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What are your most hated fanfic tropes

Yeah, but Star Trek and Star Wars did that shit all the time. Sometimes the costume department is on a budget... they got a deadline for getting these episodes churned out...

But yes, that certainly categorizes the work. In the 20th century it was called Pulp. In the 21st century, it's called Slop.

I think if I was reading about another planet, I would rather it be populated by humans with an interesting sub-culture than by slop aliens.
 
Plundering Luck is bullshit. The amount of young masters smugly plundering luck from "the protagonist" is a trope that is out of control! Why can't I ever find a villain novel where the MC isn't a loner or tries to steal everything the hero has?

Slice of life Pokémon stories. I know I'm in the minority here, but damnit, every game has you curb stomp an entire fucking country with WMD's. Pokémon are ripe for crossovers or with ancient Japanese lore. For godssakes, does no one know about Pokémon Conquest?! You can literally play as Nobunaga and conquer "Kanto."

Horror stories. Can a brother get a horror story where the MC doesn't have a system that tells him every single clue to escape? Why is it that the MC is always clueless, acting clueless, or innocent? They don't need to be a sociopath, but it would be cool to see some legitimate mystery, and maybe have them learn how to fight back. I really want to read a horror story where the MC has balanced strength, can fight off the weirdness, but also knows when to run. One where he isn't a brain dead arrogant asshole psychopath, where they grow too strong too fast, or a coward...too bad horror isn't popular at all as a genre.

I hate people's lack of imagination. That they cannot fathom a crossover, or a minor crossover of three franchises+. I know bloat is a thing, and things can get complicated...but what is so difficult to understand mixing 3 related genres? If Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Nioh into one crossover, would it really be that difficult to grasp? They're all demons, and all Japanese shit. Imagination is lacking, and we suffer as a result as only the same old tried and true bullshit gets repeated on loop. Enjoy your Naruto SI that romances fem Naruto/Sasuke. Or your Worm fic that is kind to all the girls, acting as a rock for their mental deficiencies. Laugh at your Percy Jackson fics where Zeus is always a raging asshole, and Poseidon is chill af. Read the same slop over and over and over.
 
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Anti-creative powers, meaning a power that becomes better the dumber the character is. Case in point Endless-9 from Umineko, whatever the user would perceive as 'magic' is unable to affect them. Completely passive and works on high-multiversal scale. Great for a smart person but beyond broken for people dumb as rocks. Someone shoots you with a gun or attacks with a jet fighter? "What sorcery is this!? A thunderstick? A flying metal dragon?! It's not real!" Does fuck all to them.
 
Z3r0Sama said:
Completely passive and works on high-multiversal scale. Great for a smart person but beyond broken for people dumb as rocks.
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... You know, that does make me wonder if such a person were to be raised on a space station, could they reasonably defy gravity? They'd only know the free-fall of orbit, after all, so a force that attracts to the ground might not be intuitive.
 
Reignwyn said:
Absolutely despise systems forcing quests or goals for the main character to do (with the punishment for failing always being death ???) + fuck systems with personalities.
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The MC having no agency to do anything without the system input calls into question who the real protagonist is.
 
Something that always gets me frustrated is having an OC take a protagonist's role in universe... while keeping the canonical one around. It gets worse when an OC takes an MC's powers, jokes, love interests, hell even their drip in some egregious cases.

I swear to god that half the time they just become sidelined, becoming a support character for author's "totally not an SI" OC. At that point, it just feels like "Oh my god, I'm so damn cool that the old hero cheers ME on! Look how much better the world is by having ME in charge! That other guy who powers, abilites, personality, and supporting cast I took? Totally would have messed that up in my place! Good thing you have ME!" Come on man, if you're going to do that, just do an SI. Bonus(?) points if the OC is also unrepentantly edgey all the time, but no one bats an eye in universe. I love edge as well, but there's always a space between over the top (fun), just enough (cool), and it's called immersion breaking (stupid).

