. The nice old man who shows up just when our budding young hero shows up, ready to go face the big bad guy with all the training he doesn’t have. The mentor, of course, lets him know he needs training, and then gives it to him. During the course of the training and traveling that follows, the hero finds out that the villain and mentor have some sort of past. The mentor admits it but refuses to tell the hero everything about his and the villains past. He won’t even tell him how to defeat the villain for no reason at all. He’ll let him know when he’s ready. Unfortunately, because our ambitious hero does something stupid that the mentor told him not to do, the poor old guy kicks the bucket. As he lies dying he attempts to tell the hero that last necessary bit of information, but only half of it gets out before he dies, leaving the hero even more confused than before. But don’t worry, the villain will fill him in later all while laughing about how little he actually knew about the mentor that the hero will now die for the memory of, despite only knowing him for two days.
3. The princess.
This poor damsel in distress. Trained from a young age in every form of combat, except of course in the presence of our hero, who can hardly even hold a sword. Honestly, at this point, I think she’s just trying to make him feel good so that he’ll do all the dirty work. Unfortunately, this girl is gonna get captured by the villain at the beginning of the story. But don’t worry, the hero will have a dream about her for no reason and come to save her. At some point in the story, she’s gonna have a fling with the dark and brooding ally with a past. It’s not sure whether she’ll end up with him or our handsome hero, but at least we’re gonna get lots of drama and a rift between the hero and the dark and brooding ally.
2. It takes being killed to finally beat the villain.
Ah yes, we’ve finally done everything we needed to do in the story and we’ve gotten to the showdown. Our ambitious hero is outmatched but he puts up a good fight and is defeated like we knew he would be. He’s been beaten and by all accounts, he should be dead now, but he lives. While the villain monologues for way too long about his entire past, including the thing the mentor forgot to tell us about, our hero finds some stamina hidden deep down inside. He then recovers completely and fights harder than he’s ever before, finally defeating the villain who is much superior to him.
1. Speed learning or time lapse?
Our hero is the most superior in everything, as all heroes must be. And when they aren’t, we need a trainer to come in and teach them something. The trainer has trained for their entire life and is the best there is in this skill, making them the one to teach our hero. Thankfully for the hero’s pocket money, they’re a fast learner, cause 40 bucks an hour is too much to spend for more than the one day it takes them to be better than the trainer. But don’t blame the hero too much, it’s all thanks to the things the hero’s parents taught them before they were tragically murdered when the hero was just a child.
And there you have it, 5 things that bother me in stories. They’re not in the actual order of what bothers me most and least, just what came to mind first. These aren’t all the things either, so I will most likely be back with another list or two at some point. Perhaps I’ll do some about things that I like as well, just to mix it up a bit.
I hope you enjoyed reading this. Feel free to comment about what you like or don’t like in stories.
