I know this is probably a common topic. For me, I’m not sure if it’s a “trope” or just totally misinformed writing, but it’s how many authors approach alcoholism. Some examples are Girl on the Train and The House Across the Lake, among HUNDREDS. If anyone else here has struggled with alcoholism, you know it’s not just "i woke up after downing an entire bottle of whiskey but was able to shower, down a cup of coffee, and solve a murder. "
Keep in mind that all tropes can be done well, and often were done well by some classic book. But then they get overused or done badly and that’s when I find them irritating.
Love triangles that take forever to resolve. Make up your mind!
Multiple fake-out deaths. After a while I just want someone to really die!
On the other hand, I’m also tired of so many people dying that all the people I liked are gone, and the few remaining original characters now have impenetrable plot armor because someone has to survive from beginning to end.
Historical fiction or fantasies that romanticize the past to an absurd extent.
Orphans. So many orphans.
Reckless protagonists who never suffer the consequences of their recklessness. Sensible friends who are berated for being sensible. Or maybe they are persuaded to be reckless too and find out it’s great and there are no consequences.
Traumatic incidents that leave zero scars and are never referenced again.
The Agatha Christie story “The Body In The Library” is a good example of a mockery of a trope that so thoroughly killed it that no-one remembers the original trope.
But in mystery stories, it was common for a dead body to turn up in a library with a mystery being about how the killer got in or out, often due to a closed room mystery. A secret passage or a means to sneakily enter and leave the room without anyone knowing. The library itself had a spectacular element to it that facilitated the mystery.
But what made the book so unique was the fact that there was nothing of note about the library - it had no secret passages, the doors weren’t locked, there was no reason to keep it isolated at all, nothing.
What makes the story so strange was the fact that a random-ass corpse just turned up out of nowhere.
Yes she went through every possible idea/permutation of ‘murder story’ kinda systematically which is fun
That’s why it remains one of my favorite Christies.
That was a great book . I am currently reading the mirror cracked and the references in it are really funny .People keep asking about the murder and the reply is always : there wasn’t any murder there . The body was just put there . 😂
I’m fascinated by your desire to see reckless people get their comeuppance. Is that how you feel life works, or is it just how you feel fiction should work? Or are you a particularly cautious person yourself?
Personally, I don’t see it as any sort of karma thing. It’s more like actions have consequences. Like, if you jump off of a bridge you might break a leg or you might not.
What I thought @wjbc meant was that they wanted the negative outcome to happen, but it turns out what they meant was they wanted a knowledge of a potential or guaranteed negative outcome not to sway the protagonist.
I agree with you, it’s might or might not, and neither is more realistic than the other. Sometimes pessimists think they are realists, and the only likely outcome is the worst, but I don’t think that plays out like that in real life. A lot of reckless people get away with it without worrying for a long time. And some people break that leg without even needing to do something reckless!
love triangles have always been one of my least favourite tropes, i can never get invested, maybe its just because ive never met someone in that situation before but it seems so incredibly unrealistic that you are equally in love with two people who are also equally in love with you, just choose one and get on with the story
I was in a love triangle as a teen/20 something and it’s absolutely as weird and frustrating as they are written. I don’t read much with love triangles, but TV shows always have them and I’m always like: I do NOT miss that. 🤣
I absolutely hate love triangles
Orrr…become a triad?
It’s funny you mentioned these, because while it’s not really an issue in the comics as much, my husband and I were just watching a recap of the entire Walking Dead TV series and these two points were some of the biggest issues that made it unbearable by the end, and we weren’t even sitting through actual episodes lol
Most of the characters I actually liked dying was one of my issues with the later GOT/ASOIAF books.
And the ones you don’t like have an annoying habit of not staying dead. I swear to gods, I about threw the book across the room when I realized Theon had survived. And Catelyn? FFS, just let her rest.
Oh, yeah! This drove me nuts as a kid because I couldn’t relate. I would think I could never be a “main character” because I had two loving parents and a non-negotiable bedtime.
You have to admit, the non-negotiable bedtime would make it harder to go on an adventure. As would parents who keep you from doing anything that would be really dangerous.
The last one!!
How many fictional characters have been (almost) raped and were sad for a few pages before their love interest appears an make them “forget” what happened to them. As someone who professionally works with victims of SA I always want to scream at these authors.
“On the other hand, I’m also tired of so many people dying that all the people I liked are gone, and the few remaining original characters now have impenetrable plot armor because someone has to survive from beginning to end.” You basically summed up walking dead
Could you expand a bit more on “orphans”? I don’t think I have run into that one very often. Main character orphans?
Last one is basically HP 1-3 and then after 4 we see Harry suffering from what happened to him in the finale of the previous book lol
The power of love defeats evil (OG A Wrinkle In Time, done a million times since including Harry Potter)
This is why I stopped watching Raising Hope. The first time it turned out her mom was still alive, I was fine with it since it was a fun twist. But it happened a second time, and then a third time, and by that point I was sick of it.