10 WORST HERO TROPES IN FICTION

mmm-hmm come here you fluffy little fluffer oh we filming hello everybody recently I took a poll asking which troops you'd like me to cover next and we got a landslide vote you guys want me to complain about terrible heroes and heroines and I gotta say I'm right there with you everyone knows I love a good hero's journey but some writers be [ __ ] [ __ ] up so let's discuss before I get started I wanted to give a huge thank you to my all-time a favourite learning platform Skillshare who has generously sponsored today's video I've been working with Skillshare for a while now and I have loved the process they have been incredibly supportive of my platform and they have made it so much easier for me to post regular content for you guys kale share is an online learning platform specifically designed for creators that means designers artists writers whatever this platform was designed for you they have over 25,000 classes covering a range of topics I personally enjoy their classes on creative writing business and marketing however they also have classes on drawing public speaking web design and so on the last class I took on Skillshare was writing flash fiction by fellow author and youtuber Hanna Leigh Kidder I definitely recommend checking it out it was amazing and so informative I also have a couple of classes available on Skillshare I've got one all about how to grow your author platform and another breaking down of the book release process is step by step so if you're looking to build an audience or if you want to release your novel the right way you should totally check it out skill shows got some goodies just for you stick around until the end of this video to find out more first we've got some bitching to do I'm breaking down the ten hero tropes that need to be killed and burned to the ground cuz they suck number one the hero with the dead wife ever one knows about the woman in the refrigerator anyone with any taste hates the woman in the refrigerator but this drop is so much more than that there is an entire MC troupe surrounding a hero with a dead wife and people keep writing about him over and over again his wife died it's usually murder and the culprit is you guessed it his enemies he becomes cold and hardened jaded to the point where he rarely if ever expresses any human emotion but this is a good thing because emotionally unavailable men are like so hot of course he's gonna fight the good fight against the baddies he'll probably accumulate a band of loyal skilled followers because man that OneNote dead-eyed bastard is cool am i right along the way he'll screw lots of gorgeous women who are madly in love with him but he can never commit himself to them because remember he's damaged goods if this character sounds familiar it's because he's the lead and 50% of all action adventure stories and he needs to retire yesterday number 2 wild red hair nowadays you can usually spot the heroine of a story based on her wild red curly hair you see her hair is a metaphor it's a wild because she's a free spirit she can't be tamed I don't know if you know this but hair always dictates personality for example my hair is brown cuz I'm a piece of [ __ ] next her hair is curly because someone with straight hair probably wrote her this chick lives in medieval Europe with zero access to styling bones which means she probably looks like [ __ ] lastly her hair is red because it's unique just like she is along with every other heroine who has the same hair color and personality as she does but then when you see the author's face claims for her it's gonna be some hot blonde chick with bottle red because the natural redheads are you pale oh here's an idea if you don't like the way red hats look give him a different hair color dummy number three the grizzled alcoholic antihero his life's hard the road is tough he is not your goddamn hero all right you can tell by the whiskers on his face and the empty bottles of alcohol in his dingy apartment they're empty cuz he drank them in case you didn't get that he's not a normal hero he's a cool hero sometimes he's even edgier than a five o'clock shadow and Scotch neat his Scotch is neat because everyone's heard of scotch on the rocks it's too cliche and he's not a cliche sometimes this antihero takes pills snorts cocaine or it even beats his wife cuz nothing's more original than a white dude with an inferiority complex who treats women like [ __ ] I want to be just like him so cool number four but I don't want to be this impossibly cool thing a lot of times the hero faces an impossible dilemma something that a normal person would struggle to overcome maybe they discover abilities that come with a steep price usually their initial response is to no bond out of there which makes total sense then there are situations where the hero is rewarded some impossibly cool thing powers magic a royal birthright a connection to the gods and their first response is no it can't be true I'm just a regular teenager all I want to do with live a normal life no one wants to live a normal life a lot of you have grown up destitute or in dire circumstances normal is not going to be your goal give these powers some consequences or else no one's gonna buy the hissy fit number five the princess who is bad at princessing she wants to be a good princess the best princess the land has ever seen but he's just such a disaster her hair is never in the proper place she's terrible at curtsying and these dresses are just too dang tight Aurora you've dirtied your gown yet again but mama I can't help it I love riding horses so very much horses aren't for princesses Aurora you should know that by now but mama I love riding with boys I love the feeling of the wind in my hairs and a strong powerful force between my legs that sounded sexual pretend