Tropes You Wish Were Retired

[Talleyrand]

Both poor communication and coincidences are acceptable when they are used to start a story (for example, two friends that lost contact years before meet each other on a train; a husband and a wife have a silly fight due to poor communication- she storms out of house and is hit by a car) but to sole the plot or to advance the story to the point the writer wants to it's less acceptable, IMO.

The worst for me is always when a radio message or a phone call is slightly scrambled and of course 90% of the time its the exact opposite of what the people were trying to say gets through

[aceluby]

The 20-30 years of using a computer to find fingerprint matches using some master database of fingerprints. In the vast majority of cases fingerprints are used only after you already have a suspect for other reasons and is done by a human, not a computer.

[Kyoshi]

The worst for me is always when a radio message or a phone call is slightly scrambled and of course 90% of the time its the exact opposite of what the people were trying to say gets through

^Broken Telephone or Chinese Whispers. One of the Madagascar films played with it a little. Though movies tend to oversimplify the idea and play it out literally. I actually like the original concept.

[Liffguard]

On a realistic worldmap (which for some reason isn't standard. Anyone have any idea why?)

This might just be one of those "little known facts" that turns out to be total bullshit, but what I've head is that the Mercator projection fucks up the scale but preserves the directions. So if you take a bearing between two points on a Mercator map, it corresponds to the bearing (adjusting for the magnetic difference) you'd need to take on the ground. Useful for pre-GPS maritime navigation when bearing was often more important than distance traveled.

The worst for me is always when a radio message or a phone call is slightly scrambled and of course 90% of the time its the exact opposite of what the people were trying to say gets through

And of course no one in fictionland knows what voice procedure is or how to verify a broken message.

[sj4iy]

I don't have any problem with tropes or clichés if they are done well. There's always someone who can put a new spin on something old.

In any case, tropes live on because people find them interesting. Otherwise they wouldn't be repeated so much.

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun" pretty much applies here.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

My experience with American teenage girls is limited to Hollywood. So I can't really know if at one point, they all slam the door and scream this to their mothers, "you're ruining my life!"

I cannot state how much this annoys me every time I see it in a movie or series.

There are truth's in stereotypes. Though this one applies to suburban middle class families mostly.

Well, part of the problem with (2) is the way Africa is represented on most maps. It looks pretty small on a normal map, which is due to the Mercator projection distorting sizes. On a realistic worldmap (which for some reason isn't standard. Anyone have any idea why?) Africa would be much, much larger.

I haven't seen a Mercator projection on paper since... forever basically. Every map I've seen on a classroom wall has been either Robinson or Winkel Tripel.

[Veltigar]

Adding some pet peeves of my own:

1) The complete and utter lack of collateral damage:

Huge cities get destroyed? No worries, everyone got out alive.

Mass shout-out in a crowded square? Relax, bullets don't harm innocent bystanders

Etc. the examples are endless.

2) Bloodless violence:

It's okay to kill scores of people on the screen, but you show one realistic spec of blood and everyone loses their mind. That's hypocritical. If you don't want to make a cartoonish, over-the-top (Tarantino-ish) movie, just treat the carnage realisticly.

3) Ding, Headshot!

Everyone.Always.Aims.For.The.Head. Which is not very effective.

4) Redshirts dieing with one blow of the swords.

GoT does this all the time. Look at the Battle at the Wall for example. Jon Snow pick up his sword, the wildling redshirt run towards him, shout and then he just kills them with one blow. So stupid. Especially, since then you reach the boss and all of a sudden he seems to forget how to fight.

I haven't seen a Mercator projection on paper since... forever basically. Every map I've seen on a classroom wall has been either Robinson or Winkel Tripel.

I have to say that I didn't know these two were different from the Mercator version. Most maps are called Mercator here, since they have to rub in what a great countrymen the guy was.

Gall-Peters is the most realistic projection when it comes down to sizes I think.

[White Walker Texas Ranger]

Gall-Peters is the most realistic projection when it comes down to sizes I think.

Gall-Peters is not most realistic when it comes down to sizes. That would be a globe, or one of the weird shaped ones like Dymaxion, Homosine, or Waterman Butterfly.

[Crazydog7]

Any given cop show there are varying degrees of quality and we all have a soft spot for this one or that one but it produces unrealistic expectations that seep into the justice system.

Also (and Broadchurch/Gracepoint is a good example of this) how we have to use a child as a murder victim to get an extreme emotional response its just lazy

The old mystery writer troupe still gets some play "I have the information I'll meet you at the warehouse in an hour" just once I want someone to go "Fuck you give the information now moron because by the time I meet you you're going to dead"

And one last thing could we be introduced to a gay character that behaves like a normal rational human being who occasionally has sex with members of the same sex Just once? It would be nice

[The Evil Queen]

I actually love TV tropes about doctors. They make the job look so sexy... I am so sorry to do this, but, believe it or not, we don't have sex around the hospital. Not on daily basis, at least. And second, doctors are allowed to marry outside their work place. And after the whole day spent with your hands in someone's body, dealing with fluids and the other beauties of the job, you kinda try to avoid drama in your life. Especially whom you want to sleep with.

LIES all LIES :bawl:

Next you'll tell me that all med interns aren't allowed to cut on their first day and everyday thereafter :lol:

Me, I'm still stuck on hating that well hated trope of, killer in the house, run up the stairs. I'm unoriginal like that.

