forum What's your least favorite character trope?

Started January 26, 2018 by @Grace<3

tune

Also the chosen one who has never even heard of the mystical group they're supposed to be part of. Why can't the story follow a person who's trained their whole life to fight evil and finally achieve their life goal?

true

The farm boy who’s actually the heir to the throne and who rules the kingdom better than the previous usurping ruler despite having zero training in battle, strategy, politics, government, etiquette, diplomacy, the language of neighbouring countries…

Heros:
Give them flaws. Do it. DO IT!!! LGBTQIA+ representation is good, but no stereotypes or sticking them in for token points. Just. Bloody. Don't. Give them a good villain who is NIGH IMPOSSIBLE to defeat until much later in their development. Let them continue to lose battles, again and again, but eventually get stronger. But don't take it too quickly, spread it out through the story.
Villains:
I like relatable villains most. Seriously, like, the ones who are condescending and snarky are hilarious, and if they can defeat the MC with a snap of their fingers and walk off being all like "Ew they got blood on my coat!" that's good, but make them get defeated eventually or it gets boring. I'm okay with morally grey or tragic, but there are so many cliches that it makes it difficult to write them. But as for tragic villains? It's not always about the backstory. Have them have something they are passionate about that people consider beautiful, and make it tragic. Music? Reminds them of better days. Art? Reminds them of their lover/most devoted minion/someone they cared about. Even the hero can be used, they could have been friends or have even been related, or friends but the villain has a sort of jealous love, while the hero is all like "Love? Hahaha no. What is love? Can you eat it?" Or not, that won't always work. Or make the villain be brilliant but unappreciated so that turned them to evil. They just want to prove themself.

Take note that this advice is coming from the girl who approves of the 6th Doctor era and didn't actually mind the Star Wars prequels, so take it with a grain of salt.

DUDE THE PREQUELS WERE ACTUALLY PRETTY DANG GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!

Also, I want to see some underrepresented groups of people:

• Overweight male characters. I can't remember any books where the male lead was a hero, overweight, and not presented as a rich snob or a slobby moronic jerk.
• And short boys who are smaller than their sisters and younger brothers without it being a major plot point or a constant source of grief.
• Twins without the 'twintuition' thing. I don't really know many twins, but the pair I do know can't stand each other.
• Boys who do choir and drama who aren't presented as 'girly'.
• Girls who like things like Star Wars and traditionally 'masculine' fandoms and it isn't treated as some weird right-of-nerd-passage thing.
• Speaking of nerds: for the most part (or as far as I can tell) they aren't really made fun of like in the olden days since so many more people are self-professed 'trash' of a thing.
• Boys who read more 'feminine' books and watch 'girly' movies and aren't ashamed of it.
• Nice boys who aren't presented as Creepy 'Nice' GuysTM.
• Platonic boy-girl, boy-boy, and girl-girl friendships that aren't warped from friendship to romance.
• FLESHED OUT (NOT CARDBOARD) LGBTQA characters in stories. All of them. Be it fantasy, romance, realistic fiction, sci-fi, etc. Seriously, how hard is it to mention a gay couple dancing together at a school dance, or one of the princesses being mtf?
• The 'I'm so plain and ugly no-one will want me!!' monologue in YA Fiction. I promise no matter how you look, you're someone's type. You just may not have met them yet.
• Strained family relationships beyond "Your mother in law doesn't like me". Some families have more internal conflict than others. Also, siblings that don't always make up right after fighting. Depending on the topic of the fight, it may take longer to make amends.
• Characters who don't marry their schoolyears sweetheart but instead fall for someone they meet as an adult.
  -Characters whose sexuality isn't clear to them either, sometimes they like guys, sometimes girls, sometime no one, sometimes both, etc.
• Disabled characters whose disability isn't treated as weird or unnatural.
• Girls who are constantly catty and mean to each other, and boys who aren't obnoxious and rude to other boys.
• Couples where the girl is older than the guy.
• Also where the girl is taller than the guy.
• Gay couples where there isn't the Macho Tough ManTM and Overenthusiastic Walking StereotypeTM but they have personalities not made to mirror traditional male and female roles. Ditto for lesbians.
• Bi and Pan characters that are devoted to their partner and not always about to dump their SO for the first hot person they see.