it didn't my sweet daughter you're a woman now every princess from every fictional Kingdom in the history of literature is expected to behave in the exact same manner there's the status quo to uphold and for the sake of regurgitating tired plots our author really needs you to suck at sipping tea even though anyone with hands can do it but mama silence Aurora you've disappointed me for far too long number 6 femininity is for [ __ ] like our last point our heroine isn't remotely feminine but that's why she's our leading lady she's not like other girls her strength comes from her masculinity she's one of the guys girly stuff is for airheads she'll remind you of that at least twice a chapter I am completely fine with a female MC who is not remotely feminine but do we need to vilify femininity in order to validate her existence a lot of feminine conventions are tough as [ __ ] you know what I see when I look at heels danger this ain't just sexy it's a goddamn weapon yeah manicures are pretty but with stiletto nails I could crawl at your face off back up [ __ ] femininity and weakness are not synonymous stops trying to make it happen no one buys it number seven it's just a scratch it's hard biting action scenes fiction because any injury sustained could potentially be fatal this is why so many writers have plot devices like healing magic or super-strength it makes it so that you can rough up your characters without them Keeling over then your writers who cut off their regular human characters arm and go what's the bet that tickled that the character continues to fight the battle how how are they not writhing on the ground in shock how have they not passed out from blood loss he is done with all kinds of injuries do you know serious and arrow wound is those things will [ __ ] you up allows your character is immortal or magical I expect you to treat their serious injuries seriously number eight save her from her shitty boyfriend our hero is madly in love with the perfect woman she's smart and beautiful and so so kind but oh my god her boyfriend is such a dick like we're talking cartoon level douchebag clearly our hero has to save her from her awful relationship how else will she get out of it certainly not of her own volition I hate this trope because no matter the circumstance it makes the female love interest look so so bad either she has no idea her boyfriend's an [ __ ] in which case she is mind-numbingly stupid or she knows he's an [ __ ] and she's perfectly fine with it you know he's happy too [ __ ] [ __ ] another [ __ ] it takes a true garbage human to be attracted to someone who happily degrades other people right in front of them guess who's not in love with your love interest this lady number nine the useless warrior woman I love a kick-ass female character and even better she doesn't need a man to save her well except when she's in danger which is literally all the time how the hell do you get off writing a soldier fighter or most commonly an assassin who has so adamant that she needs no help at all and yet never once proves it don't get me wrong I'm not saying she can't stumble from time to time the love interest can swoop in once or twice I'm cool with it it's swoony but every goddamn time she was described as a lethal you done goofed up there writer cuz I'm not believing any of that [ __ ] and number 10 [ __ ] all the hoes our main guy slays all the baddies and [ __ ] all the [ __ ] of course he does I'm not saying our hero can't get laid but does he have to put it in everything at that point he's just asking for syphilis and nine times out of ten that the dude is a chauvinist and a womanizer wonderful how insecure these writers that they need to live through a fictional character getting his fictional dick fictionally wet the only people who are impressed by this cliche are old eggshell ego men and they're gonna die pretty soon who are you gonna market these books to then so that's what I got for you today if you're writing heroes or heroines like this stop it I can't take it anymore a huge thank you to Skillshare for sponsoring this video they have my back and I love them for it if you're interested in learning more about creative writing or the business end of publishing I highly recommend Skillshare they're super cheap an annual subscription is less than ten bucks a month but you can get two months of Skillshare premium for free by clicking the link below only the first 500 people are gonna get in on this offer so no [ __ ] around okay click the link don't forget to subscribe my channel I post new videos on Wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as they upload ring that bell the savior's champion is available in eBook paperback hardback signed hardback as well as an audio book if you are new to audiobook you can listen to the Sabres champion for free on audible all of the links are listed below and be sure to follow me on social media I'm on Instagram Tumblr Facebook and of course you can tweet me at Jennifer SC bye this is when Boonton if you haven't subscribed to Jenny's channel then by all means go for it the people will love you for it go on press the button ding that Bell see you soon

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 224,526

Rating: 4.9085064 out of 5

Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, ebook, authortube, booktube, jenna moreci, the savior's champion, the saviors champion, amwriting, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, motivation, inspiration, heroes, heroines, tropes in fiction, fiction, novel, publishing tips, publishing advice, publishing motivation, publishing inspiration, humor, comedy, laugh, laughter, tropes, fictional tropes, hero tropes, heroine tropes

Id: CrIzVglXTXI

Length: 13min 6sec (786 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 05 2019