Dear Authors, Doing Tropes Differently

okay so it's time to do another video with where we're going to be discussing I don't know I don't know what the series is called it's the dear authors please stop continuation I posted on the YouTube community tab named a trope you're tired of than a way to make it cooler or just different from what we've seen before or what's the norm I gave the example the chosen one but they're destined to destroy the world so they begrudgingly turn evil but rise up to the calling and embrace it so take a trope that's been overused and then find a way to make it new and fresh because I am a firm believer that any trope can be done well and just because a trope is tired doesn't mean that it's dead we don't have to reach higher tired tropes we just have to find different ways to do them so I have not looked at these answers here's what I'm gonna do the first several I will go through to the ones that are upvoted the most the ones that have the most thumbs up because those are probably the ones that are the more general consensus and then after I've gotten through a few of those I'm just gonna plug this into a random number generator not random number I'm gonna plug it into a random comment generator because I don't want the people who posted late to be discounted just because they didn't post early enough to get a bunch of up votes so yeah we'll start off with the the top ones and then we'll just go random and then I'm not going to I'm not gonna read ones that are repeats of things I've already been said love triangle but the love interests get together and leave the main character out that's kind of funny and didn't that happen in was that one call that's spy book this one I don't think I had good reviews but I do think it happened in that book this is probably not what you considered a trope but I do get tired of reading stories with a chosen one that is very obvious that the chosen one is the main character what if we had a story where the main characters best friend or relative be the true chosen one and we realize that in the middle of the story this can make it really interesting relationship between them depending on how the main character thinks ooh okay so essentially you want a side character to be the chosen one and we are following a side character I think the rest of us just live there I'm pretty sure we follow side characters and that one but I do like this concept and I would definitely like to see that executed more I know people will argue that it won't be interesting if you're not following the chosen one but I disagree because it would be interesting to just see something fresh and you can make it interesting like I think it would be interesting to be the heads of Ron and Hermoine they're great characters and I think that we would like to be able to get perspectives from them and see everything that's happening to Harry from their eyes I think it could be done well the main hero makes a sacrifice to save everyone and he doesn't come back so you want to kill the main main character that has happened in a few books that I've read I shan't say which because that would definitely be a spoiler but they're out there and I like that too alright I'm gonna do the random number generator now cuz now we're into the hundreds the here the evil empire versus good rebels take a story where the hero who is with the rebels learns that the evil empire is actually quite good and has helped a lot of people and the good rebels are actually extremists who have caused a lot of destruction and we've seen in the story have it be a huge realization for the hero that they're not on the right side I've thought about this one too and I feel like I've seen that done a couple times it's definitely something that dystopian zhh have played with a lot but I know what you're saying and it's not just your typical dystopian story or like arch enemies did something kind of similar to that but actually go all out where the hero is with the good guys and he's so deep and then he realizes or she realizes wow this is awful and that has to join the bad guys and it's like this big paradox shift I've seen that touched on but I really I agree with you I think it would be cool to see a book really go hard on that one zombie apocalypse book where we constantly switch main characters because they all die yes that sounds amazing I love high stakes books and when nobody dies or only the side character that wasn't that important dies it's that high stakes and I'm not scared when the big scenes happen but having like having a full cast kind of like Game of Thrones style you have a full cast and you just genuinely don't know who's gonna live and who's not because the books are so brutal but with zombies yes left triangles suck so not classy and honestly just make being indecisive into something serious cute why not just have both is really dumb would love to see two people on the other end of the triangle be like I have no respect I have more respect for myself than this and both have and both leave the person being dumb I love that I love that idea that the two people who are fighting over the one and then the one is like I'll just eat them both and cheat on them both while I decide and then the two people are like hmm I'm worth more than this I respect myself more than this and then they both just bail and then the one is left alone yes yes and yes I think I commented this on one of your other videos but I'm tired of the strong female characters having to forsake their femininity let's have some princesses who hide daggers and their ball gowns but they still love wearing ball gowns yes I think VIN from the Mistborn trilogy is a good example of someone who has a good balance of being so good at fighting and brutal but then she also actually enjoys the other side of of that but I I think that we could even lean into it more and I agree we've talked about this in a few of my other videos like this so I won't i won't harp on it too long but agreed a chosen one who everyone hates but he's undeniably needed to save the world so everyone's forced to work with him oh so let's combine this with the side character one where we don't we don't follow the main character the chosen one we follow a side character and watch that happen let's combine these two and let's follow a side character who's having to follow and support the main character who's ridiculously annoying like John Smith level annoying not Disney John Smith real John Smith like they throw him in the barracks throughout their throughout their journey to the New World because they're so annoyed by him and they don't want to hear from him anymore that level of annoying let's ooh somebody write this book let's follow the side character who is Flores to follow the chosen one they're the chosen one and you have to follow them but they suck and they're so annoying and really bad at what they do and then the supporting characters have to pull a lot of weight because of it but they're still the chosen one and they're still credited with saving the world somebody write that book resurrection trope character dies and is brought back to life with their body is still deceased and immobile that's a horror that I would read like stuck in your body fully cognizant but you're rotting oh yes instead of someone in the real world discovering that they have some sort of power someone living in a magical world discovering that they don't you want to follow a squib and honestly I'd be down for that inste love but halfway through the story it comes to light that the characters had been put under a curse or a love potion and now the effects are lifted but the characters are conflicted by what they thought they felt and how they feel now and if it's still affected by the potion