I know this is probably a common topic. For me, I’m not sure if it’s a “trope” or just totally misinformed writing, but it’s how many authors approach alcoholism. Some examples are Girl on the Train and The House Across the Lake, among HUNDREDS. If anyone else here has struggled with alcoholism, you know it’s not just "i woke up after downing an entire bottle of whiskey but was able to shower, down a cup of coffee, and solve a murder. "
I find enemy to lovers absolutely ruins a book 9/10 and the 1/10 it’s because I didn’t realise they hated each other in the first place.
Enemies to lovers is never actually enemies to lovers and it’s so annoying. It’s always just “they said a mean thing a few years ago and the protag hasn’t forgiven them for it.” That’s hardly enemies. Also, Romeo and Juliet is not an enemies to lovers story, yet so many enemies to lovers books are retellings of it. The whole point of their story is that they were the only ones who weren’t enemies!!
Lol right, contemporary “enemies” to lovers is almost always like, guys who looked at her funny in the elevator once
I have a friend, she LOVES this trope, IDK why.
Because people enjoy the journey from hating each other to having a happily ever after. There’s a lot of drama, it’s fun to see how it eventually all gets worked out.
There’s always something stupid, like a misunderstanding from when MC and the LI were seven years old.
“Oh he threw an apple at me in school and I’ve hated him ever since. I can’t stand his stupid face!”
I can’t read straight enemies to lovers because the main male love interest is always unforgivably asshole-ish
Rich person bad. Poor person “righteous”
I hate this shit in real life too. I’m very far from rich but it bugs me to see rich people so constantly vilified for being successful.
A certain thing we desperately need to help our quest only happens every 100 years.
Luckily for us it’s happening tomorrow night
I know a lot of stories are based on heroes foiling some evil ritual or plan, so their learning about said event helps add some tension as they realise the villain is about to win.
I haven’t read this book, but from what I’ve heard about it, it’s sounds similar to the premise of Lightlark lol
National Treasure plot.
As a sci fi reader, the self proclaimed “totally objective, emotionless, logic based” AI character that turns out to not be objective and has its own motivations. You see it coming from a mile away every time because a truly emotionless character would be boring as fuck.
Hey, you leave Murderbot out of this!
Murderbot hardly self identifies as objective and emotionless though.
But the most logical thing is to murder EVERYONE! It is the most logical beep boop beep boop
You see it coming from a mile away every time because a truly emotionless character would be boring as fuck.
I would disagree with that sentiment. A truly “totally objective, emotionless, logic based” character can work, but the author needs to understand how AI, analysis and algorithms work and the limitations and quirks of such AIs. I am no AI scientist, but in my field of study, Economics, we do a lot of empirical analysis, which could be supplemented with AI. In Empirical Economics a lot of policies are analysed, and we are able to achieve objective results of those policies, but the evaluation of said results cannot be done by purely objective means.
As an illustrating hypothetical, there is a policy that affects two groups of people, A and B. The policy subtracts income from the A group and gives it to the B group through a transfer. Should you implement the policy? In most cases, unless you have a situation in which the policy makes both groups worse off, you cannot objectively evaluate the policy, because you need to assign welfare weights to these groups.
Further AIs and algorithms can be objective, emotionless and logic-based but still be wrong or biased, because data can be biased, incomplete or incorrect. It’s why collecting good data is so important for science. Further, why in Economics there is always the question of intuition. Certain result are more plausible than others and those results that run counter to intuition need to be double-checked.
All of this could be explored in such an AI character.
Haha you’re giving me flashbacks to micro. I studied Econ as well. That is a good point and an AI that operates by logic in spite of its emotions could be a compelling story, but in my reading (Hyperion, Blindsight, Ancillary Justice) it’s used more of a plot twist than explored as a theme.
I am not even talking about an AI with emotions that acts against them. I am talking about an AI has no emotions, but acts on pure logic, and the goals and axioms given to it by its creators. You can explore all sorts of questions with such an AI.