I probably have more characters I want to see, but I can't think of them right now.

• Overweight male characters. I can't remember any books where the male lead was a hero, overweight, and not presented as a rich snob or a slobby moronic jerk.

Stanley Yelnats in Louis Sachar's Holes is the main character who starts out overweight but is not rich, lazy, a jerk or a moron (he's a really nice character, actually). The overweight bit changes, but because of the plot, it kind of has to.

Okay, so, jynador, if you're looking for all that, there's this great show that you might not have heard of, it's called Call The Midwife and it's brilliant.

Might not have everything on the list but it does have good characters and a good plot which I personally enjoy.

But it does cover a lot of those things.

So…… yeah.

Ah what else:

• Villains who don't get redeemed 'bc they're hot!!!!111!!', but because they have some human decency left in them.

Okay someone mentioned the “girls who hate eachother because they like the same guy” trope and I’d just like to say that my best friend and I became best friends because we liked the same guy and continually supported eachother and encouraged the other to ‘go get him!’ and ask him out, and have eachother guy advice, all for the SAME GUY

this whole “you like my man I can’t be friends with you” thing is completely realistic, loosing friendships because of a guy is stupid, and also you can’t ecactly control who you like!

Second, can we just have some casual LGBT+ representation? Where their sexual or gender identity is made out to be a big deal (not that coming out stories are bad obviously! Coming out and discovering your sexuality can be extremely hard, but it would still be nice to see some of the flip side after the characters have figured out their sexuality) and it’s not the main driving point for the plot

Also, if you’re going to have a soft smol guy in your story please don’t make him like EVERH SINGLE OTHER SOFT GUY IN EVERY YA BOOK EVER

Finally, if people could include popular girls/guys who are legitimately popular because they are nice and people like them because of their personality who are not a b*tchy clique, that would be great

Yeah. Most popular kids become popular because they're charismatic and likeable, not because they're a massive bitch.

Exactly! There are living examples of this at my school

Also, unrelated but:
Can we have some POC goths??? All goth people I’ve read about in girls are pasty white with black hair and dark lashes and it’s getting really tiring

I know! My friend is a goth (Wont admit it though) and they are darker skinned

I hate how powerful women are masculine in some cases. Isn't the point of women's empowerment supposed to be prove that being feminine is strong in its own way? Oh, and I hate how now tomboyish females are automatically gay or trans men. Don't get me wrong, representation is important, but it's based off of a stereotype that you want to be 'manly' for being independent.

yessssssssss

Also: CAN WE HAVE SOME DISABLED LGBT+ CHARACTERS???? I'VE NEVER SEEN AN LGBT+ PERSON IN A WHEELCHAIR IN ANY BOOK< AND DON't EVEN GET ME STARTED ABOYT HOW UNDEREPRESSENTED AUTISTIC CHARACTERS ARE IN GENERAL??

^^^^What Topaz said. I have a character in a wheelchair in my story and she's demi…..does she count??

yasssss obvi!
demi representation all the way! also, there's not nearly enough healthy poly representation

Yes! for both there's not enough gender representation

Another trope that annoys the heckity heck out of me:

please stop making all your bad boy types the exact same

I know!

and also, if you're going to have bratty popular girls please give them actual personalities
most bullies have been bullied before or have crappy home lives
maybe the girl who ruins your protagonist's life in highschool has an abusive mother
maybe her sister was murdered
maybe she's depressed and contemplating suicide
obviously these don't excuse bullying, it's terrible to bully, but they provide a background story or reason for it

Also can I get some characters who are just casually LGBTQA+? Like, I'd like to see a bi character who's bisexuality isn't brought up every five minutes, or a pan character who mentions in passing she finds a few different people of different genders cute. Also, gay parents who's gayness isn't the focus of their characters??
these may or may not all be in a realistic fiction series I'm working on