A lot of this could be softened by acknowledging it in story, but it still just always rubs me the wrong way, especially when the author clearly likes the character. Like... why would you steal everything that makes a character a character? At that point, might as well go all in at take their name too. I usually just chalk it up to inexperience, because it's very easy for begginers fall into this. It has always had me leery of OCs in stories, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE RELATED TO THE MC.

The only thing worse in unexplained OOC-ness.


(I'll never recover from early Naruto and HP fanfic)
 
humon said:
Yeah, but Star Trek and Star Wars did that shit all the time. Sometimes the costume department is on a budget... they got a deadline for getting these episodes churned out...
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Which is a good explanation for them, but rather falls flat with written works for which the term "special effects budget" is meaningless. Really, I like fanfic that takes advantage of the fact that it's not constrained that way and adds in all the cool non-humanoid aliens that a TV show or movie could never afford to have.
 
Karp said:
Horror stories. Can a brother get a horror story where the MC doesn't have a system that tells him every single clue to escape? Why is it that the MC is always clueless, acting clueless, or innocent? They don't need to be a sociopath, but it would be cool to see some legitimate mystery, and maybe have them learn how to fight back. I really want to read a horror story where the MC has balanced strength, can fight off the weirdness, but also knows when to run. One where he isn't a brain dead arrogant asshole psychopath, where they grow too strong too fast, or a coward...too bad horror isn't popular at all as a genre.
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A couple good ones that I enjoy are The Game at Carousel (first half is on Kindle Unlimited) and Got dropped into a Ghost Story, Still gotta work.

Thread Tax:
Battle Maniac protagonists, especially if they come from a modern setting. A sub-trope of this that I particularly despise is the MC holding back so the fight lasts longer because the author made him way too powerful and can't rope in on-level enemies without making the supporting cast even more irrelevent.
 
gt101 said:
Something that always gets me frustrated is having an OC take a protagonist's role in universe... while keeping the canonical one around. It gets worse when an OC takes an MC's powers, jokes, love interests, hell even their drip in some egregious cases.

I swear to god that half the time they just become sidelined, becoming a support character for author's "totally not an SI" OC. At that point, it just feels like "Oh my god, I'm so damn cool that the old hero cheers ME on! Look how much better the world is by having ME in charge! That other guy who powers, abilites, personality, and supporting cast I took? Totally would have messed that up in my place! Good thing you have ME!" Come on man, if you're going to do that, just do an SI. Bonus(?) points if the OC is also unrepentantly edgey all the time, but no one bats an eye in universe. I love edge as well, but there's always a space between over the top (fun), just enough (cool), and it's called immersion breaking (stupid).

A lot of this could be softened by acknowledging it in story, but it still just always rubs me the wrong way, especially when the author clearly likes the character. Like... why would you steal everything that makes a character a character? At that point, might as well go all in at take their name too. I usually just chalk it up to inexperience, because it's very easy for begginers fall into this. It has always had me leery of OCs in stories, ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE RELATED TO THE MC.

The only thing worse in unexplained OOC-ness.


(I'll never recover from early Naruto and HP fanfic)
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You just described Sony's Spider-Man 2.

But I otherwise agree with everything you said.
Karp said:
I hate people's lack of imagination. That they cannot fathom a crossover, or a minor crossover of three franchises+. I know bloat is a thing, and things can get complicated...but what is so difficult to understand mixing 3 related genres? If Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and Nioh into one crossover, would it really be that difficult to grasp? They're all demons, and all Japanese shit. Imagination is lacking, and we suffer as a result as only the same old tried and true bullshit gets repeated on loop. Enjoy your Naruto SI that romances fem Naruto/Sasuke. Or your Worm fic that is kind to all the girls, acting as a rock for their mental deficiencies. Laugh at your Percy Jackson fics where Zeus is always a raging asshole, and Poseidon is chill af. Read the same slop over and over and over.
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Yeah, it's especially sad when one crossover is perfect to fill a world-building gap of the other setting. Conversely, Highschool DxD is basically a massive multi-crossover already, but most people including the 'I have no idea what I just read' crowd somehow seem to miss this.

