Today's video is part one of
two parts on this subject. We're going to be talking about
some really hated tropes. Specifically, I hate them. I hopped on my Discord and I asked people,
"What are some tropes that you hate and specifically tropes
that you associate with me hating?" Mostly, we just ended up having
a really fun conversation out of it, but also, I have a video now. Two videos, in fact. The first one's just going to be mostly a fun-- It's just going to be a fun video where
we're going to tier rank my most hated tropes and make fun of them for a while. Then my next video is going to be
me taking these tropes and showing you examples of them being done well,
because any trope, any overused tool in writing can be done well. Well, no. Actually, that's not true. Some of them can't be done well. We'll talk about that. But almost every single trope
can be done well and some of my most hated tropes
are done wonderfully in some of my favorite books. This is just a fun video talking
about some of my least favorite tropes, and then the next video
is going to be showing you some instances where they're done well. She just said that. Oh, I guess I need to
talk about these tiers. The tiers that we're working with
today are all negative because these are my least favorite tropes. Something won't ruin a book, it grinds my gears, really don't like it. Get out, just leave the room. We don't want you here, then incoming rant. If it shows up, I'm going to point it out and I'm going to be irritated about it. I'm probably going to rant about it. The last one, die a slow death. I never want to see it again. It cannot be done well. Just kill it. I could just grab some images to represent what we're talking about here. The first one that is randomly thrown into
this tier maker thingy is insta-love. This is one that a lot of people hate, so I don't feel bad about hating it. In my opinion, it's just lazy. It's not that hard to add
a few scenes here and there where people have chemistry
and make a solid connection before they're ready to throw
their lives away for each other and are meant for each other
and proclaiming love for each other on their third meeting. There's nothing wrong with
instant attraction. That is totally reasonable and realistic,
but "We're soulmates. I would give my life for you,"
is a bit much after knowing each other a week. It's mostly annoying to me
because I can't get on board with two people falling in love
if I don't get to watch them fall in love. Now don't get me wrong. It's okay for two characters
to already be in love when the book starts. I'm fine with that. You can create chemistry after
they're together, perfectly fine. If I'm there for their meeting,
and I'm there for the first, "I love you,"
and they take place two seconds apart, I'm not going to be happy about it. I'm never going to end up
rooting for these characters. Even if I like these characters individually,
I will never care about their relationship if it's rushed,
and sloppy, and lazy. It grinds my gears. It's not going to ruin the book for me,
but it will ruin the relationship for me, which is why I'm putting it
a tier below, won't ruin the book. It will put a sour taste in my mouth, especially if the insta-love isn't just
some side thing that happens that really is irrelevant,
but it's actually important to the story. It's the main characters
that this is happening to and it's a significant side plot. It'll mess up the side plot. It will. It'll ruin the side plot. It may not ruin the whole book
unless it's a romance book then, of course, it will but it grinds my gears. Next one is stupid mistakes. Characters that are supposed to be intelligent are supposed to be good at their job or good at whatever it is that they're doing
poorly at the moment. It's okay to make your characters
make stupid mistakes but I'm talking about, "You're an idiot right now." It doesn't make sense for the character, it doesn't make sense for their experience. It's just to drive forward the plot. It's nothing but a plot device. I'm putting this on, it won't ruin the book, because it won't ruin the book for me, but if you do it too many times, then it will. Next is love triangles. Okay, love triangles. Have we seen it done well? Almost never. I think a big reason why
it's almost never done well is because it's almost always
blatantly obvious who the author wants you to like. We know who endgame is from the start
so it's just needless drama. It doesn't even add layers to the story. It's just needless drama. I do have examples of it done well,
but they are rare. It's not enough for the amount of times
that I see it done. I'm going to kick love triangles
out of the room. Thankfully, they're not as common
anymore as they used to be, but they still exist and they're never,
almost never executed well. I'm just going to kick them out of the room. We'll leave them out there. Next one is the chosen one. This is a trope that some people really enjoy and some people don't like at all. I've really never been
a fan of the chosen one trope. Some of my favorite books
have the chosen one trope. It's definitely not going to
ruin the story for me, spoilers for where I'm putting it,
but I also don't like it and I don't need it. It's not a buzzword for me. If you tell me something is chosen one,
I'm more likely to not pick it up because it's a trope that
I personally don't care for, but also, it can be done well. It can be done very well,
and I'm fine with it. I just don't really like it that much. Here we go. Here we got. Okay, now we're getting down to the good ones. This one is-- I honestly don't even want to put it in here because I don't want to deal with the dudebros