[dooog]

I think most of my pet hates have already been covered but the old "low battery" or "no cell coverage" at the critical time has been done to death. Same thing with the car that won't start

And one last thing could we be introduced to a gay character that behaves like a normal rational human being who occasionally has sex with members of the same sex Just once? It would be nice

To be fair, while they're in the minority there are plenty of examples of normal rational homos. From tv alone off the top of my head:

Kima Greggs The Wire

Cooper Southland

Omar The Wire

Mendez The Bridge

Rawls The Wire

[eyenon15]

I always liked Lloyd from Entourage.

[Dr. Pepper]

I think the only one I hate completely is the bad communication thing. It's just impossible not to make that one completely contrived because the characters have to go out of their way to not communicate.

Ones that I find mildly annoying are the omnidisciplinary scientist or the smart guy tropes. Both are basically the same same thing. Sure, it saves money and time from having to have multiple cast members perform each role. But it's still annoying. Felicity on Arrow shouldn't know how to perform surgery or analyze DNA just because she has a degree from MIT.

[Independent George]

Ok, I thought of two more related tropes that are ubiquitous, and annoying.

Offscreen Teleportation (when used for drama/suspense instead of comedy)

Danger Takes a Back Seat

Both can be handled well - it's just that they almost never are. Both almost always jar me from my suspension of disbelief - how the heck did the heavily armed man close to six inches without anybody noticing? How did you not notice the 6'3" hitman scrunched into the back of your Toyota in broad daylight?

And one last thing could we be introduced to a gay character that behaves like a normal rational human being who occasionally has sex with members of the same sex Just once? It would be nice

Is this really all that commonplace anymore? Outside of comedies (where it tends to be dialed up the same as any other trait), I don't really see this very often.

[Independent George]

Adding some pet peeves of my own:

1) The complete and utter lack of collateral damage:

Huge cities get destroyed? No worries, everyone got out alive.

Mass shout-out in a crowded square? Relax, bullets don't harm innocent bystanders

Etc. the examples are endless.

2) Bloodless violence:

It's okay to kill scores of people on the screen, but you show one realistic spec of blood and everyone loses their mind. That's hypocritical. If you don't want to make a cartoonish, over-the-top (Tarantino-ish) movie, just treat the carnage realisticly.

3) Ding, Headshot!

Everyone.Always.Aims.For.The.Head. Which is not very effective.

Yeah, #'s 2 and 3 annoy me. Not that I want or like excess blood & gore, but turning violence into a video game is generally not a good thing. #1 is great for comedy, though, as exemplified by the picture on this trope page.

[Jasta11]

Poor Communication and Misunderstandings.

Hate these incredibly. I find I enjoy movies or TV shows much more when characters are upfront and honest or if they do conceal or hide things it's deliberate and usually the trait of a villain/antagonist or a protagonist clearly turning antagonist. No more misunderstood protagonists that could solve 95% of their problems if they could just speak plainly to someone, it has really become grating for me.

It's what made me quit watching Lost. So many plots could have been resolved/avoided if X character stopped talking cryptically and just plainly told people what the hell was happening. But nooo, gotta keep the fake tension up.

[Greywolf2375]

My experience with American teenage girls is limited to Hollywood. So I can't really know if at one point, they all slam the door and scream this to their mothers, "you're ruining my life!"

I cannot state how much this annoys me every time I see it in a movie or series.

Sadly, that's not as much a stretch as many parents would like it to be.

For most, I don't mind them if they are done well though I do like to see them turned on their ear. For example, one of the few redeeming qualities of the TransFormers movies is that while giant robots are fighting, a lot of people get wiped out by it. Taking away from that is the "somehow it was covered up so no one knew" until the 4th movie.

[Bendubz]

Any given cop show there are varying degrees of quality and we all have a soft spot for this one or that one but it produces unrealistic expectations that seep into the justice system.

Also (and Broadchurch/Gracepoint is a good example of this) how we have to use a child as a murder victim to get an extreme emotional response its just lazy

The old mystery writer troupe still gets some play "I have the information I'll meet you at the warehouse in an hour" just once I want someone to go "Fuck you give the information now moron because by the time I meet you you're going to dead"

And one last thing could we be introduced to a gay character that behaves like a normal rational human being who occasionally has sex with members of the same sex Just once? It would be nice

I think I have two great examples where they actually do this (although one is a bit part character and the other never smiles)

1. James (Barney's brother) in HIMYM - although they never show any of it, there are occasional hints of same sex sex, especially since *spoiler alert if you haven't seen the final series* James cheats on his husband

2. Captain Holt in Brooklyn 99 - We see his partner in a couple of episodes, completely goes against the overcamp stereotype and acts like a normal person

[A Prince of Dorne]

Poor Communication and Misunderstandings.

Hate these incredibly. I find I enjoy movies or TV shows much more when characters are upfront and honest or if they do conceal or hide things it's deliberate and usually the trait of a villain/antagonist or a protagonist clearly turning antagonist. No more misunderstood protagonists that could solve 95% of their problems if they could just speak plainly to someone, it has really become grating for me.

This x 10

[Independent George]

I think the worst part of the poor communications trope is that most of the time, it's just lazy. There are plausible means of explaining why something can't be communicated, and for characters to try and communicate but still be misunderstood. Instead, we typically get an arbitrary and artificial way of manufacturing drama.