You can't really blame people for portraying Zeus as a raging asshole in PJO though. Not for nothing are many fans of those books half-convinced the world Kronos planned to create would've been better for demigods to live in, and for humanity in general.
 
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Karmic Acumen said:
You just described Sony's Spider-Man 2.
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Oh man, I swear I was just talking about old bad fanfiction when I wrote this, though a lot does still fit. Peter isn't left completely powerless, which was what I was thinking about when it comes to bad tropes. But... the narrative does almost make him feel like that. I can see what they went for but the execution was dogshit.

I wish they didn't nerf Peter so damn hard, with him being overpowered by Kraven at almost every turn. I mean, it does help the allegory of Peter wanting the symbiote to keep up (I.E performing enhancing drugs), but not only is Miles shown to be better than a veteran Peter, but a rookie Harry is as well. Peter is not weak. He barely using a fraction of his strength even in fights to the death, but this Absolute-like version of Kraven was no diffing Peter like it was nothing. They could at least say Peter suffering from an reemergence of dormant Devil's Breath in his system or something, but instead they couldn't give a reason. At least then, it would give the nerfing a plausible reason

With Miles, it was a lot more of a passing of the torch then straight on replacing (which I don't mind as it finally gives Pete a break), but I did find it hard to see the OG so outclassed. Also, I never once bought for a second that Miles would kill or choose not to save Li. His electricity powers working on the symbiotes is fine, but raises questions. Why did the symbiote have no fire weakness? It was Knull forging the All-Black with fire and an anvil that gave those weaknesses of fire and sound, with Thor being the one to give the lightning one.

Really, the story had so much more potential, but the creative directions the team went with (like showing Knull's symbol being a thing without using it correctly) left me very dissatisfied. There is a ton little decisions that add up to make it the worst of the 3 Sony games (storywise). The first two were good while being love letters to each character, but the 3rd needed a new or heavily revised script.

I just use it as web slinging simulator now days while wishing for a better story. Super pretty though.

Another trope I hate is mind control being used by a "hero" MC, especially if it's on allies. If you want to use that in your stories, fine, but at least don't try and downplay how fucked it is.
 
brokenBillairds said:
The main character being an asshole or 'morally grey' or some dumb blindspot that makes them not actually want to be kind, change the world to help everyone, etc
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As they said in the Simpsons, you know what I blame this on the breakdown of? Society.

Somewhere during the cold war, the culture shifted things in a direction where people started to get the idea that being a good person is a sucker's game. It might have been the dysgenic randomness of the two world wars, or the looming threat of nuclear annihilation, or the observation that just about every position of power was occupied by some shitty psychopath or another. As the elites do, so eventually the commoners do, and so the more degenerate the ruling class got, the more degenerate society in general became, until now people write stories about heroes who are just shitbags, because might makes right.
 
Mind control. I fucking hate it even when it's the villain because it just feels like a cope out. Shits annoying as fuck and if you absolutely have to have that horse shit at least try to make it reasonable. like no waifu catalog a stamp does not make them straight up fall in love with you. It at most makes them look at your actions in a better light. Also yes wether you like it or not contractors you did infact kill them when you decided you had to have a character you know love you when they would never look you other wise.
 
Billbo baggins said:
Mind control. I fucking hate it even when it's the villain because it just feels like a cope out. Shits annoying as fuck and if you absolutely have to have that horse shit at least try to make it reasonable. like no waifu catalog a stamp does not make them straight up fall in love with you. It at most makes them look at your actions in a better light. Also yes wether you like it or not contractors you did infact kill them when you decided you had to have a character you know love you when they would never look you other wise.
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Proper MC stories are more about corruption and the gradual shift of morals.
The way most WC stories use it is the bargain bin mind control, basically feeding them a permanent love potion and thats it.
 
"I am in Westeros, Printing Press!"

Me: Oooookay...now an important question. How that means 'industrial revolution'?
At best you are creating a new product that people can buy, but nothing else. And it will also depend if people NEED it even.
 