occurs like waking up from a realistic dream where you were in love with a friend and now you see them different hmm I could get on board with this I am loved instant love is a tough sell for me but if you can make instant love I've seen insula but the twist is that they knew each other in another life and so they were destined to come together again in this life or something like that and it's not great but insta-love but the twist is that they didn't choose this love and now the spell or the curse or the trance has been broken and they realize I don't want to be with you I dig that I would well I would read that book love triangle but ends up in a polyamorous relationship have you read The Wheel of Time it's not exactly that but I did just film a review for her book 6 and you may be happy I'm not gonna say who it happens to because it's a huge cast all I'm saying is you may be happy Oh instead of having an already established magic system tell the story of those who first discovered the magic and then figuring out how to use it properly you win the comment of the day yes yes we are so used to having an established magic system and then we followed the character that's discovering the magic for the first time but they have mentor or they have people around them that can explain it to them but having people who show up when the magic shows up and then they have to learn the magic and figure out the rules and laws and bounds of it on their own because someone did right when magic when magic entered the world weather has always been in the world or if some force caused it to be there there were still people that had no one mentoring them that had to figure it out on their own and following that story those people having to play with the magic and having to do really risky things to figure out is this gonna kill me is this gonna blow up the earth or is it just gonna make me fly um yeah or like trying a bunch of stuff and nothing works and then they have to write down the laws of the magic so that they can have some sort of boundaries each different person we're following multiple POVs and each different person is is learning different elements of the magic and they're having to work together what if they were all enemies what if it was a bunch of people who hated each other and they all have to do they're forced to work together because they need to figure out how this magic works because it's so dangerous to not know the boundaries of the magic system and so they're forced to come together and work together to figure out this magic system but they're constantly bickering and fighting as they do it because they don't like each other someone write that book man okay you you win this video congratulations I don't know what your prize is but write that book that's your prize write that book I love it I'm gonna have a hard time continuing on with this video now because that's the best thing that's ever been invented I don't want to play anymore I just want to read that book I want to quit filming videos and read that book a love triangle except they're all assassins who are really just trying to kill one another but must put on the pretense to maintain their covers also one of them none of them are aware the other two are assassins you just made love triangles sound really good someone write that book now wow I'm so glad I didn't quit after the last one you get second place I love it like a mr. and mrs. Smith sort of thing except that they don't fall back in love they actually just don't care about each other and they keep up the pretense as the whole time as they're trying to like secretly poison each other or something like that and then finally it all comes to a head and they have this epic battle and two of them die and one survives write that book write that book I want it I want it resurrection but make it so when the character comes back they're different or use necromancy and they're basically a mind-controlled zombie and can still decay slightly while under the necromancers control ah I want to read that book that at first sounded a little bit like Pet Sematary by Stephen King which is one of the best books that I've read this year yeah write that book man we're getting some good ones see that's the beauty of the random comment generator because these are like that had 13 up votes oh my goodness okay we have three books that we need to write starting today I hope you guys are taking notes okay I'm just gonna do one more because I don't want this video to be forever along ooh the chosen one but he or she dies and his or her friends fulfilled the prophecy themselves so my head cannon is that when Harry Potter hang on hang on spoilers spoiler alert for Harry Potter book seven jump to this timestamp if you don't want it my head Canon is that Harry Potter when he's killed in book seven instead of going to that weird limbo place I think coming back to life and then saving the day I want him to actually die and that kills the Horcrux within him and then that's the ended like that's the consequence and then Neville who is the other chosen one and could easily fulfill the prophecy he does the Nagini thing and then kills voldie because I just think I just I know a lot of people don't like that head Canon and whatever live your life this is mine I love it so much because Neville he has a great arc throughout the series but I feel like his arc is it would be complete if he went from the bumbling almost squib that gets blamed for everything and the poor little kid rises up to be the true chosen one but way more flawed than Harry Harry's flawed but he's all so ridiculously good at things ridiculously quickly quite frequently whereas Neville really has to fight for it and for him for Harry to have done all this work but then he also dies because sometimes people died in war and then Neville the true chosen one the other chosen one they were both the chosen one they both fulfilled it but Neville is the one that completes it and he has a full circle arc where he truly becomes what he could have been from the start but couldn't have been on his own because if Neville was chosen from the beginning he would have been easily killed off all the times that Harry was able to survive because Harry did have more skill than Neville so the two work together as the double chosen one because Harry is able to bring us up to this point and then Neville through his tremendous amount of growth he's the one that finishes off when Harry gets killed in the war because sometimes people die in wars that's my hood cannon I got cut off because I ranted too long but the point is yes well that's a good place to end it I'm glad that's where I stopped as always keep in mind I am a reader not a writer so these book these videos are not meant to be an attack on our authors or me even giving advice it's just the point is readers talking to readers about what we like and don't like and what we'd like to see this time we talked about some cool ways that we'd like to see tropes done differently if you want to know more cool ways to see trips and differently check out that community post because there were a ton of posts and I'm sure a lot of them are good if you have more tropes that you have ideas about how they could be done differently if you want to chat more about the ones in this video that you liked the most be sure to chat with me more in the comments I post videos every Sunday Tuesday Internet you guys easy [Music]

Channel: Merphy Napier

Views: 169,679

Keywords: dear authors, tropes done right, tropes done well, tropes i hate, tropes i love, read, reads, reader, reading, doing tropes differently, book, books, booktube, booktuber

Id: 24tEPvOsMDo

Length: 15min 20sec (920 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 19 2019