“I Hate It When…”: 30 Of The Worst Literature Tropes And Stock Characters Our Community Can’t Stand

Broken Angel, an eighties movie call Heathers is a crushing takedown of this whole trope, and a lot of other teen flick tropes. Go check it out!

I'm looking at you, PDH Aaron and Aphmau

I know it's a terrible cliché, but I'm such a sucker for this trope. I love a good Herondale.

I need to see him kiss her by surprise and then she throat punches him by surprise. Li Lu had it right boys, "Never without asking"

*cough*Edward*cough*

Or those same female characters making really poor and potentially career-ending decisions to sleep with an employee. Or any strong women who just fall in bed with really wrong men, especially with no established context of why they would do something stupid like that. It’s just not how such a woman would actually behave. Even now, it’s hard enough for a woman to rise to the top of her profession. Even harder for her to stay there. Why TF would she take such a counterintuitive risk?

I absolutely hate the "woman as a reward" trope! He did a good deed, he saved her life, saves the world, saves a puppy he said something nice to someone once, he loves cats...he gets a girl as a prize! Although this also sometimes gets done with guys who do actively harmful sht to a woman, like in the movie Passengers!

This trope among others though extensively analyzed and extended into all sorts of stories, despite the haranguing, really is not about the conditions that can be changed every time. The tropes are really about the archetype, which proves the reality or cyclical mythology, despite the flaws that may be perceived. Calling tropes archetype or mythology is really seeing them as a history which is eligible to more variations than are imagined and that create an impact in many other ways that cannot be conveyed by being called "stock," "cliched," or "unpopular" by a jaded audience driven by cynicism.

pixels. in fact, any adam sandler movie

Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Melark

every single wattpad story

Yeah you can tell when things are written by men for women to say or do with no female input at all.

To quote Seth McFarlane: "For the next 90 minutes, I'll show you how all your problems can be solved by my p***is."

Yeah, in the movies (unlike in the real world) women don't ever have a justifiable dislike of any man! Their dislike is always a cover for their deep feelings of desire.

This is why giant dildos should be normal office desk accessories.

My father was a piano mover, so... (Groundhog Day).

All media have a big problem with convenient characters who possess skills that are ludicrous. Some character "was in the Army" so somehow they know how to operate every weapon and fly or operate every single military vehicle, and know every procedure in detail used by every command and military in the world. Whereas IRL they might know how to fix a certain vehicle's AC system because they worked in the motorpool, or know how to fill out a particular form because they worked in administration.

Or finding out their real parent(s) were ______ , then gaining mastery in ________. Then ending with characters fulfilling some birthright b.s., prophecy, or whatever.

The dumbest version of this is in stranger things when that ginger girl is dressing elevens severe wound and she attributes it to skateboarding lol

Well, that's what I base my experience on.

And when ugly girl = girl with glasses, braces and no make up. Then voila! Off come the braces and the glasses, on goes the make up and suddenly she's apparently gorgeous.

everyone is beautiful inside and out though

Or when they take off their glasses.

You can have blond hair & blue eyes & still be unattractive, though...

Bonus point for describing a character via the mirror they see themselves in. 🥱

Hair color and eye color does not determine attractiveness so I really don't understand what you're getting at. You can have ANY hair color or eye color and still have an "unattractive" looking face and body. And not all people with blonde hair have blue or even light colored eyes.

Blonde hair doesn't make you attractive tf. What does hair color have to do with attractiveness?

Dinosaur/train obsessed, super good with computers and a huge nerd who can't talk with girls. Nothing else, no other autism traits except that. Just that.

My son is a cyst white boy and doesn't give a flying s**t about trains, video games and the Gilmore girls however are an absolute favourite over here.