Bear_Mint said:
Bro skipped over the Renaissance and wanted to go straight to the Industrial Revolution.
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Don't you know? World development is like a CIVILIZATION GAME.

I can buy someone being able to make a Guntenberg machine.
Now make an industrial revolution? Nah. That is impossible. The industrial revolution requires a WHOLE ECONOMICAL/SOCIAL/CULTURAL ecosystem which are just absent from Westeros.
 
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I have a very strong dislike of introducing any invention in fanfics
Most notably the firearm
It is true that the Chinese could make gunpowder
However the reason no muskets were made is not necessarily because nobody thought of it
It is because metalworking techniques could not make guns
Unless you also during with you several textbooks on late medieval metallurgy you are shit out of luck
 
Frater Astrotechnicus said:
I have a very strong dislike of introducing any invention in fanfics
Most notably the firearm
It is true that the Chinese could make gunpowder
However the reason no muskets were made is not necessarily because nobody thought of it
It is because metalworking techniques could not make guns
Unless you also during with you several textbooks on late medieval metallurgy you are shit out of luck
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There is another reason.
The Chinese state was all willing to allow development of new weapons because that could desestabilize the system.
There is also the market factor. No demand. No development. No production.

I can buy someone inventing something, but that means a new product, not 'lol, industrial evolution, next age on tech tree'.

Stop. This doesn't work like that. Best chances is that you get rich. Worst chances is that you try and it won't work.
 
If people think that one invention will immediately catipult their tech development by several orders of magnitude then they clearly haven't played Factorio since you need entire production chains just to create most construction materials.

Now take this model and apply it to the ancient world, and you quickly discover that it has become infinitely harder because you don't have future space tech that automatically knows the production recipe for crafting, even if you have all the raw materials and equipment needed for it.
 
The most annoying part is that reminds me of a Rimworld/ASOIAF fic idea I had.
Mechanitor ends up in Westeros (on an unhabitated place in the North) with a couple mechanoids.

5 Agrihands
5 Constructors
5 Cleansweepers
5 Lifters
5 Militors
5 Scythers

Why all those mechanoids? Because I calculated that would be required for him to SURVIVE at first.
Constructors seemingly look able to build stuff without having to refine materials or whatever (which implies high tech stuff) and Mechanitors can make a Constructor make Mech Gestators (where we assume Mechanitor has knowledge to make Components).

Now for HIGH SUBCORES? Yeeeeeeah good luck.
I doubt Lord Stark would like the idea of the worst criminals having their brains burned to make new mechanoids.
 
Waifu catalogue: This shit is cringe and annoying, just write a story about you being a slave taking warlord and skip the self indulgent reasoning, moral handwringing, and CYOA trait picking you bloody coward.
Celestial anything: boring crutch.
Excessive crossovers: this shit isn't even an effort to blend 20 different game and story settings together, it's just to name drop your favourite dogshit anime and Brandon Sanderson characters while hitting maximum search engine saturation.
Le GaMeR sYStEm!: Fuck off.
Societal and Technological Uplift: So many others in this thread have said it better than me, this shit is annoying.
Worm: Not a trope, but a setting. Though I sure am sick of seeing it.

There's a lot about fanfic that shits me off about how it's written and what's used too write it that ulimately I think it just isn't for me in general, but I also don't see what I want to read from Big House and Indy publishers, either. So I'm kinda stuck in a limbo of digging through piles of literary shit trying to find the few golden coins of entertainment that I can, where I can.
 
Show me slice of life.

No, put down the goddamned laser beams and power armor and show me the slice of life. I want to see your stupid fantasy/future societies food stalls, show me what music they listen to (If you name drop a band from the 21st century I will attack), show me anything other than their stupid fucking laser beams and warships. I see it all the goddamned time people brainstorming military units down to each individual private taking a shit, but for the life of them will not ever describe what or how they eat, or what they listen to or even an iota of how they live.

Sell me on the world your military is defending, do something other than talk about lasers and power armor, I fucking beg you.
 
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