As for your examples, I know the sapient AI trope is used very often. I was much more “annoyed” at you stating that an emotionless AI character would always be boring.
Baymax I my favorite subversion of the trope. OSP had a great video that goes over this
Those types of characters actually work great as villains, so long as the writer commits. T-1000 from Terminator 2, The Judge from Blood Meridian, Baron Harkonnen from Dune…
The real trope is when they suddenly develop empathy at their defeat. That’s what devalues the entire character imo.
The bad boy with a heart of gold as a love interest. Jesus Christ I hate it. Hated it when I still read mainly YA and even more so when I’m dealing with supposedly mature characters. And I’m not talking reserved, cold, sarcastic. I mean the one’s that are just unnecessarily rude and demeaning. It’s a turn off. I don’t care if it’s supposed to be “his way of protecting his vulnerable side”. Well find another way, or better a therapist instead of a relationship.
Yes, absolutely. Any kind of “enemies to lovers” trope ruins a book for me.
I dislike it, too. It encourages young women to orbit around men like this, waiting for them to be nicer, but usually it doesn’t happen.
I just finished a book where the “heart throb” guy was an absolute asshole. And she couldn’t help but fall for him because it was all just a cover because he was just protecting her from himself. Like he was straight up rude and demeaning and threatened to kill her and she’d be like, “but his smouldering eyes said something else”… girl, no.
For a second, I read that as the love interest with the heart of gold was Jesus Christ.
Oh Jesus! I don’t know what it is about you, but you resurrected my heart!
Raised by a single mum, has major daddy issues, but is willing to literally die for you
the feisty hipper-than-thou beat-you-at-arm-wrestling pwner-of-everything grandmother trope. looking at you jasper fforde.
The MC having so many injuries but just pushing through the pain. Or never sleeping but pushing through it. Bodies just stop at a certain point. You can’t push through a broken ankle, at least not for long. And people need sleep, otherwise microsleeps and then hallucinations happen. But nope, the mc just keeps pushing through all of the injuries as they build up, For days or weeks.
I just finished the Paris Apartment…and even though i raced through it…the ending left me feeling blah…not going to touch another book of this genre.
The unpopular but amazingly beautiful girl with almost no flaws or very unrelatable flaws and an “unique” personality, aka being nice, intelligent, and not like the other girls. I know, it is wish-fullfilment, but I whenever such a character appears, I roll my eyes, and I always have been lol
I would rather have a beautiful girl who struggles with their family life or only defines herself over how she looks. Or a normal person who happens to be very beautiful.
Drama being created through misunderstandings because nothing dramatic is actually happening.
Manic Pixie Dream girls paired with boring man who is annoyed to be around them. Reads as middle aged men fantasy.
Murakami is the biggest offender of this, but it’s a classic trope.
The main character having a form of mental illness where he forgets stuff, or has hallucinations, on which the whole story hinges.
Shutter Island, Alan Wake, TV episodes where the characters take drugs. It’s just random scenes for the whole story with some sort of revelation at the end. Scenes don’t have to make sense, since the main character is not in his right mind.
Mr. Robot is the only story (tv series) that really redeemed this aspect with a really good conclusion. While watching it, it sucked though. It turns out it’s well thought out and the 4 seasons are clearly written with the ending in mind. There’s a different aspect of this series that I flat out don’t like though, which I won’t get into now.
Sometimes people are functioning alcoholics. I was for a couple years. Never missed a day a work. I did just get up the next day down a cup of coffee and go about my business. Never had a hangover either. I just didn’t solve a murder.
Any sort of “chosen one” prophecy. It reeks of classism (being better by virtue of birth).
The superficial trope of the big happy family where whatever happens, the parents’ love for each other is never even challenged by mistakes, misunderstandings, third parties, boredom, financial issues, etc. They still adore each other after decades, so much so that they are making out in front of the kids, or they are hiding from them for this purpose, hahaha, so very naughty. OR, if there is any challenge, it’s solved ridicoulosly easily within one week between them.