that are going to be in my comments, but hey, let's do it. The trope of the woman or--
This has happened to men too. It's just a lot more common
for female characters. The woman has to be raped
in order for her character development to happen, her character development
is so tied up in that rape that the readers are convinced that
if she weren't raped, she wouldn't have
this tremendous character growth, therefore, somehow subconsciously
convincing the readers that the rape was good for the character. Ooh, she hates to see it. It's so common, especially in adult fantasy. Adult fantasy is one of
my favorite genres of all time. I love it so much. But, oh my goodness, does it come up so often, and whew, the way some people
vehemently will defend it? In my opinion, it can't be done well. It can't be done well. I don't know why it's used so often. Put a sword in a man's hand and he's great. He's off to the races. He's got his development. Yet, in some books, a woman
can't seem to find her development apart from sexual assault. I don't know why. In some books, it'll just happen
over and over again to every female character in the book. We love to see it. Actually, no, we don't. Let's kill it. Let's let it die a slow death. Let's never see it again. This has got to be my least favorite trope. I don't think anything makes me--
ruins a book like this does. The amount of trauma that
actually comes from sexual assault, you cannot convince me
that it's good for a character. On a lighter topic, the next one
is miscommunication. Two characters don't really
have much conflict in their story so let's just make them bad at talking. Let's make them bad at humaning, in fact. If the whole conflict can be solved
with a single conversation and, in fact, an easy conversation to have and it isn't and we could have cut 200 pages if we would have had that conversation
200 pages earlier, ooh, get out. We're kicking it out of the room. I don't want to see it. It's so frustrating because it's so simple. We notice it. We, readers, we see it and we hate it so much. I don't think I've ever actually
talked to someone that said, "Oh, man, I love the miscommunication trope." It's one that we deal with
because it comes up so often, but it's such a lazy point of conflict
and really frustrating to read. Okay. The next one is another one of
my probably least favorite tropes. That is when the dust settles
and the battles over, the main battle the one that we've been building up to
throughout the whole book or the whole series, everybody's still alive. This is more of a sci-fi fantasy trope. It doesn't really apply to--
It could apply to a thriller. It could apply to a lot,
but it doesn't apply to every genre. If the whole book or series
has led up to one big battle, one big moment, and it ends with that one side character
that no one actually cared about, that we all saw that death coming because it's obvious that the character
was only introduced so they could die so that that character doesn't have to die
because we actually like that character, incoming rant. I will always be irritated by this. I'm not saying that
authors should kill off characters for the sake of killing off characters. It's just I'm not going to be convinced
that you defeated the enemy and all of the enemies' soldiers,
or whatever situation we're in and none of our main crew
has any long-term consequences like death or at least some sort of intense injury
that means that they can't do X that's very important to them. I can't be convinced that you slayed hundreds but no one on our side died except for the ones that
we don't actually care about. Also, I just want some consequences
to major things. Something big that will impact
thousands or millions or more people. Something that is going to impact
so many people in the world. I can't be convinced that at the end of it no one is truly affected on the side that won. The world is all rainbows and sunshines now. Everything is fine. Everybody's happy. The grass grows again. The sun comes out and everybody walks home arms on each other's shoulders
smiling with no PTSD. That was a rant just there. All right. I'm actually going to skip the next one and follow this one up with
the resurrection trope. Now again, I think that almost all of
these tropes can be done well. Resurrection doesn't have to be
the worst thing ever but it is. Almost every time it's used it is and I want this on the heels of
everyone comes out alive because one thing that I've noticed
that I hate is when we're in that final battle, and we kill off someone that we care about,
and the readers mourn, and we're hurting, and I'm crying, and then I turn the page, I cannot tell you how much that irritates me
because it's hallow emotions. I've been cheated out of my tears. The author wanted me to feel something
but couldn't commit so they killed off my fav, made me cry,
and then said, "Just kidding. I'm not brave enough to do this
so haha you felt it. It counts." No, it doesn't. Incoming rant. I don't know. Resurrection can be done well
so I'm not going to put it in die a slow death but what I just described
that's not it done well. Now we'll jump back to the cute little puppy. This is talking animals. This is a trope that is objectively fine. I just for whatever reason don't like it. It's not even something that
I feel justified about not liking. It's not even one of those things where it's like, "Okay you can respect that
I don't like this, right?" "No, you probably can't respect that
I don't like this because it's irrational. Why does this bother me so much?" I don't know. I want to put it in won't ruin the book
