10 Worst Tropes in Science Fiction

welcome to zombocon you guys have been requesting this topic a lot so i felt it was only logical to indulge today i'm listing the 10 sci-fi tropes that i find illogical i'm gonna be doing this a lot get used to it many of you know that sci-fi is one of my preferred genres for reading writing tv and movies and i may or may not have a nostalgic love for a very popular sci-fi series take a wild guess what it is that doesn't mean that i think the genre or even sci-fi stories that i love are flawless there are a lot of tropes that don't make any damn sense and we're gonna talk about them before we get started this video is sponsored by my all-time favorite learning platform it's also spock's favorite learning platform i know these things he told me and that's skillshare you guys have maybe heard me talk about them once or twice or roughly a million times they're my favorite for a reason okay skillshare has over 17 000 classes available specifically for creators there are classes in creative writing painting graphic design and they've even got some amazing business and marketing classes for anyone who is trying to turn their creative endeavor like writing a book into a career i myself have two marketing classes on skillshare the most recent one is a step-by-step guide to releasing a novel with minimal to no assistance skillshare's got some goodies just for you guys stick around until the end of this video to find out more but first live long and prosper also i'm gonna [ __ ] about sci-fi tropes here we go number one born sexy yesterday a humanoid creature or robot is born or created in a laboratory it's got the mental capacity of a child it finds wonder and mystery in the most basic concepts it's also a super hot woman because what else would it be you rarely see this trope done with men the only example i can think of is the rocky horror picture show and that's because dumb men are [ __ ] annoying so are dumb women but the only way our joe schmo lead is gonna get laid is if a robot woman with the iq of a sock thinks he's amazing because he's the only human being she's ever come into contact with breathing amazing sentience amazing you know you could just write a compelling male lead who would reasonably earn the affection of a woman with basic intelligence just saying number two homogeneous aliens we are not homogeneous your characters land on a planet with an advanced alien species that could easily rival the intelligence of humanity except they all look the same they talk the same they act the same they are the same they wear the same clothes they speak the same language they even believe the same religion globally how is it possible for an entire globe to be this homogenized look at humans we've got different skin colors different sexualities different heights different politics different social norms the only way a homogenous alien species makes sense is if that is specifically the point the writer is drawing attention to the fact that wow this whole species is a monolith isn't that weird if you're going for hive mentality great otherwise not so great number three too much tech i understand that technology is a part of science fiction these books take place in the future technology advances over time it's relevant but i'm reading these books for the characters the aliens and creatures the adventures i do not care about the maker model of your spacecraft or how its anti-gravity feature works i also don't care about your complex computer system best believe i am skipping that info dump entirely it's fine to explain your tech your reader probably needs a basic understanding of it so provide that basic understanding and move on number four lack of research science fiction has a key word in there science that means at least some of what you're presenting needs to be rooted in fact or at least the possibility of it being factual if a facet of your novel revolves around biology it needs to be accurate to biology if it's not accurate there needs to be some plot-related development or event that makes this biological impossibility possible number five teens in charge why is the captain of this spaceship 16 years old why is the entire crew 16 years old do they all band together to escape their parents what happened here what i see the most often are child soldiers 15 year olds who have been trained in intergalactic battle you realize this is a form of slavery right why are you making children risk their lives to protect civilization and why would an advanced society choose children of all people to defend them don't get me wrong i'm sure there are a bunch of teenage bodybuilders out there who could beat the [ __ ] out of an alien but i'm guessing they're in the minority wouldn't the world prefer super soldiers who weren't going through puberty i'm just saying number six the lone woman i've talked about this chick before and the sci-fi genre is where she most often pops up she's the only woman in the book of course she is she's usually the hero's love interest possibly a sci-fi version of the damsel in distress if the author fancies themselves woke she might be a doctor or a scientist or something else that's smart and progressive but still leaves her defenseless in the face of danger shaft danger zone save me my intellect is no match for these killer robots just write another woman or two or ten we make up more than half of the population so it's not exactly a stretch but jenna women don't read science fiction it's for men do not step to me with your illogical [ __ ] number seven i swear it's not star trek a lot of space operas follow a league of people from different planets who come together to explore the galaxy and boldly go where no man has gone before and oh my gosh does this sound familiar i will be the first to say that all stories have been done before ad nauseum but the regurgitation of star trek and star wars is rampant and prevalent you don't have to duplicate these stories to be successful what made these stories so popular in the first place is that they were so original at the time [ __ ] ain't original anymore that's not to say that you can't write about space explorers but make them your own you're also welcome to write a satire of star trek or star wars but satire and mimicry aren't the same thing number eight yay colonialism let's go to an alien planet and teach them our ways we'll share our customs and religions we'll colonize their society and civilize them what could possibly go wrong certainly not genocide writers i beg you open a history book colonizing isn't a good thing it's got very bad repercussions like violence disease and the destruction of entire civilizations your characters are not heroes for barging onto another planet and changing its entire way of life if your character looks a little bit like christopher columbus he's actually the villain number nine the space cowboy he's an arrogant drunk douchebag who moses from planet to planet banging aliens and shooting bad guys and he's our leading man why is this guy the main character in every genre of fiction he's the worst captain kirk i'm looking at you there's nothing new i can say about this character that i haven't already said in every other trope video because this guy is literally everywhere just write someone new i'm begging you and number 10 sexy aliens i don't mind aliens that are aesthetically pleasing in fact i prefer them over the ugly [ __ ] what i don't understand are aliens that are created for sexy time purposes since you know they're not human as having sex with an alien bestiality inquiring minds want to know how do these aliens from an entirely different planet have the exact genitalia for humans to fit into creatures from a different galaxy have penises and vaginas sounds normal i see you've written an alien woman with enormous titties am i to assume this species breast feeds or do you just like titties we all like titties but something's gotta give if you want to make your aliens pretty go for it but sexualizing the crap out of them is gonna make me question your kinks just a little bit so that's all i got for you today sci-fi is fun and exciting and filled with garbage tropes that get on my nerves if there are any other genres you want me to pick apart or genres you want me to gush over comment them below because i'm a people pleaser and i'll probably do it a huge thank you to skillshare for sponsoring this video their support makes it so much easier for me to release regular content to hold giveaways and to pay my bills and not die if you want to check out my class on skillshare or any of their other classes now is the perfect time to do it because right now skillshare is offering two months of skillshare premium for free to the first 500 people who click the activation link below i don't know about you but if it's free it's for me i'm all about saving money so do yourself a solid and click the link don't forget to subscribe to my channel i post new videos on wednesdays and if you want to be alerted as soon as i upload you gotta ring that bell down below and i have it on good authority that you should totally do that because i may or may not be releasing bonus content very soon keep an eye out the savior's champion is available in ebook and hardback as well as signed hardbacks i've got all the links listed below get on it pick up a copy and read tobias's glorious adventure and be sure to follow me on social media i'm on instagram tumblr facebook and of course you can tweet me at jennamarussie bye okay you

Channel: Writing with Jenna Moreci

Views: 131,877

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Keywords: write, writer, writing, read, reader, reading, book, books, ebook, publish, publishing, sci-fi, sci fi, science fiction, novel, author, literature, writing tips, writing advice, writing motivation, writing inspiration, motivation, inspiration, the saviors champion, the savior's champion, jenna moreci, skillshare, worst sci fi tropes, worst sci-fi tropes, fiction tropes, 10 worst tropes, authortube, booktube

Id: hm3pYebQkWg

Length: 10min 40sec (640 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 17 2018