this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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What are your most hated sci-fi/fantasy tropes? (hexbear.net)
submitted 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) by BeamBrain@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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I have a few:

  • Chosen ones, fate, destiny, &c. When you get down to it, a story with these themes is one where a single person or handful of people is ontologically, cosmically better and more important than everyone else. It's eerily similar to that right-wing meme about how "most people are just NPCs" (though I disliked the trope before that meme ever took off).
  • Way too much importance being given to bloodlines by the narrative (note, this is different from them being given importance by characters or societies in the story).
  • All of the good characters are handsome and beautiful, while all of the evil characters are ugly and disfigured (with the possible exception of a femme fatale or two).
  • Races that are inherently, unchangeably evil down to the last individual regardless of upbringing, society, or material circumstances.
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[–] StalinStan@hexbear.net 13 points 5 months ago

We live in the reality where hereditary and luck are the most important factors in success. So the chosen one, secret lineage, noble ancestors isn't a trope. That is just real life.

As far as actual tropes I dislike. Mind powers. Hypnosis, telepathy, whatever else. It has fallen out of favor of late but especially in older works it was everywhere. Granted it was still scientifically feasible in the 70s that taking a drug could get you so high you could read minds. We now know it isn't but it just feels so cheap anymore. Even if it was in the realm of science it doesn't lead to good storytelling I think.