because it's such an illogical irritant of mine but it has ruined books for me,
especially if the whole cast is animals, I can't do it. I don't know why. I'm just going to put it in grinds my gears even though I don't think that's fair
because it doesn't. It's not so much an irritant
as it is just I can't do it. I just don't like it. I don't know why. It doesn't make sense. Next is flashback, which I mostly put this in
because it kept coming up on the Discord when I asked for people's recommendations,
and because it can be really overused and it can be done really really poorly. But it's actually not one that
bothers me that much so I'm just going to chuck it in
Won't ruin the book because I know that it won't for me. It can be done really poorly. But even when it's not executed well,
I generally don't mind that much. I just get bored in the flashbacks and I'm like, "This really isn't necessary. We don't need this. You could have incorporated it another way." But it's not going to bother me that much. I mostly put it in this video
so that I could include it in the next one because I have examples of it done so well
so we'll just move forward. This image doesn't represent
the trope well at all but I couldn't think of what would work. This trope is the one where
it's all talk and no action. This is really more of a writing flaw and less of a, "This is overused
and people are tired of it" flaw. The author really wants to
convince me that this character is a force to be reckoned with. They can look at a room
and we'll have a long monologue about all the ways that they could kill
everyone in this room, all the ways that they could best everybody
and make it out alive in the end. They're not going to do it
but they'll think about it really hard over and over again
throughout the whole book. Or it can be done with friendships too. Like just really nail in to the reader
through your narrative that this person is a great friend
or an excellent love interest, but you're never actually going to show me, you're just going to really tell me a lot. I will never be convinced by that. Again, it's more of a writing flaw than it is-- but it's something that comes up so often. It's something that multiple people
at the Discord brought up, and I think that it's worth acknowledging
as something that-- it'll ruin whatever it is that
the author is trying to get across to me. Whatever it is that the author
is trying to tell me this character is, if you only tell me and never show me, it'll make it worse than not even including it. I'm just going to put it-- Oh, I'm just going to kick it out of the room. It's annoying, but I don't know--
Would I rant about it? If I reviewed this book, would it get
a dedicated rant section of the video? I think it would. Yes, we're going to put it in incoming rant really it should probably be put in
die a slow death because I don't think
this can be done well, right? Just telling me constantly
that a character is something but never showing me. I don't think that can be done well,
but that column is reserved for a certain something,
a certain trope that we've already discussed. The last on this list is
romanticized or justified cheating. This is one that I have ranted about
so many times, and it's in all of my least favorite books. All of the books that
I have dedicated rants for, that my subscribers expect me to talk about when I talk about
my least favorite books of all time, it is always a book that has romanticized
or justified cheating in it or just abusive relationships
that are romanticized. Man, I hate unhealthy relationships. Anyway, moving forward, either the current person that
they're in a relationship with is a jerk or is I don't know, just not the protagonist. Whatever the reason is,
it's justified, and it's fine. In fact, this relationship
where active cheating is happening is cute and sweet, and we root for them. There's always a reason, one book particular there's not even a reason
other than just she's dating the guy that the main character wants. It's fine, everything's fine. I despise cheating. Just break up with them. I get it. You want to make out with
that person over there. Just break up with the person
that you're currently with. It's really not complicated. If you don't like them anymore, or you don't like them as much as
the person that you're trying to jump the bones of right now,
break up with this one. It's not-- Incoming rant. Okay. I don't know if this was fun for you guys. It was pretty fun for me. I feel like I let out some steam. These are some of
my least favorite tropes of all time, some of the ones that I talk about a lot,
and this is me ranking them. Now you know, in what order, I hate them the most. Next, we're going to talk about ways that
these are done, well almost all of them. We're going to talk about
ways in which I've seen this done, and I've actually genuinely liked it. I'm going to give you book examples
so you can read it done well, at least in my opinion,
and we'll be able to talk about that. Until then, in these comments,
be sure to hop down to the comments and let me know, are there some of these that
you also hate on the same level as me? Are there some that you actually like
and give me examples of how you've seen them done well? And then if there's any that
I'm leaving off the list that you really hate that I didn't talk about, I'd love to hear it. Thanks for hanging out with me
for this ranty video. I post videos every Sunday,
Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I'll see you guys again soon. Bye. [music]
