forum What's your least favorite character trope?

Started January 26, 2018 by @Grace<3

tune

How about a strong, men-are-teammates-and-so-are-people-of-any-gender-race-age-identity-sexuality-and-so-on female protagonist that has emotions and is vulnerable and has a, like, personality and a supportive friend(s) that they don't have romantic feelings for and if there is to be any romance at all for them it won't be cliche or happen overnight and will actually develop between two characters over time? Is that an alright character? Just wondering.

I think I might have that? Maybe?

Oddly enough, one of my least favorite character tropes is the Supportive Friend (tm) who is always there for the main character and doesn't exist outside being there to help them. And when they take time for themselves or say no or tell the mc off, they're selfish and wrong and they're usually the ones who end up apologising.
It just makes me so irrationally angry because I sometimes try to be that person and it's impossible because it creates unrealistic expectations for friendship.

Oddly enough, one of my least favorite character tropes is the Supportive Friend (tm) who is always there for the main character and doesn't exist outside being there to help them. And when they take time for themselves or say no or tell the mc off, they're selfish and wrong and they're usually the ones who end up apologising.
It just makes me so irrationally angry because I sometimes try to be that person and it's impossible because it creates unrealistic expectations for friendship.

Same buddy same!

The villains who have no backstory, no reason for the evil they are doing. They're just evil, that's the only explanation for their actions. NO. There needs to be a reason….

But some people actually are only interested in causing suffering, so I think maybe having one villain like that is realistic? But not all of them.

Okay, but the heroes who are just good? With no backstory what so ever? Bugs me to no end

Yeah those are crappy!

Bastard Boyfriends, Honestly these are the most annoying, irritating and downright tasteless character, All they really do is be hot, smirk constantly and abuse the poor girl or boy that's unlucky enough to be in a relationship with these wastes of space, Honestly when I think abuse I think One person constantly breaking down another person, not an annoying arrogant bishonen tormenting their poor heroine or uke, I guess wouldn't be so bad, IF IT WASN'T PLAYED FOR ROMANCE! I'm sorry but I can't find abuse sexy I also HATE how these type of characters' abuse is portrayed as sexy and cute and how their horrible action are justified by stupid excuses such as "(S)He's just trying to protect her(him)." "Well, (s)he's a tsundere." "The hero(ine) should have fought back." "It's a BDSM relationship." or "Well, They had a sad backstory."

No these are horrible excuses, first, "Protecting" isn't an excuse to be a manipulative control freak

Second,tsunderes aren't abusive, over the top tsundere posers are, a character can be a tsundere without physically or emotionally abusing their love interest

Third, It's not the hero(ine)'s responsibility to change's their abuser's behavior, They're not "weak" for not fighting back, most of the time in these type of situations the victims probably have Stockholm Syndrome or is too afraid that their abuser may kill them or something, there are multiple reasons why victims stay with their abusers, They may see as normal, They may a lot invested in the relationship, like children, a home, they may have no one to turn to, but know this, it's not the victim's fault, I honestly hate this justification and honestly everytime i see some moron use this stupid, victim-blaming excuse to defend their good for nothing abusive husbando, I feel like slapping them upside the head

And don't even get me started on the BDSM excuse, you do know that most of the time, consent is a vital thing in BDSM relationships, Abuse doesn't use consent, so don't use this excuse

Look, I get that traumatic event cause screw you up but that still no excuse to abuse someone

so, in conclusion, This is the worst character type, I ever have seen, It's annoying, It's toxic and I think this may send possible bad messages, Honesty I wish the romance genre would just forget this character type and just use some less abusive types

PS> By this I guess should address their Distaff Counterpart to be short and sweet, I think the Bastard Girlfriend trope is worse since in-universe the abuser is mostly seen as cute or sexy because they physically abuse their boyfriend, Which I really hate

this. Invalid Character

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Seemingly eccentric female characters that have the potential to be interesting, but never scratch the surface of their character because the writers typically have her serve no other purpose to the narrative than to act as a guiding light for the male protagonist, who is usually an irredeemable douche.

The dragon (or other mythical creature) who's only there to be the dragon that shows up and either is a weak deus ex machina or just shows up, says something, and leaves, never to be heard from again. Or it's like the movie Bright with Will Smith and the Orc cops where a dragon just FLIES OVER L.A. and no one bats an eye! Are there defense systems in place? Is the dragon friendly? How many firefighters have been lost due to dragons farting on a furniture store or mattress factory?! We don't know! They never tell us!

this. Invalid Character

I really hate 'expy' characters that are blatantly made to mock another character that the author dislikes. If you're gonna make a character, at east make them your own.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Seemingly eccentric female characters that have the potential to be interesting, but never scratch the surface of their character because the writers typically have her serve no other purpose to the narrative than to act as a guiding light for the male protagonist, who is usually an irredeemable douche.

Is it wrong that all of my female characters are like this other than the underdeveloped/guiding light part? Actually, all of my characters are weirdos. And at least half of them are aliens. Derp.

The Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Seemingly eccentric female characters that have the potential to be interesting, but never scratch the surface of their character because the writers typically have her serve no other purpose to the narrative than to act as a guiding light for the male protagonist, who is usually an irredeemable douche.

Is it wrong that all of my female characters are like this other than the underdeveloped/guiding light part? Actually, all of my characters are weirdos. And at least half of them are aliens. Derp.

No, there's nothing wrong with have eccentric and strange characters; they're quite fun to write for. It just gets old when they have no personality outside of being "quirky".

The character who is mentally ill who seems to be getting better and then out of the blue commits suicide like in

If you're writing about mentally ill characters you have a responsibility to make your book a safe place for your readers, not killing off a character for shock value/emotional manipulation. Show that a mentally ill person isn't just their illness, show them that they can get help and they are worth it.